What are your thoughts on the new Monsters of the Multiverse, it butchers your Flamethrower build and I wonder how many other builds will be destroyed and to top it off the new PHB coming out in 2024 is likely to do away with short rests so the Warlock, Fighter and a few other classes will be massively impacted. No longer will the fighter dip be so prevalent, I expect anyway.
I saw someone say it last week, but it needs repeating, you need to do an episode where randal just draws a design, and you do your best to make a character to match the design.
PLEASE DO THIS! That would be so much fun and character driven. I often find the character backstory stuff to be the most fun and roleplaying it in game.
If you’re looking for a game, you might have a look at the various DnD related Discord servers. There are some dedicated to helping people find ongoing online campaigns. There are also some servers called “Westmarches” servers that basically offer pick-up games of DnD with a bunch of different DMs and players in a shared world
Just a thought for your tier lists, if you split it into 4 categories: aoe nova, Single target nova, aoe sustain, and single target sustain; you could significantly reduce the number of caveats you mention comparing build on your current tier lists. Then just mention a single damage number in aoe builds instead of guessing the probable number of victims and extrapolating dmage off of that. Regardless enjoyed the video, thank you.
Divine Intervention was used in my games mostly during downtime, where the cleric tried to do it every day. he was level 12 and helped to make a paralyzed woman walk again and helped a Lizardfolk Warrior to regrow his lost arm.
Divine Intervention Story: We were fighting in an ancient, ruined temple of Athena. My character, Eloia Verdalunda, a member of the Athenai Vanguard (a war priestess of Athena) led the party into a looped hallway between two separate forces of the enemy. We were trapped and tapped out on spells and abilities. One group of the enemy had a fearsome warbeast at the head of their force. In desperation, Eloia called out to her deity in that place of her former power, now desecrated by evil entities. I rolled an 08. The ceiling of the dungeon suddenly lifted away, and the Goddess towered over the scene, larger than any titan. Beside her, sipping from a goblet of wine, was Dionysus, whom the Druid in the party worshipped. They consulted briefly on the worthiness of the party as death loomed imminent. With a benevolent smile, the goddess gestured, bathing the party in warming light, and Dionysus emptied his goblet over the party. We each benefited from a long rest and rejoined the battle with renewed vigor; the taste of wine on our lips.
Don't mind me just watchin'. I would love to see you optimize a Light Cleric. Cauterize the wounds of your friends, and conflagrate your enemies with divine fire!
Remember the opponents that are leaving spirit guardians do so at half movement making it more likely for them to get pulled again on your turn. It'll be hard for them to get away.
Awesome! I played a very similar character in a Nightmare Before Christmas one-shot a few months ago. He was a Harengon nature cleric from Easter Town, and his spirit guardians were a swarm of spectral Marshmallow Peeps. 10/10 would play again. :)
For level 8 going war caster is probably better since you can thorn whip anyone who leaves your threatened space. That way they essentially take 20 feet movement speed penalty due to spirit guardian.
I haven't even watched the video yet but i just want to say this: I have been watching you for a long time now, Colby. And i can't even describe how amazing your weekly videos have been for me. I have never been able to find a party and play the game, so all i can do is watch others play and learn&theorycraft about the game. These consistent, high quality videos (which are just getting better and better) are really nice and helpful. You are one of the only UA-camrs whose videos i click and like even when i dont have the time watch them. Also you talked about characters of Brandon Sanderson in some of your videos which got me to read him. I am currently reading my sixth Cosmere book. Thank you so much for being awesome! (Also this build looks so exciting)
Yesss!!!! I love nature cleric so much, and it really doesn’t get enough love. I built a nature cleric, taking a single level in divine soul sorcerer for shield and the 2d4 to a saving throw. Glad to see you showing people how sweet this subclass is!
I have an interesting challenge: Optimize a 4 man squad, where all members have one class as the majority (or largest number) of levels. Oops all Rangers. Oops all artificers. Etc. But some multiclassing is allowed. And everyone covers each other's gaps.
Not that difficult with bards: Tank: Sword bard + hex/pally/fighter/barbarian DPR: Maybe bow build with valor bard + swift quiver? Or a bard fighter crossbow build? Control: Lore/eloquence Heal/support: Lore bard/life cleric
4 Clerics send by their temples to fight evil. Cleric levels always will be higher than the multi-classed levels. So at lvl 20, everyone is cleric 11 and 9 in multiclass. forge 8th + fighter multiclass (rune knight) twilight 8th + druid multiclass (circle of stars) war 8th + warlock multiclass (hexblade) or Paladin (any subclass really) tempest 8th + sorcerer multiclass (storm sorcery )
My party did this as sorcerers and it worked great. I was the resident tank with armor of agathys and sorcerous fortitude and it works surprisingly well (campaign fizzled out by like 3rd level so there wasn’t much else to use at that point)
This is a fun build and can be easily attached to any other full caster choice for support after level 5-6. Something like eloquence bard or chronurgy wizard.
Personally, I would run a medium armored (dumping the str in favor of dex for a comparable AC and better initiative) twilight cleric w/ magic initiate for thorn whip & magic stone. I'd run the same basic strategy but every bonus action is casting magic stone, and then using animate dead w/ standing orders to throw any magical stone within reach at a hostile creature. Have them stay within the spirit guardians to help keep them safe, and use your twilight shroud to keep the animated dead alive. You're still getting your thorn whip and spirit guardians damage as well as getting an extra 3d6+3wis per turn.
went medium armor myself with my version as initiative is important. went the divine sorc route though. nice on the animate dead + magic stone combo. didn't use that for my build but definitely something i use on other builds it's a great sustained dmg option.
I was planning on using this tactic with my Light Cleric. Took Druid Magic initiate for Thorn Whip and Entangle. There is only one problem with it. . . . The enemies keep dying before I can even start using it. Spirit Guardians is so strong.
Lol, I was surprised he didn't go Light Cleric w/ Druid initiate for optimization. Then again, I think that is the default Cleric build for most optimized builds.
Eh, you'd have to take that feat instead of Telekinetic, all so you can use Warding Flare? I'd rather have Telekinetic personally. (Telekinetic + Spirit Guardians is no joke.)
Simply incredible! Always knew that spirit guardians was good but never imagined it would be this good! Thanks for all of the great content, I hope you have a great rest of your day :)
I planned almost exactly the same build (not a ritual caster though). Aaaaand, that's why I don't agree with the nature cleric rating a lot of people do. This is one of the best cleric subclass out there. One of the best subclass out there I must say.
I'm playing in a Midgard setting campaign. And one of the subraces of the bearfolk get a druid cantrip for free. Definitely making this my backup character 😆
If you have problems creating characters with a lot of sustained DPR, you should explore Arcana clerics with booming blade, triggering "Potent Cantrip" twice with secondary damage and other clerics with Divine strike using Booming blade with maybe Shillelagh that improves Spirit Guardian clerics
I summoned a Planetar to help fight a vampire lord with Divine Intervention, it was awesome except my DM couldn't hit for shit I and the palandin in the party ended up doing more damage, though it was an awesome HP sponge!
Story time. I have played in a campaign for years as a cleric and ran Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon primarily. Otherwise played this character (Tempest) until level 9, then multi classed into Paladin (Vengeance) for 5 levels before taking more Cleric levels. The Spirit Guardians on a Paladin is absolutely amazing and the burst damage skyrockets. Great video. Loved it and thank you kindly
An idea for some series or group of episodes, the optimal non multiclass build for every class! Would be interesting to see how you build each class with the tools they have, obviously builds like this and one of the Bladesinger ones already fit too!
I've actually been thinking about this build more than any other I've seen on the channel yet. I believe the best start would be starting as Artificer. Only do the 1 level dip -- very important. Artificer does half levels for spell casting multi class rounded up, so you lose 0 progression. You get Con save proficiency, and you get access to Thorn Whip, and one other cantrip. Then you can be any cleric.
It would be an int-based thorn whip attack roll though, which would not be likely to hit with expected int score. Now if you wanted to be an arty with that and telekinetic and work with a cleric buddy...
My character just died Sunday and I’m trying to decide what to play. I’m leaning towards healing/ support or tank. This is absolutely going on the short list!
Regarding Divine Intervention, the last big campaign I was in that finished, when my Lizardfolk Forge Cleric gained Divine Intervention we went into a big battle with a lot of demons. Like a lot. It was brutal, it was messy. Banishment was the only way we were reliably dealing with any of them, but they were running us ragged. Our Moon Druid is tanking the big demon (I forget the kind), she is doing an amazing job but she is just about out of every trick she has. As she tries to get back towards safety and away from some poisonous pool, the demon hits her, takes her down to zero. Then hits her again. Two failed death saves. It comes to my turn, I had already decided my character would try Divine Intervention if one of us went down, so stepping up, she called out to her deity, saying that she has witnessed all the terror these demons have committed upon her champions (none of the other party members thought of themselves as champions to the deity), and to repay all of that damage back upon this foe. My character stepped up to claw the demon. We rolled a d20, so I needed a one or a two and I got it. The DM didn't bother doing the calculations, just had me describe how my character ripped its metal clawed hand through the demon, not really touching the body but shearing away part of its soul. Well, the demon exploded. So, third fail save for the Druid. She died. One of the paladins cast Revivify to bring her back. Due to my characters god, when she cast Revivify or similar spells she infected them with metal which slowly gave them attributes similar to a Warforge. The blast also killed another persons animal companion, so we had to use I think a scroll or something to bring it back. At least one other PC dropped to zero, but they just got a Healing Word.
I made almost the exact same character a while back! If you want some inspiration, Hero Forge has a spell effect called Summon Flowers which suspiciously looks like a hand. So I like to image a giant vine and flower cover hand as the effect of Thorn Whip and Telekinetic.
Your voice is so soothing I lay down on the couch to listen to this and fell asleep, woke up and it was playing another of your videos lol I had to go back in my watch queue to find this again
Wildfire 2 level dip is pretty good for flame seed/wildfire companion. A 6 level multiclass into it gives you a lot. Take elemental adept fire, along with nature cleric feature 6th level. FIRE DAMAGE EVERYWHERE
I've seen divine intervention work twice. Once when I was a DM, once as a player. When I was the DM the player asked for a 9th level firestorm but instead of fire damage he asked for it to deal radiant damage. I allowed it. He killed over 30 undead and delt over 500 damage across all of the targets. As a player, I asked for the Shapechange spell and the DM allowed it. I changed into a white dragon and used the breath weapon to cover an escape from a goblin horde and we flew away.
