So I've been playing one-shots in a nearby cafe (wearing masks and separated by plastic screens) for a few weeks now using randomly generated characters (http://fastcharacter.com for stats and https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-char-gen.html for backstories). Last week I was invited to join a weekly campaign that is restarting with my character from that night. The character is an orc cleric of the tempest (level 5) and though I enjoyed playing her I am aware that I could probably have done more to help the other party members. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Also, if anyone knows of a relevant god that my character could worship that would be helpful. It can't be a real god, e.g. Thor, as per DM rules.
Without knowing what you were doing, its tough to say for sure if you could have been doing things differently, but here goes.
Tempest clerics are great in melee with heavy armor (make sure you have a 15 Strength), shield and martial weapons. So you can be up there next to the fighter mixing it up in the fight. You should take the warcaster feat, to help you with concentration spells and to not have to worry about somatic components. Otherwise, max out your wisdom, it will help your offensive spells hit, and make your heals stronger. You get good offensive domain spells, so I usually focus on preparing healing and support spells.
Spell-wise, for cantrips, you should take an offensive cantrip, either sacred flame or toll the dead -- usually toll the dead is better. Take the guidance cantrip. This is one of the best things you can do for helping the party. Anytime anyone is doing anything out of combat that involves a roll, you should say "have a guidance." (The rogue sneaking around a corner, the bard charming the king, the fighter lifting a boulder, it applies to almost everything) If you are doing it right, it should be to the point that the rest of the party and the DM actually get a little tired of hearing you say it :) For your last cantrip, light is good if you have characters without darkvision (unless someone else already has it -- there's really no need for multiple characters with light). Thaumaturgy is pretty fun. But generally whatever floats your boat.
At first level spells, keep healing word and cure wounds both prepared for your entire career. Most will say, and the math also generally works out to you not actually healing anyone during the fight unless they drop. If they do, you can bonus action to give them a healing word and still do something with your action. Personally, I heal before people they drop, but I know not everyone does. Also at first level, have bless prepared. This is where those concentration saves will come in.
Second level spells spiritual weapon is a great spell. Prayer of healing can be nice, but note it has a 10 minute casting time, so you can't use it in combat. Lesser restoration can be handy to have prepared, as well as calm emotions if you regularly run into party members being charmed or frightened.
Third level has a lot of choices. You get mass healing word, which is great and a must have. But still keep regular healing word memorized in case you use all of your third level slots. Revivify can be more useful than Raise Dead, since you can use it right after a fight and it has a cheaper component; if you have the diamond(s), prepare it, otherwise, don't bother. Spirit guardians is really solid if you're in melee a lot, but it is concentration, so it competes with bless. Dispel magic is really useful. Something like speak with dead or remove curse usually isn't worth keeping memorized, just take it when you need it.
When in melee, don't forget to use wrath of the storm to knock people around, its a good battlefield control effect. And you can use it with destructive wrath (It can be good to make a note on your sheet of all the spells you can use destructive wrath with, so you don't forget about it) if you really want to damage them.
As for which god, as 6th notes, its tough to say. Which world/pantheon are you using?
If you are strictly looking for Faerûnian gods (Forgotten realm gods), both the Volo's and Wildemount versions of the Orc creator good Gruumsh is of the tempest domain. There is also Auril Goddess of Winter, Talos God of Storms, and Umberlee Goddess of the Seas.
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"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Don't prepare both Cure Wound and healing word to be honest. Grab healing word. it's great being able to rescue someone with a heal on a bonus action and then whack someone with your weapon or zap em with a cantrip. Killing something is 90% of the times better than wasting a turn casting cure wounds, though it has it's uses outside of combat. Yes, the math says it's usually better to let allies drop to 0 before healing em, but I think personal playstyle and RP trump math. Its d&d, not some strategy game.
As a tempest cleric you have an awesome channel divinity starting from lvl 2. A maxed out shatter is nothing to scoff at.
I wouldn't bother with a damaging cantrip. Orcs have a bonus to Strength and the Tempest Domain grants, among other things, proficiency with heavy armor and martial weapons. The real kicker is their 8th-level feature, which adds +1d8 thunder damage to their weapon attacks. This even applies to ranged and thrown weapons, so packing a few javelins is a good idea.
