So, I wanna play a Tempest Cleric. Who can help me?

[Jmarsh56]

Were starting a new 2 player campaign this coming Saturday. The other play has no clue what I will show up as and vice versa so there is no planning around what we show up with. Could be a disaster could be awesome, fun either way.

So I rolled my stats, 18 14 14 13 13 13, off to a good start. I decided on Tempest because, well.... Tempest. Duh. I had at first come up with a Sea Elf cleric and asked about having booming blade be a cleric cantrip for me, DM shot that down.... Ok, back to the drawing board. High Elf!! I get access to my 1 wizard cantrip, booming blade, and plan to take Warcaster at 4th level and possibly MC into sorcerer at some point after that.

My current stats sit at 13, 16, 14, 14, 18, 13 and I plan to mainly hang back but still swing my sword as needed.

Where I'm struggling is whether or not to pick up Shocking Grasp in place of Booming Blade. It would give me the push back effect that booming blade doesn't but at the cost of damage.

Suggestions? Ideas? Other advice?

Thanks in advance!!

[BoxANT]

human (variant)

1. Polearm Master
4. Spell Sniper (Booming Blade)
8. War Caster

Hit them with a BB at 10', then (at level 8+) when they move in, hit them with another BB as a reaction. Combine with Spiritual Weapon & Spirit Guardians, and it does amazing work.

[McSkrag]

Since there will only be two of you, I think having some versatility and tankiness will help out a lot. I also think you will need to be able to stand on the front line and swing.

So I you might put your 16 in STR use heavy armor and sword and shield for a max AC. With Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon up you'll have great battlefield control and solid damage.

I think PAM will compete with Spiritual Weapon for your bonus action. I wouldn't take that.

You will need War Caster at some point.

I think you would get a lot of benefit from Magic Initiate for Find Familiar, Booming Blade, and Minor Illusion. That gives you an owl familiar for scouting and advantage in combat with help action, booming blade for damage and control, and at-will illusions to out of combat utility.

For race, Variant Human for the extra feat is always good. Dwarf or Firbolg would also work well.

[CTurbo]

Normally I would agree to go high Str over Dex but for a 2 man campaign, stealth and initiative is more important so I think I agree with prioritizing Dex. AC will only be 2 less in Breastplate. Medium Armor Mastery taken later would actually bring it up to 20 in half-plate.

High Elf for Booming Blade is a good choice. Shocking Grasp is a much worse choice.

I've played a lot of Tempest Clerics and they're always great. I played a Halfling Spell Sniper Booming Blade Tempest that used a Whip and he was a lot of fun. Just take Mobile at some point so you can get far enough away to make them want to move after you.

Warcaster is a must.
Res(Con) is good but you dont really need both.
Alert is awesome for 2 man parties.
Ritual Caster is also awesome for 2 man parties.
Magic Initiate is too. Find Familiar is strong for small parties too and you could pick up Booming Blade this was too if you wanted a different race.
20 Wis is a high priority too.

[CTurbo]

As far as race goes, I wish you knew what the other guy was going to bring. I really like Goliath and Half-Orc Tempests but that puts you in heavy armor territory. They're just so tough.

Bugbear is interesting. You could grab spell sniper and booming blade from 10ft with any weapon. You could even go high Str and stick with Medium Armor here.

I'd probably stick with a +2 Dex race though.
Any Elf would be great. High Elf as mentioned. Wood Elf for extra speed and hiding and you could grab Observant to max Wis which is a great feat for 2 man parties. Eladren(spelling?) gets Misty Step.

Tabaxi are always great. Even better if you're considering Sorcerer later (I wouldn't)

Halflings are always fun. Ghostwise's telepathy could come in handy for a 2 man team. Speed hurts though.

Aaracokra for flight

Half-Elf may be best choice if you really think you might want to dip sorcerer.

[McSkrag]

Normally I would agree to go high Str over Dex but for a 2 man campaign, stealth and initiative is more important so I think I agree with prioritizing Dex. AC will only be 2 less in Breastplate. Medium Armor Mastery taken later would actually bring it up to 20 in half-plate.

Good point about stealth and initiative in a 2 person party.

I'm changing my recommendation from STR to DEX.

[Laserlight]

My current character is a DEX Tempest.

With only two characters, you need to be prepared to melee. Take sword and board. You get a class feature that rebukes a foe who hits you. Melee.

BB is nice but unless you move away (and provoke OA) , you'll probably not get much extra damage out of it until L5. You should also consider Word of Radiance for AoE.

