*sigh...* Need some advice on choosing feats on a cleric/druid character...

[samcifer]

Okay, so since I'm making a new character to replace my dead lv. 6 Divine Soul/Hexblade and my new guy is the same level and xp, I find myself unable to decide on which feats to take. I'm playing a Variant Human with 18 WIS and am going Light Cleric 5 and Moon Druid 1 (MD 2 at next level) and am torn on which feats to take of the three I have in mind.

Magic Initiate (Sorcerer - Mending and Minor Illusion + Expeditious Retreat): I'm going with ER because in our homebrewed campaign, distance is sometimes an issue. During the battle where my last character died, we were forced by another player to start off 500' away from a wooden fort in a forest at night that had a spotlight and a pair of turret-style gattling guns. I had to spend 2 turns just getting close enough to destroy the spotlight and was gunned down immediately afterwards. There's also been encounters between sailing ships and the beach and my new character will have a much lesser attack range than my old guy who had EB and Eldritch Spear for good range. I DO have a light crossbow, but with only a +2 DEX mod, accuracy is low. As a Druid I'll have access to Longstrider, so over 2 turns (unless I cast Longstrider before battle begins) I can move up to 120' per turn to help with issues with distance. I'll mostly be a ranged character, btw. Wild Shape will mostly be a utility power for various situations as well as a panic button if I take a few bad hits. Also, be aware that most of our battles last 2 or 3 rounds, so making every turn count once the attacking commences is very important.

Alert: As a blaster-character, going first is rather important and I tend to do poorly on die rolls, so this would help with that a lot.

Lucky: In our group, the d20s can be used for ANY roll by ANY player or the DM, so it has tons of versatility.

So which ones should I go for? I really want lucky, but distance is an issue often enough to be a problem for me and the extra initiative would REALLY help me get out those big AoEs like Fireball before enemies scatter or allies get in the way of them.

I just can't decide and the session where I get to start playing him is this Saturday (Feb. 10th). :(

[bc56]

I would recommend Spell Sniper. If you are going to be a ranged combat character, double range will be fun. Plus, as a druid, you can get a 60' Thorn whip that way. Pull enemies off walls, down cliffs, etc.

[samcifer]

I would recommend Spell Sniper. If you are going to be a ranged combat character, double range will be fun. Plus, as a druid, you can get a 60' Thorn whip that way. Pull enemies off walls, down cliffs, etc.

Most spells I'm going with that do damage are saving throw spells. I have Scorching Rays, but that's about it.

[Woglin]

Lucky: In our group, the d20s can be used for ANY roll by ANY player or the DM, so it has tons of versatility.
...
I really want lucky, but distance is an issue often enough to be a problem for me and the extra initiative would REALLY help me get out those big AoEs like Fireball before enemies scatter or allies get in the way of them.

Lucky is clearly the right pick in this case =) It's already very good, your DM has made it even better, AND it's the one you instinctively want. Go for it!

You can use wildshape to get around (turn into a hawk for a couple of turns to close the distance), and you'll eventually pick up other rapid-movement spells if you keep taking Druid levels. Expeditious retreat might be situationally useful, but Lucky will -always- be helpful.

[samcifer]

Lucky is clearly the right pick in this case =) It's already very good, your DM has made it even better, AND it's the one you instinctively want. Go for it!

You can use wildshape to get around (turn into a hawk for a couple of turns to close the distance), and you'll eventually pick up other rapid-movement spells if you keep taking Druid levels. Expeditious retreat might be situationally useful, but Lucky will -always- be helpful.

Okay then, but what about the second one? Should I go Alrt to make sure I can strike as early as possible with higher initiative, or go with Mag Init for ER to cover more distance and have Mending to help repair our ship (the campaign takes place among a series of islands and there's been a few battles at sea as well as the usefulness of Minor Illusion? Still can't decide which of the two for my lv. 4 feat choice. :(

[samcifer]

Another idea that came to me today is possibly taking the Sharpshooter feat. With a Light Crossbow, I could shoot up to 320' and ignore all but total cover. To boost Accuracy, I could use the Magic Weapon spell on my crossbow and with Lucky (if I roll really badly), I can minimize the chances of missing until I can get my hands on magical versions of my crossbow.

