D&D 5E My campaign will end at level 17...

[faria]

EDIT - Went with Lore Bard 14/Nature Cleric 1/Wild Magic Sorcerer 2



Original Post:

I have a Lore Bard 10/Life Cleric 1. DM already told us that the story ends at around level 16 or 17. I have 3 questions.

1) I haven't picked my level 10 Magical Secrets yet (we leveled at the end of last session). I need to know which Magical Secrets spells to steal. I'm thinking Destructive Wave and Commune. Commune would be for RP reasons, but it's not optimal... I could get Banishing Smite instead and go melee instead of caster, but that uses up my Concentration each fight. Right now I use Concentration for Bless or Aura of Vitality or Heat Metal, depending on the fight. What other non-Concentration spells are good to steal if I don't go with Commune? I already stole Counterspell and Aura of Vitality at level 6.

2) Since we're ending at 17, my Bard 16/Cleric 1 would finally have access to 9th level spells but I wouldn't KNOW any! That'd be a terrible way to end a campaign. I'm thinking about going Oath of the Ancients paladin for the remaining 6 levels of the campaign, instead of continuing Bard. Would a Lore Bard 10/OotA Paladin 6/Cleric 1 be a good combination if I go melee instead of caster for the rest of the campaign? I have Gauntlets of Ogre Strength that raise my STR to 19, so I wouldn't be terrible at hitting stuff.

3) I pissed off my deity and the DM wants me to trade my Life domain for a different one. I was kinda relying on Life domain for heavy armor (I have platemail), but if I go Paladin like I mentioned above then I can go with any domain I want. What's a good 1 level cleric dip that's not Life domain? Nature makes sense for Oath of the Ancients, but I'm curious what else people suggest.

tl;dr Campaign ends at 17. Should I melee as a Lore Bard 10/OotA Paladin 6/Something Cleric 1 with Banishing Smite or go Lore Bard 16/HeavyArmorProficiency Cleric 1 and stay a caster?

 

[Kithas]

1) Conjure Barrage/Volley, Armor of Agathys, Hunger of Hadar, Storm Sphere, or maybe your favorite smite, banishing is good but don't over-prioritize just because of its level, some of the level 1-3 ones are excellent too.

2)Having 9th level slots and not knowing spells for them definitely isn't the end of the world. You can always up a lower-level spell and their are plenty of great options for that. Paladin 6 could be great too, it's your call.

3)Multiclassing into Paladin Does Not give you proficiency with heavy armor, so to keep wearing heavy armor you either need to get the feat, or pick a domain of cleric that gives you heavy armor proficiency.
Technically you can stay Life and switch Deities.
Tempest could be cool for more blasty or tankiness
War could be really good if you decide to go Paladin, the +10 to hit Channel Divinity(you'd have to go level 2) works super well with Smites from Paladin, ensuring they hit. Also War Priest is awesome if going gwf/sword and shield to give you a bonus action hit a few times/LR

Overall it is really up to you, would you like to shift to melee? Do you want to stick to blasting? There are great options either way but I don't want to make your decision for you.

 

[Coyote81]

If you don't want to take any more levels in Bard, and you need to switch your cleric domain (Although like someone mentioned, you can switch deities and still maintain a domain technically), but Nature domain (Especially if you take 6 levels in it, for the reaction to give resistance to an element to an ally) is a decent replacement for a healing class (Which I assume you are since you took 1 level in life cleric). Nature also give goodberry)

But if you only want 1 level in cleric (Take Nature, for heavy armor prof and goodberry) but for your final 6 levels, take Fighter. Fighter has some of the best early level bonuses of any class and in 6 levels you also get 2 ASIs (Fighter 4 and 6) giving you some extra stats and/or feats to work with. Fighter gets you second wind, action surge, fighting style, archtype (I recommend battle master) and 2nd attack (Which you currently don't have) and 3 battle master maneuvers which could give some rather nice flexibility to your bard. (I'm specifically thinking precision attack, Parry (if your Dex is high, which I assume it is), and rally.

