Hello guys, I need to build a lvl 12 pc that will serve as the party's frontliner, and also I want to be a Spell casting frontliner, instead of a melee damage-dealing(so no fighters or paladins here). I would be the only fronline btw, and the other party members are a Vuman Tempest Domain Cleric (he is nor dealing damage nor supporting nor healing, he just uses toll the dead for some reason), Kenku Necromancer Wizard and Drow Land Druid (our support that started playing dnd like three weeks ago, we are still helping him to get used to the game mechanics but thankfully he is a quick learner).
I was thinking in a Hill Dwarf Forge Domain Cleric that uses it's subclass characteristics to be tankier and focus on WIS to be good at casting spells all the time.
My atributes could be something like this: STR 15, DEX 8, CON 15(13+2), INT 8, WIS 16(15+1), CHA 12
And then at lvl 12: STR 15, DEX 8, CON 16(13+2+1 Resilient), INT 8, WIS 20(15+1+4 ASI), CHA 12
My intention its to completely enhance WIS for spellcasting and ignore STR for melee attacks, but keep that 15 to avoid movement penalty while using heavy amor.
My question is that I have never played any cleric before so I dont know if taking away the Forge Domain's Melee capabilites is a good idea or not. I know that they will never be as good in melee damage as a fighter or paladin anyway, but the fact that the subclass itself gives him something to increase melee damage is what makes me doubt.
In any case, I think I'll be better taking the Blessed Strikes to replace Divine Strike so I can rely on cantrips. Also, took Resilient at lvl 4 to mantain those important concentration spells like Spirit Guardians.
The build basically rely on Spiritual weapon or Summon celestial and cantrips for damage and Spirit Guardians, Banishment or others for CC, but like I said before I never played as a Cleric and I have never seen a good frontilne cleric before, so I dont know how viable this is going to be as frontline.
Would you change something on the build? Maybe another domain or race or both? Any spells that I should use instead of those listed above?
Edit1: Well, it seems that I overlooked a very important part of the dwarf race trait "Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor." so I dont actually need 15 STR. Technically I could just dump it and use those points in CON and DEX or CHA, right?
Here's a fun build that might tickle your interest.
Race: Custom Lineage, free feat: Resilient CON
Stats: STR 15 DEX 8 CON 16 (15+1) INT 8 WIS 17 (15+2) CHA 8
Nature Domain Cleric taking Thorn Whip as your Druid cantrip.
ASIs: take Telekinetic (WIS) at level 4, WIS x2 at level 8 and Warcaster at level 12.
In battle your main strategy would be casting Spiritual Guardians and running into the thick of things and using Thorn Whip and the Telekinetic pull to keep the enemies on you. If you got nothing close enough to pull in with Telekinetic then whack away with Spiritual Weapon instead.
With Resilient (CON) and Warcaster you have a very good chance of maintaining concentration.
This is a fun little backup character I plan on trying out if some unfortunate mishap befalls my beloved current character.
That's pretty cool and actually my idea was something like that. The problem is that, unfortunetly my DM does not allow any of the lineages that let you put atributes wherever you want of any books, which means no customizing your origin or custom lineage or dhampir or fairy, etc.
That's why I need to rely on default races (he doesnt even allow the metallic, chromatic or gem dragonborn distinct atributes, so It's a +2 STR and +1 CHA no matter which one I choose)
That is fine. Just go Variant Human instead. Replace Telekinetic with a good old +2 to WIS and you are good to go. This just means you can spam more Spiritual Weapon attacks lol.
Drop STR by 1 and increase DEX, INT or CHA by 2. And the 2 floating +1s from the Variant Human can go into STR and WIS so you start with 16 WIS as opposed to 17
Round 3+: Dodge, attack with the Spiritual Weapon, and move as needed.
Your foes will be in a difficult situation. Stay and attack you, who will be hard to hit because of your high AC and dodging, while also taking Spirit Guardians damage. Or move away, taking a very strong Booming Blade attack because of War Caster = 1d6+4 (Shortsword) + 2d8+4 (initial Booming Blade) + 3d8+4 (moving Booming Blade).
