Hello guys. I am playing a level 7 party, we started at level 1 and now we are soon about to reach level 8. I want to plan my next feat in advance since its not an easy choice for me. I am a peace cleric protector Aasmimar. My stats are as follow: STR 14 DEX 9 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 20 CHA 16
I suffer pretty hard from my very low dex. It was my first character and I didn't know dex was such an important stat in 5e and ended up using it as a dump stat. I carry a medium armor and a +1 shield and together I only have 16 AC. It is very low AC for someone with a medium armor. The first thought I had is that taking Heavily Armored Feat would help me solve a big part of my Dex issue. Since raising my dex all the way to 14 from 9 will be extremely hard. It will be much easier to get a heavy armor. I will still have low dex saves and checks but its fine since I will trust my dex stuff to our fighters.
I did read online and a lot of people saying that heavy armor will fall off late game. I did not understand fully why yet, and I didn't find any alternative to what other options will be better late game that will address these issues. I thought choosing between war caster and resilient con I think higher AC will be better because I need to roll less for concentration if I will get hit much less in the first place. Also it suppose to help me as the healer to stay longer on the battlefield and get closer to enemies so I can use spirit guardians and other spells that require moving around in combat.
I will also be open to other ideas you think will help in general for my class. We gonna probably reach past level 12 so we will get to late game eventually.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have the Lucky feat that I took as my first ASI. I forgot to add that at the beginning.
16 AC isn't 'very low' for medium armor. 17 is max AC with medium armor, unless you have the Medium Armor Master feat. And having 17 AC in medium armor usually also means disadvantage on stealth, which I'll note you would always have in heavy armor, and with your 9 DEX, your stealth score is probably not great. You'd know best though how often your entire group has to make stealth checks. Or if you have anyone in the party who can cast Pass Without Trace to help mitigate your clanginess.
Note that you're not going to get much benefit from the Heavily Armored feat, since it would bump your STR up to an uneven score (though yes, it would get you to the minimum STR to use any of the types of heavy armor -- but do you have the gold for either of them?). Do you tend to use concentration spells a lot, or not so much because of your low AC? If you don't use them much there's always shield of faith, which ups your AC. That plus War Caster wouldn't be a bad combo. Resilient DEX would also be good: you'd get rid of the -1 penalty to your DEX, so your AC would go up by 1, and you'd gain proficiency in saves, and DEX saves are one of the more common saves in the game. Even if you don't bring your DEX all the way up to 14, getting rid of the penalty to your DEX would still help.
A +1 shield and Scale or Breastplate armor would give you a 17AC if you raised your Dex by 1, and that's not too bad for a non-tank. Resilient(Dex) woud raise your score to 10, giving you that AC of 17(18 if you can get a hold of some Half-Plate armor), and your Dex saves would go from -1 to +3, +4 when you hit Level 9. Another option would be taking a combo of Resilient(Con) and a Dex+1/Con+1 ASI at Levels 8 and 12 to get your Dex to 10 and your Con to 16. Which order you do them would depend on which you think is more important, the AC bump or the Con saves. Failing a Dex save usually just means taking more damage, failing a Con save can mean some nasty status effects(being poisoned, petrified, etc). But a lot would depend on what you feel you're more likely to face in your campaign. For example, if there's a heavy Undead theme, I'd DEFINITELY be looking to boost my Con saves since nasty necrotic effects usually target Con. But pocketmouse is right, in general Dex saves are very common, so being able to take half damage more frequently means not having to use as much healing on yourself.
I think first the question needs to be asked: are you having trouble with getting into the front lines and being hit? 16 AC isn't a lot for someone using a +1 Shield yes but it can be enough unless you're being asked to be in melee range on a regular basis. I find with my lvl 8 peace cleric that I find myself standing 30 ft back from front lines for Emboldening Bond purposes and within range for a move + channel divinity to reach melee and then get out. I only stay in melee range if it's completely necessary, or it's just time for spirit guardian and dodge tactics. And that's with a 20 ac.
But if your party is short on more tanky melee characters it may be worth it. The heavily armored with Plate would net you a +5 ac compared to where you are now and that's not insignificant. For me, that's reason enough where it should be a real consideration along with Res. Con for concentration checks. But if you don't find yourself getting attacked that much then a different utility option may get you more milage.
Hello guys. I am playing a level 7 party, we started at level 1 and now we are soon about to reach level 8. I want to plan my next feat in advance since its not an easy choice for me. I am a peace cleric protector Aasmimar. My stats are as follow: STR 14 DEX 9 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 20 CHA 16
I suffer pretty hard from my very low dex. It was my first character and I didn't know dex was such an important stat in 5e and ended up using it as a dump stat. I carry a medium armor and a +1 shield and together I only have 16 AC. It is very low AC for someone with a medium armor. The first thought I had is that taking Heavily Armored Feat would help me solve a big part of my Dex issue. Since raising my dex all the way to 14 from 9 will be extremely hard. It will be much easier to get a heavy armor. I will still have low dex saves and checks but its fine since I will trust my dex stuff to our fighters.
I did read online and a lot of people saying that heavy armor will fall off late game. I did not understand fully why yet, and I didn't find any alternative to what other options will be better late game that will address these issues. I thought choosing between war caster and resilient con I think higher AC will be better because I need to roll less for concentration if I will get hit much less in the first place. Also it suppose to help me as the healer to stay longer on the battlefield and get closer to enemies so I can use spirit guardians and other spells that require moving around in combat.
