Making a life cleric useful in combat.

[Asuryan9]

So has anyone used a life cleric that was able to hold his own in combat? Something aside from just sitting there in heavy armor waiting to heal People.

[WickerNipple]

So has anyone used a life cleric that was able to hold his own in combat? Something aside from just sitting there in heavy armor waiting to heal People.

6 levels of Paladin add quite a lot of punch!

[HoarsHalberd]

Hill dwarf for wis and weapon proficiencies. Already decent in combat. Go with bless and strength and you'll hit often enough to do some damage. Choose a decent Blasty spell to use with some of your spell slots. You should be fine. Not top tier damage dealer but decent enough to shorten an encounter.

[pwykersotz]

The 'Help' action does wonders. As do shoving or even baiting a target to attack you. Especially once you get your ability to heal yourself when you heal someone else. With high AC and either a Spiritual Weapon or even just your Sacred Flame cantrip, you can have a massive impact on combat.

If you're a bit more fragile, Sacred Flame or a Crossbow are both great options. Depending on the tactical depth of combat, spending your turn securing or cutting off escape routes can be a lifesaver. In Lost Mines, our Cleric held the door to the castle by himself, taking the dodge action and mocking the enemy enough to draw their ire while the rest of us formed a spearhead and pushed through the enemy lines.

But yeah, unfortunately the answer is "Use things other than class features". You're specced to heal, and you're marvelous at it, but that means using supplemental methods to affect combat in other ways.

[Naanomi]

Magic Initiate and Polearm Master with a shillelagh isn't a bad way to go if wisdom is already your thing

[Jeebs]

My plan, if I ever make a Cleric, is to build a Wood Elf Life Cleric who wears light armor. Pump DEX and you can attack from range with a longbow or that old standby, Sacred Flame. You can also fight in melee, dual wielding shortswords.

Eventually you get Divine Strike, which adds Radiant bonus damage to your weapon attacks, making two weapon fighting relatively potent, and hopefully allowing the longbow to keep up with Sacred Flame.

Edit: Turns out I was reading Divine Strike wrong. It's once per turn. You're going to be better off using your bonus action for Spiritual Weapon, as I mentioned below. Still, Two Weapon Fighting can be useful at lower levels. (Before level 8?)

Also, Life Clerics get Spiritual Weapon as a Domain spell. Being a great healer shouldn't stop you from occasionally fighting with a sword and shield and using your bonus action/spell slots for Spiritual Weapon.

[Demonic Spoon]

So has anyone used a life cleric that was able to hold his own in combat? Something aside from just sitting there in heavy armor waiting to heal People.


You get what, cleric levels + WIS mod spells prepared per day? You prepare spells that aren't healing spells. There are lots of them.

[Mrmox42]

I am playing a Hill Dwarf Life Cleric, and at first level, his high AC (Chain Mail + Shield) made him very hard to hit. So he stood shoulder to shoulder with the party Barbarian, making the opponents try to hit him, while he himself made good use of his Battleaxe.

A life Cleric is a supporter, but he can still be fun to put in the front lines, because of his high AC.

[Mandragola]

I'd argue that a life cleric's class features are some of the very best for clerics. They scale and don't do silly things like give you martial weapons (woo +1 damage) but no second attack or other bonuses to damage.

Life domain doesn't pretend it's going to make you a melee fighter but then leave you with no bonuses as you level. It makes you tough and good at healing, which is what your other party members want.

You're a caster. Put on a shield and the heaviest armour you can find and, if you can't think of anything else to do, dodge. Hill dwarfs make awesome life clerics of course, with weapon proficiwnies, perfect stats and more hp.

[Shining Wrath]

I guess you must define "useful". With heavy armor and all the healing, you can soak attacks like a barbarian. Your problem is to make them attack you rather than someone else, and for that you need a couple of good offensive spells.

For example, Hold Person will shut down a low-wisdom enemy for Concentration - and his friends may attack you to break your concentration. Even if they succeed and return the Held person to the fray, any attack aimed at you was not aimed at a squishy person. Given your heavy armor + shield, plus your presumably decent Constitution, breaking your concentration is not likely to happen on the first attack. Trading a 1st level slot for an entire round of enemy actions either lost to being Held, or lost flailing at your 20 AC, or lost dealing minor damage to a Life Cleric who will trivially heal himself, is a pretty good deal. If they don't break your concentration on the first round, bonus!

My point is that there's some pretty useful things you can do that don't deal HP damage.

[Yorrin]

Life Clerics are great because they get more healing out of each healing spell, so they can feel free to prepare plenty of non-healing spells without having to worry about having enough healing. Bless at low levels and Spirit Guardians at mid-high levels will be your concentration spell turn 1, and then go to town with weapon of your choice (Spear being mathematically the best simple melee weapon unless your character concept wants elsewise). Guiding Bolt is a nasty low level blasting spell with a support rider, if you want to stay at range.

For a more comprehensive look at Cleric spells take a look at the guide in my signature.