Finding Extra Attack for Clerics

[Nidgit]

Some clerics get Divine Strike to hit things harder, but none War Domain can increase their number of hits to really utilize this in any way. What 5-6 level dip would be best to make a better melee cleric?

Pretty much any build will be MAD but Paladin seems like the most obvious choice, if a bit thematically redundant. Smiting, up to 9th level slots, and Aura of Protection are all rather nice. For some reason though, a Swords Bard/Forge Cleric is oddly appealing to me.

[Foxhound438]

I'd personally just go for 1 in monk. The unarmed strike still counts as a "weapon attack" since it's not a spell attack, so you can get up to 9th level cleric spells and whatnot. On the same thought, just dual weilding could be good enough as well, you don't get mod to damage without taking 1 fighter or 2 ranger, but you can be full cleric and get an extra chance to land D Strike.

But more easy is probably just finding ways to get SCAG cantrips without losing levels. Magic initiate for shield and booming blade seems pretty good to me. You don't get 2 attacks and never will, but that's really not that big a deal when you get an extra d8 or more on your one hit while having full cleric levels for spells.

[Laserlight]

By the time fighters get their second attack, you're getting your L3 spells and transitioning away from melee; you don't really need a second attack. And if you did, you could use Spirit Weapon.

That said, my next character is going to be a half elf (Moon variant) Tempest cleric with BB.

[Saiga]

Divine Strike is once per turn, neither Extra Attack nor Bonus Action attacks will make use of it.

I suppose it's another chance to land the extra damage, but that damage isn't enough to make it worth it.

It more or less makes your melee abilities roughly scale with cantrips.

[Wisefool]

I'd personally just go for 1 in monk. The unarmed strike still counts as a "weapon attack" since it's not a spell attack, so you can get up to 9th level cleric spells and whatnot. On the same thought, just dual weilding could be good enough as well, you don't get mod to damage without taking 1 fighter or 2 ranger, but you can be full cleric and get an extra chance to land D Strike.

A single level monk dip would not work as Martial Arts only applies if the cleric is not wearing armor or a shield and is also only weilding monk weapons. And even if the cleric met all those reqs, it is a harsh price to pay to add a 1d4 bonus action attack. A 2 level monk dip would give the cleric the ability to Flurry twice per short rest, which doesn't require losing the armor/shield/non monk weapon, but again a tough price to pay for just two extra 1d4 attacks.

[Throne12]

Just use a polearm with PAM. Divine strike is once per turn so with PAM when a enemy gets with in 10ft of you. You can use your reaction to attack that attack then can use divine strike. And on your main action you can use a bonus action to hit with the butt end of the polearm giving you 2 attacks. You can add a fit more to the attacks with spells like divine favor and holy weapon.

[Arkhios]

A single level monk dip would not work as Martial Arts only applies if the cleric is not wearing armor or a shield and is also only weilding monk weapons. And even if the cleric met all those reqs, it is a harsh price to pay to add a 1d4 bonus action attack. A 2 level monk dip would give the cleric the ability to Flurry twice per short rest, which doesn't require losing the armor/shield/non monk weapon, but again a tough price to pay for just two extra 1d4 attacks.

Using armor/shield/non-monk weapon while flurrying would cause martial arts not to function at all, so even that unarmed strike would deal only 1 damage (plus modifiers) and rely on strength instead of dexterity.

So, if you take the monk dip, you'd be better forget about using armor/shield/non-monk weapons, and focus on improving both Wis and Dex (which isn't exactly MAD yet, imho).
1 or 2 levels of Monk is actually quite good option.

[Spacehamster]

5 ranger 15 cleric is a good split if you want to make a more martial cleric

[Throne12]

Using armor/shield/non-monk weapon while flurrying would cause martial arts not to function at all, so even that unarmed strike would deal only 1 damage (plus modifiers) and rely on strength instead of dexterity.

