I have been listening, I am a blind, as in functionally blind, as in walking, tough, for at least five years, and I love how clear spoken you guys are. The syndrome that causes my blindness also causes me to be hearing impaired and therefore anyone who speaks very clearly is something of a god to me. Keep it up, you guys are awesome.
I thought as a Dwarf, you didn't need to boost your Strength to wear heavy armor. Under the movement section of Dwarf, it states that our movement isn't impaired by wearing heavy armor, thereby negating the need for the strength score. Am I wrong?
Some advice for a Life Domain Cleric from an experienced player: 1. Your Channel Divinity comes back on a short rest, so make sure you use it every short rest if you can. If someone goes down or gets really low on hit points, using Channel Divinity before a leveled spell slot is often the best move. Remember that you can't bring someone over half their maximum hit points with this, so if you have a combat-light day of adventure this may not be necessary. 2. You have heavy armor, a shield, and access to the spell Shield of Faith (level 1, bonus action, concentration - 10 minutes, +2 to AC). At low levels, it is easy to get a 20 AC, which will be very difficult for many enemies to hit consistently. On top of that, you are always within range of your own healing spells and Channel Divinity, so you can mend your wounds if you take a nastry critical hit. You can feel free to get up-close-and-personal with those kobolds, goblins and bandits that you often encounter at low levels of play. At higher levels, you are better off staying off the front lines for the first few rounds so you don't take an alpha strike (i.e. a lot of powerful attacks) in the opening of a fight. 3. Bless and Spiritual Guardians are powerful, but they aren't always the right answer for your concentration. If you have a party member that likes to grapple, they will LOVE it if you cast Enhance Ability on them using Bull's Strength. Silence can put enemy spellcasters in the awkward situation of either needing to relocate from the safety of their backline or be useless. Talk to your party and devise strategies in advance. 4. As a Cleric, often the best thing you can do with your action is to Dodge. This is especially true if you have Spiritual Weapon out already, as you only use your bonus action to command it. Remember that you can take the dodge action by standing in front of another party member (like your Wizard that is under attack by enemy archers) and raising your shield, providing that party member with half cover -- a welcome +2 bonus to their AC. This becomes especially true at higher levels, where cantrip damage is pitiful and enemies hit really hard; making it much harder to get through your already-great AC can be the wisest move when facing two Balgura demons intent on grinding you into holy paste with their combined SIX ATTACKS per round. 5. PREPARE RITUAL SPELLS. You can ritually cast any spell you have prepared that has the ritual tag; doing so takes 10 minutes plus the spell's casting time but doesn't consume a spell slot. This can be AMAZINGLY valuable with spells like Detect Magic and other similar Divination spells that are primarily used during exploration. If you don't have other spellcasters with these really powerful ritual spells, be sure to prepare them yourself. Ritual Magic can be game-changing!
When I was learning about D&D, I found your videos to be among the most insightful ones out of them all. It helped me understand the game so much better. I'm so glad you're going back to these more "basic" levels for beginners. You're helping the community a ton with these.
@@vigorouslethargy so I haven’t started yet. And I’m a little rusty on playing in general, (haven’t played much in months) But when I’m reading over the armored specifically, I’m trying to figure out a few things. Namely do I have to supply my own armor first then it’s enhanced OR is it magically created ? It’s more in depth than that but that’s the start of it
@@Hshshshs221 So starting equipment for Artificer includes either studded leather or scale mail. You can turn any armor you own, including your starting armor, into Arcane Armor but can only have 1 active at a time. If you buy, say, some half plate later you can make the half plate Arcane Armor and your old armor becomes normal again. Arcane armor is cool because it cannot be removed against your will, and it has built in weapons. So even if your party is captured and stripped of weapons, yours is literally bonded to you so you're never unarmed or unarmored. If you go with the Infiltrator mode, there is a bit of vagueness with its weapon, the Lightning Launcher. Now, for attacks made with the LL you can use your Int mod for the hit and damage rolls. However, it states that once per turn you can roll an extra d6 for any enemy you hit with it. The vagueness is whether or not that extra d6 also gets your Int mod added like the initial damage does or if it's just a d6 with no mods. Up to DM discretion really. Mine ruled I get the Int bonus for both and it really helps me melt things.
@@vigorouslethargy thank you! This clarified a lot! I really appreciate the explanation. It makes sense now and solidified that this is the route I wanna go. I kinda wanna do the cheesiest thing and make a character like Tony stark since the build can be so fitting.
Okay so we have had Champion Fighter, Thief Rogue and now Life Cleric. My guess is next one is Evoker Wizard. If that's the case, then these are all the stock characters in Lost Mine of Phandelver
I like taking ritual spells like detect magic, purify food & drink and detect poison & disease. They give the character utility at lower levels and can be cast by taking ten minutes. It can expand your casting options without eating spell slots.
My halfling Divination wizard uses rituals all the time, including Detect Magic, identify Magic, and Alarm. He also prefers casting spells that don't have a visible "thing" between him and the target, like Insect Swarm, Chill Touch, and Web (so far)
Really like the text at the bottom as you describe your individual builds. Really makes it easy to follow :) Also thanks for being nice and entertaining, two traits rarely seen together ;)
Still new-ish to d&d, only having experience with Artificer. My DM and I was discussing making a substitute support character for story reasons and life cleric was the class/subclass that was thrown around. I'm super glad that this video exists so I can have a clear standard on how to build them :)
I once made a full caster Life cleric. As soon as I could afford a Mithral breastplate I changed into robes over it. I was basically a healing Wizard build. I had 8 STR, 14 CON, 14 DEX, 12 INT, 16 WIS, 10 CHA.
When I first started playing the biggest hang up on magic was the term “spell slot”. Because I’m any video game rpg a spell slot is like how many spells you can equip like dark souls. So it took me a lot of reading to understand that it meant how many uses of spells you have.
I have explained it to people pretty much like this: Instead of spell level, think of it like circles or tiers or ranks of spells. That helps the level vs level issue for new players. And then I say to think of spell slots like different sized rocks you can throw. Your third level cleric can throw four rank 1 rocks, and 2 rank 2 rocks per day. Just before you throw that rock, you decide what spell to "attach" to the rock, picking from the prepared and domain spells you have chosen. The spells you prepare, and the domain spells never go away, they're more like a menu board at a deli. - Oh, and cantrip rocks are free and infinite.
Hey just wanted to say thanks for doing what you do. You've really created a lot of enjoyable and informative content. I've been watching for a few months now and think you guys are awesome.
Building my first DnD character as a life cleric. This was immensely useful, packed with very helpful information, delivered in a clear and concise way to newcomers. I salute you!
Hey Dungeon Dudes! I don't know if you will see this but my Drakkenheim stuff arrived today and it is all amazing! the cover on the leather book is so beautiful and the dice as well! Overall I could not be more impressed and just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work and amazing communication! You guys are the best!!!!
This was kinda cool seeing as I just made a Life Domain Cleric for our campaign. Alissatar is a air genasi Abandoned on the temple steps and raised in a temple to Lathander. And now has been sent out into the world to spread his light to the world.
Kelly and Monty, I love your videos. They've been a huge help for me, both as a DM and player. Please consider making a video about designing naval campaigns. I'm working on one now, and I'd love your tips on how to handle naval combat, travel and exploration at sea, underwater combat, etc. Thanks!
Life Domain Cleric multiclasses well with Druid. You get to add the healing spell bonus from Disciple of Life to Goodberry and Healing Spirit, both spells that can heal multiple times with one spell slot. This combo gets really busted when you cast healing spirit at a higher level than its base. I rarely go full Life Cleric but I use it for a one-level dip just because the Disciple of Life feature can benefit spells from other classes.
Multi-class with a Circle of Stars Druid, and use the chalice form. If your wisdom is capped, you can be healing for 3d8+14 to a single target at level 5 with a level 2 cure wounds spell
This is a very useful tutorial guys thanks heaps. I’m an older school AD&D 2nd Ed. player whose son has convinced to play a 5th Ed. home brew campaign he’s DMing (he’s quite good actually #notthatimbiasedoranything). I’ve got a Half-Elf Paladin of Frey (Oath of Ancients) that just multiclassed to Cleric of Freya (Life Domain) at a current level split of 5/2. While it all fits narratively and party balance wise (we NEEDED better healing and we’ve entered an Undead centric part of his campaign 😮), the spell casting mechanics have been doing this old players head in! Much appreciated advice! 😁😁👍👍
My long running party has a life domain cleric, she’s also our circle of shepherds Druid, but that’s neither here or there. She has used spirit guardians to devastating affect. I actually clicked on this video because tomorrow I am purchased painting a one shot where, you guessed it, I’m supposed to be a life domain cleric. Never played cleric before, I’m semi allergic to playing full casters, But we have solid armor, so we can’t be that bad
Thanks for the reminder for how to calculate ability bonuses. Having online character sheets makes it easier to use, but also easier to forget where the numbers come from.
