D&D 5E Arcana Cleric Choices

[Barolo]

You could have a solid backup Melee Cantrip with that +2 dagger....
(...)

Do you have a good dex or str? With a +2 dagger I would be tempted to grab booming blade.

 

[Kobold Stew]

All books are allowed, although I'm not sure that makes any difference. There's not much I can take from the EEPC.

Still, the optimizing route probably involves a spell like Booming Blade, and I avoid the EEPC cantrips.

Agree. Sacred flame is a must. Is it enough to just have one attack roll cantrip, though? Should I swap out acid splash for another attack cantrip, like fire bolt or something?

The question really is, Do you ind always casting the same spell? If you want variation, and the possibility to bypass cold resistance and still have a targeting cantrip, then the answer is yes. For me, the answer would often be no, but I can see wanting another a third attack cantrip, and Acid splash has its uses.

I thought about it. My original plan was to take Magic Initiate (Wizard) as my human bonus feat, with mage hand and prestidigitation as the cantrips and mage armor as the 1/day spell, but then I thought that might not be enough, so I decided to go with actual armor instead, and I couldn't really think of a 1/day spell I'd rather take instead. If I dip one level into wizard, though, I can get three cantrips and six 1st-level spells, all of which could be rituals if I wanted (whereas with Ritual Caster, you just get two and then have to hope you find more during the course of the game).

All true. I would say you don't need Prestidigitation, if you already have a flavour-cantrip in Thaumaturgy, and Mending has lots of uses, I have found.

I suppose, though, that I don't really *need* Resilient (Con). I could swap it out for a different feat (if I swapped out acid splash for another attack cantrip, then Spell Sniper would be more worth taking) and then still boost my Wisdom at 4th level.

I would consider that route.

 

[rgoodbb]

mold earth[/I] so much?

Yeah. What the Captain said.

Plus: Bury treasure, hide traps, create a slightly more defensive or hidden camp, raise up some cover if ranged and have a round, fill in a breech temporarily. All this assuming loose earth of course.

With the grave thing, I once used it to intimidate two prisoners by firstly creating two graves in front of them and then started to swirl some of the earth around their feet and ankles for effect. The demonstration did its job.

 

[rgoodbb]

Thorn whip is cool but I'm not sure I want to be pulling guys closer to me.

If you are just behind the front line, you could use it to pull enemies towards that nice strong front line of yours.....Or into a pit made by your Mould Earth.

 

[pukunui]

Mold earth does sound interesting.

I guess I need to figure out what kind of spells my PC would actually want to take. He's a Waterdhavian noble, a member of House Nandar. I've been playing him as a bit of a dandy (channeling the Scarlet Pimpernel). He's a cleric of Mystra.

Do you have a good dex or str? With a +2 dagger I would be tempted to grab booming blade.

Dex is +2, so I'm attacking at +6 with the dagger and doing 1d4 + 4 damage with it. That's pretty good for now, with an average of 6 damage. Shocking grasp will do an average of 9 damage once I hit 5th level, though, and as pointed out above, it has the added bonus of preventing opportunity attacks.

Still, the optimizing route probably involves a spell like Booming Blade, and I avoid the EEPC cantrips.

What's so great about booming blade? I have to admit I don't like that spell. I'm not entirely sure why, though. I'm not a big fan of any of the SCAG cantrips, to be honest. Maybe they remind me too much of 4e or something. But that's neither here nor there really ...

The question really is, Do you ind always casting the same spell? If you want variation, and the possibility to bypass cold resistance and still have a targeting cantrip, then the answer is yes. For me, the answer would often be no, but I can see wanting another a third attack cantrip, and Acid splash has its uses.

No. Always casting the same spell would get boring fast. I'd like some variation.

All true. I would say you don't need Prestidigitation, if you already have a flavour-cantrip in Thaumaturgy, and Mending has lots of uses, I have found.

Yes, I'd like mending because it seems like something this guy would want to be able to do - that is, use magic to make sure his clothes stay looking nice. With that in mind, I think I'd actually rather have prestidigation than thaumaturgy, since he can use the former to keep his clothes clean as well.


EDIT: Game is tonight, and the DM has said to be ready to hit level 4, so I gotta make up my mind ASAP!

 

[pukunui]

EDIT: So I talked it over with my fellow players. They convinced me to stick with cleric because we need more healing. (The DM is playing with a house rule where we don't get any hit points back after a long rest, and we still only get half our hit dice, so it's hard to bounce back.) It's a little disappointing that most of my spell slots go to healing, but hopefully that'll change as we gain more levels. I did get to cast spiritual weapon twice and guiding bolt once tonight!

The DM also said I can rejig a few things, so I may swap out the Resilient feat, juggle my ability scores to keep Con at 14, and then take a different feat. Maybe Magic Initiate. I'm also going to swap a few cantrips around. Acid splash seems nice because you can target two creatures with it, but so far every time I've done that, one of them has made the saving throw, so I might as well just switch over to using sacred flame as my save cantrip. I'm going to take shocking grasp instead.