I'm going to be playing a tortle order domain cleric starting next session. What fun tactics or shenanigans have worked well for you with this domain, not including the typical cleric M.O. (spirit guardians + spiritual weapon)? Currently I plan on buffing the rogue to take advantage of a second sneak attack each round with voice of authority, but what else?
If your DM/GM allows you to meta-game at the table, your Voice of Authority feature can allow, especially at lower levels when combat reactions aren't as convoluted and useful as they are at higher levels when a lot of sub-classes start to get all their fun shizzles, another player to lay the hurt in melee or even just shove an opponent if your DM/GM is lenient with the rules, getting some breathing space or even just yeeting them over a cliff's edge.
Your Order's Demand feature can be used passively or even as just a round worth of wasting the DM's time/turn to put the Charmed status on any enemy that fails a will save against you in a 30 foot radius, but it does eat up your Action for that turn. You could use your Bonus Action to shout at the crowd that you mean no harm, or that you surrender, or that you'll strike them down with the power of the Gods, etc etc (as a Forever-DM I tend to allow a Skill Check of the mental or verbal variety to be used freely with a Bonus Action if it can be done in a matter of seconds and will only throw the stink-eye at physical Skill Checks if it isn't something that can be done really quick, like in the space of a second or two) and try to bluff, bribe, intimidate or talk down the opponents.
Are we allowed to talk about Psychic Damage with your weapon attacks? There are excruciatingly few opponents who can resist or even negate that kind of damage, and even better, at level 17, your poor beleaguered melee friends get to deal Psychic Damage as well so long as you hit a target with your Divine Strike feature.
Embodiment of the Law is something I don't think enough people talk about. Wanna cast Command, Bless or Hold Person as a freakin' Bonus Action? Cast the Hold Person on the big heck-no bruiser bearing down on you and you've still got your Action and Movement to spend on things other than holding your spilling entrails. A Bonus Action Bless in a panic situation when time is of the essence can be a life-saver at low levels for your Party, and if, for some reason, your bastion of Law, Order and Civility has ranks in Deception, you might even be able to fineagle the casting of a Command into your Diplomacy Check against a hostile target. "Consider, if you will, the benefits of getting a handful of gold without fighting, against a brawl that will see most of your men dead or too injured to waylay the next band of travelers and the wrath of our patron for interfering in their plans?"
It is a fun flavor of Cleric, especially with most of the players at my table being devoutly Chaotic Good types, and hitching them up with a frazzled stick in the mud to torment as their legally obligated side-kick or 'friend' is always a fun event for everybody.
You can trigger Voice of Authority on your Rogue with Dexterity saving throw AoE like Flame Strike. With Rogue's evasion, he should take 0 or little damage.
On the same noted, you can expand your spell options by taking Metamagic Adepts and choose Careful spell. You could do something like casting Level 3 Hold Person, targeting both your enemy and your rogue. Then use Careful spell to make your friend auto success on saving throw, but still trigger Voice of Authority. So that poor enemy will be both paralyzed and getting sneak attack on it face.
You can trigger Voice of Authority on your Rogue with Dexterity saving throw AoE like Flame Strike. With Rogue's evasion, he should take 0 or little damage.
On the same noted, you can expand your spell options by taking Metamagic Adepts and choose Careful spell. You could do something like casting Level 3 Hold Person, targeting both your enemy and your rogue. Then use Careful spell to make your friend auto success on saving throw, but still trigger Voice of Authority. So that poor enemy will be both paralyzed and getting sneak attack on it face.
Unfortunately, voice of authority specifically only triggers on spells that target allies. AoE spells target a point in space, not individual creatures, so it wouldn't work like that. Flame strike, to use your example, targets the point around which the cylinder is centered.
I love the careful hold person idea, that's actually super clever. I wouldn't be doing that until at least level 16 though, as I took resilient (con) at level 4 and my priority after that is to max out my wisdom at levels 8 and 12.
You can trigger Voice of Authority on your Rogue with Dexterity saving throw AoE like Flame Strike. With Rogue's evasion, he should take 0 or little damage.
On the same noted, you can expand your spell options by taking Metamagic Adepts and choose Careful spell. You could do something like casting Level 3 Hold Person, targeting both your enemy and your rogue. Then use Careful spell to make your friend auto success on saving throw, but still trigger Voice of Authority. So that poor enemy will be both paralyzed and getting sneak attack on it face.
