Greetings. I'm currently in a West Marches campaign, and I'm looking at switching out my character in the nearish future. I'm still reasonably new to DnD, and while I have a general idea of the structure I'd be looking at I could use some advise on how to go about things as right now I have a lot of moving parts in my head and need help fitting them together well. I like oddball ideas so naturally I ended up on one that has a lot of different paths to look at.
Important things to note: outside of a few specific tweaks to a few things in order to meet the server's needs better there's no Homebrew allowed, nor is there any UA allowed at all. Anything in an officially published book outside of a small handful of banned things are allowed in terms of spells/feats/subraces/subclasses. We have updated to include Tasha's but Custom Origins/Custom Lineages are banned. Only 1 multiclass allowed so no say Ranger/Cleric/Paladin. I'd be making the character switch at level 7 (unless I permadie beforehand in which case it would be level 5). The theoretical class split at level 20 would be 8 Ranger 12 Cleric. Levelling progression would probably be Ranger to 5, Cleric to 5, Ranger 6-8, Cleric 6-12.
For both the Ranger and Cleric side I'm mainly bouncing back and forth between two different subclasses (Gloom Stalker/Hunter, and War/Arcana), though with the Ranger side I have a heavier lean towards Gloom. Ranger side would be more decided by the race/subrace I choose, while the Cleric side would be more decided between War Priest/Heavy Armour/Domain Spells vs Access to Booming Blade/less stat juggling.
The general thought behind War Domain is being a Ranger in Heavy Armour, wading into the middle of the enemy formation with Spirit Guardians up, frequently getting 3 attacks a turn with either War Priest or Spiritual Weapon and just generally laying havoc to enemies and eventually getting Divine Strike as well. Arcana would be absolutely for abusing Booming Blade primarily but Magic Missile/Spell Breaker/Potent Spellcasting are nice bonuses.
Gloom Stalker is an obvious pickup: Dread Ambusher is an amazing pickup regardless of the Cleric subclass I go with for the bonus to initiative and the first turn boost. Umbral Sight is particularly good if I pick a race without darkvision but its not bad if I grab a class with darkvision (but it would be the reason why I'd start looking at Hunter over Gloom), and gaining another proficiency is great with Iron Mind. Hunter would be Colossus Slayer + Multiattack defence. If the race I grab already has darkvision, there's room for argument to look at Hunter. Colossus Slayer is basically getting Divine Strike early (or getting it at all if I go Arcana) and it stacks with Divine Strike later on. Multiattack helps to offset what is inevitably going to be an HP total that is "decent but not top end for a frontliner" along with an AC that's "good but not top end for a frontliner" by boosting my AC against multiattacks.
No matter what combination I go with, I need to have 13 Wis/Dex for multiclassing purposes. If I go with War Domain I'm realistically needing at least 15 Str or more unless I'm throwing away Heavy Armour proficiency. And then in either case I need at least a decent bit of Con so War Caster works better. As far as I'm aware it would be best to go with just one weapon and no shield so that I have a free hand for material components of my spells? That would put my Ranger fighting style most likely in Dueling, though both Defense (AC boost) and Druidic Fighter (Shillelagh so I don't need more than 15 Str, or possibly dropping Str all together if going Arcana/Shillelagh?) have solid arguments as well.
For the actual race/subrace: Variant Human is an obvious one, lets me grab War Caster for free out of the gate. With +1Str/Wis I'm looking at a 15/13/12/8/16/10 split if going Heavy Armour. With 5 ASI retained for non-War Caster needs I can max out Wis and Strength while getting one more feat (either a +1 Str or +1 Wis trait). The Shillelagh route would be +1Dex/Wis and 8/16/14/8/16/10. Very easy to max out Wis and Dex and get any trait I want like Alert or Mobile or Tough or Fey Touched or Fighting Initiate (or bump Con up to 16). Problem with this is that its by far the most boring route to take. Effective? For sure and probably the smartest. But I don't like boring. On the other hand, not many Ranger/Cleric blends on the server and most of them are Life Clerics in order to abuse Goodberry so its not that boring.
