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Death Cleric Build
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<blockquote data-quote="Alatar" data-source="post: 6962767" data-attributes="member: 38424"><p>I'm working on a Death Cleric build. The campaign won't start for several months, but I like building characters. We're at about the midway point of our current campaign. I'm playing a sword & board Battle Master and I'm having a blast with it. This is our second 5e campaign. I'm working my way through the iconic D&D classes. The first campaign, I was a wizard. I built him and played him as a controller. Throw that Wall of Force, back out of the room, smoke cigarettes in the hallway. Good times. The second campaign, our current campaign, I'm playing a fighter. Kicking butt. I love the Battle Master. Next up: cleric.</p><p></p><p>Now, I'm not very fond of playing clerics, generally. Perhaps you know how it is. Historically, my favorite classes have been first wizard and second fighter. So it sort of feels like I've had back to back desserts and now I must eat my vegetables. But, you know, every party needs a healer, and I sort of feel like it's part of the social contract to take my turn in the cassock every few campaigns. Bring enlightenment to the heathens. My last cleric was a 4e pacifist cleric. The campaign lasted 18 months. Yeah.</p><p></p><p>I belong to what one might call an old school, grognard kind of a D&D group. The core of the group has been playing together for about 35 years, some of us for longer than that. We play a very combat oriented game. Our DM enjoys the occasional killing. The night isn't really a success unless someone has had to make at least one death save. And level 1 is particularly brutal. We often lose a character at level 1. So when you build your character, you build him to survive level 1.</p><p></p><p>Are you still with me? Let's talk about the cleric build. I'm not going for a pacifist cleric this time. I'm going the other way. Hence the death cleric. He's very forward leaning for a man of the cloth. And I like to play tactical, mobile characters. This subclass has real potential in that direction.</p><p></p><p>So, we start off with a level of fighter, for the Constitution proficiency, the fighting style and the Second Wind. You know, to get through level 1. But then we switch to cleric, because, well, the party is whining a lot and they're still kinda sore about that guy who died in the first session. I kid. We happen to have a blaster wizard who's starting off with a couple of levels of Tempest cleric, so while they will be sore about the session 1 killing, they won't be sore at me. Alas, that bard really showed promise.</p><p></p><p>Let's skip to level 2:</p><p></p><p>Human (variant) Fighter 1 / Cleric 1 Lawful Neutral</p><p>Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom</p><p>Background: Hermit</p><p>Languages: Common, Celestial</p><p>Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 8</p><p>Fighting Style: Defense</p><p>Second Wind</p><p>Cleric Domain: Death</p><p>Cleric 1 feature: Reaper</p><p>AC:19 HP: 21</p><p>Spell Attack: +5 </p><p>Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 </p><p>Ranged Weapon Damage: +3</p><p>Skills: Athletics +1, Perception +5, Medicine +5, Religion +1</p><p>Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex</p><p>Shield: +2 AC</p><p>Rapier: 1d8+3</p><p>Hand Crossbow: 1d6+3</p><p>Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light</p><p>Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness</p><p>Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds</p><p></p><p>What am I leaving out? I think that's everything. I hope my improvised format is acceptable.</p><p></p><p>You may have noticed that the ability score allocation is Min/Max/Max/Min/Max/Min. I don't think I've ever done that before in all my years of D&D. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But, in this case, it just seems to make sense. The Charisma will bite me at some point, but oh well.</p><p></p><p>So, it's a Dex build. Obviously, I could have gone Strength. I have the heavy armor proficiency. But I'm not looking for a front line guy here. The cleric's primary job is to stay up and dish out heals. Mobile and tactical.</p><p></p><p>Besides, the developers built an interesting quandary into the death cleric. He gets martial weapons but medium armor. His offensive features say melee. His equipment says ranged. His channel divinity, Touch of Death <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite4" alt=":mad:" title="Mad :mad:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":mad:" />, starts out fairly decent and scales well ahead of the average 5e progression curve, but it's a melee attack. He gets a Divine Strike, which works on a weapon attack. I know, it can be a ranged weapon. But work with me here. I'm trying to paint a picture. The death cleric gets no party buff features, no healing frills, so to do my main job competently, I have to get hands on with my fellow party members, yet I'm properly equipped to lurk in the foliage. An interesting challenge, the sort that calls for a mobile, tactical kind of character. </p><p></p><p>Why ruin that by converting it to a tank?