AL Legal Arcana Cleric build

[1Pirate]

So I'm interested in making an Arcana Cleric as an alternate character for AL. Now supposedly there are other threads on this, however every one I've seen inevitably has certain people(I won't name names, but you know who you are) tell the poster to take Absorb Elements with Magic Initiate Druid, which(AFAIK) is not an AL legal build. So what spell does one take with the Magic Initiate feat?(Shillelagh seems pretty key to making it melee well, so I'm assuming Magic Initiate is still the Variant Human feat) Or do you drop Magic Initiate and take something else?

[Fable Wright]

So I'm interested in making an Arcana Cleric as an alternate character for AL. Now supposedly there are other threads on this, however every one I've seen inevitably has certain people(I won't name names, but you know who you are) tell the poster to take Absorb Elements with Magic Initiate Druid, which(AFAIK) is not an AL legal build. So what spell does one take with the Magic Initiate feat?(Shillelagh seems pretty key to making it melee well, so I'm assuming Magic Initiate is still the Variant Human feat) Or do you drop Magic Initiate and take something else?

You should take whatever you want.

My personal tops are:
1. Entangle. Scales 1-20, and gives some strong ranged battlefield control that clerics can really lack.
2. Animal Friendship, if you can sell your DM on using it as "animal companion, the spell".
3. Healing Word. Yo-yo healing never goes out of style.
4. Goodberry. It's nowhere near as good as Healer, but it's enough at low levels.

[BarneyBent]

There are tons of good spells, Absorb Elements is hardly key to the build. I am playing one right now and took Goodberry, though I’m playing Tomb of Annihilation where food is scarce so that influenced it.

Basically, take something that seems useful and fun. Faerie Fire is always nice, Fog Cloud can be useful, etc. It’s only a once per day thing so it’s not a huge deal.

[KRSW]

Magic Initiate Druid for Absorb Elements, Thorn Whip, and Shillelagh is not AL legal for Arcana Cleric because Arcana Cleric is in SCAG which unfortunately takes your PHB+1. Absorb Elements is in Xanathar's so you cannot be both an Arcana Cleric and have Absorb Elements in AL.

Now, Absorb Elements is good but it isn't even the thing you want the most from Magic Initiate, you mainly want Shillelagh. You do want Magic Initiate Druid though, just pick a different spell like Faerie Fire or Goodberry as others have mentioned.

[McSkrag]

Gonna give a +1 for Longstrider. Non-concentration +10' speed for an hour is great for melee builds and makes good use of a 1/day spell.

Faerie Fire, Goodberry, and Entangle are also all solid choices.

[1Pirate]

Will feeding a Goodberry trigger Spellbreaker?

[KRSW]

Will feeding a Goodberry trigger Spellbreaker?

Great question! Goodberry creates objects that restore hit points so instead of you restoring the hit points the goodberry restores the hit points.

Probably just up to the DM, I think it would get annoying pretty quick and also seems very powerful.

Edit: Spellbreaker only ends effects of equal or lower level of the healing spell so for this only 1st level spell effects. Not that powerful actually but still useful.

[BarneyBent]

Will feeding a Goodberry trigger Spellbreaker?

Technically no.


Starting at 6th level, when you restore hit points to an ally with a spell of 1st level or higher, you can also end one spell of your choice on that creature. The level of the spell you end must be equal to or lower than the level of the spell slot you use to cast the healing spell.

You haven’t expended a spell slot to cast it. Therefore, it doesn’t qualify. You couldn’t store it in a ring of spell storing either for the same reason.

This is a technicality though, one that your DM may handwave. I probably would.

[Nhorianscum]

So I'm interested in making an Arcana Cleric as an alternate character for AL. Now supposedly there are other threads on this, however every one I've seen inevitably has certain people(I won't name names, but you know who you are) tell the poster to take Absorb Elements with Magic Initiate Druid, which(AFAIK) is not an AL legal build. So what spell does one take with the Magic Initiate feat?(Shillelagh seems pretty key to making it melee well, so I'm assuming Magic Initiate is still the Variant Human feat) Or do you drop Magic Initiate and take something else?

It's AL. Just snag GoOS at 4th level and rock 19 str with actually useful feats as your level 1/12/16/19 ASI/Feats.

Magic innate for wis SAD only works as a not-nature-cleric invest in white room's where magic items somehow do not exist.

Or if you've got no unlocks on str boosters in a campain with no str boosters... yeah go for the 1-3 level druid dip into land (grass or coast) at cleric 9.

Getting an extra 10 spells prepped/day + off list spells + wild shape + an extra 2nd + shillyally is pretty nice.

[BarneyBent]

It's AL. Just snag GoOS at 4th level and rock 19 str with actually useful feats as your level 1/12/16/19 ASI/Feats.

Magic innate for wis SAD only works as a not-nature-cleric invest in white room's where magic items somehow do not exist.

What? Gauntlets of Ogre Power require attunement. That’s an attunement slot you could use on magic weapons, armour, etc. As you said, magic items exist, so attunement slots are important.

You could build based on getting Gauntlets early, then taking Magic Initiate later when you’ve got a magic item you want to swap them out for. But that doesn’t change the core of the build, just the order you take the feats in.

Also, you underrate the value of Thorn Whip in bringing enemies into your Spirit Guardians radius.

Can you make a melee Arcana Cleric without Shillelagh? Of course! But it’s not as easy, and only really worth it if you’ve got a specific feat you’d like to take instead.

[8wGremlin]

AL legal Arcana cleric is good, very good, especially as a VHuman as the Magic Initiate: Druid helps you to focus on Wisdom due to melee fighting with Shillelagh, and Thornwhip (which is to pull into your Spirit Guardians)

SCAG allows you to pick up Booming Blade coupled with a Shillelagh, Thorn whip, and Warcaster (feat) makes you very sticky.
they are damned if they stay, damned if they move.

