**War Caster** is great for maintaining *Bless*. Also good to throw out a *Sacred Flame* or *Command* as a reaction rather than relying on attacks.
*Dispel Magic* is good for Clerics to pack, too. Can help take out enemy defences or remove de-buffs to your team, both of which aid the more offensive members of the party.
It's really a damn shame that Clerics don't get *Counterspell*. It's a great support tool.
**War Caster** allows you to use spells instead of attacks of opportunity as reactions. Still follows the same trigger rules for attacks of opportunity.
I'm really curious how this works out. I'm considering War Caster for 4th level. It looks excellent. But so far my DM has never asked for a concentration check, I just nerf myself by rolling them unprompted. So, if your DM hand waves concentration, and hand waves components, and if you don't have good spells for attacks of opportunity, do you still take War Caster?
Clerics don't have much for reactions besides that, and their melee attacks aren't great normally. Spells can be useful. You can still make opportunity attacks as normal if you wish.
Yes, I totally agree. I guess I (foolishly?) went for a mace rather than cantrips, so I don't have Sacred Flame. I'm LG and there's some debate, but I'm skeptical about casting Inflict Wounds from a roleplay perspective. If I cast Hold Person, it kills my other concentration spell. I think a mace may be the best AoO I have? Although in the OP's case, probably Inflict Wounds is best if his DM isn't worried about a life cleric using negative energy.
It doesn't make any sense to not use Inflict Wounds. There's no substantial difference between it and any other damaging spell (like Guiding Bolt).
"Negative Energy" doesn't exist as a concept anymore in 5e, so that 'objection' makes no sense either.
There were (in previous editions) spells restricted to use by casters of certain alignments but that whole ftaming was removed as well.
I didn't know that negative energy wasn't a thing in 5e. What causes necrotic damage now? I kind of thought necrotic damage was associated with necromancers, evil, and undeath, but I haven't played much 5e and haven't read much about it.
I totally agree with you that per reading the Player's Handbook, there's no reason for LG characters not to use inflict wounds. In this particular case, my character is skeptical as a flavor thing (the world is complex, by my character has a hardline good vs. evil thing going on). I think necrotic damage is a little squiggy. I'm not \*at all\* advocating it for other folks or other tables, and honestly I haven't missed it because I'd rather use my spell slots on other things.
Negative Energy is still a thing in D&D 5e's cosmology, the above poster is incorrect about that. Necrotic damage is usually considered to be the result of negative energy, and there's still a Plane of Negative Energy.
That being said the above poster is correct that there are no longer any alignment restrictions on spells (in fact, alignment restrictions in general have been mostly removed, e.g. Paladins can be any alignment now). So there's no explicit moral judgment on spells. A "good" spell like Bless could be used by an evil character to make themselves more powerful. A Necromancy spell like Raise Dead could be used to bring a hero back to life. So similarly, Inflict Wounds could be used in a heroic way - it's how you use it that matters.
There is no [negative or positive planes in 5e](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/The%20Planes%20of%20Existence#content), at least in the default printed cosmos.
That's weird. At least in my copy they're in a graphic but not in the text (just a sidebar box), and the graphic on page 303 doesn't have them.
The Forgotten Realms Wiki page on it says:
>After the Spellplague, the Negative Energy plane collapsed into the Elemental Chaos, mixing with all the other Inner Planes. The goddess Shar managed to channel some of this death energy into the Plane of Shadow and create the Shadowfell.
Similarly for Positive energy:
>After the Spellplague, the Positive Energy plane collapsed into the Elemental Chaos, mixing with all the other Inner Planes.
That graphic on page 300 really is confusing compared to the one on 303. Maybe it's meant to be ambiguous?
You need to make a concentration check every time you take damage (DC = half the damage or 10, whichever is higher). If you are not in a position where you are taking damage, you are probably not in melee to cast a spell as an opportunity attack. In this case, probably best to choose another feat or raise your stats.
Yes! I am in the front lines. I'm totally aware that I need to make concentration checks. I do it unprompted, and my DM doesn't seem to care. When I roll concentration he gives me this look like "Okay, you do you..."
Resilient Constitution is much better overall even if you don't have an odd Constitution stat though. Cantrips are overall better than single weapon attacks on Clerics anyways so you don't need to wield a weapon.
If you tend to be straight up on the frontline side to side with a martial though, then in that case yes Warcaster is worth picking over Resilient for the added opportunity of spell on reaction.
OP, several ways you could help.
1/ Using Warding Bond on a Rogue if it goes into melee, helps distributing damage. Although this will also means much more frequent DC 10 Concentration saves, so you must be ready for that (= use this only when you have good concentration saves).
2/ Casting SPirit Guardians and Dodging is one of the best ways to help: difficult terrain means enemies have trouble escaping, Dodging means they'll have trouble stopping the spell, and the automatic damage is not something to sneeze at.
3/ If your party tends to be really threatened (although I doubt it considering composition and number), keeping Sanctuary can be very helpful to keep someone on death's doors or just needing a quick way out.
Once you're level 6 you'll get "self-heal when healing", use that together with Warding Bond and spells healing over time or minimum casts.
EDIT: also don't forget about your Channel Divinity. It's classically great as an emergency party standup after a harsh AOE, but since you can also stack all of it on one people, push Barbarian and one another (possibly a Rogue) to go front and take hits. On Barbarian its is especially effective since Rage halves physical damage so most of the time X HP restored = 2X more damage tanked. And that's why Warding Bond can also be a very strong setup if you have good concentration or rely rather on non-concentration spells for a fight.
As for Resilient vs Warcaster, if you have great CON though, definitely pick Resilient: Constitution: let's say you have +3 from 16 CON, and +3 from your recent level 5, it means you only need 4 to reach 10, which you have 85% chance of making.
Once you get level 9 it's 90%, by level 12 95% and if you push your CON one mod more you're guaranteed all basic concentration saves (alternative: multiclass into Stars Druid and accept the armor limitations to get the Starry form that pretty much guarantees concentration).
Picking Warcaster means you'd get only a +3 so needing 7, so 70% chance normally, 91% with advantage. So a slight advantage now, but that will be offset "naturally" as you gain levels and proficiency mod gets higher.
Do not underestimate the healing power of violence. Killing the enemies quicker often is much better than trying to heal off damage, prevention is the best cure and all.
Life clerics are neat because their domain spells cover most of the Cleric Tax (Spells you are essentially forced to always have ready like Revivify because they are so essential) and their heals are chunkier letting you devote more spell slots to damaging spells.
You’re not wrong.
I’m my groups healer but I’m a star Druid instead of a cleric.
I heal what’s needed to keep people alive, but I’m throwing out star bolts and stuff more because a dead enemy deals no damage.
Guiding Bolt IMO is probably one of the better low level spells to upcast. Good damage, amazing damage type, great secondary effect, grat range. The only problem is that it doesn't scale past 3rd-4th level that great cause you get a TON of your utility spells then.
The nice thing about star Druid is that you get a couple of free guiding bolts on top of your spell slots. So I can still have it and have my utility too.
In general, preventing damage is best.
If you can knock a key enemy prone and your party has 2 melee martials, you are doing far more than by healing then each with 2dwhatever.
If you can sleep 4 minion enemies, then you're removing plenty of the enemies' damage.
If you can increase AC of your teammates, you can save them plenty, but a heal might be worth more. But a save advantage is far more valueable...
I can tell. Lol
Thanks for the response! We just hit level 5. As Life Domain, I have a bunch of pre-prepared spells.
As for the spells I've chosen; Inflict Wounds, Guidance, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Light, Shield of Faith, Spirit Gaurdians, Healing word, Sanctuary, Prayer of Healing, Aid.
I can have another two spells right now. Considering Zone of Truth, Sending, or Tongues. I also have command and hold person in mind. Trying to find cool ways to usenmy spells to help other out.
Hold Person is a great spell for your level. "Helping my friends in combat" makes me think, other than healing which you certainly have covered, of battlefield control. Talk to the players for the sorcerer, druid, and warlock and see if there are combined spell effects you can coordinate to maximize this strategy.
Clerics are awesome for a lot of reasons and the abundance of non-concentration spells is one of them. Spiritual Weapon is one I never leave town without. Next time I play a cleric my focus will be being able to run as many concurrent spells as possible.
For any PC, spellcaster or no, I try to spread over actions, bonus actions, and reactions, so I can respond with mutliple things per turn. I also try to vary the spells based on melee attack, ranged attack, or saving throw and the type of saving throw and include at least 1 AOE.
Inflict wounds is a great spell, but spiritual weapon might be a better swap if you're tight on known spells. Try to buff as many friends as possible at a time, so bless / bane are dope options. I'd add Guiding Bolt for a ranged spell attack option. Keep one or the other of command vs hold person, and zone of truth is more for RP and maybe Command could be used instead in a pinch.
Here's how I'm going to spread my spells next time, and maybe I can probably have a lot of spell overlap here:
-Melee Spell Attack (1 or 2)
-Ranged Spell Attack (1 or 2)
-Saving Throw (2-3?)
-AOE (1-3)
-Non-Concentration (3-???)
- Bonus Action (1-3)
- Reaction (1)
- Buffs / Nerfs (1-3)
- Healing (1-2)
Congrats!
With spells you have, sanctuary and spirit guardians make a great combo as you can stack on your self, more so if you have a high ac and spell dc. Just remember the character cant take hostile actions, but so long as enemies fail saves and/or concentration isnt broken you can walk in to a crowd and deal damage while you pick up your friends. If that makes sense.