</p><p></p><p>Now, I have the build all charted out in table format, but I'll spare you wall of numbers and instead just talk through the progression.</p><p></p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">After one level of fighter, we take four levels of cleric to get to the first ability score bump.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">At cleric level 4 (character level 5) we put 2 points in Wisdom (18).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then two more levels of cleric to get that second Channel Divinity, which is building, building.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Character level 8 is a second single level dip into fighter to acquire Action Surge. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" /></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then two more levels of cleric for another 2 points in Wisdom (20).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Character level 11 is our third and final single level dip into fighter, for Battle Master. <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /></li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Then it's cleric levels to the bitter end.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">At cleric 12 (character 15) we take the Mobile feat.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">At cleric 16 (character 19) we take War Caster or something.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">At character 20 the cleric tops out with Destroy Undead (CR 4) and Improved Reaper</li> </ul><p></p><p>Here's a level 11 snapshot:</p><p></p><p>Human (variant) Fighter 3 / Cleric 8 Lawful Neutral</p><p>Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom</p><p>Background: Hermit</p><p>Languages: Common, Celestial</p><p>Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 20, Cha 8</p><p>Fighting Style: Defense</p><p>Second Wind</p><p>Action Surge <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite6" alt=":cool:" title="Cool :cool:" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":cool:" /></p><p>Battle Master: <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> Commander's Strike, Evasive Footwork, Parry </p><p>Cleric Domain: Death</p><p>Cleric features: Reaper, Channel Divinity/Touch of Death, Inescapable Destruction, </p><p> Destroy Undead (CR 1), Divine Strike 1d8</p><p>AC:19 HP: 95</p><p>Spell Attack: +9 </p><p>Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 </p><p>Ranged Weapon Damage: +3</p><p>Skills: Athletics +3, Perception +9, Medicine +9, Religion +3</p><p>Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex</p><p>Shield: +2 AC</p><p>Rapier: 1d8+3</p><p>Hand Crossbow: 1d6+3</p><p>Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light</p><p>Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness, Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement, </p><p> Animate Dead, Vampiric Touch, Blight, Death Ward</p><p>Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds and a whole lot more</p><p></p><p>Hopefully, I got the arithmetic right.</p><p></p><p>Battle Master is really made for Strength build melee fighters, or at least someone who is fond of wielding a weapon, but I got a lot of good use out of Commander's Strike with my 4e tactical warlord. The lads will like it. Evasive Footwork builds on the tactical mobility theme (and is fun). And Parry is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.</p><p></p><p>I have given the first four levels of cleric spells some study. There is plenty to like. The one that doesn't seem to get the love it deserves is Magic Circle. Maybe it's just me. My DM likes undead. And my death cleric is going to be a bit of an anti-undead crusader. So, hopefully, we'll be mixing it up with a lot of undead. We'll see.</p><p></p><p>My death cleric's got a heart breaking backstory where he was forced to put down his small but freshly undead children. After losing his family to marauding undead, he lived for years as a half mad (Cha 8) recluse in the woods (Hermit background), subsisting on a calorie poor diet of berries and twigs (Str 8), until one night he was called in his dreams by the Raven Queen (LN) to dedicate himself to guarding the passage between life and death, making sure that the dead stay dead and the living stayed living. At the moment, I'm calling him Constantine (Keanu Reeves).</p><p></p><p>He's not going to be casting that Animate Dead domain spell any time soon. What was the Raven Queen thinking? (Int 8)</p><p></p><p>There ya go. For a grognard, that's a whole lot o' backstory. Now I have to go lie down.</p><p></p><p>So, this guy looks like he'll be fun to play. Lots of moving parts. He isn't a straight cleric. Cleric isn't getting the full, unadorned 20 level treatment that I gave to my wizard and am giving now to my fighter, but, hey, have you seen how many cleric levels there are where the progression is kinda nadda? I like characters who do stuff. A spellcaster with Action Surge and Battle Master maneuvers will have plenty of stuff to do. And yes, you can cast two spells in one turn according to Jeremy Crawford. It's the bonus action that gets you in trouble.