Im quite a beginner at DnD and I just started my second character. I'm playing a lvl 5 fighter cavalier in a different campaign. I really like being in the thick of the action but this time I wanted to be able to cast some spells and do some damage as well. Because I don't like being a frail caster I decided on a cleric in the Tempest domain.
The backstory of my character is that I'm a dwarf with this strange affinity for the sea and in my time serving on a navy vessel I got gifted with powers by this sea storm diety.
I used point buy and came to the following ability scores (using my hill dwarf racial):
STR:14 DEX:8 CON:16 WIS:16 INT:8 WIS:16 CHA:12
I'm struggling with the role I want to fill in the party. I wouldn't mind doing some tanking or healing but I would like to dish out some damage as well (at least more than my cavalier). I prefer running with a warhammer and shield though since I want my damage to come from my spells and cleric powers mainly.
I've been reading up on tempest clerics but it all still needs to click a bit for me. Here are some questions I'm struggling with:
Is Magic Initiate to get Booming Blade and Find Familiar worth it? I really like the idea of having a seagull or sea eagle familiar (using owl or raven stats) and cast touch spells like cure wounds trough my familiar.
Resilient and warcaster both seem to be popular feats, is warcaster essential if you are fighting with a shield equiped?
Or do I ignore feats and go for ASI at lvl 4 and if so, which one? WIS/CON/STR +2?
Are my ability scores alright or are there better options?
Should I opt for mountain dwarf instead of an hill dwarf for the +2str instead of +1wis?
Is there a reason to take sacred flame over toll the dead as one of my strating cantrips?
I played a tempest cleric through level 14 or 15 and loved it. They're a super fun class.
My first suggestion would be to get to a 15 str so you can wear the heavy armor. If you are going weapon and shield, warcaster is almost a requirement (there's the issue with somatic components, but advantage to maintain concentration is really good. Especially when you start getting things like call lightning as a concentration spell. and to keep bless going). Honestly, after I took it, I don't think I used my weapon anymore, just used my cantrip OAs because my wis was maxed, so it was a better chance of succeeding than a melee attack.
Booming blade and a familiar might be cool, but I'd say your feats should actually be wis bump at level 4, then warcaster or another wis bump 8, then whichever you didn't take at 12. You could throw resilient con into the mix at 8 or 12, come to think of it. But for a melee cleric, magic initiate isn't really a priority (unless you just really like it for your character, because that's really the most important) A familiar to scout can be useful, but the touch spell to heal won't come up as much, that's what healing word is for. And booming blade can be cool, but I think you'll find that after a few levels, you have plenty of offensive spells and won't need to actually hit people with your weapon. As I said above, I rarely used my weapon, there was almost always something more interesting to do by casting a spell. Which is another reason to take wis boosts for ASI, you want your save DCs to be high. Once your str is 15, I wouldn't get it any higher. and a 16 con is wonderful for a cleric.
Toll the dead is a wis save, where sacred flame is dex. So one or the other can be more useful depending on what kind of enemies you're dealing with. You could take them both. And then guidance for the third cantrip. Guidance is a must and one of the best cantrips in the game (unless you are a combat-only kind of group. But if you do a reasonable amount of skill checks, guidance will be a life saver). More practical would be guidance, one of the offensive cantrips, and then whatever you like for the last one. As a dwarf, you probably don't need light (but others in the party may), but mending or thaumaturgy can both be fun and useful in lots of situations.
From a purely mehcanical point of view, don't bother with find familiar or booming blade. Tempest clerics got enough boom as it is. Xalthu covered most other aspects pretty well, but he makes 1 mistake. Since you're a Dwarf you don't need 15 str to wear the heaviest armour without penalties. One of the great, but often forgotten thing about being a Dwarf is that you ignore those speed reducing penalties even if you don't have the required strength to wear them.
Don't be too afraid to frequently use your channel divinity. Maxing out the damage with thunder & lightning spells is what you want to deal that damage you're looking for. (thunderwave, shatter and call lightning at lower lvls). Channel Divinity resets on short rests, so just take on of those every so often.