Okay, thank you. I couldn't think that by myself. Even not beeing as tanky as I was expecting (In HP) and having a weapon on my hand, that's pretty good and accomplishes what I was expecting.
Hello guys, I need to build a lvl 12 pc that will serve as the party's frontliner, and also I want to be a Spell casting frontliner, instead of a melee damage-dealing(so no fighters or paladins here). I would be the only fronline btw, and the other party members are a Vuman Tempest Domain Cleric (he is nor dealing damage nor supporting nor healing, he just uses toll the dead for some reason), Kenku Necromancer Wizard and Drow Land Druid (our support that started playing dnd like three weeks ago, we are still helping him to get used to the game mechanics but thankfully he is a quick learner).
I was thinking in a Hill Dwarf Forge Domain Cleric that uses it's subclass characteristics to be tankier and focus on WIS to be good at casting spells all the time.
My atributes could be something like this: STR 15, DEX 8, CON 15(13+2), INT 8, WIS 16(15+1), CHA 12
And then at lvl 12: STR 15, DEX 8, CON 16(13+2+1 Resilient), INT 8, WIS 20(15+1+4 ASI), CHA 12
My intention its to completely enhance WIS for spellcasting and ignore STR for melee attacks, but keep that 15 to avoid movement penalty while using heavy amor.
My question is that I have never played any cleric before so I dont know if taking away the Forge Domain's Melee capabilites is a good idea or not. I know that they will never be as good in melee damage as a fighter or paladin anyway, but the fact that the subclass itself gives him something to increase melee damage is what makes me doubt.
In any case, I think I'll be better taking the Blessed Strikes to replace Divine Strike so I can rely on cantrips. Also, took Resilient at lvl 4 to mantain those important concentration spells like Spirit Guardians.
The build basically rely on Spiritual weapon or Summon celestial and cantrips for damage and Spirit Guardians, Banishment or others for CC, but like I said before I never played as a Cleric and I have never seen a good frontilne cleric before, so I dont know how viable this is going to be as frontline.
Would you change something on the build? Maybe another domain or race or both? Any spells that I should use instead of those listed above?
This should work. It should be noted that if you use a dwarf that you don't need to worry about the strength requirement for heavy armor as long as they have the clause in the speed description that says that it is not reduced by wearing heavy armor. You could stop at 14 strength so you have a +2 str save to fight off grapples if you stay dwarf.
Keep in mind that medium armor is only 1 AC behind at max. That means that you can go with one of the caster subclasses if you find one that has sufficiently tanky abilities for you, though, Forge is likely the best option.
Another option here might be to go with Tortle, Lizardfolk, or Loxodon to have an alternate AC calculation. Tortle are just AC 17 period, Lizardfolk can get 13+dex for AC (which doesn't sound ideal for your plan), and Loxodon get 12+con (which would allow you to stack con after wisdom). None of these are going to be much different than what you'll have with the hill dwarf and they won't get the bonus HP that will help when you take hits. As a frontliner, you'll probably have your AC tested quite a bit. Another couple of options might be Warforged with their +1 AC feature or Simic Hybrid for Carapace at 5th (but it doesn't work with heavy armor).
Forge Cleric will also give you fire resistance to help with those saves. You may consider a Yuan-ti for poison resistance and advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects at the cost of suboptimal stats (since you can't customize origin). Gnomes and satyrs have similar abilities and similarly misaligned stats.
Another option could be life cleric to make your heals more efficient, in essence giving you a higher effective HP. Light is a good blaster subclass and Warding Flare would allow you to cause five attack rolls to be made at disadvantage against you once you have a 20 wisdom. Nature has been touched on above, but dampen elements allows you to give resistance to you or party members against certain damage types at the cost of your reaction against one attack. Tempest can help you push large or smaller creatures back if you deal lightning damage to them. Death domain could let you double up on necromancy cantrip targets if they are within 5 ft of each other. You'll also have False life to give temp HPs, animate dead to give some meat shields, and a few other spells that can be used defensively. Twilight and peace both have options that can be used defensively.
