Any other thoughts other than Gloom Stalker to make something fun to play as a bugbear forge cleric? Should I instead go Fighter/Rogue/Druid? Or different Ranger? Or?
Most sourcebooks, I want to avoid as much homebrew and UA as possible
I want to maximize the Bugbear's racial abilities and the Forge Cleric's heavy armor +ac bonus. DM will probably let me get my hands on some mithril to remove heavy armor stealth disadvantage.
(Bugbear Long-Limbed) When you make a melee attack on your turn, your reach for it is 5 feet greater than normal.
(Bugbear Sneaky) You are proficient in the Stealth skill.
(Bugbear Surprise Attack) If you surprise a creature and hit it with an attack on your first turn in combat, the attack deals an extra 2d6 damage to it. You can use this trait only once per combat.
(Forge-Blessing) +1 AC or +1 attack to an item
(Forge-Artisan's Blessing) Fire Resistance, +1AC to heavy armor
My build idea thus far....17 15 13 12 10 8 with racial +2 & +1
15 STR, to wear heavy armor.
13 DEX, Minimum to multi-class out of Ranger
14 CON, 12+2
08 INT, or swap with CHA.... not sure how hell will treat me....
18 WIS, 17+1 ... WIS is key! If I get Shillelagh I can use this for attack with a quarterstaff
10 CHA, or swap with INT.... not sure how hell will treat me....
1 Deft Explorer-Canny to double my affinity bonus for Stealth (I only have 12 dex)... Or stick with Natural Explorer?
1 Favored Enemy = Fiends, I could take Favored Foe-Foe Slayer for 1d4 to damage but that uses concentration....
2 Fighting Style = Druidic Warrior for cantrip Shillelagh + ?, this lets me use quarterstaff with wisdom
3 Gloom Stalker disguise self and rope trick spells
3 Gloom Stalker Dread Ambusher (+initiative wis modifier) & 10feet speed first round & 1d8 on first hit
3 Gloom Stalker Umbral Sight +30 darkvision range, invisible to any creature using darkvision while in darkness
4 Gloom Stalker ASI/FEAT.... thinking maybe PAM/Mobile/Sentry? or +1con +1wis?
5 Gloom Stalker Extra Attack
Forge Cleric to ?
1 Forge, heavy armor proficiency + smiths tools
1 Forge-Blessing, +1ac or +1 to attack and damage rolls
2 Forge-Artisan's Blessing, to start forging!
Future 6 Forge-Artisan's Blessing, Fire Resistance, +1AC to heavy armor
So at Gloom5/Forge2, Quarterstaff 1d8+4 & 1d8+4 with +2d6 surprise attack and my other ranger/cleric tricks. With splint AC17+1, chainmail AC16+1 and adding another +1 at Gloom5/Forge6
Quarterstaff is 1d6 and 1d8 as shillelagh when one handed. So why not use a shield and take advantage of the Cleric casting rules.
The reason that is important is once you are using a shield you can push down the armor to medium and use breastplate. Now a 14 Dex with breastplate and shield +forge = 19. While splint alone is 17 +forge = 18, and splint + shield + forge = 20. Once you go down to breastplate the 14 dex also helps save and initiative and you can use your stealth abilities.
How certain of the mithral armor prospect are you? If your DM lets you start with it then don't need to put that 15 in strength. Unless you're starting with it, you're going to have a tough time presenting a build that best utilizes the heavy armor forge cleric shtick and gloomstalker stealth shtick at the same time.
I do like Elfdope's proposal. It all depends on how long you think you will have to wait for mithral. If you start in regular heavy armor you're going to be shite at sneak and missing out on one aspect of your racial choice. Going for breastplate (with your 15 going in dex) will be a step down in AC once plate would be on the table, but it eases your stats and lets you be stealthy. Also definitely agree with using a shield if you're going shillelagh.
I love druidic warrior, but I'm not convinced of it on this build. If you're looking to play off of the forge domain's strengths, then not grabbing defense fighting style to stack AC bonuses feels like a miss. Also, since this is a martial/spellcaster multiclass, it's very reasonable to make this a strength or dex based build with just enough wisdom to qualify for your classes. Between ranger and cleric it is quite easy to curate a spell selection that doesn't rely on your wisdom.
