The Death Cleric - D&D: Optimized #11
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- Опубликовано: 3 июл 2024
- Note: This build has now been updated per Tasha's Cauldron of Everything (and it's even better now!) - See here for details: • How Tasha's Changes Ev...
Character Concept:(0:00)
Levels 1-6:(12:24)
Levels 7-9:(24:00)
Levels 10-13:(28:45)
Levels 14-17:(30:33)
Final Thoughts:(35:36)
So you want to be a Cleric. You want to heal, bring your friends back from the dead, and lay waste to the undead. BUT you also want to do as much sustained damage as possible? You're in luck. Come learn about maximizing your damage while reveling in all your Cleric-y glory!
Math/Graphs for this episode:
docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
Sustained DPR Comparisons (3 Tabs): docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...
/ dndoptimized
/ dnddeepdive
/ colbypoulson
Come join the conversation at reddit.com/r/DnDoptimized/
Hey man I have a build that I think you would find interesting and very powerful i think you could make a great video on it. Its definitely not your average deal a bunch of damage all at once build. I look forward to hearing if your interested enjoying your stuff so far keep up the good work
@@KnifeAllGame Always interested! Thanks!
@@DnDDeepDive the build was centered around a particular magic item from the ravnica book called the sword of the paruns. Essentially you build a battle Master fighter with things like maneuvering attack and commander strike and suddenly you've given the entire party legendary actions Essentially through reactions they wouldn't normally use they can now reliably do something every round. Works well when you have a rouge and a barbarian in my experience I treat them like my club and my scouple. Just a starting point for what I have already made I'm sure if you find a way to toy with the build you'll improve it but it has dramatically affected the level of enemies our party can face significantly.
OMG Homelander plays DnD , awesome
:D ... D:
I knew his uniform wasn't a muscle suit!
*bruh*
Lmao
Level 1:(see above) [cleric 1, sub-class, race & feat]
Level 2:(@18:06) [cleric 2]
Level 3:(@18:46) [cleric 3]
Level 4:(@19:37) [cleric 4 & ASI]
Level 5:(@20:01) [cleric 5]
Level 6:(@22:33) [cleric 6]
Level 7:(see above) [cleric 7]
Level 8:(@25:11) [cleric 8 & ASI]
Level 9:(@28:03) [cleric 9]
Level 10:(skipped) [cleric 10]
Level 11:(see above) [cleric 11]
Level 12:(@29:20) [cleric 12 & ASI]
Level 13:(@29:45) [cleric 13]
Level 14:(see above) [cleric 14]
Level 15:(@31:15) [cleric 15]
Level 16:(@31:39) [cleric 16 & ASI]
Level 17:(@31:50) [cleric 17]
Yes please, if you find a build interesting, I want to hear about it. DPR isn't the only thing that makes an effective character.
I love to see death domain love! Tons of people sleep on this domain and I played one in a campaign and nobody could touch my sustained damage round after round. I've been telling my buddies for ages that the cleric is a damage dealer and now they know!
any class tbh can be a dmg dealer. just a question of how they deal dmg (aoe vs. single target, spells vs. martials, burst vs. sustained) and how good they are at it (dmg boosts, synergies with other classes that provide dmg boosts, a good attack/spell to boost).
My favorite character I've built is a death domain Aarocockra, who I designed off a bearded vulture
@@seleinathescorpio that is an awesome concept!
@@itspabbs thank you, I even found a way to make him lawful by making him a hospice Dr, rather than a necromancer.
Great stuff, man! I'd always had a hunch that Death Cleric was pretty crazy for sustained DPR, and this video validated that line of thought. It's also just my favorite class/subclass in terms of flavor.
You didn't mention animate dead! which you learn for free at level 5 as death domain cleric. You could summon some skeletons prior to a long rest and have them for the whole day while having all your spells slots available. You can use your first bonus action when casting spirit guardians to give them an attack command to "Kill these enemy creatures". Bam, extra damage each round for free. In addition, they can act as tanks for your group.
Honestly glad that I found you late because it's so nice to binge these episodes such high quality even from the start thank you for your work
(found you through treant monk)
Thanks!
definitely my next cleric build. glad i found your videos this year!
Me too! :)
Thanks for helping my fav character come to life and become decent. The twilight cleric set that bar so high I never thought Kai would actually see a campaign. You're awesome!
Love that you're giving us the averages.
What a nice optimized vid, I'm currently running a goblin death domain cleric in our new campaign (currently lvl 2). I can use this as guide as I gain levels.