[Citan]

Hmm.
I would usually recommend Spell Sniper as well, but for your character, the only attack cantrip is Thorns Whip (unless Druid/Cleric get new "attack roll" cantrips in Xanathars which I don't know of). As much as I love this cantrip this would still be mostly a trap option.

With that said, as a Druid, you could prepare Ice Knife: 60 feet becomes 120 feet with the feat. Would that be enough?

I'd also suggest against Crossbow Expert honestly, but it's mainly because I'm afraid you'd spend too many resources trying to be good with it (like your example of Magic Weapon: I'm pretty sure you could find other nice things to use slots on even in ranged situations).

However if you take it and pair it with Blessing yourself and two others, then I'd say it's a pretty solid option actually.

With that said, Alert is a great tool on a caster that knows which spell would best give a decisive advantage at start (and happens to have it available ^^).
For you, it could mean just ensure you can Bless your comrades before they go into melee, or instantly reduce enemy numbers before everyone scatters with a well-placed Fireball.

So as others I'd say go with Lucky as your first feat, cannot go wrong with that anyways.
Then either you prefer improving your usual goodness, and take Alert, or you prefer being balanced and covering for a niche case that, from your experience, seems not that niche at all. ;)

Go with your gut or flip a coin (or decide at the last moment after taking some feedback from your fellow players), either choice will be good.

Note that I love your ideas of the Magic Initiate Sorcerer, and if you know how to be creative Minor Illusion can certainly make the feat worth enough all by itself... But for example using it to create covers, you'd ask to know that your DM will allow it.
If he is more on the open-minded side of the line, then I'd say Magic Initiate is as good as the others. Otherwise no is my opinion. :)

[samcifer]

Hmm.
I would usually recommend Spell Sniper as well, but for your character, the only attack cantrip is Thorns Whip (unless Druid/Cleric get new "attack roll" cantrips in Xanathars which I don't know of). As much as I love this cantrip this would still be mostly a trap option.

With that said, as a Druid, you could prepare Ice Knife: 60 feet becomes 120 feet with the feat. Would that be enough?

I'd also suggest against Crossbow Expert honestly, but it's mainly because I'm afraid you'd spend too many resources trying to be good with it (like your example of Magic Weapon: I'm pretty sure you could find other nice things to use slots on even in ranged situations).

However if you take it and pair it with Blessing yourself and two others, then I'd say it's a pretty solid option actually.

With that said, Alert is a great tool on a caster that knows which spell would best give a decisive advantage at start (and happens to have it available ^^).
For you, it could mean just ensure you can Bless your comrades before they go into melee, or instantly reduce enemy numbers before everyone scatters with a well-placed Fireball.

So as others I'd say go with Lucky as your first feat, cannot go wrong with that anyways.
Then either you prefer improving your usual goodness, and take Alert, or you prefer being balanced and covering for a niche case that, from your experience, seems not that niche at all. ;)

Go with your gut or flip a coin (or decide at the last moment after taking some feedback from your fellow players), either choice will be good.

Note that I love your ideas of the Magic Initiate Sorcerer, and if you know how to be creative Minor Illusion can certainly make the feat worth enough all by itself... But for example using it to create covers, you'd ask to know that your DM will allow it.
If he is more on the open-minded side of the line, then I'd say Magic Initiate is as good as the others. Otherwise no is my opinion. :)

Not Crossbow Expert. I was thinking Sharpshooter because I can attack from up to max range with no penalties and no penalties if they have partial or half-cover. With a small bow I can shoot from up to 320' away with no penalties so long as they don't have total cover from me.

[Citan]

Not Crossbow Expert. I was thinking Sharpshooter because I can attack from up to max range with no penalties and no penalties if they have partial or half-cover. With a small bow I can shoot from up to 320' away with no penalties so long as they don't have total cover from me.

Errr, yeah, and that was actually the feat I was talking about too. Don't know how I ended up mixing the two of them. XD

[Biggstick]

Okay, so since I'm making a new character to replace my dead lv. 6 Divine Soul/Hexblade and my new guy is the same level and xp, I find myself unable to decide on which feats to take. I'm playing a Variant Human with 18 WIS and am going Light Cleric 5 and Moon Druid 1 (MD 2 at next level) and am torn on which feats to take of the three I have in mind.