I will also be open to other ideas you think will help in general for my class. We gonna probably reach past level 12 so we will get to late game eventually.
If your AC is 16 in medium armor with a +1 shield and DEX 9, you must be wearing a breastplate or scale mail. Go buy yourself half-plate so you can be AC 17.
Because your Strength is 14, Heavily Armored will immediately qualify you for Plate Armor without any mobility penalty - you'll be Speed 30, AC 21. Strength is the only ability score that RAW does anything at odd levels, where it qualifies you for heavy armor and lets you carry more, although odd Dexterity is used by many DMs to help settle initiative ties.
You could take Resilient Dexterity for DEX 10, AC 18 in half plate, and proficiency in Dexterity saves, leaning into your Peace Cleric Emboldening Bond making you better at saves. This option also improves your Initiative checks.
You could take +1 DEX / +1 CON for AC 18 in half plate, mildly better dex saves and initiative checks, and delay fixing your statline to level 12, where you take Resilient Constitution to fix it.
You could ask your DM to stage a divine intervention (even though you don't qualify to ask for one until level 10) and fix your statline if things are really that bad, hopefully with the understanding that this is a one-time deal. If you can rearrange your statline once, this would be radically better:
STR 9
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 20
CHA 14
If the above is your statline you'll be AC 20 in half-plate and won't feel forced to spend a feat on something you don't care about. Since you're already miraculously WIS 20, my advice for your L8 ASI would absolutely be War Caster, since you're a Potent Spellcasting subclass - as of level 8, Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead, and Word of Radiance will add your +5 Wisdom modifier to their damage rolls, improving the utility of War Caster - not to mention you have Otiluke's Resilient Sphere always prepared anyway, and your success rate with Banishment is about as high as you can get it without being an Abjuration Wizard or Eloquence Bard. Your emboldening bond means you and 2 other party members ( with a 4th member at level 9) can teleport to each other by suffering 1 damage (you'll need to make a DC 10 Con save to do it yourself, which War Caster will help with), so wade into the thick of it.
16 AC isn't 'very low' for medium armor. 17 is max AC with medium armor, unless you have the Medium Armor Master feat. And having 17 AC in medium armor usually also means disadvantage on stealth, which I'll note you would always have in heavy armor, and with your 9 DEX, your stealth score is probably not great. You'd know best though how often your entire group has to make stealth checks. Or if you have anyone in the party who can cast Pass Without Trace to help mitigate your clanginess.
Note that you're not going to get much benefit from the Heavily Armored feat, since it would bump your STR up to an uneven score (though yes, it would get you to the minimum STR to use any of the types of heavy armor -- but do you have the gold for either of them?). Do you tend to use concentration spells a lot, or not so much because of your low AC? If you don't use them much there's always shield of faith, which ups your AC. That plus War Caster wouldn't be a bad combo. Resilient DEX would also be good: you'd get rid of the -1 penalty to your DEX, so your AC would go up by 1, and you'd gain proficiency in saves, and DEX saves are one of the more common saves in the game. Even if you don't bring your DEX all the way up to 14, getting rid of the penalty to your DEX would still help.
A +1 shield and Scale or Breastplate armor would give you a 17AC if you raised your Dex by 1, and that's not too bad for a non-tank. Resilient(Dex) woud raise your score to 10, giving you that AC of 17(18 if you can get a hold of some Half-Plate armor), and your Dex saves would go from -1 to +3, +4 when you hit Level 9. Another option would be taking a combo of Resilient(Con) and a Dex+1/Con+1 ASI at Levels 8 and 12 to get your Dex to 10 and your Con to 16. Which order you do them would depend on which you think is more important, the AC bump or the Con saves. Failing a Dex save usually just means taking more damage, failing a Con save can mean some nasty status effects(being poisoned, petrified, etc). But a lot would depend on what you feel you're more likely to face in your campaign. For example, if there's a heavy Undead theme, I'd DEFINITELY be looking to boost my Con saves since nasty necrotic effects usually target Con. But pocketmouse is right, in general Dex saves are very common, so being able to take half damage more frequently means not having to use as much healing on yourself.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful answers! I have a few points to respond to so I separated them.
1. Wait 17 is the maximum AC for medium armor? I maybe got it all wrong so I will use myself as an example here. I have scale male that give me 14 ac and a shield +1 that together with the normal +2 is 3 ace. So I should have 17 but instead I have 16 because of the -1 dex. Now the important part is. If I manage to raise my dex to 14. I should have +3 to ACE because the no -1 penalty at dex 10 and a +2 at dex 14. So total of 19 AC (medium armor cap at +2 dex modifier). Am I wrong here?
2. SInce most of the strongest cleric spells are concentration spells. I never had any fight that I wasn't having a concentration for the entire duration of the combat. Since level 1 I always use a concentration spell at the very first turn in each combat. And if one is being cancelled for whatever reason, I will either switch to another one or re-cast my previous spell. These spells are just too powerful to not always have one active.
3. The Resilient Dex/Con is indeed an option I should consider. Getting +3 is insane, in dex case it will even be +4 when losing the penalty. For warcaster I almost never used an attack of opportunity. Even if I used a spell like spirit guardian that require me to be relatively close to the enemies. I will avoid getting into melee range since my melee damage is so bad that I rather just use a cantrip if I have nothing else to do. I only used my melee like 3 times in our 7 months campaign and every time it had so little impact that I don't think I will ever use it again.
