Magic Initiate 1st level spell choice

[Renvir]

I am playing as a melee focused tempest cleric and want to grab magic initiate feat to get booming blade and lightning lure. This means choosing one 1st level Warlock, Sorcerer, or Wizard spell. Due to the rules of the feat I can only cast this spell once per long rest and only at 1st level. What spell is worth taking here?

[Moctzal]

Shield comes to mind. It doesn't lose value at higher levels, and doesn't care about your intelligence stat.

Absorb Elements could be also be pretty good if you're not constrained by Adventurers League rules.

[Segev]

Hex seems like it would complement the build well. Extra damage every time you hit your foe, and you can re-assign it. So good for at least one whole encounter.

Find Familiar almost gets you a "class feature."

[Renvir]

Adventurers League rules are not a factor for this character.

[Crgaston]

Another vote for Shield. Other good ones could be Magic Missile for an automatic 6-15 damage, or if you've got a decent streñgth score Jump. Lasts a minute and no concentration.

[JumboWheat01]

Spells that don't scale with spell slot level are the best choices for Magic Initiate. Also any spell that requires a saving through isn't the greatest, since it'll be based on a stat you don't have much else use for.

I'll admit I am somewhat fond of Find Familiar. Since this isn't AL, you can talk your DM into giving you something fairly thematic, like a Mephit of some type that's part Air element.

[rhouck]

Another vote for Find Familiar. The "once per long rest" restriction is pretty meaningless for that spell, and it remains useful forever.

Plus, in addition to the usual uses of scouting, using the Help action to grant you advantage, etc., don't forget that you can use it to cast touch attack spells with a 100 foot range! There are lots of Cleric spells that benefit from that: Spare the Dying, Cure Wounds, Inflict Wounds, Revivify... lots of spells that allow you to stay focused in melee, while still being able to cast touch spells around the battlefield.

[Foxhound438]

Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Expeditious Retreat, Fog Cloud, Shield, and Find Familiar are generally the best choices. Hex normally would go on there, but as a cleric you usually only get one attack, so its potential would largely be wasted. Familiar is particularly good since you get to benefit from having it all day every day until it dies.

[Specter]

The guide in my signature might help.

[SliceandDiceKid]

#1 choice is probably shield. It's the oh **** button.
#2 is familar
if those don't appeal to you, identify is REALLY handy (the material component isn't used up, is it???)

[AmbientRaven]

Familiar is #1 in my opinion

[Saeviomage]

Just note - a lot of the good picks are actually rituals, so bear that in mind if you might get ritual caster later on.

[Drackolus]

Familiars are cool on clerics, since you can apply touch spells with them (cure wounds by having your familiar tap your friend). However, you can also get find familiar with rit. caster:Wizard, which I personally think is an underrated feat. Still, it might not fit in your build.

[Gtdead]

I'd go for familiar. 1 shield per rest sounds too limited. In theory it can save your life but You will get a lot more mileage out of familiar.

[SliceandDiceKid]

Familiars are cool on clerics, since you can apply touch spells with them (cure wounds by having your familiar tap your friend). However, you can also get find familiar with rit. caster:Wizard, which I personally think is an underrated feat. Still, it might not fit in your build.

INFLICT WOUNDS delivered by your BAT FAMILIAR!

[Gtdead]

Or contagion. Lets see how fast the dragon will go through his legendary resistance.

[JumboWheat01]

INFLICT WOUNDS delivered by your BAT FAMILIAR!

Cure Wounds delivered by your spider familiar!

[Joe the Rat]

INFLICT WOUNDS delivered by your BAT FAMILIAR!


Cure Wounds delivered by your spider familiar!

Revivify delivered by your zombie squirrel familiar!

...What?

[Spacehamster]

Find familiar for both nice flavor and utility. :)

[PoeticDwarf]

I am playing as a melee focused tempest cleric and want to grab magic initiate feat to get booming blade and lightning lure. This means choosing one 1st level Warlock, Sorcerer, or Wizard spell. Due to the rules of the feat I can only cast this spell once per long rest and only at 1st level. What spell is worth taking here?

