Arcana Clerics offer quite an interesting concept...an individual who can cast both arcane AND divine magic.
This is rivaled only by the Divine Soul Sorcerer...though a cleric's ability to prepare their spells & their armor proficiencies gives them versatility that is very beneficial to a spellcaster.
In addition to their additional domain spells (notable ones being "Magic Missile" or "Arcane Eye"), the Arcana Cleric gets two wizard cantrips as their first feature.
At 17th Level, they get "Arcane Mastery", which lets them choose four wizard spells, each from a specific level...6th, 7th, 8th & 9th.
My question is...what to choose?
For cantrips, you could lean heavily into combat cantrips..."Booming Blade" & "Green Flame Blade" both benefit from an Arcana Cleric's "Potent Spellcasting", which is pretty good for damage.
"Sword Burst" is an interesting choice; as it hits multiple attackers with force damage, and adds the Cleric's Wisdom modifier to each hit with "Potent Spellcasting".
Ranged damage cantrips include "Firebolt" or "Ray of Frost"...though, these tend to get resisted at certain points, and clerics already have ranged cantrips.
"Shocking Grasp" and "Chill Touch" offer decent damage w/ debuffs...an Arcana Cleric can use "Shocking Grasp" with less risk to themselves (with their armor), and it eliminates an enemy's Reaction on a hit...that's pretty useful, especially if you make your Arcana Cleric a magehunter of sorts...no Counterspell for that pesky enemy mage!
"Chill Touch" eliminates a target's ability to heal...that can be quite potent against certain enemies...though, I gravitate towards this cantrip less than the others.
For utility, the golden trio of cantrips for an Arcana Cleric would be "Prestidigitation", "Minor Illusion" or "Mage Hand"...though, a Magic Initiate feat could just as easily provide such cantrips later, I suppose.
Those high level spells, however...that's a daunting choice, with a lot of options...
"Wish" is that ever-tempting choice...combined with "Divine Intervention", you essentially can distort reality at your leisure with minimal risk.
I don't like entirely shutting out other 9th Level spells, however...so I'm open to suggestions.
Medium armor and simple weapons to me says stay out of melee, you can if you need to, but you’ll usually be safer hanging back and blasting things. That argues for more of the ranged spells than the up close ones. One, something like a booming blade to help you get away might be nice, but otherwise I’d zap things from range
For cantrips, don’t forget guidance, it’s one of the best in the game.
I think the cantrip choice is going to really depend on how you want to play. Do you want to be on the front lines swinging a weapon, or not so much? for my normal playstyle, I am taking ray of frost and shocking grasp.
If I want to melee I am taking variant human, druid initiate feat, with shillelagh and thorn whip plus goodberry. I'm /probably/ also going to take the rakdos cultist background so I can have firebolt too, as I really, really hate not having a ranged attack cantrip. Guidance is a must have. Finally greenflame blade and booming blade as soon as I can add it.
For 9th level spells, wish is an obvious pick, but if you're looking for something else...foresight is one of my favorites, and something I'd /strongly/ consider taking over wish.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I personally do Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade, Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh, and then keep the enemies close to me via Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and Thorn Whip.
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Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
6: Hard choice - Soul Cage or Scatter Soul Cage is remarkably useful for information and instant advantage. But Scatter is a "DESTROY THE DM's CAREFULLY PLANNED AMBUSH/TRAP" spell. Just totally ruins their day. Saves party members, puts them into great positions.
7: Crown of Stars ( or Finger of Death if you desire an army of zombies without having to cast spells every day to maintain control.)
8: Illusionary Dragon Illusionary Dragon is an Army killer. Really really nasty amount of damage.
6 - Mental prison is another one that's a lot of fun.
Mass suggestion can literally end an encounter before it begins.
Eyebite is situationally fun.
Chain lightning for some blasty fun.
Otto's irresistible dance is one of my personal favorites to cast. You instantly turn the bad guy into Patrick Flatley, lord of the dance!
Tenser's transformation if you want to be a combat cleric.
7 - SIMULACRUM! All other choices don't compare to creating another copy of yourself!
Forcecage is phenomenal. It can outright stop a fight if the BBEG can't teleport.
8 - Illusory dragon is pretty fun.