So, if you take the monk dip, you'd be better forget about using armor/shield/non-monk weapons, and focus on improving both Wis and Dex (which isn't exactly MAD yet, imho).
1 or 2 levels of Monk is actually quite good option.

You can still use Martial arts if your using a non monk weapon. So lets say your a cleric 3 and monk 5 your not wearing any armor or using a shield. But you are using a glave you can attack, attack with your glaive using STR because it doesnt get Martial arts ability added to it. Then bonus action furry of blows with unarmed strikes. The thing about this is your a MAD character. But there are way to go about this. One is play a tortle and go with STR and Wis. Another way is get your DM to give you a magic item like Gauntlets of other strength or belts of strength and focus on Dex and wis. Or if you just roll really good stats. Then lastly dont care about your ac so much. Use your Superior mobility to get in hit hard and get out. But you will need 13 dex to muiltclass I think.

[WickerNipple]

Spiritual Weapon is your 2nd attack.

[Talamare]

Get Initiate to get Booming Blade

That's another d8 damage at lv5

[Aett_Thorn]

Spiritual Weapon is your 2nd attack.

But it doesn't benefit from the class feature that he's talking about.

[Wisefool]

You can still use Martial arts if your using a non monk weapon. So lets say your a cleric 3 and monk 5 your not wearing any armor or using a shield. But you are using a glave you can attack, attack with your glaive using STR because it doesnt get Martial arts ability added to it. Then bonus action furry of blows with unarmed strikes. The thing about this is your a MAD character. But there are way to go about this. One is play a tortle and go with STR and Wis. Another way is get your DM to give you a magic item like Gauntlets of other strength or belts of strength and focus on Dex and wis. Or if you just roll really good stats. Then lastly dont care about your ac so much. Use your Superior mobility to get in hit hard and get out. But you will need 13 dex to muiltclass I think.

The monk's Martial Arts ability specifically states that you must use a monk weapon for Martial Arts to apply. Flurry still works, but Arkhios made a good point that this means unarmed strikes are only 1 damage if using armor/shield/non monk weapon. But using your example, if you go Monk 5, you can choose Kensai at Monk 3 and then select glaive (or whatever) for your monk weapon.

[Arkhios]

You can still use Martial arts if your using a non monk weapon. So lets say your a cleric 3 and monk 5 your not wearing any armor or using a shield. But you are using a glave you can attack, attack with your glaive using STR because it doesnt get Martial arts ability added to it. Then bonus action furry of blows with unarmed strikes. The thing about this is your a MAD character. But there are way to go about this. One is play a tortle and go with STR and Wis. Another way is get your DM to give you a magic item like Gauntlets of other strength or belts of strength and focus on Dex and wis. Or if you just roll really good stats. Then lastly dont care about your ac so much. Use your Superior mobility to get in hit hard and get out. But you will need 13 dex to muiltclass I think.

Martial Arts ≠ Flurry of Blows.


MARTIAL ARTS
At 1st leveI, your practice of martial arts gives you mastery of combat styles that use unarmed strikes and monk weapons, which are short swords and any simple melee weapons that don't have the two-handed or heavy property.
You gain the folIowing benefits while you are unarmed or wielding only monk weapons and you aren't wearing armor or wielding a shield:

You can use Dexterity instead of Strength for the attack and damage rolIs of your unarmed strikes and monk weapons.
You can rolI a d4 in place of the normal damage of your unarmed strike or monk weapon. This die changes as you gain monk levels, as shown in the Martial Arts column of the Monk table.
When you use the Attack action with an unarmed strike or a monk weapon on your turn you can make one unarmed strike as a bonus action. For example, if you take the Attack action and attack with a quarterstaff, you can also make an unarmed strike as a bonus action, assuming you haven't already taken a bonus action this turn.



As seen in the quote above, you don't gain anything from Martial Arts at all if you so much as only wield a weapon that isn't an unarmed strike or a monk weapon, wear any armor or wield a shield.


