@@mikeclementecard You could still do Scale Mail and choose a non-metal material (mine is leather cut into scale pieces from a kraken (was going to be a dragon turtle)) + 14 DEX to get a 16 AC. Increase it to 18 AC if you take a wooden shield.
It hurts me to see unique and interesting builds like this where the mage has a defined theme and fun options but it's painfully outclassed by the generic do-everything Wizard.
One spell I think would be really good for this build that you didn't mention is Melf's Minute Meteors. While it covers less area than a fireball, it has potential to do more damage to single targets and can be aimed more easily, and more importantly, each meteor counts as its own instance of damage, which means each one will trigger the thunderbolt strike push.
A repeated movable AoE that lets you push people around - great idea. And since you can throw two motes per round you can push the same targets 20 feet or different targets. You potentially could use this to help group enemies together for other spells (plus you have an action to use). Additionally, minute meteors is save for half, so you can push the enemies even if they succeed. You will want to move around to optimize which direction is “away from you”.
Alternative race: Mountain Dwarf. Start at 8/10/15/16/16/10 with heavy armor at no penalty, with Resilient (CON) getting us to 16 instead of 15 at level 4, plus all the other Dwarf benefits and a bazillion tool proficiencies after swaps. The War Caster benefits are marginal if you never need to hold a weapon and plan on buffing your saves with Bless anyway, depending on if your DM ever allows you to make AOOs.
My level 9 cleric picked up Transmuted Spell from Tasha’s new Metamagic feat. Cast Spirit Shroud, changing the damage to lightning, fun little combo while it lasts.
Unfortunately doesn't work within the rules. Transumted Spell only lets you change between: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder and Spriit Shroud can only do Radiant or Necrotic. you'll notice every sort of Transmute or elemental options never includes Radiant or Necrotic, they seem to be meant to be kept separate along with Force and Psychic, limiting foreseeable combinations and potential balance issues. Spirit Guardians would be nuts.
@@DYMTWrecks Oh wow you're right, they snuck in the cold damage after the UA version. This would make playing a Tempest Cleric straight through a fun option.
It kinda seemed like the new transmute spell metamagic in Tasha's could make Sorcerer a more appealing (or at least possible) option. Hard to beat the Scribes wizard for transmuting spell types though.
My thing though is the versatility you get from sorcerer. Cuz you can transmute that 4th level fireball, then finish off one of those guys with a quickened firebolt.
@Kobi02Gamingcc exactly. How does that not work RAW? fire bolt costs an action normally and then you can quicken spell meta-magic it to cast it as a bonus action. And then transmuted spell lets you change a spell that deals a certain damage type into another of those damage types so u can cast fireball as an action.
@Will Schmitt By casting a spell, in this case, Quickened Firebolt, with your bonus action, you are only able to cast a cantrip with a casting time of one action for the remainder of your turn. If you were to Quicken the Fireball, then you could use your action to cast Firebolt, but this wouldn't allow you to transmute the Fireball as you're already using a metamagic on it.
You would need tempest cleric 6, Sorc 3 (since scribes only works on wizard spells), Druid/Dao 3 for spike growth to get that working. And then you don't even have thunderous smite
Wall of fire only has one save, when it appears. The damage from staying in the circle and the damage from passing through the wall again are automatic, no save.
Wow, the Wall of Lightning combo with the Tempest push back ability is just mean, but I love it. I sense my DM would have a lot of the enemies be able to teleport after a few battles. Great build man.
Just one thing. You dont need to prepare the spell if you want to use its damage type in your casting of another spell. "When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell’s formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend." This clearly states you can use a spell of the same level in your spellbook but mentions nothing about having it prepared. So if you have chromatic orb for level 1, all done and dusted. Level 2 all you need is dragons breath. Level 3 you can have lightning spell to make a lightningball(fireball spell). You only need to have the spell in the spellbook and not waste a preparation slot on the spells you will rely on to change the damage to. Or am I missing something? EDITED .....SORRY YOU STATED THE INFORMATION CORRECTLY. MY APOLOGIES, I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED THE WHOLE VIDEO BEFORE MAKING A POST. I GOT AS FAR AS ABSORB ELEMENTS AND WAS LIKE HUH. MY BAD
I like min-maxing just as much as the next guy, but I have played Tempest Cleric 2/ Storm Sorcerer 18 in Adventurer's League all the way to level 20 and I can say from first hand experience that it does work and it works well. Most of the time in combat and even out of combat I outshined other players, even players that also had well built characters (Great Weapon Masters/Sharpshooters, etc.). Maybe my character didn't do the maximum lightning damage possible, but he sure did do a hell of a lot of it and instakill many mobs. I wanted to play as a demigod son of Talos that used divine sparks to purge the lands of evil. Using your own definition of "optimization", if I wanted to play as this character, and optimize it, I did exactly that. Storm Sorcerer's bonus action movement got me out of sticky situations all the time, vastly increasing my survivability while keeping up my dps and impact in battle. I actually felt kind of bad playing in the tier 4 epic I took part in. At level 20, giving my whole group concentration free flight partially trivialized the big final battle and being able to quicken and empower meteor swarm helped too. Just imagine if Tasha's was out by then and I could have transmuted it into a lightning or thunder swarm.
Since the Tempest pushback ability always pushes an enemy *away* from you, wouldn't they be able to escape the Wall of Lightning by going through the back or the sides? The pushback wouldn't send them towards the center, and might even push them *out* of the ring. (I suppose you could manage if you held an action to Dash, but that would require Quicken Spell, which eats up one of your feats and has very limited uses per day. It also probably requires you to have a mount, cause your movement on your own won't be enough to get around the massive ring of lightning you've made, at least most of the time.) Also, there are some easier alternatives. A Scibes Wizard with Crusher and bludgeoning spells can manage quite well for themselves, similar to a Dao Warlock with Crusher. (Though without the Eldritch Blast shenanigans or Spike Growth, I suppose it's not quite as potent.)
Dang that's a good point. I'm pretty sure that invalidates the entire tactics section of this video because each part of the wall pushes away from you, not towards the center.
Tempest cleric festure reads you can push them 10 feet away from you so you'd hit them with lightning they hit the wall and take additional damage then you don't push them out of the circle and they start their turn in the wall
I would check with your DM about a couple of the rules you mentioned, especially Black Tentacles staying restrained even outside of it, that's the kind of thing I could easily see many DM's not allowing. Really interesting video, not something I'd ever have considered really.
My interpretation of the tentacles interaction is not RAW, but follows the logic of the grappled condition, in which the condition ends if you are removed from the reach of the grappling creature or effect.
Have a solution to this one in AL before Tasha's. Tempest 17/Evocation 3. Took Wizard because he found a Staff of the Magi so 1ASI and Linguist feat later he became a Wizard and he already had a headband of Intellect and with access to Halister's collected spellbooks. He copied every 1st and 2nd lvl spells and retains access to the books to share with others.
Going full Tempest Cleric with Metamagic Adept feat should work well too, right? You only have two transmuted spells bullets per day for a good damage spell, but at least the character progression will not be delayed
only two uses of metamagic, sure. but you also only very few channel divinities per day too. you might not be able to get the nukes off as often, but you'll retain complete spell progression.
Cool video. I just started a nautical themed campain and the first thing that came to mind was storm sorcerer. Then I read up on the class, they really have nothing to offer. Went with a scribe wizard.
14 seconds in. Yes Chris, I have heard that. Well I guess I don’t need to watch the rest of the video, see you on Friday! Haha. All joking aside thanks for the video Chris, I really appreciate you always bringing us such consistent content.
I played a Mountain druid with 2 levels of Tempest cleric in a oneshot and it was actually incredibly strong. A 2-level Cleric dip is one of the most universally useful in the game because you get subclass features, a Channel Divinity, and AMAZING 1st-level spells, and in this case it uses the same main stat as Druid. As for character concept, he was a gruff, stern Dragonborn who grew up in a mountain-dwelling tribe and was a seer of sorts who spoke to the god of storms.
Thanks Treantmonk! Storm magic (lightning, thunder, water) is my absolute favorite thematically. I’ve even played a Tempest Cleric 2, Storm Sorc X several times because I like the flavor. I can’t wait to give this one a try. Side note: I think there is a way to make storm Sorc workable with a renewable source of temp HP, making it more of a berserker type build. It may be fun for you to play with.
