Arcana Cleric or maybe a light one? HELP!

[Dregneck]

HI Everyone,

Me and a bunch of friends (Including my wife (YAY)) just started playing and I could use some help.

Our DM decided that we could random roll stats so we did.

I chose Cleric and rolled. I have had the most lucky rolls ever and wound up with 18 17 16 16 15 15. I know this is ridiculous, but hey what the... So I've been reading and reading and I see a lot of cool builds around. But after 3 weeks reading our starting date is coming near and I am loosing my mind!

I have it down to either a Hill dwarf, Light or Variant Human, Arcana Cleric. For both I have a good idea for backstory and such. The IRL focus is to help my wife (Bard) get more comfortable using the English language and using it for RP. (We are from The Netherlands)

I would really like to see some ideas from people with these stats to make a cool support Cleric within the 2 domains specified.

Thanks in advance everyone

Greetings,
Dregneck

[JumboWheat01]

Using social situations rather than robotic instruction to help one become comfortable with the American language. Now that there is a genius idea worthy of praise. And yes, it's totally American. Just ask an Englishman, we don't speak English here. At all. :amused:

While it's true that all clerics can be supportive, the real benefit of being a Light cleric is being blasty. You want to burn the infidels in holy fire. Sure you can pop a little Warding Flare to shield your buddies, but you can help make things dead faster. Which, I suppose, can be very supportive, as dead things are less likely to attack you, but whatever.

Arcana, on the other hand, not only has some more supportive spells (along with some nice fluff ones,) but eventually you get to pick from a wizard's high level spells and can chose ones that can be extremely powerful support. You even get a little dispel thrown onto your heals. That can be really handy if you're going up against a bunch of magic users.

Plus Arcana would be a good fit with your stats, in a way. You have some AMAZING stats, so you can afford to give up an ASI for a feat and pick up Ritual Caster for Wizard spells. Wizards have the largest selection of Rituals, and they're all really good party support. A very thematic fit. You could even make it your starting feat for a Variant Human. Tons of support, right from the get-go.

[Dregneck]

Using social situations rather than robotic instruction to help one become comfortable with the American language. Now that there is a genius idea worthy of praise. And yes, it's totally American. Just ask an Englishman, we don't speak English here. At all. :amused:

While it's true that all clerics can be supportive, the real benefit of being a Light cleric is being blasty. You want to burn the infidels in holy fire. Sure you can pop a little Warding Flare to shield your buddies, but you can help make things dead faster. Which, I suppose, can be very supportive, as dead things are less likely to attack you, but whatever.

Arcana, on the other hand, not only has some more supportive spells (along with some nice fluff ones,) but eventually you get to pick from a wizard's high level spells and can chose ones that can be extremely powerful support. You even get a little dispel thrown onto your heals. That can be really handy if you're going up against a bunch of magic users.

Plus Arcana would be a good fit with your stats, in a way. You have some AMAZING stats, so you can afford to give up an ASI for a feat and pick up Ritual Caster for Wizard spells. Wizards have the largest selection of Rituals, and they're all really good party support. A very thematic fit. You could even make it your starting feat for a Variant Human. Tons of support, right from the get-go.

Thanks for the reply :)

And ill try to make it an American speaking Cleric then. And thanks for the praise, now lets hope it will work out the way I hope.

Thanks for the advice. The Arcana build is really tempting especially with these stats and the starting Feat. Was Thinking of going Dex with it to get up to 18/19 AC. What is your feeling about Magic Initiate?

[Citan]

HI Everyone,

Me and a bunch of friends (Including my wife (YAY)) just started playing and I could use some help.

Our DM decided that we could random roll stats so we did.

I chose Cleric and rolled. I have had the most lucky rolls ever and wound up with 18 17 16 16 15 15. I know this is ridiculous, but hey what the... So I've been reading and reading and I see a lot of cool builds around. But after 3 weeks reading our starting date is coming near and I am loosing my mind!

I have it down to either a Hill dwarf, Light or Variant Human, Arcana Cleric. For both I have a good idea for backstory and such. The IRL focus is to help my wife (Bard) get more comfortable using the English language and using it for RP. (We are from The Netherlands)

I would really like to see some ideas from people with these stats to make a cool support Cleric within the 2 domains specified.

Thanks in advance everyone

Greetings,
Dregneck
Hi!
I'll second Jumbo's suggestion, unless you really like to play with fire... ^^
Not only do you get, as he said, a free pick among Wizard's best spells should you ever get up to 17th lvl.
But you also get a nice way to put all your stats to use by having a chance to pick up Booming Blade or GreenFlameBlade which give you a melee++ attack.

Since you got godly starting stats, you can very well stay on the frontline. It also means you could only spend one ASI overall on stats and pick up Feats with the others to make fun/powerful builds.

By the way, I'd say it would be more efficient to be a "normal Human" here than Variant, unless your mind is set on having a specific feat at lvl1.
It would make your stats 19 18 17 17 16 16, meaning one ASI would be enough to get both a +5 and +4 to two stats, all others at +3.
Compared to Variant Human where with only one ASI, you could either get +5 and +4 OR 2*+3.

