Help with a Cleric

[Croejar64]

I have a few questions about a cleric I am playing. I am in a 4 player game and initially chose a cleric because our party makeup was going to be 2 monks, and a barbarian. I felt we needed someone to keep them up and have some casting ability. I chose a life cleric. We had a monk drop out of the game and picked up a bard and later the barbarian had to drop out and we picked up another new player playing a druid. So the party shifted heavily from melee to casting. Most of this took place as part of the game after the campaign had started. I was not to particularly excited about playing a cleric but I wanted to play period so chose what seemed to work best for the group at the time of starting out. So enough backstory.

I play a stout halfling life cleric whose stats are 14,12,14,8,15,12. Yes I know the race is not optimal but I don't play to min/max my characters. I like to be different and I don't see many halfling clerics and I wanted him to have STR and CON to do a little melee. I had previously played a war cleric and wanted to try out a different domain too. So this is why I didn't go war or tempest. Remember initially I had expected to be the only healer in a group of melee when the game began too.

So I admit I seem to fill the role of buffs and healing just fine as expected but I desire to pick up some offense. I am currently only level 3 about to level to 4. My question is do you guys have any suggestions for picking up a multi class that might give me a little offensive punch and what would the level spreads be?

I would prefer it to be melee since I am the only heavy armor user and wading in to fight as it is now. I am nearing my first ASI at 4th level. Do I go ahead and get it at cleric 4th level then switch or switch now? Do I take STR stat increases if I plan to multi or stick with wisdom for now? I have thought about fighter, ranger and paladin each. Ranger 5 to get 2 attacks, hunters mark, and maybe colossus seems good and my preferential way to go. I can easily fit this into my characters story too. However I would be a total of 8 levels, if I start now at 3rd level, before I get that 2nd attack and will have only gotten one ASI. I feel I will be hurting the group too much if I am behind them all by 3 levels. Our campaign is suppose to go all the way out to 20 according to the GM. Just curious as to peoples thoughts out there.

I just noticed i don't have the required DEX to multi to Ranger. I need 13 and I am at 12. I see I would have to hit cleric 4th and take a point of DEX first and multi one more level later if I chose that path.

 

[mellored]

If you want melee offense, pick up booming blade or green flame blade as your cantrip is a cheap way to do it.

Probably best to just take magic initiate (wizard) at 4.

Then when you reach cleric 8, get +1 Wis, +1 Str (so your not slowed in heavy armor).
At 9th level, take 1 level of druid for shillelagh, which let's you use Wis to-hit (effectively +1 to hit).

At 12, and 16 take +2 wis (20 total).


Also, take spiritual weapon as a level 2 spell. And spiritual guardian when you get to cleric 5. Good damage spells.

 

[RulesJD]

You stick Cleric and wait until level 5 like you should. Then you get Spirit Guardians and wonder why you ever complained about this stuff.

 

[Herobizkit]

There may be options I'm not seeing, but "upping your offense" is possible a few ways:

* Two-Weapon fighting. Ditch that shield and add some extra stab in your off-hand.
* Getting a larger weapon die. I don't recall the limitations of halflings and versatile/two-handed weapons.
* You won't get a second attack until level 5 in your new warrior class.
* If you can't beat 'em, join 'em - be a better caster.

 

[Moctzal]

I'll echo the above posts, you don't have to multiclass the get some more damage output on a cleric.

Magic Initiate is a wonderful feat, getting the two weapon cantrips (Booming Blade and Greenflame Blade) along with a level 1 utility spell once per day (Shield is nice), also, you can take the feat as a Sorceror and use Charisma as your caster stat instead of Intelligence use you take it as a Wizard.

Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon are great sources of damage as well when you can afford to use the spell slots. Guiding Bolt is a pretty good level 1 damage spell if you can cope with the fact that it's an attack roll spell, and a bit boom/bust depending on if it hits or not.

 

[Gtdef]

I think the only way to reliably increase your damage is sorceror multiclass and twinned booming blades. But the charisma requirement is very problematic. You will need to dumb you dex and int to 8 to do this.

But cleric by itself isn't too shabby as far as damage goes. Your nova potential is low so in small skirmishes you will probably feel like a buff bot but in longer fights you are going to shine. The main attraction is that you can stack a lot of damage effects that last for multiple rounds. If you blow all your high level spell slots at lvl 17, your average damage would be something like 1d8+4+2d8 (longsword + divine strike)+ 7d8 (booming blade triggered) + 4d8+5 (spiritual weapon) + 9d8 (spirit guardians) = 23d8+9 = over 100 dpr single target that goes on for a lot of rounds (and only gets better depending on the amount of enemies and how long the fight lasts). Also most of this dmg is radiant which doesn't get resisted often.