That Wall Of Fire circle trap is insanely good...not to mention the potential combos you could do with a second caster wow...my DM is going to /hate/ me even more. This is an incredible build, and speaks so much to the value of smart multiclassing
Thunderbolt Strike At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you. you can only push the creature away from you. if the creature is going out of the wall of fire in an other direction (not in your direction. he can also get out from the wall of fire in the other three directions) in that case the creature wont go back into the wall and the trap wont work
Good insights as always. Prior to Tasha's my favorite Cleric was always Light. I'm more interested in your War Wizard / Battle Master build and whether it's still optimal given the Bladesinger rework in Tasha's.
Been playing my tempest8/hexblade5/stormsorc4 since level 4 and Ive been loving it. Using a CD on a crit booming blade its pretty great. I also have used storm sorcs 10ft fly bonus action quite often.
Scribes wizard. Magic missile + witch bolt(or thunderwave) = lightning missile Shatter + dragons breath = thunder breath Lightning bolt + fireball = lightning ball (or spirit shroud? Might need to double check rules, that doesnt feel like it should work) Elemental bane + wall of fire = wall of lightning And then no lightning/thunder 5th level spells I feel like this isnt the best, but it adds some fun and fits the flavour of a character who always does lightning and thunder.
2 tempest cleric/x order of scribes wizard. The wizard spell list has great and versatile lightning spells available at every spell level with the exception of 5th level spells. The issue with mixing up character levels for me would be that the more even the level split, the less your high level slots can be used for the theme. For example, a 6 tempest cleric/7 order of scribes wizard would have access to 7th level spell slots, but would only be able to change damage types of spells using spell slots up to 4th level. This is because the roll type change is limited by what you have in your wizard spell book, and you can’t have over a 4th level spell in your book because of the rules. This means your 5th, 6th, and 7th level spell slots can’t be used and also change damage types. Glyph of warding could be your level 3 lightning spell instead of lightning bolt. It actually covers acid, fire, cold, lightning, and thunder damage for a bit more versatility. This build makes wall of fire(lightning) awesome like you talked about. Not only is there the forced movement you can use to put creatures in the center of the wall for more damage almost guaranteed, but with manifest mind you can float it above the center and still be able to target those creatures. The wall of fire blocks sight both ways, so this is normally not possible. I’d rather do a Dao genie warlock, a fathomless warlock, or a gravity wizard for focusing on forced movement though.
I am getting ready to run a Storm Sorcerer 11 / Tempest Cleric 2 right now, and I rolled good wisdom and charisma, so it works for me. Close-quarters blaster caster with spells to augment defenses (Shield, Absorb Elements) and spells for good damage (cone of cold, chain lightning, fireball, thunder wave), as well as some utility (fly, feather fall, gust of wind). A pretty good turn for this character would be to Quicken Mind Sliver, then Empower a saving throw damage spell like Chain Lightning (doesn't work if you need to also Transmute the spell). If you happen to be concentrating on Bane, all the better - an average of -5 to the target's save against a max-damage spell. Going Cleric 6 is fun for pushing enemies, but I just can't pass up those higher level spells!
If your game is being extra generous with content allowed, Plane Shift has the Zheal Cleric which can do most of this straight through. You can even get wall of fire if you're using the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravinica backgrounds including the expanded class spell lists. The Rakdos Cultist or Boros Legionnaire both include wall of fire among other top picks, like Hellish Rebuke, burning hands, and flaming sphere for Rakdos Cultist and aid and scorching ray for Boros Legionnaire. This gets the wall of fire 10 ft push back trap at Level 7 instead of Level 13. I really like the build options the expanded class lists built into the backgrounds offer, I wish this type feature was added in as an optional feature to all backgrounds, like maybe an assortment of expanded spell lists that come as a package that you can choose which package to add to your class spell lists as part of your background. Then you probably want something for the non-casters as well or at least a different choice not involving expanded spells lists.
Unrelated to the video but about Wizards: Wall of Force can be used just about as well as Forcecage, the only improvements I see are that it doesn't take concentration (I'll come back to that), and that it forces a saving throw for magically leaving. The radius of a Wall of Force is 10 feet, which means it's a sphere 20 feet long end to end, so unless a creature is particularly cuboid, it should fit just as well as a Forcecage. You say Forcecage is useful because you can get magical effects in, and also you can use your concentration on them, but you can do a very similar thing with a Wall of Force. The thing is, you can cast spells into Wall of Force, it's transparent, some spells can be cast on a point you can see within range. There is indeed a damage over time spell that can be cast through transparent walls and does not require concentration, it is Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound. Though when using Faithful Hound, you must size the WoF to fit the creature, otherwise it may go out of range. As a side note, if any of your party members have Silence (it's not available to wizards sadly), it can be cast on the WoF/Forcecage to prevent all teleportation spells and the Disintegrate spell as a bonus. You may have heard the above information already, but I've heard you talk about WoF and Forcecage several times without you bringing it up, so it is what it is.
Sorlock with Repelling Blast and Quickened Spell can push creatures up to 80 ft away every time you hit with no saving throw! Thats a lot of punch every round lol, especially if you have Spell Sniper, Eldritch Spear and Distant Spell. Nothing ever gets close to you lol.
Glyph of Warding is also an option for a 3rd level spell that references lightning damage. I, too, would keep lightning bolt around for upcasting, but GoW is an option.
Sorcerer meta magic transmute damage turns Fireball into lightning ball. Also can max thunder damage ase well. Scribes wizard also allows you to change damage type without using a resource. So a 2 level dip in tempest gets you heavy weapon and armor proficiency as well as the channel divinity. Wrath of the storm is a decent reaction at least at lower levels. I think you can make it work pretty well even if it isn't maybe optimized
I don't know if Chris takes requests from non-patrons, but would he be willing to make a video articulating the ultimate party buffer? I'm guessing that it will just be a wizard again, but even seeing how to make a wizard who is really good at buffing the rest of the party would be very illuminating to me. (If he's already done this somewhere, would someone be willing to tell me where?)
Excellent ideas, sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think that the wall of fire strategy works quite as well as you portray though. The lightning damage doesn't necessarily push the creature back within the bounds of the wall (the source of the damage), it pushes the creature 'away from you'. So if it were to try to exit the wall in the opposite direction to you, the forced movement would actually help it escape (though as per the wording of thunderbolt strike you 'can push' them, you don't have to). Still think it would have plenty of strategic benefits, but if the creature decides to move in any direction other than directly towards you it isn't quite as trapped as it would initially seem.
The spider in the fire circle can exit out the back. Your push ability says you can push things away from you. Not away from where they enter the damage.
A good pick up with this and many other builds if DM allows is The uncommon magic item “Mizzium Apparatus” from one of the MTG books or a similar homebrew replacement. Allows you to cast spells you don’t have prepared as long as you have the spell slots for it. Perfect for multiclassing as you can cast higher level spells with it.
@Joel it's very good. There's the drawback of having to succed a dc 10+level of the spell arcana check or cast an other spell form a list, but it's negligeable.
@Joel oh it is for sure ranked too low. though so are a few uncommon items in general. as someone else said. you do have to pass an arcana check or end up casting a tottally different spell so if your int isnt that great it could backfire. id put it at around rare-very rare myself tho
Artificer's need more lightning spells. I know you can flavor your spells however you want, but iunno lightning just feels right for the class. Sadly there are only about half a dozen lightning spells total. Of those the 'neatest' is probably chain lightning. Not a lot of utility spells that include lighting which, makes a certain amount of sense but eh. I always like playing in a dynamic setting where things can progress and adapt. That's personal preference and I know not everyone has the same viewpoint. One thing I've noticed in 5e is there aren't a lot of inter party combo potential beyond knocking prone/graple. or flanking. In fact it's like the devs specifically tried to limit them. Grease isn't even flammable. I love 5e, I do. However the 'simplicity' of the system sometimes feels stifling.
There is also the idea of Transmuted Spells metamagic and spells like armor of agathys or fire shield, switching the damage to lightning. It could be a sweet idea, but I'm not sure how to approach it.
I have something similar. What I did was took the classic cleric and sorcorer, but instead of being a storm cleric, my tactic is high damage spell and the transmuted spell metamagic. Instead of fireball, take a max damage, up casted LIGHTNING ALL!