Also a similar build with an Loxodon Atrificer yelling " GO GO GADGET, EXTENDO TRUNK!" is the BEST thing ever!! Do you see what you do? These 💡 ideas you inspire? This is all your fault..... Good day, Sir.... See ya next time 👈
I’m thinking of reflavoring nature cleric to a Gandalf type character. His staff could be his holy symbol. Gandalf used light, animals, and thaumaturgy to accomplish his goals. Thanks Colby this is going to be fun
I might try a variant of this build that is slightly more focused on support and defense, where I go Twilight Domain and Variant Human to take "Magic Initiate: Druid" at level 1, getting Thorn Whip, Shillelagh, and Goodberry; from here the build goes basically as described. We lose out on the Bonus Action to pull a second person into the Spirit Guardians, but in exchange we get all the Twilight Domain goodies. Maybe take Telekinetic at 4, or 8, depending on which level I take Resilient: Con; I think the big loss is I won't be able to get Find Familiar either at all, or until level 12 or so, but that may well be worth all you get from Twilight.
I dig this build. really like that it doesn't require a dip into another class (although not against a good eldritch blast lol). So glad I found your channel. I do enjoy building characters / theory crafting as much as actual gameplay. Guess I like the channel so much that I'm now a member! LETS GOOOOOOO! I now have so many great options for my upcoming Cabin Con. Thank you!
This build plus the Ashardalon's Strider plus a Bladesinger would crush combat, add a support bard and Arcane Trickster rogue and you have a crazy 5 man team! I would love to see this in action. model them after the A-team for flavor!
Adding the cantrip: Create Bonfire allows you to do your main strategy from level 1 with the Telekinetic Feat. Although not on the Cleric list you could get it via Magic Initiate feat, that Druid dip you considered, or by being an Arcana Cleric instead.
The big problem being they take damage upon entering and then if they *end* their turn there, not when they start. So, unless we can stick them in place, they're unlikely to take the damage twice in a round :).
Druids don't get 2 wildshapes per day, but per short rest. The familiar doesn't cost material components which is nice. At druid 2 it would last for only 1 hour but again, you have 2 uses per short rest.
I definitely agree that Resilient: Constitution would be good to get early. Considering how reliant this build is on Spirit Guardians and drawing enemies closer, I would likely take it at level 4. I think Hill Dwarf could work too, with 14 Dex, 15 Con, and 15 Wis and +2 Con and +1 Wis. It would be extremely tanky with all the race features and eventual 18 Constitution while still allowing Heavy Armor to be worn.
I wanted to write exactly the same! 14 DEX + medium Armour seems like better pick than 15 + heavy (Same AC before lvl 5, +3 in DEX save, Initiative and Stealth). CON saves are really critical from this character from lvl 5 on - with only 2 spell slots, 2 bad saves and you are done for the whole day...
I’m late, but a one dip into artificer can give you con save proficiencies while not hurting your spell casting. Just delays getting your spirit guardians. Though the grease spell could make up for that some. Could also get thornwhip too.
Nice video. I did something similar with a Hill Dwarf War Cleric/Spore Druid. Shillelagh to make two attacks with my wisdom at level two because War Cleric. Spirit Guardians, my spores for bonus damage, mushroom shaped hammer floating about due to spiritual weapon, thorn whip enemies into my fungusy vortex of doom, and have Entangle as a backup in case something happens which would allow my collection of victims to run away. High AC, lots of temporary hit points. Guided Strike is really good when you cast Chill Touch to ensure that a stronger enemy is guaranteed to have disadvantage on their attacks. Crusader's Mantle my zombie helper, use Aid to buff it's HP max, bless, etc. This is good to give enemies a different target to attack instead of me or the party. I chose to go a more controller/tanky route with it. AFAIC, dwarven druids can wear metal armor because they are dwarves and druids care about upholding tradition. No druid is going to tell a dwarf what he can and cannot wear.
This build is a calling. I was planning on being a tortle nature cleric in wild beyond witchlight. Its a sign! What if you combined war caster and sentinel. Use thorn whip as a reaction to being enemies back after they leave your 30 ft radius. Then you lock them in your guardians for the round.
The use of a cantrip is in place of an opportunity attack. You only get an opportunity attack when someone leaves your melee reach. The range of Thorn Whip may be 30 feet, but using it as an opportunity attack means you're attacking them as they leave your 5-foot reach. So while it keeps them in the Spirit Guardians longer, you only get a 5-foot pull out of it.
A very nice build as always. When I saw the short video on Monday I thought another warlock (because of eldritch blast) build was on the way. So I tried to find something before the video was up. So I found undead lock build who uses EB for cantrip and spirit shroud for concentration spell. That build reached as high as 5d10+23d8+20 damage (158.8 average damage over all ACs 10 through 25 for single target or can be divided among up to 4 targets as per the EB cantrip) at level 17. Maybe you could look at it some time.
Hey Colby! I recently watched your ”one shot” with treeantmonk and dungeon dudes, and seeing what worked there and what didnt work there Id be very interested to see a ”real world optimized build”. And by that I mean a build that doesnt rely on 2+ rounds of setup (most fights arent very long, spending 2+ rounds not being effective should reflect in the dpr calcs etc), isnt a one trick poney that gets shut down with ”less than optimal” terrain/resistances/circunstances etc :) i realize that the builds that would cater to this could be considered boring/less flashy, but they just get the work done. If this ends up being a hexblade sorlock i understand that just curse + magic missile for the real threat of the encounter and then from there goes controll and EB, or hex and EB, or darkness EB, or even searing rays to get around force immunities. As allways very interesting thoughtexperiments presented here :)
he has done this already in the past. enemies with ranged attacks and spells (especially mobility options) were simply a hard counter for the catch 22 (or for any melee build for that matter). simply put if you wanted a "real world build" just check out any of colby's builds that are ranged or casters. range is a big advantage in 5e especially in big maps.
I have them for *most* of the older ones. Definitely all the more popular ones. Working on getting the backlog finished but... finding time is difficult :).
I am a little surprised you didn’t go Divine Soul with this build instead of Cleric, but I suppose getting the Familiar, Thorn Whip and Telekinetic does limit your options a bit. Sorcerer 5 with a one level Wizard dip could pull it off by level 6 though I believe and you would have prof in Con, but no armor with is a fairly big deal.
Honestly a Starry Druid can do almost the exact same thing as this build only better. Substitute Moonbeam for Spirit Guardians (3d10 radiant vs 3d8 radiant at 3rd level), Archer Starry form for Spiritual Weapon, plus you get Spike Growth, Thorn Whip and eventually Wall of Fire, Malestrom, and you get the familiar as a class feature.
Divine Soul lacking armor is a big one. It's fixable, and sure, Sor-locks are good characters, but I think it’s great to see someone work through how to do something similar with a Cleric. That opens the build world up a bit more.
@@thebitterfig9903 i think this is easily solved by just dipping into a class with armor prof like fighter 2 for action surge or taking a race that gives armor profs like dwarf or picking hexblade for the warlock subclass.
@@TheRobversion1 I mean, I literally said Sor-Lock. I guess I didn't spell out Hexblade. But that really misses the point. Even though it's a good class combo, it doesn't illuminate anything. Figuring out how to do these kinds of things with a Cleric is new. Doing them with a Sorcerer with some multiclass dips is kinda the meta. I'm much more interested to be seeing a different way to have this sort of forced movement character, and one with a really different vibe and texture, since not everyone is into Sorcerer. It's still good, it's still fine. But having Cleric or Sorcerer options is a big net positive.
Nice built something eerily similar in the past but more focused on control. i do think the build could benefit from multiclassing especially at latter levels once you have or can still acquire your 9th level spell slot like you mentioned being able to use con save prof. guardian of faith damages when an enemy moves within in its area which means: 1. they move into the area 2. they move and stay in the area 3. they move out of the area Sharing my own version of this which was themed on Ursula from the little mermaid going through a "Redemption arc." level 10 theorycraft as usual: fighter 2, divine sorc 5, fathomlock 3 shadar-kai asi: shadowtouc5ed-invisibility and false life (feytouched or gift of the gem dragon are worthy alternatives but i wanted to stick with the theme here) fighting style: superior technique-ambush metamagic: subtle spell, seeking spell invocations: lance of lethargy, grasp of hadar pact: chain (quasit flavored as an eel named flotsam) key spells: guidance, spirit guardians (spirits flavored as spectral tentacles), eldritch blast, aid tactics: pre-combat: coffeelock the remaining 4 hours of your party's long rest into additional spell slots after your trance. cast false life on self. cast aid on your entire party. walk around continuous casting guidance for initiative or invisibility for advantage on your 1st attack. flotsam walks around invisible. 1st round: bonus action: tentacle of the deep bbeg. speed is reduced by 10 ft. action: spirit guardians move to within 25 ft of the bbeg action surge: grasp of hadar enemy into your spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft. flotsam: help if the enemy has a move speed of 40 ft or lower they will not be able to move out of the outer rim of the spirit guardians (their speed is halved to 20 then reduced to 0) and unless they have a reach of 15ft won't be able to melee attack you either. should they have ranged attacks or spells, use shield, absorb elements or counterspell. on the start of their turn they also take spirit guardians dmg. 2nd round+: bonus action: tentacle of the deep. speed is reduced by 10 ft. reposition so the enemy is outside the spirit guardians aura action: grasp of hadar the enemy back into spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft. flotsam: help the sustained dmg is close to your version but the control of this is one is much better as it locks 1 enemy in place. when i played this until level 16 i just went straight up divine sorc as i wanted heroes feast and higher spell slots for spirit guardians.
Wow you're right there are a lot of these builds :D I love the Ursula theming! One of the best Disney villains. The only thing I think you're missing is another companion that you can name Jetsam.
@@egod555 yeah i had to rewatch little mermaid before as research for the character as basically I RP'd Ursula being transported to a dnd world where she sees a version of Ariel she wants to take revenge on but stumbles upon the party which sets her on a different course with a sort of a "redemption arc." Yeah i wish there was a way i could've gotten 2 familiars so i could name the other jetsam. overall though was happy with the build's performance as it shutdown melee bbegs while dealing good sustained dpr while having the defensive suite sorcs have that clerics don't get. oh and yes agreed on Ursula. one of the best indeed!
@@dungeondojo yeah and the great part is this scales well into the higher tiers unlike save or suck forms of control. spirit guardians is no save, grasp of hadar and tentacle of the deep are attacks. they arent affected by immunity, magic resistance or legendary resistance. slight errata on the build. it's supposed to be distant spell there instead of subtle spell (i still took subtle spell but that was towards the end of the campaign when i hit level 10 divine sorc). distant spell was used in conjunction with earth tremor in case i needed to lockdown multiple enemies. I'll use it instead of grasp of hadar. distant earth tremor creates a 20 ft radius of difficult terrain around me (1 perimeter square bigger than spirit guardians) no save. which means someone with 40 ft of movement would only be able to move 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. someone with 30 ft of movement is locked down at the outer rim of spirit guardians. but this is just 1 part. if they fail the dex save, they'll take 1d6 dmg and are knocked prone. if they are knocked prone, things get interesting. spirit guardians will reduce the speed by half. tentacle of the deep will subtract 10 ft from the remaining movement. now they wont have half of their remaining movement to stand up. if they have 40 ft speed or less they can't even crawl as crawling 5 ft into difficult terrain will cost them 15 ft of movement. at minimum they will need 50 ft base speed to crawl 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. should the bbeg decide to burn a legendary resistance to not get knocked prone then that's a win for me as i still get difficult terrain in (not a total waste of the action/spell slot) and i just used a 1st level slot. anyway glad you liked it. it was fun to play and RP. the party members liked me as i was doing all those cleric support stuff like casting death ward, heroes feast, upcasted aid, etc pre-combat on everyone as i had lots of spare slots doing the semi-coffeelocking and the build isn't spell slot intensive as it's built around a sustainable 3rd level spell, a 1st level spell and cantrips.
