Frontline Caster Build

[Wolf_Knight]

I am trying to make front line caster who has the following abilities:

Booming Blade, Shillelagh, and Spirit Guardian, plus con saves.
Magic Stone and Lightning Arrow.
Aura of Healing and Life Cleric and maybe the sorc metamagic.

Without the sorc metamagic build:
1- Fighter (med armor and dueling)
2-4 Warlock (Magic Stone and Booming Blade and Shillelagh)
5-14 Bard (Spirit Guardians and Aura of Vitality and Lightning Arrow)
15 Life Cleric

With the sorc metamagic the build:
1- Src (con and booming blade)
2- Cleric (med armor and life power)
3-10 (Spirit Guardians and Shillelagh)
11-12 Src (meta magic)
13-14 Bard (Lightning Arrow and Aura)
15 Warlock (Magic Stone)

I am looking for assistance to improve these builds to either get the abilities earlier or to make them scale better over time until they get everything unlocked.

[MrFahrenheit]

I am trying to make front line caster who has the following abilities:

Booming Blade, Shillelagh, and Spirit Guardian, plus con saves.
Magic Stone and Lightning Arrow.
Aura of Healing and Life Cleric and maybe the sorc metamagic.

Without the sorc metamagic build:
1- Fighter (med armor and dueling)
2-4 Warlock (Magic Stone and Booming Blade and Shillelagh)
5-14 Bard (Spirit Guardians and Aura of Vitality and Lightning Arrow)
15 Life Cleric

With the sorc metamagic the build:
1- Src (con and booming blade)
2- Cleric (med armor and life power)
3-10 (Spirit Guardians and Shillelagh)
11-12 Src (meta magic)
13-14 Bard (Lightning Arrow and Aura)
15 Warlock (Magic Stone)

I am looking for assistance to improve these builds to either get the abilities earlier or to make them scale better over time until they get everything unlocked.

Two questions:
1. Why lightning arrow if you're going to be front line?
2. Would you be willing to give aura of vitality up?

If you can give up #1, and don't have a problem losing #2, seems like a paladin 2/nature cleric X would be a great, far more simple, way forward.

[Wolf_Knight]

Two questions:
1. Why lightning arrow if you're going to be front line?
2. Would you be willing to give aura of vitality up?

If you can give up #1, and don't have a problem losing #2, seems like a paladin 2/nature cleric X would be a great, far more simple, way forward.

1-2. Lightning arrow and spirit guardians and aura of vitality are my favorite spells in 5e and bard let me have them all. Which blinded me from my real goal of going front line caster. I should make a thor style build using lightning arrow.

Hmm thinking about it without lightning arrow and aura of vitality. Maybe going 1 level of fighter with rest as arcane cleric to get Booming Blade plus arcane initiate for shillelagh would be a better faster and more efficient.

[djreynolds]

Tempest cleric and storm sorcerer.

[Sillybird99]

What level will the character start at?

Assuming 15 as per your other builds:

If u go cleric 1/ warlock 2/ bard 6/ sorc 3 /paladin 3 you can get everything you wanted besides lightening arrow, plus divine smite for all those low level spell slots and short rest spell slots, and dueling fighting style and Paladin oath.

You wouldnt be that MAD, just build cha, str, con, and 13 wis for multiclass. Half elf is your best bet for race.

Base abilities
Str 16 (or less depending on armour preference)
Dex 10
Con 13 + resilient con =14
Int 8
Wis 13
Cha 16 + 2 ASI = 20


A decent tactic is to use quicken to cast dissonant whispers(3rd level) and booming blade and smite(1st level) as part of your boomkng blade and AoO. 7d8+5d6+14(Shillelagh + dueling) if target fails both saves, and you hit with AoO. If you take warcaster you could OA with another booming blade (if that stacks?) For an extra 1d8. Having spirit gaurdians up will add additional damage, but they will likely flee out of spell range.

[MrStabby]

Arcana cleric + Magic initiate can give a lot of this with wisdom as the casting stat. Easier on the multiclassing. Life cleric + MI works as well but needs a source of booming blade.

Life cleric 5 + Magic initiate + sorc 3/4 might be a good start (I only suggest sorc 4 for the extra sorcery point and the ASI - you will probably want pole arm mastery, sentinal, magic initiate and enough ASIs to overcome not being able to dump CHA so it could be tough for you.