Grabbing either warcaster or resilient con is a great idea. You like being in the thick of battle, but also like keeping concentration.
If you would reach lvl 8, ask the DM if you can use the new cleric feature that came out in Tasha's cauldron today. Instead of just buffing your weapon attacks, you can chose each round to buff a weapon or a cantrip attack, making you more versatile.
I tend to go for Hill Dwarf over Mountain Dwarf for a cleric, wis is ultimately more important and the extra HP is great.
I'm generally not a fan of melee clerics, but if I was going to play a tempest cleric set up for melee, I'd probably go half elf so I could take the booming blade cantrip. I'm going to want to make my one melee attack scale. I'm going sword and shield, because being not hit is important to maintain concentration (my primary complaint with melee clerics). At level 4, I will be taking warcaster to help me maintain my concentration checks. I'd go 16 str and 16 wis., 14 con. Everything else gets dumped more or less.
For my cantrips, I'm going with Guidance, Toll the Dead, and probably light (unless my party has no darkvision, or someone else has a light source).
1st level spells are bless, healing word, cure wounds, and probably shield of faith. At lower levels, bless and healingword are probably the only things I will ever cast.
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.
From a purely mehcanical point of view, don't bother with find familiar or booming blade. Tempest clerics got enough boom as it is. Xalthu covered most other aspects pretty well, but he makes 1 mistake. Since you're a Dwarf you don't need 15 str to wear the heaviest armour without penalties. One of the great, but often forgotten thing about being a Dwarf is that you ignore those speed reducing penalties even if you don't have the required strength to wear them.
Don't be too afraid to frequently use your channel divinity. Maxing out the damage with thunder & lightning spells is what you want to deal that damage you're looking for. (thunderwave, shatter and call lightning at lower lvls). Channel Divinity resets on short rests, so just take on of those every so often.
Grabbing either warcaster or resilient con is a great idea. You like being in the thick of battle, but also like keeping concentration.
If you would reach lvl 8, ask the DM if you can use the new cleric feature that came out in Tasha's cauldron today. Instead of just buffing your weapon attacks, you can chose each round to buff a weapon or a cantrip attack, making you more versatile.
I tend to go for Hill Dwarf over Mountain Dwarf for a cleric, wis is ultimately more important and the extra HP is great.
I'm currently playing a lvl 10 Tempest Cleric. I'd say try and get Gauntlets of Ogre Strength or one of the Giants belts as soon as you can to boost your strength for melee but it's not a must as you can get by with your casting. Definetly get Wisdom as high as you can and War Caster is very important since a lot of your best spells require concentration. Spirit Guardians is a go to spell that does solid constant damage to any monsters within I think 15 feet of you and cuts their movement in half. Mix in your spiritual weapon and your normal attacks on your turn and you'll be pushing a good amount of damage.
I'm not the healer in the group so I pretty much stick to offensive spells and buffs. I can lend a hand healing in combat but it's not my main role, however I have used Prayer of Healing a few times outside if combat to help us heal up between encounters if we don't have time for a rest. Guidance is one of my most used Cantrips and Thaumaturgy is awesome for role playing. Bless is also a great Buff spell if you are hanging back from the front line. I've loved the class and it does pretty much everything well. Hopefully you get to fight some undead or zombies because that's where you'll really feel powerful.
Tempest Clerics do massive damage. The best spell to concentrate on is usually Spirit Guardians. You can also use Spiritual Weapon with your bonus action. These are great sources of Radiant or Necrotic damage and Force damage.
And you get a bunch of great non-concentration AoE spells like Thunderwave, Shatter, Ice Storm, and Destructive Wave. With the exception of Ice Storm, you can give these spells a huge damage boost once or twice per short rest with your channel divinity, too. But Ice Storm has the advantage that it targets a Dex Save, whereas the other three target the usually stronger Con Saves of enemies.
You definitely want to get your Wisdom to 20, and I would say that Resilient Constitution and War Caster are the only feats to consider before getting Wisdom to 20. And you do want to prioritize Wisdom over Strength.