Life domain is a most awesome subclass that is both fun to play and the ultimate healer. Notes on the Dude's spell selections and some important *non-domain* spells for the Life Cleric that may not seem important until your party gets nailed by some common conditions and control spells. (You have to remember that your primary role is support, not damage-dealing.): - Healing Word/Mass Healing Word: These are your most action-efficient combat healing spells and can stack with your Preserve Life in the same round. Never upcast them unless you are out of the lowest level spell slots or the situation is just that dire. - Create or Destroy Water: Negates Fog Cloud or puts out the blaze the wizard caused with a careless fireball. If you have time and cash, make several scrolls so you don't need to keep it prepped. - Aid: When you start hitting higher levels (9+), you can upcast it with L4 slots (save your L3 slots for Mass Healing Words and other protective spells that do not scale, such as remove curse). - Calm Emotions: Suppresses fear and charm effects on the entire party for 1 minute. This can prevent a wipe if fighting a dragon, a vampire, or a horde of yuan-ti. - Daylight: Negates base-level Darkness spells and lights up the battlefield. Despite the name, it doesn't damage vampires, but if you encounter a creature that can cast Darkness at will, you'll wish you had prepped it. - Remove Curse: When you meet your first mummy or lycanthrope, you'll wish you had it prepped. A great candidate for scrolls if you have a lot of downtime and a lot of cash. - Spirit Guardians: One of the few combat spells you should prepare. Fun tip- Cast the spell and then take dodge actions to avoid Concentration saves. You can still cast bonus action spells. - Water Walking: Prep if you think there is a chance of encountering water obstacles, like hiking across Central Europe. It's a Ritual, it lasts an hour, it affects the whole party, and you will be surprised at how much you'll use it when traveling overland. A couple higher-level spells to consider: - Death Ward: This is a must. If you die, you can't revivify anybody else. - Holy Weapon: Say hello to my little friend! Sheds light that suppresses lower-level magical darkness, adds 2d8 radiant to your melee attacks (AND the range is TOUCH, not SELF, so you can buff the paladin's weapon, turning it into a holy howitzer). It is Concentration, and it takes a L5 slot, so use it when the time is right. AND, you can set it off for a smart 4d10 radiant AOE that misses your allies and blinds opponents who fail their saves. (I really annoyed a beholder with it once). AND, it lasts an hour! If you're a High Elf who picked a Booming/Green Flame blade for your cantrip, your longsword will hit for 5d8 @ L8-10 and 6d8 from L11 on.
Just wanted to find this video again and say... the very first cleric I ever played was a tempest domain. Now, your videos have some great and "timeless" qualities... and as my son has come of age, he wants a more... fighter style... now to the fighter champion video............ my daughter has also come of D&D age, however, she is playing as a silver dragon and we have homebrewed the crap out of this with our DM 😂 My point to this comment is... your videos rock, they are amazing, and any time my kids have a question, I basically have a video to show them describing what to do, or explaining the answer in full... this even helps me as a relatively experienced DM and player. Your videos are outstanding and if I want to just brush up on a couple things while at work, your videos are a "go to" Y'all are fabtastic. In one of my future campaigns, you two are going to be a part of an ancient dragons treasure hoard lol.
Subscribed to ya'll since I'm going to be playing a Cleric for the first time ever and this has been a great video for Cleric knowledge! Thanks! Much love from Texas!
Just got my shipment. It's beautiful! Everything is more than I expected. The tactical maps are stunning. Looking forward to starting a Drakkenheim campaign soon!
I’m very new to dnd. Ive only played it twice where I was apart of two oneshots as a bard. Now I’m joining a full on campaign with a couple of new friends from my new school. When choosing what class to play I chose Cleric since I alway play support roles in video games, and when playing as a bard I found that the healing was the part that I found the most fun. I was choosing between knowledge domain and life domain, but Ive decided on life. It’s really overwhelming when it comes to stuff like spellcasting, but I’m going to give it my best shot! This video was alot of help, thanks!
I did a haloween one-shot tonight, and i go to play a live cleric. It was fun to ride another character as a small feathered fairy!- being a live cleric was a bonus! since everyone had a bit of healing, we had amazing time to be fooling around to get mounted combat inside a farm. Grat job. grat vid. helped alot.
Mark of Hospitality Halfling: Spam Goodberry level 1 spell restores 40hp and if you upcast goodberry it goes up to 5HP per goodberry with a level 2 spell because of the life cleric's +2 bonus to all heals and + 1 for every level of spell cast. save your spells, cast them into a bag before a rest, save them for the following day, before every long rest spam berries into a bag, they last 24 hours after the spell is cast.
My first character I ever created was a hill dwarf life domain cleric named Enkthen Flintfist. Granted, when I built him, while I had more than the Basic Rules, I only had the rules from the Essentials Kit, which was still pretty limited. By the time I got a chance to actually play, I had grabbed a PHB and moved had more options (my first character played was a hill dwarf wild magic sorcerer named Kefnen). By the time I got around to playing as a cleric, I had Xanathar's and played a Forge Domain Cleric instead of life domain.
about cantrips, there is an optional feature on tasha's book that allows clerics to change cantrips every time it gets a Ability score bonus every 4º levels.
I did that once. Brother Jacob was a Life Cleric of Chauntea, goddess of agriculture. So I got the magic initiate for vine whip, mold earth, and good berry for more plant flavor. It was fun.
Glad to see this new episode! On a side note since I just got my backer package I'm curious, can we maybe expect a how to paint minis episode in the future?
Getting Goodberry as a life domain cleric is incredible. At first level, you get 40hp worth of healing berries (10 berries x 4hp). You can give them out to those that need it, so you're not chucking berries at people. It may take a feat, but it's a no-brainer if you're a healer.
One my fave builds to work with is the 3 level Druid/Sorc + 17 level Cleric in life you want to build circle of dreams or land and for sorc the divine or dragon. Depending on style. Land+Life: More spell options up to 2nd level Dreams+Life: few crossing over spells but some spells very good, also a heal that doesnt cost spell slots. Sorc (Both) Cure wounds is now cheap and cost effective. esp at level 17. for one 5th spell slot you can heal an ally 3 times a day. Sorc Dragon+Life: Empowered your defence and gives some damage options. Sorc Divine+Life: Favored by gods is good on life for when you need it If building melee run Sun Monk or Devotion/Redemption Paladin
Gonna throw this recommendation out there if you're building a Variant human Life Cleric: Take Magic Initiate Druid as your free level 1 feat. For cantrips, pick-up Shillelagh and Produce Flame. With those two cantrips, you have a WIS based melee attack and a WIS based range spell attack at your disposal. Plus, Produce Flame gives you what is an slightly down-graded Light cantrip to boot, thus freeing up space on your Cleric Spell list. For the level 1 Druid spell the feat gives you take Goodberry. This spell means the party never goes hungry (handy in survival oriented campaigns), and more importantly you have a pool of a whopping 40 HP you can hand out, thanks to the Disciple of Life class feature! This one feat really maximizes the abilities of the Life Cleric and fits neatly into their skillset and vibe.
Though I agree mostly here, rather than Produce Flame, I'd suggest Magic Stone instead. When it comes to attack cantrips, once the PC hits mid tier 2 (depending on the adventure), Produce Flame and Primal Savagery tend to fall off in efficacy compared to Magic Stone and Shillelagh, due to monsters having resistance and immunity to acid and fire damage.
My suggestion is to go for 1 level of druid instead of magic initiate druid and get thorn whip instead of shillelagh, since getting magic initiate can only allow you to cast goodberry once per day and getting 1 level of druid allow you to use up all of your spell slot to cast goodberry. Also since cleric doesn't get extra attack, shillelagh damage does not scale until level 8 when you get divine strike. Use toll the dead instead when enemy is at close(which scale at lv5 and get buff again at lv8 with blessed strike) Using thorn whip can provide some utility function by allowing you to grapple your enemy away from your teamate and can combo with spirit guardian at lv5 (using thorn whip to grab your enemy into the range of spirit guardian and they take damage for the first time they enter the range each turn and they take damage when they start their turn).
