Fighter 1 | Life Cleric 19 - Feat options help

[Linker2k]

Hello,

I created a V. Human with the idea to make a Tank, at this point it's level 2

Below the characteristics:

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Fighter 1st Level (For the second wind 10+1 per SR - The Protection fighting style and prof CON for the concentration spells)

Cleric Life 1 Level (Ideally i will go to 19 with this cleric, my DM is not really multiclass friendly).

STATS (Rolled 4d6 drop lowest):

STR: 18 (16 +1 V Human + 1 Feat)
DEX: 12
CON: 14
INT: 10
WIS: 18 (17 +1 V Human)
CHR: 10

Feat LVL 1:

HAM: I know some people think this does not escalate well but the +1 in STR and the -3 dmg reduction per blow it's always helpfull.

SKILLS: Religion, Athletics, Perception, Medicine, Insight (Sailor Background)

It will go Sword and board (Mace +1 i had on the first encounter that i still need to identify)

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I was thinking on get Observant on Lvl 4 (Lvl 5 total) for the +5 percep, +5 Inv and the +1 WIS, then on Lvl 8 get Resilient with WIS (moving WIS to 20 and getting all the cool other things).

(My DM btw allows to cast with the holy symbol not needing Warcaster).

Any toughts or recommendations on how to follow this build, feat selection, etc?

(EDIT: A little background my character was a doctor that was recruited to go to war and when he gets back eh find his family were murdered and turned into zombies by a necromancer, his wife and older boy are not there as the village was destroyed but he has to kill his little 3 year old boy turned into zombie himself. After that he goes to the sea to exile as he cannot commit suicide, he spends some years on the sea and finds confort in Lathander, then he stops traveling and gets into a monastery where he learns the holy ways. With his faith renewed he leaves the monastery with the mission to find and kill the nigromancer, give rest to his family and himself once and for all)

[Douche]

You can make a holy symbol by painting your diety's symbol on your shield, so you didn't need warcaster anyway.

All the nerds on this forum will advise you to take magic initiate for Goodberry (with Life Cleric it's +4 health per berry) but that's weak, yo. Don't fall into the trap of taking Nerdberry. Just be awesome instead.

You don't even need any feats. All you need is a whip so you can dominate your foes. Just whip everyone. It's great

[Biggstick]

I was thinking on get Observant on Lvl 4 (Lvl 5 total) for the +5 percep, +5 Inv and the +1 WIS, then on Lvl 8 get Resilient with WIS (moving WIS to 20 and getting all the cool other things).

(My DM btw allows to cast with the holy symbol not needing Warcaster).

Warcaster is still going to be an extremely valuable feat for you. Having advantage on your concentration checks to maintain Spirit Guardians (or any concentration spell) or being able to cast Sacred Flame or Command as a reaction instead of swinging your weapon are the other benefits you're not thinking about that come from Warcaster.

[Linker2k]

Warcaster is still going to be an extremely valuable feat for you. Having advantage on your concentration checks to maintain Spirit Guardians (or any concentration spell) or being able to cast Sacred Flame or Command as a reaction instead of swinging your weapon are the other benefits you're not thinking about that come from Warcaster.

My reaction i was thinking to save it for protection. Is ADV that important on CON saves when i already have proficiency on CON saves? (it's +4 now). And yes Guardian Angels is the skill i will use! (I did not choose command nor sacred flame yet, my cantrips are guidance, mending and thaumaturgy)

[Biggstick]

My reaction i was thinking to save it for protection. Is ADV that important on CON saves when i already have proficiency on CON saves? (it's +4 now). And yes Guardian Angels is the skill i will use! (I did not choose command nor sacred flame yet, my cantrips are guidance, mending and thaumaturgy)

You should take Sacred Flame at level 4. It's not amazing, but it's a rock solid cantrip that will serve you well throughout the rest of your campaign. Sixty foot range with the ability to be cast in melee range (Sacred Flame is a save, thus doesn't suffer the disadvantage of using a ranged cantrip in melee range). It uses the ever effective radiant damage. It will eventually out scale your melee capabilities (2d8 at level 5, 3d8 at level 11, 4d8 at level 17). You never run out of ammo for it.

I would also definitely recommend taking Command. It's on the level of Find Familiar or Shield level of usefulness. Reason for that is it is a level 1 spell that targets wisdom that manages to completely control a BBEG for one turn and denying them an action (if they fail the save). Failing this save will force BBEG's to burn through their legendary saves quickly, or will give your team mates a free turn in the round of beating the BBEG down (One turn of a full set of actions against a BBEG can be lethal).

As for advantage on your CON saves, it's going to be something that's constantly tested if you're serving as a tank for your party. I view it as something that pretty much guarentees you're going to maintain your concentration on spells (having a concentration spell go down is pretty brutal if you're counting on that Spirit Guardians to bring down the horde of goblins raining arrows down on you).

[ZenBear]

Nobody gonna touch the "nigromancer" thing?

[Linker2k]

You should take Sacred Flame at level 4. It's not amazing, but it's a rock solid cantrip that will serve you well throughout the rest of your campaign. Sixty foot range with the ability to be cast in melee range (Sacred Flame is a save, thus doesn't suffer the disadvantage of using a ranged cantrip in melee range). It uses the ever effective radiant damage. It will eventually out scale your melee capabilities (2d8 at level 5, 3d8 at level 11, 4d8 at level 17). You never run out of ammo for it

It does sound good and i will but i wont be able to use it when using concentration. Anyhow its a good variant.

