Tempest Cleric Melee Build (D&D 5.5)

I’m planning to play a Tempest Domain cleric using the D&D 5.5 I’ve been thinking about playing a Tempest Domain cleric using the D&D 5.5 rules and leaning more into a melee style.

The idea is a storm priest who fights on the front line with a hammer while channeling thunder and lightning through their faith. I like the image of a cleric standing in the middle of battle, calling down the storm and striking with a hammer rather than staying in the back.

How would you approach a build like this? Would you keep it as a pure cleric, or add a small multiclass for flavor? I’d be curious to hear how other people would build or play this kind of character. and leaning more into a melee style.

They really need to just update the subclasses from Tasha and Xanthar's guide.   This is one of the subclass I want to play but really wish they update it to 5.5 soon.

I played a 5.0 version of this through level 13 or maybe 14. I went single class, to keep the spell progression, but I don’t like multiclassing generally. I used the pirate background, as I figured someone like that would be very useful on a ship.

Warcaster is a must as you’ll have hands full. But, then I found I was rarely using my weapon once I got it, as my wis was maxed, but my str was sitting at 15, so spell attacks were much better choices than weapon attacks, even for an OA. Though, with the new true strike, that could be an interesting choice to make the weapon more viable. You might look at finding a way to get that.

I also took heavy armor master, which in 5.0 wasn’t nearly as good as it is now. But I really leaned into the tankiness as I was the only healer, so if I went down, no one could get me back up.

Call lightning was cool, but not as cool as I’d thought it would be. But, the first time I used Destructive Wave was incredible.