D&D 5E How to War Cleric

[Equitable Remedy]

I've traditionally loved playing clerics; I like healing (such as it is in D&D) and support, and I like RPing religious types. That being said, cleric for me has always been a war-type cleric; warrior priests of Sigmar from Warhammer fantasy has always been my inspiration.

To that end, I'm curious about best practices for 5E. What I want is a human cleric that can put out heals/support while wielding a 2-handed hammer (though I'd consider a shield if it's much better). (I know that this is not, itself optimal, but it's the kind of thing that I like to play, and I've grown used to using my cleric body to absorb some attacks and spread out the incoming damage a bit.) We'll be playing from lvl 1, so I'm also looking for insights into how to build the character from the ground up (rather than just a late-game perspective).

My threshold question: would he be better as a pure war cleric or as a Cleric x/fighter 1 life domain cleric?

(Just to stave off any derailments, I'm not asking about the wisdom of playing this sort of cleric... just how best to do it.)

Thanks!

 

[mellored]

Paladin? They can heal, support, and smash with a maul.

Otherwise might as well embrace it and go war cleric. Take spells like that don't need Wis, like bless, and charge in. 2-handed works fine at low levels, but has trouble keeping up without milti-attack.

 

[cmad1977]

Tempest cleric. Fun times.


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[neogod22]

Just go war cleric. You don't need the level of fighter, it will only slow down your progress.

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[Yunru]

You want a Maul and Great Weapon Master, just for those moments of awesome where you can go "I got this!" and use your Channel Divinity and the -5/+10 in combination. Oh and the "I killed a guy, who's next?!" is also pretty cool.

 

[bid]

The only "defect" of a pure cleric is you only get 1 attack per turn.

War domain gives you 5 extra attacks per day. If that's not enough, paladin is your best bet.


Maul is better than shield, it leaves a free hand to cast.

 

[Blue]

Not getting into the "is this the best to play", staying on track for "how do I play this the best".

I'd stay straight cleric (war). A single level of fighter isn't going to give you much besides CON saves and a fighting style, and for two handed the best fighting style is probably +1 AC, which is nice but not worth the opportunity cost fo beign a level behind in slots and spells known.

I definitely would go two-handed weapon. You can take a hand off the weapon to cast, where a shield and weapon has some funky rules, even if you have a holy symbol on your shield.

A two handed weapon will go strength, which means you will be able to take advantage of your heavy armor. Now, casting spells may often be a "better" pick for an action, but your weapon takes no slots so really shines if the DM does DMG-recommended days with lots of encounters.

Levels 1-4 you're hitting in the same ballpark as others. You probably have a bit lower STR and CON then front-liners (or DEX and CON for the finesse-ones) because of your WIS needs, but you will get extra attacks with a two handed weapon which they won't unless then are fighting two-weapon style or are variant humans with polearm mastery. If you want to put a feat towards weapon fighting then Great Weapon Mastery does work well with your channel divinity. Just remember you'll get to "use" it half as much as others who might take it after level 5 because they will have extra attack. But you may not want to - with trying to advance WIS, STR and CON you may want to hold off on feats, and there's diminishing returns in putting them into melee, though better than any other cleric domain. Spells like Bless can help you (and two allies) hit, and there are others to help your AC. But with concentration you can only have up one.

Levels 5-10 you're behind in melee damage due to extra attack. Still good at soaking up damage and you have your ability to get a bonus action extra attack to keep up. However at this point you've got more spells that will really help you as a melee cleric, like Sacred Guardians. Put this up then wade in, and enemies in a fairly large area around you will not be happy.

Level 8 (EDIT: Thanks [MENTION=6801270]bid[/MENTION] for correcting my level 11) you get some extra damage with you melee attacks, but so do the other front-liners so it's more like staying even. You've got some great spells, including a bonus-action mass heal.

If you are looking at mostly bonus-action and out-of-combat healing only, focus more on standing people up who have fallen instead of trying to proactively keep people deep in HPs. With healing from zero instead of negatives it's easy and efficient.

 

[bid]

Level 11 you get some extra damage with you melee attacks, but so do the other front-liners so it's more like staying even.

Level 8, but still not enough to match extra attack.

 

[guachi]

You'll fall farther and farther behind other martial characters. However, like [MENTION=20564]Blue[/MENTION] said you'll be roughly equal to the others at levels 1-4. You'll have the ability to equal others for 3-5 attacks or so per day.

It looks like a fun character as you'll slowly transition from martial to spellcaster and you won't even have to change your class! Moderate competence in combat means you can save a spell here or there. Higher AC means good use of spiritual guardians. Cast spell, enter melee, use dodge action.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Your feats should be going towards resilient constitution. I would not take great weapon master too early. Divine favour is better than bless and -5/+10 at first. You can cast it with a bonus action. You could of course cast bless and use your extra attack immediately but it's usually not worth it in the beginning.
A 16 in Strength, a 14 or 16 in con and a 14 or 16 in wisdom is all you need for stats.
If you are a variant human or goliath that will be easy to get. Also as a dwarf. Variant human allows for resilient con or heavy armor mastery at level 1 to increase your chance to hold concebtration. Goliath can reduce damage once per short rest. Dwarf is golden with +2 Str and Con saving valuable generation points. Standard human is not too bad either actually.
The most optimized spread would probably be variant human with
15+1 str
8 dex
15+1 con
8 int
15+1 wis
8 charisma
Resilient constitution.

That would not be my personal favourite however.
I'd prefer
Goliath
14+2 str
8 dex
15+1 con
Int 8
Wis 15
Cha 10