Your role in the party is that you'll probably be the best AoE damage dealer. For single target damage, martial classes with Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master and Extra Attack and an awesome magical weapon will still outpace you in damage, but for multi-target damage, you'll probably beat out the Fireball throwers, and you'll be doing it with a few damage types that are much less likely to be resisted than fire damage, although with saving throws that are more likely to be succeeded by enemies. Although when you're using it against weaker enemies, their Con Saves aren't as likely to be good, it's against the really powerful enemies where a Con Save is going to be really difficult to get them to fail. But at least these are still half damage on a successful save, and you don't have to worry about Evasion, and you're far less likely to run into resistance or immunity to the damage type.
I just want to make a note that people can get a little too caught up in Healing Word. I understand that they are trying to optimize spells but there are times and setups where cure wounds are a lot better. Much like Sacred Flame and Toll the Dead compliment each other because they hit different kinds of saves despite both being save spells. Cure wounds and Healing words co-exist well because one is an action and close range for more healing and the other is a bonus action and long range for less healing. If the person you want to heal is close by you and you can get to them to touch them with Cure and you have your spiritual weapon up it can actually be just as efficient to actually use cure wounds. Particularly if it's the tank and that gets you more in range to have things affected by things like your spirit guardians. If your a backup healer or a Melee range/tank cleric it can be to your advantage to move to them and heal them with Cure wounds as well because then you are pressuring the enemies around your weakened ally with things like your Spirit Guardians and the improved healing could make your ally a more difficult target to deal with in combination with the Cleric that has come to their rescue and it could put you in positions to trigger combinations like Wrath of the Storm and Thunderbolt strike to push them back should they turn on your cleric while your saving your ally.
personally, i think you want a high ac if your going to be tanking. even a 12 in dexterity can save your life. otherwise, i think it sounds like a great chatacter and i hope you enjoy playing it!
personally, i think you want a high ac if your going to be tanking. even a 12 in dexterity can save your life. otherwise, i think it sounds like a great chatacter and i hope you enjoy playing it!
Tempest clerics have heavy armor, so dex will do nothing for their AC.
I have a level 4 Tempest cleric that faces pretty much exactly the same conundrum. I was going to take Spell Sniper and grab a pole arm for Booming Blade shenanigans, but that got nerfed in the new text for BB. So I went Wisdom bump instead.
Tempest cleric really does have a split personality - the subclass features make it very sexy to pair with BB, but at the same time, your Channel Divinity makes you one of the best blasters in the game. I would recommend taking the Wisdom ASI and then scrounging for gauntlets of ogre power, as has been suggested.
In 3rd edition, weapons with flavored damage were much easier to get. If that were the case, I might even consider picking up the dual wielding feat for two attacks with lightning/thunder weapons to become a true melee cleric. But alas that is not realistic in the current, relatively low-magic meta.
I'm generally not a fan of melee clerics, but if I was going to play a tempest cleric set up for melee, I'd probably go half elf so I could take the booming blade cantrip. I'm going to want to make my one melee attack scale. I'm going sword and shield, because being not hit is important to maintain concentration (my primary complaint with melee clerics). At level 4, I will be taking warcaster to help me maintain my concentration checks. I'd go 16 str and 16 wis., 14 con. Everything else gets dumped more or less.
The tempest cleric I'm runnning tonight is from a custom race that the DM set up. This one happens to get a druid cantrip at level one, so I picked up Shillelagh, for slightly less MADness. I did not request it, either - it was an option he gave to everyone, along with a bunch of other custom races.
The other thing about Tempest is that getting hit in melee is a good thing - it effectively gives you a free attack back. So high CON makes even more sense.
I would take warcaster at level 4 and then bump wisdom at 8. Losing concentration is a real bummer and level 5 is where you start unlocking all the juicy concentration stuff. Already having that set up will be a boon, especially if you're trying to be in melee a good amount. Bumping wisdom first is much better if you plan on standing back and being a more typical blaster.
Edit:Oops just realized this was a resurrected post,.
