Tempest or Life Cleric

[Gwarok]

So the party consists of

A variant human abjuration wizard
A half elf Oath of the Ancients Paladin
A feral Tiefling arcane trickster rogue
A Variant human battlemaster fighter (Archery fighting style)
And a Hill Dwarf Cleric

Should the Cleric be a Life cleric, or could a Tempest cleric fill the role of healer well enough while also being a reliable tank/dpr?

Honestly Life Clerics are just amazing, especially once they hit 6th. If you want to get the healer feat as well, it's kinda almost silly how well they can heal. If you want to tank you still can, in fact even better since you heal better. If you're just looking for which is more effective in a party, no contest, Life Cleric.

 

[FrogReaver]

Honestly Life Clerics are just amazing, especially once they hit 6th. If you want to get the healer feat as well, it's kinda almost silly how well they can heal. If you want to tank you still can, in fact even better since you heal better. If you're just looking for which is more effective in a party, no contest, Life Cleric.

Question, have you actually used the level 6 ability because to me it seems like it will typically be a waste.... how many times is the cleric at max hp and healing an ally that isn't?

 

[Bacon Bits]

Personally, I would probably go with Barbarian given this party makeup, especially if you roll your stats well.

However, given the choices in the OP I'd go Life. Not because Life is so great, but because Tempest isn't that good.

Frankly, I think Tempest is pretty lackluster. The domain spells are pretty narrow (call lightning is an iconic spell, but it's not as good in 5e since it doesn't work very well indoors and the damage is much lower), and Wrath of the Storm is similarly weak compared to what other domains get. Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath is decent, but there aren't many cleric spells that work with it, even including your domain spells. Thunderbolt Strike could be great with a cantrip like shocking grasp, but you haven't got any lighting cantrips and feats would give them to you with the wrong ability score. The domain has amazing flavor, but the abilities don't have enough to work with on the class's spell list because clerics don't ever deal lighting or thunder damage! Truly the only spell I see on the entire base cleric list that is capable of thunder or lighting damage is glyph of warding. That means all your domain abilities work with five spells: thunderwave (domain), shatter (domain), call lightning (domain), glyph of warding, and destructive wave (domain). That's everything. Everything else is based on your class abilities, which are pretty limited. Frankly, I almost feel like the domain's Divine Strike ability needs to allow the tempest cleric to select between thunder and lighting damage.

 

[CTurbo]

Tempest will be infinitely more fun than Life. Tempest can just DO so many more things. Easy decision IMO.

I agree that healing in a little bit over-rated in 5e. I mean SOMEBODY needs to be able to heal, but you never want to rely on it, and creating a character that's going to just be a heal bot in a bad idea. That entire character can be replaced at the market with healing potions.

 

[Zardnaar]

Life is more powerful tempest is more interesting. Go with light domain for both.

 

[Gwarok]

Question, have you actually used the level 6 ability because to me it seems like it will typically be a waste.... how many times is the cleric at max hp and healing an ally that isn't?

Yes, I have and it's pretty sick. The main use is when the party is fighting something with AOE attacks. DM's I play with usually love to surprise a party with a fireball or a dragon breathing on them in the beginning. Having a tough start to a fight that we need to slog our way to victory seems a common thing, even in the published adventures. So yea, a lot of times the whole party is in bad shape at the same time. Then I pop the channel divinity, heal 5xLevel in HP up to half hp, followed by a Mass Healing Word which for a life cleric heals 1D4 + Ability(4 for my guy) + 5 on everyone, which isn't half bad especially at low levels. Takes a lot of the sting out of those occasional AOE's the party eats. The fact healing word gets a bonus to healing actually makes Life Clerics able to toss out a relatively decent heal as a bonus action and still make an attack, which in my mind makes them better as tanks than any of the other types.

