D&D 5E How is the Cleric in Actual Play?

[Sacrosanct]

Its all good. Some people hate on the paladin, I hate on the bard.

As do I. not a fan of the class at all. The blade from 2e was halfway decent, but it was all downhill from there.

 

[GlassJaw]

Its all good. Some people hate on the paladin, I hate on the bard.

I like the paladin and bard but hate on the sorcerer and ranger. Plenty of hate to go around for all the classes!

 

[ClaytonCross]

I also played a Hill Dwarf Forge Cleric in my group. (The others being a mountain dwarf bear totem barbarian, a human necromancer wizard, and a half-orc monk of the open hand.) I had incredible HP and AC. I was probably one of the few party members that never dropped to 0 HP in our adventures. You are not necessarily pumping out the single-target damage of a fighter, barbarian, or rogue, or the AoE damage of a wizard, but you have a lot of support utility and sticking power in a fight. People have already mentioned Spiritual Weapon and Spiritual Guardians, which are both top notch spells in a fight, but you also have Guidance and Bless.

As an aside, I am also thankful that WotC switched out Shield for Identify for the Forge cleric domain spells. My group was already doing that when playtesting the UA Forge cleric, because my group and I found the Forge cleric with Shield was just too absurd of a tank in play.

lol, My GM switch Identify back out for Shield because the felt it was more appropriate and he doesn't use Identify spell in his games because he thinks curses are silly and you can already identify magic items on a short rest. While it does give me ridiculous AC defense my 20AC +2 shield of faith, +5 shield spell for 27 at level 1, it does not help me for save spells so AoEs still mean my high health and Dwarven Fortitude are needed and because I have high AC he holds nothing back. We were fighting an umber hulk (a CR5 monster) as a level 4 party. It wrecked the group with its +8 to hit modifier and 9-14 damage. However, I took the blunt of the attacks (as a tank should) and we beat it dispite not having the lvl 5 jump in damage. We did have one guy drop to 0... the same guy 5 times! but uses of healing potions + mage hand and healing word managed to prevent him from failing 3 death saves but he got exhaustion from falling so much. It was a hard fight above our level but with my (also Hill Dwarf) Cleric tanking a TON OF DAMAGE by blocking and self healing we did kill it. Not disappointed with my Cleric Tank at all. I also look forward to Getting Resistance to Fire damage at level 6 which will help with some AoE damage but I am looking at getting a Luckstone, ring of protection, and cloak of protection as they will help my saves all around and I don't believe in AC over kill as a tank, lol.

… More so because the Umberhulk came close to dropping me at one point but shield saved me and Dodge + Dwarven resistance got me back on my feat.

 

[Al'Kelhar]

My current PC, Watt, is a warforged storm sorcerer/tempest cleric with heavy plating, shield of faith and the shield spell. One might describe him (it?) as a "solid" build.

Cheers, Al'Kelhar

 

[Ashrym]

An article just came out showing D&D Beyond player data has fighters and clerics as the most popular classes.

I would call that a general indication the class is fine.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

My cleric never does the same thing in two combats in a row. Sometimes she uses bless and spiritual weapon. Sometimes spirit guardians. Sometimes she smacks things with a warhammer, sometimes she smacks things at range with a cantrip, sometimes she casts spells (heal, banish, curse animate objects, whatever). As a forge cleric, she's got the party covered for item stuff (identiyfing all the magic items, repairing all the nonmagical ones).

She also animated some zombies to row the boat so the party could rest.

I like the flexibility of covering multiple roles as needed. Buffing? Yep, got you there with bless and guidance and so on. Healing? Gods yes, including dispel magic, remove curse and greater restoration. Controlling the battledfield? Well, there is wall of flame to corral the enemies or banish to take out the nastiest one for a few minutes. Or she could just stand at the front with her full plate, shield, and channel divinity and say, "Come at me. I dare you."

 

[Blue]

Druids by the way make the best healers.

I count Revivify as party of the essential healing kit of 5e. It's not a raise dead spell, it's a "stand up from REALLY unconcious" spell. Because the player and the character suffer no more from death than being knocked out until a spell brings them back up, it radically changes the boundary of where meaningful death to the player is.

I do see Druid as a great healer in a game that doesn't have a lot of death.

 

[Hussar]

I just finished up playing a 1-11th level Forge Priest in a Storm King's Thunder campaign.

My biggest beef with the cleric is that there's such a pull between options. For example, my Sacred Flame is doing 3d6 damage at this point. Why would I bother using a weapon and tanking? I wound up having three magic items plus the class damage bonus and not doing a whole lot more damage than I would do with Sacred Flame. Never minding Toll the Dead or other attack cantrips.

I guess my beef is that clerics have become wizards with a specialized spell list. There's no point in going heavy armor/tank. You're just wasting resources. Why spend all the money/attunement slots on magic armor, magical weapons, some sort of strength boosting doodad, when you can just stand back and blast away?

And, it's funny, there's been a few comments in the thread about how much folks liked their cleric once they got fireball. Umm, if getting fireball makes you a great cleric, then, well, that's not a cleric anymore AFAIC.

 

[Greenstone.Walker]

Druids by the way make the best healers.

I'm going to disagree slightly, for two reasons. First, druids don't get revivify and remove curse spells. Second, a druid in beast form can't cast healing magic).

I'm not saying a druid is a bad healer, mind you, just that clerics are better. As are bards evil grin.

 

[Ashrym]

I'm going to disagree slightly, for two reasons. First, druids don't get revivify and remove curse spells. Second, a druid in beast form can't cast healing magic).

I'm not saying a druid is a bad healer, mind you, just that clerics are better. As are bards evil grin.

Bards don't get those either unless they make specific choices. I find bards can be great healers but I've made several bards with other choices and flavor in mind.