I posted in another thread so I am gonna copy and edit what I said, may be some repetitions due to that. Lots of good advice from other posters
Stats look fine. Wis and Con, I feel are the most important with Str next (if melee or Dex if ranged). Dex , as said before, won't matter with plate. I have a lvl 6 and went Mtn dwarf but either is good. Keep stats even unless you plan on taking a Resilient Feat. If he is a front line fighter then take Resilient con feat for a +1 Con and bonus to Wis saves (concentration )or as I did, take Warcaster so I can carry a shield and weapon, get advantage on concentration saves and cast spells on opportunity attacks instead of plain boring melee attacks...Toll the Dead does 2d8/2d12 at lvl 5 with a failed save...not bad for an opportunity attack. I am usually a big believer in maxing stats first but if you are a board and sword caster I think it is mandatory.
Use both Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame, just learn which enemies are worse at Dex and Wis. It is usually not that hard to figure for most of them. Forget wasting a feat or ASI on Booming Blade.
I play a Tempest Cleric at lvl 6 (and have a lvl 11 Lore Bard) and there are a few ways to go in playstyle and the first is support. The Bard is all about support and some crowd control. The Cleric can do a lot of the same. It may not feel I am contributing much, as I have felt in some games but the party will really miss you if you are gone. Guidance cantrip is huge and I cast it a lot (I don't overdo it). Bless is also great, everyone loves a bonus to attack rolls and saving throws. Use Thaumaturgy to make your eyes crackle with lightning to intimidate others. And the obvious heals, restoration and protection spells; your party will be so very happy you have that restoration spell.
Let's look at offense/damage. His output with individual melee may not be the best and he has only one attack/rd...but wait...spiritual weapon gives him 2 attacks per round. And it can hit a different enemy. Great spell. Couple that with Spirit Guardians and you are walking damage. Use the dodge action for disadvantage to enemy attacks, move to where enemy/enemies are in range and they take 3d8 radiant damage at the start of their turn, then smack one with some extra spiritual hammer damage with a bonus action. Works great at blocking a chokepoint so your allies can damage at range. Even better is if you are fighting vampires or other regenerating enemies then Spirit Guardians' radiant damage negates that. Maxing Shatter damage has been great in a few situations with Destructive Wrath (unfortunately not a lot of spells to use this with). Right now, we are in a dungeon campaign and Call Lightning is useless...grrr...I want to cast that so bad.
My cleric can fill the support role and throw out some damage. My thoughts on healing are a bit different. If I was a Life Cleric then maybe I would really try to heal but a lot of classes have ways to heal. My character knows that you can fight just as well with 1 hp as with 100. I usually don't throw my heals out until the end of combat or someone is really taking a beating and one more hit may do them in. Dead enemies do zero damage. Also characters learn to act selfishly and foolishly if someone is there to always cover their ass.
Don't think Tempest is necessarily the best Cleric subclass but I am digging it. Have fun.
I'd like to get in on the discussion for my new Hill Dwarf tempest cleric, starting out in an ongoing campaign as L4. Stats:
STR: 15 DEX: 15 CON: 13 INT: 9 WIS 18 CHA 9
I've read all the comments above. I'm leaning hard toward the ASI for WIS to get to 20.
My DM suggested the Armor Master as i want to be on or near the front line. The existing party is a bit squishy. However, the tempest cleric at that level gets some pretty awesome spell power, and the Dwarf with personal defense spells seems good enough. Not sure i need that small bump to strength with a minimal (seems to me) decrease in melee damage.
Please test my thinking. Any reason not to "max" the WIS? Is there a feat that is enough offset to make me go look again?
Your in a situation where multiple options are easily just as good. At level 4 your still well within enemies that don't do a lot of magical weapon damage So heavy armor master is still quite the boon being a flat reduction on the damage that they deal. If you use a lot that measily 1 point of guaranteed damage really plays out as a lot over time even though it doesn't seem like much.
So you got to ask yourself what your really looking to do with the character and how he might look at things. If your tanking a lot despite the cleric the extra defense might be good because your still getting spell offense online as well and it inadvertantly boosts up another offensive weapon. But if your dealing with situations where your DC's are being met alot (which you shouldn't be really getting that too much at your level) then the DC increase is nice.
