Hey everyone! I was wondering if I could get some help...
A little context, I have been playing in my group with a Gnome Knowledge domain Cleric, she is level 5 now and my DM has recommended that I multi-class because she needs much improvement in terms of efficiency. If anything she’s the one that needs healing in battle and it’s a little frustrating! I have no idea what to do! I’ve seen lots of discussion about how great it is to dip into cleric, but not a lot that is useful about what class dip can help a cleric. I am willing to change her Domain and abilities around, but what should I do? Is the race I’ve chosen the problem? Should I take her character in a new direction? Thanks so much, I hope this helps other cleric players who need guidance!
Hey everyone! I was wondering if I could get some help...
A little context, I have been playing in my group with a Gnome Knowledge domain Cleric, she is level 5 now and my DM has recommended that I multi-class because she needs much improvement in terms of efficiency. If anything she’s the one that needs healing in battle and it’s a little frustrating! I have no idea what to do! I’ve seen lots of discussion about how great it is to dip into cleric, but not a lot that is useful about what class dip can help a cleric. I am willing to change her Domain and abilities around, but what should I do? Is the race I’ve chosen the problem? Should I take her character in a new direction? Thanks so much, I hope this helps other cleric players who need guidance!
Her top stats are Wisdom, Strength and Dexterity~
The stats “might” be the problem.
as a cleric. You won’t need both str and dex. So 1 of those 2 should be CON. 1, for HP, 2, for concentration 3, because str and dex both compete against each other for most/all classes.
If she needs the healing most in battle... does that mean there are no tanks besides your cleric? If so... that’s more of a group problem then a you problem.
if there are other tanks... its something you are doing either by stat rolls, armor choices, or battle tactics.
As a cleric you can change spells prepared every long rest. So try changing around spell groupings too to see if anything works better for what you will go up against.
in general, clerics never really need to multiclass or anything and outside of being “meh” damage dealers... are pretty much 1 man/woman, armies.
As to what you *could* dip into.
fighter would allow you to get a fighting style. Maybe protection for AC? And 2nd level fighter gives Action surge. So you could be “more efficient”.
but right now... there’s a lot of variables that are unknown for helping.
Yeah we have mostly magic users but no tanks, so I’ll have another look at all the abilities and see what works. Thanks so much!
If there’s no tanks then good god. You are doing a hell of a job with the not great Con just keeping yourself and everyone alive. Is your DM on some medications? Or mind altering substances?
Did your DM say what they meant by efficiency? What I think think of as being inefficient is having a sub-optimal character, an extreme would be if you had dumped Wisdom as a Cleric, having high str and Dex in a cleric is slightly sub-optimal, but that is true for any class so multi-classing is not the solution (if being sub-optimal is a problem at all).
If the rest of the party are casters and you are expected to be the tank I would use a shield if you don't already this would reduce your damage output compared to 2 handed or duel wielding which could be considered to make you less efficient but it does make you more survivable.
One way to increase your con is for your party to "find" an amulet of heath though at level 5 that would probably make to too powerful (maybe homebrew a damaged amulet of health that only boosts con to say 17), something like a ring of protection or magic armor would also make you more survivable.
A party consisting entirely of casters is sub-optimal either you and the DM need to accept that and adjust encounters accordingly or one or more of you needs to re-roll a front line character, a splash of fighter might help marginally but will hinder your value as a cleric as you will be behind of the level of spells you can cast.
If you are learning the cleric (and particularly if the other players are learning their classes), I'd make two suggestions. Ask the DM if you could respec into Life Domain for improved heals (particularly useful later when you can top yourself off when healing others, just don't think you have to heal anyone before they drop other than yourself) and the heavy armor proficiency. Getting Chain Mail over Scale Mail will allow you to shift some of your dex over to Constitution to help you stay up longer. Nature, Tempest, and War domains also grant heavy armor proficiency among PHB subclasses while Tempest and War also add martial weapons. Actually, Nature would give you access to Shillelagh which would make it so you could get your Strength up to 15 to wear plate armor (best non magical armor in the game) and focus on bumping your Wisdom and Constitution otherwise, since Shillelagh allows you to make melee attacks using your wisdom modifier with a d8 damage dice (best you can do going "sword" and board anyway).
Which leads to picking up a shield as well. With a shield and chain mail, you'll have 18 AC base, which isn't bad, particularly early game. If you can get away with dodging for a few rounds while in the thick of a scrum while the enemies are focusing on you, the casters can pick them off at range.
You can prepare and cast Shield of Faith on yourself to give you 2 more AC. Or you can save your spell slots for more Healing Word casts, particularly if you are being targeted by attacks that force a save instead of targeting your AC. Since Healing Word and Shield of Faith both use a bonus action to cast, you can cast it and dodge the same round.
If you gave Xanathar's Guide to Everything available, Forge Domain adds Heavy Armor and you can give yourself a +1 bonus to your armor.
As for dips, Warlock can give you an extra 1st level spell slot (short rest recharge) plus whatever your preferred bonuses and warlock cantrips you can find if you've got 13 charisma (or push some dex there). Booming Blade if available would be a good attack spell and utility spells would be better otherwise, since you won't want to bump your Charisma higher than 13. Celestial Warlock gives an extra healing pool. Warlock2 gives invocations and another short rest 1st level slot. Devil's Sight would double your dark vision and Fiendish Vigor would give you a resource free source of temporary HP. This would help your survivability.
Warlock3 gives a pact choice plus the invocation Gift of the Ever-Living Ones can be chosen to replace one of your previous ones. Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain feature Whenever you regain hit points while your familiar is within 100 feet of you, treat any dice rolled to determine the hit points you regain as having rolled their maximum value for you.