Human - Dragonmark of Sentinel is a very intriguing one. One free cast of Shield on a class combo that can otherwise not get it can be very clutch. Gaining Counterspell is amazing particularly in a West Marches setup and adds to my utility. But the stat spread is leaving me looking at 15/13/12/8/16/10 (Can't max out both Wis and Str while getting War Caster) or 8/15/16/8/16/10 for Shillelagh (Can't max out both Wis and Dex).
Human - Dragonmark of Finding is another interesting one. Its the only way humans can start off with Darkvision, a free cast of Hunter's Mark is hardly a bad thing. Spell list isn't as good as Sentinel's but Faerie Fire is good. Stat spread ends up being 15/13/13/8/16/10 (or +1Con/-1Cha, either way can't max out Str and Wis and stuck with an odd number) or 8/15/16/8/16/10 for Shillelagh (Can't max out both Wis and Dex)
Warforged - This is where I start to look at really off of the wall options. If I were to go this route I wouldn't take Druidic Fighter, but Defence. When combined with the Warforge's natural +1 AC I effectively get my missing shield's AC of +2 added to the heavy armour. The resistance is poison and sleep are nice bonuses. Would probably put the +1 into Wis for a 15/13/12/8/16/10 spread (can't max out Str and Wis). How a man made machine like a Warforged doesn't have Dark Vision I'll never know, but if I go Warforged I'm really locked into War/Gloom.
Vedalken - And this is where I go completely out of left field but I think there's potential here. Between starting as a Ranger, War Caster, and Vedalken Disposition I have either Proficiency or Advantage against every type of saving throw except for non-concentration Con checks. I eventually have Proficiency and Advantage on Wisdom checks so I can just completely laugh at those. I'd be looking at 15/13/12/10/16/8 (can't max Str and Wis) or 8/15/14/10/16/10 for Shillelagh (can't max Dex and Wis). In terms of scratching the "weird build design that works" itch this one does it the most. However I also recognize its potentially the least optimal and most likely to get me killed in a number of ways. Advantage on saving throws is good and all, but a -1 modifier is still a -1 modifier so advantage becomes less and less helpful as you level up due to higher monster DCs. Can still flip the bird at any Wis Saving Throws though even at level 20.
Any thoughts/experience/input to help me sort out all of the pieces would be greatly appreciated.
OK I am currently playing a Gloom Stalker / Arcana who works on melee and strength and is now in Breastplate. If you start as human and get the bonus feat you will be in a better place than me. I am working with a spear and shield. Polearm Master gets me a bonus attack, and when I don't have a bonus action (moving/casting hunter's mark) I can just booming blade. Booming blade does not stack with extra attacks, but if you are a human you can have both PAM and Warcaster at 4th level. That is the combo you need.
You need a way to reliably get attacks of opportunity because once you are fifth level you will stop using Booming Blade since it means you only get one attack. To me Polearm Master is the solution to that problem but then you need Warcaster. I currently use Chill Touch (my other arcane cantrip) for all ranged attacks and don't bother with a bow. Having Detect Magic and Magic Missile is nice, but I have yet to use Magic Missile in combat. Detect magic always ready means I can ritual cast it. Then you have Bless, and Guiding Bolt waiting to be cast. For Healing I have Healing Word for saving allies.
I wouldn't worry so much about maxing both Wisdom and Strength. Gloom Stalker is really nice and pretty good through level 11 which is where I am eventually taking it. But you have definitely caught the key. The best Ranger stuff peaks by 8th level (Gloom Stalker does get a nice level 11), so from there on out you can just ride the Cleric train to better spells.
For the record. My racial choice was forest gnome because I had never played a gnome. I LOVE the saving throw advantages and it entirely works (rolled stats and was slightly above average which helps a lot), but I would not recommend with point buy. When I chose Arcana my next choices for cleric were Forge (for the +1 armor), and Healing (for goodberry abuse).
For using the Spear + Shield combo, doesn't that get in the way of casting some of your spells? War Caster lets you get the S components but not the M components. Engraved shield would let you take care of the M for Priest spells without a cost but then you still have Priest spells with M with a cost, as well as all of your Ranger spells. Unless you grab a Ruby of the War Mage which is a reasonable thing to do in our server, in which case the M for both Priest and Ranger spells are taken care of as long as they don't have a cost.