So both are actually very useful boons for you. Another thing to keep in mind that the Heavy Armor master is more useful at earlier levels so if you are going to go that route to round out your strength and give a little more defense then it's better to do it now rather than later when your getting even more powerful and just plain more spells and enemies dealing non-magical damage becomes somewhat more intermittent.
Heavy Armor Master is good at that level, though I'd point out that that 15 in Dex is not really useful there- if you can, I'd swap your Dex and Con scores- you really want the extra HP and improved Concentration saves while you're in the front lines.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hello everyone,
Im quite a beginner at DnD and I just started my second character. I'm playing a lvl 5 fighter cavalier in a different campaign. I really like being in the thick of the action but this time I wanted to be able to cast some spells and do some damage as well. Because I don't like being a frail caster I decided on a cleric in the Tempest domain.
The backstory of my character is that I'm a dwarf with this strange affinity for the sea and in my time serving on a navy vessel I got gifted with powers by this sea storm diety.
I used point buy and came to the following ability scores (using my hill dwarf racial):
STR:14 DEX:8 CON:16 WIS:16 INT:8 WIS:16 CHA:12
I'm struggling with the role I want to fill in the party. I wouldn't mind doing some tanking or healing but I would like to dish out some damage as well (at least more than my cavalier). I prefer running with a warhammer and shield though since I want my damage to come from my spells and cleric powers mainly.
I've been reading up on tempest clerics but it all still needs to click a bit for me. Here are some questions I'm struggling with:
Is Magic Initiate to get Booming Blade and Find Familiar worth it? I really like the idea of having a seagull or sea eagle familiar (using owl or raven stats) and cast touch spells like cure wounds trough my familiar.
Resilient and warcaster both seem to be popular feats, is warcaster essential if you are fighting with a shield equiped?
Or do I ignore feats and go for ASI at lvl 4 and if so, which one? WIS/CON/STR +2?
Are my ability scores alright or are there better options?
Should I opt for mountain dwarf instead of an hill dwarf for the +2str instead of +1wis?
Is there a reason to take sacred flame over toll the dead as one of my strating cantrips?
I hope some of you can help me.
I played a tempest cleric through level 14 or 15 and loved it. They're a super fun class.
My first suggestion would be to get to a 15 str so you can wear the heavy armor. If you are going weapon and shield, warcaster is almost a requirement (there's the issue with somatic components, but advantage to maintain concentration is really good. Especially when you start getting things like call lightning as a concentration spell. and to keep bless going). Honestly, after I took it, I don't think I used my weapon anymore, just used my cantrip OAs because my wis was maxed, so it was a better chance of succeeding than a melee attack.
Booming blade and a familiar might be cool, but I'd say your feats should actually be wis bump at level 4, then warcaster or another wis bump 8, then whichever you didn't take at 12. You could throw resilient con into the mix at 8 or 12, come to think of it. But for a melee cleric, magic initiate isn't really a priority (unless you just really like it for your character, because that's really the most important) A familiar to scout can be useful, but the touch spell to heal won't come up as much, that's what healing word is for. And booming blade can be cool, but I think you'll find that after a few levels, you have plenty of offensive spells and won't need to actually hit people with your weapon. As I said above, I rarely used my weapon, there was almost always something more interesting to do by casting a spell. Which is another reason to take wis boosts for ASI, you want your save DCs to be high. Once your str is 15, I wouldn't get it any higher. and a 16 con is wonderful for a cleric.
Toll the dead is a wis save, where sacred flame is dex. So one or the other can be more useful depending on what kind of enemies you're dealing with. You could take them both. And then guidance for the third cantrip. Guidance is a must and one of the best cantrips in the game (unless you are a combat-only kind of group. But if you do a reasonable amount of skill checks, guidance will be a life saver). More practical would be guidance, one of the offensive cantrips, and then whatever you like for the last one. As a dwarf, you probably don't need light (but others in the party may), but mending or thaumaturgy can both be fun and useful in lots of situations.
