Cleric in Play

[GraakosGraakos]

I am starting a survival and dungeon based campaign in a few weeks, and I was wondering if anyone had real table experience with a Tempest cleric. They look very fun on paper, but I have never played a cleric in 5, 3.5, or even Pathfinder.

The rest of the party is a fiend book lock, a fighter, and an Unearth Arcana redesign Beastmaster. We are starting at level 3.

[DireSickFish]

I played a Light Cleric and it was great. They are however the most long rest dependent class in the game. I think the only thing they get back on short rests is Channel Divinity, and while it's a good feature it's not as much as some other classes. The party can spend hit dice on short rests and Prayer of Healing (2nd lvl spell) is a much better use for sustaining power for the party than any other heal you have.

Lucky for you heavy armor and martial weapons come with the class. So you can wade into the front lines and swing away when you are conserving spells. Here's a great guide to cleric in general:http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?374604-The-Devout-and-the-Dead-a-guide-to-Clerics

[Kryx]

I've had 2 clerics in my group: Tempest and Arcane Cleric

We've played up to level 11 now with the Tempest stopping around 7 and the Arcane starting around 10. Both seemed like solid party members and able to contribute. I'd recommend expanding their domain spells a bit (let them choose 2 per level still, but from a larger list).

[Aembrosia]

Walking around with spirit guardians up feels good. Maximizing shatter feels good. You are playing with a pew pew pew. A grrrr grrr pew pew. And a whack whack whack. The cleric casts bless. The party sheds tears of joy. Thank you master, may i have another?

[JeenLeen]

My main recommendation is to take a domain that gives heavy armor. Once you can afford heavy armor, you can easily have AC 20, which is pretty awesome.

Nature Cleric might be good. You get heavy armor, a bonus skill (and it sounds like Survival could be handy), plus a druid cantrip. If you want good melee ability, taking Shillelagh and later taking the Polearm Master feat is a decent combo. Shillelagh is still decent without the feat, since it lets you dump Str and still be good at melee (though unless you are a dwarf you'll suffer the movement penalty from heavy armor.) One of the dwarf races gives +1 Wisdom and a bonus HP/level, which goes well with cleric.
War cleric is also good for melee, as you get Wisdom mod/rest bonus action attacks (though if you go War cleric, I can see Polearm Master feeling redundant).

Life cleric is a good healer and also gives heavy armor, but you can probably heal well enough with any cleric class.

There's a level 1 spell that you can cast as a bonus action to heal at range. It's weak healing, but good action economy.
---
I haven't played a cleric yet, but the one in our party (War cleric) does well as a fighter who heals when needed. Spiritual Weapon seems is a good level 2 spell to get in some extra damage, but so far he hasn't seen a need for it. I concur that Spiritual Guardians is a great spell.

[MrStabby]

Clerics are kind of awesome in many ways.

The way I see full casters is that they have just enough spells of a sufficiently high level to not quite get through the adventuring day - and then a bunch of perks to close that gap. Wizards get arcane recovery and the ability to tailor their spell list so even low level spell slots are effective. Moon druids get wildshape so for a few hours a day they can smack things instead of casting. Sorcerers get more power from low level spells from metamagic, warlocks get short rest recovery and powerful at will options and so on...

I think the cleric can best be described in terms of what they do with their spells and what they do to not run out of spells. In no particular order:

1) Awesome low level spells that scale well. Bless is a level 1 spell that really, really changes a lot of encounters. It does this at level 1 and does it equally well at level 15. Even when you have spent your highest level slots you are still potent.

2) Some melee presence. Heavy armour, martial weapons extra lightning damage on a hit... if you spend a turn or two hitting stuff instead of casting you don't look foolish. Not being hit is also important for keeping concentration up.

3) Sacred flame isn't really a great scaling attack but if there are very heavily armoured enemies that are hard to hit then dex saves can be worth while.

4) Long duration effects. Spells like spirit guardians last 10 min. A great effect that can sometimes last for multiple fights.

5) You can heal. This doesn't really set you apart from other casters that much (Bard, druid, paladin, ranger can all get someone back on their feet) but its nice. On the other hand returning the dead is a big deal in some campaigns.

6) Channel Divinity. OK this is awesome and very easy to overlook. Turn undead can trivialise a lot of encounters. Maximise damage can also end encounters. Refreshing on a short rest means you dont have to be too stingy with their use either.

7) At a strategic level they can really mark their territory. Hallow, Forbiddance.

What you miss out on:

Well actual strong melee. You can do OK at best but you are no barbarian. Even with spiritual weapon

Fireball. Fireball can dominate fights at the time it comes in, but you don't get it.

Walls. Some of the best control spells but, if I remember correctly they are not on the cleric list

Some of the glitzier arcane spells like teleport or wish (although divine intervention is close).


Given your party, I think this looks an OK choice. You should have a tough enough front line that you dont need another dedicated fighter but not so tough that your ability to chip in there will go to waste. You have a lot of damage based classes so your more supporting role will fit the party well. Your nova damage coupled with the high output of the other characters means you should be able to take down some nasty stuff pretty quickly.

