Alternatives to heavy armor for clerics?

[Jacob Lewis]

Okay, fine. Happy now?

Pleased as punch! And you're welcome.

 

[BookBarbarian]

Are we trying to fix an issue that will never, ever crop up in a game here?

Has anyone ever, anywhere seen someone choose to play a Nature Cleric rather than a druid? I would assume that in the extremely unlikely event that they did, it was because their concept was a druid who for some weird reason wears heavy armour.

I have.

I wanted to play a tribal shaman. Cleric was my best option, reflavoring Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians as summoned animal spiriits. I in no way at all wanted shapeshifting on the character.

Didn't care one bit about Heavy Armor.

 

[5ekyu]

I have.

I wanted to play a tribal shaman. Cleric was my best option, reflavoring Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians as summoned animal spiriits. I in no way at all wanted shapeshifting on the character.

Didn't care one bit about Heavy Armor.

I also do this for npcs. Druid is so wed to shifting that the role of nature ckeric is quite distinct.

But when doing so dex for armor mediums if fine.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I also do this for npcs. Druid is so wed to shifting that the role of nature ckeric is quite distinct.

But when doing so dex for armor mediums if fine.

Yup 14 Dex for medium armor is great. With Shillelagh, Spiritual weapon, and Spiritual Guardians I never felt the need to pump strength for Heavy Armor.

 

[Wyvern]

I wanted to play a tribal shaman. Cleric was my best option, reflavoring Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians as summoned animal spiriits. I in no way at all wanted shapeshifting on the character.

Didn't care one bit about Heavy Armor.

So did your GM give you something else in exchange?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

So did your GM give you something else in exchange?

Does a DM give dex fighter archers anything in exchange for medium armour, heavy armour and shields?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I also do this for npcs. Druid is so wed to shifting that the role of nature cleric is quite distinct.

I think that is a misperception based on the popularity of moon druids abusing giant hyenas.

Our group has a druid of the land who very rarely (and reluctantly) uses shapeshifting.

I would like an official shaman subclass, but I quite like a totem or ancestor guardian barbarian with the Magic Initiate feat.

Celestial warlock could be fluffed into a shamanic type too.

 

[jaelis]

I also feel like a land druid makes a great shaman. I consider the non-combat shapeshifting to be thematically spot on. Certainly when you google "shaman shapeshifting" you get get many many hits

But a shaman subclass for druid could be pretty nice.

 

[BookBarbarian]

So did your GM give you something else in exchange?

I never asked for anything in exchange.

If I'm a Barbarian wearing medium armor, I don't ask for something in exchange for not using unarmored defense. Likewise if I'm unarmored I don't ask for something in exchange for the armor proficiencies I wasn't using.

I don't like to ask for houserules unless I find them absolutely necessary.

Options give me a choice to make with pros and cons.

Now as to whether Heavy Armor is thematic on a Nature Cleric, I certainly don't think so.

 

[BookBarbarian]

I think that is a misperception based on the popularity of moon druids abusing giant hyenas.

Our group has a druid of the land who very rarely (and reluctantly) uses shapeshifting.

I would like an official shaman subclass, but I quite like a totem or ancestor guardian barbarian with the practiced caster feat.

Celestial warlock could be fluffed into a shamanic type too.

Is practiced Caster a 5e Feat? I'm not familiar with that one.

And while those other options make fine shamany types, I find they don't work quite as well for my vision of a shaman as something that has Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians. Of course YMMV.

If there was no Nature Cleric, I would go for a Life Cleric, and still not use Heavy Armor. Knowledge Cleric wouldn't be bad either.

But Nature is pretty dang close to what I wanted.