</p><p></p><p>The three levels of fighter means I miss out on the death cleric capstone and the two levels that proceed it. The only thing that really smarts is the third Channel Divinity per rest. But I'm getting 10 levels of Battle Master maneuvers as compensation, so it seems like a good trade. I'm looking forward to dancing this guy across the grid.</p><p></p><p>So there we are. Please give me some feedback. I'm sure this concept can be improved, and I'd like to hear your ideas.</p><p></p><p>Hopefully I have not run on way too long. (Who am I kidding?) This is my first post to these boards, though apparently I've had the account for 11 years. So, uh, hi there. My name is Alatar.</p><p></p><p>edit: fixed some numbers, gilded a lilly</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Alatar, post: 6962767, member: 38424"] I'm working on a Death Cleric build. The campaign won't start for several months, but I like building characters. We're at about the midway point of our current campaign. I'm playing a sword & board Battle Master and I'm having a blast with it. This is our second 5e campaign. I'm working my way through the iconic D&D classes. The first campaign, I was a wizard. I built him and played him as a controller. Throw that Wall of Force, back out of the room, smoke cigarettes in the hallway. Good times. The second campaign, our current campaign, I'm playing a fighter. Kicking butt. I love the Battle Master. Next up: cleric. Now, I'm not very fond of playing clerics, generally. Perhaps you know how it is. Historically, my favorite classes have been first wizard and second fighter. So it sort of feels like I've had back to back desserts and now I must eat my vegetables. But, you know, every party needs a healer, and I sort of feel like it's part of the social contract to take my turn in the cassock every few campaigns. Bring enlightenment to the heathens. My last cleric was a 4e pacifist cleric. The campaign lasted 18 months. Yeah. I belong to what one might call an old school, grognard kind of a D&D group. The core of the group has been playing together for about 35 years, some of us for longer than that. We play a very combat oriented game. Our DM enjoys the occasional killing. The night isn't really a success unless someone has had to make at least one death save. And level 1 is particularly brutal. We often lose a character at level 1. So when you build your character, you build him to survive level 1. Are you still with me? Let's talk about the cleric build. I'm not going for a pacifist cleric this time. I'm going the other way. Hence the death cleric. He's very forward leaning for a man of the cloth. And I like to play tactical, mobile characters. This subclass has real potential in that direction. So, we start off with a level of fighter, for the Constitution proficiency, the fighting style and the Second Wind. You know, to get through level 1. But then we switch to cleric, because, well, the party is whining a lot and they're still kinda sore about that guy who died in the first session. I kid. We happen to have a blaster wizard who's starting off with a couple of levels of Tempest cleric, so while they will be sore about the session 1 killing, they won't be sore at me. Alas, that bard really showed promise. Let's skip to level 2: Human (variant) Fighter 1 / Cleric 1 Lawful Neutral Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom Background: Hermit Languages: Common, Celestial Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 16, Cha 8 Fighting Style: Defense Second Wind Cleric Domain: Death Cleric 1 feature: Reaper AC:19 HP: 21 Spell Attack: +5 Ranged Weapon Attack: +5 Ranged Weapon Damage: +3 Skills: Athletics +1, Perception +5, Medicine +5, Religion +1 Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex Shield: +2 AC Rapier: 1d8+3 Hand Crossbow: 1d6+3 Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds What am I leaving out? I think that's everything. I hope my improvised format is acceptable. You may have noticed that the ability score allocation is Min/Max/Max/Min/Max/Min. I don't think I've ever done that before in all my years of D&D. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. But, in this case, it just seems to make sense. The Charisma will bite me at some point, but oh well. So, it's a Dex build. Obviously, I could have gone Strength. I have the heavy armor proficiency. But I'm not looking for a front line guy here. The cleric's primary job is to stay up and dish out heals. Mobile and tactical. Besides, the developers built an interesting quandary into the death cleric. He gets martial weapons but medium armor. His offensive features say melee. His equipment says ranged. His channel divinity, Touch of Death :mad:, starts out fairly decent and scales well ahead of the average 5e progression curve, but it's a melee attack. He gets a Divine Strike, which works on a weapon attack. I know, it can be a ranged weapon. But work with