Funny enough on my server, if I was a Loxodon (like I currently am for my War Wizard), I might be able to get past that limitation. Trunk can hold objects. Can't be used for S components, but in theory could hold any M components with a cost as long as it wasn't too heavy.
EDIT: Also in the case of the Shillelagh build, Booming Blade would be equal or more damage to using the Quarterstaff. Has to be a Quarterstaff or Club to use Shillalagh, Shillelagh changes it to a 1d8 even when single handed. Level 5 onwards I get two swings. Booming Blade is the weapon attack and then bonus damage if they move, until the cantrip starts scaling. Once the cantrip starts scaling at level 5 it adds 1d8 to the initial hit, aka 2d8 just like it would be if I swung twice and then additional damage if they move. And then 11th level its 3d8 for the initial strike, and so forth. Only real benefit for swinging the weapon multiple times in that case over using Booming Blade is if they are very dodging but for some reason I have to use a weapon swing in which case it might be better because my damage is spread out among multiple swings so I have multiple changes to hit.
Going the Shillelagh route also means that technically speaking I can go with Medium Armour instead of Light Armour + Max Dex. That means I have a few extra points I can shove into Con or get my Int out of the negative zone without sacrificing AC as I'll be maxing out Wis due to it becoming my weapon modifier.
Couple of notes before I respond. Quarterstaff is also eligible for Polearm Master, so you got that going as well
You are absolutely right on the hands problem. We just need Thri-kreen in the game so we can have four and stop bothering with the hands economy. Good news is that with only one weapon you can sheath and unsheath pretty reasonable or whatever you weapon's equivlent is.
With Ranger spells you will find that a lot of you combat ones are V or S. Spike growth is one problem. Usually if it requires expensive stuff its not really useful for a Ranger to be casting in battle. The nice thing is that the cleric spells were also designed to be cast while having your hands full so that isn't so bad either. Warcaster will help a ton. The most important part for me is careful selection of spells and knowing how to cast them.
So at level five (4/1) I have 6 cantrips: Minor Illusion (SM), Booming Blade (SM), Chill Touch (VS), Guidance (VS), Spare the Dying (VS), Thaumaturgy (V). I don't usually cast Guidance or Minor Illusion in battle, and Spare the Dying is usually only used if I don't have slots for Healing Word and requires a touch as well so I know I have to free up my actions so sheathing a weapon isn't hard for that. Chill Touch and Guiding Bolt both require a free hand but no M so its sheath weapon and shoot things with my finger same goes for Magic Missile. If I know the enemy is far away sometimes I will stay sheathed for a round or two to take care of long range business. With Chill Touch and Guiding Bolt at 120 ft its pretty reasonable to fire away rounds 1 and 2 if they are that far away.
Hunter's Mark, Hail of Thorns, and Zephyr Strike are all V only. Silence and Healing Spirit are VS. But you do have to pay attention.
The other thing to keep in mind is how spells upcast. You will have LOADS of empty higher level slots to cast into. Healing Spirit isn't that great after they changed it, but upcast as a 3rd or 4th level spell its pretty amazing (add 1d6 for each level upcast). A 6Ra/6Cl is an 9th level caster meaning you have 3 open 4th level slots, and 1 open 5th level slot. That Healing Spirit is now healing for 4d6 to multiple folks as a 5th level spell. Your Guiding Bolt is a 9d6 ranged attack. Hail of Thorns is a 5d10 area effect.
So when you select Ranger spells be greedy with the upcastable ones. You will have empty slots to cast into.
For me it helps that I came at this as a Ranger, and so I don't worry about the missing spell levels of cleric. Instead I focus on cheating out the 13-20th levels of Ranger and turning them into something more interesting. I likely won't go 11/9 so I won't get 5th level spells, but choosing from ALL the 4th level cleric spells over 1 or 2 Ranger 4th level spells isn't hard.