From a purely mehcanical point of view, don't bother with find familiar or booming blade. Tempest clerics got enough boom as it is. Xalthu covered most other aspects pretty well, but he makes 1 mistake. Since you're a Dwarf you don't need 15 str to wear the heaviest armour without penalties. One of the great, but often forgotten thing about being a Dwarf is that you ignore those speed reducing penalties even if you don't have the required strength to wear them.
Don't be too afraid to frequently use your channel divinity. Maxing out the damage with thunder & lightning spells is what you want to deal that damage you're looking for. (thunderwave, shatter and call lightning at lower lvls). Channel Divinity resets on short rests, so just take on of those every so often.
Grabbing either warcaster or resilient con is a great idea. You like being in the thick of battle, but also like keeping concentration.
If you would reach lvl 8, ask the DM if you can use the new cleric feature that came out in Tasha's cauldron today. Instead of just buffing your weapon attacks, you can chose each round to buff a weapon or a cantrip attack, making you more versatile.
I tend to go for Hill Dwarf over Mountain Dwarf for a cleric, wis is ultimately more important and the extra HP is great.
First ideas of the top of my head.
I'm generally not a fan of melee clerics, but if I was going to play a tempest cleric set up for melee, I'd probably go half elf so I could take the booming blade cantrip. I'm going to want to make my one melee attack scale. I'm going sword and shield, because being not hit is important to maintain concentration (my primary complaint with melee clerics). At level 4, I will be taking warcaster to help me maintain my concentration checks. I'd go 16 str and 16 wis., 14 con. Everything else gets dumped more or less.
For my cantrips, I'm going with Guidance, Toll the Dead, and probably light (unless my party has no darkvision, or someone else has a light source).
1st level spells are bless, healing word, cure wounds, and probably shield of faith. At lower levels, bless and healingword are probably the only things I will ever cast.
https://ddb.ac/characters/39345579/kHfw9e
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
Ohh, good catch about the dwarf thing. Thanks.
Dwarves don't take the low-strength penalty for wearing heavy armor.
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.
I'm currently playing a lvl 10 Tempest Cleric. I'd say try and get Gauntlets of Ogre Strength or one of the Giants belts as soon as you can to boost your strength for melee but it's not a must as you can get by with your casting. Definetly get Wisdom as high as you can and War Caster is very important since a lot of your best spells require concentration. Spirit Guardians is a go to spell that does solid constant damage to any monsters within I think 15 feet of you and cuts their movement in half. Mix in your spiritual weapon and your normal attacks on your turn and you'll be pushing a good amount of damage.
I'm not the healer in the group so I pretty much stick to offensive spells and buffs. I can lend a hand healing in combat but it's not my main role, however I have used Prayer of Healing a few times outside if combat to help us heal up between encounters if we don't have time for a rest. Guidance is one of my most used Cantrips and Thaumaturgy is awesome for role playing. Bless is also a great Buff spell if you are hanging back from the front line. I've loved the class and it does pretty much everything well. Hopefully you get to fight some undead or zombies because that's where you'll really feel powerful.
Tempest Clerics do massive damage. The best spell to concentrate on is usually Spirit Guardians. You can also use Spiritual Weapon with your bonus action. These are great sources of Radiant or Necrotic damage and Force damage.
And you get a bunch of great non-concentration AoE spells like Thunderwave, Shatter, Ice Storm, and Destructive Wave. With the exception of Ice Storm, you can give these spells a huge damage boost once or twice per short rest with your channel divinity, too. But Ice Storm has the advantage that it targets a Dex Save, whereas the other three target the usually stronger Con Saves of enemies.
You definitely want to get your Wisdom to 20, and I would say that Resilient Constitution and War Caster are the only feats to consider before getting Wisdom to 20. And you do want to prioritize Wisdom over Strength.