As a death domain you could also take sapping sting, which can be strong with reaper by potentially knocking prone 2 enemies
This was really great; I like especially that it's not one of the very well known optimized builds. I appreciated how much you emphasized that this (very) high damage was conditional on adjacent enemies. I think it might be good to offer some commentary on how likely that is in your experience, as well as DPR calculations against a single-target for comparison. One last thing: I was surprised you didn't mention that you can use your very powerful channel divinity on your spiritual weapon, since it is a melee attack. This gives this build surprising spike damage capability!
Thanks! There are definitely lots of ways to add some nice burst damage for the death cleric - especially with Channel Divinity. Just wanted to focus on sustained damage as much possible here :).
You were so pleased with 150 subscribers, and look at where you are now!
Loved you video really gave me everything I was looking for when how to start a Death Cleric
This video is one of my favorites I really like to come back to
I too enjoy sustained damage builds, and humorously we have similar spreadsheets.
Hey DND:O, loving your videos. Currently playing CoS and a party member was playing a light cleric. Anyway, he died level 1 to a Spectre's life drain ability, cannot believe I forgot to remind him about his warding flare ability, he would have lived! Being a Grave Cleric myself we gave him proper funeral rights at least. Thought i'd share, keep up the fantastic work.
Thanks, and thanks for sharing! Glad you're enjoying! I think you secretly wanted to be the lone Cleric in Barovia ;)
I'm currently building this character in a current campaign so excited to see it play out
Colby, watching you for the first time I find you to be a very pleasant person to watch. You quieter calm and semi monotone timbre I’d very pleasant to listen to. Hope you’re having a great day and I’m gonna enjoy the episode
Cheers!
I know this video is 2 years old now, but I was looking into death clerics for a Strahd campaign and found this very helpful!
I'm playing Firbolg for the +2 to wisdom and +1 to Str, using a glaive flavored as a scythe, and I ended up getting a free feat and taking find familiar to grab a raven -- that way if I need to pick up allies, I can send it to do that instead of having to leave the front line
Awww so adorable. Colby so happy for 150 followers now at 56k! Awesome to see!
AJAJAJAJAJ Gracias por mencionarme :D!, a sword and shield comparison (like the warrior/barbarian 2handed) about warrior and paladin sound prety good.
;)
At the beginning of the video you mentioned doing a healing build. I think there is more to healing in DND than just the healing spells. In fact, I think healing spells are the least efficient way of healing in 5e and should only be used in dire situations. You will get a lot more damage mitigation with temp hit points, using the Aid spell and Hero’s Feast to increase HP max, Polymorph & summoned creatures to soak up damage, preventing damage by imposing disadvantage, etc. I think it could be cool to look at a healing build that takes these methods into account. Maybe measure it by calculating a “hit points on the field” or “damage mitigation per-round”.
Agreed! Check out my Support Bard build for a longer discussion on the issue :)
Just wanted to point out that Death Cleric can also offer some support through the Sapping Sting cantrip, potentially putting multiple enemies prone. The rogue in my party loves me for this but the ranger hates me XDDD The ranger has since decided to build melee instead.
Love this!
I'm loving this series. Keep me in mind when you inevitably get big friend! And make characters that are optimized in more than just DPR. Maybe a few different sub-builds?
Thanks! And I do have a few! :)
Love this build, it's so cool!
Death cleric looks so fun, good sustained damage, options for burst, can do it with spells or weapons.
I have a 2nd level paladin I might multiclass into death cleric (it would fit very well). Only one spell level behind full cleric, with optional smites for more versatility.
Best series … I’m binging your content bro 😎
Thanks and welcome!
Just found your channel this week and I'm loving it, great content. Personally I love the life cleric/magic initiate (druid) build. Titanic healing straight away and using thorn whip to pull creatures into my spirit guardians then clobber them with shillelagh + divine strike. Maybe a touch less dpr vs. toll the dead/reaper combo but still potent and hitting as many opponents with SG as possible adds up. Keep up the good work and thanks from the UK.
Cheers! I've always wanted to find a great use for "get over here!" type spells and abilities like thorn whip. This is a great one!
Now add a Gloomstalker with crossbow expert and Spike Growth to your party and watch the DM (usually me) implode. Love the idea of an optimized party, it's what I've been tinkering with all summer.
Just watched this all the way through, because i wanted to check something. Eleventh Episode "just topped 150 subscribers." Wow! How far you've come!
Ha ha! That's crazy. I remember feeling like that was a big deal :).
Before this video I thought death cleric was useless. This layout and flavor sounds like fun. Thanks for this video!!
After watching most of this channel's videos, seeing a straight class build is almost unsettling
During the intro, you talk about Life Cleric with magic Initiate feat and Goodberry. Keep in mind that you couldn't use your spell slot for goodberry until you get 1 level of Druid, 2 level of Ranger or learn Goodberry with Magical Secret from Bard. RAW spellslots could only be use for spells that could be learn by your classes.
