Melee Caster

[Heartspan]

Hey guys, could ya help me with a character capable of brawling it out in melee, while still retaining full casting? I know War cleric is pretty good, and i got good mileage out of a Drow dragon sorcerer. But i was wondering how other people tried this.

[TopCheese]

Hey guys, could ya help me with a character capable of brawling it out in melee, while still retaining full casting? I know War cleric is pretty good, and i got good mileage out of a Drow dragon sorcerer. But i was wondering how other people tried this.

Light cleric, life cleric, abjuration wizard, druid, or bard.

I typically like human variant tavern brawler for this. Add in a background with athletics and away we go.

[JAL_1138]

Valor bard. Medium armor, full 9th-level spellcasting, proficiency in all weapons, Extra Attack at 6th. At 10th level, steal a pair of Smites off the Paladin list, one first-level so you have plenty and one that scales with slot level preferred. Take GWM at 4th or 8th for extra damage if you like. Secondary or tertiary stat needs to be Con as your AC will never be particularly great unless you sacrifice some damage (and skip GWM) to use a shield.

Works quite well.

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

Dwarf Nature Cleric, full focus on WIS and CON, full plate, shield, 1d8+WIS melee attack thanks to Shillelagh. It's a tough SOB that fully functions in melee while taking nothing away from your full-caster side.

Life, Tempest or War cleric all work, but require more balanced ability investment. They have other advantages of course.

Valor bard is very well rounded, able to hop into melee with a shield and rapier, or hang back with a bow, plus still has full casting, and skills, and can heal, and ups party damage with inspiration, etc.

Bladelock is also a thing. A mutant full-caster, and needs some skill with optimization for full effectiveness. Effective at range or melee.

[Heartspan]

Yeah, the bard is nice. i like the bladelock cuz it can get really... stylish? You gotta look good with fancy lasers and glowy weapons, right? It has the downfall of not being able to spam defensive spells. My biggest problems with Clerics and bards is that they don't start off with the "Shield" spell.

[Chaosvii7]

Favored Soul Sorcerer. Medium armor, 9th level sorcerer spells with sorcery points and metamagic, 10 bonus cleric spells from any domain you want, Extra attack, at-will flight, and free healing whenever you cast a spell. Tanking is easy when you heal every time you put up a Shield or when you take your turn and drop Fireballs on people caught in your Black Tentacles. You only get simple weapon proficiency but there's ways around that, and if you want to keep the capstone then you just need to take 18 levels, which can afford you a fighter dip for action surge if you'd like. Sentinel and War Caster let you punish people who don't focus you down by letting you cast spells in retaliation. Nab a shield and get in the enemy's face, giving them a face full of direct damage if they don't focus you down.

Works quite well. :smalltongue:

That said, it is Unearthed Arcana so your DM would have to give you approval but I think it's an amazing archetype for what it's worth. I can totally understand the apprehension but it's as legit as anything else they've published thus far so I don't see the problem with it.

Also, just as a heads up: Tough as a feat gives the same benefit of increasing your Con by 4 points, which would work with either this or Valor Bard (which to be clear is my favorite class archetype, I just wanted to suggest Favored Soul as well because it goes under the radar due to being Unearthed Arcana). If you need more HP and want the shield anyways, Tough is a good replacement for the slot eaten up by GWM.

I guess it depends on what you want to do when you get up close and personal.

[Mara]

Variant human bladelock. Swing a greatsword in heavy armor.

[Spacehamster]

Favored Soul Sorcerer. Medium armor, 9th level sorcerer spells with sorcery points and metamagic, 10 bonus cleric spells from any domain you want, Extra attack, at-will flight, and free healing whenever you cast a spell. Tanking is easy when you heal every time you put up a Shield or when you take your turn and drop Fireballs on people caught in your Black Tentacles. You only get simple weapon proficiency but there's ways around that, and if you want to keep the capstone then you just need to take 18 levels, which can afford you a fighter dip for action surge if you'd like. Sentinel and War Caster let you punish people who don't focus you down by letting you cast spells in retaliation. Nab a shield and get in the enemy's face, giving them a face full of direct damage if they don't focus you down.

Works quite well. :smalltongue:

That said, it is Unearthed Arcana so your DM would have to give you approval but I think it's an amazing archetype for what it's worth. I can totally understand the apprehension but it's as legit as anything else they've published thus far so I don't see the problem with it.

Also, just as a heads up: Tough as a feat gives the same benefit of increasing your Con by 4 points, which would work with either this or Valor Bard (which to be clear is my favorite class archetype, I just wanted to suggest Favored Soul as well because it goes under the radar due to being Unearthed Arcana). If you need more HP and want the shield anyways, Tough is a good replacement for the slot eaten up by GWM.

I guess it depends on what you want to do when you get up close and personal.

Put two levels of Paladin into it first for heavy armor prof and smites too, quicken hold person/monster and go to town with auto crit
smites. :D

[djreynolds]

I currently playing a mountain dwarf abjuration wizard 16/10/16/17/12/6. He's alright. I have no shield, but have the shield spell available. I buff or dispel and throw hand axes, or daggers, or light hammers from medium/close range. No multiclassing. He's only 5th level so I haven't faced any crazy opponents yet and have yet to go toe-toe with a tank/striker.

