D&D 5E Best War Cleric?

[Zardnaar]

Early in 5E we took the war cleric out for a test drive and found it a bit disappointing. This was early on and if I did it again these days I would it different (resilient con or warcaster+ great weapon master) or fighter 1/cleric XYZ dip.

If you want to hit things hard with a weapon as a cleric though it seems you are better off playing a nature cleric (shillagh+staff+ polearm master) or an Arcana cleric (green flame blade+another wizard cantrip+ wisdom to cantrip damage lvl 8). Even the Death CLeric can put out a decent amount of pain (at least by cleric standards).

The way I look at clerics is you may as well be good at something so healing domain is great, light domain is great, war domain not particularly good at fighting.

Am I right about the war cleric? Or do you take a feat to acquire Green Flame Blade (magic initiate,).

 

[hejtmane]

Early in 5E we took the war cleric out for a test drive and found it a bit disappointing. This was early on and if I did it again these days I would it different (resilient con or warcaster+ great weapon master) or fighter 1/cleric XYZ dip.

If you want to hit things hard with a weapon as a cleric though it seems you are better off playing a nature cleric (shillagh+staff+ polearm master) or an Arcana cleric (green flame blade+another wizard cantrip+ wisdom to cantrip damage lvl 8). Even the Death CLeric can put out a decent amount of pain (at least by cleric standards).

The way I look at clerics is you may as well be good at something so healing domain is great, light domain is great, war domain not particularly good at fighting.

Am I right about the war cleric? Or do you take a feat to acquire Green Flame Blade (magic initiate,).

What we saw as while it was just blah for the war cleric.
on a multi class front monk+life cleric natural ac wisdom stacks makes interesting combo in game play even late game

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[FrogReaver]

Early in 5E we took the war cleric out for a test drive and found it a bit disappointing. This was early on and if I did it again these days I would it different (resilient con or warcaster+ great weapon master) or fighter 1/cleric XYZ dip.

If you want to hit things hard with a weapon as a cleric though it seems you are better off playing a nature cleric (shillagh+staff+ polearm master) or an Arcana cleric (green flame blade+another wizard cantrip+ wisdom to cantrip damage lvl 8). Even the Death CLeric can put out a decent amount of pain (at least by cleric standards).

The way I look at clerics is you may as well be good at something so healing domain is great, light domain is great, war domain not particularly good at fighting.

Am I right about the war cleric? Or do you take a feat to acquire Green Flame Blade (magic initiate,).

War clerics really need two high stats. With standard point buy this is probably not achievable. However, if you can start with 18 wisdom and 18 str you should be a force to be reckoned with. Get Warcaster and Resilient Con ASAP.

At level 1:
You have one fight a day where you will dominate. You get 4 bonus action attacks per long rest. That's generally enough to last for 1 whole combat encounter. That means you will be doing 2d6 + 4 + 2d6+ 4 damage at level 1 for one while encounter. Add onto this total 2 uses of divine favor per day and you are basically the most damaging level 1 character in 3 combats per day. You also have some added utility in being able to heal or increase your defense etc if needed.

Level 2:
Basically the same as level 1 except 1 attack per day is a guaranteed hit.

Level 3:
You now have spiritual weapon. You can use this twice per day. It's not quite as good as your bonus action attacks but it's still solid and basically makes the war cleric dominate 3 combats per day.

Level 4:
Take resilient con or warcaster. You will need concentration buffs soon.

Level 5:
Spirit Guardians is amazing. It can be used in conjunction with your bonus action attack or spiritual weapon. We are talking about damage numbers that really surpass almost every other character at this point. Sure you won't be able to do this kind of stuff but maybe 2 combats per day. But it's well worth it! The war cleric still surpasses other clerics here as his 4x per day bonus action attack can be used on every subsequent turn after a casting of spirit guardians.

Past level 5:
Spirit guardians and spiritual weapon both continue to scale with spell levels. Your weapon damage scales with divine strike. You even get the ability to basically cause an ally to hit and depending on the situation that can be amazing!

Honestly I'm more impressed with pure War Cleric now that I've looked into it than I was before. He relies on 3-4 abilities that he gets by level 5 and just scales them.

I guess the only issue is that his subclass doesn't appear as strong later as some of the others.