A full cleric with Goodberry from Magic Initiate could only cast it 1 time per long rest.
BTW great Podcast and keep doing different subject. I like the idea of doing different build like tank, support, healer, battlefield control, etc... will still doing a descent DPR so you aren't a dead weight when you aren't needed.
Thanks Maxime - will do!
even if you can cast it once per long rest with magic initiate. it is more than enough. each cast give 10 berry, and each berry give 4hp. that's like 40hp of heal
@@jk2l The way it is written the spell is "Goodberry" not "Goodberries" you have to eat the goodberry to get HP so you need to eat the entire contents of the spell to qualify as eating the "Goodberry" otherwise goodberry(s) is the equivalent of 5 cure light wounds and way OP, in order to balance it you would need to level it up to 4 or 5.
@@caseyczarnomski8054 I don't understand what are you saying here.
"Up to ten berries appear in your hand and are infused with magic for the duration. A creature can use its action to eat one berry. Eating a berry restores 1 hit point, and the berry provides enough nourishment to sustain a creature for one day.
The berries lose their potency if they have not been consumed within 24 hours of the casting of this spell."
when you cast the spell it give 10 berries. it is part of spell description. and you gain benefit for each berry eaten. normally the spell isn't that op it is just the wording mix with life cleric make it a bit op (which they re-worded the ability of life cleric in onednd. so this expoit won't work in OneDND rule)
My dnd playstyle typically is supporty/buffer/battlefield control characters! So I’d love to see more of these videos instead of just dpr.
thanks to your other video on the Gloomstalker my character Wick ¨Mashed potatoes Johnson¨McCree was born and has terrorized our short Campaign almost one-shotting everything, I will be adding this Build to that same campaign for a friend of mine tonight! cant wait to see the Face on our DM as we unleash both characters lol
Alright! Building this concept this week for a new campaign! Taking FTR at lvl 1, then CLR the rest of the way.
I think Divine Strike works with spiritual weapon and that means it works with Touch of Death later when it does necrotic. I'm like 70% sure
edit: I think Inescapable Destruction/Touch of Death/ Divine Strike all work with spiritual weapon. I think the idea with the whole class is
Action: Toll of the dead
BA: Spiritual Weapon
Concentration: Spirit Guardians
Vampiric Touch if low HP
It works with Touch of Death, because it requires hitting with a melee attack and spiritual weapon attacks are considered melee spell attacks. Divine strike however specifies that the attack needs to be a melee weapon attack and spiritual attacks are not weapon attacks, they are spell attacks.
I have been wondering if my conquest paladin would be able to add Hex damage to his spiritual weapon hit.
Id like to think yes even though it's a spell effect. It gets added to each dice of Eldrich Blast so... yes?
Great 💪👍 And I think that its more applicable as it is not a multi-multi-class build.
Right now, I'm about this Fighter 1 x Stars Druid 2 x Cleric 17. Using star forms to have great concentration or heal extra. I really want to lean into life transference and vampiric touch.
I will be trying this build out in an upcoming campaign but with custom origin and going full cleric of kelemvor due to warcaster requirement at level 1. Ill probably take resilient in the future just to get that prof. Bonus and advantage. Lets hope all goes well :). Ty for posting this.
Awesome! Have fun! I played it for about 4 or 5 session in a campaign at levels 10-12 and had a blast :)
I've got a bit of a different take on this build, and I would really like to know how it stacks up numbers wise.
It seemed to me that most of the value from the death domain cleric came from the first 6 levels. Most of the damage comes from 3rd level spells and a cantrip, and the level 6 feature lets you ignore resistance to necrotic damage. If I multiclass with another full caster, then I won't lose any progression with spell slots. I decided a sorcerer, specifically a shadow magic sorcorer, was the way to go. I also thought about trying a different race, specifically a Fallen Aasimar. Necrotic shroud allows you to add a good bit of damage to your attacks for a full minute. This takes an action to activate, which is another reason I went sorcerer. Quicken spell can be used to cast Spirit guardians as a bonus action on the same turn as activating necrotic shroud. Quicken spell will also let us use Toll the dead twice in a round instead of once when the extra damage is needed, although I wouldn't factor that into sustained DPR.