Your role in the party is that you'll probably be the best AoE damage dealer. For single target damage, martial classes with Sharpshooter or Great Weapon Master and Extra Attack and an awesome magical weapon will still outpace you in damage, but for multi-target damage, you'll probably beat out the Fireball throwers, and you'll be doing it with a few damage types that are much less likely to be resisted than fire damage, although with saving throws that are more likely to be succeeded by enemies. Although when you're using it against weaker enemies, their Con Saves aren't as likely to be good, it's against the really powerful enemies where a Con Save is going to be really difficult to get them to fail. But at least these are still half damage on a successful save, and you don't have to worry about Evasion, and you're far less likely to run into resistance or immunity to the damage type.
Thanks a lot for all the advice! I'll probably go for WIS increase at lvl 4 and WarCaster at 8.
I just want to make a note that people can get a little too caught up in Healing Word. I understand that they are trying to optimize spells but there are times and setups where cure wounds are a lot better. Much like Sacred Flame and Toll the Dead compliment each other because they hit different kinds of saves despite both being save spells. Cure wounds and Healing words co-exist well because one is an action and close range for more healing and the other is a bonus action and long range for less healing. If the person you want to heal is close by you and you can get to them to touch them with Cure and you have your spiritual weapon up it can actually be just as efficient to actually use cure wounds. Particularly if it's the tank and that gets you more in range to have things affected by things like your spirit guardians. If your a backup healer or a Melee range/tank cleric it can be to your advantage to move to them and heal them with Cure wounds as well because then you are pressuring the enemies around your weakened ally with things like your Spirit Guardians and the improved healing could make your ally a more difficult target to deal with in combination with the Cleric that has come to their rescue and it could put you in positions to trigger combinations like Wrath of the Storm and Thunderbolt strike to push them back should they turn on your cleric while your saving your ally.
personally, i think you want a high ac if your going to be tanking. even a 12 in dexterity can save your life. otherwise, i think it sounds like a great chatacter and i hope you enjoy playing it!
Tempest clerics have heavy armor, so dex will do nothing for their AC.
I have a level 4 Tempest cleric that faces pretty much exactly the same conundrum. I was going to take Spell Sniper and grab a pole arm for Booming Blade shenanigans, but that got nerfed in the new text for BB. So I went Wisdom bump instead.
Tempest cleric really does have a split personality - the subclass features make it very sexy to pair with BB, but at the same time, your Channel Divinity makes you one of the best blasters in the game. I would recommend taking the Wisdom ASI and then scrounging for gauntlets of ogre power, as has been suggested.
In 3rd edition, weapons with flavored damage were much easier to get. If that were the case, I might even consider picking up the dual wielding feat for two attacks with lightning/thunder weapons to become a true melee cleric. But alas that is not realistic in the current, relatively low-magic meta.
The tempest cleric I'm runnning tonight is from a custom race that the DM set up. This one happens to get a druid cantrip at level one, so I picked up Shillelagh, for slightly less MADness. I did not request it, either - it was an option he gave to everyone, along with a bunch of other custom races.
The other thing about Tempest is that getting hit in melee is a good thing - it effectively gives you a free attack back. So high CON makes even more sense.
I would take warcaster at level 4 and then bump wisdom at 8. Losing concentration is a real bummer and level 5 is where you start unlocking all the juicy concentration stuff. Already having that set up will be a boon, especially if you're trying to be in melee a good amount. Bumping wisdom first is much better if you plan on standing back and being a more typical blaster.
Edit:Oops just realized this was a resurrected post,.
I posted in another thread so I am gonna copy and edit what I said, may be some repetitions due to that. Lots of good advice from other posters
Stats look fine. Wis and Con, I feel are the most important with Str next (if melee or Dex if ranged). Dex , as said before, won't matter with plate. I have a lvl 6 and went Mtn dwarf but either is good. Keep stats even unless you plan on taking a Resilient Feat. If he is a front line fighter then take Resilient con feat for a +1 Con and bonus to Wis saves (concentration )or as I did, take Warcaster so I can carry a shield and weapon, get advantage on concentration saves and cast spells on opportunity attacks instead of plain boring melee attacks...Toll the Dead does 2d8/2d12 at lvl 5 with a failed save...not bad for an opportunity attack. I am usually a big believer in maxing stats first but if you are a board and sword caster I think it is mandatory.