 

[Kithas]

I forgot that Nature gives heavy armor too, seems out of place but eh, use it. Nature would be good, you get a druid cantrip which is cool, you already have like 8 cantrips though so I'm not sure how exciting that is.

 

[mellored]

the level 8 bard spells are kinda meh, but you might want a few more levels in it for the level 7 spells.

tempest clerics also have heavy armor, and a good channel divinity if you go cleric 2 (or 6). picking lightning bolt as a magic secret.

i would consider sorcerer for quicken bless. or 2 warlock for eldric blast. maybe both.

divination wizard 2 can also be fun and gives you access to plenty of ritual spells if your looking for more utility.

rogue 2 is always a good.

paladin 2 also works, with plenty of slots for divine strike, though i feel your too far behind to get melee up to anything good.

 

[faria]

4 options

War Cleric or Tempest Cleric would have been cool too, but the DM kinda forced Nature domain, which makes sense for my character's background anyway. I don't see how I'd get access to Goodberry though, like someone mentioned. What'd I miss?

I really like the idea of Sorcerer. I didn't even consider that; I was so focused on swapping to melee. I wouldn't want to take Draconic Bloodline because it conflicts with the storyline (HotDQ), and the Wild Magic level 6 Bend Luck doesn't stack well with Bardic Inspiration Dice/Cutting Words, so there's no point to take Sorcerer to 6. Nature Cleric 2 gives me Channel Divinity, but then I'd lose an ASI...

So what's the most optimized support of these 4 options:
Lore Bard 16/Nature Cleric 1 - access to 7th and 8th level spells (not just slots), 2 more ASIs
Lore Bard 11/Nature Cleric 6 - Channel Divinity, Dampen Elements, 1 more ASI
Lore Bard 11/Nature Cleric 2/Wild Magic Sorcerer 4 - Channel Divinity, Font+Metamagic, 1 more ASI
Lore Bard 12/Nature Cleric 1/Wild Magic Sorcerer 4 - Font+Metamagic, 2 more ASIs

 

[mellored]

the Wild Magic level 6 Bend Luck doesn't stack well with Bardic Inspiration Dice/Cutting Words, so there's no point to take Sorcerer to 6.

The point would be to have sorcerer spells and more meta magic points.

And bend luck has more possible uses, like reducing a targets save.

So what's the most optimized support of these 4 options:
Lore Bard 16/Nature Cleric 1 - access to 7th and 8th level spells (not just slots), 2 more ASIs
Lore Bard 11/Nature Cleric 6 - Channel Divinity, Dampen Elements, 1 more ASI
Lore Bard 11/Nature Cleric 2/Wild Magic Sorcerer 4 - Channel Divinity, Font+Metamagic, 1 more ASI
Lore Bard 12/Nature Cleric 1/Wild Magic Sorcerer 4 - Font+Metamagic, 2 more ASIs

What is the rest of your party?

The nature channel divinity isn't too good, particularly for high level games. Unless your regularly fighting plants and animals. So i wouldn't get that.

Personally i don't think dampen elements is worth the 6 levels, since getting a bunch of low level healing spells doesn't benifit you much since you have aura of vitality. And you likely won't have the Wis to make good use of spiritual weapon.

So i would stick with bard 14 to get mass suggestion, force cage, and more magic secrets.
The level 8 spells are a bit lackluster so maybe end with 2 levels of sorcerer for quicken bless if there's no other ASI you want.

 

[faria]

The rest of the party is: Rogue, Trickery Cleric, and Wizard, plus sometimes we also have a Druid and/or Fighter. I'm basically the frontline damage sponge with platemail and a shield (20 AC), unless the Druid or Fighter actually show up that week.

I agree that Channel Divinity is lackluster. Forcecage is broken as hell and Mass Suggestion would be nice too. 2 levels of Sorc won't give me much, but I guess it's better than what 15 and 16 Bard gets access to? I only need 1 more ASI to cap CHR. And Wild Magic sounds fun as hell.

So 14 Bard/2 Sorc/1 Cleric then. Sounds good to me. If I cap out at 14, I do get another Magical Secrets. What are the strongest spells to steal at 14 knowing that it's the highest I'm going to go in Bard?