Start level 1 as a Shadow Magic Sorcerer. This gives proficiency in constitution saving throws. Then I would probably put my next 6 levels into Death Domain Cleric, for access to all of the great spells and features this build relies on. After that, getting to level 6 shadow magic sorcerer is a must. This gives us a hound of ill omen, which can be summoned as a bonus action and can impose disadvantage on saving throws to its target. Being able to impose disadvantage somewhat consistently to a single target should help the single target DPR of this build, while also still being able to affect secondary enemies that are nearby. The Necrotic shroud ability of the fallen Aasimar will also improve damage rather significantly.
From this point I would probably put all of my points into sorcerer levels to get more sorcery points. You can also have multiple hounds of ill omen at a time, as long as you have sorcery points to spend. You could potentially use your hounds to impose disadvantage on both of your targets at once.
Except if you cast 2 spells in a turn, 1 of them HAS to be a cantrip.
@@WexMajor82 yes, but activating necrotic shroud isn't a spell so that's not a problem. Quicken is used to cast on the same turn as activating necrotic shroud, or to double cast toll the dead (cantrip)
@@GrrumpyPants Oh, that's the catch.
Good one :)
@@WexMajor82 Half my sorcerer builds died when I learned this rule about a week ago XD
It would be way too overpowered otherwise though, yeah.
I'd probably go Bard instead to have the same hit die and to get some flavorful psychic damage spells and crippling spell effects. I can definitely see the advantage of Metamagic, though.
Love what you're doing so far but I'd definitely be into other optimized builds that aren't just about sustained DPR. I definitely think there are other ways to optimize and create really effective characters. So, if you go that direction, I'm totally still with you.
Good to know - thanks for the feedback! Might be time to try my hand at a sword and board tank...
Soothing voice. Excellent and fun character ideas. Pretty. Might be a fave content creator lol
🥰
I recently used a Death Cleric with roughly the same ideas, but I took the Metamagic Adept feat to gain two sorcery points, with which I could use twinned spell.
This has been very beneficial for those Inflict Wounds novas, where you could do 2x 3d10 + Touch of Death on one of them (or maybe someone could justify it working on both of them).
This is very powerful for campaigns where it will be unlikely that you'll reach a level higher than 5.
At 5th level with the increased damage from cantrips, I used Chill Touch and split it to 4 targets, as reaper is something that triggers on something that _normally_ targets one creature. Thereby doing 4x 2d8 and thinning the herd, while having Spirit guardians and spiritual weapon up.
Now I of course see that I could have just as well used Toll the Dead,.
I used it very efficiently on a large orc raiding party and had the opportunity presented itself at 5th level, not 4th, I could have likely taken them all down alone.
Now, I didn't take the feat at level 1 by going variant, but you could do that, meaning you'd be fairly dangerous at level 1 already.
If I did the numbers right, this would mean that you can throw out a NecroNova(tm) for an additional 23~ necrotic damage on the first round and an additional 6 on the second at level 6. NecroNova(tm) also has a chance to crit, while Toll the Dead does not. This would of course require you to be in melee with at least 2 combatants.
Anyway, my party was not happy with me, what with the melting of swathes of enemies and all. So my next character is a completely normal ranger with noothing special about them.
You need a new party dude- if you made a powerful pc your party shouldn't be mad at you.
@@drkgaming7792 It was very overshadowing. Like more damage than the rest of the party combined. And we had a lance carrying 154 year old halfling running into battle on pigback, to put things into perspective.
Love playing my Death Cleric, casting Inflict Wounds with a range of up to 120ft.
How?
- Variant human to get Find Familiar - owl (DM agreed for me to play the familiar on my turn, rather than have it's own initiative)
- My Action: Hold inflict Wounds until owl is within range.
- Owl then fly's within range, I use my re-action to cast Inflict Wounds through my owl therefore also using the owls re-action.
- The owl then uses it's Action to dash and fly away, using it's flyby feature to avoid Opportunity ATKs.
Generally I treat this as having a 60ft range, so I can keep my owl at a safe distance post ATK.
I bleed cleric. I'm currently playing an optimized Life Domain build (mostly Shepherd Druid) in a CoS campaign. And I've played Grave Domain and Arcana Domain as well. It is one of my all time favorite classes.
Personally when I build a character I try to fill holes in the party composition. I will typically build my character after I know what everyone else is playing so I can attempt to cover any missed bases, and after that I will try to optimize my build to maximize the party synergy. Part of that is dealing decent damage myself, but I find it is more effective to sacrifice personal damage if it allows me to boost 2 or more allies' damage. I think it is entirely possible to have 4-5 character builds that aren't optimized in a vacuum for individual max damage, but rather for party synergy, and have them as a party out DPR the characters optimized for individual DPR.
In lieu of Tasha's I think the Fallen Aasimar would be an excellent thematic AND mechanical race choice. Sure you don't get War Caster at level 1, but it is still very juicy.
