Tempest Cleric / Swashbuckler Build

[tatszico]

Hey all! Need help with a little build that I'm working on.

We are starting fresh with a new sea-faring campaign with our PC being some sort of pirate lord. Naturally, I want to my guy to thematically correlate with the storms.

I rolled pretty damn good (and there are people who rolled even better). 16, 12, 15, 17, 10, 14.

If I go Half-Elf, it'd be: STR 10, Dex 18 (17+1), CON 16, INT 12, WIS 16 (15+1), CHA 16 (14+2)

At level 8, he'll be Tempest Cleric 4 / Swashbuckler 4. Half-Elf variant for BB. This allows me to effectively apply BB all around the battlefield, weaving in and out of combat while still being able to dish out buffs, utility, and even more damage using Destructive Wrath (Shatter "grenade" to weaken enemies and then moving into melee to pick them off).

At this point, I might take Cleric up to 8 for Divine Strike, making my deadly rapier even more deadlier

After that, not totally sure what else to do. I'm very much into multiclassing, so I was thinking of a 3-4 level dip into Sorcerer for metamagic to further buff my versatility. Quickened and Destructive Wrath'd thunder/lightning spell sounds amazing. Extended cleric buffs is excellent as well.

Would Bladesinger be a good combo for this build as well?

For feats, I'd take Warcaster for sure. Maybe second one will be Defensive Duelist or Martial Adept for even more neat combos. I'd probably focus on ASI though.

Any other thoughts and advice? I'm not looking for pure optimization here - not too worried about doing the best DPR or anything like that. My friends and I are very laid-back so we just like theorycraft cool characters and bring them life. I just don't want to gimp myself in the long wrong, as it's hard for me to compare myself to other PCs of the same level. :)

Thank you so much in advance!

[djreynolds]

Hey all! Need help with a little build that I'm working on.

We are starting fresh with a new sea-faring campaign with our PC being some sort of pirate lord. Naturally, I want to my guy to thematically correlate with the storms.

I rolled pretty damn good (and there are people who rolled even better). 16, 12, 15, 17, 10, 14.

If I go Half-Elf, it'd be: STR 10, Dex 18 (17+1), CON 16, INT 12, WIS 16 (15+1), CHA 16 (14+2)

At level 8, he'll be Tempest Cleric 4 / Swashbuckler 4. Half-Elf variant for BB. This allows me to effectively apply BB all around the battlefield, weaving in and out of combat while still being able to dish out buffs, utility, and even more damage using Destructive Wrath (Shatter "grenade" to weaken enemies and then moving into melee to pick them off).

At this point, I might take Cleric up to 8 for Divine Strike, making my deadly rapier even more deadlier

After that, not totally sure what else to do. I'm very much into multiclassing, so I was thinking of a 3-4 level dip into Sorcerer for metamagic to further buff my versatility. Quickened and Destructive Wrath'd thunder/lightning spell sounds amazing. Extended cleric buffs is excellent as well.

Would Bladesinger be a good combo for this build as well?

For feats, I'd take Warcaster for sure. Maybe second one will be Defensive Duelist or Martial Adept for even more neat combos. I'd probably focus on ASI though.

Any other thoughts and advice? I'm not looking for pure optimization here - not too worried about doing the best DPR or anything like that. My friends and I are very laid-back so we just like theorycraft cool characters and bring them life. I just don't want to gimp myself in the long wrong, as it's hard for me to compare myself to other PCs of the same level. :)

Thank you so much in advance!


I think you are on to something here.

I might take rogue to 8. Expertise in 4 skills, uncanny dodge, evasion, and 2ASI is very nice

Destructive wave is 9th level cleric, that would put you at 17th level.

I think 8 swash/ 8 tempest/ with some sorcerer could be cool. Now draconic sorcerer at 6th adds charisma to his lightning attacks? And here is where you can shave off some rogue or cleric to make it fit

I might grab elemental adept, lightning and you might get away without any ASI and feats only.

While I like defensive duelist, but rogue 5 brings uncanny dodge.

Uncanny dodge also competes with wrath of the storm, which is perfectly fine. Here you can pick them or you or with war caster attack, three choices for your reaction

You could leave cleric at 4th, since you have destructive wrath and grab I say at least 5 rogue, and the rest sorcerer