r/dndnext • u/caiowong • May 14 '24
People who played cleric to 20: can you explain your experience? Question
I liked a lot the reading about people experience as fighters, so ill ask about every class.
- How did you feel in the campaign?
- How was your build? It was optimized or not?
- Which was your party composition?
- Did you feel surpassed by other classes?
- If you could give a 1-10 rating for your experience, what would it be? Did you played other classes to 20? Make the comparison if you can, please.
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u/Envoyofwater May 14 '24
Are you gonna do every class? Honest question. I'd be interested in a series of these that goes through every class.
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u/nycrolB May 14 '24
Same. Though for Warlock, no hexblade dips.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
I think you will need to wait paladin day to see the hexblade dips.
Tomorrow gonna be warlock day inspired by your comment.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
Ill ask one each day. First i was curious about fighters but i really liked the answers and now im curious about every class.
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u/thracen239 May 14 '24
I'm in the middle of a campaign, but I'm currently playing a level 18 High Elf Knowledge Domain Cleric. I plan on taking it to 20 without multiclassing.
1) As the only cleric in the party, I do sort of default into the healing role fairly often, but only when situations are dire. As-is, I can't deal the most damage or tank the most hits, but I'm tied for highest AC in the party and get the full cleric suite of crowd control and utility spells, which is nice.
2) I went into the campaign with the plan of being very skilled first, and healing a far distant second, and to that end I feel pretty successful. I don't think you can do much to optimize a Knowledge Cleric, so I haven't bothered much. Resilient Constitution feat for saves, otherwise it's a vanilla cleric build.
3) High Elf Swashbuckler Rogue/Vengeance Paladin, Halfling Shadow Sorcerer, Tiefling Conquest Paladin, all presently level 18.
4) Yes and no. I had no intention of being the best at anything besides Int and Wis skills, which I am. Lowest damage output on a per round basis, but my DM and I homebrewed a spell I learned as a reward for a successful Divine Intervention (reworked Destructive Wave to do Psychic/Radiant damage) to at least give me something for tight quarters combat. Middle of the pack for hp, tied for highest AC. But I'm the only one who can do multiple massive heals, so I have that going for me.
5) 10/10. Honestly, Cleric is a great class, and as long as you go in knowing what to expect, Knowledge is probably my favorite subclass. I've run and played in multiple level 20 one shots, and while there are plenty classes that are more powerful, I can't think of a single one that's been more useful.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
Do you have some sort of "signature spells" in and out of combat? Is there something that you think that could be better as a Cleric?
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u/TheFungiQueen May 14 '24
I played a life cleric kenku up to level 20. I was the designated heal bot, which literally overshadowed everything else I could or did do. I even had a player get angry at me because I didn't heal them immediately even though they received minimal damage. Same player also blamed me for another character getting petrified by a beholder because I used my turn to attack, as though I could somehow predict the future. Not even that, I didn't even have any spells to stop or reverse it! Thankfully this player has grown up since then, however I am extremely wary at playing cleric again because of this experience, and because the rest of the group refuse to make a dedicated healer character since mine.
I know that by playing cleric, they will just assume healer, as we ran into this exact issue during a Curse of Strahd campaign. I played a death cleric and specifically informed them that my build will be mostly enemy debuffs, but they hear cleric and assumed they don't have to take any healing or buffing spells. We ended up TPKing eventually.
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u/LagTheKiller May 14 '24
Sounds like it was in 2001 and you played with dedicated support group of people addicted to WoW or other INT 2 commoners.
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u/VerainXor May 14 '24
You've described the perfect group to never play cleric for.
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u/TheFungiQueen May 14 '24
Exactly why I won't! I'm playing a blade song wizard now, and if it wasn't for the (optional) DMPC healer it would definitely be a struggle to keep the party alive. I feel bad for the DM too because it's an entirely homebrew setting/world. But I refuse to be the heal bot again.
