D&D 5E Strength Clerics

[Zardnaar]

You're relying on the Death domain above, which is explicitly a NPC choice.

Im just not seeing it. Strength clerics are totally viable.

I posted arcane as well, nature can do something similar and you can do it with other races not just vuman.

If you roll stars you only have to roll one good stat as well vs two.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

One of my first 5E characters was a Human Variant War Cleric. He had a 16 Strength, 16 Wisdom, and Great Weapon Master at first level.

In his first real action, he came across an ogre guarding a cave. He cast bless. And then snuck up on the ogre, getting a surprise round, and then beat the ogre in initiative.

He used his war cleric ability to make an attack as a bonus action during the surprise round, so he was doing: 2 attack rolls of d4+d20 to hit versus AC 11 and each hit did 2d6+13 damage. He hit twice. And did about 40 damage.

Then, in the next round, because he won initiative, he went before the ogre. He attacked and missed, but then used the War Cleric ability a second time and did about 20 damage - killing the ogre. Solo, At 1st level.

As we were new to the edition, it sparked some controversy about how broken clerics were. That talk faded at about 5th level, but up and until that point the group was quite upset that the war cleric was so overpowered. After 5th he was effective, but not seen as overpowered (until he multi-classed to paladin.

There is no such thing as a surprise round and you should have rolled initative in the first round. It might not have made a difference though.

 

[akr71]

I have a cleric/fighter waiting in the wings in case of character death. Light Domain & Dex is his dump stat. I took the Shield Master Feat & Protection Fighting Style - he's far from optimized, but as an ex-soldier, he's good at helping and protecting allies.

I understand the allure of the Dex build - I love playing rogues - but sometimes I want to bash with a big hammer and wear plate armor.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

I have a cleric/fighter waiting in the wings in case of character death. Light Domain & Dex is his dump stat. I took the Shield Master Feat & Protection Fighting Style - he's far from optimized, but as an ex-soldier, he's good at helping and protecting allies.

I understand the allure of the Dex build - I love playing rogues - but sometimes I want to bash with a big hammer and wear plate armor.

Yeah. That is the point here I think. Coolness.

I am amused at the idea of grappling an enemy or as I thought about it, shoving them prone in spirit guardians!

half a move to get up and then 50% of say 15’ move to get out?

I think the dex clerics are plunking people from afar? I think up close would be cool.

lastly, a magic weapon and blade cantrip > than a cantrip alone.

 

[Oofta]

It's been done before. The wisdom cleric works with more races, the str human is way to reliant on V.uman and gets worse.

Basically you didn't buff str or wisdom at level 4, the wisdom cleric has taken war caster at lvl 1 if vuman.

At 8 the wisdom cleric is rocking 20 wisdom.

You also end up with lower over stats if you start with 16 str and wisdom. You either have a lot of dump stats, less than 14 con or took heavy armor master instead of warcaster.

And your AC isn't really any better low levels and at best is one higher for a -3 penalty to initiative.

You spend a lot of resources trying to be a better fighter or just be a better spellcaster and a better damage dealer.
With no real trade off.

It's fine if all you care about numerical optimization, but not everyone does. Sometimes a character build is about what will be fun to play, not what looks best on paper. Throw in the other limitations such as carrying capacity that @Flamestrike pointed out and I don't think it's all that clear cut.

Strength based PCs are reasonably close to other builds in being able to contribute to the overall party, they just do it differently. That's good enough.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

It's fine if all you care about numerical optimization, but not everyone does. Sometimes a character build is about what will be fun to play, not what looks best on paper. Throw in the other limitations such as carrying capacity that @Flamestrike pointed out and I don't think it's all that clear cut.

Strength based PCs are reasonably close to other builds in being able to contribute to the overall party, they just do it differently. That's good enough.

Yes.

plus, there ARE things they do better.

look at a strength arcana cleric for example as I have been. Assume at some point magic weapon with potent spellcasting. Dex clerics have a hard time hitting with any simple weapon aside from I guess a dagger. Suppose that works...whatever.

but the other idea I preach is that you are not always guaranteed to have a brute blocking for you!

recently we played a game in which I got shoved into a pit FULL of ghouls. Strength and heavy armor and perhaps athletics is better In a gritty fight with shoving etc. in my opinion.

also as I noted above, what about prone-ing enemies in spirit guardians?

but as we have been discussing the real fun I think is the cool imagery. I would give up a +1 to be interesting any day!

I think strength rogues are cool as well....

 

[UngeheuerLich]

It's fine if all you care about numerical optimization, but not everyone does. Sometimes a character build is about what will be fun to play, not what looks best on paper. Throw in the other limitations such as carrying capacity that @Flamestrike pointed out and I don't think it's all that clear cut.

Strength based PCs are reasonably close to other builds in being able to contribute to the overall party, they just do it differently. That's good enough.

The initiative penalty is not that terrible and having some resistance vs being grabbed or shoved by monsters does weight it up. Also being able to actively grapple helps a lot.
On the other hand, maybe initiative should have been done differently as well as perception, but I don't really knkw how.

 

[Warpiglet-7]

The initiative penalty is not that terrible and having some resistance vs being grabbed or shoved by monsters does weight it up. Also being able to actively grapple helps a lot.
On the other hand, maybe initiative should have been done differently as well as perception, but I don't really knkw how.

You have almost talked me into a lower dex for more con...

I could take resilient and be a stout cleric weathering the storm, swinging a mace with feet planted in the thick of it.

damn. Wish I was playing and not working today!!!

 

[Oofta]

Dex for a cleric PC in heavy armor is overrated anyway. You want to go after everyone else the first round to see if you need to heal someone.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

Dex for a cleric PC in heavy armor is overrated anyway. You want to go after everyone else the first round to see if you need to heal someone.

Or smack down what is left with divine wrath...