Do you want to screw up your DM's plans for his evil, mastermind of a villain? FEEBLEMIND!!! I've used this plenty of times and it's usually met with my DMs grinding their teeth and saying, "And now the boss has an intelligence and charisma of 1, and can't cast spells anymore..."
I've also seen antipathy/sympathy used to great effect in a T4 game where an arcana cleric cast it on his shield and any aberration that approached him had to make a wisdom saving throw.
Mighty fortress is a spell I'd love to see in action. I'd love to see it cast on the battlefield prior to a combat and the PCs taunting the enemy like the french soldiers taunted the knights in Monty Python and the holy grail.
9 - Almost all the level 9 spells are good, save for Weird and Time Stop. I'm partial to True Polymorph. My dad always said that if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. But with true polymorph you can be an ancient dragon. And dragons can eat bears.
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
Although Fire Bolt is the strongest ranged cantrip, fire is commonly resisted so it wouldn't be my first choice. Chill Touch, being necrotic damage, is resisted less often while having the same range as Fire Bolt, and at D8 isn't too bad. Shocking Grasp would be my second choice, since it is a damaging melee cantrip, so benefits from Potent Spellcasting. Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion and other non-damaging cantrips can be simply cast from Magic Initiate. Booming Blade is decent, but you're proficient only with simple weapons (unless you play Wood Elf or Dwarf) so the best dice you'll be rolling (quarter staff/spear) is a D8, and requires some investment in another melee stat. If you take Shillelagh you're investing two cantrips just to make the character SAD in melee. Shocking Grasp is a D8 and keys off your Wisdom stat making you SAD without having to take Magic Initiate: Druid.
Something to consider RE booming blade/shillelagh, is that you get to double up on your wisdom bonus once you get potent cantrip. You get it once from adding your wis bonus via shillelagh, and once again via potent cantrip.
That being said, I'm not personally a fan of mixing it up in melee with a cleric. Melee is going to provoke more opportunities to get hit and require conc checks to maintain your conc spells.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Medium armor and simple weapons to me says stay out of melee, you can if you need to, but you’ll usually be safer hanging back and blasting things. That argues for more of the ranged spells than the up close ones. One, something like a booming blade to help you get away might be nice, but otherwise I’d zap things from range
For cantrips, don’t forget guidance, it’s one of the best in the game.
Considering that Medium Armor can max out 1 AC behind Heavy Armor with a 14 in dexterity, I'd say that the simple weapons is the bigger issue for this. You can do a d8 damage with a GreatClub, Quarterstaff, or spear, but all of those require two hands to do so. It's only a 1 point of damage difference going from the d8 to the d6 to increase the number of weapons that you can use with a shieldto augment your AC, but you can get the same damage from so many cantrips that you almost have to do something like Shillelagh, Quarterstaff, and PAM feat to really get the damage going. Wielding a Shield then can cause some problems with spellcasting even if you have your holy symbol emblazoned on your Shield, which almost begs for the Warcaster feat to be added to help with your spellcasting, improve your concentration checks, and being able to add Booming Blade or Shocking Grasp or a similar save or melee attack spell as an attack of opportunity can be quite nice. But at that point, you're looking at 2-3 feats or multiclassing to get most of your features online and you have to take a good look at what Cleric brings to your build that another class wouldn't that you must have to justify the cost of all of the supporting features to get your class online.
You don't really need PAM, although it synergizes well. The biggest problem is that simple weapons require str. You're already heavily invested in WIS, and need at least a 14 in dex. The difference between d6 and d8 is really negligible (assuming a shield), especially if you are augmenting with booming blade or greenflame blade. A finesse weapon solves part of the problem, and you can get a d6 finesse weapon (short sword) if you're an elf or half elf. As you level up though, you're going to want to use your ASI and feats for propping up your wisdom, and your dex (aka attack skill) will fall behind. STR based clerics have the same issue.
That leaves two options; shillelagh and shocking grasp. Shillelagh requires you to use a feat, and infringes on your bonus action economy. It does open up double dipping on your WIS mod once you get potent cantrip when you use booming blade/greenflame blade. It makes warcaster necessary (or some action economy cheese) for some spells.
Shocking grasp on the other hand makes warcaster a nice feature rather than mostly mandatory because you always have an open hand. Now, you have your wisdom mod on your melee spell attack, it scales, works with potent cantrip and gives you that nice d8 that most sword and shield users consider the gold standard. You'll get your wis mod from potent cantrip when you level up.
