D&D 5E How Would You Build a Life Cleric

[Undrave]

At range with 14 Dex use a crossbow switching to cantrips lvl 5.

You can still use spiritual guardians/weapon and say sacred flame.

Beaning people in the face with enchanted rocks is way more fun than Sacred Flame Or a boring crossbow though

Plus, that 14 can go to one of your mental stats so you can have better skills to bring to the party.

 

[Enrico Poli1]

- Variant Human; 16 Wis, 14 Con, 14 Cha (if she/he's the party face, othervise Str); Feats: Healer (if campaign stops at LVL 5 or less), or Warcaster (of campaign goes up to LVL 13+) or MI Druid with Shillelagh.

 

[Blue]

If I'm going life cleric, I'm fully embracing support. Hill dwarf for +1 WIS, +2 CON and an extra HP per help just so I stay up to get others up. Plus heavy armor without need for STR. Start with Bless and cures, make sure I always have a Concentration buff/debuff/crowd control going. Make sure I have enough CON for Concentration checks (and HPs).

Not sure if WIS needs be #1 if I'm not attacking, but with WIS and CON as my only requirements why not. Maybe with point buy start with S 10 D 10 C 16 I 11 W 16 Ch 12. Really, W 16 (15+1) and CON 16 (14+2) are the only requirements.

With my relative load of defensiveness (good HPs and AC), make sure that I take some attacks. Spread out the damage so no one goes down. Especially in Tier 1 be open to ideas that that occupying a chokepoint and taking the Dodge action will be much more effective then tossing a cantrip for the chance at some minor damage.

AC 18 (chain mail + shield) at 1st level with just class given equipment, up to AC 20 when an afford to upgrade to plate. HP 9 per level (12 at 1st) between the 16 CON and the Hill Dwarf +1/level. In tier 1 (where most damage is still 21 or less so it's the base DC 10) there's only a 20% chance to fail a Concentration check even if damaged.

Don't neglect non-concentration spells. Sanctuary, Blindness/Deafness, Spiritual Weapon. Though Spiritual Weapon at times can compete with Healing Word if you need the range or want to take an action.

 

[Blue]

I'd lean heavier into support and abandon Con and Str. Be a face with four 14+s

If you abandon CON, I'd worry that your support spells with Concentration would be too easy to disrupt.

 

[cbwjm]

I like building life clerics that aren't front line combatants, more of a caster cleric than a melee cleric. To that effect they have good dexterity and wisdom, wear light armour, and hang back casting spells. Typically they will also have a good charisma with strength as their dump stat. I so prefer this archetype to the heavily armoured life cleric that I created a variant of it in DnD beyond that gets spare the dying instead of heavy armour and potent cantrip instead of divine strike.

 

[StormbringerAUS]

Lego?

 

[Zardnaar]

I like building life clerics that aren't front line combatants, more of a caster cleric than a melee cleric. To that effect they have good dexterity and wisdom, wear light armour, and hang back casting spells. Typically they will also have a good charisma with strength as their dump stat. I so prefer this archetype to the heavily armoured life cleric that I created a variant of it in DnD beyond that gets spare the dying instead of heavy armour and potent cantrip instead of divine strike.

The reason I don't like Dex based clerics is having to kinda boost or having a crap AC.

With higher rolled stats yeah I would consider it.

 

[cbwjm]

The reason I don't like Dex based clerics is having to kinda boost or having a crap AC.

With higher rolled stats yeah I would consider it.

AC can still be decent, I had an elven cleric in light armour and shield and their AC was at 17, 1 less than the 18 they would have had with chain and shield so not really all that bad AC. Even without the shield, AC 15 is fine if you don't intend to be front line.

 

[Zardnaar]

AC can still be decent, I had an elven cleric in light armour and shield and their AC was at 17, 1 less than the 18 they would have had with chain and shield so not really all that bad AC. Even without the shield, AC 15 is fine if you don't intend to be front line.

Can you get 18 or 19 ac medium armor and 14 Dex. I suppose you kinda need 13 strength or be slower.

 

[bedir than]

Dex saves are handy too!