For clerics, I definitely believe going straight is the strongest way. Divine intervention once casted mass heal for a group in a very dire situation in a dungeon XD. I also think sorc is the strongest all round caster though. Not as much flexibility as the wiz, but with haste and 2 levels fighter you can cast 3 leveled spells in a turn, which can be nuts as any kinda sorc but especially celestial or shadow ( shadow if you have more time to set up for death doggie. and celestial for cleric spellage.)
Wait, you can't cast more than one leveled spell per turn - and the Hasted action can't be used to cast a spell, so you are at most doing 1 leveled spell, 1 cantrip and 1 weapon attack (or Dash, Disengage, Hide or Object Use).
clockwork souls technically have more flexibility than wizards before 13th level as they have access to all the key wizard spells + metamagic + magical guidance and some good spells wizards don't have access to such as armor of agathys and aid. agreed on sorc being the strongest all around caster. imo casting spells better and more levelled spells>flexibility. wizards are reactive casters adapting to situations. sorcerers are active casters imposing their will and forcing enemies to react. didn't understand how you could cast 3 levelled spells with haste. 3 levelled spells per turn though is definitely possible with action surge and warcaster.
@@TheBlazejumper you can technically cast 3 as long as one of them isn't a bonus action: action, action surge and warcaster. with contingency this can be pushed to 4 for 1 round.
Still can only cast 2, and that's only if you action surged and did not cast a spell as a bonus action. The moment you casted a spell as a bonus action the only spells you can cast that TURN is cantrips
This inspires me to make a full nature squad party. A Nature Cleric, any type of Druid, a Swarm Keeper, and either an Archfey or Dao Genie Warlock. Could have Spike Growth and Spirit Guardians doubled up, the Druid and Cleric standing together in the center. I really like that the Archfey warlock could hang in the back and Repelling Blast things that get too close to the center. If enemies got smart and tried to run from the area, the Archfey could deliberately step on the Spike Growth, trigger Misty Escape, teleport 60 feet to the other side, and then Repelling Blast the enemies from behind and push them back into the kill zone.
About spirit guardians: I ALWAYS forget the "Enter for the first time on a turn" also means you could take a step back, or juke up, down, left right, so they all exit, then re-enter each turn too, without the whip/TK things as well. Thanks for the reminder.
Love the build! We get a free feet at our table so I am planning planning on adjusting this a tiny bit with with magic initiate druid at Lvl 1 to take Shillaleigh and Thorn whip then Twilight cleric. Little less dpr, little more support, but still so strong! Thanks for your videos!
Very interesting. Thematically, nature cleric is great. Given that you don't get spirit guardians until level 5 though, waiting until level 4 to get thorn whip via feat isn't a huge deal. As for other cleric domains to make this work with, death cleric has a big synergy. Using your massive smite-like channel divinity helps to boost damage, and it can be used with thorn whip. Furthermore, in situations where you don't want to throw out spirit guardians, telekinetic can help you put enemies adjacent to one another for a double-target toll the dead.
Wildfire druid after cleric 6, will increse your spellslotts and while sumoned you can teleport short range with your spiritguardians basicly moving uou to the enemies instead of the enemies to you and if you use the thornwhip or even the lightning lure and creative positioning, since you can cast spells that dont target you through the wildfire spirit, you can now drag them into the aura from angles and areas you normaly couldnt
i definitely like the wildfire druid for casting thorn whip pulling up into the air then letting them fall through SG and take falling dmg and be knocked prone however it still needs a 3rd piece most of the time to pull it off as the pull needs to be at least 15 ft vs. medium/small. a daolock dip with crusher works or a 3rd level swarmkeeper dip. other than the pull up and then drop back angle, i don't see any other angles the base build cant do that the wildfire spirit can. as far as moving Sg towards the enemies this helps if there's alot of distance between the 2 round 1, otherwise it shouldnt help much unless there's a need to reposition since you cant dmg enemies by bringing SG into their space.
For a future burst damage build I would recommend a Assassin Rogue 17/Grave Cleric 2/Hexblade Aadimar in order to create the most edgy character possible, utilizing all of the subclasses damage boosting power for a massive single attack. (Booming Blade + Poisoner Feat?) Thank you for making these builds every week, it’s always one of the highlights of my day!
i have a similar build in assassin, grave cleric, battlemaster bugbear that's a one shot sniper. definitely alot of dmg for single attack. skip poisoner feat though as that triggers after the attack and doesn't get multiplied by path of the grave nor crits. it's a crap feat.
Hey! Thanks for all the great content! A few thoughts for this week's concept: Divine Soul with a Hexblade dip using Grasp of Hadar can do the same trick with a lot more damage and reliability. Start Divine Soul to gain Con save proficiency, Favored By The Gods for 2d4 when you need it, and access to the Shield spell. Then take Hexblade 1 for proficiency in medium armor + shields and Hexblade's Curse for some nova ability when needed. Then continue Divine Soul, taking Eldritch Adept: Grasp of Hadar at Divine Soul 4. At Level 6 you are a Divine Soul 5 / Hexblade 1 and you can use Quickened Spirit Guardians + Eldritch Blast on Turn 1, then Eldritch Blast + Telekinetic on each additional turn. At Level 9 you are Divine Soul 7 / Hexblade 2 (adding Agonizing Blast). At Level 13 you are Divine Soul 10 / Hexblade 3 (gaining Pact of the Tome + Book of Ancient Secrets for Find Familiar, plus 2x 2nd level Pact Magic slots to power your Flexible Casting). At Level 17 you are Divine Soul 14 / Hexblade 3. A variation with even more nova ability plus extra mobility is choosing Protector Aasimar (delays your combo until Hexblade 2 at Level 7 because you take Telekinetic at Divine Soul 4 but you gain Radiant Soul's flight and +level damage 1/rnd on a spell for 1 minute/day which is substantial as you get to higher levels ... choose Pact of the Chain if you go this route).
haha. scour the comments. so many of this already. agreed though as i posted mine too. a sorlock version definitely is a better chassis for SG. but as colby said, he didn't want to use EB or multiclass. my own version was a divine soul fathomlock focused more on lockdown control on the outer rim than dmg. the other warlock subclasses can also focus on different aspects. hexblades definitely do the most dmg. daolocks combined with crusher can do a 3rd pull. fey/undeadlocks are more focused on defense preventing the enemies inside SG from going towards you.
Thanks for the video! Incredble! Maybe a Divine Soul Sorcerer could also use the same tatics, but with other benefits, like having constitution saving throws proficiency and access to Twinned Spell and Quickened Spell to pull more targets with Torn Whip each round, adding more damage to the DPR. Later on, a 2 level dip into Warlock would allow it to have eldricht blast with Grasp of Hadar, with the same effect of thorn whip but greater damage. This would also give the character access to Armor of Agathys, that would put the enemies in an even more tragic situation in witch they have to choose between staying in the aura to attack you and taking even more damage while doing so, or to run away and be opened to Opportunities Attacks and to being pulled in back again.
I made this same comment basically but you beat me to the punch! I think the one advantage Thorn Whip has is that it can be twinned, whereas eldritch blast cannot after level 4, and even if you quickened EB, you can only pull one creature per turn with Grasp of Hadar. But still the extra damage might make up for it. I didn't think about Armor of Agathys either. That's a great point!
In a recent game, after my character died and everyone else was headed for a TPK, our cleric used Divine Intervention for the first time and rolled a 9, teleporting us back to our spelljammer. Really came in clutch.
Aasimar Light Domain 6-8 / Stars Druid 12-14 It's thematic with starlight. It has great concentration saves with the Dragon constellation. It has Fireball. Radiant Consumption is another source of AOE damage that only uses a bonus action and no concentration. They take damage when you end your turn within 10ft of them, and once per turn when you deal damage with a spell.
I've been slowly working my way backwards since I found the channel a while ago. This build is actually really similar to a build I came up with on my own. Cool to see the convergent thought patterns. I solved some of the issues Colby points out (such as getting find familiar) in a little different way: taking wizard levels, and using the mountain dwarf race. This also gives access to the full abjuration suite of defensive spells (shield, absorb elements, silvery barbs, and eventually counterspell), as well as some nice utility from a subclass (I used divination).
Two days after my birthday you come out with a build named after my D&D party (We are Natures Wrath!) and using my favorite cantrip that my Druid uses to consistently annoy my GM and effectively making the cleric version of my Druid!
Love it! My partners first and highest level active character is a Nature Cleric - definitely sending this her way :) ps divine intervention came in very clutch for her, at least once. The fighter was disintegrated by a beholder late in the fight...insert a divine resurrection!
I really like this concept and I think it would work really well as a twilight cleric as well getting thorn whip in another way. In my mind you would cast spirit guardians, activate twilight sanctuary, and then form a defensive barrier on the front line - buffing your fellow front line comrades and making it incredibly difficult or unappealing for enemies to get past you to go after your more fragile backline friends.
should work well as it's easy to acquire thorn whip. the initiative bonus twilight gets is important too so you can get SG out before enemies get to move past you.
I REALLY enjoyed this build Colby. Thanks so much. I did a mock version myself and did go with 2 druid levels to make a Stars/Twilight combo. The only thing I can see being a potential issue I'd love to fix is not having access to the Shield spell. Bringing this many enemies in close to you... is dangerous. :) And, I can definitely see having to make lots of Con saves even with a good AC without having access to Shield. I don't have a great answer other than a 1 level dip into something but it's definitely got me thinking... Thanks!
@@TheRobversion1 That's really good Rob. I also thought about a pull option by going Hexblade... I really do like the Cleric build for an upcoming game of mine based on my group... but I may have to consider the divine sorc route you mention. Thanks buddy.
@@dungeondojo you'll find my build and others who were thinking similarly in the comments section here. my theme for choosing fathomlock when i played it in the past is the answer to this question: "What if Ursula (from the little mermaid) had a redemption arc in the dnd world?" while i chose fathomlock, there are many other warlock subclasses that bring something else to the table: 1. fathomlock: bonus action sustained dmg source and speed reduction which leads to locking enemies with 40ft or less movement speed in place (typically the outer rim of SG so they can't hit you either if they don't have 15 ft reach). 2. fey/undeadlock: being able to inflict frightened prevents them from going towards the SG user to break concentration. they can only stay in place or move out. 3. hexblade: hexblade's curse increases the dmg pings of SG multiple times (entry, start of turn) for a single target. 4. dao: combined with crusher, allows you to pull a 2nd creature in with grasp of hadar.