@@simondiamond9628 My main reason for picking Produce Flame is that it can pull double duty as a spell attack and a source of light. Yeah, it's not the best spell attack, but that versatility makes it worth it. That free Cleric cantrip slot that would go to Light (if so inclined) could then be spent on something else... like Toll the Dead . *evil laughter*
I know the Essentials Kit is built to be able to be played with just 1 player character. Giving your player a sidekick is advised, and you can choose to either have the sidewalk under your or the player's control (depending on how familiar they are with rules and keeping track of things). Also, don't be afraid to sprinkle in some better than average magic items to make up for the character not having a full party to assist them.
Lol I watch some of y’all’s early videos and you both look so different. I mean I’m sure I look different than I did 4-5 years ago too, it just kinda took me by surprise. Y’all seem so much more confident and competent than you were when you started.
I just made a life domain cleric, but im just waiting to get into a session, idk how long that is gonna be or if ill even be interested in playing after so long, but lets see where it goes.
My life domain cleric still has yet to start his career, but he's a custom lineage satyr with stag antlers and has 1 green eye and 1 entirely black eye. His temple is actually a dual temple, worshiping both life and death gods, believing that both are essential for the world to avoid falling into utter chaos. As the feature with custom lineage, I chose magic initiate (druid), and of course I took both shillelagh and goodberry, allowing me to use my wisdom modifier for my melee attacks and giving the bonus from the life domain to every berry for goodberry, meaning a total of 40hp of healing that I can divy up among the party each day with no cost (magic initiate allows you to cast the spells chosen once per day for free).
A good subject to explore for future videos might be compatibility with other class archetypes. As you explain the capacity of the life domain cleric I imagine different combat scenarios playing out depending on a given team's composition, and I suspect that a life domain cleric would maximize a team's potential if his strengths complimented those he partnered with.
I think a reason team compositions often are not talked much about except when they're the topic of the video is that there's just so much variables from number of party members to how casual or min/max everyone is.
One of my favorite things to do with the hill dwarf is at level 4 take the tough feat. Max of 5 +8 each level. Really good to power threw the mid game of a 1-20 campaign
Are great bows a thing in DnD? I want to see a ranged character max their Str. for a ranged archetype. Side note, is there a place I can view your class rankings?
I like to prepare spells equal to the spell slots I have. So at 5th level I would prepare 4 1st, 3 2nd, and 2 3rd., and then choose as I like if I still have more left I can prepare.
[ Off the subject, I got my Drakkenheim stuff opened today! Love it. Havent cracked the book yet but the city map is currently looking for a wall in my room to call home. Also, do any other fans here play on Zoom? Id love to join a game. Drakkenheim or otherwise. ]
I’m playing a water genasi monk of astral self and life domain cleric by the name of Typhoon Snakebitten. My session zero made me realize that as a monk alone by myself I was absolutely chaotic and random and prayed that night thanking whatever protected me. Selunne showed herself in a dream telling me like water I could be gentle or fierce so from that day forward Typhoon has been grateful and always offers prays and thanks should he seek guidance or received good news/help believing Selunne is still guiding him. Once astral self was unlocked his astral arms are a representation of his missing master who took him in as a child and often act out what he’s really thinking. When he’s calm and happy they come off as calm water in the shape of his mentor’s arms. When he’s pissed or in battle they take a torrential whiplike appearance
I am about to do a short adventure with some friends. I have had a life Cleric in mind for awhile that I want to play in a longer campaign. But decided I wanna test the waters with this character first during the short adventure! Because there are a couple ideas I have that I wanna test out before going on a long adventure. 1) I don’t want to do magical damage with this guy. He has never used his magic to harm before and so he just doesn’t know how. (but I am open to learning how over the course of the adventure) He will still do damage with physical weapons, but his magic will be for buffs and healing (and maybe debuffs haven’t decided yet) And so I wanna make sure that’s like … actually fun to play? And not like annoying to me, as a player, or the other players at my table. 2) Because of his backstory he has had his mind and memory messed with a lot over an extremely long amount of time by an Enchantment Wizard. So I am considering taking disadvantage on all saving throws against enchantment magic. Like … I wanna find out. Is that going to be fun and great story telling? Or is it just gonna SUCK? Won’t know until I try! But excited to play this guy!
I am in my first campaign as a Life Cleric and it has been an interesting experience to say the least. I may have acquired something that I have not been able to test out yet, but may become quite the special. Threw some unique circumstances of the story (mind you we are still level 3) my spiritual weapon is now a physical +1 mace with the abilities of SW. The way it works basically is as an action I can through it out onto the battlefield turn one and every turn after it’s a bonus to use. It moves around like Thor’s hammer and now I will be able to save a spell slot for something else. It’s going to become more interesting for my DM to work around, but it’s his fault for doing what he did to bring my character to this point. 😂
I am an advocate for the magic initiate + goodberry combo at 1st level with human variant or custom lineage. This combo may lose its potency at higher levels but it is still 40 hp you can divy out each day for free.
I'm having a blast playing a Life Domain cleric for the first time. He's a total lunatic -- his low Intelligence and low Charisma make him a real wild card in roleplaying situations, but his defensive capabilities make him very popular.
Love this video, why would you not use prayer of healing outside of combat though. Same thing as aura of vitality, but you don't have to eat a 3rd slotter for it.
As a Peace Cleric player myself, I think at least the spell list remains pretty much the same. Peace Clerics mostly fullfill the role of a support rather than healer, staying mostly away from the frontlines and only popping in to heal the party with Balm of Peace and get back to safety. Casting a double Bless at lv.1 is incredibly powerful, so you definitely want to keep it going for a long as possible. Sanctuary can greatly help in doing this, and you have it always prepared; so it's really just a matter of buffing allies, protecting yourself and healing if needed. At higher levels, you could also try and take Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians to fend off enemies in a pinch, but healing, support and control spells are really what you wanna have prepared.
You could build it similarly, but one of the key differences would be that peace clerics DO NOT have proficiency in heavy armor so you would not likely want strength as your 13 and instead take dexterity as your 13 (or take dex as your 14 and con as your 13), as dexterity benefits your armor class when not wearing heavy armor. This will result in the same AC as the chain mail, although less life and more difficulty with con checks/saves. This is the drawback of playing a peace cleric. (Warning: the next part might be more complicated than helpful.) If you go this route, you may want to do what Monty does, which is go variant human and increase your con and wis by 1. If you do so, you might find the Relient feat isn't as useful as Warcaster. They offer some similar benefits, but for most of the game, proficiency bonus (from resilient) is mathematically similar to advantage(from warcaster), and since 15 con is the same as 14 con in in terms of game benefit, the +1 con from resilient isn't as useful as the other benefits of warcaster. The main benefit of warcaster is that it would allow you to cast a spell as an opportunity attack. This is potentially very useful (and fun/thematic), as your attack stats are low but your wisdom is high, so you can sacred flame or use spells like command, blindness/deafness, or hold person. This can let you play a caster who is still beefy enough to protect the wizard, bard, sorcerer, or warlock.
Built a point buy Half Elf (High Elf Variant with Green Flame Blade) starting at 16/8/14/10/16/10 (15+1, 8, 14, 10, 15+1, 8+2). Our DM lets us use racial spells that run off of a mental modifier use whatever modifier our spell casting class uses instead (Intelligence to wisdom in this case) so I get both Potent Spell Casting & a miniature version of Divine Strike. At levels 4 & 8 I boost Wisdom to 18 & 20, respectively. At levels 12 & 16 I get Resilient: Constitution & Durable, then at level 19 I get Tough. This brings me up to 203 average health by level 20 with all of my hit die healing at max (12 per hit die) & a +10 on my concentration checks.
My favorite low lvl cleric. Tashas halfbreed Silverquill Vicous mockery and slivery barbs Fey touched misty step and hex. Have hex Vicous mockery and hex at lvl1 let's u shut down the treat pretty much indefinitely until they die and if u get in trouble poof away 30ft or if ur buddies are in trouble healing word them back up With point buy u get a 18 wis at lvl1 which is good. Haveing lower then tht feels bad.
I've played this in a 1shot and a short campaign and it's so fun. Such a good 1v1 me bro kinda build were u just eye up the biggest guy and shut him down
I had a horrible DM, but I was playing a life domain cleric that was supposed to be a bbeg, but he turned his back against his cult like family and died for it. He was then raised from the dead by his God to fight evil within this world and protect the cycle of life and death. He was a blasting cleric who would protect his allies at all costs.
Was the optional cantrip versatility feature at 4th level not released when this video was made? Edit: checked and they did a video a year before this reviewing the optional features in Tasha, so no, you are not locked into your cantrips after you hit 4th level, which is a bit less doom and gloomy. 😁
Sometimes deities need a agent in the physical world to spread their influence but this has the affect of causing other cleric of different deities may clash on ideals with the deities watching with amusement.