You want to be in the thick of it. Front-line all the way.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the idea. Even if you pump your strength bonus really high, there are likely to be times when you run into an enemy with a high enough AC that hitting them becomes extremely hard. Having a cantrip that can let you target a saving throw that might be weak instead (like Dex often is for anyone who wears heavy armor) is useful in that regard. Also, there's something to be said about being able to pump out necrotic or especially radiant damage on command.
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Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Always take a damaging cantrip. Ik gives you ranged game which you will need when your hammer doesn't have enough range. It gives you damage type variety and I'm guessing your wisdom is going to be higher than your str once you reach the higher lvls and indeed, being able to target saves instead of AC can be a life saver.
Not sure why nobody mentions this but the Channel Divinity: Destructive Warth paired with the Domain Spells (destructive wave, Call lightning, Shatter and Thunderwave) is a brutal amount of damage. Also other than most here I wouldn't suggest you mainly go all frontline. Yes you got heavy armor and a shield, but the damage you can deal from anywhere on the battlefiled is brutal! Call down those lightnings and max that damage!
I always see it the way "yes I can take a beating and repell enemys with wrath of the storm+Thunderbolt strike, but I should be the last one that drops so in case shit hits the fan I can still get everyone back on their feet."
I wouldn't go full frontline, since most stuff you can do, you can do at range, too.
I enjoyed playing her I am aware that I could probably have done more to help the other party members.
My advice is; don't worry about whether you could be doing more to help other party members 😉
Cleric used to be your classic pure support class, but it really isn't anymore, as you can build it for a whole bunch of different roles within a party; even a Life Domain Cleric doesn't have to heal all the time, their bonuses just mean when they do heal, they get more out of it (so hopefully have to do it less).
Tempest Domain should be first and foremost about wrecking enemies with lightning and thunder. If you want to keep some healing in the bank (as most pure spellcasters should) I'd recommend Healing Word, it doesn't heal a lot, but it's much more versatile than Cure Wounds thanks to being a Bonus Action with a range of 60 feet, and it lets you easily revive any ally that goes down, which is going to happen against tougher enemies no matter how much healing you pump out anyway, meanwhile being a Bonus Action means you can still cast either a cantrip or Warhammer so you aren't wasting your turn on that-one-player-who-just-won't-stay-conscious™.
If you want more supporting spells, Sanctuary is a favourite of mine as it doesn't require concentration, and can keep enemies from attacking that player who keeps going down in the first place, and Bless is a popular option, though it does require concentration, but you can also make sure you're always one of the 3+ creatures you bless with it. But I wouldn't go too heavy on support spells, just take a look at your party and try to figure out what they need most.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
Not sure why nobody mentions this but the Channel Divinity: Destructive Warth paired with the Domain Spells (destructive wave, Call lightning, Shatter and Thunderwave) is a brutal amount of damage. Also other than most here I wouldn't suggest you mainly go all frontline. Yes you got heavy armor and a shield, but the damage you can deal from anywhere on the battlefiled is brutal! Call down those lightnings and max that damage!
I always see it the way "yes I can take a beating and repell enemys with wrath of the storm+Thunderbolt strike, but I should be the last one that drops so in case shit hits the fan I can still get everyone back on their feet."
I wouldn't go full frontline, since most stuff you can do, you can do at range, too.
There is technically a Knowledge domain for clerics/gods, so science would seem to fit with that, but I don't think there's currently a sub-class for it? It's not in any of the books I've got anyway.
There's the Arcana Domain in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but that's very much magic oriented, but you could try and spin that as the same kind of "science as magic, magic as science" flavouring that the Artificer is based around? Mechanically though it might not represent what you want, as it's mostly about countering spells and taking picks from the Wizard list.
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Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
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So I've been playing one-shots in a nearby cafe (wearing masks and separated by plastic screens) for a few weeks now using randomly generated characters (http://fastcharacter.com for stats and https://tetra-cube.com/dnd/dnd-char-gen.html for backstories). Last week I was invited to join a weekly campaign that is restarting with my character from that night. The character is an orc cleric of the tempest (level 5) and though I enjoyed playing her I am aware that I could probably have done more to help the other party members. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Also, if anyone knows of a relevant god that my character could worship that would be helpful. It can't be a real god, e.g. Thor, as per DM rules.