Mostly though, I prefer to use sacred flame (or toll the dead) when I am stuck in melee, and use a ranged attack cantrip. I tend to prefer to not be in the thick of things in my clerics because that provokes more conc checks than absolutely necessary.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
The variant human build for shillelagh, by RAW, doesn't work. The spell has a material component cost that a starting cleric doesn't have. And even if they somehow did, they're not carrying a shield. Clerics with the Nature Domain have the same problem, as it's not a cleric spell for them. You always need to be careful with DMs and how they rule at the table.
Clerics with the Arcana Domain are, IMO, better off as flex casters who sit in the middle range and stick to ranged cantrips. Preferably, cantrips that have an attack roll as it's a good idea to diversify attacks. As for the higher-level spells...
There's really no bad choice. No matter what you pick it's pretty much gravy.
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
The variant human build for shillelagh, by RAW, doesn't work. The spell has a material component cost that a starting cleric doesn't have. And even if they somehow did, they're not carrying a shield. Clerics with the Nature Domain have the same problem, as it's not a cleric spell for them. You always need to be careful with DMs and how they rule at the table.
Clerics with the Arcana Domain are, IMO, better off as flex casters who sit in the middle range and stick to ranged cantrips. Preferably, cantrips that have an attack roll as it's a good idea to diversify attacks. As for the higher-level spells...
There's really no bad choice. No matter what you pick it's pretty much gravy.
Completely agree with this. Saving throw cantrips such as sacred flame and toll the dead are just as viable in melee as they are at range. Without ravnica backgrounds though, there aren't any other /good/ ways to get a ranged attack cantrip.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
The variant human build for shillelagh, by RAW, doesn't work. The spell has a material component cost that a starting cleric doesn't have. And even if they somehow did, they're not carrying a shield. Clerics with the Nature Domain have the same problem, as it's not a cleric spell for them. You always need to be careful with DMs and how they rule at the table.
Clerics with the Arcana Domain are, IMO, better off as flex casters who sit in the middle range and stick to ranged cantrips. Preferably, cantrips that have an attack roll as it's a good idea to diversify attacks. As for the higher-level spells...
There's really no bad choice. No matter what you pick it's pretty much gravy.
I'd disagree on the cleric (or anyone) not being able to wield a shield while casting Shillelagh. The reason why? The quarterstaff or club is a component of the spell. As long as they are only carrying that weapon and the shield, they'll be able to cast because of the quirks of the system.
As for the nature cleric not having their druid cantrip as a cleric spell, I'd be inclined to overlook that. The only other cleric that gets a bonus cantrip is the light cleric and Light is already on the cleric spell list. The only other class features that give spells in the PHB are magical secrets from the Bard and Pact of the Tome from Warlock. Both specifically pull from any spell list and the presence of the phrasing making them class spells would be needed to make them all be able to cast with Charisma instead of whatever ability that was originally used from that class. Since Druid already uses Wisdom, it's likely oversight. I can't think of any other class feature that gives a spell without making it a class spell if it's pulled from another list. The lack of errata, if it is an oversight, might be a combination of a lack usage of the Nature domain in general (compared to every bard getting magical secrets and every warlock subclass having access to Pact of the Tome), the prevalence to overlook material components in general, and the fact that druid already uses wisdom to cast. That said, it doesn't say it's a cleric spell, so I'd understand if my DM said it wasn't if they didn't appreciate that argument.
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
The variant human build for shillelagh, by RAW, doesn't work. The spell has a material component cost that a starting cleric doesn't have. And even if they somehow did, they're not carrying a shield. Clerics with the Nature Domain have the same problem, as it's not a cleric spell for them. You always need to be careful with DMs and how they rule at the table.
Clerics with the Arcana Domain are, IMO, better off as flex casters who sit in the middle range and stick to ranged cantrips. Preferably, cantrips that have an attack roll as it's a good idea to diversify attacks. As for the higher-level spells...
There's really no bad choice. No matter what you pick it's pretty much gravy.
I'd disagree on the cleric (or anyone) not being able to wield a shield while casting Shillelagh. The reason why? The quarterstaff or club is a component of the spell. As long as they are only carrying that weapon and the shield, they'll be able to cast because of the quirks of the system.