4. about the money question. We are very poor party of adventurers simply because we don't hang around cities very often. Most of the places we go to are either poor villages plagued with disease or a city that is attacked by frost monsters that have very little resources since its been depleted while fighting for their survival. We might be able to craft sentinel shield from monster loot materials the party agreed to give it to me. So a +2 shield instead of +1 is not too shabby.
I think first the question needs to be asked: are you having trouble with getting into the front lines and being hit? 16 AC isn't a lot for someone using a +1 Shield yes but it can be enough unless you're being asked to be in melee range on a regular basis. I find with my lvl 8 peace cleric that I find myself standing 30 ft back from front lines for Emboldening Bond purposes and within range for a move + channel divinity to reach melee and then get out. I only stay in melee range if it's completely necessary, or it's just time for spirit guardian and dodge tactics. And that's with a 20 ac.
But if your party is short on more tanky melee characters it may be worth it. The heavily armored with Plate would net you a +5 ac compared to where you are now and that's not insignificant. For me, that's reason enough where it should be a real consideration along with Res. Con for concentration checks. But if you don't find yourself getting attacked that much then a different utility option may get you more milage.
Thanks for the help! Our problem is that we have way too many frontliners. We have a barbarian, 2 fighters, 1 paladin, myself and a wizard. Even tho I stay away from the frontline I had a boss fight in which I got heavily bombarded with arrows. The boss had very high dex so he hit most of his attacks. In another instance I fought another archer he crit me 2 times and got me down in a single round. I am not interested in being a the front I just felt I am dying a little to fast for a cleric. A wizard or a sorcerer supposed to be squishy but a cleric should be a little more durable as far as I know. I don't want to roll for concentration too much because I get hit all the time. I thought AC is an all around solution from preventing a lot of saving throws resulted from being hit by attacks and spells.
1. Wait 17 is the maximum AC for medium armor? I maybe got it all wrong so I will use myself as an example here. I have scale male that give me 14 ac and a shield +1 that together with the normal +2 is 3 ace. So I should have 17 but instead I have 16 because of the -1 dex. Now the important part is. If I manage to raise my dex to 14. I should have +3 to ACE because the no -1 penalty at dex 10 and a +2 at dex 14. So total of 19 AC (medium armor cap at +2 dex modifier). Am I wrong here?
Medium Armor lets you add your Dex mod up to +2(+3 if you have the Medium Armor Master feat). The standard Medium Armor options range from a base AC of 12(Hide) to 15(Half-Plate). Half-Plate plus a 14 Dex will give you an AC of 17 without a shield. With that +1 shield and no other AC buffs(magic armor, ring of protection etc), you could achieve a max AC of 20 if you got your Dex to 14. So if you get your Dex to no higher than 10 and stick with your Scale Mail, your AC would be 17(14 from the armor, +0 from Dex, +3 from your magic shield).
I think first the question needs to be asked: are you having trouble with getting into the front lines and being hit? 16 AC isn't a lot for someone using a +1 Shield yes but it can be enough unless you're being asked to be in melee range on a regular basis. I find with my lvl 8 peace cleric that I find myself standing 30 ft back from front lines for Emboldening Bond purposes and within range for a move + channel divinity to reach melee and then get out. I only stay in melee range if it's completely necessary, or it's just time for spirit guardian and dodge tactics. And that's with a 20 ac.
But if your party is short on more tanky melee characters it may be worth it. The heavily armored with Plate would net you a +5 ac compared to where you are now and that's not insignificant. For me, that's reason enough where it should be a real consideration along with Res. Con for concentration checks. But if you don't find yourself getting attacked that much then a different utility option may get you more milage.
Thanks for the help! Our problem is that we have way too many frontliners. We have a barbarian, 2 fighters, 1 paladin, myself and a wizard. Even tho I stay away from the frontline I had a boss fight in which I got heavily bombarded with arrows. The boss had very high dex so he hit most of his attacks. In another instance I fought another archer he crit me 2 times and got me down in a single round. I am not interested in being a the front I just felt I am dying a little to fast for a cleric. A wizard or a sorcerer supposed to be squishy but a cleric should be a little more durable as far as I know. I don't want to roll for concentration too much because I get hit all the time. I thought AC is an all around solution from preventing a lot of saving throws resulted from being hit by attacks and spells.
Warcaster does allow you to cast a spell in lieu of making an opportunity attack in addition to advantage on concentration checks. Combining it with resilient dex would give you a solid option for improving your ability to make your concentration checks. The others have explained the options that make the most sense, though something like resilient con and another half feat that provides a con increase could also be an option (something like chef perhaps. Not sure if it would work well with your group, but it could potentially offer some additional healing, more HP and better con saves when combined with resilient con.
Hello guys. I am playing a level 7 party, we started at level 1 and now we are soon about to reach level 8. I want to plan my next feat in advance since its not an easy choice for me. I am a peace cleric protector Aasmimar. My stats are as follow: STR 14 DEX 9 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 20 CHA 16
I suffer pretty hard from my very low dex. It was my first character and I didn't know dex was such an important stat in 5e and ended up using it as a dump stat. I carry a medium armor and a +1 shield and together I only have 16 AC. It is very low AC for someone with a medium armor. The first thought I had is that taking Heavily Armored Feat would help me solve a big part of my Dex issue. Since raising my dex all the way to 14 from 9 will be extremely hard. It will be much easier to get a heavy armor. I will still have low dex saves and checks but its fine since I will trust my dex stuff to our fighters.