Use both Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame, just learn which enemies are worse at Dex and Wis. It is usually not that hard to figure for most of them. Forget wasting a feat or ASI on Booming Blade.
I play a Tempest Cleric at lvl 6 (and have a lvl 11 Lore Bard) and there are a few ways to go in playstyle and the first is support. The Bard is all about support and some crowd control. The Cleric can do a lot of the same. It may not feel I am contributing much, as I have felt in some games but the party will really miss you if you are gone. Guidance cantrip is huge and I cast it a lot (I don't overdo it). Bless is also great, everyone loves a bonus to attack rolls and saving throws. Use Thaumaturgy to make your eyes crackle with lightning to intimidate others. And the obvious heals, restoration and protection spells; your party will be so very happy you have that restoration spell.
Let's look at offense/damage. His output with individual melee may not be the best and he has only one attack/rd...but wait...spiritual weapon gives him 2 attacks per round. And it can hit a different enemy. Great spell. Couple that with Spirit Guardians and you are walking damage. Use the dodge action for disadvantage to enemy attacks, move to where enemy/enemies are in range and they take 3d8 radiant damage at the start of their turn, then smack one with some extra spiritual hammer damage with a bonus action. Works great at blocking a chokepoint so your allies can damage at range. Even better is if you are fighting vampires or other regenerating enemies then Spirit Guardians' radiant damage negates that. Maxing Shatter damage has been great in a few situations with Destructive Wrath (unfortunately not a lot of spells to use this with). Right now, we are in a dungeon campaign and Call Lightning is useless...grrr...I want to cast that so bad.
My cleric can fill the support role and throw out some damage. My thoughts on healing are a bit different. If I was a Life Cleric then maybe I would really try to heal but a lot of classes have ways to heal. My character knows that you can fight just as well with 1 hp as with 100. I usually don't throw my heals out until the end of combat or someone is really taking a beating and one more hit may do them in. Dead enemies do zero damage. Also characters learn to act selfishly and foolishly if someone is there to always cover their ass.
Don't think Tempest is necessarily the best Cleric subclass but I am digging it. Have fun.
I'd like to get in on the discussion for my new Hill Dwarf tempest cleric, starting out in an ongoing campaign as L4. Stats:
STR: 15 DEX: 15 CON: 13 INT: 9 WIS 18 CHA 9
I've read all the comments above. I'm leaning hard toward the ASI for WIS to get to 20.
My DM suggested the Armor Master as i want to be on or near the front line. The existing party is a bit squishy. However, the tempest cleric at that level gets some pretty awesome spell power, and the Dwarf with personal defense spells seems good enough. Not sure i need that small bump to strength with a minimal (seems to me) decrease in melee damage.
Please test my thinking. Any reason not to "max" the WIS? Is there a feat that is enough offset to make me go look again?
Thanks for your time!
Your in a situation where multiple options are easily just as good. At level 4 your still well within enemies that don't do a lot of magical weapon damage So heavy armor master is still quite the boon being a flat reduction on the damage that they deal. If you use a lot that measily 1 point of guaranteed damage really plays out as a lot over time even though it doesn't seem like much.
So you got to ask yourself what your really looking to do with the character and how he might look at things. If your tanking a lot despite the cleric the extra defense might be good because your still getting spell offense online as well and it inadvertantly boosts up another offensive weapon. But if your dealing with situations where your DC's are being met alot (which you shouldn't be really getting that too much at your level) then the DC increase is nice.
So both are actually very useful boons for you. Another thing to keep in mind that the Heavy Armor master is more useful at earlier levels so if you are going to go that route to round out your strength and give a little more defense then it's better to do it now rather than later when your getting even more powerful and just plain more spells and enemies dealing non-magical damage becomes somewhat more intermittent.
Heavy Armor Master is good at that level, though I'd point out that that 15 in Dex is not really useful there- if you can, I'd swap your Dex and Con scores- you really want the extra HP and improved Concentration saves while you're in the front lines.
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.