Garthanos
Arcadian Knight
1E Dragon article iirc but 2E made it official.
2e Totally Rocked on Character Class Flavor ( the mechanics didnt necessarily follow suit) but I totally love the class descriptions better than any edition
1E Dragon article iirc but 2E made it official.
When they introduced Priests of Specific Gods (someone will tell us when I am sure) I started to find the flavor improved.
It was done best in the Complete Priests Handbook.
Clerics get extra dice if damage at 8 and 14. Or ability score to cantrips damage. 3d8+wisdom lvl 14 potentially another 1d4+wisdom via PAM. How's that 4d10 damage working out?
And when do cantrips hit 4 dice if damage lvl 17? More interested in damage below ten.
Only the nature cleric would take PAM, they can get shillagh for free.
Arcana can get green flame blade for free. The other clerics might take PAM level 12.
Even taking two feats and having 18 wisdom is still better than beat down cleric with 20 wisdom or 18 wisdom and 16 strength IMHO. Or HAM feat. You'll still have +1 to hit and damage plus an extra attack for 1d4+4.
The Paladin's probably str and charisma based, the Dex one not so good.
I focus more on level 1-10 as well, level 11+ is mostly theory craft. If you take magic initiate level 1 you'r packing a 16 in your primew stat and melee stat and gain an extra level 1 spell (very useful at level 1) and 2 extra cantrips (1 really, you're taking shillagh).
This works for every cleric there is as well.
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I suppose if you're going all the way to 20 the cleric can end up with 16 dex and medium armor master and have the same AC as the heavy armor cleric and be a lot better at stealth (16 dex, prob trained in it via back ground, no penalty on stealth rolls in medium armor).
That is why I was giving my opinion on building below 10th level.
Why did you bring up an argument for PAM in games up to 10th level if the characters aren't taking it? The variant human can start with 16 STR and 16 WIS. Heavy armor wearers want 15 STR so the bump to 16 is already basic. 2 ASI's bumps both to 18's to match the 18 wisdom your example has leaving it without the gain for having taken shillelagh.
Taking resilient con starts the cleric with 16's in STR, CON, and WIS if the character doesn't mind 8's for DEX, INT, and CHA on point buy variant human. 5 ASI's later that's two 20's and an 18, or 16 CON adding another feat like PAM. Going with an 18 in WIS or STR for a small dip and 16 CON allows for PAM plus GWM.Mix and match to taste and there'splenty of room for melee power, spell casting, and benefits for concentration. Tossing in GWM easily beats shillelagh, which cannot use that feat. Swapping resilient for HAM gives the same ability score spread and it's a lot more useful for lower levels than shillelagh.
The melee clerics invest in strength if they wear heavy armor and dexterity if they wear moderate armor. That's not different than the str / cha paladin.
It doesn't take medium armor master. Heavy armor proficiency is the same feat cost but gives up needing the dexterity investment to save build points. The reason to take that medium armor master is for stealth with a higher armor class. It's not a way to build armor class on a cleric unless that cleric is dex / wis who likes to use stealth in armor.
Melee clerics start with enough STR or DEX depending on the armor that adding more isn't a big issue. Neither is risking a +1 hit/damage difference in a <10th level game. The +1 damage on a single attack class is extremely minor and can be mitigated with higher damage weapons at the expense of AC if a person really values it that much. The +1 to hit only matters once in every 20 attacks on average assuming no advantage and the high the cleric levels the more likely the cleric is to use actions on spells instead of attacks.
Taking magic initiate as a feat has an opportunity cost. The real benefit of shillelagh is to open up room for feats instead of ASI's at high levels. PAM with 18 STR and 18 WIS at 10th level is better than shillelagh with 20 WIS and no PAM at 10th level. At 12th level when you take PAM the non-shillelagh cleric just tops up another ASI. That's also not optimizing. It's basic. The opportunity cost on taking shillelagh is the issue when looking at having taken resilient for concentration. I'd still rather spend that bonus feat on resilient con as a melee cleric because that benefits me better in the long run over the +1 hit/damage.
I have done the shillelagh + green-flame blade as well. At 6th level on a lore bard and on a 3rd level warlock via book of shadows, both with moderately armored as the bonus 1st level feat on a variant human. It's a relatively easy way to get a melee option on a caster but hardly optimized. It's more of a niche than a standard recommendation.
ymmv
Very sure in my OP I excluded point buy, and referred to the default array.
If you take Magic Initiate you can grab Shield as your first level spell. This can whack your AC up to 24/25 (27 stacked with Shield of Faith). You don't need to make concentration saves if you don't get hit.