Optimizing a war cleric

[ppnoir]

Hi all,

This is my first post here, so I hope I won’t look too stupid. I’m currently playing a war cleric level 5 and after a lot of reading I found a built which I think is stronger than a regular war cleric.

Here my stat. I was quite lucky with my roll. I’m a regular human and I took the War Caster feat a level 4.

Str: 13
Dex: 16
Con: 12
Int: 10
Wis: 18
Cha: 17

So yeah I should have put the 17 in Con or Str for optimization, but I wanted a cleric who could talk to the crowd.

After reading a post about NOVA, I came up with this build for level 15. I’m not sure we will be playing until level 20, so I wanted to build my character with the limit of level 15.

Fighter level 5: Battlemaster, Great Weapon fighting style and taking great weapon mastery as feat
Paladin level 2: Defensive fighting style and smite
Cleric level 8: taking +2 str to be able to wear full plate amour, because now I have a half-plate.

So the idea is to have bless and unleash 5 attack (action surge and bonus of war priest) with smite and great weapon mastery. I should be able to hit safely with precision strike from Battle Master and my divinity channel. I made around 10 simulation and I usually do around 200 dmg in one round.

Is this build more powerful than a regular level 15 cleric? Are they better build?

Thanks for your help,

P.S. Sorry if I made any mistake, English isn't my mother tongue.

[Dimolyth]

Well, as for me, that depends purely about what are you aiming for. 15 level single class cleric can, you know, cast 5 times per day spells of level 5-8. You are not creating a war cleric - that is a divine gish who spends resources to get nova damage, which is not better or worse, just another style of playing.
Then, it could be hard to decide when take other classes. By multiclassing you stop spellcasting progress by slightly improving your martial skills until you complete your nova combo. Plus, you ought to have a plan what to do in combat without combo.
A cleric in 5e is a character who buffs allies while his spiritual weapon sweeps once per round on its own...

[MrStabby]

Firstly, and most importantly: Welcome.

On to the subject though - it kind of looks pretty reasonable in many ways but there are two questions i think to ask yourself - will it work RP and will it work mechanically. It sounds like you want a persuasive preacher and want to couple this with being a warrior for your church? All your classes and abilities speak to that so I think you will have fun.

Mechanically it is more complicated. Effectiveness is what you can do in a round and often where caster/fighters fall down. If you cast a spell as an action, that is an action that cant be used for the attack action and vice versa. Any resources put into whichever of these you are not using in a turn is a bit of a waste (i.e. weapon proficiency or extra attacks give you no benefit when you are not hitting things with weapons. Your classes are pretty good for circumventing this - paladin can use spell slots for smite (as you noted) which uses the spell resources on fighting actions. Buff spells are a cleric strong point, and cast before a fight they add to effectiveness of your attack actions. Spirit guardians for example is great for damaging/controlling the battlefield.

I think it should work ok as you have good stats, but as you go you may find nova rounds to not be everything. Careful hoarding of resources between fights for a long slog through a day can be important. Burning 200 points of damage on an illusion or similar can also leave you feeling a bit silly.

[Gignere]

I think given your ability scores, I would recommend staying straight cleric, and use one of your ASIs to pick up magic initiate and nab shillelagh. This will greatly enhance your attack abilities. With only 1 ASI bump, you can swing with shillelagh and use bonus action for spiritual weapon, you'll be doing 2d8 + 10 per round. When divine strike comes on line that becomes 3d8 + 10 per turn. If you want to ramp up DPR I would layer on Spirit Guardian (if your party ever allows you to drop bless) and you'll be doing a potential of 6d8 + 10 per round.

At higher levels take MAM and you'll have just as much AC as plate. Yes nova abilities won't be as good but you will have way more utility.

[MrStabby]

I am not sure about shillelagh. It is a great spell and fits the stats but as a bonus action it conflicts with a lot of things like spiritual weapon.

You go into a fight. 1st turn Shillelagh, second turn spiritual weapon and then third turn you are at full combat effectiveness. You are most of the way through the fight here before you come online. Using a bonus action to make an extra attack with your war cleric abilities is going to do enough extra damage that it would take an extra couple of turns for Shillelagh to catch up.

You do also get thorn whip though, which is useful extension of your reach (and great for pulling people into your spirit guardians range)

[Gignere]

I am not sure about shillelagh. It is a great spell and fits the stats but as a bonus action it conflicts with a lot of things like spiritual weapon.

You go into a fight. 1st turn Shillelagh, second turn spiritual weapon and then third turn you are at full combat effectiveness. You are most of the way through the fight here before you come online. Using a bonus action to make an extra attack with your war cleric abilities is going to do enough extra damage that it would take an extra couple of turns for Shillelagh to catch up.

You do also get thorn whip though, which is useful extension of your reach (and great for pulling people into your spirit guardians range)

It lasts one minute and its a cantrip, just spam cast OOC every minute. You should be able to start most combats with it precast. So the sequence will be first turn spiritual weapon, run up and whack with shillelagh, second turn, spirit guardians and profit.