Tempest Cleric Grappler

[CaptAl]

My AL group for Curse of Strahd is looking like it's going to be very ranged blaster heavy. 6 person group, 2 of which are planning to be archers (rogue and ranger), a Sun Soul monk, and an Undying Warlock. The 5th spot is planning a Paladin sword and boarder with the defense style.

My idea to help round out the group is a V. Human Tempest cleric and taking the tavern brawler feat to round out my Str score and then grappling a mob while concentrating on bless and beating on said mob.

Scores finish out as
Str 16
Dex 8
CON 14
Int 10
Wis 16
Cha 10

Prof in Athletics is covered by the sailor background, and my AC with Chain Mail and a shield will be 18 to start.

Warcaster will be in my future (Level 4). Am I missing anything? Or is this a viable, if suboptimal, tankish build that can still emergency heal?

[Gtdead]

I just wonder if someone else could take 1 lvl of cleric just for bless.

You have too many tricks for control. Guardian spirit slow, grapple+beating them with spiritual weapon, going magic initiative for lightning lure and booming blade, sanctuary. You can also do something with the help action, just go around annoying enemies and you can cast sanctuary on yourself too. It doesn't break on help action.

[RickAllison]

Plus as Tempest, you get a fantastic spell for massive crowd control, Destructive Wave. Great damage, you get to choose who is affected (so feel free to drop it in the middle of your entire party!), and everyone who fails the save is knocked prone!

[CaptAl]

Great ideas. We'll be starting at level 1, though, and as such I would like to annoy enemies as much as possible without burning my very limited resources for a few levels.

I'm unconcerned with my damage output, the party has plenty of firepower. Would it be better to swap out my domain? Maybe go War domain, or Life? I'm a little concerned with our lack of front line defense, and the limited healing oomph.

[Gtdead]

If you are unconcerned about damage, war is a bust. His high point is lvl 1 where he can do two attacks per turn. Anything he gains after that is circumstancial. Life's features are always relevant if you are a support caster and he can do pretty much everything that war can do past level 3.

No matter what domain you pick, once martial classes start to catch up at lvl 5, cleric needs to evolve into a caster. Life domain will help him with healing, tempest with blasty spells and control (knockback). There are also the options of light and arcana, but they lack heavy armor proficiency.

[Final Hyena]

The barbarian rage to be the group tank is always a nice choice especially when linked with sentinel.

Alternatively I am in the process of making a 'support' class one of the archetype is literally a tank who specializes in positional control via his abilities that move people around and stops them from fleeing, basically it is designed to support a very ranged centric team. It's mostly done, but needs to be neatened up. If you would like I could send you the current version.