Niche combo for the channel divinity. Use Thaumaturgy combined with Firbolg's beast speech or the eldritch invocation beast speech. Your voice booms out pleading animals to your aid. They show up (possibly) and then you snag some allies
I subbed to you some weeks ago. I love playing D&D, I love creating Individuals for D&D, I'm making my own campaign (since there need to be more Vegan Campaign Books!) so your builds are fun to listen to. 👍🏻 It gives me ideas and it allows me to tweak them even further to (sort of) "Perfection!" Keep it up, don't worry about Clickbaitiness. I came along for the content and your voice is soothing. It helps with keeping my attention to the concept. 👍🏻
Was late to watch today but I was looking forward to it all day. Great build as always, I love the single class build and on a cleric that is not the highest rated on most lists
Great build for the Puritans! My pick to the multiclass question is Divine Soul Sorcerer with 1 level of Order Cleric for Voice of Authority, and 1 of druid (very temped for 2). Twinned Thorn Whip optional, quickened emergency spells, proc VoA on various occasions like Healing Word or Silvery Barbs, and free up bonus action or use telekinetic. You're only delaying the next level of spells by two levels. I'd probably skip the stat boost and hold at 18 (might even just stay 16) and take a race with access to Armor of Agathys. Maybe twin haste and support for boss battles. Maybe twin Polymorph (VoA & T-Rex). Progression: C1/S5/D1-2/S++, almost same feats, Inspiring Leader temping.
i'd main order cleric here over divine sorc as thorn whip works off of wis. for a cha based pull, i'd rather go grasp of hadar from warlock. with that said though, i'd definitely go divine sorc as the better chassis for spirit guardians over cleric. the only other class i'd consider is bard if the game starter at higher tiers.
I had my own variation of Treantmonk's God-mage built for surprise. My DM let me grab Silvery Barbs when it came out. The synergy with Voice of Authority is downright dangerous. My initial goal was to increase party action economy and disrupt the enemy's. I've managed to trigger VoA twice in a round several times, sometimes before the enemy gets a turn. I think Treantmonk overstates the usefulness of versatility in his builds, and I'm going to tighten this one up for the next adventure.
@@VvDOPAMEANvV while his concepts are correct (action economy is king in 5e) he overestimates the detriment of being behind a spell level via dipping a couple levels elsewhere and plays a very reactive playstyle instead of imposing his will on the field and making the enemy adjust before he adjusts. his god mage build could definitely benefit from dipping 1-3 levels elsewhere. those dips just have to be placed properly in the levelling scheme.
Spirit Guardians in combat has a lot of neat tactics. Dodge action tanking and just putting big space. Using Spirit Weapon, Shillelagh with Warcaster for beat sticking with more wisdom damage.
I knew it'll be a nature cleric! And you can go to the teaser and see I was talking about a similar build I made. I think doing Shillelagh + 1 level dip into sorcerer for the CON proficiency and Booming Blade works very well too. AND, I used the new Earth Genasi from Monsters of the Multiverse that gains a Bonus Action Blade Ward to protect yourself (you are very close to enemies still lol). I called it Sandstorm, and the spirits are Locust! I'm happy more people will see how powerful nature clerics can be!
25:10 You can also move after the thorn whip and/or telekinetic shove to end your turn with as many creatures in the aura, or leave some on the edge if you have allies with forced movement options going before those enemies next turn.
looking forward to watching this build 😎 despite being a little bothered that this subclass has too much overlap with Druid…but Druids have always tended to get disrespected
Hey Colby. Idea for a build. The absolute massive damage you could do in a single turn; but integrating magic items. I would love to listen to that and really see how you can eek out perhaps one of your previous or an updated build with the power that comes from items that you can equip.
Nature cleric also has a really cool synergy between spirit guardians and plant growth, if you get both up enemies have 1/8th movement, lots of creatures can’t move at all without dashing, and even if they have 40ft they can only move 5ft on their turn. Absolutely locks down a battle field in a very strong way. Another thing that doesn’t actually contribute to your damage reports or goals for a build but is something you’d want to do with your character in an actual game
the issue with plant growth, is not all areas have it. if the campaign is typically set in forests or grassy plains, then sure. imo if you wanted to focus on the control aspect of SG, the divine sorcerer chassis + fathomlock is better so it's adaptable to any environment and does the same as you mentioned (less than 40 ft speed? you don't move. prone+difficult terrain+halved speed for everyone in SG aura). still, plant growth is a great control spell if you can use it much like transmute rock. take note, it doesn't mean if you want to use it, colby wants to use it. his goal for this build (sustained striker) is different from what you're suggesting or how i'd use SG myself. his action economy is clogged every turn so i doubt he'd want to use it. the only time he'd deviate from his general action economy are for panic buttons or if he needs to save an ally. if you watch aneria or his collab vids, this is also how he plays. if this build was meant to be controller, then i could definitely see him using plant growth.
@@TheRobversion1 Oh yeah I agree with everything you said, definitely didn't mean it as a primary tactic at all, just something useful in some situations, but a niche tactic that isn't in line with the primary focus of the build
First campaign of ours in 5e, rise of tiamat. The cleric pulled off a divine intervention as they assaulted the temple in the end fight bringing in a earthquake to cause devastation.
No way! The very same day I make a post in r/3d6 arguing for the strength of the Nature Cleric you publish this video! Also, in my build I take 2 levels in War Wizard at level 6-7, getting additional reactions gives us even more stuff to do, bolstering our action economy & our defenses. This would also mean that you don't have to take the ritual caster feat.
This is pretty similar to the build I posted on the subreddit a few months ago. It was the same concept, but divine soul/daolock using crusher to use forced movement for the action and also telekinetic for the ba. Also for this build, since you're taking ritual caster, you can dump strength and use a phantom steed for movement.
@@TheRobversion1 yeah. Undead and hexblade were also considerations for me, since you can get the pulling just from grasp of Hadar by sacrificing eldritch mind
@@alexp9962 with mine i never went after eldritch mind (i picked grasp of hadar and lance of lethargy) as i rarely got hit hard for my concentration to matter plus i had con save prof from starting fighter. my version was more about "how do i get the biggest threat into the outer rim of spirit guardians and get them to stay there? over colby's "how do i get as many enemies into spirit guardians?" so i focused on the speed reduction aspect of spirit guardians where i locked down anything with 40 move speed or lower on the outer rim and if they didn't have a reach of 15 ft they couldn't attack me. then if the threat had ranged attacks or spells, i had the sorcerer defensive suite (which clerics don't have) as a reaction: shield, absorb elements and counterspell. and just in case the threat had more than 40 move speed, i could always ask my quasit familiar to come out of invisibility and scare.
@@TheRobversion1 ah I see. That's a super cool take on the build. I always forget about the pretty good control of spirit guardians, since it halves move speed.
@@alexp9962 yeah with no save on the speed halving unlike let' say summon construct. its a pretty good control spell. i have the build somewhere else in the comments here along with action progression for turn 1-2 in case you're interested to check out the details. for those with a higher than 40 ft move speed, i'd gamble on using a 20 ft radius earth tremor (with distant spell metamagic) to add difficult terrain to the spirit guardians are along with a dex save or take 1d6 and prone.
You may have had this request already (and may have already done a video on this build and I have just missed it), but I was curious what character build you could come up with for an optimized Jedi build. Love the content Colby!
Just to clarify on Wild Shape, Druids get 2 uses of Wild Shape per Short Rest, not per Long Rest. So they should technically have plenty of uses if your are properly using Short Rests throughout an adventuring day. It is also worth mentioning the Druids version does not cost material components so early game you are saving quite a bit of gold (10 per cast) and you can use the familiar in riskier ways for greater reward since you are not worried about it dying.
Errata: Wild Shape resets on a short rest, not long!
I had just come to comments to correct that lol
What are your thoughts on the new Monsters of the Multiverse, it butchers your Flamethrower build and I wonder how many other builds will be destroyed and to top it off the new PHB coming out in 2024 is likely to do away with short rests so the Warlock, Fighter and a few other classes will be massively impacted. No longer will the fighter dip be so prevalent, I expect anyway.
@@O-D-X What are the changes that butchers the builds? Did something happen to short rests?
A jedi build would be awesome
Iv never seen a optimization of the psi warrior
@@O-D-X I'll wait until it's available to the masses to do a show on it, I think :).
I saw someone say it last week, but it needs repeating, you need to do an episode where randal just draws a design, and you do your best to make a character to match the design.
Oh this would be fun to see!
I second this.
PLEASE DO THIS! That would be so much fun and character driven. I often find the character backstory stuff to be the most fun and roleplaying it in game.
@DnDDeepDive have you gotten to this request yet?
Don't worry about the lack of a clickbait title. Your content is good enough that I watch all the vids anyway, my dude
Will be interesting to see if it effects views with the thumbnail, I like the video title (:
Hell yeah ! Always and forever here !
Haha yeh!
If you’re looking for a game, you might have a look at the various DnD related Discord servers. There are some dedicated to helping people find ongoing online campaigns. There are also some servers called “Westmarches” servers that basically offer pick-up games of DnD with a bunch of different DMs and players in a shared world
@@nevadamac8608 Thanks for the tip! Luckily I've been blessed by RNGsus to have two groups that meet weekly, one on Saturdays and one on Mondays!
Just a thought for your tier lists, if you split it into 4 categories: aoe nova, Single target nova, aoe sustain, and single target sustain; you could significantly reduce the number of caveats you mention comparing build on your current tier lists. Then just mention a single damage number in aoe builds instead of guessing the probable number of victims and extrapolating dmage off of that. Regardless enjoyed the video, thank you.
agreed here. made this same suggestion before. it's kind of unfair to compate single-target vs aoe dmg. less clutter on the graphs too.
That would be soooo good !
Very good advice
Divine Intervention was used in my games mostly during downtime, where the cleric tried to do it every day. he was level 12 and helped to make a paralyzed woman walk again and helped a Lizardfolk Warrior to regrow his lost arm.
Awesome!
Man, this player and this character both officially have my full respect. Now that's proper use of miracles.
Divine Intervention Story: We were fighting in an ancient, ruined temple of Athena. My character, Eloia Verdalunda, a member of the Athenai Vanguard (a war priestess of Athena) led the party into a looped hallway between two separate forces of the enemy. We were trapped and tapped out on spells and abilities. One group of the enemy had a fearsome warbeast at the head of their force. In desperation, Eloia called out to her deity in that place of her former power, now desecrated by evil entities. I rolled an 08. The ceiling of the dungeon suddenly lifted away, and the Goddess towered over the scene, larger than any titan. Beside her, sipping from a goblet of wine, was Dionysus, whom the Druid in the party worshipped. They consulted briefly on the worthiness of the party as death loomed imminent. With a benevolent smile, the goddess gestured, bathing the party in warming light, and Dionysus emptied his goblet over the party. We each benefited from a long rest and rejoined the battle with renewed vigor; the taste of wine on our lips.