I have another one that I have built that is waiting to go if this one dies. Similar build, but an Orc Monster Slayer / Knowledge Cleric with an Archaeologist background. He has so many skills it makes me laugh. I even put Skill Expert on him. He has a 16 Str, and Expertise in Arcana, Nature, Perception, and Investigation. He has every non dex/cha skill except knowledge Religion.
Point is have fun. 1 level of cleric early on a Ranger is near ideal for a fun role playing character. Take the base ranger chassis and give them some clerical motivation and weird skills. And since you were already going to have str, dex, and wis at 13 or close to it its not even difficult to multiclass.
Interesting. I'm used to playing a wizard where its fairly important in most cases to have a free hand because of the spells, but if its possible to get away with a Quarterstaff + Shield combo most of the time that certainly leans me towards Arcana instead of War. Polearm Master is probably overall better for consistent damage compared to War Priest (unlimited d4 Bonus actions vs 5 d8 bonus actions). I'll have to comb through the spell lists more carefully.
Going that route would more or less lock me in as only needing 14 Dex as well. Half Plate + Shield + Dex bonus is 19 AC, while Studded Leather + Shield + 18 Dex would only reach 18 AC and I'm using Wis for my attack stat with Shillelagh: only downside to that is I can't cast Spiritual Weapon T1 unless I'm unable to get in melee range and my Dex save isn't as high but I'm proficient in them so its not horrible. Even if I had to drop to Breastplate I'm still tying the maximum potential AC from trying to go as far in on Dex as possible. That would leave me at a 8/14/16/8/16/10 stat spread if I put the +1 in Wis/Con. The combination of Quarterstaff, Shillelagh, Polearm Master, and War Caster basically changes the build from being MAD to potentially open to grabbing even more feats if I don't mind not capping Con (and realistically with War Caster I'm not sure I need to max out Con? Or rather is another +1 to the Con modifier better than grabbing say Tough, or Resilient to fix up my Int saves, or Mobile so I can get exactly where I want to be round 1 of combat with 55 feet of movement?)
In either case, that shifting of things makes things a lot simpler to look at. Its gone from "V.Human having a small edge over the other options" to "V.Human having a massive advantage over the other options" and more or less locking in Arcane/Gloom as the combo to go with. Still have a softspot for the idea of a Vedalken, to the point where I think if some strange alternative universe I was part of a DnD weekly stream I might use that for my build for the entertaining/atypical side of things, but I don't think I can reasonably avoid V.Human in this particular situation given its advantages.
You've given me a lot to think about and and lot of good information, much appreciated.
Elfdope your character sounds like so much fun! I'm drooling a little. The orc sounds amazing too. I'm a huge fan of the ranger/cleric multiclass but I've never played one. I think fleshing out the ranger kit with cleric abilities and spells is fantastic in concept and mechanics.
Niddo you seem like you're dialing into a really nice build.
Spiritual Weapon may have a tough time on it though. Besides the whole free hands issue, Rangers are bonus action heavy, especially so with shillelagh in the mix.
Because you are a polearm master + warcaster build using booming blade AND a quarterstaff there is a unique synergy you can take advantage of. Crusher. It triggers once a turn, which means you can trigger it on your turn and on your reaction. The 5 foot push has no save. It can act as a free disengage on your turn to combine with booming blade. It can keep people from reaching you if they use all of their movement to get to you. But the real gem to me is when your target still has movement left. They will have to move that five feet again to reengage, immediately taking the BB damage.
I have an Eldritch Knight sketched out around this synergy. That comes together in a neater package thanks to using strength, custom lineage and the extra fighter ASI. The +1 con won't be totally useless, but certainly not ideal. I think it's a really cool bit of synergy to consider regardless.
Interesting. Becomes a bit of a question of when to grab Crusher (in a West Marches having a high DC is quite helpful even more so than a regular campaign given the natural shift in focus towards combat) but Crusher adds a lot of benefits to be sure.
Hmmm. I would probably want to get to 18 wisdom before considering it. Maybe just feel out where you're at after 18 wisdom. Once the next ASI comes around you should have a decent idea of what you want.
