Build Advice for Tempest Cleric

[FoxDropz]

Hello guys!

How would you build a Tempest Cleric through level 1 to 10?

We are gonna use Standard Array (15-14-13-12-10-8).
He will be a STR-based melee Cleric.
No Multiclassing, just Monoclass.
The DM said the campaign will probably end around level 10.
PHB only. RAW. Slight chance that I can grab stuff from other books, but wouldnt be allowed to get much stuff.

Basically, I wanna build a front-line melee Cleric that can dish a lot of damage and tank some damage, heal allies and cast utlity spell ocasionally.
More like a "Thor" type of character, damage from his thunder/lightning spells.

Race?
Background?
Ability Scores?
Feats/ASIs?
Spells?
Equipment/Weapons?

How would you build him and why?
Thank you very much!

[Specter]

If you can, get your hands on Booming Blade. That coupled with Divine Strike does wonders for your melee damage.

[KorvinStarmast]

Hello guys!

How would you build a Tempest Cleric through level 1 to 10?

We are gonna use Standard Array (15-14-13-12-10-8).
He will be a STR-based melee Cleric.
No Multiclassing, just Monoclass.
The DM said the campaign will probably end around level 10.
PHB only. RAW. Slight chance that I can grab stuff from other books, but wouldnt be allowed to get much stuff.

Basically, I wanna build a front-line melee Cleric that can dish a lot of damage and tank some damage, heal allies and cast utlity spell ocasionally.
More like a "Thor" type of character, damage from his thunder/lightning spells.

Race?
Background?
Ability Scores?
Feats/ASIs?
Spells?
Equipment/Weapons?

How would you build him and why?
Thank you very much!
I'd recommend VHuman
St 14 +1 vH
D 8
C 13 (+1 with feat)
I 12
W 15 +1 vH
Ch 10
feat = resilient Con. (Keeps your buffs/bless/Spirit Guardian Up longer with proficiency on con saves)
Str 15 allows you to wear any heavy armor
You don't need high dex;
Int save +1 and a plus to selected proficiencies like Religion or arcana ..
Ch even; You have proficiency in Cha saves.
You could make the Ch 8 and the Dex 10 to avoid a minus for dex saves, which are more common than Ch saves.

Skills:
Athletics, Perception, Medicine, Religion, Insight (Or mix and match)
Background: any that appeals to you. (I like Sailor but I am an old navy man so that's me ...)
Weapon: Warhammer. Also, I'd carry a few javelins at lower levels for thrown damage, but that's personal choice.
Start with Chain Mail and shield. Get the best armor you can if you want to be a front liner. Not getting his is important.

Spells: Sacred Flame is a must. If human, light as a cantrip is really handy.
I'd say Healing Word and Bless are must first level spells. See Yorrin's guide for more on that (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showsinglepost.php?p=18189658&postcount=1). Since you want to survive in the front line, Shield of Faith. Inflict Wounds for occasional nova damage. Guiding bolt for occasional nova damage.

Second level: Lesser Restoration is a must; it removes common conditions that are annoying to your companions.
Third Level: Spirit Guardian is a must; I'd recommend Revivify depending upon the lethality of your campaign. Keeping your pals alive is important. Picking and choosing the rest based on situation. You get call lightning, which can be sweet
4th level: Banishment. Don't get into a fight without it. very handy.

In my experience, getting Wis to 18 at 4 is very handy for two reasons:
perception and insight checkgs get better, and your spell DC needs to be as high as it can be to make saves harder for enemies. You want your spells to work when you cast them.

Whether you boost Str to 16 later, or run Wis up to 20 is your call.
As you go up in level your melee effectiveness with just one attack is a bit spotty. Getting SG up in a case like that, and keeping it up, seems to be more important.
5th level spells: Situational. Lots of good choices depending upon what you are facing.

[Snowbluff]

I'm literally doing this right now.
I took a sorcerer level at first level for Con Saves, Booming Blade, and Shield (if you're not AL, also take Absorb Elements from XtGE), got Warcaster from Variant human.

My Fave Spells:
First Level: Healing Word and Sanctuary (both are bonus actions, no concentration)
Second Level: Blindness and Spiritual Weapon (neither of these are concentration)
Third Level: Bestow Curse (not concentration when used with a 5th level slot) and Spirit Guardians

I had gauntlets of Ogre Power though, so YMMV on the stats. :p

[tieren]

I'm playing one now, went with mountain dwarf for bonuses to str and con as well as dwarven toughness.

