About the War Cleric......

[Paul Farquhar]

Yes I would assume, coming from the full weapons and armor proficiency, that the War Cleric was "supposedly" built around being in or near melee most of the time.

That would not be a valid assumption.

1) Going back to 1st edition, clerics of all types have traditionally been a heavy armour class. It's the medium armoured clerics that should be looked upon as exceptional.

2) Many of the best "martial" weapons are ranged weapons.

 

[CapnZapp]

2) Many of the best "martial" weapons are ranged weapons.

The quality of a weapon doesn't matter past level 4 unless in the hands of an Extra Attack wielder.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The quality of a weapon doesn't matter past level 4 unless in the hands of an Extra Attack wielder.

It does if your enemies are 150 feet away.

 

[CapnZapp]

It does if your enemies are 150 feet away.

Sorry but if you're in love with the idea of longbow war clerics then I wish you the best of luck with that concept... but am not interested in exploring it further.

 

[CapnZapp]

I was just briefed on the Order Cleric of UA.

Voice of Authority allows the cleric to designate an ally to make a single melee attack as a reaction ever time the cleric casts of spell of 1st level or higher.

I think we can close this case. Just choose yourself.

 

[Cap'n Kobold]

Do I have an incorrect printing of the PHB? My war cleric has martial weapons.

Nope. Good catch. Going off memory and previous posts in the thread I thought that it would be a reasonable buff. Now I've access to my books however, I see that you're right: War clerics already get that.

 

[FrogReaver]

It does if your enemies are 150 feet away.

Bow clerics are pretty bad. I can't think of anything. Cleric gets that synergies with a bow. Maybe bless but that's about it. Everything else really requires you to be much closer range to the party or the enemies and/or already competes for your bonus action

 

[Lanefan]

The best way to make a War Cleric seem like a War Cleric is to change what its spells do when compared to other Cleric types casting the same spells, as follows:

- War Cleric cures should be considerably worse than those from other Clerics - they're more about breaking people than fixing them
- War Cleric combat-enchancing spells* e.g. Prayer should be better than those from other Clerics
- Give War Clerics some spells that only they get, and take away some other spells they have now

* - and the act of casting any of these combat-enhancing spells should require the caster to either charge into melee or already be engaged in melee - leading from the front rather than the rear. You just lose your attack in the round you're casting, but can still defend and - best of all - cannot be interrupted by anything short of complete incapacitation.

Yes this is a lot of work, to make quite a few spells each have two (or more, if you also do this for other Cleric types) versions, but it's well worth it.

Lanefan

 

[CapnZapp]

The best way to make a War Cleric seem like a War Cleric is to change what its spells do when compared to other Cleric types casting the same spells, as follows:

Sure, but that doesn't fix War Priest, though.