Greetings. I'm currently in a West Marches campaign, and I'm looking at switching out my character in the nearish future. I'm still reasonably new to DnD, and while I have a general idea of the structure I'd be looking at I could use some advise on how to go about things as right now I have a lot of moving parts in my head and need help fitting them together well. I like oddball ideas so naturally I ended up on one that has a lot of different paths to look at.
Important things to note: outside of a few specific tweaks to a few things in order to meet the server's needs better there's no Homebrew allowed, nor is there any UA allowed at all. Anything in an officially published book outside of a small handful of banned things are allowed in terms of spells/feats/subraces/subclasses. We have updated to include Tasha's but Custom Origins/Custom Lineages are banned. Only 1 multiclass allowed so no say Ranger/Cleric/Paladin. I'd be making the character switch at level 7 (unless I permadie beforehand in which case it would be level 5). The theoretical class split at level 20 would be 8 Ranger 12 Cleric. Levelling progression would probably be Ranger to 5, Cleric to 5, Ranger 6-8, Cleric 6-12.
For both the Ranger and Cleric side I'm mainly bouncing back and forth between two different subclasses (Gloom Stalker/Hunter, and War/Arcana), though with the Ranger side I have a heavier lean towards Gloom. Ranger side would be more decided by the race/subrace I choose, while the Cleric side would be more decided between War Priest/Heavy Armour/Domain Spells vs Access to Booming Blade/less stat juggling.
The general thought behind War Domain is being a Ranger in Heavy Armour, wading into the middle of the enemy formation with Spirit Guardians up, frequently getting 3 attacks a turn with either War Priest or Spiritual Weapon and just generally laying havoc to enemies and eventually getting Divine Strike as well. Arcana would be absolutely for abusing Booming Blade primarily but Magic Missile/Spell Breaker/Potent Spellcasting are nice bonuses.
Gloom Stalker is an obvious pickup: Dread Ambusher is an amazing pickup regardless of the Cleric subclass I go with for the bonus to initiative and the first turn boost. Umbral Sight is particularly good if I pick a race without darkvision but its not bad if I grab a class with darkvision (but it would be the reason why I'd start looking at Hunter over Gloom), and gaining another proficiency is great with Iron Mind. Hunter would be Colossus Slayer + Multiattack defence. If the race I grab already has darkvision, there's room for argument to look at Hunter. Colossus Slayer is basically getting Divine Strike early (or getting it at all if I go Arcana) and it stacks with Divine Strike later on. Multiattack helps to offset what is inevitably going to be an HP total that is "decent but not top end for a frontliner" along with an AC that's "good but not top end for a frontliner" by boosting my AC against multiattacks.
No matter what combination I go with, I need to have 13 Wis/Dex for multiclassing purposes. If I go with War Domain I'm realistically needing at least 15 Str or more unless I'm throwing away Heavy Armour proficiency. And then in either case I need at least a decent bit of Con so War Caster works better. As far as I'm aware it would be best to go with just one weapon and no shield so that I have a free hand for material components of my spells? That would put my Ranger fighting style most likely in Dueling, though both Defense (AC boost) and Druidic Fighter (Shillelagh so I don't need more than 15 Str, or possibly dropping Str all together if going Arcana/Shillelagh?) have solid arguments as well.
For the actual race/subrace:
Variant Human is an obvious one, lets me grab War Caster for free out of the gate. With +1Str/Wis I'm looking at a 15/13/12/8/16/10 split if going Heavy Armour. With 5 ASI retained for non-War Caster needs I can max out Wis and Strength while getting one more feat (either a +1 Str or +1 Wis trait). The Shillelagh route would be +1Dex/Wis and 8/16/14/8/16/10. Very easy to max out Wis and Dex and get any trait I want like Alert or Mobile or Tough or Fey Touched or Fighting Initiate (or bump Con up to 16). Problem with this is that its by far the most boring route to take. Effective? For sure and probably the smartest. But I don't like boring. On the other hand, not many Ranger/Cleric blends on the server and most of them are Life Clerics in order to abuse Goodberry so its not that boring.