I find the reactive damage to be less impactful than I originally hoped. On the one hand you don't want to get hit generally so you can keep concentrating on your buff, and then it does nothing; if you do get hit you need to decide with your DM what that means sequence wise (do you take damage from the hit before the lightning blast, what if that damage knocks you out does it still go off, etc...).

The other piece is I don't feel like there is as much lightning and thunder in the regular play as I would like, maybe take magic initiate to pick up lightning lure, shocking grasp, and chromatic orb?

[DnDegenerates]

Pureclass.

Any race works, but beefy races suit this domain well because it's so thematic. Goliath is my favorite. There are others with wisdom bonuses that are more obvious for optimization purposes, but nothing wrong with a +2str /+1 con race if you're going to be meleeing like a fearless thunder wielding brute anyway. High elf doesn't boost any of your primary stats, but it does offer some decent racial abilities on top of Booming Blade.

ASI win over feats most time. You may want to pick up warcaster at some point I'd your DM is heavy on the spellcasting with a focus bit. The boost to concentration spells is huge too, as some of your 3rd and beyond level spells will rely on this.

Spells are pretty easy. Spirit guardians, ancestral spirit, lightning storm, spiritual weapon, basic heals, some abjuration shield or damage reduction spells, silence is also super good for combat or stealth looting purposes.

Spirit weapon doesn't need concentration so you can get a free bonus action attack each round while you have your rockin' spirital warriors attacking everyone who dares come near you, and still have an action to attack or cast non concentration spells. Upscaled and channel divinity maximized lightning storm is a pretty sweet easy damage dealer early on too.

You can either sit back and blast, or run forth and play like a divine thunder and lightning tank with god juice infused defenses.

[TheHutz]

Excuse my ignorance but I've been thinking about trying something like this as well. Why Booming Blade? Just to prevent the bad guys from moving past you to the backline? I'm playing an Arcane Trickster right now and I wouldn't think the Cleric could pull any of the Booming Blade/disengage shenanigans that the AT can.

[Specter]

Excuse my ignorance but I've been thinking about trying something like this as well. Why Booming Blade? Just to prevent the bad guys from moving past you to the backline? I'm playing an Arcane Trickster right now and I wouldn't think the Cleric could pull any of the Booming Blade/disengage shenanigans that the AT can.

- It increases your single-attack damage by 1d8 at levels 5, 11 and 17. That alone makes you stay competitive in the long run.
- If you crit, you can use your Channel Divinity to max the damage from both your Divine Strike and Booming Blade. At level 17, that's 10d8, which become 80 damage. Plus the weapon damage. Pretty cool.

[SirGraystone]

I would go for Hill Dwarf

Str 14 Dex 10 Con 15 (13+2) Int 12 Wis 16 (15+1) Cha 8

Strength even if you are in melee is not that important, you don't get extra attack, so most of your damage come from your magic anyway.

Dexterity above 10 won't help your AC in heavy armor

If you only use PHB Sacred Flame is your only damage cantrips, Toll of the dead is nice too if you can use Xanathar.

1st level: Bless (your best early buff), healing word (its bonus action and ranged)
2nd level: Spiritual Hammer (let do you extra attack on bonus action at level 3)

[djreynolds]

Booming blade works excellent with spirit guardians and the reaction attack from war caster

Spirit Guardians causes radiant damage to all who stay in your area of 15ft, AFB.

War caster allows you a reaction attack with a spell, such as booming blade, if the enemy retreats

Booming blade forces your opponent to either continue to flee and take thunder, or stay and take radiant

That said this combo is available to any cleric really, as long as the get their hands on booming blade and have war caster (magic initiate, class dip, high elf, etc.)

But you want to play a tempest cleric and you want to hurt others with lightning and destructive wrath and get thunderbolt strike also

So the issue is you have only so many lightning spells afforded to you, and if you make a crazy multiclass just to get your hands on lightning bolt or chain lightning it could at least 11th level before this build is truly usable

I would strongly recommend getting booming blade, and grabbing a level of sorcerer or wizard for chromatic orb and upcasting this spell

My build was 1 cleric, 2 wizard (evocation), then cleric til 6th, and then wizard to 5th. I took war caster. I ended up focusing more on intelligence since it was my casting stat for lightning bolt, chromatic orb, and witch bolt (Emperor Palpatine). Yet my wisdom was a respectable 16.

I dumped dex and charisma, and absorb elements did not exist yet, but this is why I recommend a level of wizard, but land druid is as good

You should look to multiclass around 5 levels with either sorcerer (twin and quickened), wizard (flexibility), or land druid (mountain for lightning bolt)

[Vogie]

To have access to some more thunder/lightning spells without multiclassing, you can use the Magic Initiate feat.