What's the campaign setting?
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Without knowing what you were doing, its tough to say for sure if you could have been doing things differently, but here goes.
Tempest clerics are great in melee with heavy armor (make sure you have a 15 Strength), shield and martial weapons. So you can be up there next to the fighter mixing it up in the fight. You should take the warcaster feat, to help you with concentration spells and to not have to worry about somatic components. Otherwise, max out your wisdom, it will help your offensive spells hit, and make your heals stronger. You get good offensive domain spells, so I usually focus on preparing healing and support spells.
Spell-wise, for cantrips, you should take an offensive cantrip, either sacred flame or toll the dead -- usually toll the dead is better. Take the guidance cantrip. This is one of the best things you can do for helping the party. Anytime anyone is doing anything out of combat that involves a roll, you should say "have a guidance." (The rogue sneaking around a corner, the bard charming the king, the fighter lifting a boulder, it applies to almost everything) If you are doing it right, it should be to the point that the rest of the party and the DM actually get a little tired of hearing you say it :) For your last cantrip, light is good if you have characters without darkvision (unless someone else already has it -- there's really no need for multiple characters with light). Thaumaturgy is pretty fun. But generally whatever floats your boat.
At first level spells, keep healing word and cure wounds both prepared for your entire career. Most will say, and the math also generally works out to you not actually healing anyone during the fight unless they drop. If they do, you can bonus action to give them a healing word and still do something with your action. Personally, I heal before people they drop, but I know not everyone does. Also at first level, have bless prepared. This is where those concentration saves will come in.
Second level spells spiritual weapon is a great spell. Prayer of healing can be nice, but note it has a 10 minute casting time, so you can't use it in combat. Lesser restoration can be handy to have prepared, as well as calm emotions if you regularly run into party members being charmed or frightened.
Third level has a lot of choices. You get mass healing word, which is great and a must have. But still keep regular healing word memorized in case you use all of your third level slots. Revivify can be more useful than Raise Dead, since you can use it right after a fight and it has a cheaper component; if you have the diamond(s), prepare it, otherwise, don't bother. Spirit guardians is really solid if you're in melee a lot, but it is concentration, so it competes with bless. Dispel magic is really useful. Something like speak with dead or remove curse usually isn't worth keeping memorized, just take it when you need it.
When in melee, don't forget to use wrath of the storm to knock people around, its a good battlefield control effect. And you can use it with destructive wrath (It can be good to make a note on your sheet of all the spells you can use destructive wrath with, so you don't forget about it) if you really want to damage them.
As for which god, as 6th notes, its tough to say. Which world/pantheon are you using?
If you are strictly looking for Faerûnian gods (Forgotten realm gods), both the Volo's and Wildemount versions of the Orc creator good Gruumsh is of the tempest domain. There is also Auril Goddess of Winter, Talos God of Storms, and Umberlee Goddess of the Seas.
"Meddle not in the affairs of dragons, for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Characters for Tenebris Sine Fine
RoughCoronet's Greater Wills
Don't prepare both Cure Wound and healing word to be honest. Grab healing word. it's great being able to rescue someone with a heal on a bonus action and then whack someone with your weapon or zap em with a cantrip. Killing something is 90% of the times better than wasting a turn casting cure wounds, though it has it's uses outside of combat. Yes, the math says it's usually better to let allies drop to 0 before healing em, but I think personal playstyle and RP trump math. Its d&d, not some strategy game.
As a tempest cleric you have an awesome channel divinity starting from lvl 2. A maxed out shatter is nothing to scoff at.
I wouldn't bother with a damaging cantrip. Orcs have a bonus to Strength and the Tempest Domain grants, among other things, proficiency with heavy armor and martial weapons. The real kicker is their 8th-level feature, which adds +1d8 thunder damage to their weapon attacks. This even applies to ranged and thrown weapons, so packing a few javelins is a good idea.