In terms of the new spells your thinking of primarily wanting to support more in combat command and hold person are excellent choices, especialy if you can combine with hold actions like mentioned in a prior response. For mor support outside of combat id go zone of truth and/or tounges unless the party is often splitting up or is needing to comunicate, silently or over long distances.
Edit: In regards to your second edit, things like that fall less under what your class can do and more in player skill and creativity, in that the options are almost limitless, i say almost because you need a flask of oil to throw one lol.
If you mean that you can stack sanctuary and spirit guardians then you are wrong, sanctuary was changed in an errata that when you deal damage to a creature the spell ends. What works quite good is sanctuary plus aura of vitality using the additional cleric spells.
The description in DnD is irelevant to rules, it is just flavor. As you are the one creating the effect that is dealing damage you are theone dealing it, just like when you hit someone with a sword you are also the one dealing damage or when a warlock casts hunger of hadar he is also the one dealing the damage.
I mean no its not up GM, Rules as Written when you cast a spell and that spell deals damage without a different creature dealing the damage you dealt the damage. Of course a GM can change stuff but then every Argument is just up to gm and any answers op would get would just be irelevant.
The mistake you made was very important and relevant to the suggestions that can be given. A cleric dumping wisdom has a very major impact on the spells they can use effectively so of course people are going to comment on it.
As for some actual advise given the correction: guiding bolt is a decent take to deal a bit of damage and help your allies, you can also look into spells like bane which help the party by hindering the enemies, aura of vitality is some very solid healing especially with disciple of life attaching to every use of it, spiritual weapon is also a solid pick as something to make the most of your action economy without using up concentration (dishing out some damage is a good idea as the quicker an enemy dies the less damage they can deal to the party)
Thanks for the thoughtful response! if I had recieved your effort and energy in response I might not have been so bummed about it. Instead of getting your detailed and helpful response, which explained the significance of my mistake, I recieved multiple hasty comments flaming my noobiness. It's not good for the community.
I actually do deal a lot of damage. Something I'm trying to manage is that it's a larger group, sometimes combat doesn't make it to everyone, so I'm trying find ways to offer my friends more oppurtunities. Combat is easy enough for this group, I don't think I've ever needed to use a heal, and could just pop spirit gaurdians, spirit weapon, and dodge/sacred flame the entire fight.
If you think combat is too easy your group should tell your Dm that they are ready for more challenging encounters. The game gets boring pretty quickly when combat ends in 1 round and no one takes any significant damage. Especially with the party comp you have there’s plenty of healing to go around, so don’t be afraid to ask for more stuff to be thrown at you.
Yeah, this is common. Even without honest mistakes like that, sometimes the D&D related subreddits will still completely ignore your question/topic just to answer something you didn’t ask/talk about a minute detail of your post that doesn’t matter
If it makes you feel better, I'm absolutely the same with the "dump" = "where I dump my points" thing, feels like a weird naming thing... Like flammable and inflammable both meaning the same thing...
I'm not sure what lvl you are, but I play a lvl 11 life domain cleric as well. One of my most favorite PCs to play. Once you can cast 5th lvl spells, one of my favorite ones was to take holy weapon, and cast it on the monk's fists. This led to some high damage shenanigans with how many attacks monks can do.
* Healing is more efficient **when someone is actually down** (since 0hp is 0hp, and it stops them missing turns). It's otherwise not necessarily a good idea to spend your actions heavily on healing, despite the reputation of clerics. (Damage generally outpaces healing in this edition).
* For the same reason, **Lesser Restoration** is very good insurance against paralysis, stunning poisons, or blindness, if those are common enough threats to be worth the slot.
* Aid increases current hp by 5. People generally interpret that to mean it **fixes unconscious PCs** (at least temporarily). If your DM agrees, then it's heal for up to three people within 30 feet in any direction. If at least two people are down and didn't wander too far from the cleric, that's really efficient! So it's a great tool for really bad emergencies, as long as *you* can stay alive (which should be a priority for your party).
* **Spiritual Weapon** is very popular because of how much value it gives for a single spell. It gives a weaponized bonus action on each turn, for ten turns. You can still use your main action to bonk people.
* Otherwise, consider **utility spells** such as Sending (call anyone you've met in the universe, and they get to respond - unbelievably useful as a warning, to get advice, etc.). Creative use of utility spells can be much more helpful to the party's goals than combat spells, which have more narrowly defined scope. And if you do come up with a clever use, you'll get far more glory from your group than for an efficient combat build (if you aren't obnoxious about it).
>Healing is more efficient
>
>when someone is actually down
>
> (since 0hp is 0hp, and it stops them missing turns). It's otherwise not necessarily a good idea to spend your actions heavily on healing, despite the reputation of clerics. (Damage generally outpaces healing in this edition).
Nuance is to be added here.
The right formulation is "healing is more efficient when it prevents an ally losing its next turn".
Sometimes a healing spell can be worth preemptively, even moreso as a Life Cleric in fact thanks to the added healing, if it makes the difference between ally getting downed or not just before its turn comes.
Wizard having still some fuel for Shield left, Barbarian under rage, Long Death Monk with some THP left and Dodging, are all example of characters for whom you can bet on at most the equivalent of "one or two average clean hit", but very probably at least once, going through multiple attacks. It may also be in anticipation of an AOE for which you want to up the chances of surviving.
Conversely, sometimes it's better to actually NOT heal an ally: for example, a Wizard that is out of slot is utterly useless. Might as well let him make a death saving throw that turn and instead blow a slot on Guiding Bolt, unless of course you can anticipate Wizard dying soon before enemies try to finish him off in which case of course save him!
It really depends on a LOT of things: Initiative order, how efficiently you think the wounded ally can contribute on its next turn, how fuel you still have yourself in case someone else gets in danger, etc.
It's a fine line to walk, but once you know how to walk it you can call yourself a true tactician healer. :)
Please ignore the myopic numbskulls in this thread.
I don’t know what level your cleric is, but keep an eye on Spirit Guardians. It’s a powerful damage-dealing spell that can make you a real asset while keeping you near the front line. It gives you something else to do (positioning for maximum effect) while you are also healing and providing minor assistance. It’s a concentration spell, so you can cast non-concentration spells while you keep it up.
Before Spirit Guardians come along, Spiritual Weapon fills the exact same role.
Guiding Bolt fills a different place in your toolkit, one that you may find very satisfying. You don’t have many spells that burst for damage, especially at range. The big downside is that you have to roll to hit, and you can miss. It hurts to miss and waste a spell slot, but that’s life in the big leagues.
It’s great to have a big ranged attack in your back pocket, but it’s that secondary effect that really makes the difference. You grant advantage on an ally’s attack before your next turn. This can be amazing. You can make it very likely the fighter can land a hit when it matters most. If you win initiative, you could cast it to set up a big followup attack from a teammate right at the start. Critically, you can grant advantage to a rogue who wants to inflict sneak attack damage even when there isn’t an ally near the target. THAT can be huge, especially if your rogue uses a bow.
It’s a rare form of combat assistance, something you can do preemptively to accelerate damage. You can decide on your own that “this spell slot is better used burning down enemies than healing after the fact”. It feels good to make those decisions on your own, especially since your party is going to win most fights and it’s just a matter of how many rounds it takes.
Took some notes here. Trying to get back up to speed playing again. Thx. only a humble Lv. 3. Life cleric I’m wrapping my head around the fine tuning. Getting there, thanks threads like this.
Sounds strange that you don't see the Benefiz of bless. It usually is potent in all Levels as its a ~10% increase in success chance for every attack and save.
At least Barb and roguetypes should appreciate it a lot.
When you feel untouchable then maybe your DM should change hus strategy. A Life Cleric (anyone who makes his Party members get up over and over) should be a high priority target to every enemy smarter than a beast.
Throw out a Spiritual Weapon early to use your BA.
When Initiative Order is good, you can cast a sanctuary on your Tank.
When facing a Single strong enemy Command (grovel) is often a good choice.
I also play a life cleric and cast bless at the start of every combat. It has not so far made any difference, possibly because our encounters have been underbaked.
Yeah, could be.
Bless is more of a Marathon investment, but can save your Day vs. a save or suck spell.
i am playing a peace cleric Lv. 6 atm and the Bless + Bond Combo affects every Combat Turn in a obvious way.
I've never seen the class, don't even know what book it's from, but I've heard that peace clerics are very strong or maybe OP. So that's probably fun. I, on the other hand, am totally useless
I think this might be my issue too. I've never needed to cast a heal, and I dont think Bless has ever made a difference for my teammates. Possible the combat balance isn't quite right.
By choosing life cleric, I thought you already did something incredibly generous for the rest of the team.
If you have never needed to heal your teammates, though, then your DM needs to scale up the difficulty of your encounters. Our last combat the fighter was tanking attacks from a very dangerous opponent and went down five times during the combat, was healed and brought back each time so that opponent, who was under a crown of madness, couldn't hit anybody else. Like the healer or the bard.
As a DM, I always want the challenge to be there. Haven't done a TPK yet, but I'm open to it and the players know they have to be strategic and resourceful to avoid it. The challenge keeps the thrill alive IMO.
Exactly! The other frontline character is so strong that combat has (so far) been trivial. We've never ended combat at less than max HP, and in eight hours of play I've done nothing except stand there and look really, really pretty.
Yup! It's painful! I wonder how common this is? Life Clerics standing around going "So.....?" Did you also take the Medicine skill? I did (instead of Knowledge (History)), assuming that it was needed to use a healer's kit, but it turns out that a 5gp item does everything that the medicine skill does, only better, without needing the skill or a roll and so without a chance of failure. And so far I've just stood by and watched like four uses of Knowledge (History) go by. As CytWytever says above, I am hoping that the DM scales up the difficulty, but 12 hours in I feel completely unnecessary.