Example: Arcane Blade of Justice

Lvl 1
STR 19 DEX 17 CON 17 INT 16 WIS 18 CHA 16
Take GreenFlameBlade. At lvl 4, take Weapon Master to become proficient in heavy weapons and max STR.
At lvl 8, take Great Weapon Master.
You can now unleash a heavy hit (I like Maul ;)) that deals 1d10+10+WIS+1d8 damage to one target, and 1d8+WIS+WIS to a second target.
Making you a pretty decent hitter (especially with Bless to offset the hit malus).
You can go further by taking Polearm Master at lvl 12 to use with a Glaive, or Sentinel to further protect your wife.
And if you're sure you won't ever get to lvl 20, add insult to injury by taking one level in Undying Light Warlock somewhere on the way.

One example among many others.

(Really, there are sooo many heavy multiclass builds that would do great with these stats... I'm envious XD).

EDIT: Didn't see your other post talking about DEX and Magic Initiate. So you do have a precise idea already, haven't you (a bit of blaster maybe)? :) Then go for it by all means it can not be wrong anyways. :)

[8wGremlin]

Use my standard arcana cleric build.
Human variant, Standard Array: 16 Wis, 14 Dex, 14 Con. But your stats are better.

14 Dex is all you need for medium armour
And the whole build keys of Wis for attacks.

Cleric - Arcane domain.
Pick up Ray of Frost and Booming Blade (BB) or Green Flame Blade (GFB).

Feat: Magic Initiate Druid (Goodberry, Shillelagh, +1 other )

Melee Round 1:
Bonus action: Shillelagh
Move to attack range
Action: BB


Skills: Insight, Religion, Arcana, Athletics, Survival, Perception
Background: Outlander. For not getting lost and food in the wilderness

[Dregneck]

Thanks for the advice guys :) Happy to see people are so friendly.

Everything looks like fun. Maybe that is why I have a hard time choosing. The human condition I guess. It does look though that I cant go wrong. Which is awesome.

Thought I'd share the rest of the party. Maybe that will make my choice more obvious to everyone but me hehehe.

Total 7 including me.

Monk
Fighter
Paladin
Sorcerer
Ranger

Wife: Bard
Me: Cleric

If anyone has more advice I would appreciate it.

Thanks again.

[Citan]

Use my standard arcana cleric build.
Human variant, Standard Array: 16 Wis, 14 Dex, 14 Con. But your stats are better.

Feat: Magic Initiate Druid (Goodberry, Shillelagh, +1 other )

Melee Round 1:
Bonus action: Shillelagh
Move to attack range
Action: BB

You know, I didn't propose this kind of build precisely because it's a good build to have when you have normal stats. With OP stats, choosing Magic Initiate just to be able to use Shillelagh is a waste of both a feat and a bonus action. ;)

Thanks for the advice guys :) Happy to see people are so friendly.

Everything looks like fun. Maybe that is why I have a hard time choosing. The human condition I guess. It does look though that I cant go wrong. Which is awesome.

Thought I'd share the rest of the party. Maybe that will make my choice more obvious to everyone but me hehehe.

Total 7 including me.

If anyone has more advice I would appreciate it.

Thanks again.
Well, if we think about it in a macro view....

Monk: melee damage ++ control ++ mobility +++
Fighter: melee damage (?) ++++ tank + (more if Battlemaster)
Paladin: melee damage +++ tank ++ heal + utility + buff +
Sorcerer: blaster? ranged damage +++ AOE +++ debuff ++
Ranger (hunter?): ranged damage ++++ AOE + heal + utility +
Bard: debuff +++ heal ++ utility ++ buff +.

Cleric: you?
This is a blurry evaluation since it may be much different depending on each's archetype and choice of spells, but it's a rough view.
So, it seems like melee damage is covered, as well as ranged damage.
Many can heal but it's far from being their main role so they should only do it for emergencies. You'll be the main healer, that's a certainty.
For the secondary role, what to choose? It's really up to you since everything is already nicely covered.
If you'd like to blast everything away, be a Light Cleric and take Spellsniper feat to have fun killing.
If you want to "tank", base Cleric already have some spells for this so it's up to you (with Arcane being better in the long run because you choose the high spells).
If you're not sure what to do... Flip a coin? :)

[Dregneck]

You know, I didn't propose this kind of build precisely because it's a good build to have when you have normal stats. With OP stats, choosing Magic Initiate just to be able to use Shillelagh is a waste of both a feat and a bonus action. ;)

Well, if we think about it in a macro view....

Monk: melee damage ++ control ++ mobility +++
Fighter: melee damage (?) ++++ tank + (more if Battlemaster)
Paladin: melee damage +++ tank ++ heal + utility + buff +
Sorcerer: blaster? ranged damage +++ AOE +++ debuff ++
Ranger (hunter?): ranged damage ++++ AOE + heal + utility +
Bard: debuff +++ heal ++ utility ++ buff +.

Cleric: you?
This is a blurry evaluation since it may be much different depending on each's archetype and choice of spells, but it's a rough view.
So, it seems like melee damage is covered, as well as ranged damage.
Many can heal but it's far from being their main role so they should only do it for emergencies. You'll be the main healer, that's a certainty.
For the secondary role, what to choose? It's really up to you since everything is already nicely covered.
If you'd like to blast everything away, be a Light Cleric and take Spellsniper feat to have fun killing.
If you want to "tank", base Cleric already have some spells for this so it's up to you (with Arcane being better in the long run because you choose the high spells).
If you're not sure what to do... Flip a coin? :)

Thanks again for the help.

Maybe flipping a coin is the answer hehe. I will see how this thread evolves to see if something comes by that makes me go OOOOEEHHH!!

Either way ill have fun playing it and teaming up in game with my wife.