Arcana Cleric Feats

[Nickplatino]

Hi!

I'm going to play an arcana cleric teamed up with a Paladin, a Bard and another character in Descent into Avernus.

This is the character layout:

Variant Human (Magic initiate Druid)

STR: 8
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

Medium armor, Quarterstaf and shield.

He is going to use Magic Initiate to take Shilelagh, Thorn Whip and Absorb Elements so he uses wisdom to attack and spell effects.
Arcana cantrips are going to be Booming Blade and Minor Illusion.

The master gives a free feat and here are my doubts:
- War Caster: The cleric it's going to be in the front lines with weapon and shield so if he wants to cast and pass concentration checks reliably he needs it.
- Crusher: Having booming blade and only one attack, crusher gives the opportunity to move 5 feet to an unoccupied space the enemy you just hit. This will trigger almost always the rider from booming blade, from 1-4 levels 1d8, at 5 level 2d8 and with potent spellcasting you add Wisdom modifier to the damage.

What do you think? first level War Caster to help that bless hold on? Crusher to have fun moving enemies and dealing more damage? At fourth level i don't know if it will be better to take War Caster/Crusher or a WIS ASI to improve attack/damage and spell effects.
If the campaign continues further 12 level and the character survives i would like to take Resilient CON also.

Thanks!

[Ir0ns0ul]

War Caster will also make your OAs really dangerous because of Booming Blade. This is one of the best tanking capabilities out there. I don’t know if your DM is super sticky upon component rules, but you may find some problems casting S spells holding a weapon and a shield (like Absorb Elements), War Caster also mitigates that. You are basically make heavy usage of all the three benefits, so it’s a no brainer for you.

EDIT: You could also change to Nature Cleric (in order to get Shillelagh), and replace MI for Aberrant Dragonmark, that would give you Booming Blade and +1 CON. Then still keep War Caster as your free feat, and get both ASI and Res CON by levels 4 and 8, rounding up your CON.

[Gignere]

Hi!

I'm going to play an arcana cleric teamed up with a Paladin, a Bard and another character in Descent into Avernus.

This is the character layout:

Variant Human (Magic initiate Druid)

STR: 8
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

Medium armor, Quarterstaf and shield.

He is going to use Magic Initiate to take Shilelagh, Thorn Whip and Absorb Elements so he uses wisdom to attack and spell effects.
Arcana cantrips are going to be Booming Blade and Minor Illusion.

The master gives a free feat and here are my doubts:
- War Caster: The cleric it's going to be in the front lines with weapon and shield so if he wants to cast and pass concentration checks reliably he needs it.
- Crusher: Having booming blade and only one attack, crusher gives the opportunity to move 5 feet to an unoccupied space the enemy you just hit. This will trigger almost always the rider from booming blade, from 1-4 levels 1d8, at 5 level 2d8 and with potent spellcasting you add Wisdom modifier to the damage.

What do you think? first level War Caster to help that bless hold on? Crusher to have fun moving enemies and dealing more damage? At fourth level i don't know if it will be better to take War Caster/Crusher or a WIS ASI to improve attack/damage and spell effects.
If the campaign continues further 12 level and the character survives i would like to take Resilient CON also.

Thanks!

Eventually you may not even single attack anymore and also you hit about 50% of the times against level appropriate challenges and crusher raises a non combat stat for you because of Shillelagh so I think in your case war caster maybe the better feat and it will be necessary or else you may not be able to cast your Druid spells. Because the holy symbol on your shield only applies to your cleric spells.

[Nickplatino]

War Caster will also make your OAs really dangerous because of Booming Blade. This is one of the best tanking capabilities out there. I don’t know if your DM is super sticky upon component rules, but you may find some problems casting S spells holding a weapon and a shield (like Absorb Elements), War Caster also mitigates that. You are basically make heavy usage of all the three benefits, so it’s a no brainer for you.

EDIT: You could also change to Nature Cleric (in order to get Shillelagh), and replace MI for Aberrant Dragonmark, that would give you Booming Blade and +1 CON. Then still keep War Caster as your free feat, and get both ASI and Res CON by levels 4 and 8, rounding up your CON.


Eventually you may not even single attack anymore and also you hit about 50% of the times against level appropriate challenges and crusher raises a non combat stat for you because of Shillelagh so I think in your case war caster maybe the better feat and it will be necessary or else you may not be able to cast your Druid spells. Because the holy symbol on your shield only applies to your cleric spells.
Valid points! and at level 4 +2 WIS or Crusher? What do you think?

[Gignere]

Valid points! and at level 4 +2 WIS or Crusher? What do you think?

Crusher just not a good feat for you. Because by about level 5 probably more than half your actions in combat won’t be I attack with melee weapon. Thorn whip is probably more useful once you start spamming guardian spirits and you can scorpion the enemies into your aura of death. So I vote for the +2 wis.

[Ir0ns0ul]

+2 WIS and later Res CON.

[1Pirate]

Also Crusher won't trigger the BB rider because it's forced movement.

[LudicSavant]

Hi!

I'm going to play an arcana cleric teamed up with a Paladin, a Bard and another character in Descent into Avernus.

