Is there anything I can do to improve this arcana cleric before session #1 later today?

[krunchyfrogg]

Variant human arcana cleric
Mob Barley
Entertainer background
AC 18 HP 10
8/14/14/10/16/12
Magic initiate (produce flame/shillelagh/goodberry)
Substituted herbalism proficiency for disguise kit
Skills: arcana, acrobatics, perform, insight, healing, perception)
Wizard cantrips: green flame blade, ray of frost
Cleric cantrips: guidance, thaumaturgy, mending

Thanks

 

[mellored]

Seems pretty optimal to me.

 

[Kithas]

Spare the Dying is probably more useful than mending :/ Also Sacred Flame is better than Ray of Frost imo, that also means you can take sword burst/thunderclap for more aoe if you want.
Other than that looks pretty solid!
For equipment are you planning on going with scale, shield, and quarterstaff? If so watch out for those pesky V,S, spells, notable ones are cure wounds, thunderclap, earth tremor etc.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Spare the Dying is probably more useful than mending :/ Also Sacred Flame is better than Ray of Frost imo, that also means you can take sword burst/thunderclap for more aoe if you want.
Other than that looks pretty solid!
For equipment are you planning on going with scale, shield, and quarterstaff? If so watch out for those pesky V,S, spells, notable ones are cure wounds, thunderclap, earth tremor etc.

Thanks!

I wanted an alternate damage type to the fire from green flame blade, and ray of frost slows enemies down. I'll reread sacred flame though.

Why would a V,S spell bother me? I was planning on making my staff my focus. Wouldn't that get me past the whole 'both hands are occupied' thing?

 

[mellored]

Spare the Dying is probably more useful than mending :/

I disagree.
You can use a healing kit instead. Or more likely, healing word.

 

[mellored]

Why would a V,S spell bother me? I was planning on making my staff my focus. Wouldn't that get me past the whole 'both hands are occupied' thing?

Clerics can use their shields as focus, but that only works for spells with M.

Spells with V don't need any hands.

And spells that have S-but-not-M (including V,S), require an empty hand.

Unless you take warcaster. Which isn't a bad option for a melee cleric to help keep bless up.
And if you take that, you should consider booming blade (possibly replace ray of frost) for a particularly nasty OA.

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Re: spare the dying: my goodberries should do the trick.

Thanks for bringing my attention to the S problem with both hands being occupied. I can get rid of my shield without issue.

 

[Kithas]

Healing Word and Goodberries both require spell slots of which you have precious few in the early game. Healer's kits work well but you have to keep buying them which is bothersome. I've also never really found a use for mending :/

On Sacred Flame vs Ray of frost, they both do a different damage than fire (radiant and cold) very very few enemies have resistances to radiant damage. It is also save against cantrip which is always nice to have vs high ac enemies. And it does the same damage with the same range. On this note for blasting don't forget Guiding Bolt from cleric, it's the best single-target damage spell you can get lvl1.

If you do forego the shield for now I personally would recommend grabbing it again when you get to level4 and get Warcaster. The feat works very well with your build and will definitely help you out. You get adv on your concentration, which being in melee with only a mediocre con score will help a lot. You get to do single-target spells as OA's which, depending on your dm, would include GFB if you only have one target, if not Booming blade is great for this but would require a switch, sacred flame also works well and doesn't give you disadv in melee. And lastly it lets you use a shield and still do S not M spells, making you much more defensive being in the front.

Also Thorn Whip would be excellent for you on your Magic initiate, has the same range as produce but has the secondary effect of dragging them towards you, there's no str save on the pull like Lightning Lure so even high str enemies get gripped if you hit.

edit- Just read Entangle(l1 druid spell) and it's incredible, I would definitely recommend it. Restrained is a much more nasty status ailment than it looks and a big aoe restrain/difficult terrain is awesome!

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Why would I want to drag an enemy to me? I'm not a fighter.

I have goodberry as my magic initiate spell. It is possible for me to switch it out for entangle though, I need to look at it.

I like the secondary effect of ray of frost. Produce flame is there because it's useful on different levels, it can produce light, it can set fire to things, and it can be used as an attack. I like the versatility 7 cantrips has given me.

 

[miburo99]

Booming Blade is nice but mostly if you want to be more tanky. If you are not planning on taking a shield I'd stay from that though, so your current setup looks good to me.

Also, massive props on the name and theme. "Herbalism" proficiency, heh heh...