Chill touch give your cleric extra range (120') as opposed to (60') and has a nice thematic rider.

For the 1st level AL legal spell from MI:Druid would be Longstrider, good long lasting non concentration spell.

[BloodSnake'sCha]

I think you will be better with War caster or Spell Sniper for extra range on stuff like BB and GFB.

I am willing to trade with you a gauntlet of ogre strength with defense against hot environment if you want(I have it open on a character that would not use it). I will be happy to get an evergreen item for it(My champion fighter needs no more str, he already have 18 as a mountain dwarf level 4 and it will be dishonor to lie about his power).

[Nhorianscum]

What? Gauntlets of Ogre Power require attunement. That’s an attunement slot you could use on magic weapons, armour, etc. As you said, magic items exist, so attunement slots are important.

You could build based on getting Gauntlets early, then taking Magic Initiate later when you’ve got a magic item you want to swap them out for. But that doesn’t change the core of the build, just the order you take the feats in.

Also, you underrate the value of Thorn Whip in bringing enemies into your Spirit Guardians radius.

Can you make a melee Arcana Cleric without Shillelagh? Of course! But it’s not as easy, and only really worth it if you’ve got a specific feat you’d like to take instead.

How about Warcaster. It's sorta a big deal.

Worry about shillyally at 8+ when the to-hit is potentially worth a bonus action. The realize toll the dead hits harder than BB most of the time. (24.5 vs 18.5/27.5) Then realize "holy balls by the time I can ASI this I'm a 12th level cleric, and leave such worthless tripe behind you.

(Personally like minor illusion + lightning lure on Arcana, but each to their own here)

[NNescio]

How about Warcaster. It's sorta a big deal.

Warcaster works even better with Booming Blade.




Worry about shillyally at 8+ when the to-hit is potentially worth a bonus action. The realize toll the dead hits harder than BB most of the time. (24.5 vs 18.5/27.5)

Toll the Dead is from XGtE, hence not AL legal to combine with SCAG.

As for BB damage, I suppose we are assuming Wis 20. In which case Shillelagh + BB will deal an average of 23.5 damage instead ([1d8 + 5] + [2d8 + 5]), or 42 damage ([1d8 + 5] + [2d8 + 5] + [3d8 + 5]) if the target moves and triggers the rider. Also note that it's generally more reliable to target AC instead of a save.

In any case, being able to (potentially) lock down an enemy has significant value (note that even without Mobility the Cleric can opt to move away from a melee enemy after BBing, choosing to eat an OA instead of the full multiattack sequence).




Then realize "holy balls by the time I can ASI this I'm a 12th level cleric, and leave such worthless tripe behind you.

Sadly the Cleric spell list is kinda anemic* at higher levels (especially after the Contagion nerf), so even a 12th level one will be stuck with the ol' Spirit Guardians (or Bless) + Spiritual Weapon routine for a long while, in which case Shillelagh + BB helps.

(*Unless the DM lets you spam Forbiddance as a bug bomb [it's a ritual and doesn't consume the ruby dust unless made permanent], but generally speaking that only works once, after which the DM will put enemy Forbiddances all over the place in plot-critical locations to exclude your Forbiddance.)

[LudicSavant]

So I'm interested in making an Arcana Cleric as an alternate character for AL. Now supposedly there are other threads on this, however every one I've seen inevitably has certain people(I won't name names, but you know who you are) tell the poster to take Absorb Elements with Magic Initiate Druid, which(AFAIK) is not an AL legal build. So what spell does one take with the Magic Initiate feat?(Shillelagh seems pretty key to making it melee well, so I'm assuming Magic Initiate is still the Variant Human feat) Or do you drop Magic Initiate and take something else?

Absorb Elements isn’t necessary for the build. Just take a different spell with MI. Any good first level Druid spell will do.

Shillelagh and Thorn Whip are PHB so should be no issue.


toll the dead hits harder than BB most of the time. (24.5 vs 18.5/27.5)

A correction:

You say TtD is 24.5, which means you’re assuming tier 3 and 20 Wis for 3d12+5

At the same level, Booming Blade does 23.5/42, not 18.5/27.5. You’re way off.

Also pertinent for a lockdown/hazard Arcana Cleric build it’s 84-on-leave vs 49 for TtD. Not to mention the advantages of it being a weapon attack.

[Nhorianscum]

Absorb Elements isn’t necessary for the build. Just take a different spell with MI. Any good first level Druid spell will do.

Shillelagh and Thorn Whip are PHB so should be no issue.



A correction:

You say TtD is 24.5, which means you’re assuming tier 3 and 20 Wis for 3d12+5

At the same level, Booming Blade does 23.5/42, not 18.5/27.5. You’re way off.

Also pertinent for a lockdown/hazard Arcana Cleric build it’s 84-on-leave vs 49 for TtD. Not to mention the advantages of it being a weapon attack.

Yeah I forgot to tack on the mele hit modifier on BB.

*shrug* Pre-coffee math is Pre-coffee math.

Post coffee math says our +2 shilly mod adds a whopping 4.75ish% to the "full" BB damage which is (generously) 33% of our total damage output. IE we're increasing our damage by 1.57% in the strict rotation Shilly forces us to use.

This is of course ignoring to-hit but... let's not pretend 5+prof is good in tier 3.

(Totally forgot about TTD being xanathars. My bad)

[Tallytrev813]

I like Goodberry to replace Absorb Elements

Longstrider, as mentioned, is another good choice.


To me, Goodberry is nice free healing at early levels, and provides you nourishment daily indefinitely.