Personally, I don't like Death Domain. I feel like it is mechanically weak in that it has features that augment both melee and spell damage types. That said, I think if you wanted to truly optimize this character build, you'll need to take 2-5 levels of Ranger (depending on if you want Gloom Stalker and Extra Attack) Taking the Druidic Warrior fighting style would let you pick up Shillelagh. This will let you use wisdom instead of strength for attack and damage, and reduces the M.A.D. of the build. Going all the way to 5th level also gives you extra attack, and taking Gloom Stalker lets you add Wisdom to Initiative etc.. etc... I think it works well mechanically and thematically. This would also allow you to make much better use of Divine Strike, AND the Touch of Death: Channel Divinity option. As a half caster the levels in ranger slow down your spell slot progression a bit, but it's not as bad as taking levels in fighter.
would love an updated version with all the new stuff
Wow remember when these episodes were under an hour? That was so nice.
Outstanding shirt brother 👌 👍
Would love to see a Support build
Picking up Spell Sniper or Magic Initiate for the increased range and access to extra cantrips like Chill Touch, Thorn Whip, and Sapping Sting could be very handy for added flexibility on the battlefield.
You get to attack AC (which lets you roll with advantage and crit sometimes), WIS, and CON while potentially nullifying healing and knocking down multiple foes at once. Thorn whip isn't the greatest for immediate damage but it could pull a foe in to position for you to really start ramping up your damage on subsequent turns.
The increased range from Spell Sniper nearly doubles the area in which you can target adjacent foes, but Magic Initiative can give you more cantrips and a spell to boot, which could always be used to cast Find Familar to deliver touch soella or give you or an ally advantage on an attack each round by spamming the help action with it.
Fun and useful non sustained DPR builds would be great. I rarely full optimize my builds as I once did because my style of play has changed drastically to enjoying RP and exploration almost as much if not more than combat.
Blessed Strike enables additional damage on cantrips!
Found it.. watching it now!!!
i just became a big fan of your show. i have been watching your series in order. i like the format. not everything has to be about DPR.
one thing i would like you to do is to have a have series on which spells not to take, or which builds are totally useless.
I'll use this one against my players some day when they're higher lvl! Maybe a lvl 10 Death Cleric with minions as a mini-boss encounter.
Guiding Bolt is also a good use of a first level spell slot if your enemies have a high wisdom save or if Toll the Dead hasn’t scaled up yet. 4d6 and advantage against that enemy until the start of your next turn is ridiculous for a first level slot.
Death Cleric 18 / Necromancer Wizard lvl 2 Fallen Aasimar
Build is focused on suping up the vampiric touch spell to the max.
I love the DPR and am really enjoying your channel. Other things that might be fun could be ways to make non combat subclasses like eloquence bard decent in combat besides buffing. Optimized builds for shadow sorcerer or lore bards. I loved the bladesinger build, I took lucky to avoid crits one lvl of fighter for defense and a shield when you run out of blade songs.
Great choices! Will definitely have to look at stretching a non-DPR sub for sure.
I've been really enjoying your content and I'm slowly going through the process of watching every single one of your videos. I wouldn't mind seeing other "optimized" builds that don't entirely focus on damage per se. The best healer, support buffer, DPR, tank, and many more options out there lie in wait for experimentation. There's also an idea that you could try and make condensed optimized builds where you focus strictly on a Subclass with no Multiclass options. This may give some leeway to players whose DMs are against Multiclassing, or possibly only allow players to Multiclass if it'd fit the character (I've met those DMs before). Great video as always.
Thanks! Keep watching for another tank and my first healer episode, but yes, there's definitely a sustained-damage focus in my builds, no question. Hope to put out another tank build next week!
@@DnDDeepDive I'm looking forward to it! Actually, my DM and several players and I are going to play Descent into Avernus soon and I planned on playing a Paladin/Warlock mix for story reasons. I wonder if you could try something with that? It's nothing fancy but the character was resurrected as an Aasimar by a Solar to help with the events of the book.
@@ArchAngelxDemonChao Got a Pally/Lock on my list! (But not sure when I'll be able to get an episode out on it yet :P)
@@DnDDeepDive That's alright! I can't wait to see what's coming down the pipeline. I've also been enjoying your other content too such as Slidin' Into My DMs and D&D Shorts (I know there was only one episode but it was great for reference).
Well done
I would like a series where you take the classes and optimize it to deal with some of the shortcomings of that particular sub class. For instance, the war cleric has long been seen as a sub optimal and even sub par or just not quite as good as the other cleric sub classes. So how can you take that class and that sub class and use either feats or multi classing or something to help you get the most out of that class. That’s just one example of a sub class that need some work. I’m sure there are others.