Unfortunately, voice of authority specifically only triggers on spells that target allies. AoE spells target a point in space, not individual creatures, so it wouldn't work like that. Flame strike, to use your example, targets the point around which the cylinder is centered.
I love the careful hold person idea, that's actually super clever. I wouldn't be doing that until at least level 16 though, as I took resilient (con) at level 4 and my priority after that is to max out my wisdom at levels 8 and 12.
You can trigger Voice of Authority on your Rogue with Dexterity saving throw AoE like Flame Strike. With Rogue's evasion, he should take 0 or little damage.
On the same noted, you can expand your spell options by taking Metamagic Adepts and choose Careful spell. You could do something like casting Level 3 Hold Person, targeting both your enemy and your rogue. Then use Careful spell to make your friend auto success on saving throw, but still trigger Voice of Authority. So that poor enemy will be both paralyzed and getting sneak attack on it face.
Unfortunately, voice of authority specifically only triggers on spells that target allies. AoE spells target a point in space, not individual creatures, so it wouldn't work like that. Flame strike, to use your example, targets the point around which the cylinder is centered.
I love the careful hold person idea, that's actually super clever. I wouldn't be doing that until at least level 16 though, as I took resilient (con) at level 4 and my priority after that is to max out my wisdom at levels 8 and 12.
But to put it simply if your spell affect it, that creature is a target.
While I see the line of reasoning, I'm not sure I agree with the interpretation. Here's what the PHB says about targets of spells:
A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targets to be affected by the spell's magic. A spell's description tells you whether the spell targets creatures, objects, or a point of origin for an area of effect (described below).
AoE spells target a point of origin, not creatures or objects. I will concede that creatures affected by an AoE spell are considered "targets" for the purposes of saving throws, but that doesn't change the fact that the spell targets a point of origin.
Now, here's how voice of authority is worded:
If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and target an ally with the spell, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see.
Voice of authority specifies that you must target an ally (which is a creature, in terms of the spell targets in the PHB) in order to allow them to attack as a reaction. Because AoE spells target a point of origin rather than a creature, they are ineligible for voice of authority.
Ultimately, though, it just depends on how the DM rules it; I'll go along with whichever interpretation he chooses. Not that it matters too terribly much anyway, since clerics have relatively few AoE spells.
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I'm going to be playing a tortle order domain cleric starting next session. What fun tactics or shenanigans have worked well for you with this domain, not including the typical cleric M.O. (spirit guardians + spiritual weapon)? Currently I plan on buffing the rogue to take advantage of a second sneak attack each round with voice of authority, but what else?
Couple of things.
It is a fun flavor of Cleric, especially with most of the players at my table being devoutly Chaotic Good types, and hitching them up with a frazzled stick in the mud to torment as their legally obligated side-kick or 'friend' is always a fun event for everybody.
You can trigger Voice of Authority on your Rogue with Dexterity saving throw AoE like Flame Strike. With Rogue's evasion, he should take 0 or little damage.
On the same noted, you can expand your spell options by taking Metamagic Adepts and choose Careful spell. You could do something like casting Level 3 Hold Person, targeting both your enemy and your rogue. Then use Careful spell to make your friend auto success on saving throw, but still trigger Voice of Authority. So that poor enemy will be both paralyzed and getting sneak attack on it face.
Unfortunately, voice of authority specifically only triggers on spells that target allies. AoE spells target a point in space, not individual creatures, so it wouldn't work like that. Flame strike, to use your example, targets the point around which the cylinder is centered.
I love the careful hold person idea, that's actually super clever. I wouldn't be doing that until at least level 16 though, as I took resilient (con) at level 4 and my priority after that is to max out my wisdom at levels 8 and 12.
This redditor comment explain the stuff about targeting better than what I can do by myself.
But to put it simply if your spell affect it, that creature is a target.
While I see the line of reasoning, I'm not sure I agree with the interpretation. Here's what the PHB says about targets of spells:
AoE spells target a point of origin, not creatures or objects. I will concede that creatures affected by an AoE spell are considered "targets" for the purposes of saving throws, but that doesn't change the fact that the spell targets a point of origin.
Now, here's how voice of authority is worded:
Voice of authority specifies that you must target an ally (which is a creature, in terms of the spell targets in the PHB) in order to allow them to attack as a reaction. Because AoE spells target a point of origin rather than a creature, they are ineligible for voice of authority.
Ultimately, though, it just depends on how the DM rules it; I'll go along with whichever interpretation he chooses. Not that it matters too terribly much anyway, since clerics have relatively few AoE spells.