minor Illusion and mage hand are two of the best out of combat cantrips there are. Ones that a Cleric are lacking. See where I’m going with this? Truth is you already get the awesome guidance and sacred fire, so this is just taking the best from outside the usual box.
As for a 1st level spell, Find Familiar and Shield are by far the best options, but in your case as a healer in particular let alone magic user you can use your familiar to deliver touch spells such as healing, which can be huge in a fight no matter where you usually spend it. The only downside is the 10 gold for resummoning it upon its’ death, but some DM’s will even wave that. Still, if it worries or doesn’t interest you, there are plenty of first level spell slots you can use shield on instead, particularly if you are up on the front line like the one in my campaign currently.
My suggestion changes on whether you plan to be using a weapon in melee or staying near the back slinging spells:
If you plan to be in melee using a weapon, I would suggest grabbing True Strike, Blade Ward, and Shield from the Wizard spell list. The first one will let you make weapon attacks with your spellcasting ability while adding some extra radiant damage. The second two are nice defensive pickups. Find Familiar is also a nice choice for the first level spell, cause everyone wants a pet.
For a ranged caster, I would probably take the Druid route to snag Starry Wisp and Thorn Whip, which are nice attack roll based cantrips, along with either Goodberry or Entangle, depending on if you have any other party members with healing abilities (take Goodberry to pass out to your teammates if they have no healing abilities).
Thanks, good suggestions. Yeah for 1st-level spells, either Shield or Find Familiar are quite attractive, even if not in melee. Lot of creative possibilities for Find Familiar.
For cantrips, the Cleric already has some decent damage ones, no? What do you think of Mind Sliver? And for utility what about Prestiditation or Mage Hand?
Clerics are lacking in reaction spells so in addition to the ones mentioned above absorb elements is a decent spells for magic initiate. There are only 3 potential wizard spells for magic initiate that I usually consider, shield, absorb elements, and find familiar. With light domain I'd probably go with find familiar or absorb elements. Your subclass gives you a reaction defense against attacks so shield isn't as useful.
Damaging cantrips for clerics is where things get interesting. If you plan on being in melee and be multiple attribute dependent the blade cantrips will be the best. If you want to be single attribute dependent the 2 best damaging cantrips for clerics are toll the dead and true strike regardless of being in range or melee. They come out at basically the same damage on hit or failed save if you pick the optimized option for blessed strikes and use a non-magical d8 weapon. Even though building for it is more complicated, I would generally recommend true strike over toll the dead because it has a more reliable damage type and is more likely to succeed in dealing damage over all tiers of play. With that in mind I'd probably take true strike and a utility cantrip that clerics don't get access to like prestidigitation, mage hand, minor illusion, friends, or elementalism. Below is some analysis on the difference between toll the dead and true strike if you're interested.
Toll the dead is significantly easier to build around than true strike and is on the cleric spell list so you don't need to use magic initiate to get it. You won't have to worry about any weapon juggling to cast spells or worrying about making a ranged attack in melee range. The downsides of toll the dead are its smaller range at 60ft, its worse damage type of necrotic, it doesn't benefit as much from magic items, and it is a wisdom save that doesn't deal half damage on a successful save. The saving throw attribute and damage type don't make much of a difference at lower levels but really limit its damage potential especially in late tier 3 and tier 4.
True strike has quite a few things going for it. It is very versatile in that you can use it with a ranged or melee weapon which means it can have a range of 600ft with a longbow or deal more damage in melee with a maul or great sword. You can use weapon masteries with true strike and other features that modify weapon attacks like battle master maneuvers or sneak attack. It also benefits more from magic items. This is because magic items only increases the chance for toll the dead to succeed where flat bonus magic weapons increase the chance of success and the damage for true strike. Because true strike stacks with many weapons attack features and benefits more from magic items there's a potential for damage and secondary effects beyond the base spell which is its main draw for me. True strike is also an attack which means you can benefit from advantage. It's easy to get advantage on an attack but difficult to impose disadvantage on a save for a similar effect with toll the dead. The main downside of true strike for clerics is accessibility. You need to multiclass, be a high elf, or take magic initiate to get it. Since you're asking about magic initiate you'll have access but that would limit the number of cantrips from another class you can get. It also relies on using a weapon which you may not have at the time if you've been captured or have your hands full or tied. The weapon's damage dice does make a difference in your damage output but it isn't as noticeable when you start adding all the other dice.
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Considering Magic Initiate origin feat for a 2024 Light Cleric build.
