Many of the Cleric domains give extra skills and/or Heavy Armor proficiency immediately at level 1, so you can easily be a highly skilled armored warrior already at low level (ranger 3 + cleric 1), with funky spells to boot. Also, in the long run your ranger spells benefit from the higher spell level slots you'll gain from multiclassing to a pure caster class.
That said, what I'd really look at for this build is the following:
A: Are there any cleric spells that you feel you really need, or is the ranger's list fine? B: Would the chosen domains Channel Divinity influence your play style, beyond the occasional Turn Undead? C: Looking at the levels you're expected to reach in OOTA, would you lose access to any critically important ranger features?
But even if the answers to those are all in the line of "the ranger is better" (unlikely as that may be), I'd still argue that cleric level 2 (for Channel Divinity) or 3 (for a few more lvl 2 spell options) is almost always worth it for a ranger who's already reached their Extra Attack feature.
Multiclassing can seem fine on paper, but OOTA, starting at 1? the levels you begin passing up on ASI and delaying potential second attacks / round can be crippling. That wont matter if your party can carry someone through some so/so levels without straining. (every class can reach a wasteland stage) I imagine that many who multiclass dont contemplate playing through the slow build till it comes together.
That said. I second Twooshorts questioning - why cleric, which subclass? why is it preferable to druid, or rogue which are other choices easily available should you wish to spread your character skills out across multiple classes?
It can be done, whether or not it is viable whilst leveling from 1 in out of the abyss is a matter I am not certain about.
I'm currently running a Wildhunt Shifter Cleric multiclass ranger
War Domain Cleric /GloomStalker Ranger and I will take 4 levels of rogue for Assassin at 3 and that last ASI or feat instead of the GloomStalker's flurry of blows at 11 because why worry about misses if everything is a crit any way from War Domain
Channel Divinity: Guided Strike
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to strike with supernatural accuracy. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +10 bonus to the roll. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.
With War domain you can go for Wis 20 and get 5 weapon attack bonus actions per long rest and a bunch of slots for inflict wounds to be a deadly viper of a skirmisher while also being able to lend support to your party members. And 8 levels grant's you that 1d8 extra weapon damage each turn.
Hold up, out of the abyss at level 10? What went wrong??
Beholder battle, We have a monk and wizard and me as of right now paladin at lvl 10. We had NPCs, but they all got one shot. It was a domino effect of what could go wrong did go wrong.
Ah yeah I feel your pain there, even DM'ing its bad when you start seeing everything falling apart, especially if there is an ash pile instead of a party lynchpin because of an unlikely crit. I wondered about the makeup of the party that managed to get to 10th, and why you needed a replacement - Depending on the hole left your options would be limited, and depending on the rest of the party composition and why they died it changes what you should play for a 'best chance of no repeating this'. That said, death by beholder is just a numerical problem, at some point you will fail a save and then you have to hope it wasn't the big three eye rays. I hope you can enjoy the rest of the game with your new face - oh and if you run into a beholder again at low enough height to grapple it, consider doing so, so you can hide in its central eye cone. The antimagic eye protects you as surely as it protects Laser McLaserface. (alternatively if small or bulgingly strong lift it up and hide underneath it when grappled and get yourself cover / total cover from itself. Beholder headgear is the height of fashion - does your hat kill people? I think not.
Since you're starting at level 10, I'd suggest starting with 5 levels of Gloom Stalker ranger and then 5 levels of Order Domain cleric. And for stats:
STR: 11 DEX: 20 (18 + 2 from Ghostwise Halfling) CON: 14 INT: 13 WIS: 18 (14 + 1 from Ghostwise Halfling + 1 from Resilient WIS + 2 from ASI) CHA: 12
Normal routine could be: Turn 1 - Cast Spiritual Weapon and attack twice. Turn 2 - Cast Bless, giving an ally a reaction attack, and attack with Spiritual Weapon.
I thought about this some more, and since Gloom Stalker ranger gets Resilient WIS for 'free' at level 7, why not start with 8 levels of Gloom Stalker ranger and then 2 levels of Order Domain cleric? And take more levels in cleric as you level up. Stats:
STR: 11 DEX: 20 (18 + 2 from Ghostwise Halfling) CON: 16 (14 + 1 from Resilient CON + 1 from Second Chance feat) INT: 14 WIS: 14 (13 + 1 from Ghostwise Halfling) CHA: 12
You'd then be proficient in STR, DEX, CON, and WIS saving throws, and you'd be able to most likely negate critical hits on you because of Second Chance. At level 11, you'd be able to do the Spiritual Weapon routine I posted above.
