Melee Cleric Build

[WereRabbitz]

Can anyone suggest a good melee focused cleric build?

I assume Domain of War?

Maybe Take up Polearms so you can get a extra attack?

Wanting to find a heavy optimized melee build for a cleric in the group.

Thanks for any ideas!

[LudicSavant]

Consider Arcana and Tempest.

[Mercurias]

Most cleric domains are pretty heavily melee-focused. Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and Any Domain that gives martial proficiency should serve you well.

In my campaign starting up, I’m playing a melee Arcana Cleric that uses Shillelagh and Booming Blade/GFB in combat while Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon are running. We’re starting at level 9, so he’s going to be doing (4d8+5 Radiant)+(1d8+5 Magical Bludgeoning)+(1D8+5 Thunder) per his turn, with a probably (5d8+5 Thunder)+(1d8+5 Magical Bludgeoning) on a reaction when an enemy tries to run our of Spirit Guardians.

[Man_Over_Game]

Can anyone suggest a good melee focused cleric build?

I assume Domain of War?

Maybe Take up Polearms so you can get a extra attack?

Wanting to find a heavy optimized melee build for a cleric in the group.

Thanks for any ideas!

War is the optimal choice if you just want to hit things nonstop.

Tempest and Forge come in at second place, depending on whether you like blasting (Tempest) or support (Forge) more.

Lastly, Nature, Life, Death, Trickery, and Order are the ones that you'd use as a melee combatant, but mostly in the sense of "I attack when I have to".

With War Cleric, you already have a regular use for your Bonus Action. I wouldn't recommend Polearm Master on top of that.

Rather, you'd get more use out of Great Weapon Master. Increase your accuracy of one attack to deal massive damage with your Channel Divinity, and use the Bonus Action Cleave attack from GWM to save on your War Cleric per-Wisdom use attacks. Use Cleave from GWM when you can, and use your Wisdom-resource attack on turns when you can't.

Then grab War Caster for when you want to cast something like Spirit Guardians, then focus on maxing out your stats. Should work out rather well.

[MagneticKitty]

I think it's worth mentioning you can take arcana cleric and get a wizard cantrip, namely your choice of green flame blade or booming blade. This alone can be decent melee focus for a full caster. Good with a fighter dip, or a dwarf that gets hammer and armor proficiencies.

[Trustypeaches]

I think it's worth mentioning you can take arcana cleric and get a wizard cantrip, namely your choice of green flame blade or booming blade. This alone can be decent melee focus for a full caster.It's exceptionally good on the Arcana Cleric because they gain the ability to add their spellcasting modifier (WIS) to every damage roll of their cantrips, meaning they'll be adding +5 to both the initial damage of Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade as well as the rider.

[LudicSavant]

It's exceptionally good on the Arcana Cleric because they gain the ability to add their spellcasting modifier (WIS) to every damage roll of their cantrips, meaning they'll be adding +5 to both the initial damage of Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade as well as the rider.

This. Word of Radiance is a good beneficiary, too. Also Arcana Clerics have some tools that can make being near them a horrible experience, which means that if you take Warcaster + Booming Blade + Potent Spellcasting, they're between a rock and a hard place.

Another thing that contributes to Arcana Clerics being good tanks is that (if they're played well) it's hard to deal with anyone else in the party without dealing with them first. You've got protective buffs/debuffs and battlefield control abilities out the wazoo (and quite a few of the good ones don't take Concentration, and/or can be handed out as a Bonus Action). If an ally goes down you can pop them right back up with Healing Word or even Revivify. If they get status effects, you can Spellbreaker it as a bonus action (or sometimes less). And that's if they can run through the No Man's Land that is you (Spirit Guardians slow + Potent Booming Blade OA, etc) to get at the ally in the first place.

This is something that is often overlooked by newer tank players, who just think of tanks in terms of how high their base HP, AC, and maybe weapon damage is.

[stoutstien]

Order domain can get the party more attacks per round while using the harder hitting member(s) vs your own weapon.
Casting bless or hold person as a bonus action is a nice perk.