Also it's not a 6th level ability, they can Channel Divinity at 2nd to do it, they just get a second use of it at 6th. Getting 2 of those per short rest makes for a pretty fair amount of extra healing. As I had the Healer feat as well for another free 1D10 + 4 + 1/HD available to all characters and the DM was a bit non-plussed when I started using this combo as he really didn't expect that much ability to eat damage in the party. We rotate DM's in our group and others felt the same way, but it was very noticeable.

Besides, what do Tempest Clerics get that's all that great? The 2D8 lightning damage as a reaction is certainly nice don't get me wrong, and channeling max damage on Lightning or Thunder attacks is some sweet DPS when you need it, but other than that the Life Priest can do just about everything a Tempest cleric can and you're party will likely appreciate being kept on their feet more than anything. But again, it really boils down to what you want to play. If you want to play mini Thor, then by all means rock that thunder hammering cleric to your heart's content because if that's what you want you will not be happy playing a Life cleric. But I did find Life cleric's healing to actually make healing a much bigger factor than usual.

Oh, I have to say one specific example. Had my Life priest in a fight. He had spiritual weapon and Spirit Guardians up. Action was weapon attack/1 action heals/Channel divinity, using bonus action for either Healing Words or the bonus weapon attack, doing AOE damage and hindering enemies with difficult terrain, and used the Channel divinity twice when we were fighting a young green dragon and some minions. Combined all those made what seemed like a terrifying fight into one the DM was kinda disappointed in.

 

[FrogReaver]

Yes, I have and it's pretty sick. The main use is when the party is fighting something with AOE attacks. DM's I play with usually love to surprise a party with a fireball or a dragon breathing on them in the beginning. Having a tough start to a fight that we need to slog our way to victory seems a common thing, even in the published adventures. So yea, a lot of times the whole party is in bad shape at the same time. Then I pop the channel divinity, heal 5xLevel in HP up to half hp, followed by a Mass Healing Word which for a life cleric heals 1D4 + Ability(4 for my guy) + 5 on everyone, which isn't half bad especially at low levels. Takes a lot of the sting out of those occasional AOE's the party eats. The fact healing word gets a bonus to healing actually makes Life Clerics able to toss out a relatively decent heal as a bonus action and still make an attack, which in my mind makes them better as tanks than any of the other types.

Also it's not a 6th level ability, they can Channel Divinity at 2nd to do it, they just get a second use of it at 6th. Getting 2 of those per short rest makes for a pretty fair amount of extra healing. As I had the Healer feat as well for another free 1D10 + 4 + 1/HD available to all characters and the DM was a bit non-plussed when I started using this combo as he really didn't expect that much ability to eat damage in the party. We rotate DM's in our group and others felt the same way, but it was very noticeable.

Besides, what do Tempest Clerics get that's all that great? The 2D8 lightning damage as a reaction is certainly nice don't get me wrong, and channeling max damage on Lightning or Thunder attacks is some sweet DPS when you need it, but other than that the Life Priest can do just about everything a Tempest cleric can and you're party will likely appreciate being kept on their feet more than anything. But again, it really boils down to what you want to play. If you want to play mini Thor, then by all means rock that thunder hammering cleric to your heart's content because if that's what you want you will not be happy playing a Life cleric. But I did find Life cleric's healing to actually make healing a much bigger factor than usual.

Oh, I have to say one specific example. Had my Life priest in a fight. He had spiritual weapon and Spirit Guardians up. Action was weapon attack/1 action heals/Channel divinity, using bonus action for either Healing Words or the bonus weapon attack, doing AOE damage and hindering enemies with difficult terrain, and used the Channel divinity twice when we were fighting a young green dragon and some minions. Combined all those made what seemed like a terrifying fight into one the DM was kinda disappointed in.

I’m very confused. You mentioned the level 6 ability but talk here a lot about the level 2 ability. I made my comment about the level 6 ability. Why are you telling me how good the level 2 ability is when I questioned how good the level 6 ability is?

