Tempest Cleric help

[Kazuel]

Hey all. My group is starting a new adventure and this one is starting at lvl 7. My plan is to run a Dragonborn Tempest Cleric. I’d like some optimization ideas. Basically, I’d like him to be a front line fighter guy. I think the party would have enough healing even if I never used a healing spell. I only have the PHB personally but I will have access to all other source books through the group. One of my biggest questions is, what multiclassing options would be worth losing cleric spell casting progression? Thanks in advance of all the helpful advice.

[jaappleton]

Hey all. My group is starting a new adventure and this one is starting at lvl 7. My plan is to run a Dragonborn Tempest Cleric. I’d like some optimization ideas. Basically, I’d like him to be a front line fighter guy. I think the party would have enough healing even if I never used a healing spell. I only have the PHB personally but I will have access to all other source books through the group. One of my biggest questions is, what multiclassing options would be worth losing cleric spell casting progression? Thanks in advance of all the helpful advice.

Personally I don’t think nearly anything is worth losing spellcasting progression for.

However, if I had to suggest something? Two levels of Paladin for the ability to smite, and a fighting style.

[RogueJK]

Tempest Clerics don't really benefit all that much from multiclassing. They're just fine on their own, as one of the best options for a melee Cleric.


The only one that really comes to mind is 1 level of Sorcerer. That gets you access to four additional cantrips (including Booming Blade for added melee damage), a couple 1st level spells (I'd take Shield and Absorb Elements), and one or more Sorcerer Bloodline features.

And if you take that level of Sorcerer at first level, you get CON save proficiency, to help with your Concentration checks.

It does delay your spells known by 1 level, but not your spell slots. The main drawback is that it delays your Tempest Cleric features by one level

Multiclassing with Sorcerer requires you to have at least a 13 CHA, but you don't really need higher than 13, since there are a number of good Sorcerer spell options that don't rely on CHA, including the aforementioned Booming Blade, Shield, and Absorb Elements.


As for Bloodline, Storm Sorcerer is thematically appropriate for a Tempest Cleric, but the option for a flying short range reposition when you cast a spell is nifty but only situationally useful.

Shadow Sorcerer is nice for races without Darkvision (like Dragonborn), since it gives you 120 ft. Darkvision. And Strength of the Grave is handy for frontline melee combatants like Tempest Clerics. (From an optimization standpoint, this would likely be the best choice for Sorcerer Bloodline for your Dragonborn Tempest Cleric.)

Divine Soul's 1/rest bonus to an attack or save would be handy, and thematically being "favored by the gods" meshes well with Cleric.

Draconic doesn't get you much other than 1 extra HP, but it thematically fits well with being a Dragonborn. As a Tempest Cleric, you will likely be wearing Heavy Armor, so the unarmored AC bonus doesn't help unless you happen to get caught without your armor.

[Kazuel]

Tempest Clerics don't really benefit all that much from multiclassing. They're just fine on their own, as one of the best options for a melee Cleric.


The only one that really comes to mind is 1 level of Sorcerer. That gets you access to four additional cantrips (including Booming Blade for added melee damage), a couple 1st level spells (I'd take Shield and Absorb Elements), and one or more Sorcerer Bloodline features.

And if you take that level of Sorcerer at first level, you get CON save proficiency, to help with your Concentration checks.

It does delay your spells known by 1 level, but not your spell slots. The main drawback is that it delays your Tempest Cleric features by one level

Multiclassing with Sorcerer requires you to have at least a 13 CHA, but you don't really need higher than 13, since there are a number of good Sorcerer spell options that don't rely on CHA, including the aforementioned Booming Blade, Shield, and Absorb Elements.


As for Bloodline, Storm Sorcerer is thematically appropriate for a Tempest Cleric, but the option for a flying short range reposition when you cast a spell is nifty but only situationally useful.

Shadow Sorcerer is nice for races without Darkvision (like Dragonborn), since it gives you 120 ft. Darkvision. And Strength of the Grave is handy for frontline melee combatants like Tempest Clerics. (From an optimization standpoint, this would likely be the best choice for Sorcerer Bloodline for your Dragonborn Tempest Cleric.)

Divine Soul's 1/rest bonus to an attack or save would be handy, and thematically being "favored by the gods" meshes well with Cleric.

