Min-max Death cleric

[MercCpt]

Trying to find any sorce or info on death cleric builds this will be my first time building one so looking for help.

[icedraikon]

Well it's a cleric so the usual Bless, Spirit Guardians, Healing Word, etc.

As for the subclass itself, Reaper wants you to use necrotic damaging cantrips so Toll the Dead and pick up Chill Touch via the extra cantrip it gives.

As for the 2nd level feature, it just says melee attack, so that could be via an Inflict Wounds (which can be delivered via familiar if you can get access to one like through Magic Initiate or otherwise) or Spiritual Weapon. Spiritual Weapon is a favorite of mine - no concentration bonus action spell, so for most casters that lack good bonus actions it's wonderful.

[MadCircus]

So I have this build ready, feel free to use and adapt as you wish.

Dr. Edgelord, ranged dps cleric

Fallen Aasimar, custom origin Cha to Wis;
good for a cantrip, a small heal, darkvision, resistance to radiant and necrotic damage, plus the damage boost for 1minute
lvl 20: Fighter 2, Cleric death domain 18

Spellcaster focused, WIS>CON>STR (15 to use a Plate armor without a movement penalty)
ex:15/10/14/8/17/10
ASIs as you wish, ideally max CHA and Metamagic Adept (Subtle e Quickened), subtle for roleplay and quickened for a burst
aberrant dragonmark is also cool to get Shield and a plus on CON

1° level fighter for heavy armor and CON proficiency;
fighter is also good for a fighting style, defensive, and action surge, but totally optional, you could go medium armor, 14 DEX, dump STR, and take resilient CON feat.

Build comes online at level 6, ideally, with 3th level cleric spells, (1/5 level split)

Level 20 math:

Basic turn:
Action: Toll the Dead on 2 (adjacent) targets for 4d8x2 Necrotic + 1d8 Radiant (Blessed Strike)
Bonus action: Spiritual Weapon for 1d8+WIS Force damage
Concentration on: previously cast Spirit Guardians: 3d8 Necrotic/Radiant, in a 15ft-radius around the caster on any number of creatures;


Good basic turn: 4d8x2+1d8+1d8+WIS+3d8x2 (let's say the same two creatures from the action attack): for 16d8+WIS [plenty of rolls to save
to negate/halve and maybe crit on the SW] (with only two spells slots for the whole fight, able to be upcast)


Burst:
Metamagic Adept (feat), Action Surge (fighter 2), Necrotic Shroud (racial), Touch of Death (Cleric 2), Blessed Strike (Cleric 8 acf)


Bonus idea, uses concentration:
Vampiric touch with Touch of Death and Necrotic Shroud active, deals (3d6+20+41), and heals for half

[Gtdead]

It's a fairly unpopular subclass and certainly not interesting enough to have it's own guide. The main trick is twining Toll the Dead and the Channel Divinity. Twinning is fairly simple. As for the CD, the most significant tip that tends to fly under the radar, is that you can deliver Touch of Death through the Spiritual Weapon since the clause is just a "melee attack".

For attributes and the like, I personally like 14 DEX/16 CON/16 WIS start and for feats, Magic Initiate: Druid, Resilient:CON, WIS ASIs, Lucky and Alert are all good choices. I like the idea of grabbing magic stones from MI:Druid and combine it with zombies from Animate Dead (make them throw the stones), while keeping them as bodyguards near you, ready to grapple anyone that gets into range (it also works really well thematically since the death cleric fits the necromancer archetype fairly well).

For spell choices, you should go with the usual suspects. Bless, Healing Word, Aid, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, Revivify. Death Domain's spell list for level 1 and 2 isn't very exciting. I'd say that Animate Dead and Death Ward are the best things in there while everything else is underwhelming. Vampiric Touch would be nice if you could twin it, but you can't up to level 17, and then RAW it only affects the initial attack so it's fairly worthless.

Toll the Dead is your main way of dealing sustained damage. You have enough defenses (like most Clerics) to stay in the frontlines with Spirit Guardians, and against bosses you can doubletap your Touch of Death (melee attack + spiritual weapon attack) for some good burst damage. Inflict Wounds is also an option, although aside from the Inescapable Desctruction bonus against resistances, it's not really better than other clerics and you will have to wait till level 17 to twin it.

[MercCpt]

All of this is very helpful thank you all!

My orgianal idea was to do something with GWM and polearm mastery (Glavie) and try get echo knight as a secondary class for extra things looks like it might be better to go pure cleric tho.

[Ganryu]

Vampiric touch goes well with the channel divinity. Mostly a useless spell, but has a niche here. You heal the necrotic damage dealt, and CD increases necrotic damage dealt. You can spam this later levels, and heal a fair bit.

[redsonja]

Colby from Dnd Optimized has a death Cleric Optimized:

I am not able to post a link as I have 8 posts, not 10.

do a search for death cleric dnd optimized. It's episode 11

[Ganryu]

Colby from Dnd Optimized has a death Cleric Optimized:

I am not able to post a link as I have 8 posts, not 10.

do a search for death cleric dnd optimized. It's episode 11

This?
The Death Cleric - D&D: Optimized #11 - YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePaTO_vPnP8&ab_channel=d4%3AD%26DDeepDive)

[redsonja]

[QUOTE=Ganryu;25264300]This?

Yep, that's the one. I think it's a straight death cleric as well. Basically his plan is to deal as much necrotic damage as possible, and twin toll the dead whenever possible. spirit guardians and spiritual weapon all day long.

[Hael]

You can do some pretty interesting things with Reaper. It can be played with divine soul sorcerer (so like 1 cleric, X Sorc) and the Reaper damage can start adding up in a hurry.