This is the character layout:

Variant Human (Magic initiate Druid)

STR: 8
DEX: 14
CON: 16
INT: 10
WIS: 16
CHA: 8

Medium armor, Quarterstaf and shield.

He is going to use Magic Initiate to take Shilelagh, Thorn Whip and Absorb Elements so he uses wisdom to attack and spell effects.
Arcana cantrips are going to be Booming Blade and Minor Illusion.

The master gives a free feat and here are my doubts:
- War Caster: The cleric it's going to be in the front lines with weapon and shield so if he wants to cast and pass concentration checks reliably he needs it.
- Crusher: Having booming blade and only one attack, crusher gives the opportunity to move 5 feet to an unoccupied space the enemy you just hit. This will trigger almost always the rider from booming blade, from 1-4 levels 1d8, at 5 level 2d8 and with potent spellcasting you add Wisdom modifier to the damage.

What do you think? first level War Caster to help that bless hold on? Crusher to have fun moving enemies and dealing more damage? At fourth level i don't know if it will be better to take War Caster/Crusher or a WIS ASI to improve attack/damage and spell effects.
If the campaign continues further 12 level and the character survives i would like to take Resilient CON also.

Thanks!

Warcaster will not only aid your Concentration, but make your opportunity attacks more deadly than some melee characters' *entire turns.*

An Arcana Cleric frontliner with Warcaster can even do things like throw on Spirit Guardians, Dodge, walk up to people, and just watch them squirm.

What's more, by staying in melee with a foe rather than using a "hit and run" tactic with crusher, you exert a lot of pressure just by being there. Ranged attacks are at disadvantage. Spells get Spell Breakered. Melee attacks are wasted on you (the tank) or provoke deadly OAs. And you+allies can drop hazards and the like to punish immobility.

[Verble]

I have a similar arcana cleric but I started with war caster and do MI at 4th. My suggestion is war caster as you benefit from all aspects of the feat, concentration, BB OA, and casting spells with a weapon and shield in hand.

[Eldariel]

Definitely just take War Caster. I find it better than MI (though in your case MI is of course necessary if you want to ever do anything in melee). On Arcana Cleric specifically you're using all 3 parts of the feat well: you wield shield & staff so you'll occasionally care about hands free for casting, and you definitely care a lot about Concentration and BB OAs. As said, you can literally just drop Spirit Guardians and walk in dodging taking an OA at an enemy if they do anything but try and hit you.

Resilient: Con is the other feat you definitely want at some point. OTOH you really want that 20 Wis ASAP since you're adding it everywhere so much. After that, Lucky, Res: Con and Alert are all great options. Tough isn't actually all that bad either. You might be able to wing taking Observant or Fey Touched on 8 and then going Res: Con and then +1/+1 to Wis/Con though that pushes the level-ups incredibly late.

[Nickplatino]

Crusher just not a good feat for you. Because by about level 5 probably more than half your actions in combat won’t be I attack with melee weapon. Thorn whip is probably more useful once you start spamming guardian spirits and you can scorpion the enemies into your aura of death. So I vote for the +2 wis.
Good point your comment about thorn whip.

+2 WIS and later Res CON.
Thank you!


Also Crusher won't trigger the BB rider because it's forced movement.
Yes of course, my thinking is that if the enemy wants to attack in melee he would have to move or lose the turn.


Warcaster will not only aid your Concentration, but make your opportunity attacks more deadly than some melee characters' *entire turns.*

An Arcana Cleric frontliner with Warcaster can even do things like throw on Spirit Guardians, Dodge, walk up to people, and just watch them squirm.

What's more, by staying in melee with a foe rather than using a "hit and run" tactic with crusher, you exert a lot of pressure just by being there. Ranged attacks are at disadvantage. Spells get Spell Breakered. Melee attacks are wasted on you (the tank) or provoke deadly OAs. And you+allies can drop hazards and the like to punish immobility.
Of course, of course.


I have a similar arcana cleric but I started with war caster and do MI at 4th. My suggestion is war caster as you benefit from all aspects of the feat, concentration, BB OA, and casting spells with a weapon and shield in hand.
War caster would be.


Definitely just take War Caster. I find it better than MI (though in your case MI is of course necessary if you want to ever do anything in melee). On Arcana Cleric specifically you're using all 3 parts of the feat well: you wield shield & staff so you'll occasionally care about hands free for casting, and you definitely care a lot about Concentration and BB OAs. As said, you can literally just drop Spirit Guardians and walk in dodging taking an OA at an enemy if they do anything but try and hit you.

Resilient: Con is the other feat you definitely want at some point. OTOH you really want that 20 Wis ASAP since you're adding it everywhere so much. After that, Lucky, Res: Con and Alert are all great options. Tough isn't actually all that bad either. You might be able to wing taking Observant or Fey Touched on 8 and then going Res: Con and then +1/+1 to Wis/Con though that pushes the level-ups incredibly late.
Yes, i also thought about Fey Touched, i like it very much and the Res Con and fey touched and +1 +1 combo it's very nice but the +1 +1 would come online at level 16, pretty late and it would require a continuation to the yet to be started campaign :) .

Maybe it's more viable to just take:
- Level 4: +2 WIS
- Level 8: +2 WIS
- Level 12: Res Con

Thanks!!

[Verble]

Nothing wrong with pumping wisdom.