I need help choosing one of these Clerics

[Lendário]

My group needs a Healer, so i'm rolling a Cleric.
But i'm having trouble choosing between these:

A Hill Dwarf Life Cleric.
A Variant Human Life Cleric.
A Variant Human Arcana Cleric.

My main thing is being able to do more then just healing, but not by burning many slots on non-healing spells.
The Arcana Cleric was my first choice because with BB/GFB plus Shillelagh ( Magic Initiate ) i can do pretty good damage while being a healer.
The Human Life Cleric is a in between choice, i get the healing benefits in exchange for slower progression ( no Shillelagh, so more ASI ) and lower damage initially.
And with the Hill Dwarf Life Cleric i forego at will damage except for Sacred Flame entirelly, because i don't belive it's worth it to pump STR at all for his limited meele potential. But i get top notch healing.

What should i choose as far as optimization goes?

[djreynolds]

It depends on how much you are mixing it up in melee. At 8th and 12th you get a radiant damage bonus to you melee attack.

Hill dwarf life cleric is nice because you can have a 10 in strength and still wear heavy armor, leaves stat points for con and wis.

Grab magic initiate and select shillelagh and use wisdom as your attack stat and this will open up that radiant damage on melee strikes later on and you can grab goodberry also.

sacred flame can be used in melee, it works.

Go hill dwarf life cleric, I'm 7th level in CoS. Very good class.

[Herobizkit]

Why not a Hill Dwarf Arcana Cleric? Get a 16 CON and enjoy your 12 HP at level 1. Tell me you're not melee-capable now.

Of course, Nature Cleric gets heavy armor and a free Druid cantrip.

Finally, Tempest Cleric gets you all the things.

[GorogIrongut]

Both Nature and Arcana clerics are suited to pure Wisdom builds. Nature gets you started off strong with Shillellagh goodness. Arcana is a little more long term and helps overcome the lull in high level Cleric spells. I would argue that Arcana is the strongest of the cleric options (generally).

I would also argue that Hill Dwarf is almost always the best option for a cleric, other considerations aside.

[Giant2005]

Do you have to be a Cleric at all?
Between Lay on Hands, Aura of Vitality and standard healing spells, Paladins can make excellent healers while still keeping up in other aspects.
A Life Cleric 1/Lore Bard X can also pull some great healing by taking Aura of Vitality as a magical secret once it reaches level 7. That healing becomes stupidly powerful if they then take some Sorcerer levels so it can be extended. Then again, a Cleric is better at damage than a Lore Bard is, so it is probably even less suited to your tastes.

If it has to be one of the listed options, then I'd choose the Arcana Cleric, but I wouldn't dismiss the Paladin option; and I'd even consider a Death Cleric. Death Clerics are the most damaging Cleric option and you can pick up Booming Blade via Magic Initiate. It would require favoring Str or Dex over Wis though (unless you wanted to take a level of Druid for Shillelagh, or take a level of Warlock/Sorc/Wizard for BB/GFA and take Shillelagh via Magic Initiate).

[Arkhios]

It depends on how much you are mixing it up in melee. At 8th and 14th you get a radiant damage bonus to you melee attack.

Hill dwarf life cleric is nice because you can have a 10 in strength and still wear heavy armor, leaves stat points for con and wis.

Grab magic initiate and select shillelagh and use wisdom as your attack stat and this will open up that radiant damage on melee strikes later on and you can grab goodberry also.

sacred flame can be used in melee, it works.

Go hill dwarf life cleric, I'm 7th level in CoS. Very good class.

Emphasis mine (Fixed it for you). Other than that, while I have not played a cleric full-time in 5th edition yet, I agree with djreynolds on this.

Magic initiate (druid) for Shillelagh, any other cantrip, and Goodberry as a Life cleric is impressive combination. While burning an ASI for the feat might seem awkward, if you do as he suggested (strength is meaningless for a dwarf in regards to wearing heavy armor, due to the racial trait they have), you'll still get that Wisdom of yours up and high 20 in no time.

As said, Goodberry works surprisingly well with the Life domain feature, because even at a 1st level slot, each Goodberry you create (up to 10), will cure 4 hp instead of meager 1, and they last for 24 hours or until cast again, iirc (which you won't be able to do anyway).