This is not correct. The quarterstaff or club is /a/ component of the spell, not THE component of the spell. You also need mistletoe and a shamrock leaf. The spell ANDs them together, not OR, so each component is necessary. You need an open hand to handle those components. Druid get around this because their staff can be their implement and bypass the mistletoe and shamrock leaf. A cleric cannot use druid implements, so they have to use the components themselves.
* - (mistletoe, a shamrock leaf, and a club or quarterstaff)
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
The variant human build for shillelagh, by RAW, doesn't work. The spell has a material component cost that a starting cleric doesn't have. And even if they somehow did, they're not carrying a shield. Clerics with the Nature Domain have the same problem, as it's not a cleric spell for them. You always need to be careful with DMs and how they rule at the table.
Clerics with the Arcana Domain are, IMO, better off as flex casters who sit in the middle range and stick to ranged cantrips. Preferably, cantrips that have an attack roll as it's a good idea to diversify attacks. As for the higher-level spells...
There's really no bad choice. No matter what you pick it's pretty much gravy.
I'd disagree on the cleric (or anyone) not being able to wield a shield while casting Shillelagh. The reason why? The quarterstaff or club is a component of the spell. As long as they are only carrying that weapon and the shield, they'll be able to cast because of the quirks of the system.
This is not correct. The quarterstaff or club is /a/ component of the spell, not THE component of the spell. You also need mistletoe and a shamrock leaf. The spell ANDs them together, not OR, so each component is necessary. You need an open hand to handle those components. Druid get around this because their staff can be their implement and bypass the mistletoe and shamrock leaf. A cleric cannot use druid implements, so they have to use the components themselves.
* - (mistletoe, a shamrock leaf, and a club or quarterstaff)
Right, but they don't say what order the components need to be procured. The club or quarterstaff is a component of the spell. If they don't have anything else in that hand, then it's empty aside from components of the spell. Anything otherwise requires two empty hands and would invalidate anything with more than two components. There is nothing in the rules that distinguishes between the size of components at all. The DM would likely have to rule in favor of the Druid's Druidic Focus staff being a quarterstaff just as much as they'd have to rule in favor of anything else. It's not explicitly ruled a quarterstaff, barring the ruling that most magical staves can be used as a quarterstaff, but I seem to remember a thread about that where there wasn't a full consensus on the druid staff. The fact that it can be a club and a club is basically just a stick certainly lends more credence to that argument.
Further, their is no cost associated with the components nor are they consumed by the spell. You can reason that a club or quarterstaff has the cost of the weapon, and if you consider the mistletoe to be the same as the sprig of mistletoe then there would be a 1 gold cost to that, but it's hardly anything that is written out anywhere or that the mistletoe has to be the sprig of mistletoe. If a character using a component pouch can procure the components without a cost associated to them, I don't see why the character without a component pouch can't do the same for 1 spell that doesn't consume the components.
Again, DM ruling will affect this, but nothing in the rules suggests that any DM has to rule either way.
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Arcana Clerics offer quite an interesting concept...an individual who can cast both arcane AND divine magic.
This is rivaled only by the Divine Soul Sorcerer...though a cleric's ability to prepare their spells & their armor proficiencies gives them versatility that is very beneficial to a spellcaster.
In addition to their additional domain spells (notable ones being "Magic Missile" or "Arcane Eye"), the Arcana Cleric gets two wizard cantrips as their first feature.
At 17th Level, they get "Arcane Mastery", which lets them choose four wizard spells, each from a specific level...6th, 7th, 8th & 9th.
My question is...what to choose?
For cantrips, you could lean heavily into combat cantrips..."Booming Blade" & "Green Flame Blade" both benefit from an Arcana Cleric's "Potent Spellcasting", which is pretty good for damage.
"Sword Burst" is an interesting choice; as it hits multiple attackers with force damage, and adds the Cleric's Wisdom modifier to each hit with "Potent Spellcasting".
Ranged damage cantrips include "Firebolt" or "Ray of Frost"...though, these tend to get resisted at certain points, and clerics already have ranged cantrips.
"Shocking Grasp" and "Chill Touch" offer decent damage w/ debuffs...an Arcana Cleric can use "Shocking Grasp" with less risk to themselves (with their armor), and it eliminates an enemy's Reaction on a hit...that's pretty useful, especially if you make your Arcana Cleric a magehunter of sorts...no Counterspell for that pesky enemy mage!
