The Devout and the Dead: a guide to Clerics

[LordEntrails]

Thanks for keeping this up to date. It's the best cleric guide I have found, appreciate it.

[Yorrin]

Thanks for keeping this up to date. It's the best cleric guide I have found, appreciate it.

You're welcome! Glad it could be of use

[saintstardust]

Toll the dead can be "twinned" for Death domain clerics with their Reaper feature. It's one of the best damaging cantrips that clerics have, and Death clerics do it best.

[Yorrin]

Toll the dead can be "twinned" for Death domain clerics with their Reaper feature. It's one of the best damaging cantrips that clerics have, and Death clerics do it best.

Indeed, I point it out as such in the spells section. Makes Death Clerics one of the best all around damage dealing Clerics in a lot of situations.

[Arkhios]

Indeed, I point it out as such in the spells section. Makes Death Clerics one of the best all around damage dealing Clerics in a lot of situations.

...don't you mean 'death dealing Clerics' ?

[Yorrin]

...don't you mean 'death dealing Clerics' ?

Hahaha, oh you slay me

[HermanTheWize]

Hahaha, oh you slay me

Please stop! LMAO


PS: Solid guide

[Dazednconfused]

I am requesting help. I am new to 5th edition. I have been assigned as sort of the face/healing role for a Tomb of Annihilation party. I have already died twice first time as a light domain cleric with high int/wis and second time as a druid of the land/brambles. This is because I am always finding myself on the front lines trying to stabilize people and either don't have the hit points or armor. The group itself doesn't seem to have a lot of synergy. We have a fighter who is an archer/sharpshooter human, we have a rogue with the worst luck ever and a phobia of snakes (not a great choice for this campaign), we have a pacifistic tiefling warlock who primarily does enchantments illusions, a straight melee fighter, and my character the "healer and face". We have since added a very buff fire evoker who has amazing stats (roll based not point based). So we end up having one frontline character with the rogue sometimes dipping in and usually taking a dirt nap everyone else trying to stay at range, but since the monsters can go around the one single fighter we end up all over the place.

And so we are here with my third character. Going back to cleric. The party is weak on healing, weak on melee and frankly weak on spell damage but for that wizard. Stats rolled 17, 15, 14, 14, 14, 8 I start at lvl 4. [Yes my 3rd character just approaching lvl 5 I'll be a level behind now] Must not be evil.

I was thinking of a tempest hill dwarf outlander with a couple levels of paladin to boost up my melee and hitpoints. Probably slightly deaf already from her own magic.
Str 15 Dex 14 Con 16 (+2racial) Int 8 Wis 18 (+1racial) Cha 14
Feat: War Casting Hps: 42pts (10+3+1 6+2+1 5+3+1 5+3+1) Pal2\Cl2 Tempest STs Wis Cha Splint+Shield AC 19 speed 25 Divine Sense 3x/day Lay on hands 10hps Fighting style: Protection [synergy with only melee fighter or rogue] Divine Smite 2x Cleric (3cantrips/7spells prepared) 3 1st lvl spells, Ritual Casting, Channel Divinity Turn Undead and Destructive Wrath, Wrath of Storm
fog cloud, thunderwave

Can cleric spell slots be used for divine smite?
Should I instead look at war domain to do multiple attacks with my divine options?
If pal, I like that I can use lay on hands to keep people up until I get to my 3rd level of cleric. Intent is to just stay with cleric after this. Maybe go to 3rd pal for the oath and immunity to disease. This is a campaign with a lot of undead, a lot of brutal animal attacks, a lot of damage. Nobody has magic armor or weapons not even a +1, healing potions are expensive and rare, low money campaign too. And this against trolls, cyclops, ghasts, assassin vines, zombie 4 armed gorillas, TRexes, etc. Outlander is for keeping the group ontrack, fed in the jungle we have a magic item to take care of water.

OR would it be better to go with fighter\cleric for surge and second wind? Protector stance Maybe with variant human instead for both warcaster and resilience? 15Str, 14Dex, 16Con, Wis18, int 8 Cha 14 HPs 38 AC 19 or forego Resilience since fighters get the con prof, take warcaster and the +2 at 4th?