Human - Dragonmark of Sentinel is a very intriguing one. One free cast of Shield on a class combo that can otherwise not get it can be very clutch. Gaining Counterspell is amazing particularly in a West Marches setup and adds to my utility. But the stat spread is leaving me looking at 15/13/12/8/16/10 (Can't max out both Wis and Str while getting War Caster) or 8/15/16/8/16/10 for Shillelagh (Can't max out both Wis and Dex).
Human - Dragonmark of Finding is another interesting one. Its the only way humans can start off with Darkvision, a free cast of Hunter's Mark is hardly a bad thing. Spell list isn't as good as Sentinel's but Faerie Fire is good. Stat spread ends up being 15/13/13/8/16/10 (or +1Con/-1Cha, either way can't max out Str and Wis and stuck with an odd number) or 8/15/16/8/16/10 for Shillelagh (Can't max out both Wis and Dex)
Warforged - This is where I start to look at really off of the wall options. If I were to go this route I wouldn't take Druidic Fighter, but Defence. When combined with the Warforge's natural +1 AC I effectively get my missing shield's AC of +2 added to the heavy armour. The resistance is poison and sleep are nice bonuses. Would probably put the +1 into Wis for a 15/13/12/8/16/10 spread (can't max out Str and Wis). How a man made machine like a Warforged doesn't have Dark Vision I'll never know, but if I go Warforged I'm really locked into War/Gloom.
Vedalken - And this is where I go completely out of left field but I think there's potential here. Between starting as a Ranger, War Caster, and Vedalken Disposition I have either Proficiency or Advantage against every type of saving throw except for non-concentration Con checks. I eventually have Proficiency and Advantage on Wisdom checks so I can just completely laugh at those. I'd be looking at 15/13/12/10/16/8 (can't max Str and Wis) or 8/15/14/10/16/10 for Shillelagh (can't max Dex and Wis). In terms of scratching the "weird build design that works" itch this one does it the most. However I also recognize its potentially the least optimal and most likely to get me killed in a number of ways. Advantage on saving throws is good and all, but a -1 modifier is still a -1 modifier so advantage becomes less and less helpful as you level up due to higher monster DCs. Can still flip the bird at any Wis Saving Throws though even at level 20.
Any thoughts/experience/input to help me sort out all of the pieces would be greatly appreciated.
OK I am currently playing a Gloom Stalker / Arcana who works on melee and strength and is now in Breastplate. If you start as human and get the bonus feat you will be in a better place than me. I am working with a spear and shield. Polearm Master gets me a bonus attack, and when I don't have a bonus action (moving/casting hunter's mark) I can just booming blade. Booming blade does not stack with extra attacks, but if you are a human you can have both PAM and Warcaster at 4th level. That is the combo you need.
You need a way to reliably get attacks of opportunity because once you are fifth level you will stop using Booming Blade since it means you only get one attack. To me Polearm Master is the solution to that problem but then you need Warcaster. I currently use Chill Touch (my other arcane cantrip) for all ranged attacks and don't bother with a bow. Having Detect Magic and Magic Missile is nice, but I have yet to use Magic Missile in combat. Detect magic always ready means I can ritual cast it. Then you have Bless, and Guiding Bolt waiting to be cast. For Healing I have Healing Word for saving allies.
I wouldn't worry so much about maxing both Wisdom and Strength. Gloom Stalker is really nice and pretty good through level 11 which is where I am eventually taking it. But you have definitely caught the key. The best Ranger stuff peaks by 8th level (Gloom Stalker does get a nice level 11), so from there on out you can just ride the Cleric train to better spells.
For the record. My racial choice was forest gnome because I had never played a gnome. I LOVE the saving throw advantages and it entirely works (rolled stats and was slightly above average which helps a lot), but I would not recommend with point buy. When I chose Arcana my next choices for cleric were Forge (for the +1 armor), and Healing (for goodberry abuse).