[Specter]

Haven't played, but DMed for one. Tempest is for those who want to blast and tank at the same time. When too many melee foes closed in, the guy Shielded of Faith'ed up and smashed, and used his reaction to pick anyone who hit him. When foes were grouped or afar, he would use his domain AoEs for maximum damage. When in doubt, he would just Shatter loose foes. His worse nightmare? Foes with Evasion.

[DireSickFish]

What you miss out on:

....

Fireball. Fireball can dominate fights at the time it comes in, but you don't get it.



This is what Light Clerics are for! Burn everything! The Chanel divinity is great AoE at low lvls as well.

[Biggstick]

As Mr. Stabby pointed out, a Cleric is always going to be useful as long as they've put Bless on their prepared spell list. You can literally do anything you want in combat as long as you get that Bless up on the important combat party members. Keep this in mind when selecting your domain.

Bless on allies, Healing Word when they drop, Prayer of Healing for outside combat healing, and auto attacks (Sacred Flame, physical attacks, or any other cantrip you might have) are what you should explain that you'll be bringing to the party. Throw in some status clearing effects with Greater and Lesser Restoration and you'll be the talk of your party.

[lunaticfringe]

Yup I have played one, they are indeed fun. Arcana is my 2nd favorite after Tempest.

[MintyNinja]

Haven't played, but DMed for one. Tempest is for those who want to blast and tank at the same time. When too many melee foes closed in, the guy Shielded of Faith'ed up and smashed, and used his reaction to pick anyone who hit him. When foes were grouped or afar, he would use his domain AoEs for maximum damage. When in doubt, he would just Shatter loose foes. His worse nightmare? Foes with Evasion.

As a different guy that played as a Tempest Cleric, albeit at low levels, I can concur. He'll be Blasty-Tank and a real threat on any battlefield. Bonus points if you get a thematic race like Air/Water Genasi or Aaracokra.

EDIT: Water Genasi can create water. Super useful in survival settings.

[CantigThimble]

Spirit guardians and prayer of healing are two of your most important spells. A good chunk of the interesting strategy in being a cleric is figuring out how to use those two spells for maximum possible effect. That's my general advice for all clerics, I've mostly played Knowledge domain so I don't have much specific advice for Tempest.

[Herobizkit]

Tempest Cleric is glorious.

Fight and take abuse like a fighter.
Dish out damage to punish people who hit you.
Maximizing Thunderwave is awesome.
Praising the All-Father is a great perk.

I ran a Tempest Cleric 2/Divination Wizard 2 and played him about as Odin-y as I could. Such flavor.

[GraakosGraakos]

Wow, the response is awesome.

So it sounds like Tempest Cleric is a good fit, with second place as Nature. I do like the flavor of Aquamanning it up as a Water Genasi Tempest Cleric, especially since he's my main man.

I guess the only thing to ask is how important is Strength in this build? 27 point buy can net me 16/16/14/10/10/8 after racials. So how often will I be whackin'?

[DireSickFish]

Wow, the response is awesome.

So it sounds like Tempest Cleric is a good fit, with second place as Nature. I do like the flavor of Aquamanning it up as a Water Genasi Tempest Cleric, especially since he's my main man.

I guess the only thing to ask is how important is Strength in this build? 27 point buy can net me 16/16/14/10/10/8 after facials. So how often will I be whackin'?

Lvls 1-4 are prime time wacking. As you're going to be dealing the same damage as a Martial character, or very close. And it's going to be better damage than Sacred Flame.

Lvls 5-7 it depends on your strength. You'll be doing less damage than any martial characters but the average damage is going to be comparable to your cantrip.

Lvls 8-10 you get your bonus damage on melee attacks which will put your melee damage back over the top of cantrip.

Lvl 11-16 it becomes wishy washy again as the cantrip is getting 3 dice and your melee is getting 2 dice+Stat. So high STR will want to mele it and maxed WIS will want to switch to casting.

lvl17+ probs wont matter as you've found a rythim by now and are epic lvl, so why bother with cantrips anyway? But Sacred Flame gets another dice and you should have long maxed out your WIS

[Levistej]

You need 3 staples to be efficient: a high armor class, spiritual weapon and spirit guardians.
The first one, obviously, stops you from getting hit. When you do get hit, electrocute them.
The second one is the best way to utilize your bonus action and a great damage boost.
The third one is my favourite spell of this edition, the sheer destruction a cleric upcasting spirit guardians while having spiritual weapon active and dodging or attacking depending on the situation is positively hilarious. If you're out of 3+ level spell slots, bless is aless flashy but still very efective way of using your concentration.

I suggest going with hill dwarf and grabbing warcaster or resilient:CON as soon as possible.

[Biggstick]

Wow, the response is awesome.

So it sounds like Tempest Cleric is a good fit, with second place as Nature. I do like the flavor of Aquamanning it up as a Water Genasi Tempest Cleric, especially since he's my main man.

I guess the only thing to ask is how important is Strength in this build? 27 point buy can net me 16/16/14/10/10/8 after racials. So how often will I be whackin'?

Whacking is really only going to be a strong choice if you can somehow grab BB and/or GFB. And even then, you only need 16 Str for it anyways. Grab Warcaster level 4, Magic Initiate level 8, max out your Wis and grab Resilient: Con and you'll be a pretty big threat as a caster and in melee.