Which would make me last longer or help melee and keep people going? Would like a happy go lucky shock and awe type fighter with a penalty to any sound perception checks who constantly mishears things.

[Yorrin]

tempest hill dwarf outlander

Sounds like a pretty intense situation. As someone who's running ToA right now I can tell you it's quite difficult, but that Clerics do indeed bring a lot to the table. For your purposes I think the Pali dip is a solid idea. Though I might eschew the Protection style for just straight up Defense style, considering how ranged your party is. Cleric slots can indeed be used for smites, though remember that after level 4 slots they stop scaling, on the off chance you get to that level.

Dwarf is going to be better than human for the poison resist, if nothing else. The lower move speed hurts a bit (there's a feat in Xanathar's to fix that if your DM allows and you have the space), but the bonus bulk will be worth it, especially since you can sling Guiding Bolt from a distance while you close with distant foes.

Out of curiosity, why the intentional self-gimp with the deafness thing? Is that just a thing in your gaming group (phobia of snakes? really?), or is this something imposed by the DM for this campaign, or simply a role-playing choice? If the later, I would really steer you away from it. Tomb is hard enough with an optimum party, much less a disorganized one with self-imposed penalties.

[Dazednconfused]

Out of curiosity, why the intentional self-gimp with the deafness thing? Is that just a thing in your gaming group (phobia of snakes? really?), or is this something imposed by the DM for this campaign, or simply a role-playing choice? If the later, I would really steer you away from it. Tomb is hard enough with an optimum party, much less a disorganized one with self-imposed penalties.

Roleplaying I suppose. This is what the DM said: "I like the comic relief aspect of the deaf dwarf. I'd even allow you to take disadvantage on sound based perception with an advantage against sound based attacks." As I've said I never played 5th edition, haven't played anything in years, we have 2 players who have never played DnD at all, the pacifist tiefling warlock and the fighter/archer. We had to make our original characters without knowing what we were going to be playing. So...bad luck with the snakes.

I was thinking I might be able to synergize with our one melee fighter and help form a line for the archer and casters to get behind and the rogue to move in and around. I could use the protection stance as a reaction to make attacks on the fighter be at a disadvantage when they got around her armor. And when I don't use I can use the reaction for more thunder stuff.

I wondered about the channel divinity where you can make the damage to thunder or lighting be maximized is that for one attack only? If I did a bonus attack or had a weapon that did thunder damage would that also be affected or only one single attack so you try to make it a big one? So Hill Dwarf, paladin/tempest sounds viable....Thank you, thank you. I'd really like to say not die for at least 3 levels, that would be nice...rough jungle out there.

[GorogIrongut]

I would concur with Yorrin's advice to dip Paladin and I would take it a step farther. Cleric of the Tempest is nice... but I think you would be better served by a Cleric of the Forge. So if you've got 5 levels, I would either:
-put 5 levels into Paladin for the extra attack and then after level 7 put the rest of your levels into Cleric of the Forge

or

-I'd start with 1 level in Cleric of the Forge and 4 levels in Paladin (for the ASI). Cleric has lots of value from it's first couple levels, so you would get valuable cleric stuff and only slow your progression down by one level.

As for what kind of Paladin to go... I would argue that's more up to you and how you view your character.

Cleric slots can be used for smiting. The Tempest CD only works for one specific thunder/lightning damage attack so is best used with something big light a lightning bolt.



There is an alternative path that would net you goodies and potentially be helpful for your campaign... and that is going Ranger. Check with your DM if you can use Gloam Stalker under the guise of the Revised Ranger. If he says yes, then you've got a character class that doesn't have to be ranged but has a crap ton of utility for your campaign.

[Yorrin]

I wondered about the channel divinity where you can make the damage to thunder or lighting be maximized is that for one attack only?

Yeah, it's only one source of damage, so save it for shatter/thunderbolt. Big boom is big.