Still, Forge gives you a potential +2 to non-magical heavy armor after level 6. If you do get magical armor, you can move the first level bonus to another character or to a weapon in the party to increase the effectiveness of the character when they have to use it. The spells aren't overwhelmingly defensive, but offense can be a better defense in the long run. There are enough options that can be used defensively or in a controlling manner to help out in situations that your default spells won't be ideal that it won't be completely wasted and the cleric spell list has some solid options regardless.
All in all, I think that the Hill Dwarf Forge Cleric is a good option. Dwarves typically don't have to worry about strength requirements for heavy armor to preserve their 25 ft speed (you could also go with something like centaur or wood elf that had a higher base speed so that the slowing wouldn't matter as much). Hill Dwarves do get the bonus HP and constitution and wisdom work great for your character concept. Forge cleric doesn't get martial weapons, but dwarven combat training will allow you to have a Warhammer instead of a mace as a backup in the rare instances that your magic isn't getting the job done.
The Forge Cleric and Light Cleric suggestions are solid. I want to make a different point.
Have you talked to your party members about tactics at all? I think you should. If you are going to be the sole front line character, they need to commit to CC, backup, and healing you. The Druids have good CC options like Entangle and Spike Growth; paired with your Spirit Guardians you can dish out a lot of damage to crowds. If your DM is agreeable, your necromancer and both Druids could summon a bunch of minions to serve as the real front line, with you right behind. I’m not sure what’s up with your Tempest Druid, but they should at least cast Call Lightning or something if they aren’t summoning or doing CC.
One character can’t hold a front line by themselves, even a Bearbarian with pole arm master and Sentinel, so your party is going to have to help you do that if they want to stay out of the ranks of melee. Otherwise, enemies will just flow around you to crush your squishy friends.
I talked mostly to my Druid, and I am teaching him how spells work and the many uses of some of them, so he can think by himself and use the opportunities when they come. To the necromancer I already told him to not worry about dealing damage and he agreed because he only wants to create undead, so he can focus mostly on summoning minions and sending them to the frontline with me (he likes using crown of madness too, for example), and the Tempest CLERIC is doing his stuff.
He already has 20 WIS but simply does not use it for spells. The thing is that on his BG he is looking for Thor's Hammer (which we know is on the campaign) and he REFUSES to uses any weapon until he finds Mjolnir. I think the concept is cool and pretty interesting, but he just does not uses any spells to compensate the lack of a weapon, and the only thing I've seen him using is Toll the dead and Cure Wounds (once)
While not a concern with base cleric cantrips, just remember that ranged attack spells of any sort will have attacks made at disadvantage if you are within 5 ft of a hostile creature. Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame use saves, so that's not an issue with them, but Arcana Cleric with Fire bolt or Ray of Frost (my suggestion since it would help you control the speed of incoming hostiles) or using Death Cleric to pick up Chill Touch or spells like Guiding Bolt will be subject to this without crossbow expert feat.
If you stick with your original Hill Dwarf you don't need high strength unless encumberance will be an issue. Dwarves are not slowed down wearing heavy armor. I see you had 12 in charisma normally I would suggest charisma asa a dump stat on a cleric but I am guessing everyone else has dumped charisma so you will end up being the parties face.
By reducing strength your starting stats to be something like Str 10, Dex 8, Con 15+2, Int 8, Wis 15+1, Cha 14. This would help your concentration checks and hit points. You could also drop charisma and increase dex (an important saving throw and for initiave) or strength (to avoid encumberance)
Forge domain is a decent option for tankiness
Arcana is a good alternative for improved melee damage control though I would take Greenflame blade and booming blade so you can choose whih is the better option. I am not sure how much use fire bolt will get it would only really come into play for the first roound of combat before you get into melee and usually toll the dead ot sacread flame would be just as good as cantrips and you would be more likely to want to be casting something like spirt guardinans or bannish on the first round of combat.
There's nothing wrong with having a paladin character. Paladins get to be half-casters, meaning that they still get some spells. You can choose spells that aren't from the "smite" category and give yourself a high Charisma to make yourself more useful as a spellcaster.