Isn't there an option to just believe in an ideology instead of a deity with these domains? Or am I mixing my editions again. On an awesome note I got my Drakkenheim bundle and just flipping through the book everything is just awesome. Awesome job! and can't wait to use this book.
I'm currently playing a life domain cleric. I'm a mix of both of these builds as I'm a variant human but was a soldier as a field medic. I'm not to interested in gold or treasure so I let my party keep all our "winnings" but want enough components to cast expensive life saving spells.
Played a Firbolg life cleric through Princes of the Apocalypse. Easily the most powerful character I’ve ever had even though we ended at level 14. At one point I did hundreds of points of damage in one combat with a well placed Insect Plague. Didn’t have to heal anyone during that fight
He may not be a Life Cleric but I have a High Elf with Light Cleric and Divine Soul Sorcerer This guy is just as effective with healing as a Life Cleric Using some Meta Magic options to heal 2 party members with a Twin Spell Cure Wounds is nice or in the event of he can get in touch range, Distant Spell will potentially save someone
I'm playing my first character and I'm super excited to be a life domain cleric in the Curse of Strahd. I hope I can keep up with the team so none of them die lol.
Ah, I hear the other Title already... _So you want to play a Healer, an actual Cleric who focuses on Healing? Thank whichever God your Character is following!_
spare the dying sucks unless you're a grave cleric who can use it as a bonus action at range. for a life cleric buy a healers kit. both spare the dying and the healers kit are actions and require you to touch the creature to stabilize them. this leaves you an extra cantrip slot so you can take both toll the dead and sacred flame so if you come up against something resistant to one damage type you can switch to the other cantrip and still do damage.
I have a weird multiclass Alchemist Artificer + Life Domain Cleric idea who gets to combine Disciple of Life with Alchemical Savant. Intelligence mod + 2 + Spell Level in flat healing to any spell. So a first level Cure Wounds is 1d8+5+5+2+1 = 14 to 21 damage, with Healing Word being 14-17, so not much worse. The only requirement is that I use my alchemist's supplies as the spell focus. Alchemical Savant gives him pretty solid damage on spells of the right elements, which are the ones I'd be picking anyway, so all of them. And with the campaign going to 20, I'd also get just high enough for the Cleric's 1d8 radiant damage added onto any damaging spell. Probably the highest healing you can get, and some of the best damage for a dedicated healer. Sure, he doesn't get a lot of the high-level heals and buffs, but does he really even need them at this point?
Cool what's the class split? Edit: Will you also be dipping 2 lvls into stars druid for an additional d8+wis mod or 2 lvl of necromancer wizard for that self heal when you kill a creature? Than Wither and Bloom becomes pretty good with both healing and damage. So if you start from scratch at lvl1 with mark of healing halfling and the wither and bloom student background they get added to your artificer spell list benefitting from your healing features. Periapt of wound closure would stack very nicely with that healing from the hit dies healing of wither and bloom. If you go to lvl 20 I think you could get a lot out of (musing for my own character build now) 11 artificer, 5 life cleric, 2 stars druid, 2 necro wizard and because you can make your own armor you could make Serpent Scale Mail (scale mail that applies your full dex mod and maybe give it an infusion for +2 AC).
@@JugglingAddict I think my main goal was to go 1 level of Artificer, then 1 level of Life Cleric, then back to Artificer for the rest. Going back to Cleric does give you more spell slots to use though, so it's really a judgement call after Artificer 6, and I definitely think it's a good idea, as I wanted that 1d8 Radiant damage on my damage spells, which I think is at 8. Stars Druid wouldn't be a bad addition either.
Toll the Dead sounds good at first because of the higher damage, but if the target gets incapacitated (Hold Person, Monk Stun, etc.), the target automatically fails its save against Sacred Flame.
Currently playing a tempest cleric. I think it's really funny that my character has Monty's stat distribution but is a Hill Dwarf like Kelly's build. I also plan on getting Resilient Constitution like Monty's build as well. Don't sleep on Con! My little brick shithouse dwarf has more hp than our barbarian.
Just go Hill Dwarf Cleric 12 STR (For encumbrance and jumping) 10 Dex 14 CON 12 INT 16 WIS 12 CHA. Perfectly balanced and fine all around with no penalties to saving throws. If you wanna min max for combat and such you can dump a few other stats but no need to go above 12 STR unless your trying to increase that jump distance or do melee.
A little off topic, but I watched an episode once where you talked about a book that had magic items that leveled along with the characters, but I can't find the episode anymore. can you please tell me which book that was... I believe you said it was a 4e book
something I'd like to point out, is that you don't necessarily need super high casting stat for support casters. it's vital for spell saves and attacks, but you have less of those if you focus on spells cast on allies. it still gives minimal amount of bonus healing on some spells, and more spells prepared per day (as well as some older subclass features scale that don't scale uses with proficiency bonus) I'd still say it's not super essential to maximize if you know what you are doing
Has anyone used the magic initiate feat for this character build? Could learn shillelagh druid cantrip and get a quaterstaff. By your second turn you could be using the quaterstaff with wisdom instead of strength and spiritual weapon. At level 8 with with divine strike you could hit for potentially 28 damage with out a crit. Not bad for a healer
Hope you guys can help with my question as i can't find an answer other than people quoting the description. For "Turn Undead" now I know that any undead that fails its saving through must spend its turn to move away. What is not clear to me is once the undead has moved 30ft from you, is that its whole turn? or now that it is over 30ft away it can can it turn around and shoot you from afar?
after more research I think i grasp the effect now, no idea it was this strong For those interested too, they can only dash or dodge with its action.(they still can use a BA if they have one, but not to attack) They must get away from you as far as they can, the effect last 1min or until damaged, so if not hit for the next 10 turns they will run 600ftaway basically ejecting them from the encounter. They can also get stuck, they cant move towards you within 30ft, so if in the middle of the room, it would have to run to a corner and stay there dodging till damaged or 1min is up, as it cant run towards you to get out via the door. You can team up with other abilities, casting plant growth behind a mob of skellies, use turn undead, now they can get stuck running away, even if they break free they have to keep running. likely giving you and your party time to pick them off 1 at a time so they don't follow you back to camp ;) if im missing something plz let me know
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I have been listening, I am a blind, as in functionally blind, as in walking, tough, for at least five years, and I love how clear spoken you guys are. The syndrome that causes my blindness also causes me to be hearing impaired and therefore anyone who speaks very clearly is something of a god to me. Keep it up, you guys are awesome.
I thought as a Dwarf, you didn't need to boost your Strength to wear heavy armor. Under the movement section of Dwarf, it states that our movement isn't impaired by wearing heavy armor, thereby negating the need for the strength score. Am I wrong?
Nope, correct :)
Doesn't wearing armour you arent prof with hamper spellcasting as well or is that only earlier editions?
You can't cast in armor you're not proficient with
@@bigbugabuu This apply to 5th edition as well, but as a Life Cleric, your are proficient in Heavy Armor as well
You are absolutely correct.
Some advice for a Life Domain Cleric from an experienced player:
1. Your Channel Divinity comes back on a short rest, so make sure you use it every short rest if you can. If someone goes down or gets really low on hit points, using Channel Divinity before a leveled spell slot is often the best move. Remember that you can't bring someone over half their maximum hit points with this, so if you have a combat-light day of adventure this may not be necessary.
2. You have heavy armor, a shield, and access to the spell Shield of Faith (level 1, bonus action, concentration - 10 minutes, +2 to AC). At low levels, it is easy to get a 20 AC, which will be very difficult for many enemies to hit consistently. On top of that, you are always within range of your own healing spells and Channel Divinity, so you can mend your wounds if you take a nastry critical hit. You can feel free to get up-close-and-personal with those kobolds, goblins and bandits that you often encounter at low levels of play. At higher levels, you are better off staying off the front lines for the first few rounds so you don't take an alpha strike (i.e. a lot of powerful attacks) in the opening of a fight.
3. Bless and Spiritual Guardians are powerful, but they aren't always the right answer for your concentration. If you have a party member that likes to grapple, they will LOVE it if you cast Enhance Ability on them using Bull's Strength. Silence can put enemy spellcasters in the awkward situation of either needing to relocate from the safety of their backline or be useless. Talk to your party and devise strategies in advance.
4. As a Cleric, often the best thing you can do with your action is to Dodge. This is especially true if you have Spiritual Weapon out already, as you only use your bonus action to command it. Remember that you can take the dodge action by standing in front of another party member (like your Wizard that is under attack by enemy archers) and raising your shield, providing that party member with half cover -- a welcome +2 bonus to their AC. This becomes especially true at higher levels, where cantrip damage is pitiful and enemies hit really hard; making it much harder to get through your already-great AC can be the wisest move when facing two Balgura demons intent on grinding you into holy paste with their combined SIX ATTACKS per round.