Magic Initiate (Sorcerer - Mending and Minor Illusion + Expeditious Retreat): I'm going with ER because in our homebrewed campaign, distance is sometimes an issue. During the battle where my last character died, we were forced by another player to start off 500' away from a wooden fort in a forest at night that had a spotlight and a pair of turret-style gattling guns. I had to spend 2 turns just getting close enough to destroy the spotlight and was gunned down immediately afterwards. There's also been encounters between sailing ships and the beach and my new character will have a much lesser attack range than my old guy who had EB and Eldritch Spear for good range. I DO have a light crossbow, but with only a +2 DEX mod, accuracy is low. As a Druid I'll have access to Longstrider, so over 2 turns (unless I cast Longstrider before battle begins) I can move up to 120' per turn to help with issues with distance. I'll mostly be a ranged character, btw. Wild Shape will mostly be a utility power for various situations as well as a panic button if I take a few bad hits. Also, be aware that most of our battles last 2 or 3 rounds, so making every turn count once the attacking commences is very important.

Alert: As a blaster-character, going first is rather important and I tend to do poorly on die rolls, so this would help with that a lot.

Lucky: In our group, the d20s can be used for ANY roll by ANY player or the DM, so it has tons of versatility.

So which ones should I go for? I really want lucky, but distance is an issue often enough to be a problem for me and the extra initiative would REALLY help me get out those big AoEs like Fireball before enemies scatter or allies get in the way of them.

I just can't decide and the session where I get to start playing him is this Saturday (Feb. 10th). :(

So let's start at the beginning here, why are you mixing Druid and Light Cleric again? Even if you decide to go two levels for Moon and using bonus actions to shift into a Bear or something of the like, it's not worth slowing down your Cleric spell-casting progression or the feat/ASI progression. It gives you a couple additional cantrips and a couple extra spells. You're really not gaining anything worth slowing down your Cleric spell progression imo. First point on this is that at Cleric 7, you gain access to Control Water. You talked about having range against a ship, what about having the ability to simply sink the ship 50' underwater as you "split" the sea underneath a ship? You can singularly sink the ship all by yourself with the Control Water spell with one spell slot. For someone willing to look into the utility of the Cleric spell list, they wouldn't want to slow down that power/progression for a couple Druid levels to be able to change into beasts (also keep in mind that you can't change into swimming or flying creatures, as you have to be Druid levels 4 and 8 respectively to do so).

So, moving on to feat choices. You're looking to consider Mending from Sorcerer. Cleric has this naturally on their spell list. Light Cleric gains the Light cantrip automatically; this means you'll have 5 cantrips at Cleric 4. The list isn't that big of Cleric cantrips, and I'm assuming you have something like: Light, Guidance, Toll the Dead, Sacred Flame, and something else. If you really want Mending, make this last something Mending. As for Minor Illusion, do you have a good enough Charisma for such a spell to still have a good DC? I wouldn't think so, but it's possible you do. You also bring up Expeditious Retreat and distance being an issue. See what you can do about purchasing a Riding Horse, and distance will no longer be an issue for you. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest not having your strategy revolve around trying to cover 500' on the ground without some other plan to draw the attention of the gun turrets away from you. Overall, I don't see the spells chosen as being useful for what you're trying to do. Now if you mentioned Find Familiar, and utility spells from the Wizard spell list like Mage Hand and the like, I'd be a bit more on board, but I think there are much better options for a Light Cleric in regards to feat selection.

Alert and Lucky are both fantastic choices. Personally I'd go with Lucky, as it's more universally useful for combat and non-combat scenarios. All in all, out of the three feat choices you've presented, I'd go with Lucky.

However, aside from maxing out your Wisdom, there are a couple other feats you should consider for your Light Cleric. Resilient Con, Warcaster, and Elemental Adept (Fire) all come to mind as particularly powerful for a Light Cleric. Elemental Adept is one I wouldn't usually recommend to anyone, but Light Clerics have a high focus on fire damage, making it feel that much more powerful. But as it is, I'd not look to feats to increase your capability with weapons like Sharpshooter or Crossbow Expert, but ones that increase your survivability, ability to make saving throws, or increase spell damage output against enemies.

