numerek
2015-05-06, 07:19 PM
Note: this build relies on Unearthed Arcana, it also takes advantage of other optional rules but only the Storm sorcerer origin and the Tempest Cleric domain are really required.
Tempest Cleric 8 / Storm Sorcerer 12
Race
Aarakocra
Adds another dimension to the game.
speed 25 fly 50
also has relevant stat bonus +2 dexterity +1 wisdom
But even if the 50 speed was on the ground that would be good enough to use this race. The builds damage largely depend on how many enemies it can come within 15' of on its turn.
if your dm doesn't allow Aarakocra or you are afraid of heights
Other Races
wood elf increases base speed to 35 gives same stats plus the standard elf goodness
Hill dwarf +2 constitution +1 wisdom if you want heavy armor but low strength
Half elf if you want to do better with your sorcerer spell casting
human variant for a free feat
Really as I'll say latter the difference a few stat points will make is less in this build than in some others. So you can freely choose any race
Alignment
Because of spirtual guardians alignment actually matters. no buddy but bearbarians are resistant to radiant and only 4 creatures are immune which is better than necrotic so we need to be any non-evil alignment.
Starting stats
Strength 9
Dexterity 15
Constitution 13
Intelligence 8
wisdom 16
Charisma 14
I wanted decent stats in dexterity, constitution, wisdom, and charisma which is MAD I know. I have been smitten by the spiritual guardians spell and so a lot of what this build does is to mitigate damage and improve chances of succeeding concentration checks when you have to make them.
Alternate stats
actually a lot of the damage of the build well over half doesn't depend on wisdom or charisma so you could put 13's in them and forget about it.
Strength 8
Dexterity 17
Constitution 15
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 13
Charisma 13
These stats give:
higher initiative, ac, acrobatics, saves, hitpoints, and Dexterity/Constitution saves
lower carrying capacity, Wisdom/Charisma save, to hit with cleric and sorcerer attack spells, save dcs for cleric and sorcerer spells.
Equipment
studded leather armor + shield
talons good enough on rare times I get attacks of opportunity
when flying isn't an option put on best medium armor I can afford.
Skills
religion, insight, acrobatics, perception
Concept
Combining Thunderbolt Strike, Heart of the Storm, and Aarakocra fly speed
Beyond that maintaining spiritual guardian
Having enough spells to be casting every turn.
You fly around the battlefield while spirits beat your enemies and whenever you want you cast whatever spell you want from your arsenal and taze everybody in 10' feet of you pushing them 10', if you are positioned directly above them you are exerting enough force to move them 10' but they are being opposed by the ground, now that is some oppression.
Progression
A lot of this will follow the progression of the example build in The Guarded Cleric build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?411612-The-Guarded-Cleric-build) But instead of getting the conjuration wizard abilities you get the sorcerer abilities that the other build picked up later -draconic origin +storm origin.
sacred flame and bless(as long as there are enough people in the party that it will benefit to be worth while) as much as possible, throw around healing word as needed.Nice reaction ability to bad it doesn't scale(with alternate stats you only get this once per long rest)
Channel divinity for max damage when you roll lightning or thunder damage once per short rest, or turn undead
add spiritual weapon bonus action ranged damage no concentration
resilient constitution evens out the constitution +save proficiency
you get to spend every fight(as long as you have spell slots) flying all over the place hitting each creature for 3d8+1d8 per spell slot level > 3 (half on save) and then on the ones you really want to go down you hit them with your sacred flame and/or spiritual weapon.mass healing word as necessary,Other cleric spells to pray for revivify, dispel magic, remove curse, aid, lesser restoration
multi into sorcerer pick up shield (taze via reaction and damage mitigation), mage armor is better than mundane leather armor (if you like your armor or want to spend slots on other things disguise self can be useful, maybe you can disguise yourself as a spiritual guardian) also you can now use some other damage cantrip instead of sacred flame, shocking grasp has some synergy but is a melee attack.
you can start moving spell slots around, feather fall is good to have on a flying creature
pick up extend spell for long duration spiritual guardians, and subtle spell so you can cast stuff while bound and gagged. pick up mirror image
ASI war caster, if you didn't pick up disguise self earlier you can now, magic missile if a good one for stuff that is hard to damage any other way.
pick up counter spell or fireball
Heart of the Storm, which ever one you didn't pick at 10th
Back to Cleric for Thunderbolt Strike. Additional channel divinity.