I did read online and a lot of people saying that heavy armor will fall off late game. I did not understand fully why yet, and I didn't find any alternative to what other options will be better late game that will address these issues. I thought choosing between war caster and resilient con I think higher AC will be better because I need to roll less for concentration if I will get hit much less in the first place. Also it suppose to help me as the healer to stay longer on the battlefield and get closer to enemies so I can use spirit guardians and other spells that require moving around in combat.
I will also be open to other ideas you think will help in general for my class. We gonna probably reach past level 12 so we will get to late game eventually.
If your AC is 16 in medium armor with a +1 shield and DEX 9, you must be wearing a breastplate or scale mail. Go buy yourself half-plate so you can be AC 17.
Because your Strength is 14, Heavily Armored will immediately qualify you for Plate Armor without any mobility penalty - you'll be Speed 30, AC 21. Strength is the only ability score that RAW does anything at odd levels, where it qualifies you for heavy armor and lets you carry more, although odd Dexterity is used by many DMs to help settle initiative ties.
You could take Resilient Dexterity for DEX 10, AC 18 in half plate, and proficiency in Dexterity saves, leaning into your Peace Cleric Emboldening Bond making you better at saves. This option also improves your Initiative checks.
You could take +1 DEX / +1 CON for AC 18 in half plate, mildly better dex saves and initiative checks, and delay fixing your statline to level 12, where you take Resilient Constitution to fix it.
You could ask your DM to stage a divine intervention (even though you don't qualify to ask for one until level 10) and fix your statline if things are really that bad, hopefully with the understanding that this is a one-time deal. If you can rearrange your statline once, this would be radically better:
STR 9
DEX 14
CON 16
INT 12
WIS 20
CHA 14
If the above is your statline you'll be AC 20 in half-plate and won't feel forced to spend a feat on something you don't care about. Since you're already miraculously WIS 20, my advice for your L8 ASI would absolutely be War Caster, since you're a Potent Spellcasting subclass - as of level 8, Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead, and Word of Radiance will add your +5 Wisdom modifier to their damage rolls, improving the utility of War Caster - not to mention you have Otiluke's Resilient Sphere always prepared anyway, and your success rate with Banishment is about as high as you can get it without being an Abjuration Wizard or Eloquence Bard. Your emboldening bond means you and 2 other party members ( with a 4th member at level 9) can teleport to each other by suffering 1 damage (you'll need to make a DC 10 Con save to do it yourself, which War Caster will help with), so wade into the thick of it.
Thank you so much!
1. Half plate is indeed an option once I have a chance to get it. If I won't find any magic item that will grant lets say +2 AC for the same price I think I gonna take it. 2. True it will be an insane boost even if I only have money for Splint which is only 200 gp with the only trade off of 1 AC less then a plate armor that costs 1,500 gp which is very expansive. 3 - 4. I am not sure what kind of items we will get between the current and nex ASI. I will need to think if planning that far ahead will be a good idea. And the resilient dex option might give me an instant upgrade. 5. I do not think I will be allowed to do it. Our DM said he is well aware we all noob dnd players and he planned things accordingly so we won't get punished for not having ideal builds.
1. Wait 17 is the maximum AC for medium armor? I maybe got it all wrong so I will use myself as an example here. I have scale male that give me 14 ac and a shield +1 that together with the normal +2 is 3 ace. So I should have 17 but instead I have 16 because of the -1 dex. Now the important part is. If I manage to raise my dex to 14. I should have +3 to ACE because the no -1 penalty at dex 10 and a +2 at dex 14. So total of 19 AC (medium armor cap at +2 dex modifier). Am I wrong here?
Medium Armor lets you add your Dex mod up to +2(+3 if you have the Medium Armor Master feat). The standard Medium Armor options range from a base AC of 12(Hide) to 15(Half-Plate). Half-Plate plus a 14 Dex will give you an AC of 17 without a shield. With that +1 shield and no other AC buffs(magic armor, ring of protection etc), you could achieve a max AC of 20 if you got your Dex to 14. So if you get your Dex to no higher than 10 and stick with your Scale Mail, your AC would be 17(14 from the armor, +0 from Dex, +3 from your magic shield).
Oh ok so I didn't understood you last time. Thanks for the clarification.
Hello guys. I am playing a level 7 party, we started at level 1 and now we are soon about to reach level 8. I want to plan my next feat in advance since its not an easy choice for me. I am a peace cleric protector Aasmimar. My stats are as follow: STR 14 DEX 9 CON 14 INT 12 WIS 20 CHA 16
I suffer pretty hard from my very low dex. It was my first character and I didn't know dex was such an important stat in 5e and ended up using it as a dump stat. I carry a medium armor and a +1 shield and together I only have 16 AC. It is very low AC for someone with a medium armor. The first thought I had is that taking Heavily Armored Feat would help me solve a big part of my Dex issue. Since raising my dex all the way to 14 from 9 will be extremely hard. It will be much easier to get a heavy armor. I will still have low dex saves and checks but its fine since I will trust my dex stuff to our fighters.