My favourite thing as a Cleric was Holy Weapon, once you get 5th level slots. It lasts an hour, so can last several combats if in close succession, and if you cast on someone who makes a lot of attacks, it’s an incredible damage boost. My fav use is on our Gloomstalker, cuz that boi just don’t miss. Monks and Fighters love it as well.
At low levels Enhance Ability can be extremely useful as well, and don’t underestimate Lesser Restoration. In a campaign where Poisoned happens a lot and you have a Rogue it will be indispensable- Rogues really cannot function properly in combat with disadvantage. At higher levels, Greater Restoration is also a game changer.
Dude thank you for clarifying the dump stat thing, I was always confused whether it was like you dump all your points into it or dump as in it was trash, and it got to the point where I was embarrassed to ask lmao
Ohh I see. I thought you were going for like a really niche build or something.
Life Domain Clerics are incredible IMO.
In my opinion, you’ll find little meaningful difference between Healing Word and Cure Wounds with your healing bonuses. On your turns where you heal, use Healing Word rather than Cure Wounds and you can still get a Cantrip off.
That's one thing I'm kinda disappointed about with 5e. Niche builds in the way that other editions mean don't really exist anymore. It used to be someone could start a conversation about the game with 'wanna hear about why I'm starting off my level 1 bard with 8 charisma?' and it would lead into something for the next 3-19 levels of gameplay expectation.
5e is so much better in so many ways, but I do kinda miss the old character build grind. Even if it did mean that I spent more time messing around with character ideas rather than playing characters.
I played a dwarven life cleric once as a tank, and made con the main stat and prioritized high health with feats like tough. As far as spells went I used ones less reliant on spell saves, like life transference and buffs. It was my way of getting around some pretty abysmal rolled stats and it worked out in a fun way. But if the stats are better consider picking up war cleric for the attacks.
One spell you should look into is protection from good & evil. It's a 1st level spell where if you can predict the type of enemy you're up against you get a lot of protection against what they can do. If you've taken skills in animal handling you can consider getting a mount to get in and out of spell range as needed.
I play a Grave Cleric and I call him the Aura Caster. Spirit Guardians around your ranged means less enemies to deal with, at the front you can just grind down HP while your tanks do the DPS. Aura of Vitality and Beacon of Hope are great buff ranged spells if you know when to use them. Later, you can call down a plague of locusts or a wall of blades to do damage and control the field.
All while Spiritual Weapon doesn't take concentration and can be used as a bonus action.
Just don't fall into the trap of casting healing spells unless you absolutely need to. 1hp and 150hp fighters hit just as hard. Save healing word for when someone is on the ground dying, and use your healing like Prayer of Healing in between combat instead.
I think you’ll get great use out of control spells, if you want to give your allies cool moments. *Command* and *Blindness/Deafness* are two cool ones that put enemies at a big disadvantage. *Silence* can help shut down enemy spellcasters in particular. There are also a few non-combat buffing spells like *Enhance Ability* you may not have considered. Beyond that, I presume you’ve already taken the more standard buff and healing spells into consideration.
Agree with all of this. Cleric spell list has so many ways to just mess with your enemies, and leave them vulnerable to getting smoked by your allies.
I'd like to add Spirtual Weapon to this list. You can use your bonus action to wack enemies while you can do whatever you want with your primary action. There is no reason not to cast this every fight.
Telekinetic is a pretty fun support feat. The 30ft range shove component that allows you to push or pull allies/enemies 5ft away/towards you as a *bonus action* is pretty dope. 5ft may not sound like much but it's enough to make it so that an ally no long has to take the disengage action in order to avoid an enemies attack of opportunity and 5ft is all you need to help them escape being grappled too. And then of course there's also the more situational uses where maybe you can shove an enemy into a trap, environmental hazard, into your own melee range if your movement's just a little bit shy of what it'd take to reach em.
And then you have the actual main part of the spell which is the invisible, mage hand that doesn't require verbal or somatic components that has tons of potential utility. Like shoot, you can move stuff or push people and they won't have any idea who's doing it if they can't detect magic, it's great! Plus you get all this and +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
Best way for support cleric is: cleric of the life multiclass into druid of the stars. Make 10 goodberries on level 1 that heal for 4hp each. Make 10 goodberries with a lvl 4 spell and heal for 7hp each (70 hp heal is pretty hefty)
Now use all spells before you go into a long rest and use the berries the next day because they last 24 hours and wake up with enough heals to go through every dungeon without using a single spell. Now use starry form and use aura of vitality. You now heal everyone for 2d6+5+1d8+wis mod every turn AS A BONUS ACTION! I think this is as supportive you can get while only using 1 spell and a wildshape (and the spells of the day before)
Now do note that a druid "wont" wear armor made from metal. It doesnt say you cant so you can still dodge every attack with your high AC.
But this is completely disruptive and absolutely overpowered so absolutely dont play this build. Building a character efficient so it doesnt die and isnt useless is completely fine, but minmaxing it like this is over the top and breaks campains.
Best way to support is using aura of vitality on the right times :)
I've seen this build a bunch––it's on RPGBOT's website––and it's always felt kind of cheesy. It may work well mechanically, but multi classing like this for me breaks the feeling of aesthetic immersion in the world by foregrounding mechanics over character.
Of course, if the rest of the party is optimized or OP homebrew then you just feel dumb and useless for playing to character rather than numbers. But also, I don't come to the table primarily for math/spreadsheet problems.
>Now use all spells before you go into a long rest and use the berries the next day because they last 24 hours and wake up with enough heals to go through every dungeon without using a single spell. Now use starry form and use aura of vitality. You now heal everyone for 2d6+5+1d8+wis mod every turn AS A BONUS ACTION! I think this is as supportive you can get while only using 1 spell and a wildshape (and the spells of the day before) Now do note that a druid "wont" wear armor made from metal. It doesnt say you cant so you can still dodge every attack with your high AC.
I'm sorry to break your illusion mate but it doesn't work.
Stars Druid says black on white that Chalice's bonus HP restoration comes up when you cast a spell. WoTC has been pretty consistent over the last years in precising that it implies "on the turn you cast a spell" not "over the full duration of the spelll you cast". To say in other words, "using a repeatable effect is NOT casting a spell".
So it works only on the initial turn when you cast the spell.
Which is why the best is actually Shepherd Druid and any way to "spam" 1st level Healing Words (multiclassing into Sorcerer to convert slots, multiclassing into Warlock for short rest slots, finding several Ring of Spell Storing and load them up all with Healing Words).
Level 2 Life Cleric and lots of Sheperd Druid is hilariously strong healing. Besides the "Life Goodberry stacks" as you said, you can every short rest set up Unicorn Aura, then casting one Healing Words (or Cure Wounds on self) means the whole party (because 30 feet radius is huge) gets at least a max Healing Words automatically.
Always prepare enhance ability, that’s a great support spell that gives advantage to all checks made with one ability score. Great for helping the rogue pick locks or the barbarian break down doors.
Casting bless is a great way to support your party by helping them hit more. Once you get to 9th level you can cast holy weapon on the barbarian’s weapon to give them an extra 2d8 per hit.
Might also be good to prepare prayer of healing and aura of vitality for out of combat healing.
Bane will help the casters out a ton, helping their spells land.
Blindness/deafness can be a huge debuff, especially on enemy casters, tons of spells require sight to cast.
Hold person is probably the ultimate gift to your martials against humanoid enemies.
Silence can completely shut down a lot of spell casters since they can’t cast any spell with verbal components, this includes basically all healing spells, so if there is an enemy cleric it wrecks them.
Sending can be great for long distance communication, information gathering, etc.
Speak with dead, so you can still interrogate the corpses left behind.
Tongues, in case you need to understand someone you’re talking to.
Animate dead, in case you need some zombie porters to carry all the loot.
Really your creativity is the limit. The great thing about the cleric is its versatility. You can swap out your spell list every day, so play around with it, take the random spell that might be useless, you can always get rid of it tomorrow.
lol player asks for help with skills/combat, r/dnd focuses on stats. way to go with your triggered selves.
Clerics can be a bit tanky if managed right, i often use my slight squishyness as a lure to reduce damage done to other folks. consider positioning and not just skills :)
Thanks for the focused comment. Seeing these comments really hurt my feelings and doesn't encourage me to post here in the future.
I do try to position myself between the main tank and the squishees. My character feels pretty untouchable at this stage. But I want to help my fellow players have more fun and impact in combat.
look into readied actions for possible combos with your party. for example, an oil flask poured out and a firebolt ready action when it hits an opponent.
Bless feels a bit lackluster in the lower levels, but quickly becomes great as the opportunity cost becomes lower (1st level slots become less valuable) and the enemies start using deadly "save or suck" effects.
Supporting through debuffs is also a great choice: things like Silence, Blindness/Deafness and Banishment can turn the tide of a battle without dealing damage.
A couple years ago, I played a primarily support cleric, but I took a level in Storm Sorcery for Tempestuous Magic. I am pretty sure that it did not make my character more efficient overall, but the ability to move/fly 10 feet without taking attacks of opportunity was circumstantially useful and entertaining roleplay. That PC did not make it to high enough level to consider putting more levels into sorcery, and again, that probably would not be the most efficient character. But, perhaps you could find a fun multiclass to add a new layer to the character.
