Tempest Cleric Multiclass?

[Xephur]

Hey all, first time poster.

I'm currently playing a level 6 Tempest Cleric, and while I can easily sit in the back lines and blast stuff, I'd like to build this guy into someone more melee efficient. Looking at the features I have available, I'm probably only going to take Cleric levels until 9, which is when i get my last domain spells and nothing else is all too useful.

Currently, my stats are 14, 8, 15, 10, 16, 12 and I have Warcaster since I'm currently sword n board.

i'm thinking about Paladin levels, but then I get an issue of becoming MAD (and cannot even MC into it yet because of the CHA requirement), however Smite paired with Divine Strike and Booming Blade (from Magic Initiate) sounds pretty dang nice to me, and Lay on Hands would help my role as the parties only healer. If it helps, our party is currently a Gunslinger, a Bladelock, a Lore Bard, a Thief/Champion and a pure Champion.

We've been told we're taking this campaign to level 20, unless for some odd reason we simply don't play anymore, and our DM is rather laid back so all feats, UA material and even a tiny bit of homebrew is fine by him as long as we get approval of course.

I'm not looking for extreme optimisation, however I do want this character to be fun and useful at the same time

[Petrocorus]

I may be reading your post wrong, but it seems you forgot to tell us your race. Dwarf?
Giving your skills could be useful too. And your cantrips choice.

Do you have feats other that Warcaster? Do you already have Magic Initiate? If so, what spells did you take?

Did you use point buy? Because your stat seems a bit odd to me for a Tempest Cleric.

9th level is not the best breaking point to multiclass, because of the ASI. If you go Cleric 9 / something else 11, you will lose one. If i were to multiclass at level 9, i would plan to come back for 3 level later.

Paladin make you MAD. And as you said, your not even allowed to do it by RAW.

Fighter will be easier. You won't have Smite, but 6 levels will give you 2 ASI, Extra Attack, Action Surge and a FS, say Defense FS for even more tankiness or easing the cost of switching to heavy weapons.
It also gives Battlermaster or Eldritch Knight which both can combine well with your build.
Battlemaster's maneuvers can improve your damage and your chance to hit, and don't make you MADder.
Eldritch Knight gives you spell slots and wizard cantrips, say Thunder and Lightning wizard cantrips (Booming Blade doesn't care about your Int and combine with your level 6 feature). It will make you a bit MAD too.

[Xephur]

My apologies. I'm a Water Genasi and we were told to use standard array. i haven't exactly built him for optimisation, but more for flavour. Warcaster is my only feat right now, but I do plan to take more.

My skills are Athletics, Insight, Intimidation and Religion and my cantrips are Light, Mending, Spare the Dying, Toll the Dead and Shape Water from my racial trait.

Fighter never crossed my mind for some reason, but i do like the sound of Battle Master for maneuvers, especially Riposte since i'm hoping for high AC and, if i'm interpreting this correctly, will activate Divine Strike too.

Again, my apologies for not getting this all in the first time, i'll make sure to include more detail whenever i post next, and thank you for your insight.

[Laserlight]

Tempest typically doesn't waste a lot of effort on melee attacks past L5 or so; you have spells instead. You should be in melee, yes--you have Spirit Guardians and heavy armor and your rebuke--but you should probably be casting Shatter and Thunderwave and Call Lightninginstead of swinging a mace.

When I ran a Tempest, I MC'd into Storm Sorcerer, which gives you BB and Shield, and Orb (tuned to Lightning damage) for single-target damage, plus some mobility since the "fly ten feet when you cast" doesn't provoke OA. Tempest 6/Storm X is one of the common recommendations for that. Look up "Lightning Lord" for more on that build.

[Xephur]

That all sounds super nice, I'll look into it more, thank you!

EDIT: Storm Sorcerer seems incredible, however the features seem to overlap a little, especially Wrath of the Storm. However i can still see the high potential for this MC, especially with something like Hold Person into Chromatic Orb + Destructive Wrath

[Nhorianscum]

Hey all, first time poster.

I'm currently playing a level 6 Tempest Cleric, and while I can easily sit in the back lines and blast stuff, I'd like to build this guy into someone more melee efficient. Looking at the features I have available, I'm probably only going to take Cleric levels until 9, which is when i get my last domain spells and nothing else is all too useful.

Currently, my stats are 14, 8, 15, 10, 16, 12 and I have Warcaster since I'm currently sword n board.

i'm thinking about Paladin levels, but then I get an issue of becoming MAD (and cannot even MC into it yet because of the CHA requirement), however Smite paired with Divine Strike and Booming Blade (from Magic Initiate) sounds pretty dang nice to me, and Lay on Hands would help my role as the parties only healer. If it helps, our party is currently a Gunslinger, a Bladelock, a Lore Bard, a Thief/Champion and a pure Champion.