I've played a Tempest Cleric/Divine Sorcerer a few times now. It's fun at low levels, and a blast at high levels. I start Cleric 2, the rest is Sorcerer. Grab the new Elemental Metamagic from Tasha's and you're off to the races.
I think that if I were to play this character, I'd work with my DM such that they would have spent the first 6 levels as a standard Cleric with an ample Wisdom score and "only" 13 Intelligence. Then, right as they reach level 7, they find and attune to a Headband of Intellect. When they put it on, they can suddenly see connections and possibilities they'd never imagined before... and begin frantically scribbling notes EVERYWHERE. (Also, would 100% flavor Telekinetic as manipulating the wind.)
Important note: Thunderbolt Strike specifically states " At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you." Not from the origin point of the damage. From **you**. That's the only major problem with your wall of lightning tactic. It doesn't repel the creature from the wall, it only moves the creature in a vector away from your character. At least as written.
Honestly, the first thought I had was lore Bard. The ability to choose all the lightning and thunder spells in any class and making them Bard spells is useful, and adding in its loophole... Yeah, loophole. If you go lore Bard, it's secrets gives you 3 spells of any level you can cast. 2 full casters normally have higher spells, but can't learn them. This changes that, as those 3 choices can be of a higher level than you could normally learn, but since you can cast it... Of course, my understanding may be wrong. And not coming truly online till lvl 12 still is rough. And order of scribes is better overall.
Lore Bard only gets you 2 magical secrets at level 6, and for magical secrets it specifies "A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip" -so unfortunately it would still need to be 3rd level or lower.
Yes, but I can understand this but with Tasha’s new meta magic abilities with sorcerer. They can use sorcery points to make the abundance of fire spell and some cold spells into spells that do lightning damage. So if you have a 17th level spec and 2nd level cleric your can cast meteor swarm and do 120 damage plus a bunch of bludgeoning. Or you could use high level flame blade and with haste from fellow party member or yourself you can do 72 damage and with crits even more each then.
I was thinking to same thing and I came up with what I think is good, all you need is a two level dip on sorcerer and get meta magic. You want to take transmuted spell. You can now change a spell that last a while like spirit guardians to whatever damage you want. So know you just walk up and knock people way.
Thoughts to twist this build. Arshardalon"s Stride lightning damage and the 10' push to everyone along a path! Or Combine Tempest cleric with ascendent dragon monk (no longer mad) and the punch someone anywhere with lightning fists.
I believe the Wall of fire is both a better situation for the target and worse. Wouldn’t they take the pushback as soon as they are damaged? But then evidently they aren’t damaged a second time in their same turn by it. How it is written you’d only take damage the first time going through it - and when they end their turn in it - or within 10’ of a designated side. Wall of fire allows you to make it a ring smaller than 20’ diameter. I don’t think that gets us anything. (Like some multi pushbacks.) But the within 10’ damage of when there is only 10’ radius (it’s only 20’ diameter!) means they must move or your lightning will.
I played a build similar to this a while ago in a 13th level one shot, only i was able to get headband of intellect which made the build much less MAD, and it was a ton of fun to play
I still think tempest 2/draconic sorcerer lightning 18 is more effective depending on the campaign, upcast full damage shatter until lvl 7, then you're doing 56 damage to whoever you can fit in a line with lightning bolt, then lvl 8 add your charisma on lightning attacks. I said depending on the campaign because some campaigns have a lot less combat encounters making the channel divinity more useful. For example, if this build was used by one of the cast members of Critical Role, where combat happens much less than the average campaign, this multiclass would absolutely destroy and outshine in almost every combat and would be almost broken
Would love to see one on fire damage. Draconic bloodline Sorc, Light Cleric, Celestial Warlock, Evocation Wiz all add modifiers, although with different stat scalings. What would be the best combination for big fire spells? Edit: Wildfire Druid gets it too as someone noted.
The example you posted is very nice, but perhaps it would be even meaner if you cast grease in the middle of the fire wall, I think it would be extremely nasty. Every time the spider is pushed back, he must make a Dex safe or fall prone. Then when his turn is over, it must make another Dex safe. In addition it makes the inside of the fire wall difficult terrain.
0:30 i have had the same though myself sometimes, but sorcerer was not my prefered option for this build. in my theoretical version of it, i went for evocation wizard (scribe didn't exist at the time). i guess blue dragon sorcerer could also somewhat work
I was thinking something similar. Yes, Tempest 2 isn't Amazing, but it gives a Blue Dragon Sorcerer some early-game survival. Plus, 13 Wis isn't crippling if you take your spells knowing you won't be leaning on your Wis
I preferred just 2 levels in Tempest cleric rest in Scribes wizard. The heavy armor, Utility cantrips, extra Spells known, minor reaction for low levels, and finally short rest maximize spell 12 levels lower than evocation wizard is worth it. Playing one ATM and low teir was decent, the 2 level delay damage wise was negligible.
What about a combination between tempest cleric and circle of the land (mountain gets lightning bolt) druid? It wouldn't depend on as many ability scores for spell casting
That's pretty fun. I kinda want to drop some difficult terrain inside that lightning wall trick just to eat up more movement, but it's probably not worth it b/c the cheapest thing I can think to do it with is Erupting Earth.
Perhaps not able to do it themselves, but have the druid or ranger drop spike growth in there, and not only is it difficult terrain, it's adding 4d4 to the damage every time it gets bounced back.
Instead of choosing fireball, I would choose erupting earth. It deals less damage and also has a smaller area of effect, but you don’t take fire ball for its damage at level 11, and erupting earth has a nice side effect of causing difficult terrain without concentration. Also because it deals damage, change that to lightning, you can push creatures back. Seems to me that it would be superior to lightning ball for this character. I would perhaps call it erupting lightning.
I maybe late here. But if you went 6 levels scribe wizard, 6 levels tempest cleric, you'd have the ability to use Vampiric Touch. If you're a wizard that is using a polearm, then if I am not missing something (very likely). You now have a Polearm, Polearm Master, Sentinel, and Warcaster. So for your turn you could choose to do something like Wall of Water or Sand at this level to slow people down. If you want to fight, you can use Ray of Frost to kite people out. If they are getting close, you can use Vampiric Touch and become very tanky. At this point if there are more levels, I'd go Fathomless Warlock for 3 levels (I like the pact of the chain personally), the tentacle will allow you to become extremely controlling. Couple more levels in wizard and with Wall of Fire I think everything is set. Wall of Fire can be changed to lightning, and then if they take damage they are push back 10 ft. If they are within your reach you can drop their movement by 10 with a tentacle, you can push them back by 10ft with a vampiric touch changed to lightning damage. If you need an 18 hp heal, you can channel and maximize its damage to make you fairly tanky. For warlock I would take eldritch blast slowing by 10ft, and knocking back 10ft. All in all the rest of the spells here would be for counterspells, and if things get particularly dicey I'd get a fireball.
Good video, sweet build :) correct me if I’m wrong though, can’t the enemy in the wall of lightning just go north instead and not worry about being pushed inside - since you only can get pushed away from you?
Yes but then they have to go all the way around the wall to get to you, (assuming they need melee range, but the wall is also opaque so it helps vs ranged too). And you can then kite them around the wall if they refuse to go in it.
Broke: "I wanna multiclass Storm Sorcerer and Tempest Cleric for the super powerful lightning bolts!" Woke: "I wanna multiclass Storm Sorcerer and Tempest Cleric because it fits my character concept"
I think there might be one minor issue with the wall of fire trick, which is that Thunderbolt Strike only pushes enemies away from you. If an enemy uses their movement to move out of the circle to either the back or sides, you push is then helping them escape. This is pretty minor given that they have willingly moved away from you and your party to make this work, but it does limit the trapping ability of the spell somewhat. Seems like you might be better off with a plain old wall instead of the circle so that it s harder to go around, even if the damage will be lower.
35:20 What if this creature inside the wall of fire just go the other way? You can only push it away from you, so if it will go up pushing effect will not keep it in the wall, in fact it will help it escape the area.
So what about just doing tempest claric 20 take magic initiate for booming blade and lightning lure and metamagic adept for the element change. Sure can only change a spell type a couple times with it, but should still work fine.