[Bluemanarc]

Roleplaying I suppose. This is what the DM said: "I like the comic relief aspect of the deaf dwarf. I'd even allow you to take disadvantage on sound based perception with an advantage against sound based attacks." .

Your going to have a hard time role playing out of battle encounters, discussing tactics, asking questions.

I hope you have a quill and parchment on your equipment list.

[Broken One]

Hoi together,

first and foremost big thanks for the guide. I have a group on friday where we started with some premade characters and I would like to change it up a bit. I was/am a level 3 life cleric hill dwarf. An we have the following final characters in our group, like mentioned I will start at level 3:

- human, 2-handed fighter
- elven, wizard
- tiefling, rogue
- (unknown, druid) (not sure if player will join the group)

I mainly would like to stay cleric and hill dwarf and my idea was to tank and heal. Things that I want to have in my build are:

• Race: hill dwarf
• Main stat WIS only with CON: STR 8, DEX 12, CON 15, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 14
• Shillelagh via
  
  • Druid multiclass (but I wouldnt be able to use steel armor anymore)
  • Magic Intiate feat (I want so many other feats)
  • Nature domain (seems my go to at the moment even with most of the domain being lackluster)
• Arcance cantrips for Booming Blade and Green-Fire Blade via
  • Arcana domain (I like this very much but this would make it hard to get Shillelagh)
  • 3+ Level Fighter Dip for Eldritch Knight (I like this very much but we start at level 3 and I'm not sure how to level and if I can offer enough healing)
  • 1+ Celestial/Hexblade Warlock multiclass (this would give me the cantrips but I guess i should at least take 2 - 3 levels of warlock for 2 Invocations and perhaps a pact boon
  • 1+ Divine Soul Sorcerer multiclass (this would also give me the cantrips and level 2-3 seems nice for Metamagic and Sorcery Points but might be the best level 1 dip?
• Warcaster feat to use my high CON and be able to use Booming Blade on OoA.
• Resilience CON to get proficient and have advantage via Warcaster for concentration checks and get my 15 CON to 16
• Sentinel, Polearm Master or simliar feat to get OoA attacks and bind enemies to me --> tanking

Is my idea to be able to heal and tank with this combination workable? Should I consider some other things? Even other classes? Which level combination should I use for the 3 first levels to be able to offer a bit healing and have Shillelagh (I guess I could wait for the arcane cantrips)?

Greets & TIA,

Broken One

[Galadhrim]

Hoi together,

first and foremost big thanks for the guide. I have a group on friday where we started with some premade characters and I would like to change it up a bit. I was/am a level 3 life cleric hill dwarf. An we have the following final characters in our group, like mentioned I will start at level 3:

- human, 2-handed fighter
- elven, wizard
- tiefling, rogue
- (unknown, druid) (not sure if player will join the group)

I mainly would like to stay cleric and hill dwarf and my idea was to tank and heal. Things that I want to have in my build are:

• Race: hill dwarf
• Main stat WIS only with CON: STR 8, DEX 12, CON 15, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 14
• Shillelagh via
  
  • Druid multiclass (but I wouldnt be able to use steel armor anymore)
  • Magic Intiate feat (I want so many other feats)
  • Nature domain (seems my go to at the moment even with most of the domain being lackluster)
• Arcance cantrips for Booming Blade and Green-Fire Blade via
  • Arcana domain (I like this very much but this would make it hard to get Shillelagh)
  • 3+ Level Fighter Dip for Eldritch Knight (I like this very much but we start at level 3 and I'm not sure how to level and if I can offer enough healing)
  • 1+ Celestial/Hexblade Warlock multiclass (this would give me the cantrips but I guess i should at least take 2 - 3 levels of warlock for 2 Invocations and perhaps a pact boon
  • 1+ Divine Soul Sorcerer multiclass (this would also give me the cantrips and level 2-3 seems nice for Metamagic and Sorcery Points but might be the best level 1 dip?
• Warcaster feat to use my high CON and be able to use Booming Blade on OoA.
• Resilience CON to get proficient and have advantage via Warcaster for concentration checks and get my 15 CON to 16
• Sentinel, Polearm Master or simliar feat to get OoA attacks and bind enemies to me --> tanking

Is my idea to be able to heal and tank with this combination workable? Should I consider some other things? Even other classes? Which level combination should I use for the 3 first levels to be able to offer a bit healing and have Shillelagh (I guess I could wait for the arcane cantrips)?