Freedom of movement
ASI resilience dexterity, divine strike
Then finish out with Sorcerer levels which ups the damage of the Heart of the Storm ability which has no save, gives more sorcerer points . you also get one more meta magic probably twinned spell.
You get 2 more ASI shield mastery, elemental adept lightning or lucky.
Alternatives
you could do 12 cleric / 8 sorcerer or 14 cleric / 6 sorcerer. it would mainly be that you prefer the cleric spell list over the sorcerer.
You can actually still multi into wizard though you have to throw 5 points into intelligence, and considering you will only be able to go up to 7th level I'm not sure it would be worth it
Spells you can pick up find familiar, longstrider +10 speed, phantom steed (speed 100), fire shield
Abjuration if you cast their spells to do your tazing you get a hit point ward, which at 6th level can be used to protect others.
Divination if you cast their spells to do your tazing you get lower level slots back.
Transmutation stone +10 movement speed
Note: obviously choices made for this build are largely specific to the goals of the build and may not be the best choices for being able to do anything else.
DM Fiat
You could work it out with your dm that you give up some other cleric domain feature for the Heart of the storm origin feature, being able to stay one class has its advantages and that might mean being able to enable the main point of the build sooner, like giving up divine strike would get it at 8th level. of course then I would still want to multi into wizard or sorcerer for some of their low level spells and meta magic. Also the tempest domain spells and storm sorcerer bonus spells largely overlap, there are some other lightning\wind\ice\thunder spells that could be substituted.
Any ways to improve the build would be greatly appreciated.
Tempest Cleric 8 / Storm Sorcerer 12
Race
Aarakocra
Adds another dimension to the game.
speed 25 fly 50
also has relevant stat bonus +2 dexterity +1 wisdom
But even if the 50 speed was on the ground that would be good enough to use this race. The builds damage largely depend on how many enemies it can come within 15' of on its turn.
if your dm doesn't allow Aarakocra or you are afraid of heights
Other Races
wood elf increases base speed to 35 gives same stats plus the standard elf goodness
Hill dwarf +2 constitution +1 wisdom if you want heavy armor but low strength
Half elf if you want to do better with your sorcerer spell casting
human variant for a free feat
Really as I'll say latter the difference a few stat points will make is less in this build than in some others. So you can freely choose any race
Alignment
Because of spirtual guardians alignment actually matters. no buddy but bearbarians are resistant to radiant and only 4 creatures are immune which is better than necrotic so we need to be any non-evil alignment.
Starting stats
Strength 9
Dexterity 15
Constitution 13
Intelligence 8
wisdom 16
Charisma 14
I wanted decent stats in dexterity, constitution, wisdom, and charisma which is MAD I know. I have been smitten by the spiritual guardians spell and so a lot of what this build does is to mitigate damage and improve chances of succeeding concentration checks when you have to make them.
Alternate stats
actually a lot of the damage of the build well over half doesn't depend on wisdom or charisma so you could put 13's in them and forget about it.
Strength 8
Dexterity 17
Constitution 15
Intelligence 8
Wisdom 13
Charisma 13
These stats give:
higher initiative, ac, acrobatics, saves, hitpoints, and Dexterity/Constitution saves
lower carrying capacity, Wisdom/Charisma save, to hit with cleric and sorcerer attack spells, save dcs for cleric and sorcerer spells.
