Tempest Cleric Polearm Master!

[TerakasTaranath]

I am playing Hoard of the Dragon Queen soon and we have a barbarian and a rogue/ranger archer. I decided to go Tempest cleric and would like advice on making him a polearm master. I do plan on getting booming blade at some point, or would you say take a different feat other than magic initiate? Any help is appreciated, thanks!

[solidork]

Something to keep in mind is that you can't Booming Blade enemies that are 10ft away even if you can reach them with your polearm, due to the range limitations on Booming Blade. This can be avoided with Spell Sniper, but I'm not sure it's worth it. I'd personally kinda rather have the utility of a second cantrip and a 1st level spell.

[MrStabby]

Spell sniper for booming blade and pole arm master are both viable, but it is unlikely you want both.

I would suggest picking up PAM if you want it at level 8 although BB might be good at level 4.

The reason for this is that you will be stats hungry. You will want high strength and high wisdom. PAM gets a bit of a boost from your level 8 ability (a second chance to land that d8) and benefits from your level 6/1 abilities to push away people that hit you.

BB is also great and spell sniper is an ok feat. Remember it is useful for your other spells as well so if you need guiding bolt to hit something in cover it is pretty sound.

Getting both is probably too much of a tax on your stats though with some really diminished returns.

[Aaron Underhand]

It's also the case that you lose your PAM bonus attack if you cast booming blade rather than take the attack action, and you can't use booming blade for your bonus attack or your reaction. If you want more damage take GWM, as well as PAM, if you want to be sticky take Sentinel.

You'll never compete with anyone getting a second attack but PAM plus GWM will be good damage...

[Pharaon]

If you don't care about your stats and want to get pretty crazy with Booming Blade, start as a variant human and by level 8 have your feats be Warcaster, Spell Sniper, and PAM.

When someone walks into your reach, PAM gives you an opportunity attack. Warcaster allows you to cast a spell instead of melee attack on OAs, so use that to cast Booming Blade.

[TerakasTaranath]

Would it be smarter to perhaps use a sword and shield or great axe?

[tieren]

Here's another thing for the tempest cleric, if you never get hit, you can't use the reactive damage class ability, so you don't want your AC too high.

I'd stick with the 2 hander.

[SirGraystone]

If you want Booming Blade, ask your DM is you can have it since your a Tempest Cleric and it does thunder damage, I wouldn't waste a feat for magic initiate for it since most of the time the NPCs will just not move when you use it.

Booming Blade as a range of 5' not 10' like a polearm so they will be in melee range with you. The other thing is Attack of Opportunity is a reaction so you can't cast Booming Blade with it unless you have the War Caster feat.

So to use BB at 10' as an AoO you need Polearm Master, Spell Sniper and War Caster feat (and possibly Magic Initiate)

[tieren]

So to use BB at 10' as an AoO you need Polearm Master, Spell Sniper and War Caster feat (and possibly Magic Initiate)

Actually you can take BB as the cantrip you get from Spell Sniper since it requires an attack roll, and PAM lets you do it when they are coming towards you but you wouldn't need it for an AoO when they are moving away (not as cool though)

So technically you only need Spell Sniper and War Caster to do Attacks of Opportunity with BB from 10 feet.

[CTurbo]

Keep in mind that Spiritual Weapon will outshine the bonus attack granted by your Polearm for your entire career. For this reason alone, I would not bother with PAM on any Cleric.

Two thumbs up on getting Booming Blade though as it's excellent on any melee Cleric and doubly so on a Tempest.

[kardar233]

Keep in mind that after Level 6, if you Booming Blade somebody and then they hit you and you knock them back with your Reaction, they have to trigger the Booming Blade damage if they want to keep hitting you. Only useful against enemies with multiple attacks, but good to keep in mind.

[TerakasTaranath]

You've all given me some great things to consider. Thanks! I will either be playing this or a fighter, only because it's my favorite class and have yet to get one past level 7.

[Cespenar]

Instead of booming blade, I coupled this Tempest Cleric with PAM and Sentinel in a Curse of Strahd game for some cool shenanigans. Mainly opening Spirit Guardians and then stopping people at 10 ft. with the reaction. If they avoid your polearm and manage to close by, blast them back next turn with the reaction and continue.

Not extremely optimized, perhaps, but gives a lot of options, which is nice.