Greets & TIA,

Broken One

A couple of questions. Is your game going to be played for the most part levels 16-20? You are starting at level 3 so my guess is the majority of the game will be between levels 6-12. I would build for that. If you end up getting much higher great, but you are going to want to enjoy those levels as they tend to be the meat of most games.

That being said, you should probably pick one feat that seems most interesting to you and build around that. Since your idea is to tank and heal utilizing cleric and booming blade/greeneflame blade, I would do arcana cleric. If you switch your dex and cha and point buy for a 16 con (easy on a dwarf) you should make a good tank. That relieves the need for resilent con. 14 dex with bless should have you hitting pretty reliably when you decide to swing your weapon and lets you get 18 ac easily. This leaves you room to take warcaster at level 4, allowing you to mix it up in melee pretty reliably. at level 8 you can take +2 wisdom so you don't fall behind on your casting (your most important attribute).

If you are set on the shillelagh plus booming blade plus warcaster set up, you probably need to play as a human. Take MI as human feat (shillelagh, thornwhip) and warcaster at 4 then wisdom at 8.

That is just my .02

[Broken One]

A couple of questions. Is your game going to be played for the most part levels 16-20? You are starting at level 3 so my guess is the majority of the game will be between levels 6-12. I would build for that. If you end up getting much higher great, but you are going to want to enjoy those levels as they tend to be the meat of most games.

IIRC we will play "Princes of the Apocalypse" and the GM told me that we will at least get to level 12 and more.

That being said, you should probably pick one feat that seems most interesting to you and build around that. Since your idea is to tank and heal utilizing cleric and booming blade/greeneflame blade, I would do arcana cleric. If you switch your dex and cha and point buy for a 16 con (easy on a dwarf) you should make a good tank. That relieves the need for resilent con. 14 dex with bless should have you hitting pretty reliably when you decide to swing your weapon and lets you get 18 ac easily. This leaves you room to take warcaster at level 4, allowing you to mix it up in melee pretty reliably. at level 8 you can take +2 wisdom so you don't fall behind on your casting (your most important attribute).

So what you mean is using DEX as my attack stat? That would make me single class and I would just simply have to be a cleric, hmm.

If you are set on the shillelagh plus booming blade plus warcaster set up, you probably need to play as a human. Take MI as human feat (shillelagh, thornwhip) and warcaster at 4 then wisdom at 8.

You think the whole multiclass ideas are bad? The multiclass option I liked most was Eldritch Knight fighter because i was able to get: Defense Fighting Style, Action Surge, Second Wind, BB, GFB and Shield and Absorb Elements to make me even more tanky. I guess I could even start with Fighter to be profcient in CON and STR instead of WIS and DEX. But i would need to take something like 1 Nature Cleric/4 Eldritch Knight Fighter until I could finally be cleric. This delay was the reason I thought that maybe it would be a better idea to simply dip something like Warlock or Sorc into the Nature Cleric to get going at level 5.

To be honest I would love to do a Variant Human and have the feat but I hoped for finding a build that let me stay with dwarf.

[Yorrin]

first and foremost big thanks for the guide.

You're welcome!

Things that I want to have in my build are:

Yeah, there's a lot of feat goals here and not a lot of room for them. Especially if you're considering multiclassing.

There seems to be three major things you're going for here: melee survivability, melee offense, and the "sticky" part of tanking. In terms of melee survivability you've got Resilience/Warcaster, in terms of melee offense you've got GFB/BB and Shillelagh, and for stickiness you've got Sentinel/PAM.