In the middle of this sort of build as well with TOA. We are almost to level 4. Currently I have a Swarmkeeper ranger TWFer going full chultan warrior with dual yklwas. I plan to dip 1 level in Naturedomain (maybe a second later for channel divinity) because we desperately need a healer and I need AC(spoiler TOA has tons of undead too) and Nature Domain fits in his narrative nicely. Anyway, the plan is; DW for feat bumps AC, plus Shield of Faith for more AC and Healing Word for some extra healing. Cure wounds already on ranger list. Cantrips also a nice addition- not really important to this particular guy, but i’ll go spare the dying(ok- very useful for this hexcrawl), mending(particular narrative reasons) and Light (hour long flashlight rocks beats torches) . Then I'm running ranger to 5 for that extra attack. Even at lower level, should work well and keep us alive to see level 5. This is super situational tho; not at all the most optimal build, but oh so tasty!
The problem with ranger/x multiclass is that you want to go ranger first for the HPs, skills, weapons and armor. Then you still want to go ranger to at least L5 as your getting something significant every level really thru L6 if you take deft explorer. By then it’s kind of “ and why are you MCing again?”. The key level is L5 with extra attack which you generally want to get to as quickly as possible. A 1 level dip for something major (like cantrips and sL1 spells) can be justified as the experience needed to level up ( or the rate of leveling in Tier 1) is fairly fast and cantrips grow in power by player level not class level.
I know this thread is old but cleric works decent as a dip. Assuming you progress right.
Peace or life domain can help beastmaster.
Knowledge or can really boost # of proficiency towards getting 10 wisdom +int skills making the "expertise" apply to them all when tied to terrain.
Nature is similar in that it allows you to skip some regular proficiency and take more unique ones from your background. It also is great for wisdom main stat builds
Is a ranger/ cleric multiclass viable? OOTA campaign
they both use wisdom. DEX is inter-changeable.
I'm debating on gloom stalker/ rogue: Scout ( extra expertise skills Nature & Survival) total 9 skills 4 expertise by level 10.
or cleric/ ranger build which cleric subclass would be best?
rolled stats are 11, 18, 14, 14, 13, 12 I am pretty happy with
im thinking ghostwise halfling because why not
Many of the Cleric domains give extra skills and/or Heavy Armor proficiency immediately at level 1, so you can easily be a highly skilled armored warrior already at low level (ranger 3 + cleric 1), with funky spells to boot. Also, in the long run your ranger spells benefit from the higher spell level slots you'll gain from multiclassing to a pure caster class.
That said, what I'd really look at for this build is the following:
A: Are there any cleric spells that you feel you really need, or is the ranger's list fine?
B: Would the chosen domains Channel Divinity influence your play style, beyond the occasional Turn Undead?
C: Looking at the levels you're expected to reach in OOTA, would you lose access to any critically important ranger features?
But even if the answers to those are all in the line of "the ranger is better" (unlikely as that may be), I'd still argue that cleric level 2 (for Channel Divinity) or 3 (for a few more lvl 2 spell options) is almost always worth it for a ranger who's already reached their Extra Attack feature.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
Multiclassing can seem fine on paper, but OOTA, starting at 1? the levels you begin passing up on ASI and delaying potential second attacks / round can be crippling. That wont matter if your party can carry someone through some so/so levels without straining. (every class can reach a wasteland stage) I imagine that many who multiclass dont contemplate playing through the slow build till it comes together.
That said. I second Twooshorts questioning - why cleric, which subclass? why is it preferable to druid, or rogue which are other choices easily available should you wish to spread your character skills out across multiple classes?
It can be done, whether or not it is viable whilst leveling from 1 in out of the abyss is a matter I am not certain about.
Sorry I would be entering at level 10
I had a concept of a ranger 7 (gloom stalker) rogue 3 (Scout) Ghostwise Halfling +2 dex +1 wisdom
S 11
D 20 (18 +2)
C 14
I 14
W 14 (13 +1)
C 12
OR Cleric since we don't have a healer and my character has had bad luck recently with literally a Roll or two away from dying
I do like the Order Domain Cleric BUT I have not played a Cleric before.
Hold up, out of the abyss at level 10? What went wrong??
OOTA is for 1-15, so either they are new to the group or their other character died and they couldn't resurrect.
I am one with the Force. The Force is with me.
I'm currently running a Wildhunt Shifter Cleric multiclass ranger
War Domain Cleric /GloomStalker Ranger and I will take 4 levels of rogue for Assassin at 3 and that last ASI or feat instead of the GloomStalker's flurry of blows at 11 because why worry about misses if everything is a crit any way from War Domain
Channel Divinity: Guided Strike
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to strike with supernatural accuracy. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +10 bonus to the roll. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.