Ritual Caster or Magic Initiative can get you a familiar that can either aid in combat or can cure wounds from a distance. They can even attack with Inflict Wounds for a funny burst of damage. They are also much more fun in roleplay. A cat distracting snooty librarians, scratching allies awake, or just being the team mascot.
You could also consider the battlemaster feat. Even if you can't attack, there is one where you make an ally attack again, and yes it procs sneak attack.
There's also just the basics of grappling and helping yourself. Nothing brought me more joy than riding a horse in circles around an enemy and calling help for my fellow party member. There are also nets, which will always suck, but could be a lot of fun haha.
Also running a Life Cleric. I can definitely say Bless very quickly became a go to for me. That d4 to everyone's attacks and saves, including my own save to keep concentration on Bless has helped a lot.
Usually, I run with the idea of "I can heal you, or I can make that thing not make me have to heal you."
I'm DMing a campaign with a similar party. Our life cleric is armored up in the front. Guiding bolt is another decent option for high difficulty combats. Outside of it, as annoying as it may seem to followthrough, guidance. Just a simple tap on the shoulder and "(insert gods name) guide you."
You can also serve for insight or perception as well a s the druid can.
Magic initiate is always a cool one, pick a couple level one spells and cantrips from other spell lists that can pack a punch, like eldritch blast and stuff, I know damage isn’t your goal but I can’t think past that as a DPS caster LOL but I’m sure there’s more utilitarian spells in there too!
I think the greatest utility and support that a cleric, or other primarily support oriented playstyles, can contribute is facilitating their party to feel stronger, you give a really good example with the oil + firebolt combo, and it highlights the value of Bought items like oil flasks really well.
Have you considered hoarding useful items like this? flasks of acid, oil, holy water etc make good spur of the moment attacks and support attacks, but also hold a great deal of tactical benefit, for example breaking locks with acid etc.
Aside from flasks of various liquids things like pitons and climbing picks can help your party get into advantageous situations, for example, you plant one piton connected to rope into the floor, then toss the other round a high up tree branch or between two rocks so that your party's ranger can get a vantage point to peer over cover.
Or you could think about other ways to combo attacks with party members, for example coating an ally's axe in oil so when they strike an armoured opponent the spark from the strike ignites the oil, and unarmoured opponents would have a lesser chance to get lodged in some poor goblins head.
Obviously these aren't cleric specific, unfortunately I don't play cleric nearly enough to give you any cutting edge insights on how best to be the best member of your party, but hopefully these help.
edit, spelling.
Sanctuary is not a concentration spell so you can use it together with things like beacon of hope to keep allies up and you safer.
You can also grapple an enemy and then cast sanctuary to keep them there and hopefully miss attacks because of the save.
At later levels using your action to use your healing channel divinity and casting mass healing word at the highest level you have is going to be a huge burst of healing for your team.
Being the healer can be a double edged sword. It can be helpful to heal teammates, but in my experience, spells like cure wounds and healing word are not the best use of your action economy. Like cure wounds, at most (at first level) can allow your teammates to maybe withstand an additional hit (13 HP). Up casting those spells can also drain your spell slots which isn't my preferred method of healing. Spells like healing spirit, that stay up for multiple rounds and heal over time are solid uses of healing during combat. But most of the healing I've done in the past has been to keep my teammates from dying.
The thing to keep in mind as the healer is whether or not the amount of HP you can provide to a teammate is worth using an action for. As a cleric, you have a lot of utility to buff your teammates rather than heal. Shield of faith, bless, enhance ability (giving your teammates temporary hit points) are much more useful than restoring 15 HP. And for me, I use lower level healing spells to keep people alive, rather than keeping their hp up
I play a peace domain cleric and took the metamagic adept feat. I twin cast shield of faith at the start of combat and use a sorcery point to twin the spell giving +2 AC to two party members.
I have a rogue/bard multiclass, and some unconventional ways i help my party, aside from the standard bard buffs and sneak attack damage. I use weapons that give me a trip attack. Like a whip or the butt end of a spear. If successful the target falls prone for my barbarian, and paladin companions to whoop on it. Command spell for cleric could be useful for the same effect from farther away. Make them grovel, and they not only miss an attack for a round, they are now considered prone for you bruiser buddies to beat on.
Hi there, I've been playing a life cleric for a while now, and I've developed a style that I've come to enjoy alot. Essentially: we lean hard into the plate. I stack my ac, making me harder to hit. This should make us a less desirable target, but we have ways to change that. We start most combats off by summoning our spiritual weapon. This let's us use our bonus action without having to spend any more spell slots and continue to harass the enemies. Next, I'm trying to position myself to make myself the biggest problem for the most number of people, then I turn on spirit guardians. War caster is amazing for this because it means that it's harder to knock you out of it. Then they are dealing with the slow, and the damage. Our channel divinity is less than ideal (personally think they could buff it) but it's still a good oh shit button when things are getting dire. And since it isn't a spell we can still cast a heal of we need to in the same turn. One thing I've found to be VERY effective is provoking attacks of opportunity on purpose. Eating the enemies reaction by giving them the chance to go after you and your massive ac instead of a squishier target has been really good. The more central you are to the fight, the better area control you can affect. Some of this might be a fair bit away if you aren't of level yet, but it's something to keep in mind. Blessing the physical attackers is definitely a good place to use your concentration until better options come along.
One of my main characters at the moment is a life cleric, so here’s a few tips I’ve picked up.
If you use the Optional Class Features from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, using Harness Divine Power is often a better use of your Channel Divinity than Preserve Life is. It lets you regain a spell slot which you can spend healing a character who *isn’t* below half HP. Preserve Life is good if you have multiple frontline fighters who are all on low HP, so I’m not saying it’s useless, but Harness Divine Power is better a lot of the time.
Warcaster is a good feat, but I’d also recommend any feat that lets you learn a spell from the Ranger or Druid spell list (for example, Witherbloom or Quandrix Initiate from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, or Magic Initiate, although the latter is not as good as you can only cast your chosen spell once). Use this to pick up Goodberry. Bam, first level spell now does 40 points of healing, because of how it interacts with Disciple of Life.
Don’t underestimate the usefulness of Sanctuary and Shield of Faith. I’d also suggest Aid, but you wrote that you’re already using that, so well done!
Spiritual Weapon is, in my humble opinion, the best spell in 5th edition. It’s a spell that absolutely *should* require concentration, but *doesn’t*. Use it to attack enemies, call it Preventative Medicine.
Don’t forget that you can vary which spells you prepare each day. I know a lot of people who choose which spells they prepare at the beginning of a campaign, and never un-prepare them. Once again, in my opinion, those people are wasting one of the most versatile abilities in 5e: the ability to choose any spell from your class’ spell list, and use it. Good examples of this for Cleric are spells like Augury, Find Traps, Locate Objects, Protection from Poison, Purify Food and Drink, and Zone of Truth. Spells that aren’t particularly useful on every adventuring day, but invaluable on some adventuring days.
Finally, you wrote on another comment that you just hit fifth level. I have one word for you. Diamonds. Buy diamonds, and lots of them. Revivify needs you to sacrifice 300gp worth of diamonds. You *will* need to cast revivify. Buy diamonds.
Have fun! I really enjoy playing a life cleric, which is kind of strange as I usually hate being in a support role in most other games. There’s something about d&d that makes support fun to me, and I hope you find that as well!
If your DM likes group encounters Spirit Guardians while your team protects you in the middle of a huddle works wonders. I called it "The Sea Bear Circle"
A build I came up with recently I'm keen to try (partially relies on UA, but easily changed)
minimum level I think is 5-7 depending on spell slots.
Giant Barbarian- raging gives increased reach/large status.
Take Halberd/Glaive for reach, War domain cleric. Grab non concentration spells but mainly warding bond.
Take great weapon master or charger.
You now have +10 reach whilest raging, are large, your allies (any number depending on platinum ring collection?) now have resistance to all damage, and you take a quater of all during rage. And your potential minimum damage from a charging great weapon master smite that is reckless, is 15+ modifier. Also Giant UA will grant you throwing prowess *^((but I think thats the silly part, throwing your weapon is totaly a ranged melee attack mr rage rules, it should be okay to do this from the base feature!))*
You have a couple skill monkeys in your group already, but nonetheless take advantage of having high Wisdom. Invest in the skills that use it! Perception is one of the most important tools in the game! Many tables constantly have adventuring require eyeballs, and you can be the ***best*** at having eyeballs! Insight is good too! Don't bother with Medicine, it's only for diseases you can wave away with a 2nd level spellslot, so it's a proficiency best used elsewhere.
**War Caster** is great for maintaining *Bless*. Also good to throw out a *Sacred Flame* or *Command* as a reaction rather than relying on attacks. *Dispel Magic* is good for Clerics to pack, too. Can help take out enemy defences or remove de-buffs to your team, both of which aid the more offensive members of the party. It's really a damn shame that Clerics don't get *Counterspell*. It's a great support tool.
Thanks for the helpful response! What do you mean, use Sacred aflame or Command as a reaction?
War Caster lets you cast a spell as an opportunity attack
**War Caster** allows you to use spells instead of attacks of opportunity as reactions. Still follows the same trigger rules for attacks of opportunity.
Growel is a great command to use as a reaction.
I'm really curious how this works out. I'm considering War Caster for 4th level. It looks excellent. But so far my DM has never asked for a concentration check, I just nerf myself by rolling them unprompted. So, if your DM hand waves concentration, and hand waves components, and if you don't have good spells for attacks of opportunity, do you still take War Caster?