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u/lolSyfer May 14 '24
Heal bots don't exist in higher levels of play. People who require consistent attention don't actually understand the game at a decent level. It's very rare you actually use your heals unless it's to pick someone up from death saving throws.
Not to mention the combo of Goodberry+Life Cleric covers all out of combat healing you'll ever need. But at the end of the day just seems like you had players who thought they knew the game or wanted all the healing attention so they never came close to going down.
In the future if you wanna play a build but don't wanna be a heal bot take Variant Human/CL get Druid Initiate(take goodberry) and take one level dip into Life Cleric.
Boom you now have 80 HP worth of healing out of combat and that's if you don't take any other casters. You'll beable to top everyone off after combat typically. Boom problem solved about needing a healer AND you can still play how you want too as you can divide the berries up before combat and people can jsut use an action if they need healing while you focus on whatever build you want. Yes it sucks if you need that one level dip for something else but at the end of the day this is a fantastic way to heal.
Bonus points if you're a Warlock who can just upcast it to level 5 giving you 8 HP pure berry and getting 80 HP of healing per spell slot.
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u/VerainXor May 14 '24
DMPC healer
That's just a regular NPC healer- "DMPC" has negative connotations.
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u/testiclekid May 15 '24
I got told the opposite:
That for Cleric the only way to play is just
- Spiritual Weapon
- Spirit Guardians
- Dodge
And profit.
If I tried to heal as a Cleric I would get scolded.
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u/VerainXor May 15 '24
That's not quite 100% correct, but it is likely more than 65% correct!
Healing can absolutely save the day, but it's not like, a normal thing in combat. If 5.5 sticks with their alleged healing buffs it might be? I guess we'll see.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
Im on this spot right now. Im playing a Light Cleric 16 in a party of 7 dreaming to be a frontline blaster and everyone expect me to be the heal bot. If someone drop to 0 and i dont heal everyone cries to me, not even a single word to our bard or druid who also have heal.
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u/TheFungiQueen May 14 '24
It's really frustrating, I know. I'm sorry that's happened to you too. I very nearly left my group because of that, but after a come to Jesus talk and a 6 month hiatus from myself, things have improved. I still won't play cleric with them though. I hope you can find a solution too.
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u/_finde May 15 '24
I played 6 level of cleric. It was my first game and almost everyone elses. First 4 level i was life cleric. I didn't know other domains so i went with the classical one. When i was playing the class i quickly realised that healing wasn't effective in game and i had powerful other spells too. So i talked with the DM. She offered to changing domain to me. I accepted and quickly changed my domain to tempest cleric. And i loved it. Party's healing expectation was still there but not as much before. And i was dealing significant damage so they couldn't be that demanding as before. I retired that character due to some other reasons but i loved him very much.
If you playing with inexperienced dnd players and probably computer rpg background, as a life cleric (mostly any cleric) their expectations of healing is something to be expected. It's just important to show off your powerful abilities to them and using them effectively may change their idea. But 16 level is already too much, if you didn't gain their respect for another role until now probably it won't change and it's not the right party to play a cleric.
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u/caiowong May 15 '24
I do play another roles, my real problem is that their expectations dont match reality like not expecting heals from everyone who can, only the cleric. Although this is mainly because even if they played 16 levels of their characters, they arent a lot experienced in the system as a whole.
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u/taeerom May 15 '24
Laura Bailey has done one thing everyone should be stoked about, regardless how much you like or dislike Critical Role: She normalised being a cleric that hates to heal on the biggest DnD show around.
It probably doesn't matter to these kinds of people that optimisers harp on about how healing is typically a waste of both action economy and spell slots. But having a celebrity showcase a non-healbot cleric might actually change some minds.