5. PREPARE RITUAL SPELLS. You can ritually cast any spell you have prepared that has the ritual tag; doing so takes 10 minutes plus the spell's casting time but doesn't consume a spell slot. This can be AMAZINGLY valuable with spells like Detect Magic and other similar Divination spells that are primarily used during exploration. If you don't have other spellcasters with these really powerful ritual spells, be sure to prepare them yourself. Ritual Magic can be game-changing!
I'll definitely keep this in mind if I ever play a life cleric
Solid advice for my life cleric. Thanks a ton!
Thansk! Using this to come back to later lol
When I was learning about D&D, I found your videos to be among the most insightful ones out of them all. It helped me understand the game so much better.
I'm so glad you're going back to these more "basic" levels for beginners. You're helping the community a ton with these.
I would love a video on how to build an artificer armorer. I’m struggling understanding some of it and I love those breakdowns. You guys are great
I'm actually playing a Tiefling Armorer right now (lvl 6)!
Anything I might be able to help with?
@cak01vej thank you I’ll check !
@@vigorouslethargy so I haven’t started yet. And I’m a little rusty on playing in general, (haven’t played much in months) But when I’m reading over the armored specifically, I’m trying to figure out a few things. Namely do I have to supply my own armor first then it’s enhanced OR is it magically created ? It’s more in depth than that but that’s the start of it
@@Hshshshs221 So starting equipment for Artificer includes either studded leather or scale mail. You can turn any armor you own, including your starting armor, into Arcane Armor but can only have 1 active at a time. If you buy, say, some half plate later you can make the half plate Arcane Armor and your old armor becomes normal again. Arcane armor is cool because it cannot be removed against your will, and it has built in weapons. So even if your party is captured and stripped of weapons, yours is literally bonded to you so you're never unarmed or unarmored.
If you go with the Infiltrator mode, there is a bit of vagueness with its weapon, the Lightning Launcher. Now, for attacks made with the LL you can use your Int mod for the hit and damage rolls. However, it states that once per turn you can roll an extra d6 for any enemy you hit with it. The vagueness is whether or not that extra d6 also gets your Int mod added like the initial damage does or if it's just a d6 with no mods. Up to DM discretion really. Mine ruled I get the Int bonus for both and it really helps me melt things.
@@vigorouslethargy thank you! This clarified a lot! I really appreciate the explanation. It makes sense now and solidified that this is the route I wanna go. I kinda wanna do the cheesiest thing and make a character like Tony stark since the build can be so fitting.
These guides rock. All you need is the PHB and the readiness to learn. You explain everything without being condescending
The dungeon dudes need to do a character where they only have the free options from dnd Beyond and try to make it op it would go with the series
I second this
Thanks for saying this. Too much is focused on purchased content...
But some other books are free as well.
Okay so we have had Champion Fighter, Thief Rogue and now Life Cleric.
My guess is next one is Evoker Wizard.
If that's the case, then these are all the stock characters in Lost Mine of Phandelver
I believe they’re doing all of the classes provided in the basic rules.
We also had hexblade bard!
@@keeganmbg6999 we also had the hexblade swords bard!
@@Bread_Pool that build wasn't part of this beginner series.
@@JakeLovesSteak oh 🥲 I thought it was - my bad!
I like taking ritual spells like detect magic, purify food & drink and detect poison & disease. They give the character utility at lower levels and can be cast by taking ten minutes. It can expand your casting options without eating spell slots.
My halfling Divination wizard uses rituals all the time, including Detect Magic, identify Magic, and Alarm.
He also prefers casting spells that don't have a visible "thing" between him and the target, like Insect Swarm, Chill Touch, and Web (so far)
Really like the text at the bottom as you describe your individual builds. Really makes it easy to follow :) Also thanks for being nice and entertaining, two traits rarely seen together ;)
Still new-ish to d&d, only having experience with Artificer. My DM and I was discussing making a substitute support character for story reasons and life cleric was the class/subclass that was thrown around. I'm super glad that this video exists so I can have a clear standard on how to build them :)
I once made a full caster Life cleric. As soon as I could afford a Mithral breastplate I changed into robes over it. I was basically a healing Wizard build.
I had 8 STR, 14 CON, 14 DEX, 12 INT, 16 WIS, 10 CHA.
When I first started playing the biggest hang up on magic was the term “spell slot”. Because I’m any video game rpg a spell slot is like how many spells you can equip like dark souls. So it took me a lot of reading to understand that it meant how many uses of spells you have.
I have explained it to people pretty much like this:
Instead of spell level, think of it like circles or tiers or ranks of spells. That helps the level vs level issue for new players.
And then I say to think of spell slots like different sized rocks you can throw. Your third level cleric can throw four rank 1 rocks, and 2 rank 2 rocks per day. Just before you throw that rock, you decide what spell to "attach" to the rock, picking from the prepared and domain spells you have chosen.
The spells you prepare, and the domain spells never go away, they're more like a menu board at a deli.
-
Oh, and cantrip rocks are free and infinite.
Hey just wanted to say thanks for doing what you do. You've really created a lot of enjoyable and informative content. I've been watching for a few months now and think you guys are awesome.
I'm bookmarking this video for any new players I meet. This covers everything they need to know to get started with character design
Building my first DnD character as a life cleric. This was immensely useful, packed with very helpful information, delivered in a clear and concise way to newcomers. I salute you!
Hey Dungeon Dudes! I don't know if you will see this but my Drakkenheim stuff arrived today and it is all amazing! the cover on the leather book is so beautiful and the dice as well! Overall I could not be more impressed and just wanted to say thank you for all your hard work and amazing communication! You guys are the best!!!!
Ditto.
Love how confident Kelly is becoming! I wonder if months respect for his opinions has anything to do with it
This was kinda cool seeing as I just made a Life Domain Cleric for our campaign. Alissatar is a air genasi Abandoned on the temple steps and raised in a temple to Lathander. And now has been sent out into the world to spread his light to the world.
Kelly and Monty, I love your videos. They've been a huge help for me, both as a DM and player. Please consider making a video about designing naval campaigns. I'm working on one now, and I'd love your tips on how to handle naval combat, travel and exploration at sea, underwater combat, etc. Thanks!
Life Domain Cleric multiclasses well with Druid. You get to add the healing spell bonus from Disciple of Life to Goodberry and Healing Spirit, both spells that can heal multiple times with one spell slot. This combo gets really busted when you cast healing spirit at a higher level than its base.
I rarely go full Life Cleric but I use it for a one-level dip just because the Disciple of Life feature can benefit spells from other classes.
Multi-class with a Circle of Stars Druid, and use the chalice form.
If your wisdom is capped, you can be healing for 3d8+14 to a single target at level 5 with a level 2 cure wounds spell
@@Soulstrung87 Or go Circle of Shepard so your buffed healing can keep your summons alive for longer, especially when combined with your Totem Spirit.
This is a very useful tutorial guys thanks heaps.
I’m an older school AD&D 2nd Ed. player whose son has convinced to play a 5th Ed. home brew campaign he’s DMing (he’s quite good actually #notthatimbiasedoranything).
I’ve got a Half-Elf Paladin of Frey (Oath of Ancients) that just multiclassed to Cleric of Freya (Life Domain) at a current level split of 5/2. While it all fits narratively and party balance wise (we NEEDED better healing and we’ve entered an Undead centric part of his campaign 😮), the spell casting mechanics have been doing this old players head in!
Much appreciated advice! 😁😁👍👍
I started in 2nd as well. THAC0!
My long running party has a life domain cleric, she’s also our circle of shepherds Druid, but that’s neither here or there. She has used spirit guardians to devastating affect. I actually clicked on this video because tomorrow I am purchased painting a one shot where, you guessed it, I’m supposed to be a life domain cleric. Never played cleric before, I’m semi allergic to playing full casters, But we have solid armor, so we can’t be that bad
Thanks for the reminder for how to calculate ability bonuses. Having online character sheets makes it easier to use, but also easier to forget where the numbers come from.
Life domain is a most awesome subclass that is both fun to play and the ultimate healer.
Notes on the Dude's spell selections and some important *non-domain* spells for the Life Cleric that may not seem important until your party gets nailed by some common conditions and control spells. (You have to remember that your primary role is support, not damage-dealing.):
- Healing Word/Mass Healing Word: These are your most action-efficient combat healing spells and can stack with your Preserve Life in the same round. Never upcast them unless you are out of the lowest level spell slots or the situation is just that dire.