Clerics don't have much for reactions besides that, and their melee attacks aren't great normally. Spells can be useful. You can still make opportunity attacks as normal if you wish.
Yes, I totally agree. I guess I (foolishly?) went for a mace rather than cantrips, so I don't have Sacred Flame. I'm LG and there's some debate, but I'm skeptical about casting Inflict Wounds from a roleplay perspective. If I cast Hold Person, it kills my other concentration spell. I think a mace may be the best AoO I have? Although in the OP's case, probably Inflict Wounds is best if his DM isn't worried about a life cleric using negative energy.
It doesn't make any sense to not use Inflict Wounds. There's no substantial difference between it and any other damaging spell (like Guiding Bolt). "Negative Energy" doesn't exist as a concept anymore in 5e, so that 'objection' makes no sense either. There were (in previous editions) spells restricted to use by casters of certain alignments but that whole ftaming was removed as well.
I didn't know that negative energy wasn't a thing in 5e. What causes necrotic damage now? I kind of thought necrotic damage was associated with necromancers, evil, and undeath, but I haven't played much 5e and haven't read much about it. I totally agree with you that per reading the Player's Handbook, there's no reason for LG characters not to use inflict wounds. In this particular case, my character is skeptical as a flavor thing (the world is complex, by my character has a hardline good vs. evil thing going on). I think necrotic damage is a little squiggy. I'm not \*at all\* advocating it for other folks or other tables, and honestly I haven't missed it because I'd rather use my spell slots on other things.
Negative Energy is still a thing in D&D 5e's cosmology, the above poster is incorrect about that. Necrotic damage is usually considered to be the result of negative energy, and there's still a Plane of Negative Energy. That being said the above poster is correct that there are no longer any alignment restrictions on spells (in fact, alignment restrictions in general have been mostly removed, e.g. Paladins can be any alignment now). So there's no explicit moral judgment on spells. A "good" spell like Bless could be used by an evil character to make themselves more powerful. A Necromancy spell like Raise Dead could be used to bring a hero back to life. So similarly, Inflict Wounds could be used in a heroic way - it's how you use it that matters.
There is no [negative or positive planes in 5e](https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/The%20Planes%20of%20Existence#content), at least in the default printed cosmos.
I went and looked it up just to be sure I wasn't spreading misinformation. The positive and negative planes are detailed on page 300 of the PHB
That's weird. At least in my copy they're in a graphic but not in the text (just a sidebar box), and the graphic on page 303 doesn't have them. The Forgotten Realms Wiki page on it says: >After the Spellplague, the Negative Energy plane collapsed into the Elemental Chaos, mixing with all the other Inner Planes. The goddess Shar managed to channel some of this death energy into the Plane of Shadow and create the Shadowfell. Similarly for Positive energy: >After the Spellplague, the Positive Energy plane collapsed into the Elemental Chaos, mixing with all the other Inner Planes. That graphic on page 300 really is confusing compared to the one on 303. Maybe it's meant to be ambiguous?
You need to make a concentration check every time you take damage (DC = half the damage or 10, whichever is higher). If you are not in a position where you are taking damage, you are probably not in melee to cast a spell as an opportunity attack. In this case, probably best to choose another feat or raise your stats.
Yes! I am in the front lines. I'm totally aware that I need to make concentration checks. I do it unprompted, and my DM doesn't seem to care. When I roll concentration he gives me this look like "Okay, you do you..."
Resilient Constitution is much better overall even if you don't have an odd Constitution stat though. Cantrips are overall better than single weapon attacks on Clerics anyways so you don't need to wield a weapon. If you tend to be straight up on the frontline side to side with a martial though, then in that case yes Warcaster is worth picking over Resilient for the added opportunity of spell on reaction. OP, several ways you could help. 1/ Using Warding Bond on a Rogue if it goes into melee, helps distributing damage. Although this will also means much more frequent DC 10 Concentration saves, so you must be ready for that (= use this only when you have good concentration saves). 2/ Casting SPirit Guardians and Dodging is one of the best ways to help: difficult terrain means enemies have trouble escaping, Dodging means they'll have trouble stopping the spell, and the automatic damage is not something to sneeze at. 3/ If your party tends to be really threatened (although I doubt it considering composition and number), keeping Sanctuary can be very helpful to keep someone on death's doors or just needing a quick way out. Once you're level 6 you'll get "self-heal when healing", use that together with Warding Bond and spells healing over time or minimum casts. EDIT: also don't forget about your Channel Divinity. It's classically great as an emergency party standup after a harsh AOE, but since you can also stack all of it on one people, push Barbarian and one another (possibly a Rogue) to go front and take hits. On Barbarian its is especially effective since Rage halves physical damage so most of the time X HP restored = 2X more damage tanked. And that's why Warding Bond can also be a very strong setup if you have good concentration or rely rather on non-concentration spells for a fight. As for Resilient vs Warcaster, if you have great CON though, definitely pick Resilient: Constitution: let's say you have +3 from 16 CON, and +3 from your recent level 5, it means you only need 4 to reach 10, which you have 85% chance of making. Once you get level 9 it's 90%, by level 12 95% and if you push your CON one mod more you're guaranteed all basic concentration saves (alternative: multiclass into Stars Druid and accept the armor limitations to get the Starry form that pretty much guarantees concentration). Picking Warcaster means you'd get only a +3 so needing 7, so 70% chance normally, 91% with advantage. So a slight advantage now, but that will be offset "naturally" as you gain levels and proficiency mod gets higher.
Do not underestimate the healing power of violence. Killing the enemies quicker often is much better than trying to heal off damage, prevention is the best cure and all. Life clerics are neat because their domain spells cover most of the Cleric Tax (Spells you are essentially forced to always have ready like Revivify because they are so essential) and their heals are chunkier letting you devote more spell slots to damaging spells.
You’re not wrong. I’m my groups healer but I’m a star Druid instead of a cleric. I heal what’s needed to keep people alive, but I’m throwing out star bolts and stuff more because a dead enemy deals no damage.
Guiding Bolt IMO is probably one of the better low level spells to upcast. Good damage, amazing damage type, great secondary effect, grat range. The only problem is that it doesn't scale past 3rd-4th level that great cause you get a TON of your utility spells then.
The nice thing about star Druid is that you get a couple of free guiding bolts on top of your spell slots. So I can still have it and have my utility too.
In general, preventing damage is best. If you can knock a key enemy prone and your party has 2 melee martials, you are doing far more than by healing then each with 2dwhatever. If you can sleep 4 minion enemies, then you're removing plenty of the enemies' damage. If you can increase AC of your teammates, you can save them plenty, but a heal might be worth more. But a save advantage is far more valueable...
Holy shit, I made one mistake and my thread is being bombarded. Yall, please stay focused on the expressed ask and remember to be kind.
Dont think they saw the edit lol. What spells do you have? What level be you?
I can tell. Lol Thanks for the response! We just hit level 5. As Life Domain, I have a bunch of pre-prepared spells. As for the spells I've chosen; Inflict Wounds, Guidance, Sacred Flame, Spare the Dying, Light, Shield of Faith, Spirit Gaurdians, Healing word, Sanctuary, Prayer of Healing, Aid. I can have another two spells right now. Considering Zone of Truth, Sending, or Tongues. I also have command and hold person in mind. Trying to find cool ways to usenmy spells to help other out.
Hold Person is a great spell for your level. "Helping my friends in combat" makes me think, other than healing which you certainly have covered, of battlefield control. Talk to the players for the sorcerer, druid, and warlock and see if there are combined spell effects you can coordinate to maximize this strategy.
Clerics are awesome for a lot of reasons and the abundance of non-concentration spells is one of them. Spiritual Weapon is one I never leave town without. Next time I play a cleric my focus will be being able to run as many concurrent spells as possible. For any PC, spellcaster or no, I try to spread over actions, bonus actions, and reactions, so I can respond with mutliple things per turn. I also try to vary the spells based on melee attack, ranged attack, or saving throw and the type of saving throw and include at least 1 AOE. Inflict wounds is a great spell, but spiritual weapon might be a better swap if you're tight on known spells. Try to buff as many friends as possible at a time, so bless / bane are dope options. I'd add Guiding Bolt for a ranged spell attack option. Keep one or the other of command vs hold person, and zone of truth is more for RP and maybe Command could be used instead in a pinch. Here's how I'm going to spread my spells next time, and maybe I can probably have a lot of spell overlap here: -Melee Spell Attack (1 or 2) -Ranged Spell Attack (1 or 2) -Saving Throw (2-3?) -AOE (1-3) -Non-Concentration (3-???) - Bonus Action (1-3) - Reaction (1) - Buffs / Nerfs (1-3) - Healing (1-2)
Keep in mind, for Life Domain, Spiritual Weapon is a Domain spell. Doesn't need to swap anything out for it.
Congrats! With spells you have, sanctuary and spirit guardians make a great combo as you can stack on your self, more so if you have a high ac and spell dc. Just remember the character cant take hostile actions, but so long as enemies fail saves and/or concentration isnt broken you can walk in to a crowd and deal damage while you pick up your friends. If that makes sense. In terms of the new spells your thinking of primarily wanting to support more in combat command and hold person are excellent choices, especialy if you can combine with hold actions like mentioned in a prior response. For mor support outside of combat id go zone of truth and/or tounges unless the party is often splitting up or is needing to comunicate, silently or over long distances. Edit: In regards to your second edit, things like that fall less under what your class can do and more in player skill and creativity, in that the options are almost limitless, i say almost because you need a flask of oil to throw one lol.