What you need to do is pick your priorities. At lower levels the melee survivability feats aren't really neccesary, but are still nice. The offense will make a bigger impact on playstyle, and focusing on cantrip damage does free up your spell slots for healing, since you've stated that as a goal, so this is a strong choice. Stickiness... isn't a Cleric's strong suit. PAM does have some synergy with Shillelagh, but Clerics often have better uses of their bonus action than a middling amount of damage.

That being said I'd look to your offensive cantrips first, then slot in Warcaster and maybe resilient where you can. Nature or Arcana are the obvious domain choices. Of the two I prefer Arcana by far, as GFB/BB will be Cha (or Int) based otherwise, whereas Shillelagh can be picked up via feat and still be Wis. Of course, you don't actually NEED both, but if you don't have Shillelagh you'll need up up your Str or Dex, and without GFB/BB your damage doesn't scale much.

Multiclassing rather than using Domains for your offensive cantrips does free up your Domain choice, which can be nice. Going Life, for example can increase your survivability a noticeable amount. But then the question in which class and for how long? Only druid can get you Shillelagh, and doesn't offer a lot besides (Goodberry is nice on Life Clerics, but that's about it.) You could take one level of this if you want, but then why not be Nature Domain in the first place? Sorcerer/Warlock/Wizard can get you GFB/BB, but again it's not Wis that way. You've got a decent Cha, but in a build already so greedy for feats I doubt you'll find space to bump it.

So based on all that here's the build that I'd advise:

Arcana Cleric w/ GFB/BB
Magic Initiate (Druid) @4
Warcaster @8
Resilient (Con) @12
+Wis @16
+Wis @19

You could replace Resilient or either of the +Wis with PAM if you want, but you might not get high enough level for that to matter.

Or at least, that's my thoughts on the matter.

[No brains]

What are your thoughts on Ceremony and Life Transference? Are those pending?

[Yorrin]

What are your thoughts on Ceremony and Life Transference? Are those pending?

They're actually already in the guide, though I just realized I misspelled Ceremony.... fixing now.

Ceremony is very... NPC. Life Transference should only be used on Life Domain, otherwise just use Cure Wounds instead.

[No brains]

Ah ha. I missed them because they were out of alphabetical order. My mistake.

[Yorrin]

Ah ha. I missed them because they were out of alphabetical order. My mistake.

Yeah, I figured I'd put stuff from non-core supplements after the alphabetical stuff so that people with only PHB can keep their options straight. In retrospect I wish I'd added a few more posts worth of room when I started the thread to more clearly separate stuff like this.

[Broken One]

Yeah, there's a lot of feat goals here and not a lot of room for them. Especially if you're considering multiclassing.

There seems to be three major things you're going for here: melee survivability, melee offense, and the "sticky" part of tanking. In terms of melee survivability you've got Resilience/Warcaster, in terms of melee offense you've got GFB/BB and Shillelagh, and for stickiness you've got Sentinel/PAM.

This is a great summary of what is going on in my mind.

What you need to do is pick your priorities. At lower levels the melee survivability feats aren't really neccesary, but are still nice. The offense will make a bigger impact on playstyle, and focusing on cantrip damage does free up your spell slots for healing, since you've stated that as a goal, so this is a strong choice. Stickiness... isn't a Cleric's strong suit. PAM does have some synergy with Shillelagh, but Clerics often have better uses of their bonus action than a middling amount of damage.

I never thought about it that way but you are completly right with my having and wanting to use the melee cantrips first and foremost I'm also freeing up slots for healing, that's a great thing to cover the healing part.

I'm used to play D&D up to 4th and Pathfinder but what would be really sticky things or classes in 5th? Should I consider something else that would lead to better stickiness and healing?

Yeah I had the same feeling about PAM cause of the bonus actions and having to use things like Shillelagh and Spiritual Weapon. If I would ever select a feat to be stickier wouldn't Sentinel be the better or even best choice?

