Eldritch Knight/Cleric?

[Jarlhen]

I'm just pondering how would a Tempest Cleric and EK work together as a multiclass? If we go EK 7 you get 2 ASIs, 2 attacks, War Magic, wizard cantrips and level 2 wizard spells. From thereon if you go tempest cleric for the many awesome cleric spells combined with the solid melee capabilities of the fighter. Perhaps pop bless, go for a booming blade for the 1st attack and a GWM for the second. Or just swing away with your great sword while your spirit guardians do the work. I'm not sure how optimal it would be in reality though. Perhaps just a battlemaster fighter/cleric works better? It's just something I started thinking of and the people on this forum always has good general thoughts in regards to multiclassing so I thought I'd pop by to see if anyone had any ideas how it might work well?

[Lombra]

I'm just pondering how would a Tempest Cleric and EK work together as a multiclass? If we go EK 7 you get 2 ASIs, 2 attacks, War Magic, wizard cantrips and level 2 wizard spells. From thereon if you go tempest cleric for the many awesome cleric spells combined with the solid melee capabilities of the fighter. Perhaps pop bless, go for a booming blade for the 1st attack and a GWM for the second. Or just swing away with your great sword while your spirit guardians do the work. I'm not sure how optimal it would be in reality though. Perhaps just a battlemaster fighter/cleric works better? It's just something I started thinking of and the people on this forum always has good general thoughts in regards to multiclassing so I thought I'd pop by to see if anyone had any ideas how it might work well?

Casting booming blade uses the whole action, therefore preventing extra attack, plus the spellcasting ability is different and thus not really convinient, but war cleric/champ-BM looks good. You can decide the partition of the multiclass to suite better your playstyle: either more focus on support or assault

[Arkhios]

Like said above, Booming Blade doesn't work with extra attack, but War Cleric/Eldritch Knight (propably) could use Booming Blade and afterwards use the domain feature and attack as a bonus action with GWM.

[JackOfAllBuilds]

Casting booming blade uses the whole action, therefore preventing extra attack

War magic: bonus action weapon attack after casting a cantrip with your action.

[Jarlhen]

Casting booming blade uses the whole action, therefore preventing extra attack, plus the spellcasting ability is different and thus not really convinient, but war cleric/champ-BM looks good. You can decide the partition of the multiclass to suite better your playstyle: either more focus on support or assault

EK gets to use a cantrip and an attack as a bonus attack. It's the War Magic thing they get at level 7. Intelligence is the EK spell casting ability, but there are plenty of spells who are not dependent on high spell casting abilities so I'm less concerned with the separate abilities. So while it's not ideal I think you can still get away with it without too much of a penalty.

[Afrodactyl]

I don't know about the class itself, but cleric spells add a hell of a lot of survivability and tankiness to an EK, namely cure wounds and shield of faith. Healing word same spare the dying can help contribute to overall party survivability as well.

[Corran]

Well, I am of the opinion that if a melee EK is going to use war magic, then he is better off with S&B (feat: warcaster), and likewise, if he is not going to use war magic and instead intends to rely on the many extra attacks, then he is better off using a heavy two hander (feat: GWM).

If we stop our EK progression at just 7, in order to get war magic, then it makes sense that we would go S&B, as GWM works better with more attacks that each deals less damage, instead of a few attacks that each deals a lot of damage. It's all about to minimise the risk, risking less damage to get that +10 is better, so is being able to do that as many times as possible. So imo, it would make sense to use war magic with a S&B fighting style.

You can easily choose not to invest in int, and select instead spells that dont rely on your intelligence, such as shield, absorb elements, blur, enlarge, etc. In fact, that might be even the best thing to do, given that you plan on multiclassing into cleric, and thus needing a good score in wisdom, so dumping int ensures that you can still have good scores on str/dex and con, along with a 13-14 in wisdom. Seven levels in EK will give you access to a couple of concentration spells, and that lessens somewhat the value of the spells the cleric will give you access to. Same goes with spiritual weapon, that competes with war magic for your bonus action.

Lets have a look at the war domain. Most domain spells are again concentration spells, and thus will compete heavily with blur which is a very decent spell already for a S&B EK, who has also access to the shield spell. Armor and weapon proficiencies are also redundant. So is the war priest ability, which again requires you to use your bonus action. Guided strike would work better with attacks with GWM, and such attacks work better if you just had taken more fighter levels and planned on using the attack action instead of war magic. And war god's blessing competes with shield and/or absorb elements among other things for our reaction.

It is not a horrible multiclass, but I wouldnt not do it if my aim was optimisation. But if you want to do this for rp reasons (eg a soldier who found god and such), then it is solid enough to pull its weight.

[GorogIrongut]

I'm an old school player (2nd, 3rd and 3.5) coming back to the world of 5th edition. And it looks fun. Personal idiosyncrasies, I am an addicted dwarf player who will usually pick cleric for his class, 9 times out of 10. I also enjoy making effective characters, but characters who are characterful.

My thoughts were to make a very similar character to the one you're querying. EK/Cleric of Death (Yes I have DM permission and to do it as non evil. My back story and basis has already been mentioned in the latter pages of Re: The Devout and the Dead: a guide to Clerics on these boards should you really want to see how I think it should be done.)

Gorog Irongut
Str - 13
Dex - 14
Con - 16 (including a +2 for being dwarf)
Int - 13
Wis - 19 (including a +1 for being a Hill Dwarf)
Cha - 4 (I thought long and hard about how I could make my character so unbelievably dislikable.)