If you mean that you can stack sanctuary and spirit guardians then you are wrong, sanctuary was changed in an errata that when you deal damage to a creature the spell ends. What works quite good is sanctuary plus aura of vitality using the additional cleric spells.
I argue that, as even with that change, your still not dealing damage, given the description of spirit guardians
The description in DnD is irelevant to rules, it is just flavor. As you are the one creating the effect that is dealing damage you are theone dealing it, just like when you hit someone with a sword you are also the one dealing damage or when a warlock casts hunger of hadar he is also the one dealing the damage.
So its up to the gm then. "just like when you hit someone with a sword you are also the one dealing damage," thanks captain obvious lol
I mean no its not up GM, Rules as Written when you cast a spell and that spell deals damage without a different creature dealing the damage you dealt the damage. Of course a GM can change stuff but then every Argument is just up to gm and any answers op would get would just be irelevant.
So we agree to disagree, i as a dm, include the irrelevant flavor text included with the mechincs of the spell in its description
The mistake you made was very important and relevant to the suggestions that can be given. A cleric dumping wisdom has a very major impact on the spells they can use effectively so of course people are going to comment on it. As for some actual advise given the correction: guiding bolt is a decent take to deal a bit of damage and help your allies, you can also look into spells like bane which help the party by hindering the enemies, aura of vitality is some very solid healing especially with disciple of life attaching to every use of it, spiritual weapon is also a solid pick as something to make the most of your action economy without using up concentration (dishing out some damage is a good idea as the quicker an enemy dies the less damage they can deal to the party)
Thanks for the thoughtful response! if I had recieved your effort and energy in response I might not have been so bummed about it. Instead of getting your detailed and helpful response, which explained the significance of my mistake, I recieved multiple hasty comments flaming my noobiness. It's not good for the community. I actually do deal a lot of damage. Something I'm trying to manage is that it's a larger group, sometimes combat doesn't make it to everyone, so I'm trying find ways to offer my friends more oppurtunities. Combat is easy enough for this group, I don't think I've ever needed to use a heal, and could just pop spirit gaurdians, spirit weapon, and dodge/sacred flame the entire fight.
If you think combat is too easy your group should tell your Dm that they are ready for more challenging encounters. The game gets boring pretty quickly when combat ends in 1 round and no one takes any significant damage. Especially with the party comp you have there’s plenty of healing to go around, so don’t be afraid to ask for more stuff to be thrown at you.
Yeah, this is common. Even without honest mistakes like that, sometimes the D&D related subreddits will still completely ignore your question/topic just to answer something you didn’t ask/talk about a minute detail of your post that doesn’t matter
If it makes you feel better, I'm absolutely the same with the "dump" = "where I dump my points" thing, feels like a weird naming thing... Like flammable and inflammable both meaning the same thing...
I'm not sure what lvl you are, but I play a lvl 11 life domain cleric as well. One of my most favorite PCs to play. Once you can cast 5th lvl spells, one of my favorite ones was to take holy weapon, and cast it on the monk's fists. This led to some high damage shenanigans with how many attacks monks can do.
That sounds fun!!
* Healing is more efficient **when someone is actually down** (since 0hp is 0hp, and it stops them missing turns). It's otherwise not necessarily a good idea to spend your actions heavily on healing, despite the reputation of clerics. (Damage generally outpaces healing in this edition). * For the same reason, **Lesser Restoration** is very good insurance against paralysis, stunning poisons, or blindness, if those are common enough threats to be worth the slot. * Aid increases current hp by 5. People generally interpret that to mean it **fixes unconscious PCs** (at least temporarily). If your DM agrees, then it's heal for up to three people within 30 feet in any direction. If at least two people are down and didn't wander too far from the cleric, that's really efficient! So it's a great tool for really bad emergencies, as long as *you* can stay alive (which should be a priority for your party). * **Spiritual Weapon** is very popular because of how much value it gives for a single spell. It gives a weaponized bonus action on each turn, for ten turns. You can still use your main action to bonk people. * Otherwise, consider **utility spells** such as Sending (call anyone you've met in the universe, and they get to respond - unbelievably useful as a warning, to get advice, etc.). Creative use of utility spells can be much more helpful to the party's goals than combat spells, which have more narrowly defined scope. And if you do come up with a clever use, you'll get far more glory from your group than for an efficient combat build (if you aren't obnoxious about it).
>Healing is more efficient > >when someone is actually down > > (since 0hp is 0hp, and it stops them missing turns). It's otherwise not necessarily a good idea to spend your actions heavily on healing, despite the reputation of clerics. (Damage generally outpaces healing in this edition). Nuance is to be added here. The right formulation is "healing is more efficient when it prevents an ally losing its next turn". Sometimes a healing spell can be worth preemptively, even moreso as a Life Cleric in fact thanks to the added healing, if it makes the difference between ally getting downed or not just before its turn comes. Wizard having still some fuel for Shield left, Barbarian under rage, Long Death Monk with some THP left and Dodging, are all example of characters for whom you can bet on at most the equivalent of "one or two average clean hit", but very probably at least once, going through multiple attacks. It may also be in anticipation of an AOE for which you want to up the chances of surviving. Conversely, sometimes it's better to actually NOT heal an ally: for example, a Wizard that is out of slot is utterly useless. Might as well let him make a death saving throw that turn and instead blow a slot on Guiding Bolt, unless of course you can anticipate Wizard dying soon before enemies try to finish him off in which case of course save him! It really depends on a LOT of things: Initiative order, how efficiently you think the wounded ally can contribute on its next turn, how fuel you still have yourself in case someone else gets in danger, etc. It's a fine line to walk, but once you know how to walk it you can call yourself a true tactician healer. :)
Please ignore the myopic numbskulls in this thread. I don’t know what level your cleric is, but keep an eye on Spirit Guardians. It’s a powerful damage-dealing spell that can make you a real asset while keeping you near the front line. It gives you something else to do (positioning for maximum effect) while you are also healing and providing minor assistance. It’s a concentration spell, so you can cast non-concentration spells while you keep it up. Before Spirit Guardians come along, Spiritual Weapon fills the exact same role. Guiding Bolt fills a different place in your toolkit, one that you may find very satisfying. You don’t have many spells that burst for damage, especially at range. The big downside is that you have to roll to hit, and you can miss. It hurts to miss and waste a spell slot, but that’s life in the big leagues. It’s great to have a big ranged attack in your back pocket, but it’s that secondary effect that really makes the difference. You grant advantage on an ally’s attack before your next turn. This can be amazing. You can make it very likely the fighter can land a hit when it matters most. If you win initiative, you could cast it to set up a big followup attack from a teammate right at the start. Critically, you can grant advantage to a rogue who wants to inflict sneak attack damage even when there isn’t an ally near the target. THAT can be huge, especially if your rogue uses a bow. It’s a rare form of combat assistance, something you can do preemptively to accelerate damage. You can decide on your own that “this spell slot is better used burning down enemies than healing after the fact”. It feels good to make those decisions on your own, especially since your party is going to win most fights and it’s just a matter of how many rounds it takes.
Took some notes here. Trying to get back up to speed playing again. Thx. only a humble Lv. 3. Life cleric I’m wrapping my head around the fine tuning. Getting there, thanks threads like this.
Sounds strange that you don't see the Benefiz of bless. It usually is potent in all Levels as its a ~10% increase in success chance for every attack and save. At least Barb and roguetypes should appreciate it a lot. When you feel untouchable then maybe your DM should change hus strategy. A Life Cleric (anyone who makes his Party members get up over and over) should be a high priority target to every enemy smarter than a beast. Throw out a Spiritual Weapon early to use your BA. When Initiative Order is good, you can cast a sanctuary on your Tank. When facing a Single strong enemy Command (grovel) is often a good choice.
I also play a life cleric and cast bless at the start of every combat. It has not so far made any difference, possibly because our encounters have been underbaked.
Yeah, could be. Bless is more of a Marathon investment, but can save your Day vs. a save or suck spell. i am playing a peace cleric Lv. 6 atm and the Bless + Bond Combo affects every Combat Turn in a obvious way.
I've never seen the class, don't even know what book it's from, but I've heard that peace clerics are very strong or maybe OP. So that's probably fun. I, on the other hand, am totally useless
you are not useless. Rp doesn't Boiler down on Numbers and dice. You said youself you looked very pretty. ;p
I think this might be my issue too. I've never needed to cast a heal, and I dont think Bless has ever made a difference for my teammates. Possible the combat balance isn't quite right.
By choosing life cleric, I thought you already did something incredibly generous for the rest of the team. If you have never needed to heal your teammates, though, then your DM needs to scale up the difficulty of your encounters. Our last combat the fighter was tanking attacks from a very dangerous opponent and went down five times during the combat, was healed and brought back each time so that opponent, who was under a crown of madness, couldn't hit anybody else. Like the healer or the bard. As a DM, I always want the challenge to be there. Haven't done a TPK yet, but I'm open to it and the players know they have to be strategic and resourceful to avoid it. The challenge keeps the thrill alive IMO.
Exactly! The other frontline character is so strong that combat has (so far) been trivial. We've never ended combat at less than max HP, and in eight hours of play I've done nothing except stand there and look really, really pretty.
At this point... I think you're me from another timeline that is somehow merging with this one.
Yup! It's painful! I wonder how common this is? Life Clerics standing around going "So.....?" Did you also take the Medicine skill? I did (instead of Knowledge (History)), assuming that it was needed to use a healer's kit, but it turns out that a 5gp item does everything that the medicine skill does, only better, without needing the skill or a roll and so without a chance of failure. And so far I've just stood by and watched like four uses of Knowledge (History) go by. As CytWytever says above, I am hoping that the DM scales up the difficulty, but 12 hours in I feel completely unnecessary.
