Tempest Cleric Ability Scores

[BLUESTORM2112]

If I want to make a melee focused tempest cleric, which ability scores should I focus on? I was think of primarily focusing on Strength/Con and running heavy armour, with wisdom/dexterity for spells and some occasional bow use. Never played before, but cleric seems like the combat will be more engaging.

[Snake_In_The_Eye]

Clerics can be used in a couple of ways, they can buff, deal damage, heal, crowd control.

What clerics are not good at is melee. Martial classes have melee damage that scales with level (rogues sneak attack) or gets extra attacks(Paladin,Barbarian,fighter,monk). A Cleric will inevitably fall behind making Strength useless unless you multiclass into a martial.

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Tempest+Domain

As a tempest cleric you want probably to focus on a class feature you get at level 2 called destructive wrath

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Destructive+Wrath

this means that you can very easily become a DPS. maybe multiclass into a sorcerer to have multiple casts by using quicken spell.

If you manage to get your target wet and they have no immunity/resistence, they get vulnerability to lightning damage, which means they take double the damage of what is now the maximum amount the spell can do.

How you put attributes really relies on how you want to level it up. But a tempest cleric is not the ideal choice for a melee guy unless I miss something.

If you want a melee cleric, take a Paladin. They fill exactly that role.

[Damphair]

If you're wearing heavy armor you don't need dex, just go full wisdom and con as secondary, strength for carry capacity. Rest for saving throws/skill checks.

[Mao]

If you want to melee as cleric you might as well go battle domain, otherwise you can pretty much dump all stats but your wisdom for casting. Constitution for health and concentration saving throws, and dexterity for initiative. Of course if you're making this character roll ability checks for dialogue then you'll be sacrificing some secondary stats for charisma.

[Settings]

Cleric's aren't actually good in melee, that's why War Cleric is such a trap in this game.

[BLUESTORM2112]

Originally posted by Snake_In_The_Eye:

Clerics can be used in a couple of ways, they can buff, deal damage, heal, crowd control.

What clerics are not good at is melee. Martial classes have melee damage that scales with level (rogues sneak attack) or gets extra attacks(Paladin,Barbarian,fighter,monk). A Cleric will inevitably fall behind making Strength useless unless you multiclass into a martial.

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Tempest+Domain

As a tempest cleric you want probably to focus on a class feature you get at level 2 called destructive wrath

https://baldursgate3.wiki.fextralife.com/Destructive+Wrath

this means that you can very easily become a DPS. maybe multiclass into a sorcerer to have multiple casts by using quicken spell.

If you manage to get your target wet and they have no immunity/resistence, they get vulnerability to lightning damage, which means they take double the damage of what is now the maximum amount the spell can do.

How you put attributes really relies on how you want to level it up. But a tempest cleric is not the ideal choice for a melee guy unless I miss something.

If you want a melee cleric, take a Paladin. They fill exactly that role.

Well, I played Sebille DoS2 and made her a bloodmage. I use her ability to get an extra action and create blood pool and rain of blood, combine with blood spells and the ability to freeze it. Great combo.

I was thinking something similar here but with water/lightning interactions. In addition, I was hoping I could make her reasonable as an offtank and/or bow user, (if there are strength based bows available) for when spells are used up or not suitable for a fight because of resistances etc.

[BLUESTORM2112]

Originally posted by Mao:

If you want to melee as cleric you might as well go battle domain, otherwise you can pretty much dump all stats but your wisdom for casting. Constitution for health and concentration saving throws, and dexterity for initiative. Of course if you're making this character roll ability checks for dialogue then you'll be sacrificing some secondary stats for charisma.

I didn't realize initiative was affected by dexterity. I guess I wont be using strength then. What use is charisma for cleric? It is listed as an main ability save for them, but I can't see any spells or abilities that use it.

[Toebeans4ever]

Originally posted by ᛊᚨᛁᛚᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᛟᚾ:

Cleric's aren't actually good in melee, that's why War Cleric is such a trap in this game.

War Cleric is a decent choice for party support, War God's Blessing is quite useful for when your melee attackers are having a moment.

[Snake_In_The_Eye]

In divinity there are action points and according to how many you have you could do different things. In Dnd you have 1 action and 1 bonus action. That's is. Some spells require an action, some a bonus action, same as attacks and activity but you have one of both.