For using the Spear + Shield combo, doesn't that get in the way of casting some of your spells? War Caster lets you get the S components but not the M components. Engraved shield would let you take care of the M for Priest spells without a cost but then you still have Priest spells with M with a cost, as well as all of your Ranger spells. Unless you grab a Ruby of the War Mage which is a reasonable thing to do in our server, in which case the M for both Priest and Ranger spells are taken care of as long as they don't have a cost.
Funny enough on my server, if I was a Loxodon (like I currently am for my War Wizard), I might be able to get past that limitation. Trunk can hold objects. Can't be used for S components, but in theory could hold any M components with a cost as long as it wasn't too heavy.
EDIT: Also in the case of the Shillelagh build, Booming Blade would be equal or more damage to using the Quarterstaff. Has to be a Quarterstaff or Club to use Shillalagh, Shillelagh changes it to a 1d8 even when single handed. Level 5 onwards I get two swings. Booming Blade is the weapon attack and then bonus damage if they move, until the cantrip starts scaling. Once the cantrip starts scaling at level 5 it adds 1d8 to the initial hit, aka 2d8 just like it would be if I swung twice and then additional damage if they move. And then 11th level its 3d8 for the initial strike, and so forth. Only real benefit for swinging the weapon multiple times in that case over using Booming Blade is if they are very dodging but for some reason I have to use a weapon swing in which case it might be better because my damage is spread out among multiple swings so I have multiple changes to hit.
Going the Shillelagh route also means that technically speaking I can go with Medium Armour instead of Light Armour + Max Dex. That means I have a few extra points I can shove into Con or get my Int out of the negative zone without sacrificing AC as I'll be maxing out Wis due to it becoming my weapon modifier.
Couple of notes before I respond. Quarterstaff is also eligible for Polearm Master, so you got that going as well
You are absolutely right on the hands problem. We just need Thri-kreen in the game so we can have four and stop bothering with the hands economy. Good news is that with only one weapon you can sheath and unsheath pretty reasonable or whatever you weapon's equivlent is.
With Ranger spells you will find that a lot of you combat ones are V or S. Spike growth is one problem. Usually if it requires expensive stuff its not really useful for a Ranger to be casting in battle. The nice thing is that the cleric spells were also designed to be cast while having your hands full so that isn't so bad either. Warcaster will help a ton. The most important part for me is careful selection of spells and knowing how to cast them.
So at level five (4/1) I have 6 cantrips: Minor Illusion (SM), Booming Blade (SM), Chill Touch (VS), Guidance (VS), Spare the Dying (VS), Thaumaturgy (V). I don't usually cast Guidance or Minor Illusion in battle, and Spare the Dying is usually only used if I don't have slots for Healing Word and requires a touch as well so I know I have to free up my actions so sheathing a weapon isn't hard for that. Chill Touch and Guiding Bolt both require a free hand but no M so its sheath weapon and shoot things with my finger same goes for Magic Missile. If I know the enemy is far away sometimes I will stay sheathed for a round or two to take care of long range business. With Chill Touch and Guiding Bolt at 120 ft its pretty reasonable to fire away rounds 1 and 2 if they are that far away.
Hunter's Mark, Hail of Thorns, and Zephyr Strike are all V only. Silence and Healing Spirit are VS. But you do have to pay attention.
The other thing to keep in mind is how spells upcast. You will have LOADS of empty higher level slots to cast into. Healing Spirit isn't that great after they changed it, but upcast as a 3rd or 4th level spell its pretty amazing (add 1d6 for each level upcast). A 6Ra/6Cl is an 9th level caster meaning you have 3 open 4th level slots, and 1 open 5th level slot. That Healing Spirit is now healing for 4d6 to multiple folks as a 5th level spell. Your Guiding Bolt is a 9d6 ranged attack. Hail of Thorns is a 5d10 area effect.
So when you select Ranger spells be greedy with the upcastable ones. You will have empty slots to cast into.
For me it helps that I came at this as a Ranger, and so I don't worry about the missing spell levels of cleric. Instead I focus on cheating out the 13-20th levels of Ranger and turning them into something more interesting. I likely won't go 11/9 so I won't get 5th level spells, but choosing from ALL the 4th level cleric spells over 1 or 2 Ranger 4th level spells isn't hard.