The only problem with Wall of Lightning would be when the creature runs through the sides or back of it because you can only push the creature away from you in a straight line. It will probably come for you again but you would need to reposition yourself to push in back into the Wall again.
The only good way to build this is a Theurg Wizard, and that is way to OP to allow in-game anyway :( OR to ask your DM nicely to get a good lightning casting item. I have even heard of settings where a specific church has a high level Cleric using Divi e intervention to give it's clerics good lightning spells to their list.
I have a battlerager build that is a ton of fun. Tavern brawler is a must. Martial adept for unarmed fighter fighting style makes the battlerager super effective and skill expert for athletics expertise rounds you out nicely. Ready of your ASIs in strength and con. Since you're probably going to be a mountain dwarf, dwarven fortitude isn't a bad feat to help you if you overextended, but you're going to want those ASIs unless you rolled like a god. For a weapon, take a lance. You're going to be sheathing it and using your fists most of the time anyways, but it is a good d12 reach weapon that you can flavor as a helmet spike. A lot of people will dip 1 level into rogue and use a rapier, but I like the pure barbarian build-especially if you can get to level 20. 3 levels in rune knight could go a long way, though, and saves you the martial adept feat since you get a fighting style. If you are a duergar, this could work well, too. Your first round might look like this: recklessly attack with your lance, move in closet and recklessly unarmed strike after sheathing your lance, then bonus action grapple. Next round, you can make two reckless unarmed strikes (or shove prone with one) and then bonus action grapple a second target. Now you have partially solved the stickiness problem if barbarians, you are dealing automatic damage each round, you are constantly generating temporary hp that benefits from your rage resistance, can constantly utilize your bonus action (grapple a target you're already grappling or armor spike attack), and you've mostly solved the problems with the battlerager. One thing I would NOT do is take the grappler feat. Rage already gives you advantage, your AC and temp hp buffer will mitigate the advantage against you to a degree, and you maintain your mobility.
I think you've somewhat underestimated the synergy of Storm Sorcerer's Heart of the Storm with Tempest Cleric's heavy armor + shield proficiency. On its own, Storm Sorc is too squishy and low AC to be so close to enemies and utilize that feature. I'd actually never dare do that with a solo-class Storm sorc. However, with a plate armor (assuming you can manage to get 1500 gold pieces) and shield in hand + Shield or Absorb Elements spells if needed, you are much more resilient even with low HP, able to withstand taking some damage to dish out a little bit of extra. It doesn't seem like much, but those little +3 or more guaranteed damage bonuses add up quickly over time. Sure, you don't deal massive damage with a single spell all the time, but with the added extra bit of guaranteed damage from Storm Sorc as well as Tempest Cleric's reaction damage, you are able to have a pretty consistent damage output round after round, even if doing nothing but first and second level spells. In a way, you're a frontline hybrid between a nova and a DPR-caster, you kind do both things 75% competently, which makes you able to fit several primary and secondary combat roles. I will yield to you it's not the best blaster out there, far from it. That's part of the wider 5e problem, outside of fire damage, there's really not that many options for blaster-casters. There are far better combinations that do a lot more damage and more battlefield control, but if someone wants to play a lightning specialist, I don't think that person would be disappointed with a Storm Sorc/Tempest Cleric combo, especially if Transmuted Metamagic is allowed, which, judging by the poll on my Community tab, most DMs would allow.. Your build here is, in comparison, built for a different, albeit similar purpose. I don't think it's even fair to compare the two of them. I personally don't like 50/50 splits, unless it's a Tier 3 or 4 one-shot, which you even said this build is best suited for. But, it's more a personal preference rather than an objective fact. To each their own, theorycrafting is interesting because multiple opinions can co-exist and nobody is necessarily right or wrong, as long as the end user is having a blast during a session, literally and figuratively.
I'm wondering about ascendant dragon monks. A 6 level investment isn't a dip, but I think you could really make use of moving enemies around with superior movement and spirit guardians
Great, played the thurlist (spelling) UA, with this and yeah that was broke, but was limited to lightning bolt... Don’t quite get why grab lightning bolt, if upcasting counts... the absorb elements has you covered...
What if the monster in the wall of fire cage tries waking it of the cage in the opposite direction of where the Wizard is? That way, if he makes it out, the entire firewall will be between him and the Wizard who won't have line of sight to push him back in, and if he did, he'd still only be able to pay further away, not pull the monster back towards him and the cage
The best* build is 2 levels of Fighter/6 levels of Tempest Cleric/12 levels Divine Soul Sorcerer. Cast Hallow the day before. When they fail their CHA saves they are now vulnerable to Lightning Damage. Upcast Fireball using a 9th level spell slot and Transmute the damage to Lightning. Use the Tempest Channel Divinity to do max damage, dealing 14*6*2 damage or 168 damage to anything with that failed their CHA save and DEX save. Then if anyone is still standing, cast your second fireball with Action Surge and repeat using an 8th level slot, dealing 13*6*2 or 156 for a total of 324 damage to anything in that fireball zone. *note: Best is subjective and this build sounds in no way fun. I would not play it.
Funny I was actually looking into making a graviturgy wizard with the same premise. Use the 6th level ability to knock them back and forth through the firewalls.
Druids with Circle of the Land (Mountain) get the Wisdom-based Lightning Bolt y'all
Mountain druid + boros background is a good way to make a blaster druid
@@Booklat1 that's reliant on you being able to get a ravnica background.
Bye bye heavy armor
@@mikeclementecard You could still do Scale Mail and choose a non-metal material (mine is leather cut into scale pieces from a kraken (was going to be a dragon turtle)) + 14 DEX to get a 16 AC. Increase it to 18 AC if you take a wooden shield.
@@mikeclementecard could try for bamboo armor
The wall of lightning trap... genius! Loved this build :)
It hurts me to see unique and interesting builds like this where the mage has a defined theme and fun options but it's painfully outclassed by the generic do-everything Wizard.
One spell I think would be really good for this build that you didn't mention is Melf's Minute Meteors. While it covers less area than a fireball, it has potential to do more damage to single targets and can be aimed more easily, and more importantly, each meteor counts as its own instance of damage, which means each one will trigger the thunderbolt strike push.
I also think Tasha’s Caustic Brew is an option. 10’ push every turn, aoe, scales well, takes an action to get rid of, what’s not to love?
A repeated movable AoE that lets you push people around - great idea. And since you can throw two motes per round you can push the same targets 20 feet or different targets. You potentially could use this to help group enemies together for other spells (plus you have an action to use).
Additionally, minute meteors is save for half, so you can push the enemies even if they succeed. You will want to move around to optimize which direction is “away from you”.
Took meteors on my fathomless warlock 2 sorcerer X who only uses cold spells 😅
My favorite lightning build is Armorer 5/Tempest Cleric 2/Rogue. Maximizing Sneak Attack damage on your Lightning Launcher is pretty great.
Alternative race: Mountain Dwarf. Start at 8/10/15/16/16/10 with heavy armor at no penalty, with Resilient (CON) getting us to 16 instead of 15 at level 4, plus all the other Dwarf benefits and a bazillion tool proficiencies after swaps. The War Caster benefits are marginal if you never need to hold a weapon and plan on buffing your saves with Bless anyway, depending on if your DM ever allows you to make AOOs.
My level 9 cleric picked up Transmuted Spell from Tasha’s new Metamagic feat. Cast Spirit Shroud, changing the damage to lightning, fun little combo while it lasts.
That sounds like a lot of fun!
Unfortunately doesn't work within the rules. Transumted Spell only lets you change between: acid, cold, fire, lightning, poison, thunder and Spriit Shroud can only do Radiant or Necrotic. you'll notice every sort of Transmute or elemental options never includes Radiant or Necrotic, they seem to be meant to be kept separate along with Force and Psychic, limiting foreseeable combinations and potential balance issues. Spirit Guardians would be nuts.
@@SpiderWaffle Spirit Shroud is radiant, necrotic or cold. Select cold, transmute it to lightning.
@@DYMTWrecks niiice
@@DYMTWrecks Oh wow you're right, they snuck in the cold damage after the UA version. This would make playing a Tempest Cleric straight through a fun option.