I know I am late to this, but I am currently playing a death domain cleric of Kelemvor. My character is a protector Aasimar, also planning on going a bit into hexblade.
Something to take note of vampiric touch along with your channel divinity is a nice single target leech and burst all in one since the spell only mentions the necrotic dmg you do in the attack not what is done by the spell and your channel divinity is a rider effect just like smites. Mike Mearls also seems to agree with the interaction but of course your dm can veto.
A DM that veto's anything RAW that isn't broken is anti-optimization, anti-fun and a DM i wouldn't want to play with.
while i wouldn't use the channel divinity with vampiric touch, the basic concept is a nice combo to have when you need it. Works with other stuff that simply add extra dmg to your attacks like hexblade's curse, hex, genie's wrath, etc.
@@TheRobversion1 Well it's moreso a nice font of health while also doing some single target dmg so a double move in the hp economy but I feel you dude.
@@afrosamurai3847 yup. personally, it's just that i'm more likely to use the channel divinity earlier to try to kill something earlier so by the time i'd be using vampiric touch, the channel divinity is spent already. I subscribe to the alpha striking philosophy of burning resources early to take enemies off the board before they can do anything to you.
@@TheRobversion1 Completely understand dude, I'm just cursed with lowish initiative rolls and savvy enemies see cleric and want to pop them fast which is perfectly reasonable of them but leads to me being down hp so a decent option for me. Otherwise I fully agree with your sentiment as it's just a short rest away.
@@afrosamurai3847 yeah. i get it coming from a cleric's point of view as you are usually the target (and don't usually weak medium/light armor to have more dex).
When i play clerics, i try to avoid heavy armor as much as possible as i like to use stealth and have at least 14 dex to have a decent bonus. moreover, our table never starts at tier 1 anymore (we usually start at level 5-10) so when our DM allows us to pick up an uncommon magic item to start the campaign, weapon of warning/luckstone/sentinel shield are usually at the top of my list for initiative boosts.
Great video. Love Clerics. Except for the Death Domain specifics, this cleric build would work for most domains. Always upcast Spirit Guardians as high as you can! Add the Spiritual Weapon and good cantrip attack. Also, if you're not going to lvl 20, consider a dip into sorcerer or wizard to pick up SHIELD + ABSORB ELEMENTS for added defense and 4 extra Cantrips for versatility.
I like Nuke builds.
Prime example one build I always wanted to play to level 20 but have yet to do is...
Rouge - 11 - Assassin
Fighter - 5 - Echo Knight - Defense
Ranger - 4 - Gloom Stalker - Archery
First turn 6 attacks upto around 5 - 800 damage on a single target.
Wood Elf with Elven accuracy and Sharpshooter and Alert.
Somewhat similar to episode 5, though I threw in sorc and Pally...
I'm thinking of playing a 11 Way of the Long Death/9 Death Domain. Think that would be interesting to play
I made a death cleric with a dip of 2lvls in necromancer and now whenever i kill people i also heal myself. Plus I have shield, find familiar, silvery barbs and absorb elements. I also went Mark of shadow Elf so i got Elven Accuracy and some really nice spells from my Mark (Greater Invisibility is pretty neat!!!)...
Death Cleric is great ... Would LOVE to see a Necromancer build ... Race and all
on the list!
OMG YES!
Hi, new in the channel and find your videos facinating. If it wouldn't bother you too much, videos with tactical optimization, or like you said most healing and so on would be great. Even dummier builds like a grapple focus build, that doesn't go for damage but create enough mess for your teammates would be something for some of us I think!
Welcome and thanks! I *do* branch out occasionally into support or tank builds, and even just did a Grappler (though admittedly, it was a Grappler with high DPR :P ) - I'll keep trying to diversify!
You're amazing.
I love candle, nice! 👍
It smells really nice...
Dual wielding Tortle Death Cleric worked like a charm
18ac for being a Tortle
Two attacks because of the dual wielding
When stacked with sentinal feat and spirit guardians he became a wall that nothing could get through to the other members of the party.
Plus you could add some Hex blade Warlock for a truly devastating to a single target.
That's not counting adding magical items like bracers of defence a cloak of displacement and an animated shield which I gave him. My Dm has since banned me from being a cleric 😅
Yoooo with tashas this got a buff, blessed strikes for another d8 damage
Hey there, dpr is great and all but other types of builds would be great too, i mean, the namesake of the channel is dnd optimized. that doesn't necessarily mean just DPR.
any type of build is fine like a warforged cleric that has massive AC (not my idea but i still think it's cool) or a buff/debuff oriented necromancer instead of raising dead.
can't wait to see what you come up with!