If you are going sword & board, Warcaster is mandatory. If you go with shield and cantrip, should still probably get it.

[Jmarsh56]

What about green flame blade? I took toll the dead for a ranged cantrip, so I'm looking specifically for something to augment my melee ability.

[Laserlight]

What about green flame blade? I took toll the dead for a ranged cantrip, so I'm looking specifically for something to augment my melee ability.

I'd still go with Word of Radiance because you won't find many creatures that resist radiant, they don't have to be adjacent to each other, and most importantly, you don't have to do anything special to get it. If you're determined to have a melee cantrip, I'd go with BB--partly because it's thematic--but I wouldn't spend a feat to get it; you need Warcaster, you probably want to pump WIS, and how likely are you to get to L12 for a third feat?

(Disclosure: my Tempest girl got BB as a Moon variant Half Elf...but I also rolled stupidly high stats, 10 18 16 14 18 18 after racials)

[tieren]

I'm playing a Hill Dwarf tempest cleric right now and really enjoying it. Hill dwarf gives you another Wisdom point and extra hit points.

I am going the heavy armor route, sitting in the front with 20 AC and if they do hit me they take 2d8 reactive lightning damage. Sometimes I will wade through the mooks trying to draw an AoO to zap them (or at least eat their reactions and protect my party).

By level 3 you'll be using your channel divinity to maximize shatter castings so don't think you'll use it to combo with booming blade.

Personally, I wish I had lighting lash to bring more in towards me than I do shocking grasp to get away from them.

I do use word of radiance which is very handy if you are wading into the fray.

[CTurbo]

What about green flame blade? I took toll the dead for a ranged cantrip, so I'm looking specifically for something to augment my melee ability.


Booming Blade is best for your melee ability. Green Flame Blade will scale off of whatever class you chose under Magic Initiate which will at best be a +2 mod

[Galadhrim]

Were starting a new 2 player campaign this coming Saturday. The other play has no clue what I will show up as and vice versa so there is no planning around what we show up with. Could be a disaster could be awesome, fun either way.

So I rolled my stats, 18 14 14 13 13 13, off to a good start. I decided on Tempest because, well.... Tempest. Duh. I had at first come up with a Sea Elf cleric and asked about having booming blade be a cleric cantrip for me, DM shot that down.... Ok, back to the drawing board. High Elf!! I get access to my 1 wizard cantrip, booming blade, and plan to take Warcaster at 4th level and possibly MC into sorcerer at some point after that.

My current stats sit at 13, 16, 14, 14, 18, 13 and I plan to mainly hang back but still swing my sword as needed.

Where I'm struggling is whether or not to pick up Shocking Grasp in place of Booming Blade. It would give me the push back effect that booming blade doesn't but at the cost of damage.

Suggestions? Ideas? Other advice?

Thanks in advance!!

In a two person party, it is highly likely you will be the tank, but since you don't know the other character it does make it a little more difficult to plan. With that in mind, I suggest going Hill Dwarf for several reasons. 1. You get extra HP, always nice. 2. although your rolls are high, only one of them is outside of pointbuy so you still need to make your secondary stat count. With hill dwarf, you can have 16 con and 19 wisdom. this still gives you a 14 in dex, which gives you the +2 you need for med armor, or you can wear heavy armor with no penalty because you are a dwarf. Now, this does leave you without using booming blade, but it is not required to play tempest cleric and if you really feel like you are missing it, you can get it through magic initiate later on. I would take warcaster at level 4. Pick some cantrips you can use in mellee, toll the dead works just fine. Add in word of radiance or sacred flame and you are targeting two different saves and suffer no penalty in melee. At level 8 take observant if your dm uses passive perception, or Perceptive if he doesn't. You won't miss anything with a 20 wisdom and expertise in perception! If at 8 you are just dying for booming blade, hold off on the wisdom bump and take MI instead.

Play style, wade in to melee with heavy armor and shield. Cast spirit guardians. smack things with your spiritual weapon and use your cantrips or dodge as needed to tank while your friend cleans up. If things group up, maximize shatter for a surgical strike with fireball damage. If things spread out, cast call lightning instead and zap them wherever they stand and utilize cover as needed. If you go on a stealth mission, you can just change from heavy armor to medium and not have a stealth penalty and suffer very little AC drop.

[McSkrag]

What about green flame blade? I took toll the dead for a ranged cantrip, so I'm looking specifically for something to augment my melee ability.