Go warlock, get armor of agaathys. Or hex. Those are amazing

Or wizard/sorcerer with shield. Maybe

[Renvir]

It looks like Shield and Find Familiar are the favorites. I may just have to flip a coin. Thanks for the input everyone.

[MeeposFire]

#1 choice is probably shield. It's the oh **** button.
#2 is familar
if those don't appeal to you, identify is REALLY handy (the material component isn't used up, is it???)

Personally I would flip those. Familiars are just so useful...

I will admit though that you probably will use shield every long rest unlike find familiar but I think the familiar gives you more regardless.

[bid]

Go warlock, get armor of agaathys.
AoA is a trap. 5 thp + 5 damage once per day is nothing.

[RickAllison]

AoA is a trap. 5 thp + 5 damage once per day is nothing.

Indeed. A lycanthrope can make great use of it (they have immunity to a common source of damage, what doesn't combo well with that?), but otherwise it is most useful when it can be scaled up. Great if you have a level in Warlock, but then why didn't you take AoA for that and grab some other spell?

[Citan]

Hex seems like it would complement the build well. Extra damage every time you hit your foe, and you can re-assign it. So good for at least one whole encounter.

Find Familiar almost gets you a "class feature."
This. Both are great choices. :)

[PoeticDwarf]

AoA is a trap. 5 thp + 5 damage once per day is nothing.

You may cast it with your own slots. On a higher level it is AMAZING.

And even only 5thp and 5 damage, without action (precast easy with this duration). 5thp is comparable to false life. The 5 damage without an action is a nice boost.

[Segev]

You may cast it with your own slots.

The feat only says you can cast it 1/day as a first level spell. Where do you find the rules that permit you to treat it as a generic "spell known" that can be cast with any slots you happen to have?

[RickAllison]

You may cast it with your own slots. On a higher level it is AMAZING.

And even only 5thp and 5 damage, without action (precast easy with this duration). 5thp is comparable to false life. The 5 damage without an action is a nice boost.

Sage Advice article (not a Tweet), May 5, 2015:


If you have spell slots, can you use them to cast the 1st-level spell you learn with the Magic Initiate feat? Yes, but only if the class you pick for the feat is one of your classes. For example, if you pick sorcerer and you are a sorcerer, the Spellcasting feature for that class tells you that you can use your spell slots to cast the sorcerer spells you know, so you can use your spell slots to cast the 1st-level sorcerer spell you learn from Magic Initiate. Similarly, if you are a wizard and pick that class for the feat, you learn a 1st-level wizard spell, which you could add to your spellbook and subsequently prepare.

In short, you must follow your character’s normal spellcasting rules, which determine whether you can expend spell slots on the 1st-level spell you learn from Magic Initiate.\

So if you don't have a Warlock level (where you could grab AoA anyway), you can't scale it up.

[faria]

Shield is a strong spell but not if you can only use it once a day. That's a stupid waste of a feat.

Healing Word is a great choice for the feat because party members only need 1HP to be useful again. But you're already a Cleric so you already have it.

Longstrider is nice too. Depends on how you wanna play your character. Tempest Clerics are frontline, so the movement speed will be useful.

The best option though, as many have said before, is Find Familiar. It's useful for scouting and delivering touch spells from range, and it's very flavorful and fun. D&D is a game after all; maximize your fun.

[Arkhios]

Shield is a strong spell but not if you can only use it once a day. That's a stupid waste of a feat.

Healing Word is a great choice for the feat because party members only need 1HP to be useful again. But you're already a Cleric so you already have it.

Shield 1/day from Magic Initiate isn't a complete waste of a feat. The feat also gives you two cantrips which will have much more frequent use, provided you pick the right ones to suit your character. (which reminds me... OP: while Lightning Lure is flavorful for a Tempest cleric, unless you have at least medium (13 to 17) Charisma or Intelligence, your save DC for this cantrip will suck big time. While you don't need a minimum 13 in casting stat to be able pick the feat for the arcane classes, you will still use their dedicated ability score to determine their spell's effects.)

