Anyone play a war cleric before

[khachaturian]

Looking at starting a war cleric, but had some questions that I was hoping the community could help out with.

basic build is vuman with great weapon master
s 16
d 10
c 14
i 8
w 16
c 8

i would be the primary damage dealer, and the rest of the party is set up where it would be reasonable to expect most enemies to be prone about half the time. so other than general recommendations, my two main questions are:

1. how important are concentration spells, and is it better to get warcaster or str +2. i would imagine that bless and spirit guardians are really good to have up, as would protection from evil, hold person, andprotection from energy situationally. or put another way, if i don't go warcaster, should i even bother with concentration spells?

2. what spells do you upcast? i can see life, light, tempest having easy choices for upcasting spells. will i just be using level 4 slots on death ward?

[djreynolds]

Divine strike adds you current weapons damage, so if you have a greatsword it will add 1d8 slashing at 8th and 2d8 at 14th... so magic weapon is nice to make all those hits magical damage.

Spiritual guardians is a good standby spell, also concentration that you can and will upcast.

freedom of movement and death ward are awesome spells with long durations and stoneskin is a 4th domain spell you gain access to at 7th level

As for war caster, its a good feat, advantage is like adding +5 to your rolls and the AoO with a spell is excellent for stuff like sacred flame which can be used in melee. But I prefer resilient con if you can swing it.

IMO, I would max out wisdom 1st... I think a 16 strength is good enough... it is only +3 vs +5 to hit and you may find gauntlets of ogre power down the line. And your wisdom modifier affects the number of bonus actions you get a day in combat

Also depending on your whims, I think 3-4 levels of eldritch knight could help and crazy, 2 levels of barbarian for reckless attack.

14 war cleric/ 6 eldritch knight could be a very good build, just whatever spells you select out of EK make sure those spells are for buffs and not attacking, aside from BB/GFB which EK will get