In really interested in using the Grave Cleric Channel Divinity that causes vulnerability for its 2X damage. Either fighter Action Surge or Sorcerer Quicken, then dropping a Smite on it from Paladin. Could be more interesting than Spirit Guardians
The optimized builds are awesome, I really enjoy watching. How would you build a paladin to make him as strong as possible? I see them multi-classed with warlocks a lot but is that the only way to make an optimized paladin? Would more spell slots for smites make them stronger or some concentration spell to buff their attacks?
Thanks! All depends on your goals for your Pally - the next episode is my best tank build yet and is a Pally. If you’re going for more damage, I’d probably go Pally to 6 (for aura and extra attack) and then Sorc the rest of the way for more and bigger smites (playing a build like that in my Strahd campaign right now and it’s fantastic). Will have to do a Pally dpr build soon!
What about a video on party composition and how to play off the various class / subclass features?
For example, what would be the synergy of a team up of Twilight Cleric, Bladesinger Wizard with a Shadow Blade, and Gloomstalker Ranger?
I would find that sort of analysis intriguing!
Thanks for the suggestion! I have started to do some "Team" builds - namely the "Brainy and the Beast" and the "Yin Yang" episodes - check them out and let me know what you think! I was actually thinking about the Twilight/Bladesinger combo last night and, while I *love* the more reliable dim light for Shadow Blade, I think Shadow Blade is starting to take a back seat to other concentration spells, sadly, due to some changes in Tasha's that make other options more powerful. I'll be discussing in my Bladesinger 2.0 episode coming out probably next week! :)
I've played a death cleric for five years. I recently multiclassed into a warlock (the firend) so I am now level 8 and 1 respectively. Cleric of talona so we subbed NEcrotic damage for poison with my channel divinities. Im curious to see how you would 'optimize' a cleric + warlock build.
will put it on the list!
Newish to dnd 5e. Mostly play pf but i came across this vid and now i want to play this. A few questions, 1) reaper cantrip chill touch then swap between toll and chill depending on whats lower wis sv or ac viable? 2) in 2.0 version, do you still recommend fighter dip? 3) would you strive to one day get a very rare illusionist bracers for 4 tolls or would your prefer to focus on a rare amulet of the devote?
Great build!! I am fairly new to DnD and have a logistical question about it. Early in the video you mentioned if you were playing it you'd start as fighter. Say you did start as fighter, would you just continue the build as is from when you hit level 2 (ie, could you start as fighter and then just following the build video as is from when you hit level 2)? Or does starting fighter change quite a bit of how it works? Thanks Colby!
Resilient con is a great feat for clerics.
alright so heres an idea for you to think about, lets do an optimized counter build! multiclass- hexblade warlock and cleric with the subclass of your choice! i have one build ready for our next campaigns launch so if you do one i’ll totally share my character sheet!
my one bit of advice is take 6 lvls in evocation wizard to get potent cantrip. Also can give you find familiar with owl , put ashardalon's stride on it and let it set everything ablaze. that or dragon's breath spell and fire it from 15 ft up to do a 15 ft radius . best 2nd lvl spell if you have a familiar that can fly at that lvl.
I also did a death cleric build There is more then one way to do this build and it’s all dependent on if you want to go straight spell damage or want to add in weapon attacks. For straight spell damage there is two build I like. You could go 12 lvls death cleric , 6 lvls evocation wizard for potent cantrip, and first 2 lvls Fighter for fighting style, and action surge, on top of con saves . The other pure caster build is actually a more warlock build, but it’s 14 lvls undead warlock, 6 lvls death cleric. The cleric / warlock build is more focused around necrotic damage giving immunity/ resistance to necrotic ant the same time bypassing enemies necrotic resistance, also gives fear immunity, physical damage resistance , and lets you heal from your necrotic damage, and gaining hex is nice too. Though spiritual guardians is better focus on.
The most damage though is not going pure spell damage. That build is 8 lvls death cleric, 6 lvls bladesinger wizard for its extra attack. 3 lvls hunter ranger for horde breaker, and 3 lvls echo knight fighter. Cast up cast spiritual weapon for bonus attack, and haste spell, but before you get haste get dragon’s breath spell and cast it on your familiar. A cone straight down would be in this case a 15ft radius. Since it’s a save spell and not an attack your familiar can use it with it’s action for free as far as character is concerned just using your concentration and you can turn an owl or even an imp into a mini dragon of sorts. Though for imp under a warlock it’s better to use with pact of the chain master ashardalon’s stride, then you can have it run invisible catching things on fire as it goes. Bladesinger’s extra attack lets you replace an attack with a cantrip which goes great with Reaper feature, and the attack with a weapon as the other part of its extra attack lets you use horde breaker which is the same as reaper , but with a weapon attack. For that weapon attack use heavy crossbow with sharpshooter / crossbow expert. As for the echo knight since you used an extra attack it lets you attack one additional time with the echo. With haste that is yet another weapon attack. So in all it looks like potentially 7 attacks , twice with a cantrip, then action surge if it’s up and attack another 7 times for a total of 14 attacks. Then bonus action attack with an up cast spiritual weapon for the 8th / 15th attack that turn.
