D&D 5E Making My War Cleric more effective

[DaveDash]

Hi all,

I have a Hill Dwarf War Cleric hitting level 5 soon. When I created him way back when, our group didn't really have much in the way of a "tank", and also I didn't know much about the rules back then.

My idea really was to make a tough, tanky front liner who could take the hits while the rest of the party does the damage.

Fast forward to now. I know a lot more about the rules, I've play tested and ran a lot of higher level stuff, and I'm just not thrilled with the class. It suffers a bit from MAD, and it's abilities don't really synergizr well.

Also we've had a couple of additions to the group that quite frankly eclipse my character in the twnkong role (A Barbarian and Moon Druid).

I'm thinking three options:

1. Sticking with War Cleric. Not quite "kick you out of the party" material but rather meh.
2. Multiclass into Fighter A. Give up tanking, pick up polearm master, and use a polearm. Stand behind the Barbarian and generally be annoying in combat.
3. Multiclass into Fighter B. Pick up a 2 handed weapon like a maul, pick up Great Weapon Master, sjd go smashy smashy.

Both options would require me to give up Resiliance (con) to get the most out of. I'm very undecided about that. Also I'd probably look at Cleric14/Fighter6 as my mix, I tried running Fighter 11/Cleric 9, and later on not having higher level Cleric spells sucked.

What say the forum?

 

[PnPgamer]

Protip:if you multiclass, you miss out on third level cleric spells. They are badass! You could grab out the feat that grants advantage to concentration saves, or shield master feat.

Also how come you have MAD? Its just 3 stats, str or dex, con, wis.

 

[DaveDash]

Protip:if you multiclass, you miss out on third level cleric spells. They are badass! You could grab out the feat that grants advantage to concentration saves, or shield master feat.

Also how come you have MAD? Its just 3 stats, str or dex, con, wis.

I'm definitely waiting until after Cleric level 5 before taking my first multi-class.

It's MAD because it's clunky class design. It relies on Str to get the most out of War Priest abilities, Wisdom for extra attacks, and you always want a decent CON for concentration checks and the ability to be a melee front line.
Some other Cleric domains in can get away with doing great damage via their domains, and not having to worry about so many ability scores. It fares poorly against other Cleric domains in that regard.

There is always the option of Shield Master as well - that's a good point. Taking any one of those nice feats generally means not taking or delaying Concentration(Con), which is basically a feat tax for a front line Cleric. I've play tested a War Cleric at various levels, and without that feat you might as well give up on concentration spells.
I might play around with some Cleric14/Fighter6 numbers and see how easily it is to squeeze in that extra feat.

The ideas so far then really are:
Polearm Master War Cleric/Fighter
Shield Master War Cleric/Fighter
Great Weapon Master War Cleric/Fighter
Pure War Cleric and potentially one of the above feats.

 

[sithramir]

At level 5 you get spirit guardians and suddenly its nice. Bonus action attacks added to your normal fighting.

A break into paladin to get smites isn't a bad option?

 

[Prism]

I'd stick with option 1. I played a cleric (life) up to 8th level and remember 5th level being a big level when it came to spells, particularly spirit guardians. A bunch of ancient dwarven spirits bursting from your character to kill your enemies, an all that. Resilience CON is great to hold the concentration, as is heavy armour and shield. My cleric had a starting Wis of 12 and I didn't feel there was a problem with MAD, although your 1st level war domain power does beg for a decent Wis

 

[DaveDash]

At level 5 you get spirit guardians and suddenly its nice. Bonus action attacks added to your normal fighting.

A break into paladin to get smites isn't a bad option?

Paladin 6 would have been awesome, but unfortunately my character is about as Charismatic as a drunken wench passed out in a bucket of stale ale. Paladin requires 13 str and 13 cha.

Hindsight. Damnit.

 

[DaveDash]

I'd stick with option 1. I played a cleric (life) up to 8th level and remember 5th level being a big level when it came to spells, particularly spirit guardians. A bunch of ancient dwarven spirits bursting from your character to kill your enemies, an all that. Resilience CON is great to hold the concentration, as is heavy armour and shield. My cleric had a starting Wis of 12 and I didn't feel there was a problem with MAD, although your 1st level war domain power does beg for a decent Wis

Yeah, and the other problem with War Cleric that I forgot to mention is that your Sacred Flame ends up out damaging your weapon attack throughout good portions of adventuring career (about half the time), making the whole concept of the class kind of pointless. Why bother even making melee weapon attacks?

This is why I want to multiclass.

I compared a Fighter 11/Cleric 9 to Cleric 20 progression here:

View attachment Druss Build.xlsx

Main reason I won't go the above route is I play tested this at higher levels, and not having higher level Cleric spells really hurt. Cleric 14 though I think is a nice cut-off point, as there are not a lot of really good picks beyond level 7.

 

[iatesand]

I play a war cleric, he is 6th level now and I have no problem standing in the front lines. I originally used shield master but swapped to heavy armor master for that 3 points of Damage reduction. I would agree that spirit guardians is defining spell, There have been several times that I just stand in a group of enemies, Used the dodge action with my shield and spirit guardians would just kill everything. And I am able to throw a HEAL when needed.

Looking at the class I don’t see a moon druid that could do as well as I could. I barbarian or fighter could but that’s expected.

 

[Aimian_Silverflash]

It really just depends on what you want to do with the character. But from an optimization perspective, I've personally found Paladins to be a lot better than War domain priests.

 

[Warmaster Horus]

My War Cleric is starting as a Fighter for 6 levels (2 attacks, 2 ASIs) before taking 3 levels of Cleric (War). Then he's back to Fighter to 11th level (14th overall) for a third attack and finishes with six more Cleric levels, for a total of Fighter 11/Cleric 9.