Help build a 5e Cleric (Silver Flame)

[JohnStone]

I am very new to 5e but Im reading through the PHB.

I am looking to build a cleric for an Eberron based PbP game starting at lvl 2. I am basing her loosely around the "Melisandre" character from "Game of Thrones" (seemed fitting for a SF zealot type). Roleplaying is they most important part but i still want to know my rules.

Light Domain ...FIRE
Wisdom will be the most important stat so variant human 10,14,14,10,16,10
Sacred Flame and no weapon (seems underwhelming but its a roleplaying game and I have a cool concept)
Feat Elemental Adept (seems ok i guess and conceptual)
Equipment Medium armor: Scale mail with a shield perhaps an everburning torch if I can convince my dm its a divine focus
Skill Proficiency do I get 3 proficiencies 2 cleric 1 human...or 5 (2 more for acolyte background?)
Insight, Persuasion, perception. or should i grab proficiency in skills i don't have good scores in like knowledge skills (history, religion)

anything I missed? any advice on playing a character like this?
if we get a wererat in my group do i have to kill him on sight :)
are there any feats/spells in any other books that I may have missed that could help?

[Strill]

Feat Elemental Adept (seems ok i guess and conceptual)For Fire damage I presume? Because the only creatures resistant to Radiant damage are angels.

For your other feats, some ones to consider are Alert (going first lets you fireball things without friendly fire), War Caster (advantage vs Concentration saves is important for spellcasters), Resilient (CON) (boosts your concentration saves, AND your constitution saves as well, which is a big deal)

If you do decide you want to take Resilient (CON), I would suggest switching your stats around so that your Constitution score is odd. That way taking Resilient (CON) will boost it up to an even number.


Sacred Flame and no weapon (seems underwhelming but its a roleplaying game and I have a cool concept)If you really don't like Sacred Flame, you might consider asking your DM if you can take Produce Flame instead, since it fits the Light domain.


Skill Proficiency do I get 3 proficiencies 2 cleric 1 human...or 5 (2 more for acolyte background?)Five.

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For your cantrips, I highly recommend taking Guidance. I also recommend you NOT take Spare the Dying, because the same thing can be accomplished by anyone with a Healer's Kit.

[bid]

If you do decide you want to take Resilient (CON), I would suggest switching your stats around so that your Constitution score is odd. That way taking Resilient (CON) will boost it up to an even number.
Yeah dropping Con allows for 8 14 13 12 16 12. But I think keeping Con14 and starting with war caster would be best.

All in all, elemental adept is quite pointless since you can go around resistance by using radiant damage.


And you aren't limited to cleric skills if your background gives you cleric skills. You are free to pick any. (see backgrounds proficiencies on p125)

[Strill]

All in all, elemental adept is quite pointless since you can go around resistance by using radiant damage.
You can use Spiritual Weapon in place of Scorching Ray, but it's not really possible to substitute radiant damage in place of Fireball.

[JohnStone]

honestly i am feeling a bit weary about the whole Light Domain Cleric thing entirely.
Sacred Flame seems sub-par compared to a weapon and the rest of the features don't seem to support each other.
There is some cool stuff in there but even your advice is to grab resilient and shore up my saves and skills not anything flashy.

im wondering if the Silver Flame deserves a Paladin or battle cleric instead.

[NewbieDMaster]

Sacred flame seems pitiful compared to weapon damage and potent spellcasting is a joke, i mean lvl 8 i get +wis to dam when archers are getting +dex to dam at lvl 1 now?
Potent Spellcasting, while not the best ability in the game, is quite good. Your cantrips already scale pretty well with level, and as a Cleric you will definitely have a good Wisdom score.
Sure, this won't put your at-will damage on par with an archer fighter or ranger, but your higher level spellcasting easily makes up for that.



Feats are centered around the martial types as well with sharpshooter and GWF taking the cake. Warcaster is nice but again its meant for a weapon wielder.
I do not agree with Warcaster being meant for a weapon wielder. One of its bullets benefits the weapon wielder, but it also allows you to cast a spell as an opportunity attack. That can be pretty strong.




Am i wrong does the light domain cleric have a saving grace or is it just a wanna-be sorc with with cleric spells and aror and other unrelated things that dont help each other out. Again i am very new to the 5e concept and maybe im still thinking in 3.x terms but it just seems like a fighter dip and a weapon is a way better way to go here.
The fighter dip for a weapon is not that good for you long-term. Fighters stay relevant due to increasing numbers of attacks, which you will not get. While sacred flame seems underwhelming at first, after level 5 it is probably a better option than a weapon, as it is an almost never resisted type, and scales with your level.
The light domain also gets some pretty efficient means of providing disadvantage to enemy attacks, and a nifty channel divinity burst attack that can be pretty effective. Ultimately, they are the best you can get for a crowd-control cleric.
A sorc will do better crowd-control of course, and works fine if you are just looking for burst damage, but light domain cleric is a nice mix of healing, defense, and burst.

