Cleric Building for a Friend

[Name2020]

I recently had a friend who wanted to join my campaign who had never played D&D before. He knows a good bit about the game from streams and reading the books that I gave him and he told me he wanted to play a cleric. He asked if I could help him create both a backstory that tied into the campaign setting and a pretty balanced cleric build. I got about a week before my next session so I got a bit of time to build it. I was thinking of either doing a Tempest Domain or a Grave Domain Cleric, so he could either be a frontline fighter or a backline spellslinger with a good bit of healing. While looking into the Grave Domain however I saw that most people saw it as a mediocre subclass that was at best, a mini anti-death ward. Is it really that bad of a Domain?

[Eldariel]

Grave and Tempest are both fine domains, but Grave is certainly more casty. If you're looking for a frontliner Cleric, I would rather suggest looking into Tempest, or certain other domains. I'll give my own recommendation for Arcane or Nature, though War and Forge are of course quite good too (Forge is probably the better of the two outside very low levels, where War's ability to hit twice with a Greatsword 3xday is still impressive [though the +10 to hit Channel Divinity is always great] - Forge has some of the best domain spells for combat in the game including multiple class-exclusive spells like Searing Smite, Heat Metal, Elemental Weapon and the allstar that is Animate Objects, and overall rather good abilities).

Tempest is certainly stronger of the two in the frontline warrior role (though Channel Divinity being as limited in uses as it is, it really isn't all that) though. Tempest gets nice damage bonuses, heavy armor and martial weapons, some decent spells (though sadly a lot of ****e as well), etc. It's one of the better uses of Magic Initiate: Wizard's Booming Blade as you can maximize that damage with your Channel Divinity (with the caveat that you're restricted to a couple of times per day even on high levels). The ability to push people back with lightning damage is also really nice, though it's hard to trigger it with your martial weapons (Booming Blade and your Channel Divinity both deal Thunder). Martial Weapons are nice if you go for high Strength; this opens up Great Weapon Master + Polearm Master though not getting Extra Attack rains on that parade a bit. It's still a rather potent combo especially on low levels though, and you get your Channel Divinity and Divine Strike and even potential Booming Blade on top of it all. It's worth noting that your Bonus Action is easily spent on Spiritual Weapon making Polearm Master less amazing on that front (but it still lets you get those free sweet reaction attacks). Obviously you'll want War Caster down the line. Honestly, this is a domain that loves feats and definitely makes for a good candidate for Variant Human; Thunder Cleric with GWM/PAM, War Caster, Magic Initiate: Wizard and 20 Wis is quite well off (particularly with a Belt of Giant Strength to shore up your Str).

Grave is also fine, but its abilities are a bit less obvious. It's the actual healer Cleric, as it happens. Circle of Mortality is great; bonus action makes Spare the Dying potentially worth casting and getting a free maximize on your healing for allies at 0 HP (which is about the only time when you might consider healing them) is also convenient (though healing might still not be worth the action cost at all times for anything except Healing Word). Level 6 brings about the ability to cancel out crits on top of it. The biggest strike against Grave is that its Channel Divinity is pretty ****e (you use an action to give an enemy vulnerability instead of just smacking them in the face; the next attack better be pretty darn good to make it worth the resource expediture) and that for what you're suggesting, it isn't that good at fighting (simple weapons, medium armor, no good attack cantrips).

For the combination you're looking at, Nature Cleric and Arcana Cleric are both work recommending, both working off Shillelagh. Arcana Cleric Magic Initiates for it, Nature Cleric gets it naturally and Magic Initiates for BB instead.

Arcana Cleric gets its Potent Spellcasting on level 8 which allows adding Wis to Booming Blade/Greenflame Blade damage (which it can learn as Cleric cantrips though learning both does cost you Minor Illusion) and BB adds Wis to both instances of damage while GFB adds Wis to first and Wis x2 to second, making them extremely efficient here. Indeed, Arcana Cleric can match a Rogue's single attack damage output on level 8. Where Rogue gets to eventually add 10d6 SA (35 average), Arcana Cleric gets to add +15 to Greenflame Blade already on level 8 (where Rogue is rolling 4d6 bonus sneak attack or 14 average). This on a caster shell where you can also go ranged Toll the Deading or Sacred Flaming enemies and you have the best level 17 ability of any Cleric. Its other abilities are quite good too; Spell Breaker turns Healing Word into a bonus action Dispel Magic on a debuff, and even the turning has its place. Though of course, you don't want to go around damaging said enemy any more to not break it (if you turn something, kill its friends first). Shillelagh also means you get to just max your Wis and still attack at full power on level 8, while other Clerics are going to have their primary attack stat fall off compared to their casting stat more often than not. This means you can easily afford the 14 Dex to max out Medium Armor (and Quarterstaff + Shield is a fine combo, putting you just a point of AC behind the heaviest of heavies)

Nature Cleric gets Shillelagh innately and has one of the most reliable Divine Strikes in the game with 3 elemental options for bypassing resistances/abusing weaknesses. It also gets heavy armor putting it up there far as total AC goes. Some of its spells are quite good with both Animal Friendship and Spike Growth being awesome, though most of them are pretty meh. The level 6 ability is essentially Absorb Elements: the ability, Channel Divinity is pretty meh (but occasionally usable with your particular inclination), and the level 17 ability would be good if it weren't so damn late. He can also afford to pick up Find Familiar or perhaps Shield with his Magic Initiate, both of which are great abilities. PAM is pretty nice as well, with Quarterstaff being the only one-handed PAM weapon.


Either way, lose the moniker of a healer. Clerics really shouldn't heal all that much in combat though; it's generally a poor use of your spell slots running you out of resources fast and it's generally more efficient to nuke an opponent trying to prevent them from doing more damage. They're great area controllers (obviously Spirit Guardians is a superb spell) and fine damage dealers (Spiritual Weapon + Cantrips + Spirit Guardians again) and good support characters (Bless and Guidance are the most obvious "I make everyone better"-abilities).