a few questions

[WolvesbaneIII]

Hi. new to D&D.

my friend has 5th edition and was wondering what a good build would be for a spell caster and cleric build.

So I'm thinking lawful good but would I get locked out of some of the cool stuff like lichdom as I've heard of good aligned liches like demi lich or whatever.

so If I were to ignore the lich thing, what god would I align with as a cleric/mage build?

I'm thinking a goody 2 shoes wizard cleric who can cast healing as well as cast magic but what kind of spell caster should I go with?

I hear warlock is good as it can restore spell slots on an hour rest.

its going to be our first campaign, so I assume the DM will go easy on us, but I figure some support from the lot of you will come in handy when the kiddy gloves are taken off.

basically, min maxing without being an nuisance to the rest of the group.

Also, what is max level or a high level over all? is 20 still deemed to be high level?

do you have any advice besides a good wizard build? like in general?

[JackPhoenix]

my friend has 5th edition and was wondering what a good build would be for a spell caster and cleric build.

So I'm thinking lawful good but would I get locked out of some of the cool stuff like lichdom as I've heard of good aligned liches like demi lich or whatever.

so If I were to ignore the lich thing, what god would I align with as a cleric/mage build?

Alignment pretty much doesn't matter. Nobody gets to be a lich without special allowance from the DM. There'sone way for player to become one, but it's locked to a specific adventure. And becoming a lich makes the character unplayable and turns it into an NPC. As for gods, that depends on what's available in your game.


I'm thinking a goody 2 shoes wizard cleric who can cast healing as well as cast magic but what kind of spell caster should I go with?

Clerics are spellcasters. I suggest staying away from multiclassing unless you really know what are you doing.


I hear warlock is good as it can restore spell slots on an hour rest.

Warlock pays for that by having to work with 2 spell slot for most of his career, and not the greatest spell selection.


its going to be our first campaign, so I assume the DM will go easy on us, but I figure some support from the lot of you will come in handy when the kiddy gloves are taken off.

basically, min maxing without being an nuisance to the rest of the group.

Hard to give advice without knowing specifics of your group.


Also, what is max level or a high level over all? is 20 still deemed to be high level?

Level 20 is the maximum level, yes, but few campaings get there.

[Anymage]

Lichdom isn't really something you're meant to build for, as in the current edition it does mean that you have to eat souls on a regular basis to keep going. Plus rules for monster PCs are not really covered well. So as a newbie just play a normal character.

One thing to keep in mind is that while clerics are not wizards, clerics are spellcasters in their own right and have some nifty options. Trying to split your levels will result in an all around underpowered character, and even some of the better ways of playing a character with both wizard and cleric levels will be a little tricky if this is your first time playing.

I strongly encourage you to read the basic rules (https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources/basic-rules) to have at least a basic idea of the major options. For a first character you can't go wrong with something like a basic hill dwarf life cleric. You're sturdy enough that you can afford the occasional misplay, you're a spellcaster with all the options that entails, and you can goody two shoes it up all you like. Background can be acolyte if you want to go all in on the goody two shoes holy type, or sage if you want to dip the scholarly wizardish aspect. There's often a lot to be said for simplicity when you're starting out.

20th level is the highest any PC can go, so yeah it's high. In practice most campaigns don't get anywhere near there, instead sputtering out somewhere around the double digits. Just try to enjoy your character instead of getting too caught up in the endgame possibilities, though, and you should do okay.

[meandean]

Not sure what you're getting at with the lich stuff, to be honest. Demiliches are listed as neutral evil, and liches as "any evil alignment". But there aren't any important things in 5E that require you to be a particular alignment. In other words, alignment is more for your own reference than it is a game mechanic. Anyways, it would be entirely up to your DM whether you can become a lich, and if you did, it would almost assuredly mean the retirement of your character as someone you're controlling.

The pantheon of gods is also totally determined by your DM. The Player's Handbook Appendix B lists the gods of the various existing settings. Again, it's entirely up to your DM which of these settings you're in, or it could very well be none of them.

20 is the highest level in 5E.

Wizard/cleric is an excellent multiclass. The reason is that cleric is very front-loaded. 1st level gives you armor proficiencies, and often a good feature. 2nd level gives you one Channel Divinity per short rest, some of which are powerful. Note that, in order to multiclass, you need to have at least a score of 13 in the key abilities of every class you maintain (the details of this are in the Multiclassing section of the Player's Handbook). So, to be a wizard/cleric, you have to have both an Intelligence of at least 13, and a Wisdom of at least 13. In addition to that, as a Wizard, you should try to have an above-average Dexterity because that increases your initiative and (if not in heavy armor) your Armor Class, and an above-average Constitution because that increases your Hit Points and concentration saves. (Whenever you're concentrating on a spell -- which is most spells other than instantaneous damage ones -- and take damage, you have to make a Constitution saving throw whose Difficulty Class is half of the damage taken, or else lose the spell.)