Beautifully told
Nice
Let's go, this is awesome
In my (joke character) He-Man build, which unfortunately requires 20th level to work, Divine Intervention is how he transforms.
Level 1:(see above) [cleric 1, race, feat & sub-class]
Level 2:(see above) [cleric 2]
Level 3:(@16:49) [cleric 3]
Level 4:(@18:10) [cleric 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@20:59) [cleric 5]
Level 6:(@24:20) [cleric 6]
Level 7:(see above) [cleric 7]
Level 8:(@36:19) [cleric 8 & ASI]
Level 9:(@9:10) [cleric 9]
Level 10:(see above) [cleric 10]
Level 11:(@42:55) [cleric 11] (Colby says, "At Level 10")
Level 12:(@45:20) [cleric 12 & ASI]
Level 13:(@45:50) [cleric 13]
Level 14:(see above) [cleric 14]
Level 15:(@48:11) [cleric 15]
Level 16:(@48:25) [cleric 16]
Level 17:(@50:26) [cleric 17]
The emotional support in your videos is incredible. It’s subtle, authentic, and appreciated. Thanks for the wonderful content.
*Forever Subbed*
Yay! Thanks! :)
There's an error at 19:00... wild shape is 2 uses per SHORT or LONG rest. So, you can summon your familiar more often than you think.
even so, its still weaker than the ritual. it having a duration is just uncomfortable.
Colby: 20:05 "...and that would make me really sad"
UA-cam, a fraction of a second later: upbeat Shopify ad with happy music
lol
Don't mind me just watchin'. I would love to see you optimize a Light Cleric. Cauterize the wounds of your friends, and conflagrate your enemies with divine fire!
please
Remember the opponents that are leaving spirit guardians do so at half movement making it more likely for them to get pulled again on your turn. It'll be hard for them to get away.
Awesome! I played a very similar character in a Nightmare Before Christmas one-shot a few months ago. He was a Harengon nature cleric from Easter Town, and his spirit guardians were a swarm of spectral Marshmallow Peeps. 10/10 would play again. :)
Haha
For level 8 going war caster is probably better since you can thorn whip anyone who leaves your threatened space. That way they essentially take 20 feet movement speed penalty due to spirit guardian.
I haven't even watched the video yet but i just want to say this:
I have been watching you for a long time now, Colby. And i can't even describe how amazing your weekly videos have been for me. I have never been able to find a party and play the game, so all i can do is watch others play and learn&theorycraft about the game. These consistent, high quality videos (which are just getting better and better) are really nice and helpful. You are one of the only UA-camrs whose videos i click and like even when i dont have the time watch them. Also you talked about characters of Brandon Sanderson in some of your videos which got me to read him. I am currently reading my sixth Cosmere book. Thank you so much for being awesome! (Also this build looks so exciting)
Sanderson's Mistborn is also pretty great! The good parts are really good! The not so good parts are.... eh; but do check out Mistborn if you can!
Thanks so much! This warms my heart, and I'm glad you've discovered Brandon - so good! I hope you find a group to play with soon!
Yesss!!!! I love nature cleric so much, and it really doesn’t get enough love. I built a nature cleric, taking a single level in divine soul sorcerer for shield and the 2d4 to a saving throw. Glad to see you showing people how sweet this subclass is!
You never fail us. A hero doesnt always wear a cape.
yeah, sometimes a hero wears a Mickey mouse shirt :D
I have an interesting challenge:
Optimize a 4 man squad, where all members have one class as the majority (or largest number) of levels.
Oops all Rangers. Oops all artificers. Etc. But some multiclassing is allowed. And everyone covers each other's gaps.
I did something similar with a city I built, where the entire army are artificers.
The city has a dwarf gnome elf founding.
Not that difficult with bards:
Tank: Sword bard + hex/pally/fighter/barbarian
DPR: Maybe bow build with valor bard + swift quiver? Or a bard fighter crossbow build?
Control: Lore/eloquence
Heal/support: Lore bard/life cleric
Nb4 oops all monks
4 Clerics send by their temples to fight evil.
Cleric levels always will be higher than the multi-classed levels. So at lvl 20, everyone is cleric 11 and 9 in multiclass.
forge 8th + fighter multiclass (rune knight)
twilight 8th + druid multiclass (circle of stars)
war 8th + warlock multiclass (hexblade) or Paladin (any subclass really)
tempest 8th + sorcerer multiclass (storm sorcery
)
My party did this as sorcerers and it worked great. I was the resident tank with armor of agathys and sorcerous fortitude and it works surprisingly well (campaign fizzled out by like 3rd level so there wasn’t much else to use at that point)
This is a fun build and can be easily attached to any other full caster choice for support after level 5-6. Something like eloquence bard or chronurgy wizard.
Thanks!
Cheers!
Personally, I would run a medium armored (dumping the str in favor of dex for a comparable AC and better initiative) twilight cleric w/ magic initiate for thorn whip & magic stone. I'd run the same basic strategy but every bonus action is casting magic stone, and then using animate dead w/ standing orders to throw any magical stone within reach at a hostile creature. Have them stay within the spirit guardians to help keep them safe, and use your twilight shroud to keep the animated dead alive.
You're still getting your thorn whip and spirit guardians damage as well as getting an extra 3d6+3wis per turn.
went medium armor myself with my version as initiative is important. went the divine sorc route though. nice on the animate dead + magic stone combo. didn't use that for my build but definitely something i use on other builds it's a great sustained dmg option.
Swarmkeeper would be a cool add I think, since it would let you move people with your spiritual weapon
I was planning on using this tactic with my Light Cleric. Took Druid Magic initiate for Thorn Whip and Entangle. There is only one problem with it. . . . The enemies keep dying before I can even start using it. Spirit Guardians is so strong.
Lol, I was surprised he didn't go Light Cleric w/ Druid initiate for optimization. Then again, I think that is the default Cleric build for most optimized builds.
Eh, you'd have to take that feat instead of Telekinetic, all so you can use Warding Flare? I'd rather have Telekinetic personally. (Telekinetic + Spirit Guardians is no joke.)
A straight cleric build? Amazing! This build has captured my imagination with the potential of Telekinetic.
Simply incredible! Always knew that spirit guardians was good but never imagined it would be this good! Thanks for all of the great content, I hope you have a great rest of your day :)
Spirit Guardians for the win!
I planned almost exactly the same build (not a ritual caster though).
Aaaaand, that's why I don't agree with the nature cleric rating a lot of people do.
This is one of the best cleric subclass out there. One of the best subclass out there I must say.
I'm playing in a Midgard setting campaign. And one of the subraces of the bearfolk get a druid cantrip for free. Definitely making this my backup character 😆
If you have problems creating characters with a lot of sustained DPR, you should explore Arcana clerics with booming blade, triggering "Potent Cantrip" twice with secondary damage and other clerics with Divine strike using Booming blade with maybe Shillelagh that improves Spirit Guardian clerics
I summoned a Planetar to help fight a vampire lord with Divine Intervention, it was awesome except my DM couldn't hit for shit I and the palandin in the party ended up doing more damage, though it was an awesome HP sponge!
Story time. I have played in a campaign for years as a cleric and ran Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon primarily. Otherwise played this character (Tempest) until level 9, then multi classed into Paladin (Vengeance) for 5 levels before taking more Cleric levels. The Spirit Guardians on a Paladin is absolutely amazing and the burst damage skyrockets.
Great video. Loved it and thank you kindly
An idea for some series or group of episodes, the optimal non multiclass build for every class! Would be interesting to see how you build each class with the tools they have, obviously builds like this and one of the Bladesinger ones already fit too!
I've actually been thinking about this build more than any other I've seen on the channel yet. I believe the best start would be starting as Artificer. Only do the 1 level dip -- very important. Artificer does half levels for spell casting multi class rounded up, so you lose 0 progression. You get Con save proficiency, and you get access to Thorn Whip, and one other cantrip. Then you can be any cleric.
It would be an int-based thorn whip attack roll though, which would not be likely to hit with expected int score. Now if you wanted to be an arty with that and telekinetic and work with a cleric buddy...
My character just died Sunday and I’m trying to decide what to play. I’m leaning towards healing/ support or tank. This is absolutely going on the short list!
Regarding Divine Intervention, the last big campaign I was in that finished, when my Lizardfolk Forge Cleric gained Divine Intervention we went into a big battle with a lot of demons. Like a lot. It was brutal, it was messy. Banishment was the only way we were reliably dealing with any of them, but they were running us ragged. Our Moon Druid is tanking the big demon (I forget the kind), she is doing an amazing job but she is just about out of every trick she has. As she tries to get back towards safety and away from some poisonous pool, the demon hits her, takes her down to zero. Then hits her again. Two failed death saves.
It comes to my turn, I had already decided my character would try Divine Intervention if one of us went down, so stepping up, she called out to her deity, saying that she has witnessed all the terror these demons have committed upon her champions (none of the other party members thought of themselves as champions to the deity), and to repay all of that damage back upon this foe. My character stepped up to claw the demon. We rolled a d20, so I needed a one or a two and I got it. The DM didn't bother doing the calculations, just had me describe how my character ripped its metal clawed hand through the demon, not really touching the body but shearing away part of its soul.
Well, the demon exploded. So, third fail save for the Druid. She died. One of the paladins cast Revivify to bring her back. Due to my characters god, when she cast Revivify or similar spells she infected them with metal which slowly gave them attributes similar to a Warforge. The blast also killed another persons animal companion, so we had to use I think a scroll or something to bring it back. At least one other PC dropped to zero, but they just got a Healing Word.
I made almost the exact same character a while back! If you want some inspiration, Hero Forge has a spell effect called Summon Flowers which suspiciously looks like a hand. So I like to image a giant vine and flower cover hand as the effect of Thorn Whip and Telekinetic.
Your voice is so soothing I lay down on the couch to listen to this and fell asleep, woke up and it was playing another of your videos lol I had to go back in my watch queue to find this again
Wildfire 2 level dip is pretty good for flame seed/wildfire companion. A 6 level multiclass into it gives you a lot. Take elemental adept fire, along with nature cleric feature 6th level. FIRE DAMAGE EVERYWHERE
I've seen divine intervention work twice. Once when I was a DM, once as a player. When I was the DM the player asked for a 9th level firestorm but instead of fire damage he asked for it to deal radiant damage. I allowed it. He killed over 30 undead and delt over 500 damage across all of the targets.
As a player, I asked for the Shapechange spell and the DM allowed it. I changed into a white dragon and used the breath weapon to cover an escape from a goblin horde and we flew away.