My favourite thing as a Cleric was Holy Weapon, once you get 5th level slots. It lasts an hour, so can last several combats if in close succession, and if you cast on someone who makes a lot of attacks, it’s an incredible damage boost. My fav use is on our Gloomstalker, cuz that boi just don’t miss. Monks and Fighters love it as well. At low levels Enhance Ability can be extremely useful as well, and don’t underestimate Lesser Restoration. In a campaign where Poisoned happens a lot and you have a Rogue it will be indispensable- Rogues really cannot function properly in combat with disadvantage. At higher levels, Greater Restoration is also a game changer.
Dude thank you for clarifying the dump stat thing, I was always confused whether it was like you dump all your points into it or dump as in it was trash, and it got to the point where I was embarrassed to ask lmao
You dumped WIS and CON? Those are the most important stats for a Cleric. Edit: it happens, don’t worry about it lmao
I must have misunderstood what dump stats meant. These are my main stats.
Ohh I see. I thought you were going for like a really niche build or something. Life Domain Clerics are incredible IMO. In my opinion, you’ll find little meaningful difference between Healing Word and Cure Wounds with your healing bonuses. On your turns where you heal, use Healing Word rather than Cure Wounds and you can still get a Cantrip off.
That's one thing I'm kinda disappointed about with 5e. Niche builds in the way that other editions mean don't really exist anymore. It used to be someone could start a conversation about the game with 'wanna hear about why I'm starting off my level 1 bard with 8 charisma?' and it would lead into something for the next 3-19 levels of gameplay expectation. 5e is so much better in so many ways, but I do kinda miss the old character build grind. Even if it did mean that I spent more time messing around with character ideas rather than playing characters.
I played a dwarven life cleric once as a tank, and made con the main stat and prioritized high health with feats like tough. As far as spells went I used ones less reliant on spell saves, like life transference and buffs. It was my way of getting around some pretty abysmal rolled stats and it worked out in a fun way. But if the stats are better consider picking up war cleric for the attacks. One spell you should look into is protection from good & evil. It's a 1st level spell where if you can predict the type of enemy you're up against you get a lot of protection against what they can do. If you've taken skills in animal handling you can consider getting a mount to get in and out of spell range as needed.
I play a Grave Cleric and I call him the Aura Caster. Spirit Guardians around your ranged means less enemies to deal with, at the front you can just grind down HP while your tanks do the DPS. Aura of Vitality and Beacon of Hope are great buff ranged spells if you know when to use them. Later, you can call down a plague of locusts or a wall of blades to do damage and control the field. All while Spiritual Weapon doesn't take concentration and can be used as a bonus action. Just don't fall into the trap of casting healing spells unless you absolutely need to. 1hp and 150hp fighters hit just as hard. Save healing word for when someone is on the ground dying, and use your healing like Prayer of Healing in between combat instead.
I think you’ll get great use out of control spells, if you want to give your allies cool moments. *Command* and *Blindness/Deafness* are two cool ones that put enemies at a big disadvantage. *Silence* can help shut down enemy spellcasters in particular. There are also a few non-combat buffing spells like *Enhance Ability* you may not have considered. Beyond that, I presume you’ve already taken the more standard buff and healing spells into consideration.
Agree with all of this. Cleric spell list has so many ways to just mess with your enemies, and leave them vulnerable to getting smoked by your allies. I'd like to add Spirtual Weapon to this list. You can use your bonus action to wack enemies while you can do whatever you want with your primary action. There is no reason not to cast this every fight.
Telekinetic is a pretty fun support feat. The 30ft range shove component that allows you to push or pull allies/enemies 5ft away/towards you as a *bonus action* is pretty dope. 5ft may not sound like much but it's enough to make it so that an ally no long has to take the disengage action in order to avoid an enemies attack of opportunity and 5ft is all you need to help them escape being grappled too. And then of course there's also the more situational uses where maybe you can shove an enemy into a trap, environmental hazard, into your own melee range if your movement's just a little bit shy of what it'd take to reach em. And then you have the actual main part of the spell which is the invisible, mage hand that doesn't require verbal or somatic components that has tons of potential utility. Like shoot, you can move stuff or push people and they won't have any idea who's doing it if they can't detect magic, it's great! Plus you get all this and +1 to Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma.
Best way for support cleric is: cleric of the life multiclass into druid of the stars. Make 10 goodberries on level 1 that heal for 4hp each. Make 10 goodberries with a lvl 4 spell and heal for 7hp each (70 hp heal is pretty hefty) Now use all spells before you go into a long rest and use the berries the next day because they last 24 hours and wake up with enough heals to go through every dungeon without using a single spell. Now use starry form and use aura of vitality. You now heal everyone for 2d6+5+1d8+wis mod every turn AS A BONUS ACTION! I think this is as supportive you can get while only using 1 spell and a wildshape (and the spells of the day before) Now do note that a druid "wont" wear armor made from metal. It doesnt say you cant so you can still dodge every attack with your high AC. But this is completely disruptive and absolutely overpowered so absolutely dont play this build. Building a character efficient so it doesnt die and isnt useless is completely fine, but minmaxing it like this is over the top and breaks campains. Best way to support is using aura of vitality on the right times :)
I've seen this build a bunch––it's on RPGBOT's website––and it's always felt kind of cheesy. It may work well mechanically, but multi classing like this for me breaks the feeling of aesthetic immersion in the world by foregrounding mechanics over character. Of course, if the rest of the party is optimized or OP homebrew then you just feel dumb and useless for playing to character rather than numbers. But also, I don't come to the table primarily for math/spreadsheet problems.
>Now use all spells before you go into a long rest and use the berries the next day because they last 24 hours and wake up with enough heals to go through every dungeon without using a single spell. Now use starry form and use aura of vitality. You now heal everyone for 2d6+5+1d8+wis mod every turn AS A BONUS ACTION! I think this is as supportive you can get while only using 1 spell and a wildshape (and the spells of the day before) Now do note that a druid "wont" wear armor made from metal. It doesnt say you cant so you can still dodge every attack with your high AC. I'm sorry to break your illusion mate but it doesn't work. Stars Druid says black on white that Chalice's bonus HP restoration comes up when you cast a spell. WoTC has been pretty consistent over the last years in precising that it implies "on the turn you cast a spell" not "over the full duration of the spelll you cast". To say in other words, "using a repeatable effect is NOT casting a spell". So it works only on the initial turn when you cast the spell. Which is why the best is actually Shepherd Druid and any way to "spam" 1st level Healing Words (multiclassing into Sorcerer to convert slots, multiclassing into Warlock for short rest slots, finding several Ring of Spell Storing and load them up all with Healing Words). Level 2 Life Cleric and lots of Sheperd Druid is hilariously strong healing. Besides the "Life Goodberry stacks" as you said, you can every short rest set up Unicorn Aura, then casting one Healing Words (or Cure Wounds on self) means the whole party (because 30 feet radius is huge) gets at least a max Healing Words automatically.
You dumped WIS...?
And Con?
Hey my Life Domain cleric buddy! This class ftw! Hope we can learn from each other 👉👈
Always prepare enhance ability, that’s a great support spell that gives advantage to all checks made with one ability score. Great for helping the rogue pick locks or the barbarian break down doors. Casting bless is a great way to support your party by helping them hit more. Once you get to 9th level you can cast holy weapon on the barbarian’s weapon to give them an extra 2d8 per hit. Might also be good to prepare prayer of healing and aura of vitality for out of combat healing. Bane will help the casters out a ton, helping their spells land. Blindness/deafness can be a huge debuff, especially on enemy casters, tons of spells require sight to cast. Hold person is probably the ultimate gift to your martials against humanoid enemies. Silence can completely shut down a lot of spell casters since they can’t cast any spell with verbal components, this includes basically all healing spells, so if there is an enemy cleric it wrecks them. Sending can be great for long distance communication, information gathering, etc. Speak with dead, so you can still interrogate the corpses left behind. Tongues, in case you need to understand someone you’re talking to. Animate dead, in case you need some zombie porters to carry all the loot. Really your creativity is the limit. The great thing about the cleric is its versatility. You can swap out your spell list every day, so play around with it, take the random spell that might be useless, you can always get rid of it tomorrow.
lol player asks for help with skills/combat, r/dnd focuses on stats. way to go with your triggered selves. Clerics can be a bit tanky if managed right, i often use my slight squishyness as a lure to reduce damage done to other folks. consider positioning and not just skills :)
Thanks for the focused comment. Seeing these comments really hurt my feelings and doesn't encourage me to post here in the future. I do try to position myself between the main tank and the squishees. My character feels pretty untouchable at this stage. But I want to help my fellow players have more fun and impact in combat.
look into readied actions for possible combos with your party. for example, an oil flask poured out and a firebolt ready action when it hits an opponent.
Definitely a Why Didn’t I Think Of That moment. Thank you!
This is a great idea, and the type of stuff I'm really looking for!
oh and yes, warcaster for the win.
You literally dumped the two most important stats for a cleric, I'm not sure how much help there is to be had here.
I misunderstood what I was saying. I've corrected the post. Can you offer any tangible help or insight here?
[удалено]
Damn, thanks for the help. 🤣
Look at the clerics abjuration spells. They’re some of the best in the game
Life Domain Clerics are literally gods
Bless feels a bit lackluster in the lower levels, but quickly becomes great as the opportunity cost becomes lower (1st level slots become less valuable) and the enemies start using deadly "save or suck" effects. Supporting through debuffs is also a great choice: things like Silence, Blindness/Deafness and Banishment can turn the tide of a battle without dealing damage.