It kinda seemed like the new transmute spell metamagic in Tasha's could make Sorcerer a more appealing (or at least possible) option. Hard to beat the Scribes wizard for transmuting spell types though.
It's pointless to be made to spend a sorcery point tax. Anyone reasonable should just let you learn spells themed to what you want in the first place.
My thing though is the versatility you get from sorcerer. Cuz you can transmute that 4th level fireball, then finish off one of those guys with a quickened firebolt.
@@THESHADOWMASTER9 Unfortunately, that doesn't work RAW. The bonus action casting rules also apply to cantrips, not just leveled spells.
@Kobi02Gamingcc exactly. How does that not work RAW? fire bolt costs an action normally and then you can quicken spell meta-magic it to cast it as a bonus action. And then transmuted spell lets you change a spell that deals a certain damage type into another of those damage types so u can cast fireball as an action.
@Will Schmitt By casting a spell, in this case, Quickened Firebolt, with your bonus action, you are only able to cast a cantrip with a casting time of one action for the remainder of your turn. If you were to Quicken the Fireball, then you could use your action to cast Firebolt, but this wouldn't allow you to transmute the Fireball as you're already using a metamagic on it.
Spike growth (dealing lightning damage) with thunderous smite sounds hilarious
@@gamecavalier3230 smite growth
You would need tempest cleric 6, Sorc 3 (since scribes only works on wizard spells), Druid/Dao 3 for spike growth to get that working. And then you don't even have thunderous smite
Wall of fire only has one save, when it appears. The damage from staying in the circle and the damage from passing through the wall again are automatic, no save.
Wow, the Wall of Lightning combo with the Tempest push back ability is just mean, but I love it. I sense my DM would have a lot of the enemies be able to teleport after a few battles. Great build man.
I think part of the appeal of the cleric dip on a storm sorcerer is to get the proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor.
Yes, I agree. I play a 2 Cleric 4 Sorc build in half plate and a shield and I rarely get hit and when I do, if the dam is bad... I use shiels spell.
Just one thing. You dont need to prepare the spell if you want to use its damage type in your casting of another spell. "When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell’s formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend." This clearly states you can use a spell of the same level in your spellbook but mentions nothing about having it prepared. So if you have chromatic orb for level 1, all done and dusted. Level 2 all you need is dragons breath. Level 3 you can have lightning spell to make a lightningball(fireball spell). You only need to have the spell in the spellbook and not waste a preparation slot on the spells you will rely on to change the damage to. Or am I missing something? EDITED .....SORRY YOU STATED THE INFORMATION CORRECTLY. MY APOLOGIES, I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED THE WHOLE VIDEO BEFORE MAKING A POST. I GOT AS FAR AS ABSORB ELEMENTS AND WAS LIKE HUH. MY BAD
I like min-maxing just as much as the next guy, but I have played Tempest Cleric 2/ Storm Sorcerer 18 in Adventurer's League all the way to level 20 and I can say from first hand experience that it does work and it works well. Most of the time in combat and even out of combat I outshined other players, even players that also had well built characters (Great Weapon Masters/Sharpshooters, etc.). Maybe my character didn't do the maximum lightning damage possible, but he sure did do a hell of a lot of it and instakill many mobs.
I wanted to play as a demigod son of Talos that used divine sparks to purge the lands of evil. Using your own definition of "optimization", if I wanted to play as this character, and optimize it, I did exactly that. Storm Sorcerer's bonus action movement got me out of sticky situations all the time, vastly increasing my survivability while keeping up my dps and impact in battle. I actually felt kind of bad playing in the tier 4 epic I took part in. At level 20, giving my whole group concentration free flight partially trivialized the big final battle and being able to quicken and empower meteor swarm helped too. Just imagine if Tasha's was out by then and I could have transmuted it into a lightning or thunder swarm.
Since the Tempest pushback ability always pushes an enemy *away* from you, wouldn't they be able to escape the Wall of Lightning by going through the back or the sides? The pushback wouldn't send them towards the center, and might even push them *out* of the ring. (I suppose you could manage if you held an action to Dash, but that would require Quicken Spell, which eats up one of your feats and has very limited uses per day. It also probably requires you to have a mount, cause your movement on your own won't be enough to get around the massive ring of lightning you've made, at least most of the time.)
Also, there are some easier alternatives. A Scibes Wizard with Crusher and bludgeoning spells can manage quite well for themselves, similar to a Dao Warlock with Crusher. (Though without the Eldritch Blast shenanigans or Spike Growth, I suppose it's not quite as potent.)
Dang that's a good point. I'm pretty sure that invalidates the entire tactics section of this video because each part of the wall pushes away from you, not towards the center.
Tempest cleric festure reads you can push them 10 feet away from you so you'd hit them with lightning they hit the wall and take additional damage then you don't push them out of the circle and they start their turn in the wall
I would check with your DM about a couple of the rules you mentioned, especially Black Tentacles staying restrained even outside of it, that's the kind of thing I could easily see many DM's not allowing. Really interesting video, not something I'd ever have considered really.
My interpretation of the tentacles interaction is not RAW, but follows the logic of the grappled condition, in which the condition ends if you are removed from the reach of the grappling creature or effect.
Have a solution to this one in AL before Tasha's. Tempest 17/Evocation 3. Took Wizard because he found a Staff of the Magi so 1ASI and Linguist feat later he became a Wizard and he already had a headband of Intellect and with access to Halister's collected spellbooks. He copied every 1st and 2nd lvl spells and retains access to the books to share with others.
Going full Tempest Cleric with Metamagic Adept feat should work well too, right? You only have two transmuted spells bullets per day for a good damage spell, but at least the character progression will not be delayed
only two uses of metamagic, sure.
but you also only very few channel divinities per day too.
you might not be able to get the nukes off as often, but you'll retain complete spell progression.
The transmute spell metamagic could be useful here for the levels where you don’t have other lightning damage options
Cool video. I just started a nautical themed campain and the first thing that came to mind was storm sorcerer. Then I read up on the class, they really have nothing to offer. Went with a scribe wizard.
This guy is going to shock the world. Because he's none other than, THE. SHOCK. MASTER!
14 seconds in. Yes Chris, I have heard that. Well I guess I don’t need to watch the rest of the video, see you on Friday! Haha.
All joking aside thanks for the video Chris, I really appreciate you always bringing us such consistent content.
I've been recently obsessing over lightning themed characters in 5e so this video came at the perfect time lol
Very enlightening build
Nice
I played a Mountain druid with 2 levels of Tempest cleric in a oneshot and it was actually incredibly strong. A 2-level Cleric dip is one of the most universally useful in the game because you get subclass features, a Channel Divinity, and AMAZING 1st-level spells, and in this case it uses the same main stat as Druid. As for character concept, he was a gruff, stern Dragonborn who grew up in a mountain-dwelling tribe and was a seer of sorts who spoke to the god of storms.
Thanks Treantmonk! Storm magic (lightning, thunder, water) is my absolute favorite thematically. I’ve even played a Tempest Cleric 2, Storm Sorc X several times because I like the flavor. I can’t wait to give this one a try. Side note: I think there is a way to make storm Sorc workable with a renewable source of temp HP, making it more of a berserker type build. It may be fun for you to play with.
That Wall Of Fire circle trap is insanely good...not to mention the potential combos you could do with a second caster wow...my DM is going to /hate/ me even more. This is an incredible build, and speaks so much to the value of smart multiclassing
Thunderbolt Strike
At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you.
you can only push the creature away from you.
if the creature is going out of the wall of fire in an other direction (not in your direction. he can also get out from the wall of fire in the other three directions) in that case the creature wont go back into the wall and the trap wont work
Good insights as always. Prior to Tasha's my favorite Cleric was always Light.
I'm more interested in your War Wizard / Battle Master build and whether it's still optimal given the Bladesinger rework in Tasha's.
Been playing my tempest8/hexblade5/stormsorc4 since level 4 and Ive been loving it. Using a CD on a crit booming blade its pretty great. I also have used storm sorcs 10ft fly bonus action quite often.
25:00 lightning lure back and forth in a spike growth....the buzzsaw!
I will stick with my Tempest (2) / Storm Sorcerer (18) and Transmute spell Meteor with max dmg on half of it. Now only to get to lvl 19...
You can also empower the other half
Scribes wizard.