 

[FrogReaver]

Early in 5E we took the war cleric out for a test drive and found it a bit disappointing. This was early on and if I did it again these days I would it different (resilient con or warcaster+ great weapon master) or fighter 1/cleric XYZ dip.

If you want to hit things hard with a weapon as a cleric though it seems you are better off playing a nature cleric (shillagh+staff+ polearm master) or an Arcana cleric (green flame blade+another wizard cantrip+ wisdom to cantrip damage lvl 8). Even the Death CLeric can put out a decent amount of pain (at least by cleric standards).

The way I look at clerics is you may as well be good at something so healing domain is great, light domain is great, war domain not particularly good at fighting.

Am I right about the war cleric? Or do you take a feat to acquire Green Flame Blade (magic initiate,).

War clerics really need two high stats. With standard point buy this is probably not achievable. However, if you can start with 18 wisdom and 18 str you should be a force to be reckoned with. Get Warcaster and Resilient Con ASAP.

At level 1:
You have one fight a day where you will dominate. You get 4 bonus action attacks per long rest. That's generally enough to last for 1 whole combat encounter. That means you will be doing 2d6 + 4 + 2d6+ 4 damage at level 1 for one while encounter. Add onto this total 2 uses of divine favor per day and you are basically the most damaging level 1 character in 3 combats per day. You also have some added utility in being able to heal or increase your defense etc if needed.

Level 2:
Basically the same as level 1 except 1 attack per day is a guaranteed hit.

Level 3:
You now have spiritual weapon. You can use this twice per day. It's not quite as good as your bonus action attacks but it's still solid and basically makes the war cleric dominate 3 combats per day.

Level 4:
Take resilient con or warcaster. You will need concentration buffs soon.

Level 5:
Spirit Guardians is amazing. It can be used in conjunction with your bonus action attack or spiritual weapon. We are talking about damage numbers that really surpass almost every other character at this point. Sure you won't be able to do this kind of stuff but maybe 2 combats per day. But it's well worth it! The war cleric still surpasses other clerics here as his 4x per day bonus action attack can be used on every subsequent turn after a casting of spirit guardians.

Past level 5:
Spirit guardians and spiritual weapon both continue to scale with spell levels. Your weapon damage scales with divine strike. You even get the ability to basically cause an ally to hit and depending on the situation that can be amazing!

Honestly I'm more impressed with pure War Cleric now that I've looked into it than I was before. He relies on 3-4 abilities that he gets by level 5 and just scales them.

I guess the only issue is that his subclass doesn't appear as strong later as some of the others.

 

[Bitbrain]

I'm playing a Light Domain Cleric in my group's secondary campaign, and another guy in my group is playing as a War Domain Cleric in the primary campaign.
Comparing our characters to each other, he concluded that while the War Cleric is AMAZING if both the Cleric and at least one other character goes Strength based and takes Great Weapon Master; the Light Domain is a better all-around support character, and therefore the superior sub-class.

 

[FrogReaver]

I'm playing a Light Domain Cleric in my group's secondary campaign, and another guy in my group is playing as a War Domain Cleric in the primary campaign.
Comparing our characters to each other, he concluded that while the War Cleric is AMAZING if both the Cleric and at least one other character goes Strength based and takes Great Weapon Master; the Light Domain is a better all-around support character, and therefore the superior sub-class.

Why would a war domain cleric take GWM?

 

[BookBarbarian]

I always thought an Archer War Cleric would be a good way to go since War Cleric can have a Ranged Weapon bonus action attack that is not limited to hand-crossbow, but admittedly I have never played one.

 

[Valetudo]

Do you think maybe the war cleric should have gotten a second attack instead of the bonus attack? Clerics tend to have a ton of bonus action uses anyways.

 

[FrogReaver]

I always thought an Archer War Cleric would be a good way to go since War Cleric can have a Ranged Weapon bonus action attack that is not limited to hand-crossbow, but admittedly I have never played one.

War Cleric goes good as a multiclass for fighter or maybe even ranger.

 

[FrogReaver]

Do you think maybe the war cleric should have gotten a second attack instead of the bonus attack? Clerics tend to have a ton of bonus action uses anyways.

Absolutely not. Too strong. Most of their best spells don't take more than one action to use and can be maintained the whole combat.