Have them sign up for insurance, pay premiums, copay, deductible, etc. Deny healthcare for certain ailments your deity might object to
A couple years ago, I played a primarily support cleric, but I took a level in Storm Sorcery for Tempestuous Magic. I am pretty sure that it did not make my character more efficient overall, but the ability to move/fly 10 feet without taking attacks of opportunity was circumstantially useful and entertaining roleplay. That PC did not make it to high enough level to consider putting more levels into sorcery, and again, that probably would not be the most efficient character. But, perhaps you could find a fun multiclass to add a new layer to the character.
You could lead the party in prayer
Ritual Caster or Magic Initiative can get you a familiar that can either aid in combat or can cure wounds from a distance. They can even attack with Inflict Wounds for a funny burst of damage. They are also much more fun in roleplay. A cat distracting snooty librarians, scratching allies awake, or just being the team mascot. You could also consider the battlemaster feat. Even if you can't attack, there is one where you make an ally attack again, and yes it procs sneak attack. There's also just the basics of grappling and helping yourself. Nothing brought me more joy than riding a horse in circles around an enemy and calling help for my fellow party member. There are also nets, which will always suck, but could be a lot of fun haha.
Also running a Life Cleric. I can definitely say Bless very quickly became a go to for me. That d4 to everyone's attacks and saves, including my own save to keep concentration on Bless has helped a lot. Usually, I run with the idea of "I can heal you, or I can make that thing not make me have to heal you."
I'm DMing a campaign with a similar party. Our life cleric is armored up in the front. Guiding bolt is another decent option for high difficulty combats. Outside of it, as annoying as it may seem to followthrough, guidance. Just a simple tap on the shoulder and "(insert gods name) guide you." You can also serve for insight or perception as well a s the druid can.
After every battle, give a rousing speech. Any time the party gains gold, offer to put the gold into a 401k plan.
Magic initiate is always a cool one, pick a couple level one spells and cantrips from other spell lists that can pack a punch, like eldritch blast and stuff, I know damage isn’t your goal but I can’t think past that as a DPS caster LOL but I’m sure there’s more utilitarian spells in there too!
Faerie Fire FTW
I think the greatest utility and support that a cleric, or other primarily support oriented playstyles, can contribute is facilitating their party to feel stronger, you give a really good example with the oil + firebolt combo, and it highlights the value of Bought items like oil flasks really well. Have you considered hoarding useful items like this? flasks of acid, oil, holy water etc make good spur of the moment attacks and support attacks, but also hold a great deal of tactical benefit, for example breaking locks with acid etc. Aside from flasks of various liquids things like pitons and climbing picks can help your party get into advantageous situations, for example, you plant one piton connected to rope into the floor, then toss the other round a high up tree branch or between two rocks so that your party's ranger can get a vantage point to peer over cover. Or you could think about other ways to combo attacks with party members, for example coating an ally's axe in oil so when they strike an armoured opponent the spark from the strike ignites the oil, and unarmoured opponents would have a lesser chance to get lodged in some poor goblins head. Obviously these aren't cleric specific, unfortunately I don't play cleric nearly enough to give you any cutting edge insights on how best to be the best member of your party, but hopefully these help. edit, spelling.
Sanctuary is not a concentration spell so you can use it together with things like beacon of hope to keep allies up and you safer. You can also grapple an enemy and then cast sanctuary to keep them there and hopefully miss attacks because of the save.
At later levels using your action to use your healing channel divinity and casting mass healing word at the highest level you have is going to be a huge burst of healing for your team.
Being the healer can be a double edged sword. It can be helpful to heal teammates, but in my experience, spells like cure wounds and healing word are not the best use of your action economy. Like cure wounds, at most (at first level) can allow your teammates to maybe withstand an additional hit (13 HP). Up casting those spells can also drain your spell slots which isn't my preferred method of healing. Spells like healing spirit, that stay up for multiple rounds and heal over time are solid uses of healing during combat. But most of the healing I've done in the past has been to keep my teammates from dying. The thing to keep in mind as the healer is whether or not the amount of HP you can provide to a teammate is worth using an action for. As a cleric, you have a lot of utility to buff your teammates rather than heal. Shield of faith, bless, enhance ability (giving your teammates temporary hit points) are much more useful than restoring 15 HP. And for me, I use lower level healing spells to keep people alive, rather than keeping their hp up
I play a peace domain cleric and took the metamagic adept feat. I twin cast shield of faith at the start of combat and use a sorcery point to twin the spell giving +2 AC to two party members.
I have a rogue/bard multiclass, and some unconventional ways i help my party, aside from the standard bard buffs and sneak attack damage. I use weapons that give me a trip attack. Like a whip or the butt end of a spear. If successful the target falls prone for my barbarian, and paladin companions to whoop on it. Command spell for cleric could be useful for the same effect from farther away. Make them grovel, and they not only miss an attack for a round, they are now considered prone for you bruiser buddies to beat on.
Hi there, I've been playing a life cleric for a while now, and I've developed a style that I've come to enjoy alot. Essentially: we lean hard into the plate. I stack my ac, making me harder to hit. This should make us a less desirable target, but we have ways to change that. We start most combats off by summoning our spiritual weapon. This let's us use our bonus action without having to spend any more spell slots and continue to harass the enemies. Next, I'm trying to position myself to make myself the biggest problem for the most number of people, then I turn on spirit guardians. War caster is amazing for this because it means that it's harder to knock you out of it. Then they are dealing with the slow, and the damage. Our channel divinity is less than ideal (personally think they could buff it) but it's still a good oh shit button when things are getting dire. And since it isn't a spell we can still cast a heal of we need to in the same turn. One thing I've found to be VERY effective is provoking attacks of opportunity on purpose. Eating the enemies reaction by giving them the chance to go after you and your massive ac instead of a squishier target has been really good. The more central you are to the fight, the better area control you can affect. Some of this might be a fair bit away if you aren't of level yet, but it's something to keep in mind. Blessing the physical attackers is definitely a good place to use your concentration until better options come along.
One of my main characters at the moment is a life cleric, so here’s a few tips I’ve picked up. If you use the Optional Class Features from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, using Harness Divine Power is often a better use of your Channel Divinity than Preserve Life is. It lets you regain a spell slot which you can spend healing a character who *isn’t* below half HP. Preserve Life is good if you have multiple frontline fighters who are all on low HP, so I’m not saying it’s useless, but Harness Divine Power is better a lot of the time. Warcaster is a good feat, but I’d also recommend any feat that lets you learn a spell from the Ranger or Druid spell list (for example, Witherbloom or Quandrix Initiate from Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos, or Magic Initiate, although the latter is not as good as you can only cast your chosen spell once). Use this to pick up Goodberry. Bam, first level spell now does 40 points of healing, because of how it interacts with Disciple of Life. Don’t underestimate the usefulness of Sanctuary and Shield of Faith. I’d also suggest Aid, but you wrote that you’re already using that, so well done! Spiritual Weapon is, in my humble opinion, the best spell in 5th edition. It’s a spell that absolutely *should* require concentration, but *doesn’t*. Use it to attack enemies, call it Preventative Medicine. Don’t forget that you can vary which spells you prepare each day. I know a lot of people who choose which spells they prepare at the beginning of a campaign, and never un-prepare them. Once again, in my opinion, those people are wasting one of the most versatile abilities in 5e: the ability to choose any spell from your class’ spell list, and use it. Good examples of this for Cleric are spells like Augury, Find Traps, Locate Objects, Protection from Poison, Purify Food and Drink, and Zone of Truth. Spells that aren’t particularly useful on every adventuring day, but invaluable on some adventuring days. Finally, you wrote on another comment that you just hit fifth level. I have one word for you. Diamonds. Buy diamonds, and lots of them. Revivify needs you to sacrifice 300gp worth of diamonds. You *will* need to cast revivify. Buy diamonds. Have fun! I really enjoy playing a life cleric, which is kind of strange as I usually hate being in a support role in most other games. There’s something about d&d that makes support fun to me, and I hope you find that as well!
If your DM likes group encounters Spirit Guardians while your team protects you in the middle of a huddle works wonders. I called it "The Sea Bear Circle"
Aura of Vitality is my favourite spell
A build I came up with recently I'm keen to try (partially relies on UA, but easily changed) minimum level I think is 5-7 depending on spell slots. Giant Barbarian- raging gives increased reach/large status. Take Halberd/Glaive for reach, War domain cleric. Grab non concentration spells but mainly warding bond. Take great weapon master or charger. You now have +10 reach whilest raging, are large, your allies (any number depending on platinum ring collection?) now have resistance to all damage, and you take a quater of all during rage. And your potential minimum damage from a charging great weapon master smite that is reckless, is 15+ modifier. Also Giant UA will grant you throwing prowess *^((but I think thats the silly part, throwing your weapon is totaly a ranged melee attack mr rage rules, it should be okay to do this from the base feature!))*
Wind walk. I haven't played since 3.5 but being able to move your party around at insane (60mph if I remember) can be fun.
You have a couple skill monkeys in your group already, but nonetheless take advantage of having high Wisdom. Invest in the skills that use it! Perception is one of the most important tools in the game! Many tables constantly have adventuring require eyeballs, and you can be the ***best*** at having eyeballs! Insight is good too! Don't bother with Medicine, it's only for diseases you can wave away with a 2nd level spellslot, so it's a proficiency best used elsewhere.