That being said I'd look to your offensive cantrips first, then slot in Warcaster and maybe resilient where you can. Nature or Arcana are the obvious domain choices. Of the two I prefer Arcana by far, as GFB/BB will be Cha (or Int) based otherwise, whereas Shillelagh can be picked up via feat and still be Wis. Of course, you don't actually NEED both, but if you don't have Shillelagh you'll need up up your Str or Dex, and without GFB/BB your damage doesn't scale much.

Yeah I see why Arcana Domain would be really strong here and focus even more on just having one main stat to be able to open up for feats.

Multiclassing rather than using Domains for your offensive cantrips does free up your Domain choice, which can be nice. Going Life, for example can increase your survivability a noticeable amount. But then the question in which class and for how long? Only druid can get you Shillelagh, and doesn't offer a lot besides (Goodberry is nice on Life Clerics, but that's about it.) You could take one level of this if you want, but then why not be Nature Domain in the first place? Sorcerer/Warlock/Wizard can get you GFB/BB, but again it's not Wis that way. You've got a decent Cha, but in a build already so greedy for feats I doubt you'll find space to bump it.

So based on all that here's the build that I'd advise:

Arcana Cleric w/ GFB/BB
Magic Initiate (Druid) @4
Warcaster @8
Resilient (Con) @12
+Wis @16
+Wis @19

You could replace Resilient or either of the +Wis with PAM if you want, but you might not get high enough level for that to matter.

Or at least, that's my thoughts on the matter.

To be honest I was really intrested in going Arcana Domain as soon as I saw it in SCAG and with all your thoughts and my priorities I really like your suggestion and I could make it work with both races be it Variant Human or Hill dwarf. Perhaps I should just get rid of dwarf and go with the Variant Human to have all of the feats earlier and the option to get Sentinel or whatever feat helps me to get sticky.

With both races I will lose heavy armor and would have to invest a bit in dexterity. By losing heavy armor dwarf gets worse so I came up with those stat arrays:

1. Dwarf, Hill: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 12 (odd CON would be better if I want to get Resilience CON is guess)
2. Human, Variant: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 15, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 10 (odd CON for Resilience CON)

I guess I will go with one of this options and hope you can help me out once more with the stat arrays and thoughts about the sticky feat. Thanks so far for the great help!

[Yorrin]

I'm used to play D&D up to 4th and Pathfinder but what would be really sticky things or classes in 5th? Should I consider something else that would lead to better stickiness and healing?

5e doesn't have a lot of sticky options in general. Sentinel is certainly one of them. And the new Ancestors Barbarians and Cavalier Fighter from Xanathar's are the most 4e style options. Arguably Battlemaster fighter in some situations. Also Compelled Duel spell from the Paladin (which I guess you could also get on a Bard). That's about it.

1. Dwarf, Hill: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 16, INT 8, WIS 16, CHA 12 (odd CON would be better if I want to get Resilience CON is guess)
2. Human, Variant: STR 8, DEX 14, CON 15, INT 10, WIS 16, CHA 10 (odd CON for Resilience CON)

If you're not stuck on Dwarf the v.human frees up that feat slot, which is pretty big for you. The only reason to stay Dwarf at that point is the bonus HP and maybe poison resistance, but I think that human is the stronger option in this case.

[LawnPygmy]

So, I've a bit of a problem. I'm using the Hawk-Headed Aven race from Planeshift: Amonkhet (+2 Dex, +2 Wis, fly 30, no penalty to long range) and I'm a cleric in a mixed group of dudes looking for a support duder. I want to be able to take advantage of my flight, but I'm not sure if staying at range is the best thing for a cleric to be doing. Can you help a guy out with potential build ideas?

[Yorrin]

So, I've a bit of a problem. I'm using the Hawk-Headed Aven race from Planeshift: Amonkhet (+2 Dex, +2 Wis, fly 30, no penalty to long range) and I'm a cleric in a mixed group of dudes looking for a support duder. I want to be able to take advantage of my flight, but I'm not sure if staying at range is the best thing for a cleric to be doing. Can you help a guy out with potential build ideas?