I did read online and a lot of people saying that heavy armor will fall off late game. I did not understand fully why yet, and I didn't find any alternative to what other options will be better late game that will address these issues. I thought choosing between war caster and resilient con I think higher AC will be better because I need to roll less for concentration if I will get hit much less in the first place. Also it suppose to help me as the healer to stay longer on the battlefield and get closer to enemies so I can use spirit guardians and other spells that require moving around in combat.
I will also be open to other ideas you think will help in general for my class. We gonna probably reach past level 12 so we will get to late game eventually.
If the above is your statline you'll be AC 20 in half-plate and won't feel forced to spend a feat on something you don't care about. Since you're already miraculously WIS 20, my advice for your L8 ASI would absolutely be War Caster, since you're a Potent Spellcasting subclass - as of level 8, Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead, and Word of Radiance will add your +5 Wisdom modifier to their damage rolls, improving the utility of War Caster - not to mention you have Otiluke's Resilient Sphere always prepared anyway, and your success rate with Banishment is about as high as you can get it without being an Abjuration Wizard or Eloquence Bard. Your emboldening bond means you and 2 other party members ( with a 4th member at level 9) can teleport to each other by suffering 1 damage (you'll need to make a DC 10 Con save to do it yourself, which War Caster will help with), so wade into the thick of it. You could ask your DM to stage a divine intervention (even though you don't qualify to ask for one until level 10) and fix your statline if things are really that bad, hopefully with the understanding that this is a one-time deal. If you can rearrange your statline once, this would be radically better:You could take +1 DEX / +1 CON for AC 18 in half plate, mildly better dex saves and initiative checks, and delay fixing your statline to level 12, where you take Resilient Constitution to fix it.You could take Resilient Dexterity for DEX 10, AC 18 in half plate, and proficiency in Dexterity saves, leaning into your Peace Cleric Emboldening Bond making you better at saves. This option also improves your Initiative checks.Because your Strength is 14, Heavily Armored will immediately qualify you for Plate Armor without any mobility penalty - you'll be Speed 30, AC 21. Strength is the only ability score that RAW does anything at odd levels, where it qualifies you for heavy armor and lets you carry more, although odd Dexterity is used by many DMs to help settle initiative ties. If your AC is 16 in medium armor with a +1 shield and DEX 9, you must be wearing a breastplate or scale mail. Go buy yourself half-plate so you can be AC 17.
I think first the question needs to be asked: are you having trouble with getting into the front lines and being hit? 16 AC isn't a lot for someone using a +1 Shield yes but it can be enough unless you're being asked to be in melee range on a regular basis. I find with my lvl 8 peace cleric that I find myself standing 30 ft back from front lines for Emboldening Bond purposes and within range for a move + channel divinity to reach melee and then get out. I only stay in melee range if it's completely necessary, or it's just time for spirit guardian and dodge tactics. And that's with a 20 ac.
But if your party is short on more tanky melee characters it may be worth it. The heavily armored with Plate would net you a +5 ac compared to where you are now and that's not insignificant. For me, that's reason enough where it should be a real consideration along with Res. Con for concentration checks. But if you don't find yourself getting attacked that much then a different utility option may get you more milage.
Thanks for the help! Our problem is that we have way too many frontliners. We have a barbarian, 2 fighters, 1 paladin, myself and a wizard. Even tho I stay away from the frontline I had a boss fight in which I got heavily bombarded with arrows. The boss had very high dex so he hit most of his attacks. In another instance I fought another archer he crit me 2 times and got me down in a single round. I am not interested in being a the front I just felt I am dying a little to fast for a cleric. A wizard or a sorcerer supposed to be squishy but a cleric should be a little more durable as far as I know. I don't want to roll for concentration too much because I get hit all the time. I thought AC is an all around solution from preventing a lot of saving throws resulted from being hit by attacks and spells.
Warcaster does allow you to cast a spell in lieu of making an opportunity attack in addition to advantage on concentration checks. Combining it with resilient dex would give you a solid option for improving your ability to make your concentration checks. The others have explained the options that make the most sense, though something like resilient con and another half feat that provides a con increase could also be an option (something like chef perhaps. Not sure if it would work well with your group, but it could potentially offer some additional healing, more HP and better con saves when combined with resilient con.
I would like to really talk about the war caster feat I see a lot of people recommending. First of all I have the lucky feat I took as my first ASI and I am sorry I didn't mentioned that. I planned to do so multiple times but always forgot. War caster con save advantage only works on concentrations. So its generally inferior to resilient Con as far as I see it. The +3 from resilient together with lucky will give me the best of both worlds for any saving throw I want. Another point is the opportunity attack thing. I know a lot of people says its good. But in my entire campaign I barely ever had any opportunity attacks. I only remember like 2-3 times it happened since we started at level 1. I mostly sit at the back with our wizard. Sometimes I move around for Balm of peace and I will now try to use spirit guardians. But the thing is. Even if I get in melee range it will not guarantee opportunity attacks. If you think I got it wrong I will be happy to be corrected.
I would like to really talk about the war caster feat I see a lot of people recommending. First of all I have the lucky feat I took as my first ASI and I am sorry I didn't mentioned that. I planned to do so multiple times but always forgot.
What? How the heck do you have Wisdom 20 without spending any ASIs on it? Anyway, good job. Lucky is a decent feat on literally anyone. Just to make sure you know how to exploit it, the standard trick is to give yourself Disadvantage (e.g. on an attack, shut your eyes) and then use Lucky to turn it into Super Advantage (roll 3 dice, choose the highest).