To try to sum this up as an example of a very stereotypical (and cheesy) character you can make... you could be a mountain dwarf, the rare species that gets +2 to two ability scores, which, if the rules from Tasha's Cauldron of Everything are in effect, can be added to the scores of your choice. Thus, your starting abilities with point buy can be STR 8, DEX 12, CON 17 (15 + 2), INT 17 (15 + 2), WIS 13, CHA 8. You can start as a 1st level Forge Cleric, which gives you heavy armor and shield proficiency, and improves your Armor Class by 1. (Unlike other races, dwarves can wear heavy armor with no movement penalty, even if their Strength is low.) You can then go Abjuration Wizard for the rest of your career. Wizards lack healing, but the Abjurer has an "Arcane Ward" that can be used to protect teammates so they take less damage in the first place. (Or, whichever subclass you like. Wizard subclasses aren't hugely significant. Their main power is the sheer breadth of their spell list, which isn't limited by the subclass.)

Another option is to start with Artificer 1 and then switch to Wizard. Artificers share Intelligence as their main ability, so you wouldn't have to have 13 Wisdom, although I personally wouldn't dump Wisdom anyway and thus don't consider that to be a big deal. The main advantage is that Artificers get proficiency in Constitution saving throws, which, again, you will need to make to ensure that your spells don't fizzle. Artificers are also the only half-casters that get spells at level 1, so you won't lose spell slot progression. For healing, 1st-level artificers get cure wounds, which isn't the greatest spell, because its range is touch and it uses your regular action. 1st-level clerics also get a better option in healing word, which has a 60' range and uses your bonus action, though it heals less actual damage.

Do remember that multiclassing is an optional rule. It's possible that your DM may not allow it at all, or at least may not allow the kind of cheesy dips I'm describing. To reiterate, the philosophy of 5E is to empower the DM to make judgment calls.

[Dualight]

I will echo the advice to stick to a PHB-only single class character. Keep it simple when you are just starting out. Especially if you start with a caster, as you will already forget what some of your spells do if you use only the spells in the PHB, and if you only have to trawl through one book to look up how your stuff works again it will save the others a lot of boredom. Also, screwing up a build into incompetence at their job is difficult in 5e, however multiclassing makes screwing up like that easy.And incompetent characters stop being fun fast.
As for general play/table etiquette advice:
In combat, think on what you want to do on your next turn while the other players are taking their turns. Combat is much more fun when it flows and does not grind to a halt whenever the next turn starts.
If playing in person, make sure to keep your dice somewhere you can access quickly, and make sure you know which dice you use for what. Most importantly, know which die is the d20, and remember at all times that that is the 'default' die. (I have DM'ed for a player who kept forgetting that it is the d20 that they needed to roll when I called for routine ability checks. The annoyance builds up, even if it does not show.)
In general, make sure you know the broad strokes of your character's mechanics, so you know roughly what you can do.This is especially important for casters, who have a lot of very conditional buttons to press.
Finally, be prepared to feel like you know nothing when playing with more experienced players. D&D is a fiddly game with loads of rules, and you won't be able to keep all of them in mind the first few times you play, even if you cram the PHB.

Ultimately though, I have to say that there is no 'right' way to play D&D. If your table (and remember that you are part of that table) has fun, you are doing it right.

[Millstone85]

So I'm thinking lawful good but would I get locked out of some of the cool stuff like lichdom as I've heard of good aligned liches like demi lich or whatever.You must be thinking of the archlich (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Archlich), a type of lichdom that is not only available but exclusive to good-aligned spellcasters.

See also the baelnorn lich (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Baelnorn) of Forgotten Realms and the undying (https://eberron.fandom.com/wiki/Deathless) of Eberron, both specific to elves.

Only the latter, the undying, has appeared in 5th edition. It is described pages 310-311 of Eberron: Rising from the Last War.

In any case, yes, there is totally such a thing as a good-aligned lich in D&D.

The real difficulty is working that into a playable character. I would use the reborn race from Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft, which can be selected at character creation or be switched to at a later point. If you start as a reborn, play on the fact that the transformation left you with only fleeting memories of your living self, thus justifying your character having to relearn how to be a powerful spellcaster. Otherwise, wait until you are high level and play the transformation as an apotheosis of sort.