TLDR; My go-to whenever I play a Cleric in regards to feats are Warcaster and Resilient Con, but with a character that stays as far back as you, Lucky will be ideal. After Lucky (and maxing out Wisdom, if that's important to you), I'd grab in any order: Resilient Con, Warcaster, and Alert. If you decided to not max out Wisdom and have room for another feat, Elemental Adept might be useful for removing fire resistance from those resistant to your Fireballs.

[Citan]

Hat down to Biggsticks for his impressively extensive and accurate analysis.
+1 to everything he said. :)

[samcifer]

So let's start at the beginning here, why are you mixing Druid and Light Cleric again? Even if you decide to go two levels for Moon and using bonus actions to shift into a Bear or something of the like, it's not worth slowing down your Cleric spell-casting progression or the feat/ASI progression. It gives you a couple additional cantrips and a couple extra spells. You're really not gaining anything worth slowing down your Cleric spell progression imo. First point on this is that at Cleric 7, you gain access to Control Water. You talked about having range against a ship, what about having the ability to simply sink the ship 50' underwater as you "split" the sea underneath a ship? You can singularly sink the ship all by yourself with the Control Water spell with one spell slot. For someone willing to look into the utility of the Cleric spell list, they wouldn't want to slow down that power/progression for a couple Druid levels to be able to change into beasts (also keep in mind that you can't change into swimming or flying creatures, as you have to be Druid levels 4 and 8 respectively to do so).

So, moving on to feat choices. You're looking to consider Mending from Sorcerer. Cleric has this naturally on their spell list. Light Cleric gains the Light cantrip automatically; this means you'll have 5 cantrips at Cleric 4. The list isn't that big of Cleric cantrips, and I'm assuming you have something like: Light, Guidance, Toll the Dead, Sacred Flame, and something else. If you really want Mending, make this last something Mending. As for Minor Illusion, do you have a good enough Charisma for such a spell to still have a good DC? I wouldn't think so, but it's possible you do. You also bring up Expeditious Retreat and distance being an issue. See what you can do about purchasing a Riding Horse, and distance will no longer be an issue for you. If that doesn't work, I'd suggest not having your strategy revolve around trying to cover 500' on the ground without some other plan to draw the attention of the gun turrets away from you. Overall, I don't see the spells chosen as being useful for what you're trying to do. Now if you mentioned Find Familiar, and utility spells from the Wizard spell list like Mage Hand and the like, I'd be a bit more on board, but I think there are much better options for a Light Cleric in regards to feat selection.

Alert and Lucky are both fantastic choices. Personally I'd go with Lucky, as it's more universally useful for combat and non-combat scenarios. All in all, out of the three feat choices you've presented, I'd go with Lucky.

However, aside from maxing out your Wisdom, there are a couple other feats you should consider for your Light Cleric. Resilient Con, Warcaster, and Elemental Adept (Fire) all come to mind as particularly powerful for a Light Cleric. Elemental Adept is one I wouldn't usually recommend to anyone, but Light Clerics have a high focus on fire damage, making it feel that much more powerful. But as it is, I'd not look to feats to increase your capability with weapons like Sharpshooter or Crossbow Expert, but ones that increase your survivability, ability to make saving throws, or increase spell damage output against enemies.

TLDR; My go-to whenever I play a Cleric in regards to feats are Warcaster and Resilient Con, but with a character that stays as far back as you, Lucky will be ideal. After Lucky (and maxing out Wisdom, if that's important to you), I'd grab in any order: Resilient Con, Warcaster, and Alert. If you decided to not max out Wisdom and have room for another feat, Elemental Adept might be useful for removing fire resistance from those resistant to your Fireballs.

Well, I looked over the lists of spells for both cleric and druid and nothing for clerics past lv. 5 spells (Lv. 9 cleric) look appealing to me and no druid spells above Lv. 6 (lv. 11 druid) seem that useful to me either, plus we're not likely to hit max level, although if we did I'd go Cleric 9 / Druid 11 and use the higher level spell slots to cast stronger versions of lower level spells. The only useful things I'd lose out on are flying (until I get to Druid lv. 8 and can use flying forms, or at least lv. 5 so I can summon Giant Eagle(s) to carry me) and the ability to teleport. I had planned on originally going Cleric/Wizard, but that means two main stats to worry about and with a 16 and a 14 for my highest stats as set by the DM, I'd never be able to take any feats at all as every ASI would be devoted to boosting my main stats.