Oh forgot for race for the split weapon / cantrip damage build go race as shadar Kai elf. It gains necrotic resistance, fits theme of build, and when you teleport you gain resistance to all damage til the start of your next turn if needed. Trance is also nice here too
The undead warlock / death cleric build I would label the build “ The Lich”.
Also, a note on Spirit Guardians; the spell description says the effect emanates 15' from you, not a 15' radius. This means if you find a way to make yourself bigger (ahem, rune knight) you affect more squares on a battle map. Not much use in theatre of the mind games I grant you, but on a grid? A few levels of moon druid and you can be a huge creature, now your SG is a hell of a lot of squares. Giant constrictor snake can grapple to hold enemies in the aoe, or giant octopus in aquatic settings, it's brutal.
genius!
I took my first lvl in death domain. Took telekinetic to help always keep two enemies within 5ft of each other. And then went wizard. Fantastic damage plus healing word for emergency. Essentially double cantrip damage. Love the build personally
Sounds fabulous! (did you mean Telekinetic instead of Fey Touched?) I really loved playing this in a homebrew campaign with my friends. It was fairly short-lived... maybe 5 or 6 sessions, but man, those combats against larger groups... stuff just melted :).
Yup edited lol
I think you're missing a trick here - which is blowing all your level 3+ spell slots at the local graveyard, animating a bunch of undead, taking a long rest and then doing everything else you mentioned in the video with 16 hours remaining before your undead will stop following your orders.
One broad, bonus action command: 'follow the party, attack anything that attacks us' could (DM permitting) keep your undead moving all day and not use up the bonus actions you need for spiritual weapon. Or - if your DM doesn't allow this - commanding dozens of undead will just become an alternative and more effective use of your bonus action than spiritual weapon.
You probably won't be very popular in the nearest village - having converted all their deceased family members and ancestors into roving DPS - however as a Death cleric you are unlikely to care.
I love all builds! I'd love some support ones
Thanks! I've done a few, though most tend to be "Support + Damage" like the Mercy Monk, or Spore Beast, or Moon Druid, etc. The only exceptions so far would be the Cleric half of the Rogue/Cleric team, and the Support Bard build. Enjoy!
I play something similar to ur battery/blender in my rime game, that was a good start for us to take and twist in our own way!
Greta stuff Colby, can we see a grappler build? For control purposes perhaps? Off the top of my head I’m thinking square circle pugilist with grappler feat or something.
oml this sounds fun!
Playing it in a campaign right now and I can attest: it is :)
@@DnDDeepDive I'm playing a lore bard at level 14 with 12 levels in bard and 2 in dragon sorcerer. You could totally do a build on this if you wanted, but really it's soooo situational haha I knew we were going to fight a brass dragon and so I leveled my last 2 into sorcerer just for this encounter and charmed it into basically being my companion XD he comes in handy quite often if I give him a call
@@DnDDeepDive I'll most likely run this build next though, because I've never played a cleric and it sounds amazing! Especially if you're having fun with it too. Either this one, or a utility mage character like we talked about in that last comment section lol
@@chacepassmore6474 ha ha - nice!
Have you considered the Fallan Aasimar, with its Necrotis Shroud for this build? Or is it outside of the scope?
Would this build benefit from taking the Telekinesis feat at lvl 1 to be able to push enemies closer to each other to benefit from the reaper class feature?
For sure - I’m playing this in a campaign and did that exact thing :)
so what would you say is the most damaging cleric sub class in your opinion?
Cleric cleric cleric cleric - I love cleric ideas.
Hey, just looking to play this type of character with fighter to start as you mentioned. Would you do 1 or 2 levels of fighter to start?
I'd like to see how you optimize more controlling builds, maybe more along the lines of Treeantmonk's "God wizard"
Right now the only ones I have focused on Control are the Druid/Wizard combo episode and the latest Grappler one from earlier this week. Will always plan on including more, eventually, though yes, my focus *does* tend to be on DPR, no question.
I'd love to see different build types. Maybe some controller and support builds.
Just put up my first support build this week, and last week involved some heavy control discussion :). Enjoy!