Trying to do similar with CHA:
sorc 1 - booming blade
life cleric 1 - healing bonus
lore bard 6 to get magical secrets for the other spells.
Sorc up to 3 to get metamagic
bard to 10 for extra magical secrets
sorc to 4 for that extra sorcery point and a much needed ASI.
Bard to end.

Pact of tome warlock can get you booming blade, and shillelagh with 3 levels. So warlock 3, bard 6 would get you pretty much all the spells you want and you can stick with cha to pick up sorc.

[wunderkid]

One note with dipping cleric for shilleigh.

If you do this then it is cast off your wisdom. Not your charisma which is what most of the build seems to be focusing on.

If you pick up shilleigh through warlock it is cast off your charisma making you a lot less MAD

[MrStabby]

One note with dipping cleric for shilleigh.

If you do this then it is cast off your wisdom. Not your charisma which is what most of the build seems to be focusing on.

If you pick up shilleigh through warlock it is cast off your charisma making you a lot less MAD

I think that in most cases shillelaghs was taken from a method that lets it use charisma? Either magical secrets or pact of tome?

The exception possibly being my suggestion to use cleric itself as the base, which would be wisdom focused.

Whilst wanting both CHA and Wis to be high is obviously not ideal, if you can dump strength as it is no longer your attack stat you could do OK. Furthermore, not all spells really rely on casting stat that much. If you focus on those then you can be even better.

[wunderkid]

I think that in most cases shillelaghs was taken from a method that lets it use charisma? Either magical secrets or pact of tome?

The exception possibly being my suggestion to use cleric itself as the base, which would be wisdom focused.

Whilst wanting both CHA and Wis to be high is obviously not ideal, if you can dump strength as it is no longer your attack stat you could do OK. Furthermore, not all spells really rely on casting stat that much. If you focus on those then you can be even better.

At I misread the sorc metamagic build. For the levels 3-10 it didn't label the class and I saw spirit guardians and cleric above my bad xD

[Wolf_Knight]

Actually we will be starting from level 1 and the builds would have been the progression path that I would have taken if I choose to follow those builds.

Anyhow, I have been thinking over different builds and I believe the best would be. The Sorc|Cleric with hill dwarf will give you the most tank and best possible combo to be in the front line. I am leaning toward hill dwarf because of the extra hp because the last game I played the party got tpked by a succession of undodgable aoe attacks (well on save does half).

Build: Sorc|Cleric - WIS Build
1- Sorc (Con save and Melee Cantrips)
2-8 Cleric (Nature-Shillelagh-However, I think nature cleric's spell list and most of their subclass abilities are underwhelming)
9-10 Sorc (Meta Magics)
Rest Cleric

Other choice like mentioned would be to go human take initiate for shillelagh and then I could go as a life cleric or arcane cleric.

Also, I liked Lightning Arrow because it does the most single damage from a spell. The target then extra from the aoe effect. Plus, dissonant whispers doesn't trigger Booming Blade because your forcing them to make a optional action that would hurt them otherwise. Spirit Guardian+Booming Blade imo is a stronger reason to run away or to stay and take extra damage.

Now for CHA build I realizes that lightning arrow has corrupted my heart and had to be cut out from my life.

Which like suggested my MrStabby would be as follows:
Build: Sorc|Cleric|Bard - CHA Build
1- Sorc (Con save and Melee Cantrips)
2- Cleric (Life - healing and armor)
3-8 Bard (Magical Secrets get Aura of Vitality and Spirit Guardians)
9-10 Sorc (Meta Magics-Distance[Or Careful] and Extend)
Rest Bard (maybe 1 sorc level for ASI)

Bam the build finishes at 10 and is the best triple multiclass I have seen. Crap I forgot shillelagh, eh bounded accuracy am I right... Well three warlock is then either put into the build some where *shrug* or replace a magical secret with it.

[MrStabby]

Build: Sorc|Cleric - WIS Build
1- Sorc (Con save and Melee Cantrips)
2-8 Cleric (Nature-Shillelagh-However, I think nature cleric's spell list and most of their subclass abilities are underwhelming)
9-10 Sorc (Meta Magics)
Rest Cleric

Other choice like mentioned would be to go human take initiate for shillelagh and then I could go as a life cleric or arcane cleric.


