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「Alien Ant Farm 」

Alien Ant Farm resembles a swarm of metallic army ants. These ants can repurpose nearby metal to self-replicate and assemble their collective bodies into complex mechanical structures that are exceptionally sturdy. In addition to its ability to reshape metal, Alien Ant Farm has also shown the ability to create small forges resembling volcanoes or ant hills, staple wounds closed with their mandibles and operate dead bodies via cables. Because of their swarm-like nature, metal composition, and ability to self-replicate, these ants are nearly impossible to destroy except when they form physical structures

This build started out purely as an attempt to create an interesting stand-user inspired by the ability of army ants to turn themselves into architecture, but in the process I found that the combination of Forge Cleric with Tasha's new Swarm Ranger was an absolute beast for subjecting an enemy to ongoing AoE, so this is what I came up with. hope you enjoy

Race: V. Human
Class: Swarm Ranger 5 / Forge Cleric 9
Stats: STR (14+1), DEX 12, CON 13, INT 8, WIS (15+1)
Feats: Magic Initiate: Druid
Fighting Style: Druidic Warrior
Important Spells: Shillelagh, Magic Stone, Thorn Whip, Conjure Bonfire
ASI: WIS +2, WIS +2, Sentinel

This starts off pretty basic. At level 1 you're going to be a staff-and-board ranger using shillelagh for your attacks. Nothing glamorous here yet, but at level 3 you start seeing where this build goes. On its turn, the Tasha's swarmkeeeper can drag one creature it hit 15 feet horizontally. This does not consume an action or bonus action, it does not need to be a weapon attack, and it does not need to use the attack action, which means you can use it with thorn whip to drag an enemy 25 feet, and only 10 of those feet need to be near you. What this means is that from as early as level 3 you are going to be a phenomenal tank, capable of pulling in enemies and quite literally raking them over the coals. So far, a very fun start

Taking this build to level 5 will get you extra attack, from there you switch to forge cleric and here's where things start getting interesting. At level 6 you get heavy armor proficiency, as well as a free +1 item. Level 7 will let you assemble alien ant farm into metal objects (this is admittedly just a ribbon, but it's still cool), Level 8 gives you spiritual weapon which will give you an extra hands-free attack as your swarm turns itself into weaponry (or a punch-ghost if you prefer), but level 10 will quickly invalidate that when you get spirit guardians and animate dead. Animate Dead might seem like an odd choice, but like tiny servant, undead can be given standing orders to do things like throw magic stones at people. Now with three zombies you have three ranged attacks as a bonus action, which is pretty sweet. Because they're kind of flimsy maybe make them some plate mail and shields, you are a forge cleric after all. 12 is where you get Wall of Fire, which is a fantastically fun AoE to drag enemies through, so do it frequently. 13 gives you sentinel, now enemies can't run, and 14 will give you creation, and here's where things get fun.

See, remember your zombie stone-throwers? At this level, you can upcast Creation as a 6th level spell slot to summon a cannon from the DMG, which is a large object. The cannon requires three actions to fire, but it does 8d10 damage on a hit. Also, it doesn't use up your bonus action anymore as long as you give your zombies the right standing orders. Bear in mind that a cannon has 12 adjacent spaces, so you can fit three teams of zombie cannoneers around it without any of them standing in front of it, so that's nice

Okay, with Creation we've reached the high point of this build. From here on out what you do is up to you. Some more cleric will make you more of a caster while more ranger will give you more swarm powers including flight and disincorporation. I recommend the ranger, as clerics tend to get a little dull at this level, but that's just me.