Magic missile + witch bolt(or thunderwave) = lightning missile
Shatter + dragons breath = thunder breath
Lightning bolt + fireball = lightning ball (or spirit shroud? Might need to double check rules, that doesnt feel like it should work)
Elemental bane + wall of fire = wall of lightning
And then no lightning/thunder 5th level spells
I feel like this isnt the best, but it adds some fun and fits the flavour of a character who always does lightning and thunder.
2 tempest cleric/x order of scribes wizard. The wizard spell list has great and versatile lightning spells available at every spell level with the exception of 5th level spells.
The issue with mixing up character levels for me would be that the more even the level split, the less your high level slots can be used for the theme.
For example, a 6 tempest cleric/7 order of scribes wizard would have access to 7th level spell slots, but would only be able to change damage types of spells using spell slots up to 4th level. This is because the roll type change is limited by what you have in your wizard spell book, and you can’t have over a 4th level spell in your book because of the rules. This means your 5th, 6th, and 7th level spell slots can’t be used and also change damage types.
Glyph of warding could be your level 3 lightning spell instead of lightning bolt. It actually covers acid, fire, cold, lightning, and thunder damage for a bit more versatility.
This build makes wall of fire(lightning) awesome like you talked about. Not only is there the forced movement you can use to put creatures in the center of the wall for more damage almost guaranteed, but with manifest mind you can float it above the center and still be able to target those creatures. The wall of fire blocks sight both ways, so this is normally not possible.
I’d rather do a Dao genie warlock, a fathomless warlock, or a gravity wizard for focusing on forced movement though.
Mind you, if the spider gets out of the circle throught the sides, or the back, the forced movement doesn't impede it getting out.
I am getting ready to run a Storm Sorcerer 11 / Tempest Cleric 2 right now, and I rolled good wisdom and charisma, so it works for me. Close-quarters blaster caster with spells to augment defenses (Shield, Absorb Elements) and spells for good damage (cone of cold, chain lightning, fireball, thunder wave), as well as some utility (fly, feather fall, gust of wind).
A pretty good turn for this character would be to Quicken Mind Sliver, then Empower a saving throw damage spell like Chain Lightning (doesn't work if you need to also Transmute the spell). If you happen to be concentrating on Bane, all the better - an average of -5 to the target's save against a max-damage spell.
Going Cleric 6 is fun for pushing enemies, but I just can't pass up those higher level spells!
If your game is being extra generous with content allowed, Plane Shift has the Zheal Cleric which can do most of this straight through. You can even get wall of fire if you're using the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravinica backgrounds including the expanded class spell lists. The Rakdos Cultist or Boros Legionnaire both include wall of fire among other top picks, like Hellish Rebuke, burning hands, and flaming sphere for Rakdos Cultist and aid and scorching ray for Boros Legionnaire. This gets the wall of fire 10 ft push back trap at Level 7 instead of Level 13.
I really like the build options the expanded class lists built into the backgrounds offer, I wish this type feature was added in as an optional feature to all backgrounds, like maybe an assortment of expanded spell lists that come as a package that you can choose which package to add to your class spell lists as part of your background. Then you probably want something for the non-casters as well or at least a different choice not involving expanded spells lists.
Unrelated to the video but about Wizards: Wall of Force can be used just about as well as Forcecage, the only improvements I see are that it doesn't take concentration (I'll come back to that), and that it forces a saving throw for magically leaving. The radius of a Wall of Force is 10 feet, which means it's a sphere 20 feet long end to end, so unless a creature is particularly cuboid, it should fit just as well as a Forcecage. You say Forcecage is useful because you can get magical effects in, and also you can use your concentration on them, but you can do a very similar thing with a Wall of Force. The thing is, you can cast spells into Wall of Force, it's transparent, some spells can be cast on a point you can see within range. There is indeed a damage over time spell that can be cast through transparent walls and does not require concentration, it is Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound. Though when using Faithful Hound, you must size the WoF to fit the creature, otherwise it may go out of range.
As a side note, if any of your party members have Silence (it's not available to wizards sadly), it can be cast on the WoF/Forcecage to prevent all teleportation spells and the Disintegrate spell as a bonus.
You may have heard the above information already, but I've heard you talk about WoF and Forcecage several times without you bringing it up, so it is what it is.
That wall of lighting is awesome. It would be great if you had a teammate cast spirit guardians or spike growth to lower there movement speed.
Are you *sure* you wouldn't rather just be a Daolock with Repelling Blast and Spike Growth?
Sorlock with Repelling Blast and Quickened Spell can push creatures up to 80 ft away every time you hit with no saving throw! Thats a lot of punch every round lol, especially if you have Spell Sniper, Eldritch Spear and Distant Spell. Nothing ever gets close to you lol.
The other fun with the lightning fire shield, You can also use your reaction for the cleric lightning and push back twice from one hit.
Glyph of Warding is also an option for a 3rd level spell that references lightning damage. I, too, would keep lightning bolt around for upcasting, but GoW is an option.
Sorcerer meta magic transmute damage turns Fireball into lightning ball. Also can max thunder damage ase well. Scribes wizard also allows you to change damage type without using a resource. So a 2 level dip in tempest gets you heavy weapon and armor proficiency as well as the channel divinity. Wrath of the storm is a decent reaction at least at lower levels. I think you can make it work pretty well even if it isn't maybe optimized
I don't know if Chris takes requests from non-patrons, but would he be willing to make a video articulating the ultimate party buffer? I'm guessing that it will just be a wizard again, but even seeing how to make a wizard who is really good at buffing the rest of the party would be very illuminating to me. (If he's already done this somewhere, would someone be willing to tell me where?)
I haven't made that. I'll put it on the list.
Chris did an "origin of the god wizard" video, which while not exactly what you're after, is kind of similar & certainly interesting.
Excellent ideas, sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think that the wall of fire strategy works quite as well as you portray though. The lightning damage doesn't necessarily push the creature back within the bounds of the wall (the source of the damage), it pushes the creature 'away from you'. So if it were to try to exit the wall in the opposite direction to you, the forced movement would actually help it escape (though as per the wording of thunderbolt strike you 'can push' them, you don't have to).
Still think it would have plenty of strategic benefits, but if the creature decides to move in any direction other than directly towards you it isn't quite as trapped as it would initially seem.
The spider in the fire circle can exit out the back. Your push ability says you can push things away from you. Not away from where they enter the damage.
A good pick up with this and many other builds if DM allows is The uncommon magic item “Mizzium Apparatus” from one of the MTG books or a similar homebrew replacement. Allows you to cast spells you don’t have prepared as long as you have the spell slots for it. Perfect for multiclassing as you can cast higher level spells with it.
@Joel it's very good. There's the drawback of having to succed a dc 10+level of the spell arcana check or cast an other spell form a list, but it's negligeable.
@Joel oh it is for sure ranked too low. though so are a few uncommon items in general. as someone else said. you do have to pass an arcana check or end up casting a tottally different spell so if your int isnt that great it could backfire. id put it at around rare-very rare myself tho
The sorcerer build is possible with Transmuted Spell metamagic. You can use this to change Thunderwave, Wall of Fire, etc to Lightning.
Artificer's need more lightning spells. I know you can flavor your spells however you want, but iunno lightning just feels right for the class.
Sadly there are only about half a dozen lightning spells total. Of those the 'neatest' is probably chain lightning. Not a lot of utility spells that include lighting which, makes a certain amount of sense but eh.
I always like playing in a dynamic setting where things can progress and adapt. That's personal preference and I know not everyone has the same viewpoint.
One thing I've noticed in 5e is there aren't a lot of inter party combo potential beyond knocking prone/graple. or flanking. In fact it's like the devs specifically tried to limit them. Grease isn't even flammable.
I love 5e, I do. However the 'simplicity' of the system sometimes feels stifling.
There is also the idea of Transmuted Spells metamagic and spells like armor of agathys or fire shield, switching the damage to lightning. It could be a sweet idea, but I'm not sure how to approach it.
Just play a warding dwarf to get armor of agathys. Go to lvl 6 tempest cleric after that I suppose.
@@theeye8276 or a tempest cleric 2/ clockwork soul X
I have something similar. What I did was took the classic cleric and sorcorer, but instead of being a storm cleric, my tactic is high damage spell and the transmuted spell metamagic. Instead of fireball, take a max damage, up casted LIGHTNING ALL!