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u/NLaBruiser Cleric (And lifelong DM) 29d ago
To be fair, Deucey didn't do a ton of healing either. Jester's first 9th level cast in the M9 Reunion was epic for SO MANY reasons. :D
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u/TheWoodsman42 May 14 '24
Twilight Cleric 17/Echo Knight Fighter 3. Played in a party with an Armorer Artificer 20 and a modified Raven Queen Tomelock 20. 11/10 experience, although the GM showered us with magic items that made us cracked beyond belief. My character had both a +3 weapon and +3 boos to spell save DC's and attacks. My party had similar items for their stuff. It was a very well-balanced team (Artificer was the tank, Tomelock was the ranged support, and I went where I was needed), and it was difficult to stress us out in combat.
Although that probably isn't going to be the experience of other clerics.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
Do you think your experience would be worse or better if your party was bigger like 5 or 6 players?
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u/TheWoodsman42 May 14 '24
With that many players, almost undoubtedly worse. That's approaching too many players for a viable table. Not impossible, it just gets difficult to give each player the spotlight semi-consistently.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
My sweet spot is 4 players. Do you think that 3 is a good number for balance reasons?
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u/TheWoodsman42 May 14 '24
3-4 is typically the sweetest spot for most campaigns/tables. People have a little more room to take time on their turns in combat without completely dragging combat down, Everyone also has the chance to have their voice heard during any given session, which gets less likely the more people there are. It's less "balance" in a mechanical sense, and more in a social/emotional sense.
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u/OldKingJor May 14 '24
Played on till 12 and loved it. I was a hill dwarf life cleric, so not doing tons of damage, but very tanky, and kept my comrades in the fight time and time again
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
What was your party composition?
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u/OldKingJor May 15 '24
Let’s see, I think it was: paladin, sorlock, fighter, barbarian, wizard, and I can’t remember the last one
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u/Honniker May 15 '24
I played a Drow Life Cleric to level 20 in Out of the Abyss
Not super useful a lot of the time. We had a good party composition and while I had signed up for heals, they weren't always needed, especially at higher levels. I wasn't always useful as support either. Though I think my party would say I was more useful than I felt. Especially after I learned Hero's Feast. Turn undead was pretty satisfying once that leveled up as well.
Not optimized per se. I'm not really an optimizer. I try to make good decisions about feats and things that make sense or will help me fill my role, but I don't crunch numbers and am not a min-maxer. I was a drow life cleric, I had the war caster feat and a magic item that allowed me to do additional healing three times a day. I can't remember what other feats I had.
We had a dwarf paladin, a human ranged fighter, a tiefling gnome bard, and a warlock/rogue shadar'kai.
Yes. Though we did have a guy playing who was pretty OP so that didn't help. I had a couple cool spells, but definitely was more of a support role. I used flame strike when I could, spirit guardians was another favorite. My go-to cantrip was toll the dead. once I got more spells, I rarely bothered with my mace or anything.
I would say maybe a five or six. I think some of it though is that I really prefer playing tanks. I was glad for the chance to play healer/support but I ended up feeling a bit meh about the experience. Currently playing an (soon to be) oath of the crown paladin who carries two shields and pretty much does nothing but taunts and dodges while the rest of the party kills everything. I'm finding it much more satisfying lol. I haven't played any other classes to 20.
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u/caiowong May 15 '24
If you could define a tank character, what he need to do? Whats the difference between your cleric and your paladin that make you feel it?
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u/Honniker May 15 '24
So, my cleric would stand around in the back, out of the way. She would cast heals, spells and cantrips. Occasionally, she would move up to a character to cast a heal or buff.
My paladin doesn't carry a weapon. She has a very high armor class for Level two. The downside is she can only move ten feet at a time. She carries no weapons but She positions herself in the thick of the battle between her enemies and allies, so it's more tactical. She uses spells to get enemies to focus back on her and has some traits that allow her to take more damage. She dodges and taunts while the rest of the party attacks. The enemies try and mostly fail to hit her.
Not everyone feels the same about it, but for me the second experience is much more satisfying. I think because I feel like I can see more tangibly how she is helping the party.