This is the path I foresee. We'll be starting the campaign at level 5 and the DM and I have yet to work out equipment:
Level 1 Fighter. This gives me proficiency Con, a starting 14 hp, access to all weapons and armour (and being a dwarf I can make good use of it. It also gives me Fighter goodies. I'm torn between the Dueling ability (+2 damage w/ one handed weapons) or Defense (+1 AC). There's also Second Wind.
Level 2 Fighter. Action Surge ftw!
Level 3 Fighter. Eldritch Knight gives me Weapon Bond, spellcasting (BoomBlade, Minor Illusion, Shield, Find Familiar and Absorb Elements). Yes I'm going to get an owl familiar.
Level 4 Fighter. Bit more magic and an ASI. I'm not sure which to get first. Warcaster, Resilience Wisdom (for the 20 wisdom) or Lucky.
Level 5 Cleric of Death. Twinned Chilled Touch already getting the extra d8!
Level 6 Cleric of Death. Channel Divinity: Touch of Death
Level 7 Cleric of Death
Level 8 Cleric of Death. ASI (one of the above that I didn't already pick.
Level 9 Fighter. Extra Attack
Level 10 Fighter. ASI (last of the 3 above)
Level 11 Fighter. War Magic
Level 12 Fighter. ASI +2 Con
Level 13 Cleric. Destroy Undead
Level 14 Cleric. Inescapable Death
Level 15 Cleric
Level 16 Cleric. ASI +2 Con. Divine Strike.
Level 17 Cleric
Level 18 Cleric. Divine Intervention
Level 19 Cleric
Level 20 Cleric. ASI (Dunno. At this point it could be anything.)

This build benefits from lots of hit points. Great armour. 6 ASI's. You also get to be fairly combat oriented while casting lots of magic. Whether it's Bless, Guidance, Spirit Weapon/Guardians. Or it's twinned Chilled Touches. Or it's the EK Booming blade, multi attacking goodness. It also avoids the kind of dead space that higher level clerics get when their spells are lackluster. It fills this void with lots of cantrips that are boosted by all general levels (and not by having to count how many levels are in cleric or EK). With all of that fightiness, it also counts as a level 14 full caster by the time you get to the end. If anything, I would like for this to give me a few more cantrips that aren't available to Clerics (most of which are kind of weak). I'mstill torn by Mage Hand or Shillelagh. Shocking Grasp or Mold Earth. I also get tankiness in exchange for most, good high level spells. I'm also limiting myself by not raising undead. Most of the good stuff I get from the Domain of Death I get pretty quickly. Nor do I feel that I'm unduly abusing it. If anything, I'm sure I could get a lot more from other PHB Domains. I just wouldn't get the roleplaying fun of being an overeager J Dub of Death.

All in all I consider it to be a solid character build. The only issue I've yet to master is how far to take EK. I think 7 is a no brainer for the versatility. 8 would get you an extra ASI. It would also get you access to your next non abj/evo EK spells... Spells like invisibility, misty step and mirror image. It does this at the expense of your level 7 cleric spells... but those only come online at level 20... I'm pretty sure I'll be playing another character before then...

[Jarlhen]

Bunch of good stuff

I wouldn't go war cleric to begin with. I'd go Tempest for the nifty little stuff plus the nova ability, or one of the other ones like Light perhaps. I do consider the war magic aspect too though. I could grab level 6 fighter instead, like battle master, and then pop spiritual weapon or spirit guardians. I think we have to keep in mind that I have finite spell slots so even if there is competition between spells and bonus attacks it may not be terrible to have the option of going booming blade when I don't want to blow a bunch of spell slots. And if I do go booming blade it means I have my concentration free for bless which is highly beneficial to GWM.

[bid]

War domain helps GWM by turning 2 misses into hits. It also has some neat paladin spells. If you go the GWM route, precision attack from battlemaster will help more than that CD.

I still prefer a divine strike that does elemental damage.

[Regulas]

I find it kind of odd to even multi-class in this case at all.

Most of the serious benefits for this multi-class wouldn't even be seen till like 13th level practically so unless you're specifically doing a high level campaign.

Go cleric (tempest) start with Magic initiate to gain Booming blade (or greenfire) and your pretty solid to act as a melee fighter. You are limited to one attack but it will be a pretty strong ass attack.


Or just go Full EK. Or just play a Paladin even lol they get cleric type spells and full combat power.

[R.Shackleford]

This made me want to build a low Int Arcane Trickster / Knowledge Cleric.

I have nothing to really add but thanks!

[Specter]

War Magic makes Green-Flame Blade and a bonus attack better than two attacks for horde fights. Booming Blade is another option if you prefer control instead. Circumstantially, you could also use Guidance and attack, or a ranged cantrip for reach.

Action Surge is great for Clerics, especially for casting Bless and attacking at the same turn instead of just blessing. Or Healing Word + cantrip + attacking.

Tempest doesn't seem like the best option, though; EK already gives you good reactions (Shield/Absorb Elements) and the lightning rebuke will have to fight against them. Unless you're already set on it, I'd go War or Life.

[Saggo]

Tempest doesn't seem like the best option, though; EK already gives you good reactions (Shield/Absorb Elements) and the lightning rebuke will have to fight against them. Unless you're already set on it, I'd go War or Life.

Tempest Channel Divinity would work with the extra 1-3d8 thunder damage on the attack from Booming Blade though. Tempest also gives 1-2d8 thunder on an attack, giving 4-5d8 thunder damage Destructive Wrath will maximize on a single target if you hit, no save.

With Booming Blade keying off character level, you're not delaying your power curve as much by multiclassing, as well.