So the good news about most buff spells is that they only check distance during initial cast. So you can Bless the party, for example, and then fly up and start sniping to your hearts content. And once you get Death Ward that's another great long-term (concentration free) buff that doesn't check distance. That being said, it's a good idea to stay close enough to the action that you can swoop in with a Healing Word in case someone goes down.

[LawnPygmy]

So the good news about most buff spells is that they only check distance during initial cast. So you can Bless the party, for example, and then fly up and start sniping to your hearts content. And once you get Death Ward that's another great long-term (concentration free) buff that doesn't check distance. That being said, it's a good idea to stay close enough to the action that you can swoop in with a Healing Word in case someone goes down.

Thanks for the reply. Where I'm really torn is going between Death and Arcana Domains. I've looked at Life and, it doesn't do what I want to do, even if it makes me better at what I probably should be doing.(?) The difficulty is that Death seems weirdly focused and unfocused (focus on necrotic damage but not on range) and Arcana seems the opposite; less thematic focus but more ranged ability and utility.

I know I'm being indecisive about this, but I really don't know what to do for a flappy flappy birdperson who wants to be up inna air but can also melee pretty good.

[Yorrin]

Thanks for the reply. Where I'm really torn is going between Death and Arcana Domains. I've looked at Life and, it doesn't do what I want to do, even if it makes me better at what I probably should be doing.(?) The difficulty is that Death seems weirdly focused and unfocused (focus on necrotic damage but not on range) and Arcana seems the opposite; less thematic focus but more ranged ability and utility.

I know I'm being indecisive about this, but I really don't know what to do for a flappy flappy birdperson who wants to be up inna air but can also melee pretty good.

Both are great domains. It mostly boils down to if you want to be focused on burst damage and debuffs (Death) or utility and flexibility (Arcana). Or you can just pick based on flavor, since both tell a cool story with Aven.

[Swooshfinn]

Thank you for the guide and discussion. I am currently running my first long term (year + campaign) and am playing in three games. One of my characters is a 5e wizard running around in a modified Birthright campaign, the other two are a Dragonborn cleric in a war/light domain (sticking more to the light side of things with him) and a Water Genasi Tempest cleric with the acolyte background, named Squall.

Squall just reached level 4, and the DM announced last session, we are getting a second set of feats available at 5th,10th, and 15th. So I am trying to look at what is available, strongly considering a dip in fighter, and other long term options at this point.

Here is my stat line:
Str 14, Dex 9, Con 16, Int 10, Wis 16, Cha 10

And have been using this as my prepared spell list:

- Cantrips: Guidance, Thaumaturgy, Mending, Shape Water
- Level 1: Fog Cloud, Thunderwave, Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Ceremony
- Level 2: Shatter, Gust of Wind, Prayer of Healing, Lesser Restoration, Enhance Ability

My idea for this character is that he is really all about the harmonious nature of water, the destructive side and the healing side.

Looking at Feats there are a few that interest me for 4th level (these are in no particular order), mainly War Caster, Mage Slayer, Martial Adept, Healer, and Elemental Adept. Martial Adept seems like it would not be nessacery if I plan a dip into Fighter (which would be at level 5), but I am strongly leaning towards the multiclass option to get either the Protection or the Defense fighting style. I am even considering getting my Fighter level up to 3 to gain the Battle Master archtype and just focusing in on being a sort of battle medic.

I know I am going to get a lot of flak for my prepared list, but my group seems to be a mix of role and roll playing, so to speak, so I look to have a decent mix of spells at my disposal, and look for interesting ways to use what I have prepped. For example, last session, I used Fog Cloud to obscure a group of enemies, as the party started whittling them down, I use Shape Water to freeze a large portion of the fog that was above the enemies, creating a frozen fog bomb, which fell from the sky crashing down on the enemies' heads.

Prior to that encounter, I had a great example of role play, using ceremony to perform last rites on a couple of teenagers/youngsters that were up to no good trying to rouse our party. A few of the others in our party got a little worked up about getting pelted by rocks in the middle of the night, and lashed out at the kids, killing them, so I thought it would only be appropriate to perform last rites on them and make sure their souls were at rest.