We've been told we're taking this campaign to level 20, unless for some odd reason we simply don't play anymore, and our DM is rather laid back so all feats, UA material and even a tiny bit of homebrew is fine by him as long as we get approval of course.

I'm not looking for extreme optimisation, however I do want this character to be fun and useful at the same time

1 level in storm sorc makes pretty much anything good at booming blade use and it makes repositioning SG very quick and easy.

[Dork_Forge]

That all sounds super nice, I'll look into it more, thank you!

EDIT: Storm Sorcerer seems incredible, however the features seem to overlap a little, especially Wrath of the Storm. However i can still see the high potential for this MC, especially with something like Hold Person into Chromatic Orb + Destructive Wrath

Storm Sorcerer compliments it rather well (whilst Wrath of the Storm overlaps, it's limited use and requires a saving throw, the Sorc equivalent doesn't) and opens up the option of Heightening a Lightning bolt of higher level and then burning your channel dvinitiy on it (and doing extra damage if they're within 10ft of you).

[saucerhead]

Hey all, first time poster.

I'm currently playing a level 6 Tempest Cleric, and while I can easily sit in the back lines and blast stuff, I'd like to build this guy into someone more melee efficient. Looking at the features I have available, I'm probably only going to take Cleric levels until 9, which is when i get my last domain spells and nothing else is all too useful.

Currently, my stats are 14, 8, 15, 10, 16, 12 and I have Warcaster since I'm currently sword n board.

i'm thinking about Paladin levels, but then I get an issue of becoming MAD (and cannot even MC into it yet because of the CHA requirement), however Smite paired with Divine Strike and Booming Blade (from Magic Initiate) sounds pretty dang nice to me, and Lay on Hands would help my role as the parties only healer. If it helps, our party is currently a Gunslinger, a Bladelock, a Lore Bard, a Thief/Champion and a pure Champion.

We've been told we're taking this campaign to level 20, unless for some odd reason we simply don't play anymore, and our DM is rather laid back so all feats, UA material and even a tiny bit of homebrew is fine by him as long as we get approval of course.

I'm not looking for extreme optimisation, however I do want this character to be fun and useful at the same time

There is a really good cleric guide on this site, the devout and the dead. Google it, it has lots of advice, including knowing your role. I think you should stick with cleric and only dip one or two levels in multi-classing. Storm sorcerer, again needs charisma, but would work great and keeps you as a caster and support/blaster role. Your group already has fighters and DPR.

[Xephur]

Thank you all for the help! I'll probably be multiclassing into Storm Sorcerer for more blasting, although i'm not entirely sure for how many levels. Just out of curiosity, how would you guys build a melee Tempest Cleric?

[Laserlight]

how would you guys build a melee Tempest Cleric?

If by "melee cleric" you mean primarily doing damage by means of weapon attacks, I'd build a Vengeance paladin and give him a cleric's hat.

[SVamp]

Hmmmmm melee tempest cleric.. hmm.

I suppose a greatsword with GWM and extra damage from booming blade would be ok. Between your spells and it you should do fine damage wise.

Or if you don’t mind not being really a cleric, lol, tempest 2/drac sorcerer lightning X is surprisingly strong: extra cha to BB damage if your DM thinks thunder n lightning damage are the same thing (you can’t choose a thunder dragon so some rule it is) , extra damage on lightning spells, and quicken BB followed by a twin BB does tons of melee damage in a pinch. Lastly you can use shadow blade to make your melee attacks even stronger.

[Nhorianscum]

Thank you all for the help! I'll probably be multiclassing into Storm Sorcerer for more blasting, although i'm not entirely sure for how many levels. Just out of curiosity, how would you guys build a melee Tempest Cleric?

Cleric 17/Sorc3 or Cleric 20.

SG is our moneymaker. Scagtrips are just filler really. Priority is maxing wis and snagging warcaster. In your case we're not maxing wis with multi stats till 12 so dipping out of cleric isn't helpful.

[Petrocorus]

My skills are Athletics, Insight, Intimidation and Religion and my cantrips are Light, Mending, Spare the Dying, Toll the Dead and Shape Water from my racial trait.

Please acquire Guidance ASAP.
Spare the Dying won't be very useful past a certain level.
Sacred Flame or Word of Radiance can be good too for a tank and/or when necrotic damage isn't good.

If you multiclass, Thunderclap can combine with Destructive Wrath, Shocking Grasp can combine with Destructive Wrath (poorly) and Thunderbolt Strike.



Fighter never crossed my mind for some reason, but i do like the sound of Battle Master for maneuvers, especially Riposte since i'm hoping for high AC and, if i'm interpreting this correctly, will activate Divine Strike too.

