D&D 5E [5e] Melee Tempest Cleric: STR or DEX?

[stuffnsuch]

Hi wise ones.


I'm putting together a Level 1 Tempest Cleric and am torn between STR and DEX.
For RP reasons they'll be a High Elf (+2 DEX, +1 INT, and one wizard cantrip) with the Soldier background (Athletics and Intimidate) playing alongside a Rogue, Barb and Warlock so I imagine I'll be needed in melee but I'm not sure how long that will be viable?


I'll need WIS for casting and CON for HP and conc. saves so my attack stat will be a little low anyway even if I have Bless up all the time.
It'll probably be a d8 one-handed weapon as I'll need a shield for AC; extra attack/damage will come from Spiritual Weapon and later Spiritual Guardians.
I can hopefully sync Booming Blade with the Wrath of the Storm rebuke to damage further whether I'm hit or if they move.


Here's my thinking so far but I could do with your input:
STR
18-20AC; STR has to be a min of 15 for eventual plate armour which makes me pretty MAD; grapples and shoves will be handy with Athletics proficiency.
DEX
18-19AC, for max AC I only need a min of +2 DEX so anything further is great; I could eventually go ranged if I need to; DEX is a handy saving throw


Do I need a Feat to stay in melee more than I need WIS and CON?
Magic Initiate for Shilelagh and Thorn Whip for CC?
Polearm and Sentinel look great but they compete for my bonus action and reaction, and are they worth it without a two-handed reach weapon?
Warcaster or Resilient (Con)?


As you can see I'm a bit lost!

 

[Hillsy7]

I would always say: look to your character. If you envisage him, in the past and in the future, being a big physical presence, grabbing bad guys by the shirt front and throwing them over tables, or jumping across ravines to shove allies out the way of falling rocks....go strength. If they are quick and flick-flack across the battle field before skidding between an orcs legs and hamstringing him....dex all the way.

Once you've got a character conceptually, often the combat build will follow...

 

[TwoSix]

If you're definitely going High Elf, go Dex. Kind of a no-brainer, especially with Booming Blade. You can easily get a 16 at level 1, assuming point buy, which will keep you competitive for melee even assuming your ASIs are going to Wisdom.

Granted, you don't NEED wisdom, especially if you're aren't going Shillelagh. You could easily be OK with a 14 and just go Dex. Polearm and Sentinel you really want to build around right away, and there's no point waiting for Polearm to come online if you already have Spiritual Weapon. I like Warcaster at 4, that way you can drop Booming Blades from people stuck in Spirit Guardians.

 

[Oofta]

Just a cheesy alternative to consider: take the Magic Initiate feat and get Shillellegh so you can use your wisdom for attack and damage.

If you're set on high elf, I'd give them a decent dex so you're not totally handicapped until 4th level.

 

[Volund]

The Tempest cleric is near and dear to my heart since that was my first 5e character, now level 15. Some advice based on my experience:
Short response: Don't focus much energy on building up your attack rolls. Your party has that covered. Get your Wis score up to at least 18, preferably 20, before worrying about your attacks and do what you can to succeed on as many concentration saves as possible.

Dex is more useful overall to you than Str because of saves and initiative. Better init means you'll get your buffs and crowd control up sooner. Assuming using standard array or point buy, I would start with a 16 Dex and just leave it there and use your ASI's to get Wis to 20 ASAP in order to be the best Tempest Cleric you can be. Go sword and board and not ranged. You want your enemies close for Spirit Guardians, Destructive Wrath, Thunderwave, Destructive Wave, etc.

Aside from your weapon attack with Booming Blade, every tactic you described keys off of Wis. After maybe taking War Caster or Resilient (Con) at level 4, focus on Wis exclusively because:

Wrath of the Storm can be used a number of times equal to your Wis bonus per long rest, and the damage is halved on a successful Dex save vs your Wis DC

Spiritual Weapon uses your Wis mod for attacks and damage

Spirit Guardians damage is halved on a successful save vs your Wis DC

Your only ranged cantrip, Sacred Flame, does no damage on a successful save vs your Wis DC

