Summoner cleric?

[Rfkannen]

It just occurred to me that a lot of the best cleric spells (spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, guardian of faith, planar ally, and gate were the ones that occurred to me) are summoning spells. This makes sense to me thematically, you are summoning the will of your god, and therefor your god's servants, to the material plane.

How would you build a cleric that really leaned into the summoning? Any races/feats/multiclass dips/domains/spells that you think would be a good fit for the concept?

[icedraikon]

It just occurred to me that a lot of the best cleric spells (spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, guardian of faith, planar ally, and gate were the ones that occurred to me) are summoning spells. This makes sense to me thematically, you are summoning the will of your god, and therefor your god's servants, to the material plane.

How would you build a cleric that really leaned into the summoning? Any races/feats/multiclass dips/domains/spells that you think would be a good fit for the concept?

Do you specifically want to play a cleric or just a healer? Because if you're okay with just a healer, then Celestial Warlock would be a good option. Bonus action healing with a pretty good spell list for summons. Decent use of action for dps with Agonizing Blast as well. I would recommend Divine Soul Sorcerer but they really don't get many summoning options either.

[Eldariel]

It just occurred to me that a lot of the best cleric spells (spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, guardian of faith, planar ally, and gate were the ones that occurred to me) are summoning spells. This makes sense to me thematically, you are summoning the will of your god, and therefor your god's servants, to the material plane.

How would you build a cleric that really leaned into the summoning? Any races/feats/multiclass dips/domains/spells that you think would be a good fit for the concept?

Summon Celestial and Conjure Celestial as well as Planar Binding are high up the list. As for other stuff, there's little for Clerics to enhance summons specifically but all of those are incredibly good on their own and you could just play a generically good Cleric (say, Peace or Twilight) which has synergy with the actual summon spells too (though not as much with thematically summon spells; Peace +1d4 applies to Spiritual Weapon attack I guess).

[stoutstien]

It just occurred to me that a lot of the best cleric spells (spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, guardian of faith, planar ally, and gate were the ones that occurred to me) are summoning spells. This makes sense to me thematically, you are summoning the will of your god, and therefor your god's servants, to the material plane.

How would you build a cleric that really leaned into the summoning? Any races/feats/multiclass dips/domains/spells that you think would be a good fit for the concept?

As you have noted the spell list(don't forget summon celestial which is like having a decent martial PC on tap) has plenty to work with so maximizing concentration checks and personal defense/mitigation makes up the bulk of the ways to capitalize on it. Depending on what content you can pull from you can do some interesting things like grabbing mark of handling human from ERFLW for conjure animal, awaken, and being able to target more NPCs with charm effects. Who doesn't want a pet purple worm for a day? Not really summoning but it's fun. Alternatively mark of storm nets 2 summoning spells when you just need elements but mostly a side grade for what you already have.

Domain wise peace is probably the front runner thanks to being able to redirect damage with your temporary bodies.

[JLandan]

I would suggest a new domain based on summoning rather than an existing one. Maybe "Calling" or something similar. There are examples in literature of calling the angels (or demons, if that's your taste). The domain spells are obvious; the channel divinity could be a summoning of something, or a boost to a summoned entity. The details wouldn't be too difficult to keep balanced with other domain powers.

[Psyren]

It just occurred to me that a lot of the best cleric spells (spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, guardian of faith, planar ally, and gate were the ones that occurred to me) are summoning spells. This makes sense to me thematically, you are summoning the will of your god, and therefor your god's servants, to the material plane.

How would you build a cleric that really leaned into the summoning? Any races/feats/multiclass dips/domains/spells that you think would be a good fit for the concept?

I'd pick a nature god(dess) and be a druid :smallbiggrin:
Or a Creation Bard and grab summons from other lists with Magical Secrets.

If you held a gun to my head and said "cleric!" though - A Peace Cleric who thrives on the technicality that "I'm not actually attacking anyone!" would be pretty amusing.

[GentlemanVoodoo]

This depends on what type of summoning build which falls into two camps: summon creatures to fight for you or summon creatures and fight with them on the front lines. So what you do depends on this strategy from the get go. Without out going into the details here is some high level items to consider.

For a pure summon cleric it isn't going to be easy given the limited summon spells but if that is what you want nature or arcane domains are your best shot. Nature domain's channel divinity grants control over animals essentially which is more charming than summoning but at least you get minions. Arcana domain will grant you access to the wizard spell list of which you can get some of the better summoning spells though this won't occur until higher level.

Regarding multiclassing here are some combinations to consider depending on what you want to do. The below are high level ideas I came up with to pair with a cleric but specific mechanical details depends on what you are ultimately wanting to do. Again high level.

Nature Domain Cleric/Circle of Shepherd Druid - Access to some good spells for summoning creatures with a druid subclass that offers great support. Nature Domain offers more access to control other creatures to boost ranks.

Death Domain Cleric/Circle of Spore Druid - More in line with summon and fight with, you get the necromancy vibe going here. Spore Druid gives the undead minion access on top of normal summon spells with the Death Domain helping to some extent on the combat aspect.

Forge Domain Cleric/Battlesmith Artificer - While though the summon is limited, abilities will complement nicely. I have heard some rulings of allowing Artisan's Blessing to be used for recreating a destroyed steel defender but check with your DM on this one.

Nature Domain Cleric/Beastmaster Ranger - Like with the battle smith artificer, your main summon is going to be the beast companion. Though channel divinity from Nature Domain will grant some fighting buddies for it but mileage will vary probably on location.

Arcana Domain Cleric/Conjuration Wizard - More in line to a summon creature and fight for you. Conjuration does give some boost to summons while the arcane Domain will allow for more locking down other summon creatures.

Arcane Domain Cleric/Bladesinger Wizard - Similar idea with the Conjuration Wizard but allows for more combat application to fight along side summons.

Death Domain Cleric/Necromancy Wizard - Good set of abilities to be more of the combat necromancer.

Grave Domain Cleric/Necromancy Wizard - Similar to the Death Domain idea but more spell caster.

Cleric/Warlock - Between the Wizard and Warlock it is a race to see who gets access to the most variety of spells. While many of the principles to a multiclass are similar to a wizard (if again focusing on summonings) the main thing to realize is the Warlock has better HP and armor (depending on patron) and also the invocations to boost what you are building. Really in one way or another the Warlock can do what the Wizard can in most things of summoning. But again depends on what style of summoner that will aid in determining patron and pact boon choice.

Races will mostly again depend on what you have access to and is allowed. But if everything is on the table, for more of the animal based summon builds a mark of handeling human will do nicely with anything that uses Ranger, Druid or Nature Domain given the advantages with Speak with Animal and Animal Friendships which you can work in your favor.

If special backgrounds are in play, Gruul Anarch will grant you access to Conjure Animal and Dominate Beast spells which one way or another will get you more things to use, even if not using a Druid, Ranger or Nature Domain Cleric.