Riposte is good.
I also recommend Menacing Attack, Precision Attack (especially with GWM), maybe Pushing Attack if the DM allows it to combine with Thunderbolt Strike. Commander's Strike and Trip Attack if there are good meleers in your party.

Divine Strike activate on any attack you make with a weapon, once per turn.



Again, my apologies for not getting this all in the first time, i'll make sure to include more detail whenever i post next, and thank you for your insight.
No problem.

If you want to go Paladin or Storm Sorcerer, you'll need to ask the DM to alleviate the multiclass restriction or to allow a change in your abilities.

For one of your next ASI, Resilient (Constitution) is to be considered.

[Sherlockpwns]

With cl6 already locked in, and the goal being a melee cleric, I think you are also locked in to going to CL8. This will get the asi and the 1d8 extra lightning damage on a melee attack.

I do not see a reason to go CL9 if the goal is to maximize Frontline power. Elemental weapon is ok, but since you aren't multiattacking it kinda looses it's luster.

The asi you take at 8 will really dictate what you do next. The problem I see with going fighter is while you gain a second attack and some other nice stuff, I suspect you would get more mileage out of a full caster class and using the extra spell levels to upcast spiritual weapon and / or guardians.

Sadly the way I see it the best potential multi options are bard, sorc, and paladin, which means this asi has to be either 1-2 Cha or a feat that lets you increase Cha. One thing to consider then is if staying pure cleric and using the asi to help redefine your combat.

For instance mobility could be useful for ensuring you get to where you need to be. Hit with booming Blade, and move away, forcing them to either take damage or not move to fight you.

The standard sentinel is also a possibility, simply to ensure people can't get away.

And I forget if you said you already had it, but warcaster is basically mandatory for a melee cleric. Not just so you keep concentration, but also so you can really blast someone who triggers an ao. So if you don't have warcaster, that basically becomes the go to. I assume you do.

Sadly, increasing Cha really hurts in your current setup.

Imo for standard combat, since spirit weapon should probably be eating your bonus action, and BB or stronger spells eating your primary, I just don't see huge value in going bard or sorc (sorc is great if you want to do more with lightning, but not if you want to be more Frontline). Paladin will certainly let you smite, but the 1/2 spell progression is just pulling power from the spirit spells and the upcast potential for your Chanel lightning blast. Plus multiattacking doesn't stack with your Booming Blade.

So yeah I guess what I am driving at here is I see more value in staying cleric. If your stats were different there would be a few neat things to do with rogue, or if your goal was blasting with sorcerer instead of Frontline melee.

Your close range damage should be fine with bb + spirit spells. So focus on ways to out maneuver opponents, preventing them from reaching you or your allies, while keeping them stuck with your spirit guardians and spirit weapon.

[CTurbo]

1. Tempest Clerics make excellent frontline "melee" Clerics. They are the best Clerics IMO for melee.
2. Being great in "melee" doesn't necessarily mean hitting with a weapon all the time.

I'd probably stick full Cleric and just build about being tough as nails.

I'd take Heavy Armor Mastery to bump your Strength high enough to wear Plate armor plus the -3 to damage is nice.
Take Res(Con) to round your Con out and help you maintain concentration better.
Then spend the last 2 ASIs maxing Wisdom.

Staying Cleric means you'll have plenty of spell slots in which to use. Your bread and butter spells will obviously be Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon, both of which upcast fairly well. Set them up and wade on down to the frontlines, and you could even take the dodge action most of the time until it's time to max a thunder/lightning spell or toss a heal.


If you REALLY want to be more weapon focused, I recommend taking 6-8 levels of Fighter. That's 3 ASIs right there and I recommend bumping strength with at least 2 of them.


Divine Strike specifically states "on your turn" so it doesn't work with any reaction attack unfortunately. I have made that mistake in the past with a melee heavy Tempest Cleric with Warcaster/Sentinel/Booming Blade.

[Petrocorus]

You could also go full Cleric and take PAM if you really want to focus on weapon. Even better if you get BB somehow.

[Willie the Duck]

Thank you all for the help! I'll probably be multiclassing into Storm Sorcerer for more blasting, although i'm not entirely sure for how many levels. Just out of curiosity, how would you guys build a melee Tempest Cleric?

What are your goals -- being up front and dealing damage/absorbing the frontal assault of the enemies, or swinging a weapon?

The later is an admirable goal if your DM runs lots of encounters and you simply will not be able to use a bunch of spells every encounter. If this is the case, a Tempest cleric with a reasonable Strength and Booming Blade (through MI or a dip) is all you really need. Given that you talked about going into paladin and smiting, this doesn't sound like your goal.