Also a similar build with an Loxodon Atrificer yelling " GO GO GADGET, EXTENDO TRUNK!" is the BEST thing ever!! Do you see what you do? These 💡 ideas you inspire? This is all your fault.....
Good day, Sir....
See ya next time 👈
lol
I’m thinking of reflavoring nature cleric to a Gandalf type character. His staff could be his holy symbol. Gandalf used light, animals, and thaumaturgy to accomplish his goals. Thanks Colby this is going to be fun
I might try a variant of this build that is slightly more focused on support and defense, where I go Twilight Domain and Variant Human to take "Magic Initiate: Druid" at level 1, getting Thorn Whip, Shillelagh, and Goodberry; from here the build goes basically as described. We lose out on the Bonus Action to pull a second person into the Spirit Guardians, but in exchange we get all the Twilight Domain goodies. Maybe take Telekinetic at 4, or 8, depending on which level I take Resilient: Con; I think the big loss is I won't be able to get Find Familiar either at all, or until level 12 or so, but that may well be worth all you get from Twilight.
I dig this build. really like that it doesn't require a dip into another class (although not against a good eldritch blast lol). So glad I found your channel. I do enjoy building characters / theory crafting as much as actual gameplay. Guess I like the channel so much that I'm now a member! LETS GOOOOOOO! I now have so many great options for my upcoming Cabin Con. Thank you!
This build plus the Ashardalon's Strider plus a Bladesinger would crush combat, add a support bard and Arcane Trickster rogue and you have a crazy 5 man team! I would love to see this in action. model them after the A-team for flavor!
Adding the cantrip: Create Bonfire allows you to do your main strategy from level 1 with the Telekinetic Feat. Although not on the Cleric list you could get it via Magic Initiate feat, that Druid dip you considered, or by being an Arcana Cleric instead.
The big problem being they take damage upon entering and then if they *end* their turn there, not when they start. So, unless we can stick them in place, they're unlikely to take the damage twice in a round :).
Druids don't get 2 wildshapes per day, but per short rest. The familiar doesn't cost material components which is nice. At druid 2 it would last for only 1 hour but again, you have 2 uses per short rest.
This is my favorite of your builds. Battle field control and healing and damage
I definitely agree that Resilient: Constitution would be good to get early. Considering how reliant this build is on Spirit Guardians and drawing enemies closer, I would likely take it at level 4. I think Hill Dwarf could work too, with 14 Dex, 15 Con, and 15 Wis and +2 Con and +1 Wis. It would be extremely tanky with all the race features and eventual 18 Constitution while still allowing Heavy Armor to be worn.
I wanted to write exactly the same!
14 DEX + medium Armour seems like better pick than 15 + heavy (Same AC before lvl 5, +3 in DEX save, Initiative and Stealth).
CON saves are really critical from this character from lvl 5 on - with only 2 spell slots, 2 bad saves and you are done for the whole day...
I’m late, but a one dip into artificer can give you con save proficiencies while not hurting your spell casting. Just delays getting your spirit guardians. Though the grease spell could make up for that some. Could also get thornwhip too.
I love anything cleric!! More clerics!! :)
Nice video. I did something similar with a Hill Dwarf War Cleric/Spore Druid.
Shillelagh to make two attacks with my wisdom at level two because War Cleric.
Spirit Guardians, my spores for bonus damage, mushroom shaped hammer floating about due to spiritual weapon, thorn whip enemies into my fungusy vortex of doom, and have Entangle as a backup in case something happens which would allow my collection of victims to run away.
High AC, lots of temporary hit points. Guided Strike is really good when you cast Chill Touch to ensure that a stronger enemy is guaranteed to have disadvantage on their attacks.
Crusader's Mantle my zombie helper, use Aid to buff it's HP max, bless, etc. This is good to give enemies a different target to attack instead of me or the party.
I chose to go a more controller/tanky route with it.
AFAIC, dwarven druids can wear metal armor because they are dwarves and druids care about upholding tradition. No druid is going to tell a dwarf what he can and cannot wear.
This build is a calling. I was planning on being a tortle nature cleric in wild beyond witchlight. Its a sign!
What if you combined war caster and sentinel. Use thorn whip as a reaction to being enemies back after they leave your 30 ft radius. Then you lock them in your guardians for the round.
The use of a cantrip is in place of an opportunity attack. You only get an opportunity attack when someone leaves your melee reach. The range of Thorn Whip may be 30 feet, but using it as an opportunity attack means you're attacking them as they leave your 5-foot reach. So while it keeps them in the Spirit Guardians longer, you only get a 5-foot pull out of it.
@@Treebohr ohh. Ok. I thought if they left thorn whips range. Ok. Thanks for the clear up!
Also the warcaster spell isn’t an opportunity attack and doesn’t trigger sentinel anyway
@@matttownsend8406 it allows you to use a spell as a reaction. It’s why ppl combine it with booming blade
@@ridgecabernet1933 yes but it’s no longer an opportunity attack it’s a spell, it replaces the attack so it cannot trigger sentinel.
A very nice build as always. When I saw the short video on Monday I thought another warlock (because of eldritch blast) build was on the way. So I tried to find something before the video was up. So I found undead lock build who uses EB for cantrip and spirit shroud for concentration spell. That build reached as high as 5d10+23d8+20 damage (158.8 average damage over all ACs 10 through 25 for single target or can be divided among up to 4 targets as per the EB cantrip) at level 17. Maybe you could look at it some time.
Hey Colby! I recently watched your ”one shot” with treeantmonk and dungeon dudes, and seeing what worked there and what didnt work there Id be very interested to see a ”real world optimized build”. And by that I mean a build that doesnt rely on 2+ rounds of setup (most fights arent very long, spending 2+ rounds not being effective should reflect in the dpr calcs etc), isnt a one trick poney that gets shut down with ”less than optimal” terrain/resistances/circunstances etc :) i realize that the builds that would cater to this could be considered boring/less flashy, but they just get the work done. If this ends up being a hexblade sorlock i understand that just curse + magic missile for the real threat of the encounter and then from there goes controll and EB, or hex and EB, or darkness EB, or even searing rays to get around force immunities. As allways very interesting thoughtexperiments presented here :)
he has done this already in the past. enemies with ranged attacks and spells (especially mobility options) were simply a hard counter for the catch 22 (or for any melee build for that matter). simply put if you wanted a "real world build" just check out any of colby's builds that are ranged or casters. range is a big advantage in 5e especially in big maps.
Lunchtime on Tuesdays is my favorite part of the week!
Do you have the written guides for the older builds or only for the new ones?
I have them for *most* of the older ones. Definitely all the more popular ones. Working on getting the backlog finished but... finding time is difficult :).
I am a little surprised you didn’t go Divine Soul with this build instead of Cleric, but I suppose getting the Familiar, Thorn Whip and Telekinetic does limit your options a bit.
Sorcerer 5 with a one level Wizard dip could pull it off by level 6 though I believe and you would have prof in Con, but no armor with is a fairly big deal.
i personally went divine soul as well then dipped into fathomlock and started with fighter.
Honestly a Starry Druid can do almost the exact same thing as this build only better. Substitute Moonbeam for Spirit Guardians (3d10 radiant vs 3d8 radiant at 3rd level), Archer Starry form for Spiritual Weapon, plus you get Spike Growth, Thorn Whip and eventually Wall of Fire, Malestrom, and you get the familiar as a class feature.
Divine Soul lacking armor is a big one. It's fixable, and sure, Sor-locks are good characters, but I think it’s great to see someone work through how to do something similar with a Cleric. That opens the build world up a bit more.
@@thebitterfig9903 i think this is easily solved by just dipping into a class with armor prof like fighter 2 for action surge or taking a race that gives armor profs like dwarf or picking hexblade for the warlock subclass.
@@TheRobversion1 I mean, I literally said Sor-Lock. I guess I didn't spell out Hexblade.
But that really misses the point. Even though it's a good class combo, it doesn't illuminate anything. Figuring out how to do these kinds of things with a Cleric is new. Doing them with a Sorcerer with some multiclass dips is kinda the meta. I'm much more interested to be seeing a different way to have this sort of forced movement character, and one with a really different vibe and texture, since not everyone is into Sorcerer.
It's still good, it's still fine. But having Cleric or Sorcerer options is a big net positive.
Nice built something eerily similar in the past but more focused on control. i do think the build could benefit from multiclassing especially at latter levels once you have or can still acquire your 9th level spell slot like you mentioned being able to use con save prof.
guardian of faith damages when an enemy moves within in its area which means:
1. they move into the area
2. they move and stay in the area
3. they move out of the area
Sharing my own version of this which was themed on Ursula from the little mermaid going through a "Redemption arc." level 10 theorycraft as usual:
fighter 2, divine sorc 5, fathomlock 3
shadar-kai
asi: shadowtouc5ed-invisibility and false life (feytouched or gift of the gem dragon are worthy alternatives but i wanted to stick with the theme here)
fighting style: superior technique-ambush
metamagic: subtle spell, seeking spell
invocations: lance of lethargy, grasp of hadar
pact: chain (quasit flavored as an eel named flotsam)
key spells: guidance, spirit guardians (spirits flavored as spectral tentacles), eldritch blast, aid
tactics:
pre-combat:
coffeelock the remaining 4 hours of your party's long rest into additional spell slots after your trance. cast false life on self. cast aid on your entire party. walk around continuous casting guidance for initiative or invisibility for advantage on your 1st attack. flotsam walks around invisible.
1st round:
bonus action: tentacle of the deep bbeg. speed is reduced by 10 ft.
action: spirit guardians
move to within 25 ft of the bbeg
action surge: grasp of hadar enemy into your spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft.
flotsam: help
if the enemy has a move speed of 40 ft or lower they will not be able to move out of the outer rim of the spirit guardians (their speed is halved to 20 then reduced to 0) and unless they have a reach of 15ft won't be able to melee attack you either. should they have ranged attacks or spells, use shield, absorb elements or counterspell. on the start of their turn they also take spirit guardians dmg.
2nd round+:
bonus action: tentacle of the deep. speed is reduced by 10 ft.
reposition so the enemy is outside the spirit guardians aura
action: grasp of hadar the enemy back into spirit guardians. use seeking spell as needed. they take entry dmg, have their speed halved and have their speed further reduced by 10 ft.
flotsam: help
the sustained dmg is close to your version but the control of this is one is much better as it locks 1 enemy in place. when i played this until level 16 i just went straight up divine sorc as i wanted heroes feast and higher spell slots for spirit guardians.
Wow you're right there are a lot of these builds :D
I love the Ursula theming! One of the best Disney villains. The only thing I think you're missing is another companion that you can name Jetsam.
@@egod555 yeah i had to rewatch little mermaid before as research for the character as basically I RP'd Ursula being transported to a dnd world where she sees a version of Ariel she wants to take revenge on but stumbles upon the party which sets her on a different course with a sort of a "redemption arc." Yeah i wish there was a way i could've gotten 2 familiars so i could name the other jetsam.
overall though was happy with the build's performance as it shutdown melee bbegs while dealing good sustained dpr while having the defensive suite sorcs have that clerics don't get.
oh and yes agreed on Ursula. one of the best indeed!