Turning or destroying undead depends on your Wis DC

Your big damage rounds will always be from using Destructive Wrath, and it's almost always better to use it to affect multiple enemies. BB is not a good candidate to use DW until Level 8 when you are adding 2d8 total thunder damage (BB + Divine Strike). Even then you really are just crit fishing so that you can use Destructive Wrath to do max damage of 32 plus the weapon damage, with no chance to save for half damage. For that, it really doesn't matter whether your attack stat is +5 or -5; you crit at the same rate. Since you can't control when you crit, you may find that you mostly use DW for Call Lightning or Shatter instead, in which case you'll be more concerned with your save DC than your attack stat. Later, at higher levels, a lot of monsters have magic resistance and Legendary Resistance which makes it much harder to nail them with your DW if you use spells, so simply hitting with a BB attack bypasses all of that. By level 14, BB + Divine Strike will add 4d8 so on a crit you can do an automatic 64 hp plus your weapon damage. My point is that BB is much better for the Tempest Cleric once the thunder d8's start to stack up, so you might want to boost your Wis save DC early, and get BB later on. My cleric rarely made melee attacks after level 5 - the fighters and barbarians were so much better at it. I always seemed to have better things to do with my action and getting close to an enemy attacker for melee wasn't worth the risk of losing concentration.

My half elf Tempest Cleric 15 boosted Wis at levels 4 and 8, took Resilient(Con) at 12, and will take Magic Initiate for BB (and a familiar) at level 16. I started my Str at 16 and never raised it. With a magic weapon I'm now +10 to hit and that seems good enough.

Do you have to be a High Elf? You would get so much more from Wood Elf and a starting Wis of 16 - an extra spell, an extra Wrath of the Storm, a higher DC, better Spiritual Weapon attack and damage, better heals, and be able to max out your Wis with 2 ASI's instead of 3. You'd have to give up the High Elf cantrip and BB, but you get a lot in return. Alternatively, if you can use the Half Elf variants from SCAG you could select to be Half High Elf and trade the two extra skills for the BB cantrip and have a +1 for Wis and +1 for either Str or Dex, whichever you decide (in addition to +2 Cha which helps a proficient cleric save).

 

[CTurbo]

Are you rolling stats, point buy, or array? I would prefer Str with heavy armor and shield, but if you HAVE to go High Elf, stick with Dex unless you roll for stats and get some good rolls. The Tempest Cleric is a good melee character for obvious reasons.

I don't think you NEED a feat to stay in melee, but Sentinel is very good on any melee build. I wouldn't go with Polearm Master without Str, and probably not even then. Heavy Armor Master is very powerful at low levels for Str melee. Resilient (Con) is also very good for a melee Cleric. Shield Master too for Str builds.

Melee Dex would work, but it feels weird. Something about that build makes me want to take Mobile. Defensive Duelist is not popular, but it's a good use of your reaction once your Wrath of the Storm is used up. The catch is you get to decide to use it AFTER you see the attack roll so it pretty much turns a hit into a miss when you use it. War Caster is also very good for melee.

 

[imdeadagain]

I have a lvl 15 tempest cleric, well, fighter 1/cleric 15. I started in fighter which made sense as I used soldier background too, this gives a HP boost and, more importantly, con save proficiency. I went dex and don’t regret it, also agree with previous posters that wis is extremely important to boost early. Polearm master is OK but pales into insignificance when you can get spirit guardians up with high con save to keep it going.


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[stuffnsuch]

Can I ask how you arranged your stats? Do you tend to use your weapon in melee still?

 

[jgsugden]

The bestesterest answer is this: Come up with a good backstory. Ask yourself if that lends itself to a more dexterous or a more brawny PC. Do that, because either approach works well enough to do.

Tempest and War clerics are awesome at lower levels as a melee threat, but they generally evolve to become spellcasters first, melee as an afterthought. The divide appears around 5th level when warrior types get multi-attack, and expands after that point.

 

[imdeadagain]

Can I ask how you arranged your stats? Do you tend to use your weapon in melee still?

I went with variant human, 15s in dex and wis with +1 to both, 14 in con. Level 1 in fighter.

Feat I picked magic initiate warlock for booming blade, mage hand and hex.

Went tempest cleric all the way from there, at 17th level he will be doing booming blade for 5d8 plus 1d6 hex damage plus weapon damage. Max booming blade damage with channel divinity means 1d6+1d8+45 damage twice per short rest with no save.


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