Fighter would also give a couple of nice features to help your survival without the restriction of needing 13 charisma (guessing you already have 13 dex and/or strength). Defensive fighting style will give you +1 to AC while wearing armor.
I'd probably stick to Cleric with the suggestions that I gave for them though.
A hill dwarf would be a good option for a cleric if you want to get every advantage.
Hey everyone! I was wondering if I could get some help...
A little context, I have been playing in my group with a Gnome Knowledge domain Cleric, she is level 5 now and my DM has recommended that I multi-class because she needs much improvement in terms of efficiency. If anything she’s the one that needs healing in battle and it’s a little frustrating!
I have no idea what to do! I’ve seen lots of discussion about how great it is to dip into cleric, but not a lot that is useful about what class dip can help a cleric. I am willing to change her Domain and abilities around, but what should I do? Is the race I’ve chosen the problem? Should I take her character in a new direction? Thanks so much, I hope this helps other cleric players who need guidance!
Her top stats are Wisdom, Strength and Dexterity~
The stats “might” be the problem.
as a cleric. You won’t need both str and dex. So 1 of those 2 should be CON. 1, for HP, 2, for concentration 3, because str and dex both compete against each other for most/all classes.
If she needs the healing most in battle... does that mean there are no tanks besides your cleric? If so... that’s more of a group problem then a you problem.
if there are other tanks... its something you are doing either by stat rolls, armor choices, or battle tactics.
As a cleric you can change spells prepared every long rest. So try changing around spell groupings too to see if anything works better for what you will go up against.
in general, clerics never really need to multiclass or anything and outside of being “meh” damage dealers... are pretty much 1 man/woman, armies.
As to what you *could* dip into.
fighter would allow you to get a fighting style. Maybe protection for AC? And 2nd level fighter gives Action surge. So you could be “more efficient”.
but right now... there’s a lot of variables that are unknown for helping.
Blank
This is super helpful thank you,
Yeah we have mostly magic users but no tanks, so I’ll have another look at all the abilities and see what works. Thanks so much!
If there’s no tanks then good god. You are doing a hell of a job with the not great Con just keeping yourself and everyone alive. Is your DM on some medications? Or mind altering substances?
Blank
Did your DM say what they meant by efficiency? What I think think of as being inefficient is having a sub-optimal character, an extreme would be if you had dumped Wisdom as a Cleric, having high str and Dex in a cleric is slightly sub-optimal, but that is true for any class so multi-classing is not the solution (if being sub-optimal is a problem at all).
If the rest of the party are casters and you are expected to be the tank I would use a shield if you don't already this would reduce your damage output compared to 2 handed or duel wielding which could be considered to make you less efficient but it does make you more survivable.
One way to increase your con is for your party to "find" an amulet of heath though at level 5 that would probably make to too powerful (maybe homebrew a damaged amulet of health that only boosts con to say 17), something like a ring of protection or magic armor would also make you more survivable.
A party consisting entirely of casters is sub-optimal either you and the DM need to accept that and adjust encounters accordingly or one or more of you needs to re-roll a front line character, a splash of fighter might help marginally but will hinder your value as a cleric as you will be behind of the level of spells you can cast.
If you are learning the cleric (and particularly if the other players are learning their classes), I'd make two suggestions. Ask the DM if you could respec into Life Domain for improved heals (particularly useful later when you can top yourself off when healing others, just don't think you have to heal anyone before they drop other than yourself) and the heavy armor proficiency. Getting Chain Mail over Scale Mail will allow you to shift some of your dex over to Constitution to help you stay up longer. Nature, Tempest, and War domains also grant heavy armor proficiency among PHB subclasses while Tempest and War also add martial weapons. Actually, Nature would give you access to Shillelagh which would make it so you could get your Strength up to 15 to wear plate armor (best non magical armor in the game) and focus on bumping your Wisdom and Constitution otherwise, since Shillelagh allows you to make melee attacks using your wisdom modifier with a d8 damage dice (best you can do going "sword" and board anyway).
Which leads to picking up a shield as well. With a shield and chain mail, you'll have 18 AC base, which isn't bad, particularly early game. If you can get away with dodging for a few rounds while in the thick of a scrum while the enemies are focusing on you, the casters can pick them off at range.
You can prepare and cast Shield of Faith on yourself to give you 2 more AC. Or you can save your spell slots for more Healing Word casts, particularly if you are being targeted by attacks that force a save instead of targeting your AC. Since Healing Word and Shield of Faith both use a bonus action to cast, you can cast it and dodge the same round.
If you gave Xanathar's Guide to Everything available, Forge Domain adds Heavy Armor and you can give yourself a +1 bonus to your armor.
As for dips, Warlock can give you an extra 1st level spell slot (short rest recharge) plus whatever your preferred bonuses and warlock cantrips you can find if you've got 13 charisma (or push some dex there). Booming Blade if available would be a good attack spell and utility spells would be better otherwise, since you won't want to bump your Charisma higher than 13. Celestial Warlock gives an extra healing pool. Warlock2 gives invocations and another short rest 1st level slot. Devil's Sight would double your dark vision and Fiendish Vigor would give you a resource free source of temporary HP. This would help your survivability.
Warlock3 gives a pact choice plus the invocation Gift of the Ever-Living Ones can be chosen to replace one of your previous ones. Prerequisite: Pact of the Chain feature Whenever you regain hit points while your familiar is within 100 feet of you, treat any dice rolled to determine the hit points you regain as having rolled their maximum value for you.
Fighter would also give a couple of nice features to help your survival without the restriction of needing 13 charisma (guessing you already have 13 dex and/or strength). Defensive fighting style will give you +1 to AC while wearing armor.
I'd probably stick to Cleric with the suggestions that I gave for them though.
A hill dwarf would be a good option for a cleric if you want to get every advantage.