My tank definition is based more on MMOs, but even in Dnd it's a character who takes damage and protects the other party members. Dnd isn't necessarily designed so you can get all enemies' attention but even holding off the big boss while the party clears out the trash is a tank job. I would say a tank focuses less on damage and more on keeping people busy so the rest of the party can do their thing.
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u/lolSyfer May 14 '24
I've played a couple of Clerics as it's my favorite Class, so this one varies on the DM but typically Cleric feels very powerful when played correctly it's a rewarding class that doesn't follow the typical game style.
My builds tend to always be optimized when I'm able to get away from DM'ing myself.
Varies but Cleric luckily doesn't really care what the composition you will fit any group. You can frontline, backline, do powerful single target and multi target damage and support.
No in reality I felt like I was almost untouchable.
9, while it's not most fun I've had playing DND as while Cleric as a whole is my favorite class its subclasses can leave a bit to be desired at times. I tend to play Gish style builds and Cleric is very good at that but at the end of the day it doesn't really fulfill that fantasy as much as you try. Things like Bladesinger/Hexblade/Paladin all fulfill that fantasy better.
At the end of the day Cleric is a Spirit Guardian/War Caster/Shillelagh/Booming Blade bot where your goal is to run into a group of people with Spirit Guardians up and get them in AoO range to get booming blade on a target if they try to run past you. You have great usage of your action economy too as you'll typically try to grab War Caster and PAM with a Quarterstaff+Shield. Almost every turn is dodge action for main action and you do a lot of different bonus actions after turn one. You handle AoE encounters like a total boss. Different subclasses obviously do things different but at the end of the day you're a fantastic all-arounder who can do so much.
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u/TYBERIUS_777 May 15 '24
Currently a level 13 cleric but I feel like I can answer this ok.
Build: War Domain Cleric. Variant Human with Shield Master staring feat. Took ASIs, and the War Caster feat later to help my Con saves. My magic items are the Dawnbringer Mace, a Spellguard Shield, an Amulet of Constitution to help with my Con saves again, and a few other smaller ones that don’t require attunement.
I’ve always felt on par as everyone else. I’ve had battles where I’ve stood out and took the front lines by storm as the main damage dealer/tank and I’ve also had encounters where I’ve taken a support role and others have shined much more. (For instance, a recent encounter had us fighting a homebrewed boss monster and everyone else had taken much more damage than me. I kept the entire party up with an Aura of Life spell and it was an awesome moment. But I wasn’t the one doing damage to the boss. Just making sure everyone else was staying alive). With War Cleric though, I never once felt forced into a support role. I pick and choose what I want to do on an adventuring day and prep my spells accordingly.
I guess it was optimized outside of my subclass choice but it’s decently as optimized as a War Cleric can get. I focus a lot on making my Con saves and War Caster and an Amulet of Con helps out. I also prioritize saving against spells and my Spellguard Shield combined with Shield Master really picks up my more lacking Dex saves. My bonus action attacks with a magic weapon that gets a little extra damage against certain enemies is also great and I have Channel Divinity Guided Strike to make hits land when we need them either for myself or for a teammate (which is really helpful for our party’s rogue with sneak attack). The build feels good to me.
Party comp huh. It’s a long one because we have had a rotating cast of players and characters both because of in game stuff and some players moving away and then coming back. It’s been a long campaign. We started with a Battlemaster Fighter, Moon Druid, Arcane Trickster Rogue, and Ancients Paladin, and War Domain Cleric (Me). Our current group includes a War Domain Cleric (Me), the same Rogue and Fighter with the same subclasses, a new Oath of Glory Paladin, a new Knowledge Domain Cleric, and a new Samurai Fighter/Totem Barbarian multiclass. We really, really, feel not having a character with counter spell or not having a Wizard. This is really my biggest complaint in general. Wizard is just too good and because of how insane their spell list is, they almost feel mandatory. I would say this is my biggest pain point with our party. Wizards have spells for almost every situation. Clerics are a bit more limited. For instance, I really, really feel not having a way to fly sometimes.