- Create or Destroy Water: Negates Fog Cloud or puts out the blaze the wizard caused with a careless fireball. If you have time and cash, make several scrolls so you don't need to keep it prepped.
- Aid: When you start hitting higher levels (9+), you can upcast it with L4 slots (save your L3 slots for Mass Healing Words and other protective spells that do not scale, such as remove curse).
- Calm Emotions: Suppresses fear and charm effects on the entire party for 1 minute. This can prevent a wipe if fighting a dragon, a vampire, or a horde of yuan-ti.
- Daylight: Negates base-level Darkness spells and lights up the battlefield. Despite the name, it doesn't damage vampires, but if you encounter a creature that can cast Darkness at will, you'll wish you had prepped it.
- Remove Curse: When you meet your first mummy or lycanthrope, you'll wish you had it prepped. A great candidate for scrolls if you have a lot of downtime and a lot of cash.
- Spirit Guardians: One of the few combat spells you should prepare. Fun tip- Cast the spell and then take dodge actions to avoid Concentration saves. You can still cast bonus action spells.
- Water Walking: Prep if you think there is a chance of encountering water obstacles, like hiking across Central Europe. It's a Ritual, it lasts an hour, it affects the whole party, and you will be surprised at how much you'll use it when traveling overland.
A couple higher-level spells to consider:
- Death Ward: This is a must. If you die, you can't revivify anybody else.
- Holy Weapon: Say hello to my little friend! Sheds light that suppresses lower-level magical darkness, adds 2d8 radiant to your melee attacks (AND the range is TOUCH, not SELF, so you can buff the paladin's weapon, turning it into a holy howitzer). It is Concentration, and it takes a L5 slot, so use it when the time is right. AND, you can set it off for a smart 4d10 radiant AOE that misses your allies and blinds opponents who fail their saves. (I really annoyed a beholder with it once). AND, it lasts an hour! If you're a High Elf who picked a Booming/Green Flame blade for your cantrip, your longsword will hit for 5d8 @ L8-10 and 6d8 from L11 on.
Just wanted to find this video again and say... the very first cleric I ever played was a tempest domain. Now, your videos have some great and "timeless" qualities... and as my son has come of age, he wants a more... fighter style... now to the fighter champion video............ my daughter has also come of D&D age, however, she is playing as a silver dragon and we have homebrewed the crap out of this with our DM 😂
My point to this comment is... your videos rock, they are amazing, and any time my kids have a question, I basically have a video to show them describing what to do, or explaining the answer in full... this even helps me as a relatively experienced DM and player. Your videos are outstanding and if I want to just brush up on a couple things while at work, your videos are a "go to"
Y'all are fabtastic. In one of my future campaigns, you two are going to be a part of an ancient dragons treasure hoard lol.
I like the beginner guides guys. Thanks for simplifying everything. These are great resources for my friends joining us.
Subscribed to ya'll since I'm going to be playing a Cleric for the first time ever and this has been a great video for Cleric knowledge! Thanks! Much love from Texas!
I love the Fact Kelly is wearing a twilight zone shirt whilst doing the Life Domain Cleric Video
Just got my shipment. It's beautiful! Everything is more than I expected. The tactical maps are stunning. Looking forward to starting a Drakkenheim campaign soon!
If u do one online and need a player, let me know!
I’m very new to dnd. Ive only played it twice where I was apart of two oneshots as a bard. Now I’m joining a full on campaign with a couple of new friends from my new school. When choosing what class to play I chose Cleric since I alway play support roles in video games, and when playing as a bard I found that the healing was the part that I found the most fun. I was choosing between knowledge domain and life domain, but Ive decided on life.
It’s really overwhelming when it comes to stuff like spellcasting, but I’m going to give it my best shot! This video was alot of help, thanks!
I did a haloween one-shot tonight, and i go to play a live cleric. It was fun to ride another character as a small feathered fairy!- being a live cleric was a bonus! since everyone had a bit of healing, we had amazing time to be fooling around to get mounted combat inside a farm. Grat job. grat vid. helped alot.
Mark of Hospitality Halfling: Spam Goodberry level 1 spell restores 40hp and if you upcast goodberry it goes up to 5HP per goodberry with a level 2 spell because of the life cleric's +2 bonus to all heals and + 1 for every level of spell cast. save your spells, cast them into a bag before a rest, save them for the following day, before every long rest spam berries into a bag, they last 24 hours after the spell is cast.
My first character I ever created was a hill dwarf life domain cleric named Enkthen Flintfist. Granted, when I built him, while I had more than the Basic Rules, I only had the rules from the Essentials Kit, which was still pretty limited. By the time I got a chance to actually play, I had grabbed a PHB and moved had more options (my first character played was a hill dwarf wild magic sorcerer named Kefnen). By the time I got around to playing as a cleric, I had Xanathar's and played a Forge Domain Cleric instead of life domain.
about cantrips, there is an optional feature on tasha's book that allows clerics to change cantrips every time it gets a Ability score bonus every 4º levels.
Vuman with Magic Initiate Druid for Shilelagh, thorn whip and Goodberry, it never goes wrong
Shilelagh falls of later tho
@@Phiro00 coincidentally when Shilelagh starts to lose power, Thorn Whip gain a huge boost in power, especially when combined with Spirit Guardians
@@patrickhannon2694 didnt catch that, very smart!
I did that once. Brother Jacob was a Life Cleric of Chauntea, goddess of agriculture. So I got the magic initiate for vine whip, mold earth, and good berry for more plant flavor. It was fun.
Okay, wasn't sure how I'd manage without Kelly's majestic mane, but this is a great look for you, mate!
Glad to see this new episode! On a side note since I just got my backer package I'm curious, can we maybe expect a how to paint minis episode in the future?
Got mine too. Awesome.
First time every watching your content. Immediately liked after your intro! Hilarious and thank you for the info!
When I need advice as a newer player I look to you!
I love my life cleric. I rarely have to heal because blasting with insane radiant damage is the best healing of all.
Literally my favorite class to play. Took a human life domain cleric through out of the abyss
Hill Dwarf Life Cleric was my first campaign character ever. It's a great build for a beginner. :)
Love the beginners guides, but when are you getting back to your regular subclass guides (I miss them)?
Getting Goodberry as a life domain cleric is incredible. At first level, you get 40hp worth of healing berries (10 berries x 4hp).
You can give them out to those that need it, so you're not chucking berries at people.
It may take a feat, but it's a no-brainer if you're a healer.
I just adore you guys so much! Thank you for all your content.
Thank you for the great info and opinions. Love you guys! If you're ever in Tuscaloosa I want to buy you a meal!
Whoa! Spell save DC of 13 means the target saves w 13 or higher. A tie w spell save goes to the target.
One my fave builds to work with is the 3 level Druid/Sorc + 17 level Cleric
in life you want to build circle of dreams or land and for sorc the divine or dragon.
Depending on style.
Land+Life: More spell options up to 2nd level
Dreams+Life: few crossing over spells but some spells very good, also a heal that doesnt cost spell slots.
Sorc (Both) Cure wounds is now cheap and cost effective. esp at level 17. for one 5th spell slot you can heal an ally 3 times a day.
Sorc Dragon+Life: Empowered your defence and gives some damage options.
Sorc Divine+Life: Favored by gods is good on life for when you need it
If building melee run
Sun Monk or Devotion/Redemption Paladin
Gonna throw this recommendation out there if you're building a Variant human Life Cleric: Take Magic Initiate Druid as your free level 1 feat. For cantrips, pick-up Shillelagh and Produce Flame. With those two cantrips, you have a WIS based melee attack and a WIS based range spell attack at your disposal. Plus, Produce Flame gives you what is an slightly down-graded Light cantrip to boot, thus freeing up space on your Cleric Spell list. For the level 1 Druid spell the feat gives you take Goodberry. This spell means the party never goes hungry (handy in survival oriented campaigns), and more importantly you have a pool of a whopping 40 HP you can hand out, thanks to the Disciple of Life class feature! This one feat really maximizes the abilities of the Life Cleric and fits neatly into their skillset and vibe.
Though I agree mostly here, rather than Produce Flame, I'd suggest Magic Stone instead.
When it comes to attack cantrips, once the PC hits mid tier 2 (depending on the adventure), Produce Flame and Primal Savagery tend to fall off in efficacy compared to Magic Stone and Shillelagh, due to monsters having resistance and immunity to acid and fire damage.