War caster con save advantage only works on concentrations. So its generally inferior to resilient Con as far as I see it. The +3 from resilient together with lucky will give me the best of both worlds for any saving throw I want.
This is false and misleading. First of all, advantage on saves as a pure additive bonus (assuming more is better, which is usually false - saves are usually binary, as concentration saves are; what matters is passing or not, and how badly you fail or how well you succeed generally does not matter) is worth more than +3 and less than +4. Secondly, Lucky is 3/long rest, not always on. Thirdly, War Caster does more than buff saves - the impact on OAs is huge, and depending on spells you use, the ability to cast spells with an S component but no M component without juggling equipment can be helpful (this is easily the least significant benefit of War Caster).
Another point is the opportunity attack thing. I know a lot of people says its good. But in my entire campaign I barely ever had any opportunity attacks. I only remember like 2-3 times it happened since we started at level 1. I mostly sit at the back with our wizard. Sometimes I move around for Balm of peace and I will now try to use spirit guardians. But the thing is.
That sounds an awful lot like you're using your bond incorrectly. Here's the best way to use your bond: 1) Try to put up the bond before combat. Remember, it lasts 10 minutes and costs an action. If you're about to kick in a door, put it up before you kick in the door. 2) Turn 1 of combat, cast Bless, which stacks with the Bond. Everyone in the bond should now be at, in general, +2d4 to saves. 3) Hang out in the middle of the party, not back by the wizard. When you need to yank a frontliner somewhere else right now - e.g. extracting them from a grapple or a spell effect - run to where you need them to end up and hurt yourself so they can use their reaction to teleport next to you. You'll need to make a DC 10 Concentration save with +2d4 to maintain concentration on Bless.
Even if I get in melee range it will not guarantee opportunity attacks. If you think I got it wrong I will be happy to be corrected.
You don't want to guarantee opportunity attacks. You want to guarantee your enemy has nothing but bad options, one of which is taking an OA from you. Spirit Guardians is a good way to ensure that. With Spirit Guardians up and War Caster you can go join the front line and your enemy is going to suffer if they stay next to you and suffer if they leave.
Just to be clear, if you take War Caster, we're assuming you're going to carry a whip. Your job is never to make an actual weapon attack, but with a whip in hand and War Caster, you can make OAs when a creature leaves a square adjacent to you (from the OA triggered from your unarmed strike kicks) and when they leave from 10 feet away from you (the whip) and in both cases you can use a spell rather than the whip or unarmed strike. Especially since your front line can teleport you over to next to them to guarantee Spirit Guardians is in position (since they can hurt themselves for you to teleport over), this should in practice be very clutch.
Thanks for the tips! Sorry for the late response, I had very busy weeks recently. It seems I understand better now about these aspects of the game as I continue to learn more and more. I gonna take these points into accounts and see what I can adopt which will depend on my playstyle and character personality. Thanks!
I did read online and a lot of people saying that heavy armor will fall off late game. I did not understand fully why yet, and I didn't find any alternative to what other options will be better late game that will address these issues.
I just wanted to comment on this point... I believe what people are referring to there is the "Heavy Armor master" feat, which you can only take if you already have Heavy Armor Proficiency and which has a unique feature that, while wearing heavy armor, you reduce non-magical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage by 3. This is incredibly useful early game, and has the potential to completely negate the damage form a horde of weak mooks, but the fact that it always remains a flat 3 damage reduction paired with the fact that it doesn't work against magic-based attacks makes it an extremely minor benefit in the late game.
Heavily Armored is the feat that grants you Heavy Armor Proficiency. I think this feat is still often considered not particularly useful, since you can still get solid AC with Medium Armor if you build your character for it, but it's useful for situations basically like yours where you have bad DEX.
Hello guys.
I am playing a level 7 party, we started at level 1 and now we are soon about to reach level 8.
I want to plan my next feat in advance since its not an easy choice for me.
I am a peace cleric protector Aasmimar.
My stats are as follow:
STR 14
DEX 9
CON 14
INT 12
WIS 20
CHA 16
I suffer pretty hard from my very low dex. It was my first character and I didn't know dex was such an important stat in 5e and ended up using it as a dump stat.
I carry a medium armor and a +1 shield and together I only have 16 AC. It is very low AC for someone with a medium armor.
The first thought I had is that taking Heavily Armored Feat would help me solve a big part of my Dex issue. Since raising my dex all the way to 14 from 9 will be extremely hard. It will be much easier to get a heavy armor. I will still have low dex saves and checks but its fine since I will trust my dex stuff to our fighters.
I did read online and a lot of people saying that heavy armor will fall off late game. I did not understand fully why yet, and I didn't find any alternative to what other options will be better late game that will address these issues. I thought choosing between war caster and resilient con I think higher AC will be better because I need to roll less for concentration if I will get hit much less in the first place. Also it suppose to help me as the healer to stay longer on the battlefield and get closer to enemies so I can use spirit guardians and other spells that require moving around in combat.
I will also be open to other ideas you think will help in general for my class. We gonna probably reach past level 12 so we will get to late game eventually.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that I have the Lucky feat that I took as my first ASI. I forgot to add that at the beginning.
16 AC isn't 'very low' for medium armor. 17 is max AC with medium armor, unless you have the Medium Armor Master feat. And having 17 AC in medium armor usually also means disadvantage on stealth, which I'll note you would always have in heavy armor, and with your 9 DEX, your stealth score is probably not great. You'd know best though how often your entire group has to make stealth checks. Or if you have anyone in the party who can cast Pass Without Trace to help mitigate your clanginess.