"Chill Touch" eliminates a target's ability to heal...that can be quite potent against certain enemies...though, I gravitate towards this cantrip less than the others.
For utility, the golden trio of cantrips for an Arcana Cleric would be "Prestidigitation", "Minor Illusion" or "Mage Hand"...though, a Magic Initiate feat could just as easily provide such cantrips later, I suppose.
Those high level spells, however...that's a daunting choice, with a lot of options...
"Wish" is that ever-tempting choice...combined with "Divine Intervention", you essentially can distort reality at your leisure with minimal risk.
I don't like entirely shutting out other 9th Level spells, however...so I'm open to suggestions.
For 6th through 8th...it's too much to choose!
"Demiplane", "Plane Shift", "Chain Lightning", "Simulacrum"...I'd enjoy hearing suggestions!
Medium armor and simple weapons to me says stay out of melee, you can if you need to, but you’ll usually be safer hanging back and blasting things. That argues for more of the ranged spells than the up close ones. One, something like a booming blade to help you get away might be nice, but otherwise I’d zap things from range
For cantrips, don’t forget guidance, it’s one of the best in the game.
I think the cantrip choice is going to really depend on how you want to play. Do you want to be on the front lines swinging a weapon, or not so much? for my normal playstyle, I am taking ray of frost and shocking grasp.
If I want to melee I am taking variant human, druid initiate feat, with shillelagh and thorn whip plus goodberry. I'm /probably/ also going to take the rakdos cultist background so I can have firebolt too, as I really, really hate not having a ranged attack cantrip. Guidance is a must have. Finally greenflame blade and booming blade as soon as I can add it.
For 9th level spells, wish is an obvious pick, but if you're looking for something else...foresight is one of my favorites, and something I'd /strongly/ consider taking over wish.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I personally do Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade, Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh, and then keep the enemies close to me via Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and Thorn Whip.
Formerly Devan Avalon.
Trying to get your physical content on Beyond is like going to Microsoft and saying "I have a physical Playstation disk, give me a digital Xbox version!"
6,7,8,9
Consider:
6: Hard choice - Soul Cage or Scatter Soul Cage is remarkably useful for information and instant advantage. But Scatter is a "DESTROY THE DM's CAREFULLY PLANNED AMBUSH/TRAP" spell. Just totally ruins their day. Saves party members, puts them into great positions.
7: Crown of Stars ( or Finger of Death if you desire an army of zombies without having to cast spells every day to maintain control.)
8: Illusionary Dragon Illusionary Dragon is an Army killer. Really really nasty amount of damage.
9: Invunerability - best defensive spell by far.
6 - Mental prison is another one that's a lot of fun.
Mass suggestion can literally end an encounter before it begins.
Eyebite is situationally fun.
Chain lightning for some blasty fun.
Otto's irresistible dance is one of my personal favorites to cast. You instantly turn the bad guy into Patrick Flatley, lord of the dance!
Tenser's transformation if you want to be a combat cleric.
7 - SIMULACRUM! All other choices don't compare to creating another copy of yourself!
Forcecage is phenomenal. It can outright stop a fight if the BBEG can't teleport.
8 - Illusory dragon is pretty fun.
Do you want to screw up your DM's plans for his evil, mastermind of a villain? FEEBLEMIND!!! I've used this plenty of times and it's usually met with my DMs grinding their teeth and saying, "And now the boss has an intelligence and charisma of 1, and can't cast spells anymore..."
I've also seen antipathy/sympathy used to great effect in a T4 game where an arcana cleric cast it on his shield and any aberration that approached him had to make a wisdom saving throw.
Mighty fortress is a spell I'd love to see in action. I'd love to see it cast on the battlefield prior to a combat and the PCs taunting the enemy like the french soldiers taunted the knights in Monty Python and the holy grail.
9 - Almost all the level 9 spells are good, save for Weird and Time Stop. I'm partial to True Polymorph. My dad always said that if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. But with true polymorph you can be an ancient dragon. And dragons can eat bears.
Not to be that guy, but Michael Flatley is the lord of the dance. 😁
You are correct! Patrick Flatley was a hockey player for the Islanders. But I'm sure he was a pretty good river dancer himself!
