D&D 5E No idea what to do with a 5e light cleric, help!

[rfkannen]

So Yesterday I started a campaign, I came there planing to make a monk but they needed a healer so I wound up rolling a half elf light cleric. I rolled pretty decently for my stats, getting 18 wisdom, 13 charisma, 12 Constitution and strength, 10 dexterity, and 8 intelligence. I picked up the variant sailor background and we were off. However I feel that so far I am a bit weak and non-varied, all i really did was heal and sacred flame people. Since I have such high stats I am going to pick up some feats, however I can't really think of any that would be all that useful for a light cleric. I mean maybe mounted combat so I can take advantage of that insane animal handling. I think I might also want to multiclass, but as I am more of a caster than a fighter I can't think of what into. Overall I am looking for something that will be fun to play in combat with some variety, I am actually decently useful out of combat so far. Any advice on building this character would be very useful!

I have never played a 5e cleric before so I am not sure what to do with this class.


Some side notes, my dm let me start with a shield that had my holy symbol on it, and my back-story was that I was the captain of the Beautiful Pirates, A ship of goblin pirates dedicated to physical buety, that got chosen by sune to eradicate the light (A organization that is executing anyone that worships a god). The characters name is Donner the dread/ The vain/ Bugbeard. I am the dedicated healer, we have 2 sorcerers, a paladin, a figher who is probably quitting, and 2 rogues, aka a lot of squishy damage dealers(ok the paladin and the figher are kind of tanky.) And although we are leveling slowly we will probably eventually reach lv 20.



Thank you for any advice you may give (also If I was mistaken as to the point of the character optimization forum I will delete this)

 

[was]

..I think that you might want to focus on the light/fiery spells that require a save. Your Dex. is a little low for the ones that require a ranged spell attack. As a priest/priestess of Sune, you could also go around playing a very refined character who demands beautiful things, listens to bards..etc.

...I'm a bit confused about your backstory. If I read your post correctly, you are a priest/priestess of Sune..the CG human goddess of beauty? It's a bit strange to have goblins, who are normally evil-aligned, dedicated to human ideals of beauty but I can roll with that.
...Questions:
1. Why would Sune want to eradicate the light?
2. If you are a priest/priestess of Sune, dedicated to eradicating the light, how did you get the light domain?
3. Wouldn't eradicating the light hide beauty?
4. Why would a CG goddess of beauty sponsor an organization to kill the worshippers of all the other gods?

 

[Zaruthustran]

Your Dex. is a little low for the ones that require a ranged spell attack.

Dex doesn't impact ranged spell attacks. You use your spellcasting ability modifier (in the OP's case, Wisdom) for spell attack rolls. PHB, page 206, "Attack Rolls".

I have never played a 5e cleric before so I am not sure what to do with this class.

The Light cleric is a spellcasting cleric. Thanks to your domain you always have terrific combat spells prepared: Burning Hands, Faerie Fire, Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Fireball. Save your healing for true emergencies, and encourage your party to use their own HD to heal themselves during short rests. The fighter, in particular, should be free from your healing magic--he can Second Wind himself for 1d10+fighter level HP every short rest. And the Paladin has Lay on Hands, to relieve the healing burden. Encourage him to take Inspiring Leader so your party has a steady supply of temporary hit points.

So, with the party trained to heal themselves, feel free to burn those spells on roasting the enemy. If the enemy is ash, they can't hurt the party--it's aggro healing.

And don't forget Radiance of the Dawn. 2d10 + cleric level damage to every enemy within 30'. That's a hugely useful spell, particularly if you're fighting hidden or invisible enemies (Faerie Fire also helps with this). Remember your Channel Divinity refreshes after a short rest.

 

[rfkannen]

..I think that you might want to focus on the light/fiery spells that require a save. Your Dex. is a little low for the ones that require a ranged spell attack. As a priest/priestess of Sune, you could also go around playing a very refined character who demands beautiful things, listens to bards..etc.