Note that you're not going to get much benefit from the Heavily Armored feat, since it would bump your STR up to an uneven score (though yes, it would get you to the minimum STR to use any of the types of heavy armor -- but do you have the gold for either of them?). Do you tend to use concentration spells a lot, or not so much because of your low AC? If you don't use them much there's always shield of faith, which ups your AC. That plus War Caster wouldn't be a bad combo. Resilient DEX would also be good: you'd get rid of the -1 penalty to your DEX, so your AC would go up by 1, and you'd gain proficiency in saves, and DEX saves are one of the more common saves in the game. Even if you don't bring your DEX all the way up to 14, getting rid of the penalty to your DEX would still help.
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
A +1 shield and Scale or Breastplate armor would give you a 17AC if you raised your Dex by 1, and that's not too bad for a non-tank. Resilient(Dex) woud raise your score to 10, giving you that AC of 17(18 if you can get a hold of some Half-Plate armor), and your Dex saves would go from -1 to +3, +4 when you hit Level 9. Another option would be taking a combo of Resilient(Con) and a Dex+1/Con+1 ASI at Levels 8 and 12 to get your Dex to 10 and your Con to 16. Which order you do them would depend on which you think is more important, the AC bump or the Con saves. Failing a Dex save usually just means taking more damage, failing a Con save can mean some nasty status effects(being poisoned, petrified, etc). But a lot would depend on what you feel you're more likely to face in your campaign. For example, if there's a heavy Undead theme, I'd DEFINITELY be looking to boost my Con saves since nasty necrotic effects usually target Con. But pocketmouse is right, in general Dex saves are very common, so being able to take half damage more frequently means not having to use as much healing on yourself.
I think first the question needs to be asked: are you having trouble with getting into the front lines and being hit? 16 AC isn't a lot for someone using a +1 Shield yes but it can be enough unless you're being asked to be in melee range on a regular basis. I find with my lvl 8 peace cleric that I find myself standing 30 ft back from front lines for Emboldening Bond purposes and within range for a move + channel divinity to reach melee and then get out. I only stay in melee range if it's completely necessary, or it's just time for spirit guardian and dodge tactics. And that's with a 20 ac.
But if your party is short on more tanky melee characters it may be worth it. The heavily armored with Plate would net you a +5 ac compared to where you are now and that's not insignificant. For me, that's reason enough where it should be a real consideration along with Res. Con for concentration checks. But if you don't find yourself getting attacked that much then a different utility option may get you more milage.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful answers!
I have a few points to respond to so I separated them.
1. Wait 17 is the maximum AC for medium armor? I maybe got it all wrong so I will use myself as an example here.
I have scale male that give me 14 ac and a shield +1 that together with the normal +2 is 3 ace. So I should have 17 but instead I have 16 because of the -1 dex.
Now the important part is. If I manage to raise my dex to 14. I should have +3 to ACE because the no -1 penalty at dex 10 and a +2 at dex 14. So total of 19 AC (medium armor cap at +2 dex modifier). Am I wrong here?
2. SInce most of the strongest cleric spells are concentration spells. I never had any fight that I wasn't having a concentration for the entire duration of the combat. Since level 1 I always use a concentration spell at the very first turn in each combat. And if one is being cancelled for whatever reason, I will either switch to another one or re-cast my previous spell. These spells are just too powerful to not always have one active.
3. The Resilient Dex/Con is indeed an option I should consider. Getting +3 is insane, in dex case it will even be +4 when losing the penalty. For warcaster I almost never used an attack of opportunity. Even if I used a spell like spirit guardian that require me to be relatively close to the enemies. I will avoid getting into melee range since my melee damage is so bad that I rather just use a cantrip if I have nothing else to do. I only used my melee like 3 times in our 7 months campaign and every time it had so little impact that I don't think I will ever use it again.
4. about the money question. We are very poor party of adventurers simply because we don't hang around cities very often. Most of the places we go to are either poor villages plagued with disease or a city that is attacked by frost monsters that have very little resources since its been depleted while fighting for their survival.
We might be able to craft sentinel shield from monster loot materials the party agreed to give it to me. So a +2 shield instead of +1 is not too shabby.
Thanks for the help!
Our problem is that we have way too many frontliners. We have a barbarian, 2 fighters, 1 paladin, myself and a wizard.
Even tho I stay away from the frontline I had a boss fight in which I got heavily bombarded with arrows. The boss had very high dex so he hit most of his attacks.
In another instance I fought another archer he crit me 2 times and got me down in a single round.
I am not interested in being a the front I just felt I am dying a little to fast for a cleric. A wizard or a sorcerer supposed to be squishy but a cleric should be a little more durable as far as I know. I don't want to roll for concentration too much because I get hit all the time. I thought AC is an all around solution from preventing a lot of saving throws resulted from being hit by attacks and spells.
Medium Armor lets you add your Dex mod up to +2(+3 if you have the Medium Armor Master feat). The standard Medium Armor options range from a base AC of 12(Hide) to 15(Half-Plate). Half-Plate plus a 14 Dex will give you an AC of 17 without a shield. With that +1 shield and no other AC buffs(magic armor, ring of protection etc), you could achieve a max AC of 20 if you got your Dex to 14. So if you get your Dex to no higher than 10 and stick with your Scale Mail, your AC would be 17(14 from the armor, +0 from Dex, +3 from your magic shield).
