Twilight Cleric Options

[Chester]

Twilight Cleric, Variant Human.

Please weigh in on the following options:
+1 to Str and Wis, likely go with heavy armor, reach weapon, and Warcaster feat.
OR
+1 to Dex and Wis, medium armor, rapier/shield, and Shadow Touched feat.

OR
Other suggestions?

[strangebloke]

STR option feels like more fun to me, but honestly its up to you. They're both strong and neither is really all that different from the other. You're looking at a gap of like 1 AC and a few 1/day abilities.

[Gtdead]

Depends on what you want to do with it. If you want to transition into a Spirit Guardians play then STR is a trap because the whole point of this playstyle is to hold concentration, and Dodge is one of the more valuable ways to spend your action.

The only reason to go for STR is plate armor. If your DM allows magic items, then gauntlets of STR will solve this problem. If not then you trade +1 AC for better DEX saves, initiative/stealth scores and higher Constitution which is paramount.

For feats, I'm not sure what you want to do with Shadowtouched. I'd go for Telekinetic (breaking grapples, forcing enemies into SG) or Fey Touched instead (Misty Step+Gift of Alacrity).

So I think the better option is +1 DEX +1 CON (+1 WIS from feat), Rapier+Shield/Bow, Telekinetic or Fey Touched. You have the option for Medium Armor master if you wish and do a 16 DEX/CON/WIS build with similar AC as Plate and without stealth disadvantage.

Edit: Derped with half feat.

[da newt]

I am partial to DEX and Med armor personally, but heavy vs med armor is splitting hairs - both are just fine.

IMO there is rarely a situation where most clerics are better off attacking with a weapon than casting a spell/cantrip or dodging/dashing/etc with their action.

[RogueJK]

IMO there is rarely a situation where most clerics are better off attacking with a weapon than casting a spell/cantrip or dodging/dashing/etc with their action.

Agreed, outside of Levels 1-4ish if you happen to end up starting with a STR/DEX that's equal to your WIS. (By happenstance; doing so shouldn't necessarily be your goal.)

And past Tier 1, basically never. And it's certainly not worth devoting a Cleric's ASIs towards boosting your STR/DEX just for weapon attack purposes.

So don't bother building around "Which weapon should my Cleric use: DEX Rapier or STR Reach Weapon?". Instead, "Which type of armor am I going to focus on" should help guide whether you want your Cleric to start with a 15 STR for Heavy Armor (unless you're a Dwarf) or a 14 DEX for Medium Armor. Then all your further ASIs should be spent on boosting your WIS and potentially CON once you've maxed WIS, improving your Concentration, and picking up useful feats.

(There are a very few specialized builds that can make weapon attacks a viable option in some situations for a Cleric's Actions outside Tier 1. But even then, most such builds end up doing so with a WIS-based Shillelagh, so you're not having to sacrifice maxing WIS ASAP in order to go chase STR/DEX boosts. For example, an Arcana Cleric Frontliner's WIS-based Shillelagh attacks that stack d8 + scaling BB/GFB + 2x WISMOD to damage.)

[Chester]

Okay, so what I did was this:
Variant human
Bonuses went to Con and Wis
Took the Warcaster feat.

Stats resulted in:
14 Str
10 Dex
14 Con
10 Int
16 Wis
10 Cha

Opted for the heavy armor because I figured that I'd want to wade into the thick of things to buff my frontliners, so I'd need to take a hit.

When all is said and done, if it doesn't work I'll tweak the character.

[RogueJK]

14 STR won't be enough to overcome the Heavy Armor penalty. Splint/Plate Mail requires 15 STR, otherwise your movement speed drops to just 20'. If you want Heavy Armor, and your stats are generated by Point Buy, you should do something like:

STR 14+1
DEX 10
CON 14
INT 10 or 8
WIS 15+1
CHA 8 or 10



Alternately, if you don't want to drop INT or CHA down to 8, or you're stuck with that stat array and can only ever have a 14 STR/DEX, I'd recommend Medium Armor instead. That'd be:

STR 10
DEX 14
CON 13+1
INT 10
WIS 15+1
CHA 10

You can still "wade into the thick of things" with Medium Armor. 14 DEX + Half Plate + Shield is only 1 point of AC behind 15 STR + Plate Armor + Shield (19 vs 20). And you'll have a higher Initiative bonus too.


Otherwise, if you're stuck with that array and just really want Heavy Armor, do:
STR 14+1
DEX 10
CON 13
INT 10
WIS 15+1
CHA 10

And take Resilient CON instead of Warcaster as your Level 1 feat, to boost your CON to 14 and give you proficiency in CON saves.

[Chester]

I ended up swapping Str and Dex stats.

Thanks for the feedback.