As you level up, different classes gets different things to do with their actions, or get multiple actions. Clerics are spellcasters, and they get more and more powerful spells. Similar to wizards but they can take a beating and heal. While wizards are more squishy utility and damage.

A cleric level 12 will still get only 1 melee attack, while a fighter5 paladin 7 can get 3, plus one with the bonus action if correct feats are selected, and on top of each of them stack smites.

Up to level 5 you can do similar damage in melee, after that there is no way, other classes are just better.

[Settings]

Originally posted by Toebeans4ever:

Originally posted by ᛊᚨᛁᛚᛟᚱ ᛗᛟᛟᚾ:

Cleric's aren't actually good in melee, that's why War Cleric is such a trap in this game.

War Cleric is a decent choice for party support, War God's Blessing is quite useful for when your melee attackers are having a moment.

Sure, but using War Cleric as your melee attacker instead of support and buffing? Not going to go so well, but the way War Cleric is worded in this game makes it sound like it'd be great for melee combat. Tempest Cleric, to OPs credit, is actually a better option in that regard.

[Mao]

They are good for melee as they get double attack as soon as level 1, but they are implemented incorrectly in the game. Double attacks should be based on their wisdom modifier (start off with 3 per short rest), but instead it's based on specific levels making their excellent early game start nonexistent.

[BLUESTORM2112]

Originally posted by Snake_In_The_Eye:

In divinity there are action points and according to how many you have you could do different things. In Dnd you have 1 action and 1 bonus action. That's is. Some spells require an action, some a bonus action, same as attacks and activity but you have one of both.

As you level up, different classes gets different things to do with their actions, or get multiple actions. Clerics are spellcasters, and they get more and more powerful spells. Similar to wizards but they can take a beating and heal. While wizards are more squishy utility and damage.

A cleric level 12 will still get only 1 melee attack, while a fighter5 paladin 7 can get 3, plus one with the bonus action if correct feats are selected, and on top of each of them stack smites.

Up to level 5 you can do similar damage in melee, after that there is no way, other classes are just better.

Okay, fair enough. Guess I'll go to level 12 with cleric and just spam spells. Any fun recommendations for classes to try down the line?

There are a lot of cool looking classes that have interesting class fantasy but seem boring to play, where the game play seems to be limited to run in and hit things with an occasional ability/spell cast. Druid, Bard, Sorcerer seem a bit more interesting. They have more spells to choose from and I think that would allow for some experimentation.

[BLUESTORM2112]

How is this for ability scores?

Str 12
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 16
Cha 12

[Nauct]

Life Domain Cleric I used as my tank/support on Tactician
15 STR
8 DEX
16 CON
8 INT
17 WIS
8 CHA
Used heavy armor and a shield, kinda low AC because 8 DEX until you get your first piece of heavy armor.
You wont use the bow much because your cantrips are usually better because of low dex.
Get Ability Improvement for 16STR 18WIS and War Caster. Spirit Guardians and your channel divinity OP

[Nauct]

Originally posted by BLUESTORM2112:

Originally posted by Snake_In_The_Eye:

In divinity there are action points and according to how many you have you could do different things. In Dnd you have 1 action and 1 bonus action. That's is. Some spells require an action, some a bonus action, same as attacks and activity but you have one of both.

As you level up, different classes gets different things to do with their actions, or get multiple actions. Clerics are spellcasters, and they get more and more powerful spells. Similar to wizards but they can take a beating and heal. While wizards are more squishy utility and damage.

A cleric level 12 will still get only 1 melee attack, while a fighter5 paladin 7 can get 3, plus one with the bonus action if correct feats are selected, and on top of each of them stack smites.

Up to level 5 you can do similar damage in melee, after that there is no way, other classes are just better.

Okay, fair enough. Guess I'll go to level 12 with cleric and just spam spells. Any fun recommendations for classes to try down the line?

There are a lot of cool looking classes that have interesting class fantasy but seem boring to play, where the game play seems to be limited to run in and hit things with an occasional ability/spell cast. Druid, Bard, Sorcerer seem a bit more interesting. They have more spells to choose from and I think that would allow for some experimentation.

Doing Warlock with Pact of the Blade is my favorite, because you're like a Dark Knight, magic and melee

[ACS36]

Originally posted by BLUESTORM2112:

How is this for ability scores?

Str 12
Dex 14
Con 14
Int 8
Wis 16
Cha 12

don't really like it, no reason to have cha 12, or str 12.