me here. I'm trying to paint a picture. The death cleric gets no party buff features, no healing frills, so to do my main job competently, I have to get hands on with my fellow party members, yet I'm properly equipped to lurk in the foliage. An interesting challenge, the sort that calls for a mobile, tactical kind of character. Why ruin that by converting it to a tank? Now, I have the build all charted out in table format, but I'll spare you wall of numbers and instead just talk through the progression. [LIST] [*]After one level of fighter, we take four levels of cleric to get to the first ability score bump. [*]At cleric level 4 (character level 5) we put 2 points in Wisdom (18). [*]Then two more levels of cleric to get that second Channel Divinity, which is building, building. [*]Character level 8 is a second single level dip into fighter to acquire Action Surge. :cool: [*]Then two more levels of cleric for another 2 points in Wisdom (20). [*]Character level 11 is our third and final single level dip into fighter, for Battle Master. :D [*]Then it's cleric levels to the bitter end. [*]At cleric 12 (character 15) we take the Mobile feat. [*]At cleric 16 (character 19) we take War Caster or something. [*]At character 20 the cleric tops out with Destroy Undead (CR 4) and Improved Reaper [/LIST] Here's a level 11 snapshot: Human (variant) Fighter 3 / Cleric 8 Lawful Neutral Feat: Resilient -- Wisdom Background: Hermit Languages: Common, Celestial Str 8, Dex 16, Con 16, Int 8, Wis 20, Cha 8 Fighting Style: Defense Second Wind Action Surge :cool: Battle Master: :D Commander's Strike, Evasive Footwork, Parry Cleric Domain: Death Cleric features: Reaper, Channel Divinity/Touch of Death, Inescapable Destruction, Destroy Undead (CR 1), Divine Strike 1d8 AC:19 HP: 95 Spell Attack: +9 Ranged Weapon Attack: +7 Ranged Weapon Damage: +3 Skills: Athletics +3, Perception +9, Medicine +9, Religion +3 Scale armor: 14 AC +2 Dex Shield: +2 AC Rapier: 1d8+3 Hand Crossbow: 1d6+3 Cantrips: Chill Touch, Spare the Dying, Sacred Flame, Light Domain Spells: False Life, Ray of Sickness, Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement, Animate Dead, Vampiric Touch, Blight, Death Ward Spells Prepared: Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Bless, Inflict Wounds and a whole lot more Hopefully, I got the arithmetic right. Battle Master is really made for Strength build melee fighters, or at least someone who is fond of wielding a weapon, but I got a lot of good use out of Commander's Strike with my 4e tactical warlord. The lads will like it. Evasive Footwork builds on the tactical mobility theme (and is fun). And Parry is better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. I have given the first four levels of cleric spells some study. There is plenty to like. The one that doesn't seem to get the love it deserves is Magic Circle. Maybe it's just me. My DM likes undead. And my death cleric is going to be a bit of an anti-undead crusader. So, hopefully, we'll be mixing it up with a lot of undead. We'll see. My death cleric's got a heart breaking backstory where he was forced to put down his small but freshly undead children. After losing his family to marauding undead, he lived for years as a half mad (Cha 8) recluse in the woods (Hermit background), subsisting on a calorie poor diet of berries and twigs (Str 8), until one night he was called in his dreams by the Raven Queen (LN) to dedicate himself to guarding the passage between life and death, making sure that the dead stay dead and the living stayed living. At the moment, I'm calling him Constantine (Keanu Reeves). He's not going to be casting that Animate Dead domain spell any time soon. What was the Raven Queen thinking? (Int 8) There ya go. For a grognard, that's a whole lot o' backstory. Now I have to go lie down. So, this guy looks like he'll be fun to play. Lots of moving parts. He isn't a straight cleric. Cleric isn't getting the full, unadorned 20 level treatment that I gave to my wizard and am giving now to my fighter, but, hey, have you seen how many cleric levels there are where the progression is kinda nadda? I like characters who do stuff. A spellcaster with Action Surge and Battle Master maneuvers will have plenty of stuff to do. And yes, you can cast two spells in one turn according to Jeremy Crawford. It's the bonus action that gets you in trouble. The three levels of fighter means I miss out on the death cleric capstone and the two levels that proceed it. The only thing that really smarts is the third Channel Divinity per rest. But I'm getting 10 levels of Battle Master maneuvers as compensation, so it seems like a good trade. I'm looking forward to dancing this guy across the grid. So there we are. Please give me some feedback. I'm sure this concept can be improved, and I'd like to hear your ideas. Hopefully I have not run on way too long. (Who am I kidding?) This is my first post to these boards, though apparently I've had the account for 11 years. So, uh, hi there. My name is Alatar. edit: fixed some numbers, gilded a lilly [/QUOTE]
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