Arcana cleric: Melee or ranged?

[Zene]

Building an arcana cleric. No multiclassing. I'm torn between trying to include options for melee'ing, or just keeping it ranged.

Melee means at least one of my cantrips will be gfb/bb, and I'll need magic intiate for shillelagh or a belt of giant strength so I can actually hit. Keeping it ranged means I get two ranged wiz cantrips, I free up a feat or an attunement slot, and I don't have to worry quite as much about taking hits and losing concentration.

I'm leaning toward keeping it ranged, for simplicity's sake. I'll do less damage, but heck if damage was my priority I should probably play another class. But will I regret it? I'd love to hear the thoughts especially of anyone who's actually played an arcana cleric to mid/high levels.

[RickAllison]

Melee Arcana is your option if you really want the highest damage output. Which is admittedly great, but you are paying a feat for it. Ranged lets you have a variety of options at a lower power, though it is still a nice output. I suggest picking up Sacred Flame as a cleric cantrip, having an AC-attacking option (Firebolt for range, Blade cantrips for melee), and Frostbite either MI or the wizard cantrips. That gives you a well-rounded offense of elements and defenses to target. Big and slow behemoths will have comparably poor Dex saves, while those goblins and other small mooks tend to have great Dex but middling Con. AC is generally a worse option, but Firebolt has utilitarian options, Blade cantrips have great power, and a combination of Magic Resistance and high saves can make AC-targeting preferable.

[djreynolds]

What are your stats? Do you plan to dump dex and strength? If so magic initiate for shillelagh is nice.

I like shocking grasp for melee, GFB/BB, and sacred flame is good enough.

[skaddix]

Really depends on how fast your DM is going to give you that belt of giant strength or some gauntlets of ogre power.

As well as the rest of your party composition. What is your melee vs ranged distribution.

I mean full spell casters get a lot of cantrips so that is not really a limitation.

[JackOfAllBuilds]

I personally love sword burst on a melee arcana cleric. Dex save version of a whirlwind attacking ranger

[DivisibleByZero]

Why not both?
You get two cantrips. GBF or BB for melee, and one ranged cantrip of your choice.

[Grod_The_Giant]

You... can have a good Str or Dex score as well as a good Wis. It's been known to happen.

[DivisibleByZero]

You... can have a good Str or Dex score as well as a good Wis. It's been known to happen.

And it's not like you need to have max stats to be effective in 5e.
Basically, you don't require shillelagh or a BeltOGS to hit. A 16, or even a 14 in your attack stat works, unless you plan on spending all of your time in melee.