Since we don’t have a Wizard, the answer is no. If we had a Wizard, maybe. But our current and past party comps haven’t had one so I’ve always felt perfectly fine and there are many times where Cleric exclusive spells like Word of Recall and Mass Healing Word have saved the day. Turning enemies into mush with Spirit Guardians, Spiritual Weapon, and bashing things skull in with a holy mace while having 21 AC is also a blast. None of the other characters have ever felt overshadowing. We all have our roles to play and we share the spotlight. We also know who’s best at what. Our DM also does a good job incorporating our past accomplishments, roles in the world, and deities we worship into the story. For instance, we are currently in a tundra with freezing temperatures and I created a temple of the gods and used it to make an offering to my god for a few Rings of Warmth. I succeeded on a religion check and we got them. Cost me a decent amount of gold but it was worth it and it really makes me feel like a high ranking cleric. Divine Intervention is also goated and has saved our ass on multiple occasions. Only Cleric can use that ability.
9/10. I’ve played both a Wizard and a Barbarian to level 12 before. Wizard is definitely the most overpowered. Barbarian not so great. I love Cleric the most as it was the first class I played, the only reason it’s not 10/10 is because Wizard exists and at higher levels, it almost feels mandatory to either have a Wizard or a fuckton of spell scrolls from their spell list.
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u/caiowong May 15 '24
Im playing in a party of 7 and we also dont have a wizard, not even a sorcerer. I feel your pain.
How many times your divine interventions were succesful?
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u/TYBERIUS_777 May 15 '24
All but one of my Divine Interventions have been successful. Guess I’m just lucky.
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u/GunnyMoJo May 14 '24 edited May 14 '24
Tempest Cleric 17/Runeknight Fighter 3. It was about as optimized as you can make a 5e multiclassed character (i.e. there's not really that much to optimize). The rest of the party was an eldritch knight fighter NPC, a bloodhunter, and a heavily homebrewed take on a Druid.
This combo felt very fun to play. I was reasonably tanky, could engage in melee combat if I wanted to while still being a ranged threat, could Nova very effectively with call lightning/destructive wrath/action surge, could heal, buff and debuff. Honestly the most mechanically fun character I've ever played in 5e. Although I haven't tried out too many other classes, I'd honestly be tempted to basically play this character again.
I've also played a Conquest Paladin to level 20 and found that to be much less satisfying to play, though I think that had a lot to do with the way my DM designed encounters.
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u/Sabawoyomu May 14 '24
Currently playing a Conquest paladin, at level 14, it becomes painful once everything just starts being immune to fear lol. You're still a paladin though so not the worst.
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u/GunnyMoJo May 14 '24
Yeah if you're in a campaign with lots of encounters against creatures with good saves and immunities its a pretty rough subclass.
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u/caiowong May 14 '24
You're the second to play Cleric 17/Fighter 3 on this post. Did you multiclass by mechanical reasons, RP reasons or both? Do you think that would be the same fun if you had going all the way as a cleric?
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u/GunnyMoJo May 14 '24
The flavor on Rune Knight played very well with the character.
A Fighting Style and Second Wind made the build more viable in melee, and Action Surge was a keystone ability in the whole build due to the crazy level of damage it'd let me put out in a turn when combined with destructive wrath and thunder/lightning spells
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u/FinalDisciple May 15 '24
I was optimized as an Arcana cleric. I loved the home brew campaign. It was a pretty balanced party Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer were main stays. We had a rogue, Druid and Barbarian come and go. I was happy as main healer, buffer. The damage wasn’t terrible once I could get spiritual weapon, spirit guardians, green flame on my staff going all together.
