Mountain Dwarf Divine Soul sorcerer

[Cikomyr]

So the conventional wisdom about the Divine Soul is that they shouldn't use certain spells of the cleric list because they are too squishy to be viable in melee.

Here comes the Mountain Dwarf with medium armor proficiency, battle axes, etc..

Let's try it. Instead of "which cleric spells usually not optimal for the clerics because they are in the thick of it", let's ask "which sorcerer spells are cool at point blank range and usually won't be as used"

GFB and martial cantrips are obviously in. Any other suggestion a melee sorcerer might try out?

[Paeleus]

The problem isn't armor proficiencies, but the d6 HD. Granted with armor, a shield, shield of faith, and Shield you will be near impossible to hit. But damaging area effects will be your worst nightmare.

[nickl_2000]

The problem isn't armor proficiencies, but the d6 HD. Granted with armor, a shield, shield of faith, and Shield you will be near impossible to hit. But damaging area effects will be your worst nightmare.

Absorb elements helps with that as well. The biggest problem is running out of spell slots.

[Arkhios]

TOUGH. 'nough said

...longer version: take the Tough feat.

Starting at 4th level, you'll have as much hit points as if you had started with a d8 HD class, and continued in a d10 HD class afterwards.

Until then you'll do fine with spells such as Shield of Faith and Shield/Absorb Elements. And the potential Healing Word and/or Cure Wounds.


As for spells: Burning Hands and Thunderwave are great, as are any spells that don't rely on attack roll. After all, you can cast spells that require saving throw in melee without any difficulty (such as provoking opportunity attacks). Starting from 5th level you could have Spirit Guardians.

And don't worry about those attacks or save DCs. Str/Cha 14-15 is quite enough, even for a bit longer than usual. You'll get it up eventually. 16 in a primary and secondary stat carries you a long way.

As for stats, with standard array (often the best for theorycrafting), you could start with
Str 15, Dex 14, Con 14, Int 8, Wis 10, Cha 15.

Since you're still mostly a caster, you probably won't be the main "tank" in your group, so 8 hp and AC 15 is fine. Not the best, but definitely not the worst either. With Tough, you'll have 34 hp at 4th level.
By then you also should have enough gold for a half-plate, so your base AC should be at least 17.

For comparison, a standard arrayed fighter would have around 36 HP by then, or a standard arrayed cleric 31 HP (assuming con 14 in both case, and 15-17 in str or wis).