Help with playing a Death Cleric

[lunatron]

I am a rather new player to D&D 5e. My DM informed me that I will be playing a Death Cleric... against the rest of the party. My character is obviously going to get gang-beat and go down, but I would like him to at least take down as many other PCs as he can before he goes down. (The PCs will ultimately be fine, I think [aside from mine]; the party contains a Life Cleric and Ancients Paladin, so Revivify can be slung around liberally.)

My Death Cleric will be a level 11 Death Cleric, with the Izzet Engineer background (long story) and access to the Izzet spells. He will be a PHB tiefling. None of this is changeable; I know tiefling is not an optimal race for a cleric. He may level up to level 12 by the time of this encounter, but he may not. If he does level up, so will the rest of the party.

My Death Cleric may have a shadow, two ghouls, and some zombies on his side, but then again, he may not.

He will not have time to prepare for the fight, so any spells with a casting time longer than an action are out of consideration. For example, Summon Minor Elementals, from the Izzet spell list, is great, but it takes too long to cast.

The rest of the party includes:
- A level 12 Barbarian 10/War Cleric 1 half-orc (and if the party hits 12, he'll hit 13)
- A level 11 Rogue (Thief), human, who is exceptionally difficult to find due to Hiding and who has Mobile and proficiency in firearms. If she hides, my Death Cleric probably can't find her.
- A level 11 Rogue (Thief) Warforged who has an AC of 23 due to buying a bunch of magic items
- A level 11 Wizard (Necromancer), human
- A level 11 Ancients Paladin, Goblin
- A level 11 Life Cleric, winged Tiefling - And I should mention that the DM says my Death Cleric is going to count as an Undead Fiend. :|

I'm looking for guidance on optimizing my prepared spell list. My Death Cleric has a wis of 18 (will bump it to 20 if we get to 12), and so can currently prepare 11+4=15 spells, and I will obviously have access to the Death domain spells. I am currently thinking about:
1) Animate Objects (from the Izzet list) - Upcasting in a 6 slot and animating 12 tiny objects that fly and have Blindsight sounds nice for hunting down the Rogues if they try to hide. I can use my bonus action to command, "Pair off, flank enemies from [designated enemy list], and attack enemies until they are dead," and the tiny objects will just do their job until they are done. Would be lower damage output than some other options, though.
2) Banishment - Upcast in a 6 slot, I could possibly remove three combatants from the fight. Would be unfun for the other players, though.
3) Spirit Guardians - Upcast in a 6 slot, it would do great damage to anyone who gets near me. Much more damage than Animate Objects. The only issue is that I don't think the firearms-Rogue will get anywhere near me. She's just going to stand at a distance, shoot, and hide, and I won't be able to find her.
4) Blade Barrier - Iffy on this one, but it could be good to have, depending on positioning.
5) Otiluke's Resilient Sphere - Off the Izzet list. A nice panic button if I need to chug some potions. The Wizard does have Disintegrate, though.
6) Silence
7) Spiritual Weapon
8) Command - Upcast "Flee" would waste a bunch of PC's turns and also provoke AoOs.
9) Sanctuary
10) Healing Word
11) Flame Strike - A shame it's a Dex save and there are so many Rogues and that the Life Cleric is a tiefling.
12) Guiding Bolt
13) Aid
14) Inflict Wounds
15) ??? Maybe Hold Person?

Are there any obvious picks for preparation I am missing out on? Bless is great, but it'll compete with other great Concentration options, and most healing spells will be useless due to any potential allies being undead.

Death Domain Spells
Cleric Level Spells
1st False Life, Ray of Sickness
3rd Blindness/Deafness, Ray of Enfeeblement
5th Animate Dead, Vampiric Touch

I am also looking for guidance on my combat tactics, because I haven't played a cleric of any sort before! (I usually play a paladin or a wizard.)

I would plan to open with either Banishment, Animate Objects, or Spirit Guardians. I lean towards Animate Objects, at the moment.

Second turn, if I survive that long, I would plan to attack with the Death Cleric's electric rapier (he's Dex based, and that can't be changed), plus Divine Strike, plus Touch of Death. He has the Lucky feat, so I can spend Luck points to get a hit if need be. Then bonus action Spiritual Weapon upcast to 4.