I have another one that I have built that is waiting to go if this one dies. Similar build, but an Orc Monster Slayer / Knowledge Cleric with an Archaeologist background. He has so many skills it makes me laugh. I even put Skill Expert on him. He has a 16 Str, and Expertise in Arcana, Nature, Perception, and Investigation. He has every non dex/cha skill except knowledge Religion.
Point is have fun. 1 level of cleric early on a Ranger is near ideal for a fun role playing character. Take the base ranger chassis and give them some clerical motivation and weird skills. And since you were already going to have str, dex, and wis at 13 or close to it its not even difficult to multiclass.
Interesting. I'm used to playing a wizard where its fairly important in most cases to have a free hand because of the spells, but if its possible to get away with a Quarterstaff + Shield combo most of the time that certainly leans me towards Arcana instead of War. Polearm Master is probably overall better for consistent damage compared to War Priest (unlimited d4 Bonus actions vs 5 d8 bonus actions). I'll have to comb through the spell lists more carefully.
Going that route would more or less lock me in as only needing 14 Dex as well. Half Plate + Shield + Dex bonus is 19 AC, while Studded Leather + Shield + 18 Dex would only reach 18 AC and I'm using Wis for my attack stat with Shillelagh: only downside to that is I can't cast Spiritual Weapon T1 unless I'm unable to get in melee range and my Dex save isn't as high but I'm proficient in them so its not horrible. Even if I had to drop to Breastplate I'm still tying the maximum potential AC from trying to go as far in on Dex as possible. That would leave me at a 8/14/16/8/16/10 stat spread if I put the +1 in Wis/Con. The combination of Quarterstaff, Shillelagh, Polearm Master, and War Caster basically changes the build from being MAD to potentially open to grabbing even more feats if I don't mind not capping Con (and realistically with War Caster I'm not sure I need to max out Con? Or rather is another +1 to the Con modifier better than grabbing say Tough, or Resilient to fix up my Int saves, or Mobile so I can get exactly where I want to be round 1 of combat with 55 feet of movement?)
In either case, that shifting of things makes things a lot simpler to look at. Its gone from "V.Human having a small edge over the other options" to "V.Human having a massive advantage over the other options" and more or less locking in Arcane/Gloom as the combo to go with. Still have a softspot for the idea of a Vedalken, to the point where I think if some strange alternative universe I was part of a DnD weekly stream I might use that for my build for the entertaining/atypical side of things, but I don't think I can reasonably avoid V.Human in this particular situation given its advantages.
You've given me a lot to think about and and lot of good information, much appreciated.
Elfdope your character sounds like so much fun! I'm drooling a little. The orc sounds amazing too. I'm a huge fan of the ranger/cleric multiclass but I've never played one. I think fleshing out the ranger kit with cleric abilities and spells is fantastic in concept and mechanics.
Niddo you seem like you're dialing into a really nice build.
Spiritual Weapon may have a tough time on it though. Besides the whole free hands issue, Rangers are bonus action heavy, especially so with shillelagh in the mix.
Because you are a polearm master + warcaster build using booming blade AND a quarterstaff there is a unique synergy you can take advantage of. Crusher. It triggers once a turn, which means you can trigger it on your turn and on your reaction. The 5 foot push has no save. It can act as a free disengage on your turn to combine with booming blade. It can keep people from reaching you if they use all of their movement to get to you. But the real gem to me is when your target still has movement left. They will have to move that five feet again to reengage, immediately taking the BB damage.
I have an Eldritch Knight sketched out around this synergy. That comes together in a neater package thanks to using strength, custom lineage and the extra fighter ASI. The +1 con won't be totally useless, but certainly not ideal. I think it's a really cool bit of synergy to consider regardless.
Interesting. Becomes a bit of a question of when to grab Crusher (in a West Marches having a high DC is quite helpful even more so than a regular campaign given the natural shift in focus towards combat) but Crusher adds a lot of benefits to be sure.
Hmmm. I would probably want to get to 18 wisdom before considering it. Maybe just feel out where you're at after 18 wisdom. Once the next ASI comes around you should have a decent idea of what you want.