[Rusty Killinger]

I am very new to 5e but Im reading through the PHB.

I am looking to build a cleric for an Eberron based PbP game starting at lvl 2. I am basing her loosely around the "Melisandre" character from "Game of Thrones" (seemed fitting for a SF zealot type). Roleplaying is they most important part but i still want to know my rules.

Light Domain ...FIRE
Wisdom will be the most important stat so variant human 10,14,14,10,16,10
Sacred Flame and no weapon (seems underwhelming but its a roleplaying game and I have a cool concept)
Feat Elemental Adept (seems ok i guess and conceptual)
Equipment Medium armor: Scale mail with a shield perhaps an everburning torch if I can convince my dm its a divine focus
Skill Proficiency do I get 3 proficiencies 2 cleric 1 human...or 5 (2 more for acolyte background?)
Insight, Persuasion, perception. or should i grab proficiency in skills i don't have good scores in like knowledge skills (history, religion)

anything I missed? any advice on playing a character like this?
if we get a wererat in my group do i have to kill him on sight :)
are there any feats/spells in any other books that I may have missed that could help?

This all looks fine.
Wisdom 10,14,14,10,16,10 Looks good, bid's array is also good, especially if you get war caster.
Sacred Flame There is some errata somewhere that clerics can use their shield as a holy symbol and their shield hand for somatic components. So clerics can have their shield and melee weapon and still cast spells. That said, unless you up your strength you're going to be better off with sacred flame most of the time. Don't forget to add your wisdom bonus to damage at 8th level.
Feat You might want to wait for elemental adept (you'll get another chance at 4th and won't see fireball till 5th), war caster is great right from the start.
Equipment Scale mail to start and move up to a breastplate if you care about stealth, half-plate if you don't. Dagger will be your best weapon choice, but still behind sacred flame, so the torch also works.
Skill Proficiency 5 total, 2 from your background, 2 of your choice from the cleric list, and 1 of anything for being human.

Also guidance is the best cantrip in the game. Bless is a great early group buff. Healing word is for healing in a fight without interrupting your attacks. Cure wounds is for healing after a fight.

[Yorrin]

Welcome to 5e! First of all I'd like to direct you to the guide in my sig for general Cleric advise, including a review of the sorts of features Light Domain has to offer. Light Clerics are indeed a hybrid of Fire Sorc and traditional Cleric, and they do a solid job of being a well rounded caster.

What level do you expect this to get up to? If you never hit 8 then Sacred Flame will indeed remain behind a weapon for damage. I don't normally direct people away from Cleric, but from reading your other posts it almost seems as if you'd prefer to play a Paladin with either Magic Initiate or Spell Sniper to pick up firebolt (from the Sorc so you can use Cha). You can be a Dex based Pali rather than a Str based, since it seems to fit your concept better.

If you do decide to stick with Cleric, Elemental Adept is a decent choice, and certainly flavorful. Others have already pointed out more optimal choices, though it's entirely feasible that you avoid most concentration spells altogether. For your concept really the only one you'll want to look at is Bless, which is rarely life-or-death in terms of keeping it up.

[downlobot]

I've really enjoyed my light cleric. I don't know enough about your base concept to say it would fit, but I can say it's been a lot of fun to play. There have been a couple of times, e.g. after throwing out a holy fireball (same as a regular fireball), when it's just been fun to look around and reply to the stunned looks with a, "By training, by temperament, I'm not that kind of cleric."

Do note that I typically don't have optimizers at the table, and I'm no expert, so my experience may not be typical. Also the party is usually not well balanced - I've often been in front for having the best ac (18 - same as your starting with a shield) and perception. In those situations I like to have either shield of faith or protection from evil and good up as my concentration spell. And throwing up a warding flare when the big bad sets his sights on you can be very rewarding.

Sacred flame definitely doesn't do sexy damage, but that's been ok for me - it's just that much more satisfying to let loose when it comes right down to it. And the medium fights when spiritual weapon and sacred flame can play together I've done ok (again, nothing super sexy, but contributing). Sacred flame gets better if you have a warlock hexing for dex in tow (he'll do better damage than you).

Last, if you're dm is open to home brew, I'd ask about changing sacred flame from a save to an attack. I have no idea what that does to the math, though, so you might need to put some limiters on there (e.g. d6 damage, and/or make it function similar to shillaleagh (sp?) - i.e. bonus action to cast, infusing a weapon with holy power, with which you can make 1 spell attack using your action, ranged or thrown weapons retain their normal range increments when used in this spell). Or some such, math and balance are beyond me. I just like attacking more than telling someone else to make a save.