Draconic doesn't get you much other than 1 extra HP, but it thematically fits well with being a Dragonborn. As a Tempest Cleric, you will likely be wearing Heavy Armor, so the unarmored AC bonus doesn't help unless you happen to get caught without your armor.

That’s some good info to digest. I was looking at feats and thought about the Heavy Armor master for the dmg reduction. Is that really worth missing out on the stat adjustment?

[CTurbo]

Tempest Clerics are the best IMO

You're probably best off staying full Cleric, but it really depends on what you're wanting to do with this character.

As mentioned above, a single level of Sorcerer gets you some good stuff. Booming Blade is awesome for Tempest Clerics as is Con proficiency. This is probably your best bet if you really want to mutliclass especially considering Res(Con) is almost feat tax for Clerics.

If you REALLY want to boost your melee 3-5 levels of Ranger(Hunter or Gloom Stalker) would help a lot, but at this point you'd pretty much be split class.

As far as feats, you'll definitely want either Warcaster or Res(Con) for sure if not both. Clerics REALLY want to be able to maintain concentration especially melee focused ones.
Heavy Armor Master is good, but I don't think I would bother with it unless I was starting at level 1 with it. I've done the vhuman Tempest with HAM at level 1 and it was great. It does lose some steam at higher levels though.
Spell Sniper for Booming Blade is not a bad idea if you want to use a Polearm weapon. 10ft reach Booming Blade is great.
Sentinel is a good way to boost melee damage.

But with a Dragonborn, unless you roll for stats, you're looking at starting with a 15 Wis at best so I would look at bumping that to a 16 with your first ASI as you don't want to be behind the curve too much since Wis is still going to be your main stat even as a melee Cleric. Maybe start 17 Str and 15 Wis so you can round both of up at level 4.



Since you're starting at level 7, I think I'd start Sorcerer 1 and then go Cleric from there with 17 Str and 15 Wis bumping them up at level 5. Then at Cleric 8 you'd know by then what feat/ASI you'd want. Honestly, as boring as it may be, bumping Wis to 18 at that point would probably be best. You don't want enemies passing their saves easily when you're maxing thunder/lightning damage.

[Laserlight]

I just finished CoS with a Tempest 7/Storm Sorc 1, which was a fun combination. For my Sorc spells, I took Charm Person, and Chromatic Orb because that gave me a good single-target lightning attack that could be maximized; note, however, that I had CHA18, so YMMV as to whether that's worthwhile. I didn't take Shield because I already had AC21 when I finally took my Sorc level. And of course Sorc gives you Booming Blade. And the Storm Sorc's 10ft move let me set up good AoE attacks without provoking.

The problem with melee Tempest is that you're only getting one attack per turn, and you probably want to spend that action on a spell which is more effective. You should get into melee, yes, because Spirit Guardians rocks, but that doesn't mean you necessarily want to make melee attacks. If you're in a serious fight, you're not swinging a hammer, you're casting Shatter and Spirit Guardians. If it isn't a serious fight, then whether you're swinging a hammer or casting an attack cantrip isn't all that important.

If you're ignoring the above...consider going single class Cleric, taking the Spell Sniper, which lets you learn a cantrip (Booming Blade) and doubles the range on attack roll spells. Now you can BB with a reach weapon.

[Gtdead]

I used to do extensive theory crafting for this subclass, but the simple truth is that aside from divine strike which is a joke feature in my opinion, the class is well put together and doesn't need too much to shine.

You should really forget about a melee weapon focused build. Your best bet is scag cantrips for that, but it's really not that impactful. I can't really reproduce the math now (though I'm certain I've posted it somewhere on this forum), but with one spell, either SW or SG per fight, wisdom is equal or better than strength point for point unless you assume that you will proc booming blade every time (which won't happen). STR should be just enough for heavy armor. WIS>CON>STR (For armor, unless you can get a magic item)>CHA>DEX>INT

A cleric's strongest level as a combatant is 5. Although you probably won't be able to unload your whole arsenal in every fight, you can be deadly when you need to with SW+SG.


Tempest's dirty little trick is Call Lightning, which, if you play a high level campaign, may worth the trouble to optimize. It's a spell which deals damage on cast, but you can continue using it with normal action. Which means that you can quicken it and use your action and action surge to deal damage multiple times during a round without breaking the spell rule.