If you must remain a cleric, any cleric that gains proficiency with heavy armor and/or martial weapons is your best bet. War domain is the most obvious pick, but there are plenty of other options. I would also suggest not dumping DEX because you need it for initiative and DEX saves, and I would also keep STR to some extent so you can make melee attacks well (particularly because many domains with heavy armor also offer martial weapons and a Divine Strike feature).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
With Magic Initiate you can pick up Shillelagh for wisdom based attacks.
You want to check with your DM on this one before doing it. Shillelagh has V, S, and M components and some DMs aren't very friendly to being able to using it without a druidic focus or an empty hand. Still, it shouldn't be necessary for the character concept since the idea was to have a spellcasting cleric and Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame work fine in melee range since there isn't an attack roll to make at disadvantage.
However, another option for Shillelagh that could work with the frontline concept is Nature Druid. It's not as tanky as some of the other options, but does have a few options like Dampen Elements and Barkskin or Spike Growth.
Frontline cleric that casts spells? Twilight. Hands down. Dwarf works great so you don't gotta worry about strength. Centaur or satyr work too since you'd have higher base speed to compensate.
Take warcaster. This lets you fight with a shield and whip. You're not really attacking with the whip, though. It just lets you control a huge area of the battlefield and when creatures provoke you can cast spells at them instead of OP attacks. You could resilient:Con to really crank your concentration saves up. And maybe like feytouched (+gift of alacrity) to round up wis.
Your class abilities will give you all the Temp HP staying power you need to either soak damage or keep any soft targets near you also protected, as, at L12, you'd be handing out 13 to 18 every round.
Stats like 8/14/18/8/18/10, 111HP, with plate/shield 20AC. +8 (advantage) on concentration.
Anyway, so, general tactics are to use Spiritual Guardians for solid aoe damage round after round to anything within 15ft of you, and it slows them. Meanwhile, you'll use your channel divinity to pad you and your teammates HP. Now, this is actually one of the best aggro abilities out there, because now anyone on your team can soak damage so long as you maintain the effect. So enemies will need to focus fire someone, ideally you, to have any chance of doing actual damage to your team.
Meanwhile, you're lobbing out guiding bolts or sacred flames or toll of the deads as your Spiritual Guardians wear down everything AOE. If/when enemies try to run from you, or squeeze passed you, your warcaster feat is going to let you cast a spell. You can even toss in Spiritual Weapon for bonus actions.
Extra fun features you got: 300ft darkvision (shareable with party), advantage on initiative, the ability to fly yourself (concentration free), and some really spectacular spells (imo best subclass spell list anywhere).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.
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Hello guys, I need to build a lvl 12 pc that will serve as the party's frontliner, and also I want to be a Spell casting frontliner, instead of a melee damage-dealing(so no fighters or paladins here). I would be the only fronline btw, and the other party members are a Vuman Tempest Domain Cleric (he is nor dealing damage nor supporting nor healing, he just uses toll the dead for some reason), Kenku Necromancer Wizard and Drow Land Druid (our support that started playing dnd like three weeks ago, we are still helping him to get used to the game mechanics but thankfully he is a quick learner).
I was thinking in a Hill Dwarf Forge Domain Cleric that uses it's subclass characteristics to be tankier and focus on WIS to be good at casting spells all the time.
My atributes could be something like this: STR 15, DEX 8, CON 15(13+2), INT 8, WIS 16(15+1), CHA 12
And then at lvl 12: STR 15, DEX 8, CON 16(13+2+1 Resilient), INT 8, WIS 20(15+1+4 ASI), CHA 12
My intention its to completely enhance WIS for spellcasting and ignore STR for melee attacks, but keep that 15 to avoid movement penalty while using heavy amor.
My question is that I have never played any cleric before so I dont know if taking away the Forge Domain's Melee capabilites is a good idea or not. I know that they will never be as good in melee damage as a fighter or paladin anyway, but the fact that the subclass itself gives him something to increase melee damage is what makes me doubt.
