Forge Cleric builld

[Protato]

I might end up getting to play Forge Cleric soon-ish and was wondering if there was any good times to take feats, what kind of at-will attacks to use, and multiclassing. I'm planning to go make a sort of "support melee" character with a Hill Dwarf and allocate stats as 17/8/18/12/18/16 (got a good 4d6 drop low roll, except that the 8 was a 3 originally but DM said to bump it to 8). He should start with Warhammer, Hand-Axe, Chain-Mail Armor, a Shield with a Holy Crest on it and a Priest Pack. For flavor, I'm including a book with metal covers that contains his doctrine so he can proselyte. Also, we may be allowed to start with an Uncommon Magic Item. We begin at L3.

Spells are honestly a pretty simple pick, with the exception of an attack Cantrip. I know to get Guiding Bolt, Bless, Spiritual Weapon, Healing Word, and of course the Forge spells look fun, with some that look meh or just okay and some (like Identify and Wall of Fire) that look useful. My main issue with spells is whether or not to select an attack Cantrip option. I plan to use melee anyway which could make Word of Radiance appealing but if I'm surrounded on all sides, the situation has gone south. Toll the Dead is nice and the bell can be reflavored as the sound of a hammer hitting an anvil (you ever hit one in person? It's loud!), but Necrotic is a bit weak versus a lot of foes and it requires a save. Sacred Flame does Radiant which is good, but like the other Cleric attack Cantrips, needs a save and not an attack. I'm considering using Magic Initiate for Produce Flame so I have both utility and damage, a different (likely utility) Cantrip, and maybe Goodberry, Faerie Fire, Absorb Elements, or Detect Magic for the L1 spell. As an alternative to ranged Cantrips, how would Javelins and Hand-Axes do? They key off my secondary stat (Str) but they do nonmagical physical damage, which can be resisted and my Blessing of the Forge is better used on a different weapon or armor, and they're a resource that's used when thrown and therefore aren't truly "at-will".

Finally, there's multiclassing, Feats, and Magic Items. I'm thinking of taking a dip in either Fighter or Barbarian, up to 3 levels, and I might start with Barb or Fighter 1/Forge Cleric 2. For subclass I'm thinking Champion for the increased hit/damage rate. Alternatively, I could go up to 3 in Barbarian and pick out Zealot, the DM waived the "no heavy armor'casting while raging" rule). For feats, other than Magic Initiate and maybe GWM (but that means I give up my shield with my hammer) I can't think of much. The only other thing would be if my first level is in Cleric, then Resilient Con might be somehting I pick up later. The Uncommon item might be a +1 Warhammer or +1 Chainmail/Shield, or maybe a Sentinel's Shield. I'm open to other suggestions that might be useful, or even just flavorful.

Finally, his personality isn't too fleshed out yet but he's boisterous and believes that he's Hephaestus' son, and that his hammer was once used his supposed father. Below the spoiler is a picture of his token, made with a tool that uses Fire Emblem sprites to make custom character, and with TokenTool to add the border.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/266453699839131648/436000411267366912/dwarfpriestguy.png

[CTurbo]

The Forge domain does not have all weapon proficiencies like War and Tempest do, but being a Dwarf does allow you to use a Battleaxe or Warhammer. That being said, I would not even almost pretend to consider GWM feat.

With such a high Con and the fact that it's even, I'd go Warcaster for sure.
Heavy Armor Mastery would be excellent since it will also bump your Str to 18.
Sentinel is great if you want to be in melee. Your reaction attack is really strong considering your Divine Smite.
Magic Initiate is another good one. I would pick up Firebolt so you have a ranged attack rolling damage cantrip, Green Flame Blade or Booming Blade so you'll have a melee attack contrip, and Find Familiar. Green Flame Blade fits your concept better than Booming Blade does even though BB is far more popular. Either way, you could use it for your Sentinel triggered reaction attacks for even MORE damage. Familiars are just awesome to have an extremely useful.


Can you move the stats around or do they have to stay in that order? I certainly would not dump Dex that low if possible.

For the Uncommon item, I'd go with the Cloak of Protection for +1 to AC and all saves

[prototype00]

Yeah, CTurbo has the right of it. I’m building my current Forge Cleric as “Never Fails Concentration Saves”.

Then you just get Spiritual Guardians and Spiritual Weapon up and running and then run around taking dodge actions until everything is dead.

[solidork]

I would for sure take some sort of offensive Cleric cantrip. You will run into situations where you have to attack from range or where trying to force a save is better than trying to beat a high AC. Produce Flame has a very short range, which makes it not really worth it in my opinion.

As others have suggested, picking up a melee attack cantrip is pretty nice for your melee damage, especially later on. If you do get to start with a magic item, try asking your GM if you can have a custom item that lets you cast Booming Blade or Greenflame Blade.

[HolyAvenger7]

Toll the Dead is a good cantrip. Also consider guidance, because an extra D4 is always useful. Goodberries are better with a Life cleric as you don't get the boost. Consider Prayer of Healing if you want to fill that role.

[SirGraystone]

For cantrips, guidance is useful in so many way, need athletic to climb a wall, the rogue need a roll to unlock something, the bard need persuasion check to talk the group out of trouble, an extra d4 always help. You really should take at least one damage cantrip (I took Toll the Dead because it's a wisdom save), remember that you can cast a cantrip in the same round then a bonus spell like Spiritual Weapon, and it's range that you can cast all day, not like javelin. While a melee weapon can do about the same damage as a cantrip at 1st level, when you get to 5 you don't get extra attack but the damage of the cantrip will increase. Other then that I took mending (Since a forge cleric should be able to fix thing) and Thamaturgy.

1st levels you already have Bless and Healing Words, Identify is good because since it's always prepare you can cast it as a ritual as often as you need. 2nd level Spiritual Weapon I use often, and Heat Metal against armored opponent or a boss weapon.

On multiclass I took 2 levels of fighter for the fighting style (I took an extra +1 AC, Chain mail + Shield + Fighting Style + Blessing of the Forge = 20 AC), and the action surge. Action surge let you do two action which mean casting 2 spells and you get it back on a short rest.

For magical item think about adamantine armor, your AC will be high already and since you are hard to hit, a good % of those hit will be 20 so being immune to critical can be very good. (Even better if you can get Adamantine Plate Armor). And its not technically magical so you can use Blessing of the Forge on it.

At level 4 I would get +2 wisdom first to rise it to 20, but Warcaster is good, I wouldn't get GWM since you don't get extra attack, your magic will do more damage then a melee weapon. I wouldn't bother with magic initiate either but if you do I would pick the Shield spell. I took the feat Shield Master myself that give me +2 dex save at thing like fireball and 0 damage if I save (Dwarf are short we can hide behind a shield if needed).