Tempest Cleric, Mele or Caster?

[DireSickFish]

Hello Playground. I want to make a cleric of Talos and the Tempust cleric looks awesome. But I'm having trouble deciding if I should give him a mele focused bent and have high str or a casting bent and just focus on wis.

Much of there domain kit is set up for busting in heads, they get heavy armor proff and martial weapons, damage to enemies that hit them, and they get the bonus damage on attacks and not the bonus damage to spells.

There domain spells all seem very blasty though so you'd want a high wis to get the damage through, they only have 1 attack so wont scale like a meler, and I'd want to go human and take the feat that lets me ignore lightning resistance which is better if I focus on blasting.

So should I start with a 16 str and pump it first? Start with a 16wis and pump that first? Start with a 16str then pump wis, starting off able to wear plate and crack skulls transitioning into a blaster?

Thank you for any help.

[Shining Wrath]

What's the rest of your party like? That's always the first question when optimizing.
How far do you think the campaign will go? If it's not going very high in level then that might weight your choice toward melee, because higher level spells are awesome in all editions.

Myself, I think if you're going to be a priest of Thor or the like you should be cracking skulls. Thor, whether in Norse myth or Marvel comics, is not noted for his subtlety.

[Yorrin]

Both options are certainly viable. I think your last idea was probably the best one- start out as a weapons master that can cast a few spells and work your way up to a caster to be feared. Alternatively get the feat that allows you to pick up Shillelagh and go to town with a staff using Wis for attk/dmg, allowing you to focus on Wis from the beginning, but still putting you in the thick of things.

[hymer]

@ OP: How do you generate ability scores? What do you have to work with?

[DireSickFish]

What's the rest of your party like? That's always the first question when optimizing.
How far do you think the campaign will go? ...

No other known party members yet. I'm designing this concept for our next campaign so it could be awhile before he hits the table as our present one just started up. I doubt it will go past lvl12, probably ending earlier.



Both options are certainly viable. I think your last idea was probably the best one- start out as a weapons master that can cast a few spells and work your way up to a caster to be feared. Alternatively get the feat that allows you to pick up Shillelagh and go to town with a staff using Wis for attk/dmg, allowing you to focus on Wis from the beginning, but still putting you in the thick of things.

Sadly I'll be using the inferior spear/shield combo even though I have martial weapons proff as it is Taloses favored weapon. I could rp it different and use a better weapon but I like sticking with the favored weapon if I can with clerics.





@ OP: How do you generate ability scores? What do you have to work with?

We'll be using the 27 pt buy shown in the PHB. The plot hook would be that we are roadies for a group of kobold bards that play thought the land, but I don't have a ton to work with besides standard character creation rules in the PHB. We don't have any major house rules. Planning on using Alternate Human, but race could be changed if I have a compelling reason.

[hymer]

Well, you don't have to choose between wisdom and strength yet. You could take Str 15, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 8, and put your human points in Str and Wis.

[WickerNipple]

Well, you don't have to choose between wisdom and strength yet. You could take Str 15, Dex 8, Con 15, Int 8, Wis 15, Cha 8, and put your human points in Str and Wis.

Well no one wants Dex 8 really, but I'm surprised I don't see more 15/15/14/10/8/8 builds come out of the point buy.

And this char seems a natural for it.

[hymer]

Well no one wants Dex 8 really, but I'm surprised I don't see more 15/15/14/10/8/8 builds come out of the point buy.

And this char seems a natural for it.

I was thinking about getting Resilience for Con down the line, so I'd want an uneven number there. But you're right, dex is a tearful 8. Though the difference between 8 and 10 isn't that big, I could definitely see going for Resilience with Dex instead, e.g.

[DireSickFish]

Even if I do take the 16 for both wis and str at character creation, which one should I improve for my ability increases?

[hymer]

Even if I do take the 16 for both wis and str at character creation, which one should I improve for my ability increases?

I was assuming you start at level 1. My suggestion would then be to see how it goes. If you're beating people right and left, you'll know to increase strength. Otherwise, go wis. :smallsmile:

[Shining Wrath]

Unless you can find a feat series that improves casting power more than +2 to Wisdom by 8th level and +3 at 12th, where you think the campaign will end. It may be that you'll get more mileage out of feats than ability score.