I appreciate any input on my take on the Tempest cleric for Squall; my Dragonborn Cleric (Torinn) is in a game with a lot more role play than roll play, and it also meets less frequently, so surprisingly Squall has caught up with Torinn fairly quickly level wise. I am still looking into all my options for Squall, as I think he has a lot of potential.

[KorvinStarmast]

I have been assigned as sort of the face/healing role for a Tomb of Annihilation party.

This is because I am always finding myself on the front lines trying to stabilize people and either don't have the hit points or armor.
The group itself doesn't seem to have a lot of synergy.
We have a fighter who is an archer/sharpshooter human
We have a rogue with the worst luck ever and a phobia of snakes (not a great choice for this campaign)
We have a pacifistic tiefling warlock who primarily does enchantments illusions
Straight melee fighter
My character the "healer and face". We have since added a very buff fire evoker who has amazing stats (roll based not point based). So we end up having one frontline character with the rogue sometimes dipping in and usually taking a dirt nap everyone else trying to stay at range, but since the monsters can go around the one single fighter we end up all over the place.

Stats rolled 17, 15, 14, 14, 14, 8 I start at lvl 4.

I suggest Wood Elf, Monk/Cleric. 1 level Monk, 3 in Cleric at this point.
If you prefer, start cleric for wis/cha saves, or start monk with Dex/Str saves.
You get automatic Perception Proficiency with Wood Elf. This is goodness.

Skills: Acrobatics for sure, to avoid getting grappled, but beyond that you have survival from outlander, pick other skills to fit, with persuasion being a requirement. (face)

Str: 14
Dex 19 (17+2)
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 16 (15+1)
Cha: 14 (You said you needed to be face)

Weapon: quarterstaff as a default, though daggers, darts, short swords, clubs as necessary.

A major advantage of this approach is that you are unarmored and can
(1) carry more as needed and
(2) will probably avoid some of the exhaustion penalties that wearing armor

Your unarmored Armor class will be 17 (4 + 3)
When you get to lvl 4 in cleric put both points in wisdom. AC will be 18. (5 +4) This also boosts your spell DC by one.

Tempest Cleric is lovely.
Second Level Domain Spells: gust of wind, shatter
Both useful, and the latter on can be maxed with your Channel Divinity. So can the thunderwave from first level.

FWIW: Wood Elf Mask of the Wild is going to help you in a variety of situations in the jungle if and when you need to hide.
Consider this: If you pick Stealth as a proficiency, you can be as sneaky almost as the thief, so that the thief does not need to scout alone.

It's an idea. Find the enemy before they find you.

You get racial long bow proficiency, which is handy for ranged attack before you get to 5th level cleric with double sacred flame d8's. (With your dex, your +6 to hit and 1d8 +4 to damage does not suck, but you won't get multiple attacks ever, so this is a "plinking" ability versus flying and ranged targets)

Background: so many to choose from, Outlander is fine for the survival skill.

Speed 35. Cleric (3cantrips/6spells prepared)
2 1st lvl spells, 2 second level spells, Ritual Casting,
Channel Divinity Turn Undead and Destructive Wrath, Wrath of Storm fog cloud, thunder wave (and the 2d level spells for that domain gust of wind and shatter)

As the campaign goes on, getting to your level 5 cleric is pretty important for those 3rd level spells.
At some point, a second level in monk might help ... as you get to use a few Ki skills in the martial arts area. When to do that is a bit hard to tell. your +10 speed boost here is nice, but not as nice as the spells you need from being a cleric.

Outlander is for keeping the group ontrack, fed in the jungle we have a magic item to take care of water.

You should be a great help to all, with your guidance cantrip used for not getting lost and for finding food during survival checks.
Use the heck out of that cantrip. It's really nice.

[Yorrin]

Water Genasi Tempest cleric

Sounds like a fun character. The only real advice I have is start with Warcaster for your next feat. You don't have enough elemental consistency to justify Elemental Adapt, and the rest of those feats are pretty garbage. Other than that it sounds like a fun campaign with a DM that rewards creativity, which is always great.