Hill dwarf nets you a total of +2 hit points per level, just because of the race (+2 to con and a +1 hit point per level), and because you get heavy armor proficiency, go nuts with dwarven speed.

Prioritize your stats to Wisdom (spells!) > Constitution (concentration!) > Intelligence = Charisma (useful skills!) > Strength (it still matters for your overall carrying capacity...) > Dexterity (agility is for losers; you stand there and take the blows like a man, not dance around like a queer!)

[Grod_The_Giant]

vHuman Life Cleric can still take Magic Initiate for Shillalogh. In fact, I'd say you have even more reason to do so, since you'd love to get Goodberry in any capacity.

[Giant2005]

vHuman Life Cleric can still take Magic Initiate for Shillalogh. In fact, I'd say you have even more reason to do so, since you'd love to get Goodberry in any capacity.

The problem with Life Cleric, is that it requires both multiclassing and a feat (or multiclassing twice) in order to get both Shillelagh and either BB or GFB. An Arcana or Nature Cleric are the only Cleric varieties that can pull off the combination with just a single feat.

[Lendário]

The problem with Life Cleric, is that it requires both multiclassing and a feat (or multiclassing twice) in order to get both Shillelagh and either BB or GFB. An Arcana or Nature Cleric are the only Cleric varieties that can pull off the combination with just a single feat.

Exactly, this is my point.
Arcana Cleric pros are being ready to go from 1st level, having all 5 ASI free for WIS/CON and Feats and AC only 1 point lower then Life in Heavy Armor.

Life pros are all the amazing healing Benefits.

I just can't decide which is the better option in the long run.

[Giant2005]

Exactly, this is my point.
Arcana Cleric pros are being ready to go from 1st level, having all 5 ASI free for WIS/CON and Feats and AC only 1 point lower then Life in Heavy Armor.

Life pros are all the amazing healing Benefits.

I just can't decide which is the better option in the long run.

Why not go for a Variant Human Nature Cleric? It does the same thing as the Arcana Cleric, except it has a better level 8 ability and is proficient in Heavy Armor.

[JumboWheat01]

Both Nature and Arcana clerics are suited to pure Wisdom builds. Nature gets you started off strong with Shillellagh goodness. Arcana is a little more long term and helps overcome the lull in high level Cleric spells. I would argue that Arcana is the strongest of the cleric options (generally).

I would also argue that Hill Dwarf is almost always the best option for a cleric, other considerations aside.

Hill Dwarf Nature Cleric is probably the BEST choice for a Nature Cleric. And it's not that out-of-place to think of a Hill Dwarf Nature Cleric, Marthammor Duin has the Nature and Trickster domains, being the dwarven god of travel. One would assume the Nature domain focused ones are the ones who work the roads or the wilderness, while the Trickster domain focused ones are found mostly in the city, working to improve the lives of dwarves who are away from their mountain strongholds.

They can take advantage of not having to boost Strength while still wearing the Heavy Armor that Nature Clerics get, they have a nice Wisdom boost, allowing (with standard array,) to start at both 16 Wisdom AND 16 Constitution. This lets them hit 20 with both and still have an ASI for snagging something like Warcaster, which is always handy for a Cleric to have. And best of all, you have full casting potential, full amount of prepared spell slots, and can still smack something around with a club.

[Rysto]

The problem with Life Cleric, is that it requires both multiclassing and a feat (or multiclassing twice) in order to get both Shillelagh and either BB or GFB. An Arcana or Nature Cleric are the only Cleric varieties that can pull off the combination with just a single feat.

A Nature cleric can do it without any feat or multiclass if you start as a High Elf. With point buy you start stuck at 15 WIS though, which isn't really recommended. If you're rolling for stats and your best roll is even, then this can work.

[bid]

A Nature cleric can do it without any feat or multiclass if you start as a High Elf. With point buy you start stuck at 15 WIS though, which isn't really recommended. If you're rolling for stats and your best roll is even, then this can work.
But you need mobile to cancel the heavy armor penalty. Why go shillelagh when you need Str15?