As for being a cleric/druid, I chose that for a greater variety of prepared spells to cast to be a blaster with some jack-of-all-trades abilities to cover various situations. It's also thematic to the character, a human who wishes he was a satyr, so his god, Pan, is having him complete tasks to become worthy of becoming a satyr and priest of Pan, since satyrs tend to live in the wild and Pan is a nature god, this makes a lot of sense (we also have another druid in the party who can handle the higher level druid spells).

I really, really, REALLY don't get why people are so vehemently against multi-classing. It's as if the main rule players absolutely have to follow without exception is to play a single class up to lv. 17, then possibly multi-class a bit, but it's still the worst thing a player can do to a character. I'd rather play a character I enjoy and use the spells I like more often, rather than focusing on getting Wish or True Resurrection ASAP. By mc-ing cleric plus druid, I can prepare more of the lower level spells I like and will be useful rather than betting it all on that one max-level spell and having fewer choices on lower-level spells I want because there'll be two levels worth of spells I won't care to use and will just end up burning the slots to up-cast Fireball, Conjure Animals, etc. anyways.

I could go with Mage Hand instead of Minor Illusion (I'm taking Druidcraft and Thaumaturgy anyways) and take Mending on either of my two classes instead. I was thinking Sharpshooter for the extra attacking range so that I won't NEED to worry so much about getting close enough to spellcast. Magic Weapon + Lucky until (and IF) I can get my hands on a magic weapon, which is iffy because the DM is very stingy on giving out items as loot and there are no shops in the campaign to purchase one from anyways.

Lastly, I'm not familiar with what TLDR means.

[Biggstick]

Well, I looked over the lists of spells for both cleric and druid and nothing for clerics past lv. 5 spells (Lv. 9 cleric) look appealing to me and no druid spells above Lv. 6 (lv. 11 druid) seem that useful to me either, plus we're not likely to hit max level, although if we did I'd go Cleric 9 / Druid 11 and use the higher level spell slots to cast stronger versions of lower level spells. The only useful things I'd lose out on are flying (until I get to Druid lv. 8 and can use flying forms, or at least lv. 5 so I can summon Giant Eagle(s) to carry me) and the ability to teleport. I had planned on originally going Cleric/Wizard, but that means two main stats to worry about and with a 16 and a 14 for my highest stats as set by the DM, I'd never be able to take any feats at all as every ASI would be devoted to boosting my main stats.

As for being a cleric/druid, I chose that for a greater variety of prepared spells to cast to be a blaster with some jack-of-all-trades abilities to cover various situations. It's also thematic to the character, a human who wishes he was a satyr, so his god, Pan, is having him complete tasks to become worthy of becoming a satyr and priest of Pan, since satyrs tend to live in the wild and Pan is a nature god, this makes a lot of sense (we also have another druid in the party who can handle the higher level druid spells).

I really, really, REALLY don't get why people are so vehemently against multi-classing. It's as if the main rule players absolutely have to follow without exception is to play a single class up to lv. 17, then possibly multi-class a bit, but it's still the worst thing a player can do to a character. I'd rather play a character I enjoy and use the spells I like more often, rather than focusing on getting Wish or True Resurrection ASAP. By mc-ing cleric plus druid, I can prepare more of the lower level spells I like and will be useful rather than betting it all on that one max-level spell and having fewer choices on lower-level spells I want because there'll be two levels worth of spells I won't care to use and will just end up burning the slots to up-cast Fireball, Conjure Animals, etc. anyways.

I could go with Mage Hand instead of Minor Illusion (I'm taking Druidcraft and Thaumaturgy anyways) and take Mending on either of my two classes instead. I was thinking Sharpshooter for the extra attacking range so that I won't NEED to worry so much about getting close enough to spellcast. Magic Weapon + Lucky until (and IF) I can get my hands on a magic weapon, which is iffy because the DM is very stingy on giving out items as loot and there are no shops in the campaign to purchase one from anyways.

