D&D 5E Simple Question: Clerics and Extra Attack.

[James Gasik]

Just had this random thought when replying to another thread: since Arcane caster subclasses can get it, why can't Clerics get Extra Attack?

I can't think of a reason against it, other than maybe "giving Extra Attack to Arcane casters subclasses was a mistake", but that ship has long since sailed, lol.

 

[DND_Reborn]

I always thought War Domain and maybe one or two others should.

I don't see any reason why not except then they become closer in power to fighters, but also with a full complement of clerical spells/features.

 

[James Gasik]

I always thought War Domain and maybe one or two others should.

I don't see any reason why not except then they become closer in power to fighters, but also with a full complement of clerical spells/features.

Yeah, maybe it's a bridge too far, it's just hard to reconcile Wizards getting it and War Clerics getting something much worse from their Gods.

 

[cbwjm]

I could see giving it to war clerics as their level 6 ability, though war gods blessing can be pretty useful to help ensure your heavy hitters hit their target. I'd actually prefer that the cleric worked differently, choose at level 1 to become a crusader and gain things like extra attack, martial weapons, and heavy armour, or become some other sort of priest like a mystic that focuses more on the divine gifts of the gods (ie, spells).

 

[Irlo]

I'd accept Extra Attack as a 6th or 8th level domain feature for the War Cleric.

 

[Oofta]

Because we already have paladins? Not a great answer of course, just the most likely one I can think of.

 

[DND_Reborn]

Because we already have paladins? Not a great answer of course, just the most likely one I can think of.

In the same light we already have Bards (arcane casting, performance-based, subclass with Extra Attack), so why have Bladesinger as a Wizard?

 

[James Gasik]

It would blur the line between Paladins and Clerics, which is already fairly thin in 5e. Both can theoretically wield the same weapons and armor, neither is better than the other with regards to raw weaponskill, both are divinely empowered, and some Clerics even get a smite ability (even if it lacks the raw power of burning spell slots for damage).

Paladins still have unique mechanics, but the difference in the narrative between a Cleric of Torm and a Paladin of Torm is fairly indistinct.

I'm really of two minds here- I can't see any reason why it wouldn't be kosher for the Cleric, if Bladesingers exist, but it does feed into discussions about the place of martial archetypes in the game if you can do everything a martial can do and cast 9th level spells.

The game is already heading in that direction, but whether it should be, is the real question.

 

[Oofta]

In the same light we already have Bards (arcane casting, performance-based, subclass with Extra Attack), so why have Bladesinger as a Wizard?

I don't disagree, I think war clerics should get an extra attack.

 

[Charlaquin]

I believe the Bladesinger’s extra attack is at least meant to be balanced out by the squishiness of the wizard class. Sure, you can attack twice with a sword, but you don’t really want to be in melee if the first place, if you can help it. But the cleric has better hit dice and better armor proficiencies, so giving them extra attack would leave little to differentiate them from just being full-casting paladins. That’s presumably the logic behind it, anyway. I’m sure you could build a cleric subclass with extra attack and it would probably be fine.