My suggestion is to go for 1 level of druid instead of magic initiate druid and get thorn whip instead of shillelagh, since getting magic initiate can only allow you to cast goodberry once per day and getting 1 level of druid allow you to use up all of your spell slot to cast goodberry. Also since cleric doesn't get extra attack, shillelagh damage does not scale until level 8 when you get divine strike. Use toll the dead instead when enemy is at close(which scale at lv5 and get buff again at lv8 with blessed strike) Using thorn whip can provide some utility function by allowing you to grapple your enemy away from your teamate and can combo with spirit guardian at lv5 (using thorn whip to grab your enemy into the range of spirit guardian and they take damage for the first time they enter the range each turn and they take damage when they start their turn).
@@simondiamond9628 My main reason for picking Produce Flame is that it can pull double duty as a spell attack and a source of light. Yeah, it's not the best spell attack, but that versatility makes it worth it. That free Cleric cantrip slot that would go to Light (if so inclined) could then be spent on something else... like Toll the Dead . *evil laughter*
I'm about to start a one-player campaign. Do you guys have any tips for me? Could you possibly make up a video about it?
I’d never heard of this concept but it sounds cool as hell
@@blingwraith6951 me and one of my friends want to play more, but getting a group together is near impossible
I know the Essentials Kit is built to be able to be played with just 1 player character. Giving your player a sidekick is advised, and you can choose to either have the sidewalk under your or the player's control (depending on how familiar they are with rules and keeping track of things). Also, don't be afraid to sprinkle in some better than average magic items to make up for the character not having a full party to assist them.
Lol I watch some of y’all’s early videos and you both look so different. I mean I’m sure I look different than I did 4-5 years ago too, it just kinda took me by surprise. Y’all seem so much more confident and competent than you were when you started.
I just made a life domain cleric, but im just waiting to get into a session, idk how long that is gonna be or if ill even be interested in playing after so long, but lets see where it goes.
That was awsome, thanks a lot!
I like a monk/cleric mix. The ascended monk type of character.
My life domain cleric still has yet to start his career, but he's a custom lineage satyr with stag antlers and has 1 green eye and 1 entirely black eye. His temple is actually a dual temple, worshiping both life and death gods, believing that both are essential for the world to avoid falling into utter chaos. As the feature with custom lineage, I chose magic initiate (druid), and of course I took both shillelagh and goodberry, allowing me to use my wisdom modifier for my melee attacks and giving the bonus from the life domain to every berry for goodberry, meaning a total of 40hp of healing that I can divy up among the party each day with no cost (magic initiate allows you to cast the spells chosen once per day for free).
A good subject to explore for future videos might be compatibility with other class archetypes. As you explain the capacity of the life domain cleric I imagine different combat scenarios playing out depending on a given team's composition, and I suspect that a life domain cleric would maximize a team's potential if his strengths complimented those he partnered with.
I think a reason team compositions often are not talked much about except when they're the topic of the video is that there's just so much variables from number of party members to how casual or min/max everyone is.
One of my favorite things to do with the hill dwarf is at level 4 take the tough feat. Max of 5 +8 each level. Really good to power threw the mid game of a 1-20 campaign
Are great bows a thing in DnD? I want to see a ranged character max their Str. for a ranged archetype.
Side note, is there a place I can view your class rankings?
I loved great bows. Now that your Dex goes to damage, Im not sure how it would work. Be cool tho!
I like to prepare spells equal to the spell slots I have. So at 5th level I would prepare 4 1st, 3 2nd, and 2 3rd., and then choose as I like if I still have more left I can prepare.
Currently playing the evil twin- 13th level Death Domain cleric. Nice haircut Kelly!
[ Off the subject, I got my Drakkenheim stuff opened today! Love it. Havent cracked the book yet but the city map is currently looking for a wall in my room to call home. Also, do any other fans here play on Zoom? Id love to join a game. Drakkenheim or otherwise. ]
I’m playing a water genasi monk of astral self and life domain cleric by the name of Typhoon Snakebitten. My session zero made me realize that as a monk alone by myself I was absolutely chaotic and random and prayed that night thanking whatever protected me. Selunne showed herself in a dream telling me like water I could be gentle or fierce so from that day forward Typhoon has been grateful and always offers prays and thanks should he seek guidance or received good news/help believing Selunne is still guiding him. Once astral self was unlocked his astral arms are a representation of his missing master who took him in as a child and often act out what he’s really thinking. When he’s calm and happy they come off as calm water in the shape of his mentor’s arms. When he’s pissed or in battle they take a torrential whiplike appearance
I am about to do a short adventure with some friends.
I have had a life Cleric in mind for awhile that I want to play in a longer campaign.
But decided I wanna test the waters with this character first during the short adventure!
Because there are a couple ideas I have that I wanna test out before going on a long adventure.
1) I don’t want to do magical damage with this guy. He has never used his magic to harm before and so he just doesn’t know how. (but I am open to learning how over the course of the adventure)
He will still do damage with physical weapons, but his magic will be for buffs and healing (and maybe debuffs haven’t decided yet)
And so I wanna make sure that’s like … actually fun to play? And not like annoying to me, as a player, or the other players at my table.
2) Because of his backstory he has had his mind and memory messed with a lot over an extremely long amount of time by an Enchantment Wizard.
So I am considering taking disadvantage on all saving throws against enchantment magic.
Like … I wanna find out. Is that going to be fun and great story telling? Or is it just gonna SUCK?
Won’t know until I try! But excited to play this guy!
I am in my first campaign as a Life Cleric and it has been an interesting experience to say the least. I may have acquired something that I have not been able to test out yet, but may become quite the special. Threw some unique circumstances of the story (mind you we are still level 3) my spiritual weapon is now a physical +1 mace with the abilities of SW. The way it works basically is as an action I can through it out onto the battlefield turn one and every turn after it’s a bonus to use. It moves around like Thor’s hammer and now I will be able to save a spell slot for something else. It’s going to become more interesting for my DM to work around, but it’s his fault for doing what he did to bring my character to this point. 😂
I am an advocate for the magic initiate + goodberry combo at 1st level with human variant or custom lineage. This combo may lose its potency at higher levels but it is still 40 hp you can divy out each day for free.
I'm having a blast playing a Life Domain cleric for the first time. He's a total lunatic -- his low Intelligence and low Charisma make him a real wild card in roleplaying situations, but his defensive capabilities make him very popular.
Love this video, why would you not use prayer of healing outside of combat though. Same thing as aura of vitality, but you don't have to eat a 3rd slotter for it.
Would you build a peace domain cleric about the same way? That’s what I’m thinking of playing soon. That or a fathomless warlock
nah they are doing classic builds, they are probably going to make a evocation wizard or fuend warlock next
As a Peace Cleric player myself, I think at least the spell list remains pretty much the same. Peace Clerics mostly fullfill the role of a support rather than healer, staying mostly away from the frontlines and only popping in to heal the party with Balm of Peace and get back to safety. Casting a double Bless at lv.1 is incredibly powerful, so you definitely want to keep it going for a long as possible.
Sanctuary can greatly help in doing this, and you have it always prepared; so it's really just a matter of buffing allies, protecting yourself and healing if needed.
At higher levels, you could also try and take Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians to fend off enemies in a pinch, but healing, support and control spells are really what you wanna have prepared.
You could build it similarly, but one of the key differences would be that peace clerics DO NOT have proficiency in heavy armor so you would not likely want strength as your 13 and instead take dexterity as your 13 (or take dex as your 14 and con as your 13), as dexterity benefits your armor class when not wearing heavy armor. This will result in the same AC as the chain mail, although less life and more difficulty with con checks/saves. This is the drawback of playing a peace cleric.
(Warning: the next part might be more complicated than helpful.)
If you go this route, you may want to do what Monty does, which is go variant human and increase your con and wis by 1. If you do so, you might find the Relient feat isn't as useful as Warcaster. They offer some similar benefits, but for most of the game, proficiency bonus (from resilient) is mathematically similar to advantage(from warcaster), and since 15 con is the same as 14 con in in terms of game benefit, the +1 con from resilient isn't as useful as the other benefits of warcaster. The main benefit of warcaster is that it would allow you to cast a spell as an opportunity attack. This is potentially very useful (and fun/thematic), as your attack stats are low but your wisdom is high, so you can sacred flame or use spells like command, blindness/deafness, or hold person. This can let you play a caster who is still beefy enough to protect the wizard, bard, sorcerer, or warlock.
Built a point buy Half Elf (High Elf Variant with Green Flame Blade) starting at 16/8/14/10/16/10 (15+1, 8, 14, 10, 15+1, 8+2).
Our DM lets us use racial spells that run off of a mental modifier use whatever modifier our spell casting class uses instead (Intelligence to wisdom in this case) so I get both Potent Spell Casting & a miniature version of Divine Strike.
At levels 4 & 8 I boost Wisdom to 18 & 20, respectively. At levels 12 & 16 I get Resilient: Constitution & Durable, then at level 19 I get Tough. This brings me up to 203 average health by level 20 with all of my hit die healing at max (12 per hit die) & a +10 on my concentration checks.