Lastly, I'm not familiar with what TLDR means.

TLDR = Too Long, Didn't Read. It serves as a way to summarize a post for people who won't read the whole thing.

So Forbiddance doesn't interest your character? It's a 6th level Cleric spell (also a Ritual) that can be used to not only clear out areas full of: Celestials, Elementals, Fey, Fiends, and Undead, but can prevent more from teleporting into the area. Sure, the spell component is a bit expensive, but it's a game changing spell when used by a savvy Cleric. In addition, you have access to 6th level spells like Heal and Word of Recall. Word of Recall is one of the fastest and easier ways for a party to get out of a bad situation, and shouldn't be undervalued. I don't really need to explain Heal, but it is a spell constantly referred to as being able to "fix" some of the most debilitating conditions in the game. 7th level spells include things like: Etherealness, Plane Shift, Regenerate, and Temple of the Gods. I don't really want to go into the usefulness of each of these spells, but you sound smart enough to realize the value they provide to not only yourself but the utility and strength they provide to a party.

If you feel like first level Druid spells will serve you better then 4th level Cleric spells, go for it. The same is true as your Druid progression occurs throughout your character's career. If you prefer 2nd level Druid spells to 5th level Cleric spells, go for it. Cleric is a fantastic utility class that only gets stronger utility the more levels you put into it. By cutting your Cleric progression short and going with Druid levels, you'll fall behind on the expected power your utility brings. As an example, a level 14 Cleric has access to Word of Recall, Temple of the God's, and Plane Shift. Your combination of classes would be something like Cleric 9 // Druid 5. While it would have lots of spells on it's prepared spell list, it wouldn't have nearly the high level utility of a 14th level Cleric. It only gets worse the more levels of Cleric you delay.

There are many highly touted multiclass combinations. Sorcadin (Paladin 2-6 // Sorcerer xx), Barbarian-Rogue (Barbarian 2-6 // Rogue xx), Fighter-Rogue (too many variations to list), Warlock-Sorcerer (Warlock 2-3 // Sorcerer xx), Wizard-Cleric (Cleric 1-2 // Wizard xx), Wizard-Fighter (Fighter 1-2 // Wizard xx), Ranger-Rogue (Ranger 3-6 // Rogue xx), Etc. Etc. I dont know where you get the impression people feel you have to stay a single class until 17 when there hundreds of discussions on this forums regarding good multiclass builds.

A Cleric isn't really ever betting it all on one spell. They are typically just adding more utility what they already have. You're sacrificing the rate at which you gain Cleric utility for Druid utility that won't serve as valuable to you at the point within the campaign that you're gaining it. Does that make sense? Does that make sense? That's the biggest argument really, is that the low level utility you're gaining from Druid isn't as valuable as the mid-late game utility you gain from Cleric.

A Cleric is already a Jack of All Trades imo. I'm curious what spells you feel are important for this character, so much so that you're willing to give up access to 4th and 5th level Cleric spells until much later in the campaign.

Sharpshooter with a Light crossbow means you can make your attack from 320 feet out without disadvante on the attack roll. Your Light Crossbow's damage is 1d8+Dex mod, once per turn. You won't have things like Archery or higher Dex bonuses, so I don't assume you'll be able to effectively use the minus 5 plus 10, unless it's against mooks. And If it's against mooks, who cares? Get within 150' and you can clean them up as it is with Fireball. Basically, giving up a feat to give yourself the option to make attack rolls without disadvantage for 1d8+2 damage a turn feels like a waste of a feat to me. You can still fire off your Light Crossbow with disadvantage from 320 feet and be just as effective (because 1d8+2 damage per turn against anything seriously worth your time is time that can be better spent casting spells for combat).

TLDR; If your flavor/RP calls for a Druid multiclass, go for it. Lucky is still going to be the most universally useful feat for you. I feel mid-late game Cleric spell utility outweighs a few extra early game Druid spells when you're in the levels 5-15 portion of the game.