With War domain you can go for Wis 20 and get 5 weapon attack bonus actions per long rest and a bunch of slots for inflict wounds to be a deadly viper of a skirmisher while also being able to lend support to your party members. And 8 levels grant's you that 1d8 extra weapon damage each turn.
Level 20: 8 war cleric/ 8 GloomStalker/ 4 rogue
Beholder battle, We have a monk and wizard and me as of right now paladin at lvl 10. We had NPCs, but they all got one shot. It was a domino effect of what could go wrong did go wrong.
Ah yeah I feel your pain there, even DM'ing its bad when you start seeing everything falling apart, especially if there is an ash pile instead of a party lynchpin because of an unlikely crit. I wondered about the makeup of the party that managed to get to 10th, and why you needed a replacement - Depending on the hole left your options would be limited, and depending on the rest of the party composition and why they died it changes what you should play for a 'best chance of no repeating this'. That said, death by beholder is just a numerical problem, at some point you will fail a save and then you have to hope it wasn't the big three eye rays. I hope you can enjoy the rest of the game with your new face - oh and if you run into a beholder again at low enough height to grapple it, consider doing so, so you can hide in its central eye cone. The antimagic eye protects you as surely as it protects Laser McLaserface. (alternatively if small or bulgingly strong lift it up and hide underneath it when grappled and get yourself cover / total cover from itself. Beholder headgear is the height of fashion - does your hat kill people? I think not.
Since you're starting at level 10, I'd suggest starting with 5 levels of Gloom Stalker ranger and then 5 levels of Order Domain cleric. And for stats:
STR: 11
DEX: 20 (18 + 2 from Ghostwise Halfling)
CON: 14
INT: 13
WIS: 18 (14 + 1 from Ghostwise Halfling + 1 from Resilient WIS + 2 from ASI)
CHA: 12
Normal routine could be:
Turn 1 - Cast Spiritual Weapon and attack twice.
Turn 2 - Cast Bless, giving an ally a reaction attack, and attack with Spiritual Weapon.
I thought about this some more, and since Gloom Stalker ranger gets Resilient WIS for 'free' at level 7, why not start with 8 levels of Gloom Stalker ranger and then 2 levels of Order Domain cleric? And take more levels in cleric as you level up. Stats:
STR: 11
DEX: 20 (18 + 2 from Ghostwise Halfling)
CON: 16 (14 + 1 from Resilient CON + 1 from Second Chance feat)
INT: 14
WIS: 14 (13 + 1 from Ghostwise Halfling)
CHA: 12
You'd then be proficient in STR, DEX, CON, and WIS saving throws, and you'd be able to most likely negate critical hits on you because of Second Chance. At level 11, you'd be able to do the Spiritual Weapon routine I posted above.
In the middle of this sort of build as well with TOA. We are almost to level 4. Currently I have a Swarmkeeper ranger TWFer going full chultan warrior with dual yklwas. I plan to dip 1 level in Naturedomain (maybe a second later for channel divinity) because we desperately need a healer and I need AC(spoiler TOA has tons of undead too) and Nature Domain fits in his narrative nicely. Anyway, the plan is; DW for feat bumps AC, plus Shield of Faith for more AC and Healing Word for some extra healing. Cure wounds already on ranger list. Cantrips also a nice addition- not really important to this particular guy, but i’ll go spare the dying(ok- very useful for this hexcrawl), mending(particular narrative reasons) and Light (hour long flashlight rocks beats torches) . Then I'm running ranger to 5 for that extra attack. Even at lower level, should work well and keep us alive to see level 5. This is super situational tho; not at all the most optimal build, but oh so tasty!
The problem with ranger/x multiclass is that you want to go ranger first for the HPs, skills, weapons and armor. Then you still want to go ranger to at least L5 as your getting something significant every level really thru L6 if you take deft explorer. By then it’s kind of “ and why are you MCing again?”. The key level is L5 with extra attack which you generally want to get to as quickly as possible. A 1 level dip for something major (like cantrips and sL1 spells) can be justified as the experience needed to level up ( or the rate of leveling in Tier 1) is fairly fast and cantrips grow in power by player level not class level.
Wisea$$ DM and Player since 1979.
I know this thread is old but cleric works decent as a dip. Assuming you progress right.
Peace or life domain can help beastmaster.
Knowledge or can really boost # of proficiency towards getting 10 wisdom +int skills making the "expertise" apply to them all when tied to terrain.
Nature is similar in that it allows you to skip some regular proficiency and take more unique ones from your background. It also is great for wisdom main stat builds