Help with a Cleric...

[Starchild7309]

Ok so the other day an old friend of mine recruits me to play a 5th edition game. I figure since I know nothing about 5th that it would be interesting to rebirth the first premade character I ever played. Lordan the Pure a Cleric of Lathander. Its got that nostalgic appeal. So here I am with a stats that look something like
Str 14
Dex 12
Con 15
Int 12
Wis 15
Cha 14

I went acolyte background, took the light domain, and I think my skills are persuasion, religion, medicine and I may have another, but not sure.

My question is since i have played a lot of 3.5...what can I expect with a Cleric in 5th and how do I really make him just the bee's knees and not just a heal bot for everyone else having fun. Lordan was pretty bad ass back in 2nd ed. I want him to be pretty bad ass now too.

[MaxWilson]

Resist the pressure to be a heal-bot. Clerics are no longer particularly good at it--most characters should do self-healing via rest.

Inflict Wounds is now pretty neat.

[DireSickFish]

Light domain will give you a lot of damage options for spells. Make sure you crank up wisdom to help with saving throws, spell attacks, and bonus damage at lvl8. Spiritual Weapon is a great 2nd lvl spell and only uses up your bonus action.

But remember when you cast a spell as a bonus action you can only cast a cantrip as a regular action.

At lvl4 I'd put 1 point in Wis and con.

[Starchild7309]

Also, I went human. Forgot to throw that in. I was also curious if Cleric works well with any other classes for multiclassing. I have been playing 3.5 for over a decade and now 5th seems completely alien and I have no idea.

[Yorrin]

I have a guide for this class! It's in my signature.

As a Light Cleric you're going to want to keep your Wis maxed and basically play like a Sorcerer that happens to also have some healing spells. Actually, if you've played the early final fantasy games Light Clerics play a lot like Red Mages- a lot of damage and healing and a bit of armor to boot (feather in your red hat not included).

[Strill]

In 5e, each character gets hit dice that they can spend during a short rest to heal themselves. Characters are also fully healed during a long rest. All in all, party is much less reliant on magical healing. It's much better to cast Bless on the party than waste a spell slot on heals. In fact, the only in-combat healing you should be doing is casting Healing Word to bring back someone who's at 0 HP. As a Light cleric you have a lot of powerful offensive spells like Fireball, Scorching Ray, and Burning Hands. You're better off blasting enemies before they hurt the party than healing the party after the fact.

If you do ever need to heal the party, the spells you're looking for are Healing Word to immediately bring back a character who's been knocked out, Prayer of Healing, which is an out-of-combat spell that heals up to six characters, and Aura of Vitality, which lets you heal one character within 30' each turn for 10 turns.

[Starchild7309]

Thank you all very much. This is exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Also, Yorrin, I am checking out the handbook. It looks like it will be a big help.