 

[Zardnaar]

Yes, I have and it's pretty sick. The main use is when the party is fighting something with AOE attacks. DM's I play with usually love to surprise a party with a fireball or a dragon breathing on them in the beginning. Having a tough start to a fight that we need to slog our way to victory seems a common thing, even in the published adventures. So yea, a lot of times the whole party is in bad shape at the same time. Then I pop the channel divinity, heal 5xLevel in HP up to half hp, followed by a Mass Healing Word which for a life cleric heals 1D4 + Ability(4 for my guy) + 5 on everyone, which isn't half bad especially at low levels. Takes a lot of the sting out of those occasional AOE's the party eats. The fact healing word gets a bonus to healing actually makes Life Clerics able to toss out a relatively decent heal as a bonus action and still make an attack, which in my mind makes them better as tanks than any of the other types.

Also it's not a 6th level ability, they can Channel Divinity at 2nd to do it, they just get a second use of it at 6th. Getting 2 of those per short rest makes for a pretty fair amount of extra healing. As I had the Healer feat as well for another free 1D10 + 4 + 1/HD available to all characters and the DM was a bit non-plussed when I started using this combo as he really didn't expect that much ability to eat damage in the party. We rotate DM's in our group and others felt the same way, but it was very noticeable.

Besides, what do Tempest Clerics get that's all that great? The 2D8 lightning damage as a reaction is certainly nice don't get me wrong, and channeling max damage on Lightning or Thunder attacks is some sweet DPS when you need it, but other than that the Life Priest can do just about everything a Tempest cleric can and you're party will likely appreciate being kept on their feet more than anything. But again, it really boils down to what you want to play. If you want to play mini Thor, then by all means rock that thunder hammering cleric to your heart's content because if that's what you want you will not be happy playing a Life cleric. But I did find Life cleric's healing to actually make healing a much bigger factor than usual.

Oh, I have to say one specific example. Had my Life priest in a fight. He had spiritual weapon and Spirit Guardians up. Action was weapon attack/1 action heals/Channel divinity, using bonus action for either Healing Words or the bonus weapon attack, doing AOE damage and hindering enemies with difficult terrain, and used the Channel divinity twice when we were fighting a young green dragon and some minions. Combined all those made what seemed like a terrifying fight into one the DM was kinda disappointed in.

Life clerics are roughly twice as good as the other clerics at healing, and clerics are better at healing than most other classes MC Life clerics with Druid/Bard levels being an exception and that new spell from Xanathars for Druids. When you're that good at healing a lot more resources can be devoted to other things. But yeah we had life clerics and healer feat combo around late 2014/early 2015. Healer feat is also in the top 5 most powerful feats list IMHO.

 

[FrogReaver]

Life clerics are roughly twice as good as the other clerics at healing, and clerics are better at healing than most other classes MC Life clerics with Druid/Bard levels being an exception and that new spell from Xanathars for Druids. When you're that good at healing a lot more resources can be devoted to other things. But yeah we had life clerics and healer feat combo around late 2014/early 2015. Healer feat is also in the top 5 most powerful feats list IMHO.

I don't think life clerics are twice as good at healing compared to other clerics.

However, there's also one more important consideration, dead enemies don't deal damage that needs healed from. At level 2 a max damage thunderwave is deadly to most anything you fight. At level 3 a max damage shatter is the same way. How much damage was prevented just by having the tempest clerics channel divinity and an aoe spell to use it with? Even as you level that stays pretty potent.

 

[Zardnaar]

I don't think life clerics are twice as good at healing compared to other clerics.

However, there's also one more important consideration, dead enemies don't deal damage that needs healed from. At level 2 a max damage thunderwave is deadly to most anything you fight. At level 3 a max damage shatter is the same way. How much damage was prevented just by having the tempest clerics channel divinity and an aoe spell to use it with? Even as you level that stays pretty potent.

True but a light cleric is even better. Tempest cleric isn't that good at melee or blowing stuff up.