[Rysto]

Go for medium armour instead. It's 1AC less than heavy in the end.

[Shining Wrath]

What is the rest of the party like? Do you have any ideas about the campaign?

Since you say your primary role is as a healer then go Hill Dwarf Life cleric. You still have heavy armor and +1 HP/HD, you can soak damage even if you deal very little. The good starting scores will free up ASI, allowing you to gain versatility.

[Lendário]

Go for medium armour instead. It's 1AC less than heavy in the end.

If you go medium armor you lose Nature advantage over Arcana.

And IMO Arcana is the better domain.

[Giant2005]

But you need mobile to cancel the heavy armor penalty. Why go shillelagh when you need Str15?

A medium-sized race that doesn't meet the Str requirement for their Heavy Armor is only 5' slower than a Dwarf. It really isn't a big deal - that is about 1/6th the value of a feat.

[Rysto]

If you go medium armor you lose Nature advantage over Arcana.

And IMO Arcana is the better domain.

Nature still gets dampen elements and divine strike. Divine strike in particular combos nicely with BB.

[Lendário]

Nature still gets dampen elements and divine strike. Divine strike in particular combos nicely with BB.

That is true, i forgot about Divine strike.
It Stacks pretty nicely.
It does better damage then Arcana, but i wonder if its worth it giving up the Wizard spells for that.

If Nature i may consider Dwarf and slow my WIS progression to get BB at 4th.

[Rysto]

The wizard spells are fantastic, but they come at level 17. Most PCs will never get there.

[Lendário]

That is true, i forgot about Divine strike.
It Stacks pretty nicely.
It does better damage then Arcana, but i wonder if its worth it giving up the Wizard spells for that.

If Nature i may consideração going Dwarf and slow my WIS progression to get BB at 4th.

Nope, just remembered, Arcana's BB/BFG scale with WIS. Nature's doesnt, because Magic Initiate keeps the original class modifier.

[Giant2005]

Nope, just remembered, Arcana's BB/BFG scale with WIS. Nature's doesnt, because Magic Initiate keeps the original class modifier.

GFB will scale with Wis, but BB doesn't use an ability modifier regardless of how it is gained. Even GFB gets very little out of the ability mod.

[Biggstick]

Knowing the make-up of the rest of your party might give us a bit more insight as to helping you choose. Each choice presented can do very different things

Arcane: Can be blasty or Tanky depending on how it's built.

Nature: Most likely tanky, or second line tank. Will be up in the enemy's business utilizing heavy armor, shielelagh (sp) and the level 6 reaction.

Life: Most likely tanky, or second line tank.

Each choice can be built to do what you want, but it really depends on what position in the party you're trying to fill.

[Lendário]

GFB will scale with Wis, but BB doesn't use an ability modifier regardless of how it is gained. Even GFB gets very little out of the ability mod.

Oh, yeah thats true.
I may go Nature.

[Lendário]

Knowing the make-up of the rest of your party might give us a bit more insight as to helping you choose. Each choice presented can do very different things

Arcane: Can be blasty or Tanky depending on how it's built.

Nature: Most likely tanky, or second line tank. Will be up in the enemy's business utilizing heavy armor, shielelagh (sp) and the level 6 reaction.

Life: Most likely tanky, or second line tank.

Each choice can be built to do what you want, but it really depends on what position in the party you're trying to fill.

A Rogue, a Paladin, a mostly badly played Eldritch Kight and two guys who died and haven't choose a new class yet.

[JumboWheat01]

That's a lot of front-line right there... a more caster-oriented cleric might fit that group better, if just to give room around enemies. Light, Arcana, maybe even Knowledge, though Knowledge really only shines for non-combat situations.

[djreynolds]

IMO, once you get to certain levels the game changes a bit.
The real crux is your attack stat. You already need wisdom and con, and now a high strength or dex.
I use sacred flame as my weapon, it scales, is radiant damage and is save or suck, so no disadvantage in melee.
Shillelagh is a sweet spell for any cleric and life cleric gets radiant damage on melee attacks, not many immune to that one.
So while you wait on magic initiate for shillelagh or do not want it.
Do what I do, inflict wounds. 3d10 right at 1st level, melee spell attack.