[samcifer]

It's just that every time I, personally, start talking about playing a multi-class character, there's always people all but shouting "DON'T MULTI-CLASS! ARE YOU INSANE?!?" (not really THAT extreme, but still. Anyways, the DM seems to favor more simple fights that last 2 or 3 rounds. If it's a boss, they are rarely a challenge for us, so having super-powerful spells seems like a waste of time when a leveled up Fireball or Guiding Bolt can soften them up enough to be picked off by the other players. I'm not a very creative person as such (ironic for a writer, but I'm only really good and scifi/fantasy dram stories and only write for fun, not professionally) I can't use illusion or enchantment spells because I can't understand how to use them effectively, so blasting and healing/cleansing with some utility will be my thing in the group. I'm going with Lucky for my first feat, but am merely undecided on the other and wondering between two options for dealing with distance or one to give me batter initiative so I can hit with AoEs before allies get in the way and/or enemies spread out.

[samcifer]

Well, I think I'll go with Lucky and Alert. Hitting ASAP in a 2 or so round battle is more important than covering long distances and I DO have the shortbow for now. Also, Alert's initiative bonus will help me increase my chances along with Lucky top get 2 turns as there's been a few battles where I ended up only getting a single turn due to the battle ending during the second round. Perhaps at Druid 4 I can take Mag Initiate or Sharpshooter to address the distance concern and at Druid 8 max out Wisdom for more spells and better accuracy (although since most of my combat spells will do half damage on a save, it's not the end of the world to wait to increase accuracy. I'll focus on getting druid to lv. 8 first to gain access to flying forms, then worry about where to continue with druid first or go back to cleric for awhile (getting to cleric 6 will make warding flare even more useful).

[samcifer]

Okay, so last night my group did a one-shot session because our druid player was out of town and couldn't play, so I used the opportunity to do a test run of my new character using Lucky and Alert. Alert was amazing. I never had to really worry about going late in each round and was first during the first battle, so I had a perfect chance to open with Fireball (after taking a shot of Fireball whiskey for thematic reasons, of course). Lucky was also useful, though the DM told us that he's thinking of banning it from his next campaign because it's hard to roleplay into the game. Didn't get to test out Wild Shaping because I only had one level of druid, but still was a good experience and I'm fairly happy with the character, but only because we never got a chance to take a rest and if we had done so, it would've only been a short rest, so I had to be very frugal with using spell slots. Also, I (again) got a whiff when I tried to use Toll the Dead because the DM seems to get lucky on his saves whenever I try to use it on foes. :/

[Citan]

Okay, so last night my group did a one-shot session because our druid player was out of town and couldn't play, so I used the opportunity to do a test run of my new character using Lucky and Alert. Alert was amazing. I never had to really worry about going late in each round and was first during the first battle, so I had a perfect chance to open with Fireball (after taking a shot of Fireball whiskey for thematic reasons, of course). Lucky was also useful, though the DM told us that he's thinking of banning it from his next campaign because it's hard to roleplay into the game. Didn't get to test out Wild Shaping because I only had one level of druid, but still was a good experience and I'm fairly happy with the character, but only because we never got a chance to take a rest and if we had done so, it would've only been a short rest, so I had to be very frugal with using spell slots. Also, I (again) got a whiff when I tried to use Toll the Dead because the DM seems to get lucky on his saves whenever I try to use it on foes. :/
Hey, it seems you took my suggestion fairly word for word. XD

Glad it worked out for you... And your team!
(well, considering you are NOT an Evoker, it's better you launch a Fireball as the first thing that happens in a fight, instead of using it once all your pals are in the area XD).

And no worries about multiclassing...
You've been a bit harsh on Biggstick though^^, he was not "ordering" you or trying to culpabilizing you, just trying to help you by pointing out the potential drawbacks he saw in that particular character. With that said, one thing may be seen as a major problem for someone while not one at all for another... :)

It's your character, and the two only things one should ever worrying about is being useful to the party and having fun.
And your feedback seem to prove both requirements are met, and well met.

So blast away and have fun ;)

[samcifer]

One change I might make is to go Cleric 4 / Druid 2 for the 'real' campaign s that I can make use of Wild Shape right away and wait on gaining access to Fireball for a session or 2 until we hit Lv. 7 and I can go up to Cleric 5.