Really good Rob. The extra twist of totally bombing an enemy's movement is a nice add to a build like this. Well done.
@@dungeondojo yeah and the great part is this scales well into the higher tiers unlike save or suck forms of control. spirit guardians is no save, grasp of hadar and tentacle of the deep are attacks. they arent affected by immunity, magic resistance or legendary resistance.
slight errata on the build. it's supposed to be distant spell there instead of subtle spell (i still took subtle spell but that was towards the end of the campaign when i hit level 10 divine sorc).
distant spell was used in conjunction with earth tremor in case i needed to lockdown multiple enemies. I'll use it instead of grasp of hadar. distant earth tremor creates a 20 ft radius of difficult terrain around me (1 perimeter square bigger than spirit guardians) no save. which means someone with 40 ft of movement would only be able to move 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. someone with 30 ft of movement is locked down at the outer rim of spirit guardians. but this is just 1 part. if they fail the dex save, they'll take 1d6 dmg and are knocked prone. if they are knocked prone, things get interesting. spirit guardians will reduce the speed by half. tentacle of the deep will subtract 10 ft from the remaining movement. now they wont have half of their remaining movement to stand up. if they have 40 ft speed or less they can't even crawl as crawling 5 ft into difficult terrain will cost them 15 ft of movement. at minimum they will need 50 ft base speed to crawl 5 ft either towards me or out of spirit guardians. should the bbeg decide to burn a legendary resistance to not get knocked prone then that's a win for me as i still get difficult terrain in (not a total waste of the action/spell slot) and i just used a 1st level slot.
anyway glad you liked it. it was fun to play and RP. the party members liked me as i was doing all those cleric support stuff like casting death ward, heroes feast, upcasted aid, etc pre-combat on everyone as i had lots of spare slots doing the semi-coffeelocking and the build isn't spell slot intensive as it's built around a sustainable 3rd level spell, a 1st level spell and cantrips.
For clerics, I definitely believe going straight is the strongest way. Divine intervention once casted mass heal for a group in a very dire situation in a dungeon XD. I also think sorc is the strongest all round caster though. Not as much flexibility as the wiz, but with haste and 2 levels fighter you can cast 3 leveled spells in a turn, which can be nuts as any kinda sorc but especially celestial or shadow ( shadow if you have more time to set up for death doggie. and celestial for cleric spellage.)
Wait, you can't cast more than one leveled spell per turn - and the Hasted action can't be used to cast a spell, so you are at most doing 1 leveled spell, 1 cantrip and 1 weapon attack (or Dash, Disengage, Hide or Object Use).
@@TheBlazejumper no, the hasted action cant cast a spell but action surge you can
clockwork souls technically have more flexibility than wizards before 13th level as they have access to all the key wizard spells + metamagic + magical guidance and some good spells wizards don't have access to such as armor of agathys and aid. agreed on sorc being the strongest all around caster. imo casting spells better and more levelled spells>flexibility. wizards are reactive casters adapting to situations. sorcerers are active casters imposing their will and forcing enemies to react.
didn't understand how you could cast 3 levelled spells with haste. 3 levelled spells per turn though is definitely possible with action surge and warcaster.
@@TheBlazejumper you can technically cast 3 as long as one of them isn't a bonus action: action, action surge and warcaster. with contingency this can be pushed to 4 for 1 round.
Still can only cast 2, and that's only if you action surged and did not cast a spell as a bonus action. The moment you casted a spell as a bonus action the only spells you can cast that TURN is cantrips
This inspires me to make a full nature squad party. A Nature Cleric, any type of Druid, a Swarm Keeper, and either an Archfey or Dao Genie Warlock. Could have Spike Growth and Spirit Guardians doubled up, the Druid and Cleric standing together in the center. I really like that the Archfey warlock could hang in the back and Repelling Blast things that get too close to the center. If enemies got smart and tried to run from the area, the Archfey could deliberately step on the Spike Growth, trigger Misty Escape, teleport 60 feet to the other side, and then Repelling Blast the enemies from behind and push them back into the kill zone.
About spirit guardians: I ALWAYS forget the "Enter for the first time on a turn" also means you could take a step back, or juke up, down, left right, so they all exit, then re-enter each turn too, without the whip/TK things as well. Thanks for the reminder.
Love the build! We get a free feet at our table so I am planning planning on adjusting this a tiny bit with with magic initiate druid at Lvl 1 to take Shillaleigh and Thorn whip then Twilight cleric. Little less dpr, little more support, but still so strong! Thanks for your videos!
Very interesting. Thematically, nature cleric is great. Given that you don't get spirit guardians until level 5 though, waiting until level 4 to get thorn whip via feat isn't a huge deal. As for other cleric domains to make this work with, death cleric has a big synergy. Using your massive smite-like channel divinity helps to boost damage, and it can be used with thorn whip. Furthermore, in situations where you don't want to throw out spirit guardians, telekinetic can help you put enemies adjacent to one another for a double-target toll the dead.
Wildfire druid after cleric 6, will increse your spellslotts and while sumoned you can teleport short range with your spiritguardians basicly moving uou to the enemies instead of the enemies to you and if you use the thornwhip or even the lightning lure and creative positioning, since you can cast spells that dont target you through the wildfire spirit, you can now drag them into the aura from angles and areas you normaly couldnt
i definitely like the wildfire druid for casting thorn whip pulling up into the air then letting them fall through SG and take falling dmg and be knocked prone however it still needs a 3rd piece most of the time to pull it off as the pull needs to be at least 15 ft vs. medium/small. a daolock dip with crusher works or a 3rd level swarmkeeper dip.
other than the pull up and then drop back angle, i don't see any other angles the base build cant do that the wildfire spirit can.
as far as moving Sg towards the enemies this helps if there's alot of distance between the 2 round 1, otherwise it shouldnt help much unless there's a need to reposition since you cant dmg enemies by bringing SG into their space.
For a future burst damage build I would recommend a Assassin Rogue 17/Grave Cleric 2/Hexblade Aadimar in order to create the most edgy character possible, utilizing all of the subclasses damage boosting power for a massive single attack. (Booming Blade + Poisoner Feat?) Thank you for making these builds every week, it’s always one of the highlights of my day!
i have a similar build in assassin, grave cleric, battlemaster bugbear that's a one shot sniper. definitely alot of dmg for single attack.
skip poisoner feat though as that triggers after the attack and doesn't get multiplied by path of the grave nor crits. it's a crap feat.
Hey! Thanks for all the great content! A few thoughts for this week's concept: Divine Soul with a Hexblade dip using Grasp of Hadar can do the same trick with a lot more damage and reliability. Start Divine Soul to gain Con save proficiency, Favored By The Gods for 2d4 when you need it, and access to the Shield spell. Then take Hexblade 1 for proficiency in medium armor + shields and Hexblade's Curse for some nova ability when needed. Then continue Divine Soul, taking Eldritch Adept: Grasp of Hadar at Divine Soul 4. At Level 6 you are a Divine Soul 5 / Hexblade 1 and you can use Quickened Spirit Guardians + Eldritch Blast on Turn 1, then Eldritch Blast + Telekinetic on each additional turn. At Level 9 you are Divine Soul 7 / Hexblade 2 (adding Agonizing Blast). At Level 13 you are Divine Soul 10 / Hexblade 3 (gaining Pact of the Tome + Book of Ancient Secrets for Find Familiar, plus 2x 2nd level Pact Magic slots to power your Flexible Casting). At Level 17 you are Divine Soul 14 / Hexblade 3. A variation with even more nova ability plus extra mobility is choosing Protector Aasimar (delays your combo until Hexblade 2 at Level 7 because you take Telekinetic at Divine Soul 4 but you gain Radiant Soul's flight and +level damage 1/rnd on a spell for 1 minute/day which is substantial as you get to higher levels ... choose Pact of the Chain if you go this route).
haha. scour the comments. so many of this already. agreed though as i posted mine too. a sorlock version definitely is a better chassis for SG. but as colby said, he didn't want to use EB or multiclass. my own version was a divine soul fathomlock focused more on lockdown control on the outer rim than dmg. the other warlock subclasses can also focus on different aspects. hexblades definitely do the most dmg. daolocks combined with crusher can do a 3rd pull. fey/undeadlocks are more focused on defense preventing the enemies inside SG from going towards you.
Of all your builds this one is most likely going to be the one I play next. I love it :)
Thanks for the video! Incredble!
Maybe a Divine Soul Sorcerer could also use the same tatics, but with other benefits, like having constitution saving throws proficiency and access to Twinned Spell and Quickened Spell to pull more targets with Torn Whip each round, adding more damage to the DPR. Later on, a 2 level dip into Warlock would allow it to have eldricht blast with Grasp of Hadar, with the same effect of thorn whip but greater damage. This would also give the character access to Armor of Agathys, that would put the enemies in an even more tragic situation in witch they have to choose between staying in the aura to attack you and taking even more damage while doing so, or to run away and be opened to Opportunities Attacks and to being pulled in back again.
I made this same comment basically but you beat me to the punch! I think the one advantage Thorn Whip has is that it can be twinned, whereas eldritch blast cannot after level 4, and even if you quickened EB, you can only pull one creature per turn with Grasp of Hadar. But still the extra damage might make up for it. I didn't think about Armor of Agathys either. That's a great point!
agreed on the divine sorc fathomlock route. posted my build somewhere in the comments here as well.
In a recent game, after my character died and everyone else was headed for a TPK, our cleric used Divine Intervention for the first time and rolled a 9, teleporting us back to our spelljammer. Really came in clutch.
Aasimar Light Domain 6-8 / Stars Druid 12-14
It's thematic with starlight. It has great concentration saves with the Dragon constellation. It has Fireball. Radiant Consumption is another source of AOE damage that only uses a bonus action and no concentration. They take damage when you end your turn within 10ft of them, and once per turn when you deal damage with a spell.
Thanks for sharing 👍 great post as always. Gave me some awesome ideas for use of guardians in my upcoming session.
Spike Growth is a great option for levels 3, and 4. Great area control plus damage for involuntary movement.
I've been slowly working my way backwards since I found the channel a while ago. This build is actually really similar to a build I came up with on my own. Cool to see the convergent thought patterns. I solved some of the issues Colby points out (such as getting find familiar) in a little different way: taking wizard levels, and using the mountain dwarf race. This also gives access to the full abjuration suite of defensive spells (shield, absorb elements, silvery barbs, and eventually counterspell), as well as some nice utility from a subclass (I used divination).
Two days after my birthday you come out with a build named after my D&D party (We are Natures Wrath!) and using my favorite cantrip that my Druid uses to consistently annoy my GM and effectively making the cleric version of my Druid!
Happy Birthday! I got you a present!