You want to be in the thick of it. Front-line all the way.
I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the idea. Even if you pump your strength bonus really high, there are likely to be times when you run into an enemy with a high enough AC that hitting them becomes extremely hard. Having a cantrip that can let you target a saving throw that might be weak instead (like Dex often is for anyone who wears heavy armor) is useful in that regard. Also, there's something to be said about being able to pump out necrotic or especially radiant damage on command.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Always take a damaging cantrip. Ik gives you ranged game which you will need when your hammer doesn't have enough range. It gives you damage type variety and I'm guessing your wisdom is going to be higher than your str once you reach the higher lvls and indeed, being able to target saves instead of AC can be a life saver.
Not sure why nobody mentions this but the Channel Divinity: Destructive Warth paired with the Domain Spells (destructive wave, Call lightning, Shatter and Thunderwave) is a brutal amount of damage. Also other than most here I wouldn't suggest you mainly go all frontline. Yes you got heavy armor and a shield, but the damage you can deal from anywhere on the battlefiled is brutal! Call down those lightnings and max that damage!
I always see it the way "yes I can take a beating and repell enemys with wrath of the storm+Thunderbolt strike, but I should be the last one that drops so in case shit hits the fan I can still get everyone back on their feet."
I wouldn't go full frontline, since most stuff you can do, you can do at range, too.
My advice is; don't worry about whether you could be doing more to help other party members 😉
Cleric used to be your classic pure support class, but it really isn't anymore, as you can build it for a whole bunch of different roles within a party; even a Life Domain Cleric doesn't have to heal all the time, their bonuses just mean when they do heal, they get more out of it (so hopefully have to do it less).
Tempest Domain should be first and foremost about wrecking enemies with lightning and thunder. If you want to keep some healing in the bank (as most pure spellcasters should) I'd recommend Healing Word, it doesn't heal a lot, but it's much more versatile than Cure Wounds thanks to being a Bonus Action with a range of 60 feet, and it lets you easily revive any ally that goes down, which is going to happen against tougher enemies no matter how much healing you pump out anyway, meanwhile being a Bonus Action means you can still cast either a cantrip or Warhammer so you aren't wasting your turn on that-one-player-who-just-won't-stay-conscious™.
If you want more supporting spells, Sanctuary is a favourite of mine as it doesn't require concentration, and can keep enemies from attacking that player who keeps going down in the first place, and Bless is a popular option, though it does require concentration, but you can also make sure you're always one of the 3+ creatures you bless with it. But I wouldn't go too heavy on support spells, just take a look at your party and try to figure out what they need most.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.
I literally mentioned it a few posts ago 😂.
It is my fave channel divinity.
Well yea okay you mentioned shatter, but I had so much fun with maxed out call lightnings and destructive waves, I thought that waranted a mention ;)
Is there a really good cleric subclass I should be using? Also, can I worship science instead of an actual god?
Edit: Wait can I ask for advice here?
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There are a lot of cleric subclasses that are good. The question is what you want to do with your cleric.
Worshiping science is kind of weird. Technically you can, but it would be a good idea to talk with your GM first.
Find your own truth, choose your enemies carefully, and never deal with a dragon.
"Canon" is what's factual to D&D lore. "Cannon" is what you're going to be shot with if you keep getting the word wrong.
Yes, you can ask for advice here.
But your questions were generally best answered by 6thlyran.
There is technically a Knowledge domain for clerics/gods, so science would seem to fit with that, but I don't think there's currently a sub-class for it? It's not in any of the books I've got anyway.
There's the Arcana Domain in Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide, but that's very much magic oriented, but you could try and spin that as the same kind of "science as magic, magic as science" flavouring that the Artificer is based around? Mechanically though it might not represent what you want, as it's mostly about countering spells and taking picks from the Wizard list.
Former D&D Beyond Customer of six years: With the axing of piecemeal purchasing, lack of meaningful development, and toxic moderation the site isn't worth paying for anymore. I remain a free user only until my groups are done migrating from DDB, and if necessary D&D, after which I'm done. There are better systems owned by better companies out there.
I have unsubscribed from all topics and will not reply to messages. My homebrew is now 100% unsupported.