D&D 5E (2014) Best War Cleric?

[Zardnaar]

Has anyone played war cleric as an archer?

Yeah starts off good and falls off hard.

 

[Razamis]

Absolutely not. Too strong. Most of their best spells don't take more than one action to use and can be maintained the whole combat.

You are very clearly wrong.

The Valor Bard gets Extra attack at level 6, a full spell progression table up to 9th level spells (which include some of the best wizard AND cleric spells), magical secrets for broken combos, excellent amount of skills and expertise at the same level as the rogue (wtf?), and their own bard things (like inspiration).

Very clearly the War Cleric having a straight up Extra Attack at level 6, would be well in line with the power that Bards already possess.

That being said, I am not in favour of how overpowered Bards are in 5e. My suggestion is this: "War Priest feature improves at level 6 making the extra attack count as part of your attack action, but is still limited by wisdom modifier uses per long rest."

That is one of the many balance changes I have made in my "D&D5e Patch". Stuff that the designers should have got right but didn't.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I think the war cleric rather needs something that helps him concentrating on his spells. He should be in the middle of the fight but that is quite risky for him. The rest is ok. Maybe just maybe he could get some extra damage somewhere, but coming from 3.5 I'd say they did well not to give him too much.

 

[Warpiglet]

And the feat is nearly useless for him later?

It really depends on which part of the character's career we look at.

If we compare the value to the fighter, surely GWM is less for war cleric. But for one or maybe two combats it can be big early on. Remember, the war cleric is going to get more swings with a greatsword than anyone levels 1-5, right?

Some combats your role might be more at spellcasting. If a war cleric could kick but with GWM every combat the problem would be overshadowing the fighter.

I look at it like this: classes do not get extra attacks until 5th. From 1st to fifth, the war cleric is BETTER with GWM than many others. From 5-11, the cleric only has one attack but can get up to five extra swings from wisdom and cleric abilities. They can mostly go GWM as the dominant activity for at least one combat and be competitive with martials. When a fighter gets three attacks, GWM does more for them by a wide margin. But honestly, much of our groups play takes place before that.

By then, I am assuming the cleric is throwing larger spells a fair amount of the time as well.

If we compare the value of GWM for a war cleric at super high levels to that of a fighter with 4 attacks, then of course it is worthless. But this is a team game and through much of a cleric's career it can give an added boost.

 

[Zardnaar]

Clerics benefit from gfb and being able to keep spiritual guardians up reliably. That means feats or multiclassing. Reducing Mad also helps or rolling good stats. Things like nature and arcana clerics are often better at beat down than the war cleric which is a bit of a shame.

 

[CapnZapp]

Again, the problem with the War Cleric design is that melee combat is not where a spellcaster wants to be.

The suggestion to allow the WC to cast a spell when taking the (melee) attack action is excellent, since it addresses exactly this.

It allows the Cleric to do its thing, which is to cast spells, while also doing its "war" thing. It entices the WC to enter melee.

 

[Greg K]

I don't want a war cleric that goes into combat. I want one that either sows discord or raises bloodlust in others so that people start wanting to kill or go to war with one another. Then, throw in the ability to enhance and curse the prowess of others in battle.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

The best war cleric is the Paladin.