Warlock - Witch Bolt (fact that it doesn't scale doesn't matter much, as it only increases the initial damage)
Sorcerer - Chaos Bolt (only deals Lightning Damage when you roll a 5 or thunder damage on an 8 on the 2d8s)
Wizard - Thunderwave

Cantrips: Shocking Grasp

Cantrips outside the PHB: Thunderclap (XgtE), Lightning Lure (SCAG),

[SirGraystone]

If you want to take something like booming blade, don't bother with magic initiate feat just ask your DM nicely if you can have it since you are Tempest. Since it does thunder damage and is only a cantrip the DM will likely let you have it.

[CTurbo]

The higher your Wis score, the more effective you're going to be, and the more effective you are, the funner this build will be to play.

You don't NEED flashy feats to have a fun character. Personally, I would not start with less than a 16 in Wis, and would really like to have Wis at 18 by level 4.

That doesn't mean that a 14 Wis character won't work of course. A Goliath or Half-Orc Tempest with 14 Wis would still be a fun character, but I would 100% boost Wis at level 4 and 8 because nothing is less fun than your big spells failing because the enemy always passes it's saves because your spell DC is low.

I'd start vhuman with HAM 16 Str, 12 Dex, 13 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 8 Cha or Res(Con) 15 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 8 Cha
If you started with HAM, I would take Res at 4 and then +2 Wis at 8.
If you started Res, you could take HAM here, or +2 to Wis and then max Wis at 8.

If it were me, I'd probably start HAM and then Res at level 4 and +2 Wis at 8.


I'd never dumb Dex. Dex saves are already going to be one of your biggest weaknesses and you don't want a negative mod on your Int.

Sentinel and Magic Initiate great feats but I just don't see room for them in a Standard Array build especially one capping at level 10. But yeah I'm one of those people who would rather have a 20 in my main stat and no feats than a 14/16 in my main stat and several feats.

You could be a boring ole Wood Elf and start 14 Dex, 14 Con, and 16 Wis and just bump Wis at levels 4 and 8 and have a beast of a build.

[FoxDropz]

The higher your Wis score, the more effective you're going to be, and the more effective you are, the funner this build will be to play.

You don't NEED flashy feats to have a fun character. Personally, I would not start with less than a 16 in Wis, and would really like to have Wis at 18 by level 4.

That doesn't mean that a 14 Wis character won't work of course. A Goliath or Half-Orc Tempest with 14 Wis would still be a fun character, but I would 100% boost Wis at level 4 and 8 because nothing is less fun than your big spells failing because the enemy always passes it's saves because your spell DC is low.

I'd start vhuman with HAM 16 Str, 12 Dex, 13 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 8 Cha or Res(Con) 15 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 8 Cha
If you started with HAM, I would take Res at 4 and then +2 Wis at 8.
If you started Res, you could take HAM here, or +2 to Wis and then max Wis at 8.

If it were me, I'd probably start HAM and then Res at level 4 and +2 Wis at 8.


I'd never dumb Dex. Dex saves are already going to be one of your biggest weaknesses and you don't want a negative mod on your Int.

Sentinel and Magic Initiate great feats but I just don't see room for them in a Standard Array build especially one capping at level 10. But yeah I'm one of those people who would rather have a 20 in my main stat and no feats than a 14/16 in my main stat and several feats.

You could be a boring ole Wood Elf and start 14 Dex, 14 Con, and 16 Wis and just bump Wis at levels 4 and 8 and have a beast of a build.

I really wanna min-max this build. Would that be the most efficient way to do it?
EDIT: Sorry about being so picky! :smalleek: You guys are helping me a lot!

[Specter]

I really wanna min-max this build. Would that be the most efficient way to do it?
EDIT: Sorry about being so picky! :smalleek: You guys are helping me a lot!

If you want to attack hard and tank, Booming Blade, War Caster and your CD will do the job. You can have 20AC, which is more than mosr people in your party.

If you want to cast, control and annoy in general, then Spirit Guardians and the rest of the Cleric package will serve you well.

As for absolute min-maxing, it's a bit hard for Clerics because they don't get many buffs like Wizard or Sorcerer.

[CTurbo]

I really wanna min-max this build. Would that be the most efficient way to do it?
EDIT: Sorry about being so picky! :smalleek: You guys are helping me a lot!