How amenable to a third class are you? I like fighter anywhere there is gloomstalker and this is no different. Jumping in at level 7 has you in the unique position of being able to bring a build that is Fighter 1/ Ranger 5/ Cleric 1. Starting fighter is great for constitution proficiency and an additional fighting style. This way you can start with defense and druidic warrior/dueling (still not convinced by druidic warrior), and not having to spend a feat to be good at keeping up your many concentration spells is fantastic. From here you can pick up cleric levels to fill out the forge concept you want. At some point, picking up fighter 2 and 3 give some juicy toys. Action Surge combines amazingly with Dread Ambusher, and picking up Eldritch Knight gives you access to the Shield spell for even more AC stacking.
So a couple of thoughts I want to get down here. I am currently playing a Gloom Stalker Arcana Cleric. I love the way Rangers and Clerics fit together. When I was downselecting the possible Cleric subclasses Forge was one of the last three. So here are some of the cleric / ranger synergies worth noting.
Wisdom casting stat means you aren't dealing with two separate casting stats.
Cleric spell list overlaps enough with Ranger that you can actually have more "Ranger" spells ready to go each day.
The cleric only spells are helpful as well. Bless is amazing, and adding that to your spell arsenal helps. If you have one of the subclasses with a Hunter's Mark light ability (Hunter Colossus Slayer, Monster Slayer Slayer's Prey, Fey Wanderer Dreadful Strikes) you can choose to either stack Hunter's Mark with it or spend your concentration on Bless or Shield of Faith and still put out similar damage while also helping the party or being really hard to hit.
Cantrips. Every Ranger who isn't an archer focused Ranger runs out of hands and finds it hard to use a bow. The Cantrips can do in a pinch to help fix that. Arcana subclass can even get you Chill Touch.
Shield using Rangers get to abuse the Cleric shield casting system. And ritual spells like Detect Magic or Identify can help the rest of the party reduce their own spells known burden while not hitting your spell slots (Bard and Sorcerer).
Upcastable slots. Two levels of cleric and you will always have spellslots available one level above your highest. Do the math on a 4th level Healing Spirit, or a 4th level ensnaring strike. Those aren't the same spells upcast at that level.
I love the Shillelagh build. I haven't tried it but it feels like there is something there to work with. I am not sure its a gloom stalker/forge, but one of these combos will work great.
I am not as convinced as I mentioned about the heavy armor. It feels like you are losing your stealth abilities and focusing on combat prowess for very marginal gains there. I wonder if taking a cleric with medium armor prof might work better since they are balanced to have more abilities to compensate for the lack of heavy armor.
Regardless. Good luck with your awesome weird Ranger.
I dont see as much benefit with forge in avernus as you would have with tempest in avernus. Your bonus spells as forge are fire based and while you eventually get fire resistance, you can also get that from a spell or item.
If your goal is to be a sneaky killer from the shadows, you might also consider trickery.
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Any other thoughts other than Gloom Stalker to make something fun to play as a bugbear forge cleric?
Should I instead go Fighter/Rogue/Druid? Or different Ranger? Or?
Requirements/Constraints
I want to maximize the Bugbear's racial abilities and the Forge Cleric's heavy armor +ac bonus. DM will probably let me get my hands on some mithril to remove heavy armor stealth disadvantage.
My build idea thus far....17 15 13 12 10 8 with racial +2 & +1
Ranger to 5
Forge Cleric to ?
So at Gloom5/Forge2, Quarterstaff 1d8+4 & 1d8+4 with +2d6 surprise attack and my other ranger/cleric tricks.
With splint AC17+1, chainmail AC16+1 and adding another +1 at Gloom5/Forge6
Quarterstaff is 1d6 and 1d8 as shillelagh when one handed. So why not use a shield and take advantage of the Cleric casting rules.