While not a great build, Cleric 6+/Sorc 3 can quicken upcasted 5th level call lightnings and maximize them for 100 dmg (potentially 120), and you can still call down bolts for the rest of the spell's duration.

Personally I'd go full cleric up to lvl 7 for 4th level spells without even considering multiclassing. lvl 5 is good too for raise dead. Also consider getting at least Resilient (CON) or Warcaster. I actually like getting both. Cleric is very concentration heavy. He needs these.

From there on, and if you campaign allows for it, you can go crazy with Sorc and Fighter to maximize Call Lightning.

Also as far as I remember, there is a ring in the DMG which lets you cast Chain Lightning. You can maximize it for lot's of fun.

And keep in mind, that as long as you boost your concentration and be careful, you can stay in melee and do all these. No need for melee attacks. You can use cantrips, sw and sg without penalties. Hopefully your dm will let you pick potent spellcasting instead of that hideous divine strike.

[Shuruke]

If you wanna be melee you only need a 13 in wisdom just prioritize non save spells

I recemend
Cleric 18
Fighter 2

Grab great weapon style
And level 2 for action surge .
Take those at level 6 and 7

First asi use on magic intiate wizard or sorc
Grab
Booming blade
Mending
And a first level spell that scales like shield.

At level 8 cleric (10 character level)
Take great weapon master feat

Now u can swing a great maul with booming blade and your 8th level cleric feature for

2d6+13+2d8

U can use bless to counteract gwm and can use channel divinity to maximize the booming blade initial damage for
2d6+21+1d8

U can use channel divinity twice a short rest at this point meaning with bless up u can action surge for two attacks of
2d6+21+1d8 or 65 average damage if both hit.

You will only have a 16 or 17 str till level 14 but the 1d4 bless at at level 10 with -5 you'll still have 2+1d4 to hit
Or with enhance ability +2 with advantage.

This gets better if DM allows all thunder damage not just spell to be maximized

[Snowbluff]

Tempest Clerics don't really benefit all that much from multiclassing. They're just fine on their own, as one of the best options for a melee Cleric.


The only one that really comes to mind is 1 level of Sorcerer. That gets you access to four additional cantrips (including Booming Blade for added melee damage), a couple 1st level spells (I'd take Shield and Absorb Elements), and one or more Sorcerer Bloodline features.


This. I do this build in AL and it's brutal.

However another good option is wizard. Wizards get a lot of good options for features at 2. For example, you can pick up the same spells, but also get Find Familiar. After that you get the second level feature, like Portent from Diviner or Sculpt spell from Evoker.

[djreynolds]

Hey all. My group is starting a new adventure and this one is starting at lvl 7. My plan is to run a Dragonborn Tempest Cleric. I’d like some optimization ideas. Basically, I’d like him to be a front line fighter guy. I think the party would have enough healing even if I never used a healing spell. I only have the PHB personally but I will have access to all other source books through the group. One of my biggest questions is, what multiclassing options would be worth losing cleric spell casting progression? Thanks in advance of all the helpful advice.

You could go the other route, get to 8th level tempest and then from then on out go sorcerer. Leave wisdom around 14, its enough.

Tempest 8/ Sorcerer 12

[Merudo]

The sad truth is that Clerics peak at level 5 once they got the Spiritual Weapon + Spirit Guardians combo going on. After that brutal combo, there is often not much for a Cleric to look forward to - so Clerics should strongly consider multiclassing after level 5, typically to Sorcerer, Fighter or Wizard.

Level 6 provides an extra Channel Divinity & another domain feature, so that can be a good spot to multiclass too.

Level 7 & 9 provide extra domain spells, which can be quite powerful.

Level 8 is for Potent Spellcasting or Divine Strike. They are not exciting features, except maybe for Arcana domain if you go for Green-Flame Blade.

Level 10-16 are pretty barren for Clerics, with no extra domain spells & no extra features until level 17. I strongly recommend multiclassing at the point, if you haven't already.

I would say that the best time to multiclass are:

Level 5: Death, Light
Level 6: Grave, Knowledge, Life, Nature, Order, War
Level 7: Trickery (for Polymorph)
Level 8: Arcana
Level 9: Forge (for Animate Objects), Tempest (for Destructive Wave)