I'm telling you that best way to min/max is to get your Wis to 20 lol

If you could do point buy, you could start with 16 Str, 16 Con, and 16 Wis, and have an 8 in everything else. Now THAT is truly min/maxing!

You have to ask yourself... just how important is hitting stuff with your weapon going to be? Being better at using your weapon will hinder your spellcasting. Clerics are full casters after all.

Remember that even with my guy, who I built around using a weapon, and even with a 18 Str and +1 Greatsword, I ended up spending far more time casting spells than swinging my weapon starting around level 5.


So what do YOU mean when you say you want to min/max because you can really only "max" one thing whether it be weapon damage or your spellcasting ability. Something is going to suffer.

[FoxDropz]

I'm telling you that best way to min/max is to get your Wis to 20 lol

If you could do point buy, you could start with 16 Str, 16 Con, and 16 Wis, and have an 8 in everything else. Now THAT is truly min/maxing!

You have to ask yourself... just how important is hitting stuff with your weapon going to be? Being better at using your weapon will hinder your spellcasting. Clerics are full casters after all.

Remember that even with my guy, who I built around using a weapon, and even with a 18 Str and +1 Greatsword, I ended up spending far more time casting spells than swinging my weapon starting around level 5.


So what do YOU mean when you say you want to min/max because you can really only "max" one thing whether it be weapon damage or your spellcasting ability. Something is going to suffer.

Yeah, I really tried to convince the DM but he is sticking to standard array :smallfrown:

I agree with you 100%!
I prefer to cast spells than swinging with my weapon. I think it causes more impact in the game.

[CTurbo]

Yeah, I really tried to convince the DM but he is sticking to standard array :smallfrown:

I agree with you 100%!
I prefer to cast spells than swinging with my weapon. I think it causes more impact in the game.

It does. I like my vhuman HAM/Res build the best even though it caps Wis at 18, you'd be tough as nails

The "boring" Wood Elf build with no feats but the 20 Wis would be great.

If you want extra tough and more hp, you could go Hill Dwarf 14 Str, 16 Con, and 16 Wis and either bump Wis at 4 and 8 or bump Wis once and take something tanky like Warcaster

Half-Elf allows you to NOT have a dump stat 14 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 10 Cha

[FoxDropz]

It does. I like my vhuman HAM/Res build the best even though it caps Wis at 18, you'd be tough as nails

The "boring" Wood Elf build with no feats but the 20 Wis would be great.

If you want extra tough and more hp, you could go Hill Dwarf 14 Str, 16 Con, and 16 Wis and either bump Wis at 4 and 8 or bump Wis once and take something tanky like Warcaster

Half-Elf allows you to NOT have a dump stat 14 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 10 Cha

VHuman HAM/RES seems to be the best way to go indeed. 20 wis is awesome, but maybe, like you said, maybe Im not 100% min-maxing afterall... cause a boring wood elf might be the strongest in numbers, but not the best fit for me. I missjudged my intentions. :smallsmile:

[FoxDropz]

It does. I like my vhuman HAM/Res build the best even though it caps Wis at 18, you'd be tough as nails

The "boring" Wood Elf build with no feats but the 20 Wis would be great.

If you want extra tough and more hp, you could go Hill Dwarf 14 Str, 16 Con, and 16 Wis and either bump Wis at 4 and 8 or bump Wis once and take something tanky like Warcaster

Half-Elf allows you to NOT have a dump stat 14 Str, 12 Dex, 14 Con, 10 Int, 16 Wis, 10 Cha

Oh CTurbo, I forgot yo ask you:
1. For that Vhuman build, why Resilient over Warcaster?
2. Would you roll a two handed weapon or a Shield?

[A Fat Dragon]

I doubt you’d be able to do Volo’s Races, but I’ve always found Lizardfolk Clerics to be a rather fitting and flavorful combo. You wouldn’t have much use for your innate AC, but the bonus to Con and Wis is nice, extra skill proficiencies, swimming stuffs (If you’re going Tempest, might as well get a little sea-based), and Bite Attack + Hungry Jaws are all nice.

Though, if I remember correctly, Tempest Clerics get Martial weapon proficiencies, so you wouldn’t have much use for your bite attack. Still, Hungry Jaws can be a life saver when used at the right moment.

And besides, who wouldn’t want to be a Lightning-Wielding Lizard?