I've played a Tempest Cleric/Divine Sorcerer a few times now. It's fun at low levels, and a blast at high levels. I start Cleric 2, the rest is Sorcerer. Grab the new Elemental Metamagic from Tasha's and you're off to the races.
I think that if I were to play this character, I'd work with my DM such that they would have spent the first 6 levels as a standard Cleric with an ample Wisdom score and "only" 13 Intelligence.
Then, right as they reach level 7, they find and attune to a Headband of Intellect. When they put it on, they can suddenly see connections and possibilities they'd never imagined before... and begin frantically scribbling notes EVERYWHERE.
(Also, would 100% flavor Telekinetic as manipulating the wind.)
Important note: Thunderbolt Strike specifically states "
At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you."
Not from the origin point of the damage. From **you**. That's the only major problem with your wall of lightning tactic. It doesn't repel the creature from the wall, it only moves the creature in a vector away from your character. At least as written.
Honestly, the first thought I had was lore Bard. The ability to choose all the lightning and thunder spells in any class and making them Bard spells is useful, and adding in its loophole...
Yeah, loophole. If you go lore Bard, it's secrets gives you 3 spells of any level you can cast. 2 full casters normally have higher spells, but can't learn them. This changes that, as those 3 choices can be of a higher level than you could normally learn, but since you can cast it...
Of course, my understanding may be wrong. And not coming truly online till lvl 12 still is rough. And order of scribes is better overall.
Lore Bard only gets you 2 magical secrets at level 6, and for magical secrets it specifies "A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip" -so unfortunately it would still need to be 3rd level or lower.
@@elliotbryant3459 Ah. My apologies.
Yes, but I can understand this but with Tasha’s new meta magic abilities with sorcerer. They can use sorcery points to make the abundance of fire spell and some cold spells into spells that do lightning damage. So if you have a 17th level spec and 2nd level cleric your can cast meteor swarm and do 120 damage plus a bunch of bludgeoning. Or you could use high level flame blade and with haste from fellow party member or yourself you can do 72 damage and with crits even more each then.
Turn*
Both this one and the Stormlord builds are fantastic, it would be fun to revisit the tactics of the lightning pushers I think
I was thinking to same thing and I came up with what I think is good, all you need is a two level dip on sorcerer and get meta magic. You want to take transmuted spell. You can now change a spell that last a while like spirit guardians to whatever damage you want. So know you just walk up and knock people way.
Sorcerer with the transmuted spell metamagic feat. EVERYTHING is lightning!
Nothing about this build clicked until the wall on the grid. You’re the epitome of lawful evil, my guy.
Thoughts to twist this build. Arshardalon"s Stride lightning damage and the 10' push to everyone along a path! Or Combine Tempest cleric with ascendent dragon monk (no longer mad) and the punch someone anywhere with lightning fists.
I believe the Wall of fire is both a better situation for the target and worse. Wouldn’t they take the pushback as soon as they are damaged? But then evidently they aren’t damaged a second time in their same turn by it. How it is written you’d only take damage the first time going through it - and when they end their turn in it - or within 10’ of a designated side.
Wall of fire allows you to make it a ring smaller than 20’ diameter. I don’t think that gets us anything. (Like some multi pushbacks.) But the within 10’ damage of when there is only 10’ radius (it’s only 20’ diameter!) means they must move or your lightning will.
Thumbs up for the shot of your hometown and mine.
I played a build similar to this a while ago in a 13th level one shot, only i was able to get headband of intellect which made the build much less MAD, and it was a ton of fun to play
I still think tempest 2/draconic sorcerer lightning 18 is more effective depending on the campaign, upcast full damage shatter until lvl 7, then you're doing 56 damage to whoever you can fit in a line with lightning bolt, then lvl 8 add your charisma on lightning attacks. I said depending on the campaign because some campaigns have a lot less combat encounters making the channel divinity more useful. For example, if this build was used by one of the cast members of Critical Role, where combat happens much less than the average campaign, this multiclass would absolutely destroy and outshine in almost every combat and would be almost broken
Would love to see one on fire damage. Draconic bloodline Sorc, Light Cleric, Celestial Warlock, Evocation Wiz all add modifiers, although with different stat scalings. What would be the best combination for big fire spells?
Edit: Wildfire Druid gets it too as someone noted.
wildfire druid too
@@triplepersys Cool, didn’t know, there are a couple of subclasses I actually haven’t read completely and that’s one of them, thanks!
The example you posted is very nice, but perhaps it would be even meaner if you cast grease in the middle of the fire wall, I think it would be extremely nasty. Every time the spider is pushed back, he must make a Dex safe or fall prone. Then when his turn is over, it must make another Dex safe. In addition it makes the inside of the fire wall difficult terrain.
0:30 i have had the same though myself sometimes, but sorcerer was not my prefered option for this build. in my theoretical version of it, i went for evocation wizard (scribe didn't exist at the time). i guess blue dragon sorcerer could also somewhat work
I was thinking something similar. Yes, Tempest 2 isn't Amazing, but it gives a Blue Dragon Sorcerer some early-game survival. Plus, 13 Wis isn't crippling if you take your spells knowing you won't be leaning on your Wis
I preferred just 2 levels in Tempest cleric rest in Scribes wizard.
The heavy armor, Utility cantrips, extra Spells known, minor reaction for low levels, and finally short rest maximize spell 12 levels lower than evocation wizard is worth it.
Playing one ATM and low teir was decent, the 2 level delay damage wise was negligible.
What about a combination between tempest cleric and circle of the land (mountain gets lightning bolt) druid? It wouldn't depend on as many ability scores for spell casting
Haven't played around with that build, so I can't really say.
That's pretty fun. I kinda want to drop some difficult terrain inside that lightning wall trick just to eat up more movement, but it's probably not worth it b/c the cheapest thing I can think to do it with is Erupting Earth.
Perhaps not able to do it themselves, but have the druid or ranger drop spike growth in there, and not only is it difficult terrain, it's adding 4d4 to the damage every time it gets bounced back.
If you are willing to go with the Ravnica or Strixhaven backgrounds you can cast spiritual guardians as a Wizard... doing lightning damage.
Instead of choosing fireball, I would choose erupting earth. It deals less damage and also has a smaller area of effect, but you don’t take fire ball for its damage at level 11, and erupting earth has a nice side effect of causing difficult terrain without concentration. Also because it deals damage, change that to lightning, you can push creatures back. Seems to me that it would be superior to lightning ball for this character. I would perhaps call it erupting lightning.
I maybe late here. But if you went 6 levels scribe wizard, 6 levels tempest cleric, you'd have the ability to use Vampiric Touch. If you're a wizard that is using a polearm, then if I am not missing something (very likely). You now have a Polearm, Polearm Master, Sentinel, and Warcaster. So for your turn you could choose to do something like Wall of Water or Sand at this level to slow people down. If you want to fight, you can use Ray of Frost to kite people out. If they are getting close, you can use Vampiric Touch and become very tanky. At this point if there are more levels, I'd go Fathomless Warlock for 3 levels (I like the pact of the chain personally), the tentacle will allow you to become extremely controlling. Couple more levels in wizard and with Wall of Fire I think everything is set. Wall of Fire can be changed to lightning, and then if they take damage they are push back 10 ft. If they are within your reach you can drop their movement by 10 with a tentacle, you can push them back by 10ft with a vampiric touch changed to lightning damage. If you need an 18 hp heal, you can channel and maximize its damage to make you fairly tanky. For warlock I would take eldritch blast slowing by 10ft, and knocking back 10ft. All in all the rest of the spells here would be for counterspells, and if things get particularly dicey I'd get a fireball.
This is definitely worse than the build presented. Vampiric touch is not a good spell
Good video, sweet build :) correct me if I’m wrong though, can’t the enemy in the wall of lightning just go north instead and not worry about being pushed inside - since you only can get pushed away from you?
Yes but then they have to go all the way around the wall to get to you, (assuming they need melee range, but the wall is also opaque so it helps vs ranged too). And you can then kite them around the wall if they refuse to go in it.