Love these videos of yours. Would you guys do a video for wildfire druid?
Do the Bard’s College of Valor… Going to do a campaign soon and would like to see your guys thoughts on it.
Thanks 🙏
My favorite low lvl cleric.
Tashas halfbreed
Silverquill
Vicous mockery and slivery barbs
Fey touched misty step and hex.
Have hex Vicous mockery and hex at lvl1 let's u shut down the treat pretty much indefinitely until they die and if u get in trouble poof away 30ft or if ur buddies are in trouble healing word them back up
With point buy u get a 18 wis at lvl1 which is good. Haveing lower then tht feels bad.
I've played this in a 1shot and a short campaign and it's so fun. Such a good 1v1 me bro kinda build were u just eye up the biggest guy and shut him down
I had a horrible DM, but I was playing a life domain cleric that was supposed to be a bbeg, but he turned his back against his cult like family and died for it. He was then raised from the dead by his God to fight evil within this world and protect the cycle of life and death. He was a blasting cleric who would protect his allies at all costs.
Great video! What feat(s) do you like for a Life Domain Cleric?
Was the optional cantrip versatility feature at 4th level not released when this video was made?
Edit: checked and they did a video a year before this reviewing the optional features in Tasha, so no, you are not locked into your cantrips after you hit 4th level, which is a bit less doom and gloomy. 😁
I love a good cleric build. 😁👍
~ Adam
Sometimes deities need a agent in the physical world to spread their influence but this has the affect of causing other cleric of different deities may clash on ideals with the deities watching with amusement.
Isn't there an option to just believe in an ideology instead of a deity with these domains? Or am I mixing my editions again.
On an awesome note I got my Drakkenheim bundle and just flipping through the book everything is just awesome. Awesome job! and can't wait to use this book.
My Cleric is a Fire Genasi combat chef. All of his spells are food themed.
If his name is not a pun around Guy Fieri I will be very disappointed
@Stringbean1138 It was just Cookie but that's better.
I'm currently playing a life domain cleric. I'm a mix of both of these builds as I'm a variant human but was a soldier as a field medic. I'm not to interested in gold or treasure so I let my party keep all our "winnings" but want enough components to cast expensive life saving spells.
Played a Firbolg life cleric through Princes of the Apocalypse. Easily the most powerful character I’ve ever had even though we ended at level 14. At one point I did hundreds of points of damage in one combat with a well placed Insect Plague. Didn’t have to heal anyone during that fight
as a life domain its easy to take magic initiate druid to get shillelagh and goodberry that stack with disciple of life and lasts 24 hours
He may not be a Life Cleric but I have a High Elf with Light Cleric and Divine Soul Sorcerer
This guy is just as effective with healing as a Life Cleric
Using some Meta Magic options to heal 2 party members with a Twin Spell Cure Wounds is nice or in the event of he can get in touch range, Distant Spell will potentially save someone
I'm playing my first character and I'm super excited to be a life domain cleric in the Curse of Strahd. I hope I can keep up with the team so none of them die lol.
The dungeon Crashers did a really cool video on a cleric/divine soul multiclass for a sick ass healer if ur thinking of making a healer
Ah, I hear the other Title already...
_So you want to play a Healer, an actual Cleric who focuses on Healing? Thank whichever God your Character is following!_
wonder if you'll do a warlock
i know it's a complicated character but it's a cool one i'm sure a lot of newer players want to play
spare the dying sucks unless you're a grave cleric who can use it as a bonus action at range. for a life cleric buy a healers kit. both spare the dying and the healers kit are actions and require you to touch the creature to stabilize them. this leaves you an extra cantrip slot so you can take both toll the dead and sacred flame so if you come up against something resistant to one damage type you can switch to the other cantrip and still do damage.
I have a weird multiclass Alchemist Artificer + Life Domain Cleric idea who gets to combine Disciple of Life with Alchemical Savant.
Intelligence mod + 2 + Spell Level in flat healing to any spell. So a first level Cure Wounds is 1d8+5+5+2+1 = 14 to 21 damage, with Healing Word being 14-17, so not much worse. The only requirement is that I use my alchemist's supplies as the spell focus.
Alchemical Savant gives him pretty solid damage on spells of the right elements, which are the ones I'd be picking anyway, so all of them. And with the campaign going to 20, I'd also get just high enough for the Cleric's 1d8 radiant damage added onto any damaging spell. Probably the highest healing you can get, and some of the best damage for a dedicated healer. Sure, he doesn't get a lot of the high-level heals and buffs, but does he really even need them at this point?
Cool what's the class split?
Edit: Will you also be dipping 2 lvls into stars druid for an additional d8+wis mod or 2 lvl of necromancer wizard for that self heal when you kill a creature? Than Wither and Bloom becomes pretty good with both healing and damage. So if you start from scratch at lvl1 with mark of healing halfling and the wither and bloom student background they get added to your artificer spell list benefitting from your healing features. Periapt of wound closure would stack very nicely with that healing from the hit dies healing of wither and bloom. If you go to lvl 20 I think you could get a lot out of (musing for my own character build now) 11 artificer, 5 life cleric, 2 stars druid, 2 necro wizard and because you can make your own armor you could make Serpent Scale Mail (scale mail that applies your full dex mod and maybe give it an infusion for +2 AC).
@@JugglingAddict I think my main goal was to go 1 level of Artificer, then 1 level of Life Cleric, then back to Artificer for the rest. Going back to Cleric does give you more spell slots to use though, so it's really a judgement call after Artificer 6, and I definitely think it's a good idea, as I wanted that 1d8 Radiant damage on my damage spells, which I think is at 8. Stars Druid wouldn't be a bad addition either.
I love Life domains once they get Regenerate at 13th and take metamagic adept 😆, SO FREAKING GOOD!!!!!
Toll the Dead sounds good at first because of the higher damage, but if the target gets incapacitated (Hold Person, Monk Stun, etc.), the target automatically fails its save against Sacred Flame.
Kelly got BUFF!
Currently playing a tempest cleric. I think it's really funny that my character has Monty's stat distribution but is a Hill Dwarf like Kelly's build. I also plan on getting Resilient Constitution like Monty's build as well. Don't sleep on Con! My little brick shithouse dwarf has more hp than our barbarian.
Just go Hill Dwarf Cleric 12 STR (For encumbrance and jumping) 10 Dex 14 CON 12 INT 16 WIS 12 CHA. Perfectly balanced and fine all around with no penalties to saving throws. If you wanna min max for combat and such you can dump a few other stats but no need to go above 12 STR unless your trying to increase that jump distance or do melee.
A little off topic, but I watched an episode once where you talked about a book that had magic items that leveled along with the characters, but I can't find the episode anymore. can you please tell me which book that was... I believe you said it was a 4e book
something I'd like to point out, is that you don't necessarily need super high casting stat for support casters. it's vital for spell saves and attacks, but you have less of those if you focus on spells cast on allies.
it still gives minimal amount of bonus healing on some spells, and more spells prepared per day (as well as some older subclass features scale that don't scale uses with proficiency bonus)
I'd still say it's not super essential to maximize if you know what you are doing
Has anyone used the magic initiate feat for this character build? Could learn shillelagh druid cantrip and get a quaterstaff. By your second turn you could be using the quaterstaff with wisdom instead of strength and spiritual weapon. At level 8 with with divine strike you could hit for potentially 28 damage with out a crit. Not bad for a healer
how does tou guys keep your bear so good looking? Is growing my own one and it keep on going to the right side, as in hair swing right
Hope you guys can help with my question as i can't find an answer other than people quoting the description. For "Turn Undead" now I know that any undead that fails its saving through must spend its turn to move away. What is not clear to me is once the undead has moved 30ft from you, is that its whole turn? or now that it is over 30ft away it can can it turn around and shoot you from afar?
after more research I think i grasp the effect now, no idea it was this strong
For those interested too, they can only dash or dodge with its action.(they still can use a BA if they have one, but not to attack)
They must get away from you as far as they can, the effect last 1min or until damaged, so if not hit for the next 10 turns they will run 600ftaway basically ejecting them from the encounter.
They can also get stuck, they cant move towards you within 30ft, so if in the middle of the room, it would have to run to a corner and stay there dodging till damaged or 1min is up, as it cant run towards you to get out via the door.
You can team up with other abilities, casting plant growth behind a mob of skellies, use turn undead, now they can get stuck running away, even if they break free they have to keep running. likely giving you and your party time to pick them off 1 at a time so they don't follow you back to camp ;)
if im missing something plz let me know