Anyhow, sorry to go on, I just wanted to say I have fun playing the light cleric. The paladin does also look like fun. Less flame-y, but you can flavor the radiant damage.

[Strill]

honestly i am feeling a bit weary about the whole Light Domain Cleric thing entirely.
Sacred Flame seems sub-par compared to a weapon and the rest of the features don't seem to support each other.Sacred Flame + Potent Spellcasting is just as powerful as the Divine Strike from any other cleric domain.


There is some cool stuff in there but even your advice is to grab resilient and shore up my saves and skills not anything flashy.That advice applies to all spellcasters, not just clerics.

[VoxRationis]

Equipment Medium armor: Scale mail with a shield perhaps an everburning torch if I can convince my dm its a divine focus


You've already committed to eschewing a weapon for roleplaying reasons; would you be open to eschewing armor as well? Wizards get by without it just fine, and I can't see Melisandre, your stated inspiration, as wearing a lot of armor.

[DracoKnight]

Equipment Medium armor: Scale mail with a shield perhaps an everburning torch if I can convince my dm its a divine focus

See if you can convince your DM to swap your Armor/Weapons proficiencies for Unarmored Defense (10 + Dex + Wis = AC). This is allowed for in the DMG and it fits your concept better :D

[DracoKnight]

Sacred Flame + Potent Spellcasting is just as powerful as the Divine Strike from any other cleric domain

It's actually better, because it's a saving throw. Which guarantees that you get off half damage when your opponent succeeds on the saving throw, versus an attack roll, where they take no damage if you miss.

[Strill]

It's actually better, because it's a saving throw. Which guarantees that you get off half damage when your opponent succeeds on the saving throw, versus an attack roll, where they take no damage if you miss.

Sacred Flame doesn't deal half damage on a miss.

[DracoKnight]

Sacred Flame doesn't deal half damage on a miss.

It doesn't...oh. I thought that was just a saving throw thing.

Well, that's how my group has been playing it, and I don't think we're gonna change it :P

[JohnStone]

I am fine with Sacred Flame the way it is, i just wish i could up the damage or make it sexier the way sharpshooter works for archers. perhaps my DM can come up with something similar to spell sniper.
I really like the fact that Sacred Flame ignores cover as is

The Unarmored Defense thing (10+Dex+Wis) is downright awesome and exactly what i want for my priestess...Thank You :)

I was thinking about magic initiate for druid spells: shillegawatsit, fog cloud, but im not sure thats such a good idea i would need more feats to keep the qstaff viable and that would cost me wisdom.

all in all i think im just gonna go for it, though i am still unknown exactly what ill use my feat for, ill wait to see what the rest of the party does i guess.

[bid]

I was thinking about magic initiate for druid spells: shillegawatsit, fog cloud, but im not sure thats such a good idea i would need more feats to keep the qstaff viable and that would cost me wisdom.
Shillelagh is mostly a decoration in your case. It is useful for OA but almost requires extra attack and divine strike to do well. Even for nature domain which gets it for free I'd rather thorn whip.

[DracoKnight]

I was thinking about magic initiate for druid spells: shillegawatsit, fog cloud, but im not sure thats such a good idea i would need more feats to keep the qstaff viable and that would cost me wisdom.

It you're going Magic Initiate: Druid then I would take the cantrips Produce Flame and Guidance with Charm Person as your 1st level spell. Those fit Melisandre best :)

[JohnStone]

I am still looking into magic initiate, if i were to take it i wouldn't grab guidance or charm person however since those are also cleric spells.

I am actually thinking about going with Sorc/Wiz:
Minor illusion, Control Flames (or create bonfire). and Detect magic. these are some good utility spells that aren't really affected by a lowish charisma.

War caster is also still high on the list now that i see how many concentration spells there are and also the fact that ill need it to make OAs without a weapon.

[Strill]

I am still looking into magic initiate, if i were to take it i wouldn't grab guidance or charm person however since those are also cleric spells.

I am actually thinking about going with Sorc/Wiz:
Minor illusion, Control Flames (or create bonfire). and Detect magic. these are some good utility spells that aren't really affected by a lowish charisma.

War caster is also still high on the list now that i see how many concentration spells there are and also the fact that ill need it to make OAs without a weapon.

Detect Magic is also a cleric spell. Honestly the best 1st-level spell by far is Find Familiar, but I'll leave it up to you whether that fits your character concept.

Also if you were to learn Find Familiar, it would be much more efficient to get it from Ritual Caster (Wizard) instead.