D&D 5E How to build a Twilight Domain Cleric of Exandria's Moonweaver?

[DarkMoon250]

I'm playing my first ever character on the continent of Marquet in CR's world of Exandria. I've chosen to play a Twilight Cleric in service to the Moonweaver. My rolls have provided me with the following- 15, 14, 14, 16, 10, 12. We start at level 3.

I know the Twilight Cleric is meant to be a frontliner, what with the heavy armor, martial weapons and auras, and I'm not uninterested in this playstyle, but considering the Moonweaver is also the god of illusion and misdirection, this feels a bit too 'in your face.' Plus, heavy armor gets in the way of stealth, which would be a rather thematic skill, and add on that Booming Blade, the cantrip that allows melee Cleric builds to work, uses the sound-based thunder damage for it's strikes, this makes it rather difficult to keep to my deity's realm of secrecy.

This all might make it sound like Trickery Cleric is more up my alley... NO. I've read the subclass description and features, and I don't like it. Gimme the Twilight Cleric's shadowy goodness any day of the week.

Is there any way to piece all of this together, or are there other aspects of the Moonweaver's essence I should focus on instead in order to make a thematic and fun-to-play Twilight Cleric?

 

[DEFCON 1]

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[DeviousQuail]

A Dex based twilight cleric should work just fine. With those rolls a V Human with the shadow touched feat could work with your background. Put the 16 in Wis and with a +1 from race and another from the feat you'll have 18 Wis off the bat. Either a 16 (15 and other +1) or 14 in Dex depending on if you want to be melee capable.

Since you'll start with an 18 in Wis you can easily afford to take another feat at level 4 for Magic Initiate to take green flame blade if you want. I don't think that'll be necessary if you decide to rely on cleric cantrips and make use of the alternate level 8 ability that Tasha's added for clerics.

You'll have great initiative, good stealth that can be magnified with spellcasting, solid team support, and all the goodness of a full caster.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

Just because you have access to heavy armor does not mean you have to use it.

• You can go with a dex/wis built, using a ranged martial weapon or a rapier, even going as far as taking the Fighting Initiate feat to take a complementary fighting style such as dueling, two-weapon fighting or archery.
• Gain Stealth proficiency with your Background and you are all set.
• Might even take Skulker, Mobile or Skill Expert (stealth) somewhere in your build.
• The Shadow-touched Feat would also allow you to gain Illusion spells and cast it with your spell slots.

 

[Benjamin Olson]

Every straight fighter also gets heavy armor, that doesn't mean that every fighter should wear heavy armor or is playing suboptimally when they don't. You can play a dexy Twilight Cleric in light armor or medium armor, or focus on strength, throw one of those 14s into Dex and go medium armor until you find some mithril heavy armor.

Replace Booming Blade with Green Flame Blade. Unless you have some means of easy disengage it is only marginally worse. I'm sure you can come up with a link between weird green light and a moon deity. Or just cast Silence before charging in with the Booming Blade.

I recommend asking for permission to use the Eberron Mark of Shadow Elf, which adds a bunch of extra tricksy, sneaky spells to your class spell list, gives you an extra d4 on stealth (which stacks with Guidance), and gets Minor Illusion for free. That would up your sneaky, illusiony game substantially.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

You don't have to play the cleric as melee. You could use ranged attacks, or even cantrips as your at-will damage.

 

[Andras]

I have a 5th level Dex based Twilight cleric with a longbow. Shooting people from outside their darkvision range is pretty funny because they aren't expecting that.

 

[SehanineMoonbow]

I don't necessarily have any tips, but I love how Matt pulled gods from other settings (such as Forgotten Realms). The Moonweaver, also called Sehanine, is an FR deity. Matt changed her portfolio a bit, but it's still cool.