In any case, I think I'll be better taking the Blessed Strikes to replace Divine Strike so I can rely on cantrips. Also, took Resilient at lvl 4 to mantain those important concentration spells like Spirit Guardians.
The build basically rely on Spiritual weapon or Summon celestial and cantrips for damage and Spirit Guardians, Banishment or others for CC, but like I said before I never played as a Cleric and I have never seen a good frontilne cleric before, so I dont know how viable this is going to be as frontline.
Would you change something on the build? Maybe another domain or race or both? Any spells that I should use instead of those listed above?
Edit1: Well, it seems that I overlooked a very important part of the dwarf race trait "Your base walking speed is 25 feet. Your speed is not reduced by wearing heavy armor." so I dont actually need 15 STR. Technically I could just dump it and use those points in CON and DEX or CHA, right?
Here's a fun build that might tickle your interest.
Race: Custom Lineage, free feat: Resilient CON
Stats: STR 15 DEX 8 CON 16 (15+1) INT 8 WIS 17 (15+2) CHA 8
Nature Domain Cleric taking Thorn Whip as your Druid cantrip.
ASIs: take Telekinetic (WIS) at level 4, WIS x2 at level 8 and Warcaster at level 12.
In battle your main strategy would be casting Spiritual Guardians and running into the thick of things and using Thorn Whip and the Telekinetic pull to keep the enemies on you. If you got nothing close enough to pull in with Telekinetic then whack away with Spiritual Weapon instead.
With Resilient (CON) and Warcaster you have a very good chance of maintaining concentration.
This is a fun little backup character I plan on trying out if some unfortunate mishap befalls my beloved current character.
That's pretty cool and actually my idea was something like that. The problem is that, unfortunetly my DM does not allow any of the lineages that let you put atributes wherever you want of any books, which means no customizing your origin or custom lineage or dhampir or fairy, etc.
That's why I need to rely on default races (he doesnt even allow the metallic, chromatic or gem dragonborn distinct atributes, so It's a +2 STR and +1 CHA no matter which one I choose)
That is fine. Just go Variant Human instead. Replace Telekinetic with a good old +2 to WIS and you are good to go. This just means you can spam more Spiritual Weapon attacks lol.
Drop STR by 1 and increase DEX, INT or CHA by 2. And the 2 floating +1s from the Variant Human can go into STR and WIS so you start with 16 WIS as opposed to 17
I'd suggest a frontline Arcana cleric.
You will have 18 AC, 18 DEX, and 18 WIS at level 12. Your normal routine will be:
Your foes will be in a difficult situation. Stay and attack you, who will be hard to hit because of your high AC and dodging, while also taking Spirit Guardians damage. Or move away, taking a very strong Booming Blade attack because of War Caster = 1d6+4 (Shortsword) + 2d8+4 (initial Booming Blade) + 3d8+4 (moving Booming Blade).
Okay, thank you. I couldn't think that by myself. Even not beeing as tanky as I was expecting (In HP) and having a weapon on my hand, that's pretty good and accomplishes what I was expecting.
I will consider that, thank you again.
This should work. It should be noted that if you use a dwarf that you don't need to worry about the strength requirement for heavy armor as long as they have the clause in the speed description that says that it is not reduced by wearing heavy armor. You could stop at 14 strength so you have a +2 str save to fight off grapples if you stay dwarf.
Keep in mind that medium armor is only 1 AC behind at max. That means that you can go with one of the caster subclasses if you find one that has sufficiently tanky abilities for you, though, Forge is likely the best option.
Another option here might be to go with Tortle, Lizardfolk, or Loxodon to have an alternate AC calculation. Tortle are just AC 17 period, Lizardfolk can get 13+dex for AC (which doesn't sound ideal for your plan), and Loxodon get 12+con (which would allow you to stack con after wisdom). None of these are going to be much different than what you'll have with the hill dwarf and they won't get the bonus HP that will help when you take hits. As a frontliner, you'll probably have your AC tested quite a bit. Another couple of options might be Warforged with their +1 AC feature or Simic Hybrid for Carapace at 5th (but it doesn't work with heavy armor).