Equipment
studded leather armor + shield
talons good enough on rare times I get attacks of opportunity
when flying isn't an option put on best medium armor I can afford.
Skills
religion, insight, acrobatics, perception
Concept
Combining Thunderbolt Strike, Heart of the Storm, and Aarakocra fly speed
Beyond that maintaining spiritual guardian
Having enough spells to be casting every turn.
You fly around the battlefield while spirits beat your enemies and whenever you want you cast whatever spell you want from your arsenal and taze everybody in 10' feet of you pushing them 10', if you are positioned directly above them you are exerting enough force to move them 10' but they are being opposed by the ground, now that is some oppression.
Progression
A lot of this will follow the progression of the example build in The Guarded Cleric build (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?411612-The-Guarded-Cleric-build) But instead of getting the conjuration wizard abilities you get the sorcerer abilities that the other build picked up later -draconic origin +storm origin.
sacred flame and bless(as long as there are enough people in the party that it will benefit to be worth while) as much as possible, throw around healing word as needed.Nice reaction ability to bad it doesn't scale(with alternate stats you only get this once per long rest)
Channel divinity for max damage when you roll lightning or thunder damage once per short rest, or turn undead
add spiritual weapon bonus action ranged damage no concentration
resilient constitution evens out the constitution +save proficiency
you get to spend every fight(as long as you have spell slots) flying all over the place hitting each creature for 3d8+1d8 per spell slot level > 3 (half on save) and then on the ones you really want to go down you hit them with your sacred flame and/or spiritual weapon.mass healing word as necessary,Other cleric spells to pray for revivify, dispel magic, remove curse, aid, lesser restoration
multi into sorcerer pick up shield (taze via reaction and damage mitigation), mage armor is better than mundane leather armor (if you like your armor or want to spend slots on other things disguise self can be useful, maybe you can disguise yourself as a spiritual guardian) also you can now use some other damage cantrip instead of sacred flame, shocking grasp has some synergy but is a melee attack.
you can start moving spell slots around, feather fall is good to have on a flying creature
pick up extend spell for long duration spiritual guardians, and subtle spell so you can cast stuff while bound and gagged. pick up mirror image
ASI war caster, if you didn't pick up disguise self earlier you can now, magic missile if a good one for stuff that is hard to damage any other way.
pick up counter spell or fireball
Heart of the Storm, which ever one you didn't pick at 10th
Back to Cleric for Thunderbolt Strike. Additional channel divinity.
Freedom of movement
ASI resilience dexterity, divine strike
Then finish out with Sorcerer levels which ups the damage of the Heart of the Storm ability which has no save, gives more sorcerer points . you also get one more meta magic probably twinned spell.
You get 2 more ASI shield mastery, elemental adept lightning or lucky.
Alternatives
you could do 12 cleric / 8 sorcerer or 14 cleric / 6 sorcerer. it would mainly be that you prefer the cleric spell list over the sorcerer.
You can actually still multi into wizard though you have to throw 5 points into intelligence, and considering you will only be able to go up to 7th level I'm not sure it would be worth it
Spells you can pick up find familiar, longstrider +10 speed, phantom steed (speed 100), fire shield
Abjuration if you cast their spells to do your tazing you get a hit point ward, which at 6th level can be used to protect others.
Divination if you cast their spells to do your tazing you get lower level slots back.
Transmutation stone +10 movement speed
Note: obviously choices made for this build are largely specific to the goals of the build and may not be the best choices for being able to do anything else.
DM Fiat
You could work it out with your dm that you give up some other cleric domain feature for the Heart of the storm origin feature, being able to stay one class has its advantages and that might mean being able to enable the main point of the build sooner, like giving up divine strike would get it at 8th level. of course then I would still want to multi into wizard or sorcerer for some of their low level spells and meta magic. Also the tempest domain spells and storm sorcerer bonus spells largely overlap, there are some other lightning\wind\ice\thunder spells that could be substituted.
Any ways to improve the build would be greatly appreciated.