...I'm a bit confused about your backstory. If I read your post correctly, you are a priest/priestess of Sune..the CG human goddess of beauty? It's a bit strange to have goblins, who are normally evil-aligned, dedicated to human ideals of beauty but I can roll with that.
...Questions:
1. Why would Sune want to eradicate the light?
2. If you are a priest/priestess of Sune, dedicated to eradicating the light, how did you get the light domain?
3. Wouldn't eradicating the light hide beauty?
4. Why would a CG goddess of beauty sponsor an organization to kill the worshippers of all the other gods?

Refinery, sounds good! I will find a bard in the town to listen to.

I haven't actualy mentioned it in game yet, But I think of makeing it so that he was a worshiper of Sune before he became a pirate, and when he became the captain he converted the goblins to sune. Not sure why he became a pirate though.

1. I may have worded this poorly , but I meant that the organization called the light is killing priests. Including Sune's priests
2. Sune has the light domain. The light is an organization that worships a thing called the divinity, and they kill people who worship "false idols", including Sune
3. Eradicating the organization not the actual sun.
4. Yeah, sorry I mis-worded, I meant that she sponsored my character to kill the people who were killing priests.

 

[rfkannen]

Dex doesn't impact ranged spell attacks. You use your spellcasting ability modifier (in the OP's case, Wisdom) for spell attack rolls. PHB, page 206, "Attack Rolls".



The Light cleric is a spellcasting cleric. Thanks to your domain you always have terrific combat spells prepared: Burning Hands, Faerie Fire, Flaming Sphere, Scorching Ray, Fireball. Save your healing for true emergencies, and encourage your party to use their own HD to heal themselves during short rests. The fighter, in particular, should be free from your healing magic--he can Second Wind himself for 1d10+fighter level HP every short rest. And the Paladin has Lay on Hands, to relieve the healing burden. Encourage him to take Inspiring Leader so your party has a steady supply of temporary hit points.

So, with the party trained to heal themselves, feel free to burn those spells on roasting the enemy. If the enemy is ash, they can't hurt the party--it's aggro healing.

And don't forget Radiance of the Dawn. 2d10 + cleric level damage to every enemy within 30'. That's a hugely useful spell, particularly if you're fighting hidden or invisible enemies (Faerie Fire also helps with this). Remember your Channel Divinity refreshes after a short rest.

Ah good to know about that, I was thinking of pleading to my dm to let me swich streangth and wisdom.

Self healing I will make sure to encourage. I think I can get the paladin to grab sinpiring leader. Also we have a sorccerer with 20 charisma so he might grab it.

I like the idea of not haveing to heal and instead burning people, that sounds pretty awesome.

My dm so far has been pretty stingy about giveing out short rests, and made it clear that in a dungeon we would imediatly be surrounded by everything in the dungeon if we took one. Radience of the dawn, did not notice how powerful that is thank you!

 

[Zaruthustran]

Well, remember a short rest is only an hour. If you've been careful (not made loud noises, not tripped alarms, not allowed any monsters to flee) you should be able to chill out for an hour. It's not that much time.

If you really think your presence will be noticed (maybe this dungeon is unusually well-patrolled), then there's always Rope Trick.

 

[Piratecat]

You're wise and charismatic, so clearly you became a pirate captain because you were a good leader and (mostly) made some great decisions. One of those good decisions probably got the last captain killed. Your church probably considers you a murderous and disgraced heretic who surrounds himself with evil and ugly goblins, but they don't understand you. You've been chosen by Sune. You have a mission for your goddess, and let's hope the church hierarchy doesn't stand in your way.

 

[Zardnaar]

I took the warcaster feat with my light cleric and the parties rogue took the healer feat. If you can convince someone else to be the healer you free up your cleric spell slots to go boom. If you can't convince someone else to be the healer you may want to take the healer feat yourself and a light cleric is not that great a healer anyway. I just used bless and lobbed fireaballs and radiant. Radiant Dawn is a semi fireball right there and you can use it twice per short rest at level 6.