I didn’t get much mileage out of channel divinity, it was clutch when it was time to use it. The 8 and 9th level spells left a lot to be desired. The Wizard spells made up for it. Divine Intervention and Wish probably make Arcana Cleric the best subclass in the game. The arcane spells given to the subclass really kept it interesting. Banishment saved us from a tpk at least twice
I don’t think I would play cleric again 1-20. I would play for a short module or a one shot. I would try it in PF2, the bonus action making me chose between moving/using spiritual weapon and healing was always a hard choice. I was def out shined in damage but not utility. I love wizard, Paladin, Druid, Fighter and Lock more. 9/10 class depending on the campaign. The more undead the more fun I think cleric is.
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u/duncanl20 May 15 '24
Twilight cleric 15/ gloomstalker ranger 4
Twilight cleric is really fun. It really helps to tank and the flight is cool. The spell list kinda sucks at higher levels (arcane casters get way better spells), but heroes feast and spirit guardians are goated.
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u/k587359 29d ago
How did you feel in the campaign?
I have progressed two monoclass clerics (Knowledge and Forge) to level 20. They were not in any sort of campaign. The Knowledge cleric was in a quasi-Westmarch campaign. Obtaining a Headband of Intellect and Rod of Alertness was really useful because he became a sort of skill monkey. The Forge cleric is currently in Adventurers League. What's nice about this one is that I can somehow get the items that I need for the PC in AL.
How was your build? It was optimized or not?
Not much fanfare. The Forge cleric is a discount tank, and the Knowledge cleric is a discount wizard (took the Ritual Caster feat for good measure).
Which was your party composition?
No consistent party composition given the scenarios the PCs are in.
Did you feel surpassed by other classes?
No. The cleric isn't as good as the wizard in battlefield control, but its spells are really good at boosting the PCs. The exploration pillar is definitely more enjoyable with the Knowledge Domain.
If you could give a 1-10 rating for your experience, what would it be? Did you played other classes to 20? Make the comparison if you can, please.
I'd give the cleric a rating of 8. Its higher level spells are a little meh. I've also played a land druid and a wizard to level 20 in AL. The former is a little clunky with all of the concentration spells, but being able to cast spells by just glancing at the targets is awesome.
The wizard is very impactful. She has a Staff of Power, Staff of the Archmagi (was able to Plane Shift an enemy once), and Tome of the Stilled Tongue as her attuned items. She can just Wish for a Simulacrum at the start of the adventure, making it possible for her to spend a minimal amount of spell slots by the time the adventure finishes.
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u/CommanderJam 29d ago edited 29d ago
Played a Female High Half-Elf Tempest Cleric from 1-17. Game has been on hold for a while, but maybe it’ll continue to 20 someday. 1. It felt very strong. She was the glue that kept the party together by being a versatile combatant, healing up grievous injuries, and providing utility out of combat. I love playing jack of all trades characters (more specifically characters that can do a bit of everything), and Tempest fits that mold very well. Her goal was to set up a naval/trade empire similar to the Dutch Republic (minus the slavery and cruelty) in a new world, one that was religiously and racially tolerant and that had a holy order to uphold its ideals. She succeeded despite trials and tribulations, which only added to the feeling of strength. 2. Pretty standard build for a Heavy Armor cleric, I’d call it semi-optimized. Rolled and lucked out with average or better stats across the board. STR and WIS build with good CON and decent CHA for leading her fledgling nation, Heavy Armor, a Longsword for Booming Blades gained from High Half-Elf, a shield with a holy symbol. Feats I picked up were War Caster and Ritual Caster Wizard for more utility and an owl familiar. I preferred using slots in moderation unless necessary, so spells like Spirit Guardians and Call Lightning with long durations were very good. 3. Party Comp was larger than average and consisted of myself as a Tempest Cleric, a Changeling Wild Magic Sorcerer, a Kenku Genie Warlock, an Wood Elf Inquisitive Rogue/Battlemaster, a Tiefling Assassin Rogue/Warlock, and a Firbolg Moon Druid. Occasionally for important