Third turn, possibly Inflict Wounds upcast + Touch of Death, then bonus action Spiritual Weapon.

I know any battle plan falls apart when it meets the enemy, but what are some good Death Cleric tactics to use?

[Man_Over_Game]

Seems like a new-ish DM mistake.

Advice for DMs:

Don't have enemies deal burst damage
Don't have enemies with low life (except in swarms)
Don't have players be enemies (because players generally have burst damage and low life)



Eh, I feel sorry for you, bud. With the Shadows and company, you don't stand a chance. Without the Shadows, there's not really anything to do, period. You'd need to be about 5 levels higher to be any real kind of threat to that many characters.

You're definitely going down on the first turn, so we really have to make this count:


Word of Recall, AKA GTFO M*FER'S
Harm, 14d6 damage in one go, about 50 damage.
Spiritual Weapon Bonus Action use, followed by Channel Divinity: Touch of Death, followed by Divine Strike with a Heavy Crossbow shot. Altogether 1d8 + 23 + 1d10 + 1d8 2x mod. With a modifier of +4, that translates to about 45 average damage.



Personally, I'd use Word of Recall. Divine Intervention is unreliable, with a 10% chance to succeed, and it's unlikely that someone has less than 50 HP, and even if you did, you'd have to overkill them to guarantee a death, so just Word of Recall and run away. Come at them again with an army in front of you as you continually chuck undead at them while they're in the middle of a boss fight or something.

For good tactics with a Death Cleric, you need someone who's able to protect you or keep you alive while you dish out more damage than anyone. Like a Life Cleric. Or a Barbarian.

[Crushgrip]

Cool. So with what you have listed some good tactics would be:

1 - Wait until the party splits up before initiating any sort of attack
2 - I would start with an upcast Banishment and target the Barbarian, the Life Cleric and possibly one of the rogues.
3 - You may want to then cast Guiding Bolt at the Wizard (possibly using the Lucky feat to ensure a hit)
4 - Possibly then hit the Wiz with an upcast Inflict Wounds - You will have ADV on the attack roll and Inflict Wounds can do an insane amount of damage for a first level spell if it crits.
5 - Keep Banishment up for as long as possible while focusing on one PC at a time
6 - Use Otiluke's and Sanctuary as your "no combat heal" protection spells
7 - After Banishment drops then cast Animate Objects and then Spirit Guardians

...One strategy that I can think of right now.

Good luck and have fun!

[CTurbo]

This doesn't make any sense. You won't make it to a second round. You'll be absolutely no threat to the party even with a few minions. As mentioned above, you'd need to be at the very least 5 to 7 levels higher to even provide a moderate challenge to that group, and even then you'd need minions.

[BarneyBent]

Ask your DM what the hell they’re thinking.

[DrowPiratRobrts]

I mean, if only we had a wheelbarrow, that would be something!

[Malifice]

Ask your DM what the hell they’re thinking.

Then join a different group.

[lunatron]

I would like to thank those who gave advice - I hadn't noticed that Divine Strike works on ranged weapons.

The way it played out was:
- Could not use Word of Recall and go get an army due to the framing of the scenario.

My paladin walked into a room, died, and came back as a Death Cleric. Hence why he didn't have time to prepare anything whatsoever. He had four goblins with poison as helpers.

The Warforged made a big mistake when he shook the cleric's hand - the Warforged has a self-destruct button, which the cleric pushed. That took out one enemy, although he made his Con saves and was able to get back up later in the fight.

The Cleric then took out 12 bullets and animated objects as a 6th level spell. With blindsight, they were great against the rogues.

The barbarian had a folding galleon (ship), and he made a tactical error in trying to drop it on the cleric, because he fumbled his dex check and dropped it on himself instead.

I did make a tactical error in casting guardian of faith - the rogues passed all their Dex saves, so the Guardian of Faith was useless. I should have just closed to melee on the rogues.

I was able to drop the Wizard with damage from Animate Objects. He did end up passing his death saves, got back up, and put the cleric in a Mental Prison.

Then the rogues ganked the Cleric, and he died. It turned out it was all an illusion.

But the Cleric dropped two PCs and did a satisfying amount of damage to just about everyone.