This^^^ I’ve got this build and love it. If you’re not doing a Variant Human Build for shellelagh I wouldn’t take booming blade or gfb. If you are going that route take either gfb or bb and another ranged attack cantrip or prestidigitation.
for 6th lvl wizard spell I would consider taking anything that doesn’t require concentration: Disintegrate, Contingency or Mass Suggestion being my top choices
7th lvl it depends on your game, Teleport could help a lot if there’s not a lot of teleportation circles in your game. Magnificent Mansion if no one else can or your DM does a lot of night time encounters or environmental damage to your group. If neither apply I would go Simulacrum
8th lvl clone especially if your DM is trying to kill you or control weather
9th lvl talk to your DM about wish. If you don’t like how they’ll execute it go True Polymorph
Simple Traveler 🌙
6:Arcane Gate
7: Crown of Stars
8: Power Word Stun
9: Wish
Arcane gate give you some short range mobility that a cleric doesn't normally have, but there are a lot of 6th level spells that are good.
Crown of Stars is a nice blaster spell without concentration
PW:Stun- takes a baddy out of the fight with no save
Wish- duplicates any lower level spell, especially those with onerous material components like Contingency, Simraculum or Clone.
In terms of Wizard cantrips to choose.
Although Fire Bolt is the strongest ranged cantrip, fire is commonly resisted so it wouldn't be my first choice. Chill Touch, being necrotic damage, is resisted less often while having the same range as Fire Bolt, and at D8 isn't too bad. Shocking Grasp would be my second choice, since it is a damaging melee cantrip, so benefits from Potent Spellcasting. Prestidigitation, Mage Hand, Minor Illusion and other non-damaging cantrips can be simply cast from Magic Initiate. Booming Blade is decent, but you're proficient only with simple weapons (unless you play Wood Elf or Dwarf) so the best dice you'll be rolling (quarter staff/spear) is a D8, and requires some investment in another melee stat. If you take Shillelagh you're investing two cantrips just to make the character SAD in melee. Shocking Grasp is a D8 and keys off your Wisdom stat making you SAD without having to take Magic Initiate: Druid.
Just my two cents worth.
Something to consider RE booming blade/shillelagh, is that you get to double up on your wisdom bonus once you get potent cantrip. You get it once from adding your wis bonus via shillelagh, and once again via potent cantrip.
That being said, I'm not personally a fan of mixing it up in melee with a cleric. Melee is going to provoke more opportunities to get hit and require conc checks to maintain your conc spells.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Considering that Medium Armor can max out 1 AC behind Heavy Armor with a 14 in dexterity, I'd say that the simple weapons is the bigger issue for this. You can do a d8 damage with a GreatClub, Quarterstaff, or spear, but all of those require two hands to do so. It's only a 1 point of damage difference going from the d8 to the d6 to increase the number of weapons that you can use with a shieldto augment your AC, but you can get the same damage from so many cantrips that you almost have to do something like Shillelagh, Quarterstaff, and PAM feat to really get the damage going. Wielding a Shield then can cause some problems with spellcasting even if you have your holy symbol emblazoned on your Shield, which almost begs for the Warcaster feat to be added to help with your spellcasting, improve your concentration checks, and being able to add Booming Blade or Shocking Grasp or a similar save or melee attack spell as an attack of opportunity can be quite nice. But at that point, you're looking at 2-3 feats or multiclassing to get most of your features online and you have to take a good look at what Cleric brings to your build that another class wouldn't that you must have to justify the cost of all of the supporting features to get your class online.
You don't really need PAM, although it synergizes well. The biggest problem is that simple weapons require str. You're already heavily invested in WIS, and need at least a 14 in dex. The difference between d6 and d8 is really negligible (assuming a shield), especially if you are augmenting with booming blade or greenflame blade. A finesse weapon solves part of the problem, and you can get a d6 finesse weapon (short sword) if you're an elf or half elf. As you level up though, you're going to want to use your ASI and feats for propping up your wisdom, and your dex (aka attack skill) will fall behind. STR based clerics have the same issue.
That leaves two options; shillelagh and shocking grasp. Shillelagh requires you to use a feat, and infringes on your bonus action economy. It does open up double dipping on your WIS mod once you get potent cantrip when you use booming blade/greenflame blade. It makes warcaster necessary (or some action economy cheese) for some spells.
