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  1. - Top - End - #1
    Pixie in the Playground
    Join Date
    Jan 2021

    Default My Homebrew Nature Cleric.

    I've decided to make my own modifications to the nature cleric subclass. I borrowed one aspect from the battlesmith artificer and kept somethings the same giving it very slight changes. Some people I've talked to like the channel divinity so still keep a version of it as a class feature instead of a channel divinity. Let me know what you all think, honest opinions only and any suggestions would be very much appreciated.


    Acolyte of Nature
    At 1st level, you learn two cantrip of your choice from the druid spell list they don't count against the number of cleric cantrips you already know, for you, these cantrips count as cleric cantrips. You also gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, or Survival.


    Bonus Proficiency
    Also at 1st level, you gain proficiency with heavy armor.


    Channel Divinity: Divine Beast.
    As an action, you present your holy symbol and invoke the name of your deity. Once summoned the Beast In combat, shares your initiative count, but it takes its turn immediately after yours. It can move and use its Dodge reaction on its own, but the only action it takes on its turn is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take one of the actions in its stat block or the Dash, Disengage, or Help. The beasts only last for 1 minute.


    Divine Beast,
    Medium elemental, neutral


    Armor Class 15 (Natural Armor)
    Hit Points 15 (3d8), at level 15. 30 (4d8).
    Speed 45 ft.

    STR 14 (+2), DEX 14 (+2), CON 14 (+2), INT 4 (-3), WIS 12 (+1), CHA 4 (-3)

    Saving Throws DEX +3, CON +3, STR +3
    Skills Athletics +4, Perception +2
    Damage Immunities Poison
    Condition Immunities Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned
    Senses Darkvision 60 ft., Passive Perception 14
    Languages Understands, only understands you.

    Challenge 0 (10 XP)
    Proficiency Bonus +2,

    You can pick one of three options for the Divine beasts, whenever you use your channel Divinity. Bird of thunder, Land Creature of stone, or Fish of water. These beasts are partially made of the element and can be any creature you like but will remain medium-sized. Even though the beast is considered medium it takes a 10 ft of space, to 5ft cubes.

    Actions

    Wrath of the Beast. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target you can see. Hit: 1d8 + 2, at level 15. 2d8 + 3. (Damage Type: Bird, Thunder damage/ Land Creature, Force damage/ Fish, Acid damage.)

    Grace of the Beast. You can command the Beast as a bonus action to carry you away from combat using it's action. The creature blocks you from all opportunity attacks and damage until the end of your turn.

    Charge of the Beast.
    As an action you're divine beasts can make a tackle charge against an enemy, The enemy must make an opposing strength or acrobatics check, DC your spell casting modifier. On a fail the enemy is pushed 10 ft back.

    Might of the Beast. The Divine Beast can carry you and one creature of your choice up to double your movment speed. The other creature cannot be a size larger than you. (Bird of Thunder, Flight Speed/ Land Creature of Stone, Walking Speed/ Fish of Water, Swimming Speed, either above or underwater.)

    Reaction

    Wisdom of the Beast. The Beast imposes disadvantage on the attack roll of one creature it can see that is within 5 feet of it, provided the attack roll is against a creature other than the Beast.

    Soul of the Beast. When you drop to 0 HP the Divine Beast on its own accord will use its reaction to infuse itself into your soul and bring you back to 1 HP. The Divine Beast is gone and you cannot summon it until you use your channel divinity.


    Dampen Elements
    Starting at 6th level, when you or a creature within 30 feet of you takes acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage, you can use your reaction to grant resistance to the creature against that instance of the damage.


    Divine Strikes
    At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 cold, fire, or lightning damage (your choice) to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.


    Master of Nature
    At level 17, you charm animals and plants.
    One beast or plant creature that can see you within 30 feet of you must make a Wisdom saving throw. If the creature fails its saving throw, it is charmed by you for 1 minute or until it takes damage. While it is charmed by you, it is friendly to you and other creatures you designate.

    You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.


    (As for the spells only made one spell change and that was honestly it. I think the rest of the spells are pretty good when put into the hands of creative players.)

    Spells:

    Nature Domain Spells
    Cleric Level Spells

    • 1st Goodberry, Speak with Animals

    • 3rd Barkskin, Spike Growth

    • 5th Plant Growth, Wind Wall

    • 7th Dominate Beast, Grasping Vine

    • 9th Insect Plague, Tree Stride

  2. - Top - End - #2
    Halfling in the Playground
    Join Date
    Sep 2018

    Default Re: My Homebrew Nature Cleric.

    The only change you made at 1st level was to add a second Druid cantrip. Since most Nature Clerics will want Shillelagh so their cantrip combines with Divine Strike I think this is a good way to increase the variety and flavor of the Nature Cleric. I like this.

    The 6th and 8th level features were fine and you left them unchanged, which I agree with.

    The only complaint I had with the spell list was that Animal Friendship was redundant with the Charm Animals and Plants Channel Divinity option. I would change one or the other, but not both. Your Divine Beast Channel Divinity is very flavorful, while Goodberry increases the healing options for a member of the class with the most healing options in the game. I would keep the Divine Beast Channel Divinity and leave Animal Friendship on the spell list.

    The 17th level feature for the Nature Cleric is truly underwhelming because there are so few beasts and plants with CRs over 5 (The only ones in the Monster Manual are the Treant at CR 9, the T Rex at CR 8, the Giant Ape at CR 7, and the Mammoth at CR 6). Your version changed it to basically be a substitute for the 2nd level Channel Divinity (which was useful at 2nd level because you do meet a fair number of bests and plants at low levels) without the 17th level enhancement, making it even weaker than the standard version.

    The options I see for fixing Nature Cleric are:
    1) Replace the Animal Friendship Domain spell, keep the Charm Animal and Plant Channel Divinity at level 2, keep the Dampen Elements ability at level 6, and improve or replace the level 17 feature.
    2) Keep the Animal Friendship Domain spell, change the level 2 Channel Divinity to your Divine Beast option, keep the Dampen Elements ability at level 6, and replace the level 17 feature with something unrelated to Beasts or Plants.
    3) Replace the Animal Friendship Domain spell, keep the Charm Animal and Plant Channel Divinity at level 2, change the level 6 feature to your Divine Beast Channel Divinity option, and improve or replace the level 17 feature.

    Of those options I prefer option 2, which would require replacing your level 17 feature with something else.

    As far as the beast itself goes, my thoughts:
    The hit points should scale a bit more smoothly. Probably use something like 15 + your Cleric level. Since it won't last long enough to take a short rest the hit dice don't really matter.
    The bird of thunder needs a flying speed and the fish of water needs a swimming speed. To keep parity you should probably give the land creature of stone either a climbing speed or a burrowing speed (but not both). Climbing is probably more common for "land creatures", but burrowing could fit with the "of Stone".
    The Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution saving throws should be 2 + the Cleric's Proficiency bonus.
    The Athletics bonus should be 2 + the Cleric's Proficiency bonus and the Perception bonus should be 1 + the Cleric's Proficiency bonus. The Passive perception should be 11 + the Cleric's Proficiency bonus.
    The attack bonus should be 2 + the Cleric's Proficiency bonus.
    I would probably change the damage boost to 14th level to make it coincide with the Divine Strikes damage boost.
    I would consider adding "knocked prone" to the effects of Charge of the Beast.

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