Forge Cleric will also give you fire resistance to help with those saves. You may consider a Yuan-ti for poison resistance and advantage on saving throws against spells and other magical effects at the cost of suboptimal stats (since you can't customize origin). Gnomes and satyrs have similar abilities and similarly misaligned stats.
Another option could be life cleric to make your heals more efficient, in essence giving you a higher effective HP. Light is a good blaster subclass and Warding Flare would allow you to cause five attack rolls to be made at disadvantage against you once you have a 20 wisdom. Nature has been touched on above, but dampen elements allows you to give resistance to you or party members against certain damage types at the cost of your reaction against one attack. Tempest can help you push large or smaller creatures back if you deal lightning damage to them. Death domain could let you double up on necromancy cantrip targets if they are within 5 ft of each other. You'll also have False life to give temp HPs, animate dead to give some meat shields, and a few other spells that can be used defensively. Twilight and peace both have options that can be used defensively.
Still, Forge gives you a potential +2 to non-magical heavy armor after level 6. If you do get magical armor, you can move the first level bonus to another character or to a weapon in the party to increase the effectiveness of the character when they have to use it. The spells aren't overwhelmingly defensive, but offense can be a better defense in the long run. There are enough options that can be used defensively or in a controlling manner to help out in situations that your default spells won't be ideal that it won't be completely wasted and the cleric spell list has some solid options regardless.
All in all, I think that the Hill Dwarf Forge Cleric is a good option. Dwarves typically don't have to worry about strength requirements for heavy armor to preserve their 25 ft speed (you could also go with something like centaur or wood elf that had a higher base speed so that the slowing wouldn't matter as much). Hill Dwarves do get the bonus HP and constitution and wisdom work great for your character concept. Forge cleric doesn't get martial weapons, but dwarven combat training will allow you to have a Warhammer instead of a mace as a backup in the rare instances that your magic isn't getting the job done.
The Forge Cleric and Light Cleric suggestions are solid. I want to make a different point.
Have you talked to your party members about tactics at all? I think you should. If you are going to be the sole front line character, they need to commit to CC, backup, and healing you. The Druids have good CC options like Entangle and Spike Growth; paired with your Spirit Guardians you can dish out a lot of damage to crowds. If your DM is agreeable, your necromancer and both Druids could summon a bunch of minions to serve as the real front line, with you right behind. I’m not sure what’s up with your Tempest Druid, but they should at least cast Call Lightning or something if they aren’t summoning or doing CC.
One character can’t hold a front line by themselves, even a Bearbarian with pole arm master and Sentinel, so your party is going to have to help you do that if they want to stay out of the ranks of melee. Otherwise, enemies will just flow around you to crush your squishy friends.
I talked mostly to my Druid, and I am teaching him how spells work and the many uses of some of them, so he can think by himself and use the opportunities when they come. To the necromancer I already told him to not worry about dealing damage and he agreed because he only wants to create undead, so he can focus mostly on summoning minions and sending them to the frontline with me (he likes using crown of madness too, for example), and the Tempest CLERIC is doing his stuff.
He already has 20 WIS but simply does not use it for spells. The thing is that on his BG he is looking for Thor's Hammer (which we know is on the campaign) and he REFUSES to uses any weapon until he finds Mjolnir. I think the concept is cool and pretty interesting, but he just does not uses any spells to compensate the lack of a weapon, and the only thing I've seen him using is Toll the dead and Cure Wounds (once)
While not a concern with base cleric cantrips, just remember that ranged attack spells of any sort will have attacks made at disadvantage if you are within 5 ft of a hostile creature. Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame use saves, so that's not an issue with them, but Arcana Cleric with Fire bolt or Ray of Frost (my suggestion since it would help you control the speed of incoming hostiles) or using Death Cleric to pick up Chill Touch or spells like Guiding Bolt will be subject to this without crossbow expert feat.
If you stick with your original Hill Dwarf you don't need high strength unless encumberance will be an issue. Dwarves are not slowed down wearing heavy armor. I see you had 12 in charisma normally I would suggest charisma asa a dump stat on a cleric but I am guessing everyone else has dumped charisma so you will end up being the parties face.