Is the DPR based on two enemies per round? It doesn't say on the graph but I think I heard it in the video?
Love it! My partners first and highest level active character is a Nature Cleric - definitely sending this her way :) ps divine intervention came in very clutch for her, at least once. The fighter was disintegrated by a beholder late in the fight...insert a divine resurrection!
I really like this concept and I think it would work really well as a twilight cleric as well getting thorn whip in another way. In my mind you would cast spirit guardians, activate twilight sanctuary, and then form a defensive barrier on the front line - buffing your fellow front line comrades and making it incredibly difficult or unappealing for enemies to get past you to go after your more fragile backline friends.
should work well as it's easy to acquire thorn whip. the initiative bonus twilight gets is important too so you can get SG out before enemies get to move past you.
LOVE THIS BUILD! It inspired my new character. Thanks!!
I REALLY enjoyed this build Colby. Thanks so much. I did a mock version myself and did go with 2 druid levels to make a Stars/Twilight combo. The only thing I can see being a potential issue I'd love to fix is not having access to the Shield spell. Bringing this many enemies in close to you... is dangerous. :) And, I can definitely see having to make lots of Con saves even with a good AC without having access to Shield. I don't have a great answer other than a 1 level dip into something but it's definitely got me thinking... Thanks!
that was my thinking as well hence i went with the divine sorc route and rounded out with fathomlock for a pull source in grasp of hadar.
@@TheRobversion1 That's really good Rob. I also thought about a pull option by going Hexblade... I really do like the Cleric build for an upcoming game of mine based on my group... but I may have to consider the divine sorc route you mention. Thanks buddy.
@@dungeondojo you'll find my build and others who were thinking similarly in the comments section here. my theme for choosing fathomlock when i played it in the past is the answer to this question: "What if Ursula (from the little mermaid) had a redemption arc in the dnd world?"
while i chose fathomlock, there are many other warlock subclasses that bring something else to the table:
1. fathomlock: bonus action sustained dmg source and speed reduction which leads to locking enemies with 40ft or less movement speed in place (typically the outer rim of SG so they can't hit you either if they don't have 15 ft reach).
2. fey/undeadlock: being able to inflict frightened prevents them from going towards the SG user to break concentration. they can only stay in place or move out.
3. hexblade: hexblade's curse increases the dmg pings of SG multiple times (entry, start of turn) for a single target.
4. dao: combined with crusher, allows you to pull a 2nd creature in with grasp of hadar.
@@TheRobversion1 I'll definitely look at this. Thanks so much!
@@dungeondojo if you find my comment then do drop a comment and share your thoughts. :)
this is perfect for me haha, as ive always loved the nature themed classes and recently came to the conclusion that cleric is my favorite base class
I've just started playing my very first 5e character and she's a nature cleric, so I was looking for advice/ideas on UA-cam and found this video!
Favorite part of my morning/evening drive to and from work
Niche combo for the channel divinity. Use Thaumaturgy combined with Firbolg's beast speech or the eldritch invocation beast speech. Your voice booms out pleading animals to your aid. They show up (possibly) and then you snag some allies
I subbed to you some weeks ago. I love playing D&D, I love creating Individuals for D&D, I'm making my own campaign (since there need to be more Vegan Campaign Books!) so your builds are fun to listen to. 👍🏻 It gives me ideas and it allows me to tweak them even further to (sort of) "Perfection!"
Keep it up, don't worry about Clickbaitiness. I came along for the content and your voice is soothing. It helps with keeping my attention to the concept. 👍🏻
Was late to watch today but I was looking forward to it all day. Great build as always, I love the single class build and on a cleric that is not the highest rated on most lists
Great build for the Puritans!
My pick to the multiclass question is Divine Soul Sorcerer with 1 level of Order Cleric for Voice of Authority, and 1 of druid (very temped for 2).
Twinned Thorn Whip optional, quickened emergency spells, proc VoA on various occasions like Healing Word or Silvery Barbs, and free up bonus action or use telekinetic. You're only delaying the next level of spells by two levels. I'd probably skip the stat boost and hold at 18 (might even just stay 16) and take a race with access to Armor of Agathys. Maybe twin haste and support for boss battles. Maybe twin Polymorph (VoA & T-Rex).
Progression: C1/S5/D1-2/S++, almost same feats, Inspiring Leader temping.
i'd main order cleric here over divine sorc as thorn whip works off of wis. for a cha based pull, i'd rather go grasp of hadar from warlock. with that said though, i'd definitely go divine sorc as the better chassis for spirit guardians over cleric. the only other class i'd consider is bard if the game starter at higher tiers.
I had my own variation of Treantmonk's God-mage built for surprise.
My DM let me grab Silvery Barbs when it came out. The synergy with Voice of Authority is downright dangerous. My initial goal was to increase party action economy and disrupt the enemy's. I've managed to trigger VoA twice in a round several times, sometimes before the enemy gets a turn.
I think Treantmonk overstates the usefulness of versatility in his builds, and I'm going to tighten this one up for the next adventure.
@@VvDOPAMEANvV while his concepts are correct (action economy is king in 5e) he overestimates the detriment of being behind a spell level via dipping a couple levels elsewhere and plays a very reactive playstyle instead of imposing his will on the field and making the enemy adjust before he adjusts. his god mage build could definitely benefit from dipping 1-3 levels elsewhere. those dips just have to be placed properly in the levelling scheme.
Spirit Guardians in combat has a lot of neat tactics. Dodge action tanking and just putting big space. Using Spirit Weapon, Shillelagh with Warcaster for beat sticking with more wisdom damage.
It's so nice to see someone using the nature cleric they're unspoken heroes of the trees that can still break your knees. Hooray for "druid lite" :')
I knew it'll be a nature cleric! And you can go to the teaser and see I was talking about a similar build I made. I think doing Shillelagh + 1 level dip into sorcerer for the CON proficiency and Booming Blade works very well too. AND, I used the new Earth Genasi from Monsters of the Multiverse that gains a Bonus Action Blade Ward to protect yourself (you are very close to enemies still lol). I called it Sandstorm, and the spirits are Locust! I'm happy more people will see how powerful nature clerics can be!
25:10 You can also move after the thorn whip and/or telekinetic shove to end your turn with as many creatures in the aura, or leave some on the edge if you have allies with forced movement options going before those enemies next turn.
looking forward to watching this build 😎 despite being a little bothered that this subclass has too much overlap with Druid…but Druids have always tended to get disrespected
Hey Colby. Idea for a build. The absolute massive damage you could do in a single turn; but integrating magic items. I would love to listen to that and really see how you can eek out perhaps one of your previous or an updated build with the power that comes from items that you can equip.
Nature cleric also has a really cool synergy between spirit guardians and plant growth, if you get both up enemies have 1/8th movement, lots of creatures can’t move at all without dashing, and even if they have 40ft they can only move 5ft on their turn. Absolutely locks down a battle field in a very strong way. Another thing that doesn’t actually contribute to your damage reports or goals for a build but is something you’d want to do with your character in an actual game
the issue with plant growth, is not all areas have it. if the campaign is typically set in forests or grassy plains, then sure. imo if you wanted to focus on the control aspect of SG, the divine sorcerer chassis + fathomlock is better so it's adaptable to any environment and does the same as you mentioned (less than 40 ft speed? you don't move. prone+difficult terrain+halved speed for everyone in SG aura). still, plant growth is a great control spell if you can use it much like transmute rock.
take note, it doesn't mean if you want to use it, colby wants to use it. his goal for this build (sustained striker) is different from what you're suggesting or how i'd use SG myself. his action economy is clogged every turn so i doubt he'd want to use it. the only time he'd deviate from his general action economy are for panic buttons or if he needs to save an ally. if you watch aneria or his collab vids, this is also how he plays. if this build was meant to be controller, then i could definitely see him using plant growth.
@@TheRobversion1 Oh yeah I agree with everything you said, definitely didn't mean it as a primary tactic at all, just something useful in some situations, but a niche tactic that isn't in line with the primary focus of the build
First campaign of ours in 5e, rise of tiamat. The cleric pulled off a divine intervention as they assaulted the temple in the end fight bringing in a earthquake to cause devastation.
No way! The very same day I make a post in r/3d6 arguing for the strength of the Nature Cleric you publish this video!
Also, in my build I take 2 levels in War Wizard at level 6-7, getting additional reactions gives us even more stuff to do, bolstering our action economy & our defenses. This would also mean that you don't have to take the ritual caster feat.
This is almost definitely going to be the next character I play in my next in person game. I absolutely LOVE this character.
This is pretty similar to the build I posted on the subreddit a few months ago. It was the same concept, but divine soul/daolock using crusher to use forced movement for the action and also telekinetic for the ba. Also for this build, since you're taking ritual caster, you can dump strength and use a phantom steed for movement.
nice. similar to mine but i went fathomlock over dao as i was more concerned with control than pulling multiple enemies in.
@@TheRobversion1 yeah. Undead and hexblade were also considerations for me, since you can get the pulling just from grasp of Hadar by sacrificing eldritch mind
@@alexp9962 with mine i never went after eldritch mind (i picked grasp of hadar and lance of lethargy) as i rarely got hit hard for my concentration to matter plus i had con save prof from starting fighter. my version was more about "how do i get the biggest threat into the outer rim of spirit guardians and get them to stay there? over colby's "how do i get as many enemies into spirit guardians?"
so i focused on the speed reduction aspect of spirit guardians where i locked down anything with 40 move speed or lower on the outer rim and if they didn't have a reach of 15 ft they couldn't attack me. then if the threat had ranged attacks or spells, i had the sorcerer defensive suite (which clerics don't have) as a reaction: shield, absorb elements and counterspell. and just in case the threat had more than 40 move speed, i could always ask my quasit familiar to come out of invisibility and scare.
@@TheRobversion1 ah I see. That's a super cool take on the build. I always forget about the pretty good control of spirit guardians, since it halves move speed.
@@alexp9962 yeah with no save on the speed halving unlike let' say summon construct. its a pretty good control spell. i have the build somewhere else in the comments here along with action progression for turn 1-2 in case you're interested to check out the details. for those with a higher than 40 ft move speed, i'd gamble on using a 20 ft radius earth tremor (with distant spell metamagic) to add difficult terrain to the spirit guardians are along with a dex save or take 1d6 and prone.
You may have had this request already (and may have already done a video on this build and I have just missed it), but I was curious what character build you could come up with for an optimized Jedi build.
Love the content Colby!
I have a Bugbear nature cleric and love it. Love this build.
Just to clarify on Wild Shape, Druids get 2 uses of Wild Shape per Short Rest, not per Long Rest. So they should technically have plenty of uses if your are properly using Short Rests throughout an adventuring day. It is also worth mentioning the Druids version does not cost material components so early game you are saving quite a bit of gold (10 per cast) and you can use the familiar in riskier ways for greater reward since you are not worried about it dying.
Love your stuff! Happy to see an upload!