So I tend to think nature clerics abilities are awesome, just a little unfocused. Channel divinity ain't great, I will accept that. Dampen elements at level 6 is a great ability - not every encounter will contain elemental damage but it only uses a reaction and is an unlimited number of times per day. Now that pesky sorcerer is only doing half damage for the encounter (well ok, they may open with a fireball, so its an exaggeration but you get the picture). Divine strike is also awesome, especially if coupled with some (in character) background research on resistances and vulnerabilities. The ability to pick what is appropriate at the time is awesome. Oh, and it gets you heavy armour as well.

You could also go High Elf to take BB as a wizard cantrip and drop the sorc, unless you feel you really need metamagic.







Which like suggested my MrStabby would be as follows:
Build: Sorc|Cleric|Bard - CHA Build
1- Sorc (Con save and Melee Cantrips)
2- Cleric (Life - healing and armor)
3-8 Bard (Magical Secrets get Aura of Vitality and Spirit Guardians)
9-10 Sorc (Meta Magics-Distance[Or Careful] and Extend)
Rest Bard (maybe 1 sorc level for ASI)

Bam the build finishes at 10 and is the best triple multiclass I have seen. Crap I forgot shillelagh, eh bounded accuracy am I right... Well three warlock is then either put into the build some where *shrug* or replace a magical secret with it.

Metamagic seems a bit of an odd choice - distant I have never thought to be that good, nor extend. Careful is pretty solid but what spells are you seeing yourself casting where this would be useful? I would have thought twin or quickened would be better. Twinned booming blade can be brutal.

[Sillybird99]

Plus, dissonant whispers doesn't trigger Booming Blade because your forcing them to make a optional action that would hurt them otherwise. Spirit Guardian+Booming Blade imo is a stronger reason to run away or to stay and take extra damage.


Dissonant whispers is not considered forced movement because the target is using its reaction to move away. It triggers booming blade. Even if your dm ruled that it didnt, the combo with smite still works, but for 1d8 of the damage from the booming blade. Also there is no reason why you can't have spirit gaurdians up and also do the dissonant whisper/ booming blade combo. Hell put spiritual weapon in there too.

[Wolf_Knight]

So I tend to think nature clerics abilities are awesome, just a little unfocused. Channel divinity ain't great, I will accept that. Dampen elements at level 6 is a great ability - not every encounter will contain elemental damage but it only uses a reaction and is an unlimited number of times per day. Now that pesky sorcerer is only doing half damage for the encounter (well ok, they may open with a fireball, so its an exaggeration but you get the picture). Divine strike is also awesome, especially if coupled with some (in character) background research on resistances and vulnerabilities. The ability to pick what is appropriate at the time is awesome. Oh, and it gets you heavy armour as well.

You could also go High Elf to take BB as a wizard cantrip and drop the sorc, unless you feel you really need metamagic.

Sorcerer is more so for the constitution prof since I will be in the fray and using a lot of concentration spells that I want to stay up. Well Warcaster would be nice on top of that later.



Metamagic seems a bit of an odd choice - distant I have never thought to be that good, nor extend. Careful is pretty solid but what spells are you seeing yourself casting where this would be useful? I would have thought twin or quickened would be better. Twinned booming blade can be brutal.

While I agree Twinned faith shield and booming blade or other twinned spells are very powerful. I believe distant is also very good for small range auras or touch spells that the cleric gets like Contagion. Also, extend was chosen because of the doubling of Aura of Vitality's healing during short rest. Only 3 level in sorc gives very limited amount of sorc points I think wasting them to just do damage seems well wasteful and should be used to improve quality of life.

Edit: Added reply.

Dissonant whispers is not considered forced movement because the target is using its reaction to move away. It triggers booming blade. Even if your dm ruled that it didnt, the combo with smite still works, but for 1d8 of the damage from the booming blade. Also there is no reason why you can't have spirit gaurdians up and also do the dissonant whisper/ booming blade combo. Hell put spiritual weapon in there too.

Hmm getting spiritual weapon in the mix would only possible if the dm allowed to favored soul.
Build Corrupted Sorc: CHA Build
1- Favorite Soul (Booming Blade and Con Saves and Med Arm)
2- Cleric (Life for Healing and Heavy Armor)
3-8 Bard (Magical Secrets- Shillelagh and Aura of Vitality)
9-10 Favored Soul (Spirit Weapon and Meta Magic)
11-12 Favorited Soul (Spirit Guardians and ASI)

Bam Boom, a far more perfect build where cleric level could be moved anywhere I guess. Only, problem I see is why would a favored soul become a priest rp-wise.