That said, Ranger 5/Cleric 15 is probably the most resource-efficient combination to get Extra Attack, since their spellcasting levels "stack" for more spell slots.

[Aett_Thorn]

The monk's Martial Arts ability specifically states that you must use a monk weapon for Martial Arts to apply. Flurry still works, but Arkhios made a good point that this means unarmed strikes are only 1 damage if using armor/shield/non monk weapon. But using your example, if you go Monk 5, you can choose Kensai at Monk 3 and then select glaive (or whatever) for your monk weapon.

Kensei can't choose glaive, since it's a heavy weapon, IIRC. So that is out as well.

Also, as stated above, unless it's a monk weapon, you can't use martial arts. So you'd need to use Flurry of Blows to make it work (and still only do 1 damage). At only low levels of monk-itude, you don't have a ton of ki, so your ability to get a weak second attack won't be worth the investment.

[Rysto]

But it doesn't benefit from the class feature that he's talking about.

Extra Attack doesn't benefit much either. Divine Strike is once per each of your turns. It will proc if you miss with the first attack and hit with the second, but being five levels behind on what spells you can prepare doesn't seem to be especially worth it, especially seeing as you can't have both Extra Attack and Divine Strike before level 13.

[Aett_Thorn]

Extra Attack doesn't benefit much either. Divine Strike is once per each of your turns. It will proc if you miss with the first attack and hit with the second, but being five levels behind on what spells you can prepare doesn't seem to be especially worth it, especially seeing as you can't have both Extra Attack and Divine Strike before level 13.

I completely agree on your second point.

But I think that the OP was just hoping to find a way to maximize his chances of landing a Divine Strike. Basically, Extra Attack means that if you miss your first swing, you have a second chance to land a hit and make use of your Divine Strike. It might not be worth it, but it seems like that's what the OP wants to do.

[kingheff1]

Going 5 ranger/15 cleric should be good. Second attack, the dueling style for a plus 2 damage per hit and colossus slayer for a d8 against wounded creatures once per turn. You can't cast 9th level spells but you do count as a 17th level caster so you get a 9th level slot. Throw in hunters mark and you should be a decent melee combatant with near on full caster abilities.

[Vorpalchicken]

Just use a polearm with PAM. Divine strike is once per turn so with PAM when a enemy gets with in 10ft of you. You can use your reaction to attack that attack then can use divine strike. And on your main action you can use a bonus action to hit with the butt end of the polearm giving you 2 attacks. You can add a fit more to the attacks with spells like divine favor and holy weapon.

Divine strike is once on your turn. Unlike say sneak attack which is once per (anyone's) turn.

[Malifice]

Some clerics get Divine Strike to hit things harder, but none War Domain can increase their number of hits to really utilize this in any way. What 5-6 level dip would be best to make a better melee cleric?

Pretty much any build will be MAD but Paladin seems like the most obvious choice, if a bit thematically redundant. Smiting, up to 9th level slots, and Aura of Protection are all rather nice. For some reason though, a Swords Bard/Forge Cleric is oddly appealing to me.

You only get divine strikes bonus damage 1/ round.

But Paladin and Fighter are the go to. Ranger also works, as does monk. 5 levels is all you need.

[Biggstick]

I would suggest Fighter 6, and go Eldritch Knight. This would give you 3 ASI's by character level 10, meaning you're not falling behind on ASI's at all, and would contribute to your spell caster progression. You won't be as high of a spell caster as a single-classed Cleric (at level 20 you're a 16th level spell caster), but you're keeping spell casting progression going, gaining an ASI, gaining solid Abjuration spells like Absorb Elements and Shield, and never having to worry about losing your weapon again.

While Ranger and Paladin spell progression is nice, both options have stricter multiclass requirements. Fighter simply requires 13 Str or Dex, which you'll have either way you go with the character, without having to make stat distribution sacrifices at character creation.

Your best choice to gain an extra attack for Clerics is Fighter imo.