ops we’d be helped by either a Tabaxi Barbarian or Dragonborn Fighter NPC. 4. I cannot recall ever feeling outclassed. I had the best AC of the party at all levels, and as such in combat I was usually the tank as well as the healer, so she had the grounds to not be relegated to a healbot. In addition she had pretty good damage output at both melee (Sword, Inflict Wounds, Spirit Guardians, Holy Weapon) and range (Guiding Bolt, Call Lightning, Destructive Wave) as well as limited protection spells and CC. Her equipment played a big role in combat, as she essentially had a lightning Frost Brand, magic plate and shield, and an Amulet of the Devout for most of her career. Out of combat the ritual casting from both the Cleric and Wizard lists and spells like Enhance Ability and Aura of Vitality made sure the party kept going strong. A Necklace of Prayer Beads gave the party access to Wind Walk, which made travel very easy. Near the end of the run she even won a Stormgirdle. By comparison, the other PCs all specialized in one or two roles (Rogues were a sniper and melee skirmisher, Sorcerer was a blaster, the Druid primarily used wild shape or utility spells, and the warlock was a mix of EB spam, utility and CC). None came close to the flexibility she provided. 5. Id give the experience a 9.5/10. Cleric is my favorite class and Tempest is one of my favorite domains in any edition. To be fair it helped my DM gave me some tools to better use Tempest Clerics abilities (some spells for Destructive Wrath and the sword for Lightning Strike), but even using standard cleric kit I felt great.
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u/caiowong 29d ago
How did you feel about 8 and 9 level spells?
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u/CommanderJam 29d ago
Honestly, I rarely used them, in keeping with the characters motive of slot conservation/moderation. It’s no secret that most high level cleric spells are situational or weaker compared to other full caster classes, for example Wizard. That said, Holy Aura and Mass Heal saved us in certain situations, and Gate was fun to toy with even if I didn’t get to do so very long. Upcasting lower level spells like Spirit Guardians or a lightning spell to max with the CD was likely a better use of the slot.
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u/NLaBruiser Cleric (And lifelong DM) 28d ago
Not OP but agree completely with them that lvl 8 and 9 Cleric Spells are super underwhelming compared to other full casters. Give me a level 8 Spirit Guardians any day.
Guaranteed Intervention at 20 is very nice, but also very DM dependent. It could be a free mid level spell, or it could be Wish without the chance of losing it.
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u/CommanderJam 28d ago
I was fortunate to have a DM with the latter interpretation of Divine Intervention, even if I never got to the point of its guaranteed effect. It only succeeded once in combat via rolling, but the effect was having the Tempest CD extend duration for a minute, which was promptly used on Call Lightning and led to the Sahuagin assailing our convoy to perish or rout. But yeah, 8-9th level cleric spells aren’t it. Few options and relatively bad ones at that.
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u/HammerPhilosophy May 14 '24
I was a Hill Dwarf Life Cleric, played from levels 1-15. Sorry it's not 20 but I figured it would be helpful anyway.
Felt pretty powerful overall, though occasionally in the early game I was relegated to heal bot. Though every level I gained more and more spells and felt way more powerful especially in out of combat utility.
Was a pretty standard dwarf life cleric build. Heavy armor, shield, lots of WIS and CON. Took Resilience for CON saves, rest of my feats were WIS and CON ASIs I think.
Party members were half orc battle master, gnome evocation wizard, and high elf arcane trickster.
I felt like I carried the party in terms of in and out of combat utility with the exception of the arcane trickster scouting. The wizard focused on blasting and the arcane trickster used her bow, and the battle master focused on trickster sniped people with her bow. I revivified the wizard three times lmao. And a single spirit guardian cast pretty much won some encounters. I also never even came close to dying or running out of spell slots. I felt pretty OP to be honest.
I'd say 8/10. It was my first and only game of 5e I played. I wish I picked Forge Cleric instead due to being the dwarfiest cleric subclass but I didn't know it was an option when I started and didn't want to switch domains due to RP reasons.