VHuman is a good choice, especially if you grab resilient, but I might recommend something like Variant Half-Elf, and grab Weapon Proficinecies if you don’t get Martial Proficiencies (Haven’t Checked in a while), though grabbing the swimming speed or the speed boost might make traveling a bit less of a hassle. I’d probably choose Wood-Elf, as I’ve never liked Vhumans that much (I love the flavor and diversity for humans, but I just never liked the Free Feat, and the lack of Dark-Vision. That being said, a full game of VHumans is something I’ve wanted to try for a while).

[CTurbo]

Oh CTurbo, I forgot yo ask you:
1. For that Vhuman build, why Resilient over Warcaster?
2. Would you roll a two handed weapon or a Shield?


Res(Con) adds a +1 to Con which you benefit from tremendously with the Standard array whereas Warcaster does not come with any stat boosts.

Go one handed weapon + shield all the way at first and enjoy that 20 AC. You do NOT want to get hit. Getting hit = concentration check.

[FoxDropz]

I doubt you’d be able to do Volo’s Races, but I’ve always found Lizardfolk Clerics to be a rather fitting and flavorful combo. You wouldn’t have much use for your innate AC, but the bonus to Con and Wis is nice, extra skill proficiencies, swimming stuffs (If you’re going Tempest, might as well get a little sea-based), and Bite Attack + Hungry Jaws are all nice.

Though, if I remember correctly, Tempest Clerics get Martial weapon proficiencies, so you wouldn’t have much use for your bite attack. Still, Hungry Jaws can be a life saver when used at the right moment.

And besides, who wouldn’t want to be a Lightning-Wielding Lizard?


VHuman is a good choice, especially if you grab resilient, but I might recommend something like Variant Half-Elf, and grab Weapon Proficinecies if you don’t get Martial Proficiencies (Haven’t Checked in a while), though grabbing the swimming speed or the speed boost might make traveling a bit less of a hassle. I’d probably choose Wood-Elf, as I’ve never liked Vhumans that much (I love the flavor and diversity for humans, but I just never liked the Free Feat, and the lack of Dark-Vision. That being said, a full game of VHumans is something I’ve wanted to try for a while).

Seems really interesting! but unfortunately, my DM wouldnt allow it :smalleek:


Res(Con) adds a +1 to Con which you benefit from tremendously with the Standard array whereas Warcaster does not come with any stat boosts.

Go one handed weapon + shield all the way at first and enjoy that 20 AC. You do NOT want to get hit. Getting hit = concentration check.

Got it! Standard Array sucks!
When I talked to the DM he even admitted that point buy is way better, but he didnt tell me why he was going for standard array... I really cant see why. :smallannoyed:
Thanks a lot for the help CTurbo!

[djreynolds]

If you are a melee type who likes to use these booming blades and GFB, this is where war caster comes into play, also non-divine casters who wish to use a shield or TWF

Also war caster earlier on is more powerful for concentration saves than resilient. The reason is advantage is said to average around +5, so until level 12-13. War caster is more powerful until then, but resilient con is awesome.

If you are going to be in melee living on reaction attacks with spells, go war caster early.

If this is for save purposes, I would wait on resilient con til 12th level.

With standard array, a frontline cleric can be MAD, wisdom, con and attack stat.

Now strength is sweet as it is good for melee, heavy armor, and shoving/prone, but you only have 1 attack and spiritual weapon will eat up your BA so shield master "might" be out.

If you want to min-max, I'd recommend a hill dwarf nature cleric with shillelagh. Yeah you lose out on some tempus goodies, but nature clerics 6th level perk is quite nice and its divine strike is also good

You can wear heavy armor as hill dwarf and dump strength, and just focus on con and wisdom.

And with strength no longer needed you can snag magic initiate and grab booming blade that way and stay single classed.

You get 2 druid cantrips with nature cleric, thorn whip has no save and shillelagh lets you use wisdom.

[KorvinStarmast]

Resilient (Con) is to get advantage proficiency on all of those concentration checks you'll be making when you get hit and have conc spells (like spiritual guardian or Hold Person) up.

[kardar233]

Resilient gets you proficiency, not advantage. War Caster gets advantage, which is better in most cases.

[Laserlight]

I took the moon variant half elf from SCAG, which let me take Booming Blade as a cantrip. Sword and shield, because you want that +2AC from shield. Early levels, she's mostly melee. Once she gets to L5 or so, she'll mostly cast, but still have a good melee attack when low on spells or when opportunity is provoked.

Take Warcaster feat so you can Booming Blade on opportunity attacks, as well as advantage on concentration saves.

Straight class. For my character, MC with Sorc might be appropriate--the "Lightning Lord" build--but my character has very high rolled stats, so I can afford a good STR CON WIS and CHA.