Also, as a Tempest Cleric you can maximize booming blade's thunder damage if you need to.

[Beelzebubba]

Where I'm struggling is whether or not to pick up Shocking Grasp in place of Booming Blade. It would give me the push back effect that booming blade doesn't but at the cost of damage.

...and MAD, since it's going to be Intelligence-driven and not Wisdom, so your to-hit roll will get worse over time.

[Laserlight]

Also, as a Tempest Cleric you can maximize booming blade's thunder damage if you need to.

If you're maximizing BB instead of Shatter, you're...making some interesting decisions.

[Galadhrim]

If you're maximizing BB instead of Shatter, you're...making some interesting decisions.

I think that depends on your short rest to long rest ratio. When I played my tempest there were definitely battles where I was skimping on spell slots and had a leftover channel divinity but did not want to cast a spell. That was a great time to maximize a booming blade.

[Man_Over_Game]

You picked one of the better possibilities as far as a blind 2 player team pick. In the worst case scenarios, two barbarians will be doing a lot of fighting compared to two wizards who would be doing a lot of running.

Keep in mind, Tempest Clerics do a lot better than most classes at melee combat. So whether or not you want to stay back and shoot lightning might not be up to you if your partner is a Sorcerer.

[Jmarsh56]

So I have read all of the things and have boiled it down to a couple possibilities.

High Elf 13 16 14 14 18 13
Hill Dwarf 13 14 16 13 19 13
Mountain Dwarf 16 13 16 13 18 13

I think I can rule out Mountain dwarf, the only draw to it over the other two is an enhanced melee potential with a higher strength.

Hill dwarf Vs High elf.... The initial idea for the character was a sea elf in medium armour and I had to forgo that in order to achieve what I wanted with BB. And High elf would give me a higher melee potential, BB aside, with a higher melee stat than anything the dwarf would have.

While the Dwarf gives a higher survival/spell casting potential, and it can fit thematically with what I had in mind. (smuggler/swashbuckler pirate theme)

Thanks again to the people who are helping me out, I am largely just talking it out and other peoples opinions/input are helping a lot haha.

[Man_Over_Game]

So I have read all of the things and have boiled it down to a couple possibilities.

High Elf 13 16 14 14 18 13
Hill Dwarf 13 14 16 13 19 13
Mountain Dwarf 16 13 16 13 18 13

I think I can rule out Mountain dwarf, the only draw to it over the other two is an enhanced melee potential with a higher strength.

Hill dwarf Vs High elf.... The initial idea for the character was a sea elf in medium armour and I had to forgo that in order to achieve what I wanted with BB. And High elf would give me a higher melee potential, BB aside, with a higher melee stat than anything the dwarf would have.

While the Dwarf gives a higher survival/spell casting potential, and it can fit thematically with what I had in mind. (smuggler/swashbuckler pirate theme)

Thanks again to the people who are helping me out, I am largely just talking it out and other peoples opinions/input are helping a lot haha.


If you really want BB, want more emphasis on ranged combat, and you're fine with Medium armor, you could go for Arcana Cleric. They get several Wizard cantrips for free, and later do extra damage with their cantrips, so it could do for a versatile caster, useful for whatever the other pick is. A Tempest Cleric can really only excel as a melee fighter, but an Arcana Cleric can fit several roles, and even get an enhancement to casting healing spells inherently as a class feature.

[Jmarsh56]

If you really want BB, want more emphasis on ranged combat, and you're fine with Medium armor, you could go for Arcana Cleric. They get several Wizard cantrips for free, and later do extra damage with their cantrips, so it could do for a versatile caster, useful for whatever the other pick is. A Tempest Cleric can really only excel as a melee fighter, but an Arcana Cleric can fit several roles, and even get an enhancement to casting healing spells inherently as a class feature.

Ehhh arcana specifically doesn't tickle my fancy. I really want the boom that tempest brings. I think I'm gonna go with the elf. I'm picturing a quick lithe combatant who can dip into and out of the fray as needed and be at least somewhat capable at both. Medium armor of a downgrade from heavy, but really not by much and the dex weapons (outside of rapier) are a very minor downgrade than the str ones and most of the damage comes from other sources even in melee.

[McSkrag]

If you're maximizing BB instead of Shatter, you're...making some interesting decisions.

Mostly I was saying it's a point in favor of BB vs GFB. Yes, you usually want to save your CDs for bigger AOE spells like shatter but sometimes BB is the right call.