@@Kurse_of_Kall yes, absolutely, I agree :) it very annoying for the enemy that’s for sure :)
I counted it out, it would need 60 feet movement to get to you that way
if you want to play a straight lightning class just use metamagic adept on a tempest cleric and upcast call lightning as your go too.
Broke: "I wanna multiclass Storm Sorcerer and Tempest Cleric for the super powerful lightning bolts!"
Woke: "I wanna multiclass Storm Sorcerer and Tempest Cleric because it fits my character concept"
Me: I want to multiclass tempest cleric with conquest palidan because i want to be namless king from dark souls
And super powerful lightning bolts is part of the character concept.
Big brain: I shall instead take draconic Sorcerer
I think there might be one minor issue with the wall of fire trick, which is that Thunderbolt Strike only pushes enemies away from you. If an enemy uses their movement to move out of the circle to either the back or sides, you push is then helping them escape. This is pretty minor given that they have willingly moved away from you and your party to make this work, but it does limit the trapping ability of the spell somewhat. Seems like you might be better off with a plain old wall instead of the circle so that it s harder to go around, even if the damage will be lower.
Misty step behind them and push them back
35:20 What if this creature inside the wall of fire just go the other way? You can only push it away from you, so if it will go up pushing effect will not keep it in the wall, in fact it will help it escape the area.
As long as it has 60 feet of movement, that would work
The opener describing tempest/storm characters was fantastically shady and hooked me instantly.
3:11 They don't get a saving throw when they move through the wall, they just take the damage automatically, so even better ;)
So what about just doing tempest claric 20 take magic initiate for booming blade and lightning lure and metamagic adept for the element change. Sure can only change a spell type a couple times with it, but should still work fine.
This student has become the master!
Get Elemental Adept as well
Colby's Ashardalon Strider likely has some inspiration from this one.
The only problem with Wall of Lightning would be when the creature runs through the sides or back of it because you can only push the creature away from you in a straight line. It will probably come for you again but you would need to reposition yourself to push in back into the Wall again.
Artificer Armorer gets either lightning launcher or thunder gauntlets at this level. The damage isn't great, but it's fine for a forced-movement build
Human Shock Jock... got to find a way to put Stern in his name somewhere.
May I suggest the following for flavor:
Giant Foundling: Storm Giant
First ASI : Soul of the Storm Giant
> "My hometown btw"
Do friends call you "chummer" a lot? Is your employer's name "Mr Johnson?" Do you have problems with bug infestations?
The only good way to build this is a Theurg Wizard, and that is way to OP to allow in-game anyway :(
OR to ask your DM nicely to get a good lightning casting item. I have even heard of settings where a specific church has a high level Cleric using Divi e intervention to give it's clerics good lightning spells to their list.
I think it should be called the pinball wizard because of all the bouncing around the enemies do
hey I really like your videos. Could you please make one about the grappling-focused builds?
Sounds like a rune knight build
I have a battlerager build that is a ton of fun. Tavern brawler is a must. Martial adept for unarmed fighter fighting style makes the battlerager super effective and skill expert for athletics expertise rounds you out nicely. Ready of your ASIs in strength and con. Since you're probably going to be a mountain dwarf, dwarven fortitude isn't a bad feat to help you if you overextended, but you're going to want those ASIs unless you rolled like a god. For a weapon, take a lance. You're going to be sheathing it and using your fists most of the time anyways, but it is a good d12 reach weapon that you can flavor as a helmet spike.
A lot of people will dip 1 level into rogue and use a rapier, but I like the pure barbarian build-especially if you can get to level 20. 3 levels in rune knight could go a long way, though, and saves you the martial adept feat since you get a fighting style. If you are a duergar, this could work well, too.
Your first round might look like this: recklessly attack with your lance, move in closet and recklessly unarmed strike after sheathing your lance, then bonus action grapple. Next round, you can make two reckless unarmed strikes (or shove prone with one) and then bonus action grapple a second target. Now you have partially solved the stickiness problem if barbarians, you are dealing automatic damage each round, you are constantly generating temporary hp that benefits from your rage resistance, can constantly utilize your bonus action (grapple a target you're already grappling or armor spike attack), and you've mostly solved the problems with the battlerager.
One thing I would NOT do is take the grappler feat. Rage already gives you advantage, your AC and temp hp buffer will mitigate the advantage against you to a degree, and you maintain your mobility.
@@TheHaven923 the only thing the grappler feat does that a shove won't achive is giving your target disadvantage on dex saves. So yea its worthless.
I've played 2 bronze dragonborn tempest clerics, auto-max damage breath weapon is just so much fun to role play!
I think you've somewhat underestimated the synergy of Storm Sorcerer's Heart of the Storm with Tempest Cleric's heavy armor + shield proficiency. On its own, Storm Sorc is too squishy and low AC to be so close to enemies and utilize that feature. I'd actually never dare do that with a solo-class Storm sorc. However, with a plate armor (assuming you can manage to get 1500 gold pieces) and shield in hand + Shield or Absorb Elements spells if needed, you are much more resilient even with low HP, able to withstand taking some damage to dish out a little bit of extra. It doesn't seem like much, but those little +3 or more guaranteed damage bonuses add up quickly over time.
Sure, you don't deal massive damage with a single spell all the time, but with the added extra bit of guaranteed damage from Storm Sorc as well as Tempest Cleric's reaction damage, you are able to have a pretty consistent damage output round after round, even if doing nothing but first and second level spells. In a way, you're a frontline hybrid between a nova and a DPR-caster, you kind do both things 75% competently, which makes you able to fit several primary and secondary combat roles.
I will yield to you it's not the best blaster out there, far from it. That's part of the wider 5e problem, outside of fire damage, there's really not that many options for blaster-casters. There are far better combinations that do a lot more damage and more battlefield control, but if someone wants to play a lightning specialist, I don't think that person would be disappointed with a Storm Sorc/Tempest Cleric combo, especially if Transmuted Metamagic is allowed, which, judging by the poll on my Community tab, most DMs would allow..
Your build here is, in comparison, built for a different, albeit similar purpose. I don't think it's even fair to compare the two of them. I personally don't like 50/50 splits, unless it's a Tier 3 or 4 one-shot, which you even said this build is best suited for. But, it's more a personal preference rather than an objective fact.
To each their own, theorycrafting is interesting because multiple opinions can co-exist and nobody is necessarily right or wrong, as long as the end user is having a blast during a session, literally and figuratively.
A Blue Dragonborn (Fizban's Version) Draconic Sorcerer/Storm Cleric would give extra lightning opportunities.
I'm wondering about ascendant dragon monks. A 6 level investment isn't a dip, but I think you could really make use of moving enemies around with superior movement and spirit guardians
Hey Chris. When considering the build for this video, did you consider the armorer artifcer infiltrator mode?
With magic missile "only" rolling one dice and applying damage to all darts, would you consider elemental adept for this build?
Not in the levels presented.
@@TreantmonksTemple but in later levels? - or do you think other feats would be more relevant first?
@@Magnushamann I could see it in the later levels, but when I did the build I looked at EA and it didn't bring what the other ASI choices did IMO.
Great, played the thurlist (spelling) UA, with this and yeah that was broke, but was limited to lightning bolt...
Don’t quite get why grab lightning bolt, if upcasting counts... the absorb elements has you covered...
What if the monster in the wall of fire cage tries waking it of the cage in the opposite direction of where the Wizard is? That way, if he makes it out, the entire firewall will be between him and the Wizard who won't have line of sight to push him back in, and if he did, he'd still only be able to pay further away, not pull the monster back towards him and the cage
The best* build is 2 levels of Fighter/6 levels of Tempest Cleric/12 levels Divine Soul Sorcerer. Cast Hallow the day before. When they fail their CHA saves they are now vulnerable to Lightning Damage. Upcast Fireball using a 9th level spell slot and Transmute the damage to Lightning. Use the Tempest Channel Divinity to do max damage, dealing 14*6*2 damage or 168 damage to anything with that failed their CHA save and DEX save. Then if anyone is still standing, cast your second fireball with Action Surge and repeat using an 8th level slot, dealing 13*6*2 or 156 for a total of 324 damage to anything in that fireball zone.
*note: Best is subjective and this build sounds in no way fun. I would not play it.
Funny I was actually looking into making a graviturgy wizard with the same premise. Use the 6th level ability to knock them back and forth through the firewalls.