The reason that is important is once you are using a shield you can push down the armor to medium and use breastplate. Now a 14 Dex with breastplate and shield +forge = 19. While splint alone is 17 +forge = 18, and splint + shield + forge = 20. Once you go down to breastplate the 14 dex also helps save and initiative and you can use your stealth abilities.
How certain of the mithral armor prospect are you? If your DM lets you start with it then don't need to put that 15 in strength. Unless you're starting with it, you're going to have a tough time presenting a build that best utilizes the heavy armor forge cleric shtick and gloomstalker stealth shtick at the same time.
I do like Elfdope's proposal. It all depends on how long you think you will have to wait for mithral. If you start in regular heavy armor you're going to be shite at sneak and missing out on one aspect of your racial choice. Going for breastplate (with your 15 going in dex) will be a step down in AC once plate would be on the table, but it eases your stats and lets you be stealthy. Also definitely agree with using a shield if you're going shillelagh.
I love druidic warrior, but I'm not convinced of it on this build. If you're looking to play off of the forge domain's strengths, then not grabbing defense fighting style to stack AC bonuses feels like a miss. Also, since this is a martial/spellcaster multiclass, it's very reasonable to make this a strength or dex based build with just enough wisdom to qualify for your classes. Between ranger and cleric it is quite easy to curate a spell selection that doesn't rely on your wisdom.
How amenable to a third class are you? I like fighter anywhere there is gloomstalker and this is no different. Jumping in at level 7 has you in the unique position of being able to bring a build that is Fighter 1/ Ranger 5/ Cleric 1. Starting fighter is great for constitution proficiency and an additional fighting style. This way you can start with defense and druidic warrior/dueling (still not convinced by druidic warrior), and not having to spend a feat to be good at keeping up your many concentration spells is fantastic. From here you can pick up cleric levels to fill out the forge concept you want. At some point, picking up fighter 2 and 3 give some juicy toys. Action Surge combines amazingly with Dread Ambusher, and picking up Eldritch Knight gives you access to the Shield spell for even more AC stacking.
So a couple of thoughts I want to get down here. I am currently playing a Gloom Stalker Arcana Cleric. I love the way Rangers and Clerics fit together. When I was downselecting the possible Cleric subclasses Forge was one of the last three. So here are some of the cleric / ranger synergies worth noting.
Wisdom casting stat means you aren't dealing with two separate casting stats.
Cleric spell list overlaps enough with Ranger that you can actually have more "Ranger" spells ready to go each day.
The cleric only spells are helpful as well. Bless is amazing, and adding that to your spell arsenal helps. If you have one of the subclasses with a Hunter's Mark light ability (Hunter Colossus Slayer, Monster Slayer Slayer's Prey, Fey Wanderer Dreadful Strikes) you can choose to either stack Hunter's Mark with it or spend your concentration on Bless or Shield of Faith and still put out similar damage while also helping the party or being really hard to hit.
Cantrips. Every Ranger who isn't an archer focused Ranger runs out of hands and finds it hard to use a bow. The Cantrips can do in a pinch to help fix that. Arcana subclass can even get you Chill Touch.
Shield using Rangers get to abuse the Cleric shield casting system. And ritual spells like Detect Magic or Identify can help the rest of the party reduce their own spells known burden while not hitting your spell slots (Bard and Sorcerer).
Upcastable slots. Two levels of cleric and you will always have spellslots available one level above your highest. Do the math on a 4th level Healing Spirit, or a 4th level ensnaring strike. Those aren't the same spells upcast at that level.
I love the Shillelagh build. I haven't tried it but it feels like there is something there to work with. I am not sure its a gloom stalker/forge, but one of these combos will work great.
I am not as convinced as I mentioned about the heavy armor. It feels like you are losing your stealth abilities and focusing on combat prowess for very marginal gains there. I wonder if taking a cleric with medium armor prof might work better since they are balanced to have more abilities to compensate for the lack of heavy armor.
Regardless. Good luck with your awesome weird Ranger.
I dont see as much benefit with forge in avernus as you would have with tempest in avernus. Your bonus spells as forge are fire based and while you eventually get fire resistance, you can also get that from a spell or item.
If your goal is to be a sneaky killer from the shadows, you might also consider trickery.