[weaseldust]

Yeah, the bard is nice. i like the bladelock cuz it can get really... stylish? You gotta look good with fancy lasers and glowy weapons, right? It has the downfall of not being able to spam defensive spells. My biggest problems with Clerics and bards is that they don't start off with the "Shield" spell.

A variant human can start with the Defensive Duelist feat to get a similar (less powerful, but more frequent) ability to Shield. Though a Warlock with Armour of Agathys, or a Bard who steals it from the Warlock list, might prefer for enemies to hit them rather than miss.

[ShikomeKidoMi]

Abjurer with a splash of Warlock might be your best bet.

Your Abjuration Ward can absorb damage so that your Armor of Agathys stays up because the ward takes damage before your temporary hit points.

You can always cast Shield or something similar to refresh the Ward.

[Kane0]

Seconding Dwarf Abjurer, they can be mighty tough to bring down. The only thing they are missing is shield proficiency.

Favored soul sorcerer is also a great option, they get bonus spells and gish features.

Honorable mention to blade warlock, with armor of agathys and similar spells they can be pretty vicious.

[Tanarii]

Valor Bard, any Cleric, Pact of the Blade Warlock. Mountain Dwarf works well with the last one for a Str build because you also get Medium Armor.

Don't forget that there are a fair amount of spells that are ability score independent. They tend towards defense/mobility in combat, or out of combat utility. But if you're willing to focus on them it's fairly easy to make a Str / Con build with Dex 14 (for medium armor) while mostly ignoring the casting stat.

There's a good list of them here:
http://community.wizards.com/comment/51252126#comment-51252126

[Atalas]

Favored Soul Sorcerer. Medium armor, 9th level sorcerer spells with sorcery points and metamagic, 10 bonus cleric spells from any domain you want, Extra attack, at-will flight, and free healing whenever you cast a spell. Tanking is easy when you heal every time you put up a Shield or when you take your turn and drop Fireballs on people caught in your Black Tentacles. You only get simple weapon proficiency but there's ways around that, and if you want to keep the capstone then you just need to take 18 levels, which can afford you a fighter dip for action surge if you'd like. Sentinel and War Caster let you punish people who don't focus you down by letting you cast spells in retaliation. Nab a shield and get in the enemy's face, giving them a face full of direct damage if they don't focus you down.

Works quite well. :smalltongue:

That said, it is Unearthed Arcana so your DM would have to give you approval but I think it's an amazing archetype for what it's worth. I can totally understand the apprehension but it's as legit as anything else they've published thus far so I don't see the problem with it.

Also, just as a heads up: Tough as a feat gives the same benefit of increasing your Con by 4 points, which would work with either this or Valor Bard (which to be clear is my favorite class archetype, I just wanted to suggest Favored Soul as well because it goes under the radar due to being Unearthed Arcana). If you need more HP and want the shield anyways, Tough is a good replacement for the slot eaten up by GWM.

I guess it depends on what you want to do when you get up close and personal.

Favored Soul sorcerer would be my suggestion too. The on in my campaign got some serious luck in starting loot rolls. Let him change in a Very Rare and Legendary item in for two Rare's, he now has a Belt of Hill Giant Strength and a Wand of the War Mage +1 repurposed into a staff. so, he wades in, has a big stick, and can hit with a point blank Lightning bolt.

[MrStabby]

I dunno really. If the Int caster is needed to fit the bill then it is pretty just Eldritch Knight and Wizard.

You can add some other caster on top if you want though. 3 Eldritch knight, 1 cleric, 2 wizard (divination) might work but then you can't dump wisdom hard. You get bless, portent, shield, 4 caster levels, action surge, a decent number of hit points, heavy armour proficiency, a fighting style and a domain specific bonus from the cleric.

[Tarvil]

Fiend Bladelock with one level Fighter dip for CON proficiency and heavy armor is amazing. You hit like a truck, you have good armor, great source of temporary HP and lvl 9 spells.

[NNescio]

Moon Druid would qualify, right? Little weak as a melee combatant between levels 5~8, but otherwise quite fine. Doesn't require much optimization either (other than Warcaster and Resillient(con)).

Sure, you can't cast while wildshaped, but all you need to do is drop a concentration AoE control spell at the beginning of combat before shifting and fight.

Overall, I think the Druid spell list is better than the War Cleric's.

[TopCheese]

Moon Druid would qualify, right? Little weak as a melee combatant between levels 5~8, but otherwise quite fine. Doesn't require much optimization either (other than Warcaster and Resillient(con)).

Sure, you can't cast while wildshaped, but all you need to do is drop a concentration AoE control spell at the beginning of combat before shifting and fight.

Overall, I think the Druid spell list is better than the War Cleric's.

The druid list is pretty boss, switch the sorcerer and druid list and watch the sorcerer go crazy.

[djreynolds]

Eldritch knight 5/ wizard 15. Full plate, two attacks, and plenty of spells, defense style. Proficiency in con and athletics, so you don't get shoved around to much. 4/16 for 9th level spell slot access 3/17 for actual 9th level spells