The former, well, first it depends on whether the DM has enemies run past the front line to attack the squishies. If that is the case than sentinel or War Caster/BB or something like that is your #1 priority no matter what. Either way, a cleric is going to do the most damage if they use Spirit Guardians and bonus-action attacks (Spiritual Weapon, or something like PAM) and their primary attack is simply not a huge contributor to the total. Some people even just do Spirit Guardians/(Spiritual Weapon, (perhaps bolstered by concentration save-enhancers like War Caster and Resilient:Con) and just dodge with their primary action. Others do bother with Greatswords and GWM or polearms and PAM (saving on the spell cost of Spiritual Weapon). The trick is that there is no one right answer, as every game runs different and clerics as combatants is in general a way of making what is simply more complex (after all, if your base goal was simply 'be good at melee combat,' there are already several classes designed around that).

[Xephur]

DM is allowing a stat shuffle if i really want it, since we're all relatively new, and i'm definitely going to take it. What should i put where? Still a Water Genasi btw.


DM is new and rather laid back, he runs encounters as monsters typically charging for the first thing they see, unless they are intelligent enough to do otherwise, and he will have them focus other people when necessary.


I feel like what i really want (since if i wanted to hit stuff well, i should go with the better melee classes, as someone mentioned) is to just be a huge wall of AC and optimise the Spirit combo, taking the full brunt of any assault as well as dishing out buffs when required. If this is my goal, do i stick with pure Cleric as recommended, or mc into something else? it's just that Cleric features seem to drop off at later levels, but i do get the luxury of spell slots and i don't mind going pure cleric.

Thanks all for your replies!

[Willie the Duck]

I feel like what i really want (since if i wanted to hit stuff well, i should go with the better melee classes, as someone mentioned) is to just be a huge wall of AC and optimise the Spirit combo, taking the full brunt of any assault as well as dishing out buffs when required. If this is my goal, do i stick with pure Cleric as recommended, or mc into something else? it's just that Cleric features seem to drop off at later levels, but i do get the luxury of spell slots and i don't mind going pure cleric.

This goal works just fine with going pure cleric, picking up Heavy Armor Master, Resilient:con, and War Caster (or just maxing WIS asap as opposed to any of the above). The only real issue is that there's no specific reason to be a Tempest Cleric with this as opposed to any of the others (unless you are only mostly doing this and occasionally dropping the maxed thunderwave or the like) Some people have also found that level 6+ cleric spells aren't exactly something to write home about, however, cleric in general is not bad just for upcasting the lower level spells (SG and SW, but also the ones you use your tempest cleric features with). Multi-classing into Storm sorcerer is not a bad way to go if you want to explore the storm aspect. If you really don't want any upper level spells or features, and are just looking for another full caster class to dip into, consider rearranging stats and going into wizard:abjurer for more AC and temp HP after every shield spell and the like.

[MikeRoxTheBoat]

I had this issue on my Forge Cleric. The typical thing to do on Cleric's with high AC is to Wade into melee, cast spirit guardians and spiritual weapon, then take the Dodge action and passively tank, maybe throwing a Warcaster OA if someone tries leaving your AoE.

It made more sense RP-wise to be more melee oriented, though. My solution (since I had similar stats to yours and very few required multiclass stats) was to take 3 levels of Fighter and go Eldritch Knight. This can get you booming blade (good synergy with spirit guardians, Warcaster, and tempest cleric theming), shield, absorb elements, defense fighting style, and action surge. This makes you a very sticky tank and feels more active to play. You'll still end up with level 9 spells and it doesn't put your slot progression back too much.

[Snowbluff]

I'm for grabbing Sorcerer (or wizard if you're in AL) on your build to grab Shield, Absorb Elements, and Booming Blade, which cover the poor reaction action use of clerics and also add some free damage to their melee attack/opportunity attack. IMO, clerics are in a very good place taken up to 8 or 9, since you get domain spells. Remember that for a melee cleric, at level 8 they get another d8 of weapon damage, which will stack with the bonus from Booming Blade. These builds are one of the few capable of being true tanks, by forcing enemies to attack them in order to avoid reprisals.

Tempest clerics are good at this because there damage is also pretty decent over all, since you can rack up some burst damage using your Channel Divinity. This gives you the option of putting out some decent damage on top of being a wall of meat or buffing your teammates.


I'm not a fan of chromatic orb. Only one target, only 1d8 more damage than AOE spells you know already(Shatter, Thunderwave), using your crappy side stat (cha), and does nothing when you miss. If you're super interested in poaching a spell, for a high DPR focused cleric build, Lightning Arrow from the ranger spell list is much better because it scales twice as fast and has an aoe component. On top of that, Lightning Arrow is a weapon attack, so the Divine Strike applies if you're going for a deep mix of Tempest Cleric with Ranger (Collosus Slayer would apply) or Lore Bard.