Healing Word would be great, IF OP didn't want Booming Blade and Lightning Lure, which are only in Sorcerer's, Warlock's, and Wizard's spell lists. Healing Word is only on Cleric's, Druid's, and Bard's lists.

[bid]

Shield 1/day from Magic Initiate isn't a complete waste of a feat.
It's really for the concentration save (or lack thereof, since the attacker misses you).

[Arkhios]

It's really for the concentration save (or lack thereof, since the attacker misses you).

Which isn't bad. Granted, you can only do it once per day, so it's not that good either.

I'm inclined to agree with most others here: Find Familiar provides the best overall benefit.
Flying familiars especially. Grab a bird and you can call him/her Thunderbird! :smalltongue:

[SliceandDiceKid]

Shield is a strong spell but not if you can only use it once a day. That's a stupid waste of a feat.

...

Longstrider is nice too. Depends on how you wanna play your character. Tempest Clerics are frontline, so the movement speed will be useful.

You think shield is a "stupid waste of a feat," but longstrider is nice?

Have you played this game???

Shield 1/day is useful in the same way that healing word 1/day is useful.

Sometimes it takes that little bit to survive. But whatever.

[Citan]

You think shield is a "stupid waste of a feat," but longstrider is nice?

Have you played this game???

Shield 1/day is useful in the same way that healing word 1/day is useful.

Sometimes it takes that little bit to survive. But whatever.
Well, his wording is a bit too "strong" to my taste but there is definitely truth in this though.
With Shield, you can avoid hit once for a whole day.
With Longstrider, you can potentially avoid being hit by a melee enemy for a whole fight by outrunning him.
And you can use it for non-combat situations too.

I DO agree though that for a Cleric, it's not "better" than Shield because Cleric is not geared towards hit-and-run in the first place. I would say differently for martials such as Rogue or Monk or ranged attack casters for example. ;)

Anyways, if you consider the "once/day" restriction, for me the only great spells are Find Familiar, Mage Armor or more utility things such as Unseen Servant, Identify, Charm or Comprehend Languages.

Then would come spells that can make a difference for the fight where it really counts such as Bless, Bane, Expeditious Retreat (well, some fights be better avoided XD), Sanctuary...

[Renvir]

Shield 1/day from Magic Initiate isn't a complete waste of a feat. The feat also gives you two cantrips which will have much more frequent use, provided you pick the right ones to suit your character. (which reminds me... OP: while Lightning Lure is flavorful for a Tempest cleric, unless you have at least medium (13 to 17) Charisma or Intelligence, your save DC for this cantrip will suck big time. While you don't need a minimum 13 in casting stat to be able pick the feat for the arcane classes, you will still use their dedicated ability score to determine their spell's effects.)

Healing Word would be great, IF OP didn't want Booming Blade and Lightning Lure, which are only in Sorcerer's, Warlock's, and Wizard's spell lists. Healing Word is only on Cleric's, Druid's, and Bard's lists.

I hadn't thought about the weaker DC for lightning lure. My character is an Aasimar, not the best pick for a cleric but I'm not too worried about that. The nice thing is it gives me a 14 Cha so if I go Sorcerer or Warlock it should still work often. However, if I go with one of those I can't choose Find Familiar since that is Wizard. I guess the trade off would be I could use my familiar to help when I'm trying to lure someone.

[Arkhios]

I hadn't thought about the weaker DC for lightning lure. My character is an Aasimar, not the best pick for a cleric but I'm not too worried about that. The nice thing is it gives me a 14 Cha so if I go Sorcerer or Warlock it should still work often. However, if I go with one of those I can't choose Find Familiar since that is Wizard. I guess the trade off would be I could use my familiar to help when I'm trying to lure someone.

This might be a little long shot, but maybe you could convince your DM to allow the familiar spend its Reaction to distract the target of your lightning lure to make it roll the save with disadvantage :) You wouldn't have to change any rules. The save DC would remain the same, only the chances of saving would be lower, at a cost.

[comk59]

Considering the whole storm motif, a raven familiar would be pretty thematic.