By reducing strength your starting stats to be something like Str 10, Dex 8, Con 15+2, Int 8, Wis 15+1, Cha 14. This would help your concentration checks and hit points. You could also drop charisma and increase dex (an important saving throw and for initiave) or strength (to avoid encumberance)
Forge domain is a decent option for tankiness
Arcana is a good alternative for improved melee damage control though I would take Greenflame blade and booming blade so you can choose whih is the better option. I am not sure how much use fire bolt will get it would only really come into play for the first roound of combat before you get into melee and usually toll the dead ot sacread flame would be just as good as cantrips and you would be more likely to want to be casting something like spirt guardinans or bannish on the first round of combat.
There's nothing wrong with having a paladin character. Paladins get to be half-casters, meaning that they still get some spells. You can choose spells that aren't from the "smite" category and give yourself a high Charisma to make yourself more useful as a spellcaster.
If you must remain a cleric, any cleric that gains proficiency with heavy armor and/or martial weapons is your best bet. War domain is the most obvious pick, but there are plenty of other options. I would also suggest not dumping DEX because you need it for initiative and DEX saves, and I would also keep STR to some extent so you can make melee attacks well (particularly because many domains with heavy armor also offer martial weapons and a Divine Strike feature).
Panda-wat (I hate my username) is somehow convinced that he is objectively right about everything D&D related even though he obviously is not. Considering that, he'd probably make a great D&D youtuber.
"If I die, I can live with that." ~Luke Hart, the DM lair
With Magic Initiate you can pick up Shillelagh for wisdom based attacks.
You want to check with your DM on this one before doing it. Shillelagh has V, S, and M components and some DMs aren't very friendly to being able to using it without a druidic focus or an empty hand. Still, it shouldn't be necessary for the character concept since the idea was to have a spellcasting cleric and Toll the Dead and Sacred Flame work fine in melee range since there isn't an attack roll to make at disadvantage.
However, another option for Shillelagh that could work with the frontline concept is Nature Druid. It's not as tanky as some of the other options, but does have a few options like Dampen Elements and Barkskin or Spike Growth.
You can pick a High elf Cleric of the Nature and have Shillelagh with Booming blade without wasting any feats or ASI.
Frontline cleric that casts spells? Twilight. Hands down. Dwarf works great so you don't gotta worry about strength. Centaur or satyr work too since you'd have higher base speed to compensate.
Take warcaster. This lets you fight with a shield and whip. You're not really attacking with the whip, though. It just lets you control a huge area of the battlefield and when creatures provoke you can cast spells at them instead of OP attacks. You could resilient:Con to really crank your concentration saves up. And maybe like feytouched (+gift of alacrity) to round up wis.
Your class abilities will give you all the Temp HP staying power you need to either soak damage or keep any soft targets near you also protected, as, at L12, you'd be handing out 13 to 18 every round.
Stats like 8/14/18/8/18/10, 111HP, with plate/shield 20AC. +8 (advantage) on concentration.
Anyway, so, general tactics are to use Spiritual Guardians for solid aoe damage round after round to anything within 15ft of you, and it slows them. Meanwhile, you'll use your channel divinity to pad you and your teammates HP. Now, this is actually one of the best aggro abilities out there, because now anyone on your team can soak damage so long as you maintain the effect. So enemies will need to focus fire someone, ideally you, to have any chance of doing actual damage to your team.
Meanwhile, you're lobbing out guiding bolts or sacred flames or toll of the deads as your Spiritual Guardians wear down everything AOE. If/when enemies try to run from you, or squeeze passed you, your warcaster feat is going to let you cast a spell. You can even toss in Spiritual Weapon for bonus actions.
Extra fun features you got: 300ft darkvision (shareable with party), advantage on initiative, the ability to fly yourself (concentration free), and some really spectacular spells (imo best subclass spell list anywhere).
I'm probably laughing.
It is apparently so hard to program Aberrant Mind and Clockwork Soul spell-swapping into dndbeyond they had to remake the game without it rather than implement it.