What spells would folks recommend? Thx!
minor Illusion and mage hand are two of the best out of combat cantrips there are. Ones that a Cleric are lacking. See where I’m going with this? Truth is you already get the awesome guidance and sacred fire, so this is just taking the best from outside the usual box.
As for a 1st level spell, Find Familiar and Shield are by far the best options, but in your case as a healer in particular let alone magic user you can use your familiar to deliver touch spells such as healing, which can be huge in a fight no matter where you usually spend it. The only downside is the 10 gold for resummoning it upon its’ death, but some DM’s will even wave that. Still, if it worries or doesn’t interest you, there are plenty of first level spell slots you can use shield on instead, particularly if you are up on the front line like the one in my campaign currently.
My suggestion changes on whether you plan to be using a weapon in melee or staying near the back slinging spells:
If you plan to be in melee using a weapon, I would suggest grabbing True Strike, Blade Ward, and Shield from the Wizard spell list. The first one will let you make weapon attacks with your spellcasting ability while adding some extra radiant damage. The second two are nice defensive pickups. Find Familiar is also a nice choice for the first level spell, cause everyone wants a pet.
For a ranged caster, I would probably take the Druid route to snag Starry Wisp and Thorn Whip, which are nice attack roll based cantrips, along with either Goodberry or Entangle, depending on if you have any other party members with healing abilities (take Goodberry to pass out to your teammates if they have no healing abilities).
Thanks, good suggestions. Yeah for 1st-level spells, either Shield or Find Familiar are quite attractive, even if not in melee. Lot of creative possibilities for Find Familiar.
For cantrips, the Cleric already has some decent damage ones, no? What do you think of Mind Sliver? And for utility what about Prestiditation or Mage Hand?
Clerics are lacking in reaction spells so in addition to the ones mentioned above absorb elements is a decent spells for magic initiate. There are only 3 potential wizard spells for magic initiate that I usually consider, shield, absorb elements, and find familiar. With light domain I'd probably go with find familiar or absorb elements. Your subclass gives you a reaction defense against attacks so shield isn't as useful.
Damaging cantrips for clerics is where things get interesting. If you plan on being in melee and be multiple attribute dependent the blade cantrips will be the best. If you want to be single attribute dependent the 2 best damaging cantrips for clerics are toll the dead and true strike regardless of being in range or melee. They come out at basically the same damage on hit or failed save if you pick the optimized option for blessed strikes and use a non-magical d8 weapon. Even though building for it is more complicated, I would generally recommend true strike over toll the dead because it has a more reliable damage type and is more likely to succeed in dealing damage over all tiers of play. With that in mind I'd probably take true strike and a utility cantrip that clerics don't get access to like prestidigitation, mage hand, minor illusion, friends, or elementalism. Below is some analysis on the difference between toll the dead and true strike if you're interested.
Toll the dead is significantly easier to build around than true strike and is on the cleric spell list so you don't need to use magic initiate to get it. You won't have to worry about any weapon juggling to cast spells or worrying about making a ranged attack in melee range. The downsides of toll the dead are its smaller range at 60ft, its worse damage type of necrotic, it doesn't benefit as much from magic items, and it is a wisdom save that doesn't deal half damage on a successful save. The saving throw attribute and damage type don't make much of a difference at lower levels but really limit its damage potential especially in late tier 3 and tier 4.
True strike has quite a few things going for it. It is very versatile in that you can use it with a ranged or melee weapon which means it can have a range of 600ft with a longbow or deal more damage in melee with a maul or great sword. You can use weapon masteries with true strike and other features that modify weapon attacks like battle master maneuvers or sneak attack. It also benefits more from magic items. This is because magic items only increases the chance for toll the dead to succeed where flat bonus magic weapons increase the chance of success and the damage for true strike. Because true strike stacks with many weapons attack features and benefits more from magic items there's a potential for damage and secondary effects beyond the base spell which is its main draw for me. True strike is also an attack which means you can benefit from advantage. It's easy to get advantage on an attack but difficult to impose disadvantage on a save for a similar effect with toll the dead. The main downside of true strike for clerics is accessibility. You need to multiclass, be a high elf, or take magic initiate to get it. Since you're asking about magic initiate you'll have access but that would limit the number of cantrips from another class you can get. It also relies on using a weapon which you may not have at the time if you've been captured or have your hands full or tied. The weapon's damage dice does make a difference in your damage output but it isn't as noticeable when you start adding all the other dice.