Shocking grasp on the other hand makes warcaster a nice feature rather than mostly mandatory because you always have an open hand. Now, you have your wisdom mod on your melee spell attack, it scales, works with potent cantrip and gives you that nice d8 that most sword and shield users consider the gold standard. You'll get your wis mod from potent cantrip when you level up.
Mostly though, I prefer to use sacred flame (or toll the dead) when I am stuck in melee, and use a ranged attack cantrip. I tend to prefer to not be in the thick of things in my clerics because that provokes more conc checks than absolutely necessary.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
The variant human build for shillelagh, by RAW, doesn't work. The spell has a material component cost that a starting cleric doesn't have. And even if they somehow did, they're not carrying a shield. Clerics with the Nature Domain have the same problem, as it's not a cleric spell for them. You always need to be careful with DMs and how they rule at the table.
Clerics with the Arcana Domain are, IMO, better off as flex casters who sit in the middle range and stick to ranged cantrips. Preferably, cantrips that have an attack roll as it's a good idea to diversify attacks. As for the higher-level spells...
There's really no bad choice. No matter what you pick it's pretty much gravy.
Completely agree with this. Saving throw cantrips such as sacred flame and toll the dead are just as viable in melee as they are at range. Without ravnica backgrounds though, there aren't any other /good/ ways to get a ranged attack cantrip.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
That's true.
Clerics can't start with a component pouch.
I'd disagree on the cleric (or anyone) not being able to wield a shield while casting Shillelagh. The reason why? The quarterstaff or club is a component of the spell. As long as they are only carrying that weapon and the shield, they'll be able to cast because of the quirks of the system.
As for the nature cleric not having their druid cantrip as a cleric spell, I'd be inclined to overlook that. The only other cleric that gets a bonus cantrip is the light cleric and Light is already on the cleric spell list. The only other class features that give spells in the PHB are magical secrets from the Bard and Pact of the Tome from Warlock. Both specifically pull from any spell list and the presence of the phrasing making them class spells would be needed to make them all be able to cast with Charisma instead of whatever ability that was originally used from that class. Since Druid already uses Wisdom, it's likely oversight. I can't think of any other class feature that gives a spell without making it a class spell if it's pulled from another list. The lack of errata, if it is an oversight, might be a combination of a lack usage of the Nature domain in general (compared to every bard getting magical secrets and every warlock subclass having access to Pact of the Tome), the prevalence to overlook material components in general, and the fact that druid already uses wisdom to cast. That said, it doesn't say it's a cleric spell, so I'd understand if my DM said it wasn't if they didn't appreciate that argument.
This is not correct. The quarterstaff or club is /a/ component of the spell, not THE component of the spell. You also need mistletoe and a shamrock leaf. The spell ANDs them together, not OR, so each component is necessary. You need an open hand to handle those components. Druid get around this because their staff can be their implement and bypass the mistletoe and shamrock leaf. A cleric cannot use druid implements, so they have to use the components themselves.
* - (mistletoe, a shamrock leaf, and a club or quarterstaff)
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
Right, but they don't say what order the components need to be procured. The club or quarterstaff is a component of the spell. If they don't have anything else in that hand, then it's empty aside from components of the spell. Anything otherwise requires two empty hands and would invalidate anything with more than two components. There is nothing in the rules that distinguishes between the size of components at all. The DM would likely have to rule in favor of the Druid's Druidic Focus staff being a quarterstaff just as much as they'd have to rule in favor of anything else. It's not explicitly ruled a quarterstaff, barring the ruling that most magical staves can be used as a quarterstaff, but I seem to remember a thread about that where there wasn't a full consensus on the druid staff. The fact that it can be a club and a club is basically just a stick certainly lends more credence to that argument.
Further, their is no cost associated with the components nor are they consumed by the spell. You can reason that a club or quarterstaff has the cost of the weapon, and if you consider the mistletoe to be the same as the sprig of mistletoe then there would be a 1 gold cost to that, but it's hardly anything that is written out anywhere or that the mistletoe has to be the sprig of mistletoe. If a character using a component pouch can procure the components without a cost associated to them, I don't see why the character without a component pouch can't do the same for 1 spell that doesn't consume the components.
Again, DM ruling will affect this, but nothing in the rules suggests that any DM has to rule either way.