Trying to build a wild, savage, cleric who consults with the spirits and is a war shaman, so should be good in melee. The character should be a 1/2 Orc. Maybe some multiclass of Barbarian and Cleric? Maybe a Death Cleric?
Needs to be built for 13th level and can be point buy or stat array.
Take a heavy armour class Cleric so you don't need to worry about dex.
Str 17 Dex 8 Con 16 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 8
By level 13 you've had three ASIs at level's 4, 8, and 12.
Since the best melee feats are polearm master and great weapon master we'll take those, as well as an ASI to boost Str to 18 and Wis to 16. PAM basically gives us a minimum of two attacks a turn. Your standard weapon is a glaive, and the character should wear full plate armour for AC 18.
I'm inclined to think that War Domain is the best candidate for this build, although PAM does make the War Priest feature fairly pointless. Although Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon are your best damage options with any Cleric, tossing Magical Weapon onto your glaive and whacking people should not be ignored as an option. Nor should a high level Spirit Shroud.
Based on your flavor description, it sounds like a Nature Cleric/Ancestral Guardian Barbarian would fit the best. 8 levels of Nature Cleric get you the spells Freman mentioned and the extra 1d8 Divine Strike damage once per turn. That would leave 5 levels of Barbarian to get an extra attack a round and the Ancestral Protectors ability.
Follow everything else that Freman said as far as ASIs and feats. The big drawback with Cleric/Barb, though, is your super powerful spells are concentration which means you can't be raging while using them.
The Path of the Ancestral Guardians barbarian may be a good start. You'll be great in melee, and during your rage you can summon spirits to fight with you and to protect your allies. At 10th level you get Consult the Spirits which grants you access to divination magic through your ancestor spirits.
Add to that a few levels of Circle of the Shepherd druid. That gives you a nice nature connection, and lets you summon a Spirit Totem to either help or protect you and your allies in battle. So you'd be an actual force of nature, contacting both human and animal spirits to aid you. And out of combat you'd have access to a handful of spells too.
(point buy)
Half-orc Barbarian 10 / Druid 3 (Path of the Ancestral Guardian / Circle of the Shepherd)
Darkvision. - Relentless Endurance. - Savage Attack.
Rage 4/day. (+3 melee dmg per hit). - Danger Sense. - Reckless Attack. - Two attacks per round. - Fast Movement. - Feral Instinct (Advantage on Initiative!!!) - Brutal Critical.
Ancestral Protectors. - Spirit Shield. - Consult the Spirits.
Speech of the Woods. - Spirit Totem (this ability does NOT require concentration, so you can initiate it, then enter a rage, and maintain both at once!!).
Trying to build a wild, savage, cleric who consults with the spirits and is a war shaman, so should be good in melee. The character should be a 1/2 Orc. Maybe some multiclass of Barbarian and Cleric? Maybe a Death Cleric?
Needs to be built for 13th level and can be point buy or stat array.
Thoughts?
I'd use the 15/15/15/8/8/8 points buy.
Take a heavy armour class Cleric so you don't need to worry about dex.
Str 17 Dex 8 Con 16 Int 8 Wis 15 Cha 8
By level 13 you've had three ASIs at level's 4, 8, and 12.
Since the best melee feats are polearm master and great weapon master we'll take those, as well as an ASI to boost Str to 18 and Wis to 16. PAM basically gives us a minimum of two attacks a turn. Your standard weapon is a glaive, and the character should wear full plate armour for AC 18.
I'm inclined to think that War Domain is the best candidate for this build, although PAM does make the War Priest feature fairly pointless. Although Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon are your best damage options with any Cleric, tossing Magical Weapon onto your glaive and whacking people should not be ignored as an option. Nor should a high level Spirit Shroud.
Based on your flavor description, it sounds like a Nature Cleric/Ancestral Guardian Barbarian would fit the best. 8 levels of Nature Cleric get you the spells Freman mentioned and the extra 1d8 Divine Strike damage once per turn. That would leave 5 levels of Barbarian to get an extra attack a round and the Ancestral Protectors ability.
Follow everything else that Freman said as far as ASIs and feats. The big drawback with Cleric/Barb, though, is your super powerful spells are concentration which means you can't be raging while using them.
The Path of the Ancestral Guardians barbarian may be a good start. You'll be great in melee, and during your rage you can summon spirits to fight with you and to protect your allies. At 10th level you get Consult the Spirits which grants you access to divination magic through your ancestor spirits.
Add to that a few levels of Circle of the Shepherd druid. That gives you a nice nature connection, and lets you summon a Spirit Totem to either help or protect you and your allies in battle. So you'd be an actual force of nature, contacting both human and animal spirits to aid you. And out of combat you'd have access to a handful of spells too.
(point buy)
Half-orc Barbarian 10 / Druid 3 (Path of the Ancestral Guardian / Circle of the Shepherd)
S 18, D 14, C 16, I 8, W 14, Ch 9.
Prof +5. AC 15. HP 129. SA +7. DC 15.
Skills: Intimidation +4/+9, Athletics +9, Survival +7, Nature +4, Perception +7.
Cool Abilities:
Darkvision. - Relentless Endurance. - Savage Attack.
Rage 4/day. (+3 melee dmg per hit). - Danger Sense. - Reckless Attack. - Two attacks per round. - Fast Movement. - Feral Instinct (Advantage on Initiative!!!) - Brutal Critical.
Ancestral Protectors. - Spirit Shield. - Consult the Spirits.
Speech of the Woods. - Spirit Totem (this ability does NOT require concentration, so you can initiate it, then enter a rage, and maintain both at once!!).
WILD SHAPE! (2/short rest). - 2 Cantrips. Spell slots; 4 - 2. Spells known: 5.
Recommended spells: C = Control Flames, Primal Savagery. 1 = Fog Cloud, Healing Word, Thunderwave. 2 = Enlarge/Reduce, Pass Without Trace.
Anzio Faro. Protector Aasimar light cleric. Lvl 18.
Viktor Gavriil. White dragonborn grave cleric. Lvl 20.
Ikram Sahir ibn-Malik al-Sayyid Ra'ad. Brass dragonborn draconic sorcerer Lvl 9. Fire elemental devil.
Wrangler of cats.
I know this post is old...but it was 1 day before I started playing D&D myself...lol...
here are some that you could use:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/255133-ancestors-domain-shaman (CLERIC)
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/57334-shaman (DRUID)
https://www.dndbeyond.com/subclasses/912922-barbarian-path-of-the-shaman (BARBARIAN)