[Biggstick]

It does sound good and i will but i wont be able to use it when using concentration. Anyhow its a good variant.

What are you talking about? You'll absolutely be able to use Sacred Flame while concentrating on another spell.

[Linker2k]

What are you talking about? You'll absolutely be able to use Sacred Flame while concentrating on another spell.

Sorry my bad on remembering the spell, i'll take it on level 4 as starting level 5 it's when it's whort it.

I still trying to figure out the feats. I'm thinking taking Magic Initiate at Lvl 4 to have Poison Spray & Thorn Whip (to get the enemies off my allies). Also Goodberry to heal 40hp

[djreynolds]

Sorry my bad on remembering the spell, i'll take it on level 4 as starting level 5 it's when it's whort it.

I still trying to figure out the feats. I'm thinking taking Magic Initiate at Lvl 4 to have Poison Spray & Thorn Whip (to get the enemies off my allies). Also Goodberry to heal 40hp

Here's the kicker, I am playing a life cleric hill dwarf. I know concentration checks are big, but you still want resilient wisdom later on right. As important as con saves.

So I would, if you are taking magic initiate anyhow, take shillelagh and fight with a club and shield and leave strength just enough to wear plate armor or go dwarf and dump strength.

And then make constitution higher and then select resilient con.

I'm not sure if Life Cleric really needs a multiclass. 1 level of fighter, why not 1 level of barbarian or sorcerer, 13 chr needed, but both get con saves. Fighter does give out protection style, which could be a good use of your reaction or defense.

Now my guy is going with a 14 in strength, its enough to be serviceable in melee and I'm going to take war caster first at 4th level so I can use sacred flame as AoO, even with disadvantage in melee if the DM groans about the 5ft melee. Also you do not need good berry, your Life cleric has enough healing prowess. But take it if you want, I would take the shield spell, even if its once a day, could save your life

Just select resilient con later on, maybe at 4th or 8th since you wisdom is really high. Throw that 14 in strength and add your +1, so its 15 and you can wear plate. Put your big numbers in con and wis and grab shillelagh and use a club or quarterstaff and even grab polearm master, you have the stats to make it work. But wisdom saves are just a big, we do not need your cleric charmed.

Otherwise keep me posted so we can exchange notes on our life clerics

[Linker2k]

Now my guy is going with a 14 in strength, its enough to be serviceable in melee and I'm going to take war caster first at 4th level so I can use sacred flame as AoO, even with disadvantage in melee if the DM groans about the 5ft melee. Also you do not need good berry, your Life cleric has enough healing prowess. But take it if you want, I would take the shield spell, even if its once a day, could save your life

Just select resilient con later on, maybe at 4th or 8th since you wisdom is really high. Throw that 14 in strength and add your +1, so its 15 and you can wear plate. Put your big numbers in con and wis and grab shillelagh and use a club or quarterstaff and even grab polearm master, you have the stats to make it work. But wisdom saves are just a big, we do not need your cleric charmed.

Otherwise keep me posted so we can exchange notes on our life clerics

What i could do it's use STR 14 +1 per class +1 per HAM to 16 and CON 16 as well

STR: 16
DEX: 12
CON: 16
INT : blah
WIS: 18
CHR: blah

And take sacred flame from the start

[djreynolds]

What i could do it's use STR 14 +1 per class +1 per HAM to 16 and CON 16 as well

STR: 16
DEX: 12
CON: 16
INT : blah
WIS: 18
CHR: blah

And take sacred flame from the start

I know its cheesy, and you may want to use a certain weapon. But if you are taking magic initiate, shillelagh is a cantrip and uses your wisdom for to hit and damage and last 1 minute and is a bonus action. Now I took the dwarf and have a war hammer and we are only going to 10th in Ravenloft. But at least consider shillelagh. Sacred flame is nice because the DM rolls a save and most undead are not good at dex.

I think I'm going to enjoy this class, but we have me as the tank and our other tank is that mystic warrior. The rest are just specialists. We have a ranger but I told him, shoot that bow. I do like HAM, others can say what they want but HAM is -3 from s/p/b and it doesn't say whether its from or not from a magical source, so that is a good pick up if the DM rules its DR no matter what weapon that's used. Awesome stats. We had to use standard array, so I took the Hill Dwarf.

[Gtdead]

OP if I had to change something, I'd switch str with con, making your starts str 15, dex 12, con 16, int 10, wis 18, cha 10, and get magic initiate at lvl 1 (shillelagh, goodberry and whip) instead of HAM. This way you won't need str at all. HAM is extremely strong at low levels or against swarms, but it can become completely obsolete at higher levels.

At 20 lvl you can have 20 con+wis, 4 feats (magic initiate, resilient, observant, warcaster)

[PoeticDwarf]

Switch the 14 and 16 in str/con. You will still have 16str and also have 16con. You already have some nice features for tanking but with more con you will become a real tank. You could even put a 17 in con and +1 vhuman it. Then go for 16str (14) and 16 wis (16)

[djreynolds]

OP if I had to change something, I'd switch str with con, making your starts str 15, dex 12, con 16, int 10, wis 18, cha 10, and get magic initiate at lvl 1 (shillelagh, goodberry and whip) instead of HAM. This way you won't need str at all. HAM is extremely strong at low levels or against swarms, but it can become completely obsolete at higher levels.

At 20 lvl you can have 20 con+wis, 4 feats (magic initiate, resilient, observant, warcaster)

Good advice. Damn I wish I rolled stats like his. He is going to be a AWESOME. Heck grab polearm master and go quarterstaff and be heathens and non-believers.