Warcaster does allow you to cast a spell in lieu of making an opportunity attack in addition to advantage on concentration checks. Combining it with resilient dex would give you a solid option for improving your ability to make your concentration checks. The others have explained the options that make the most sense, though something like resilient con and another half feat that provides a con increase could also be an option (something like chef perhaps. Not sure if it would work well with your group, but it could potentially offer some additional healing, more HP and better con saves when combined with resilient con.
Thank you so much!
1. Half plate is indeed an option once I have a chance to get it. If I won't find any magic item that will grant lets say +2 AC for the same price I think I gonna take it.
2. True it will be an insane boost even if I only have money for Splint which is only 200 gp with the only trade off of 1 AC less then a plate armor that costs 1,500 gp which is very expansive.
3 - 4. I am not sure what kind of items we will get between the current and nex ASI. I will need to think if planning that far ahead will be a good idea. And the resilient dex option might give me an instant upgrade.
5. I do not think I will be allowed to do it. Our DM said he is well aware we all noob dnd players and he planned things accordingly so we won't get punished for not having ideal builds.
Oh ok so I didn't understood you last time. Thanks for the clarification.
I would like to really talk about the war caster feat I see a lot of people recommending.
First of all I have the lucky feat I took as my first ASI and I am sorry I didn't mentioned that. I planned to do so multiple times but always forgot.
War caster con save advantage only works on concentrations. So its generally inferior to resilient Con as far as I see it. The +3 from resilient together with lucky will give me the best of both worlds for any saving throw I want.
Another point is the opportunity attack thing. I know a lot of people says its good. But in my entire campaign I barely ever had any opportunity attacks. I only remember like 2-3 times it happened since we started at level 1. I mostly sit at the back with our wizard. Sometimes I move around for Balm of peace and I will now try to use spirit guardians. But the thing is.
Even if I get in melee range it will not guarantee opportunity attacks.
If you think I got it wrong I will be happy to be corrected.
What? How the heck do you have Wisdom 20 without spending any ASIs on it? Anyway, good job. Lucky is a decent feat on literally anyone. Just to make sure you know how to exploit it, the standard trick is to give yourself Disadvantage (e.g. on an attack, shut your eyes) and then use Lucky to turn it into Super Advantage (roll 3 dice, choose the highest).
This is false and misleading. First of all, advantage on saves as a pure additive bonus (assuming more is better, which is usually false - saves are usually binary, as concentration saves are; what matters is passing or not, and how badly you fail or how well you succeed generally does not matter) is worth more than +3 and less than +4. Secondly, Lucky is 3/long rest, not always on. Thirdly, War Caster does more than buff saves - the impact on OAs is huge, and depending on spells you use, the ability to cast spells with an S component but no M component without juggling equipment can be helpful (this is easily the least significant benefit of War Caster).
That sounds an awful lot like you're using your bond incorrectly. Here's the best way to use your bond: 1) Try to put up the bond before combat. Remember, it lasts 10 minutes and costs an action. If you're about to kick in a door, put it up before you kick in the door. 2) Turn 1 of combat, cast Bless, which stacks with the Bond. Everyone in the bond should now be at, in general, +2d4 to saves. 3) Hang out in the middle of the party, not back by the wizard. When you need to yank a frontliner somewhere else right now - e.g. extracting them from a grapple or a spell effect - run to where you need them to end up and hurt yourself so they can use their reaction to teleport next to you. You'll need to make a DC 10 Concentration save with +2d4 to maintain concentration on Bless.
You don't want to guarantee opportunity attacks. You want to guarantee your enemy has nothing but bad options, one of which is taking an OA from you. Spirit Guardians is a good way to ensure that. With Spirit Guardians up and War Caster you can go join the front line and your enemy is going to suffer if they stay next to you and suffer if they leave.
Just to be clear, if you take War Caster, we're assuming you're going to carry a whip. Your job is never to make an actual weapon attack, but with a whip in hand and War Caster, you can make OAs when a creature leaves a square adjacent to you (from the OA triggered from your unarmed strike kicks) and when they leave from 10 feet away from you (the whip) and in both cases you can use a spell rather than the whip or unarmed strike. Especially since your front line can teleport you over to next to them to guarantee Spirit Guardians is in position (since they can hurt themselves for you to teleport over), this should in practice be very clutch.
Thanks for the tips!
Sorry for the late response, I had very busy weeks recently.
It seems I understand better now about these aspects of the game as I continue to learn more and more.
I gonna take these points into accounts and see what I can adopt which will depend on my playstyle and character personality.
Thanks!
I just wanted to comment on this point... I believe what people are referring to there is the "Heavy Armor master" feat, which you can only take if you already have Heavy Armor Proficiency and which has a unique feature that, while wearing heavy armor, you reduce non-magical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage by 3. This is incredibly useful early game, and has the potential to completely negate the damage form a horde of weak mooks, but the fact that it always remains a flat 3 damage reduction paired with the fact that it doesn't work against magic-based attacks makes it an extremely minor benefit in the late game.
Heavily Armored is the feat that grants you Heavy Armor Proficiency. I think this feat is still often considered not particularly useful, since you can still get solid AC with Medium Armor if you build your character for it, but it's useful for situations basically like yours where you have bad DEX.
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