How to use Cleric in Close Combat?

[aquila]

Picked a cleric class for our koop run for the heals, and picked tempest class because it has some cool AOE spells, but do I just have to accept that in combat, apart from spells my char hits like a wet towel?

What would be the best combination of skills and weapons to be at least viable when hitting with a weapon?

[RealDealBreaker]

Walk up and hit them with a heavy, blunt, sharp, or pointy thing.

But the serious answer is you have to spend ability score points on STR to be effective with most weapons or DEX to be effective with finesse weapons. Doing this means making choices between higher WIS (for more effective spells), higher CON (for more HP and melee survivability), and STR or DEX (for better beat stick beating).

[Fluff]

Use a mace or other non-finese one handed weapon and a shield.

Dump Str stat to 8 and use Giant potions instead, 1 per long rest.

Spirit guardians at level 5, that will be your melee concentration spell.

Get war caster Feat, so your concentration spells are hard to break by taking dmg.

[Beytran70]

Cleric is ultimately a support class, so if you really want them to fight well in melee you either have to forego your more offensive spells, or accept that you should be casting buffs and debuffs sometimes instead of going YOLO. Bless and Bane are both quite nice early on, and having the bonus action heal going off if you ever have the spare slots for it can be handy in a pinch.

[Shaalanaar]

Pure cleric is not a martial class, they don't get an extra attack at level 5 or 6 like others do. Their specialisation is spellcasting, and they have a huge amount of powerful concentration spells.

I like to give mine the gloves of dexterity, after dumping their dex to 8, and giving them full plate, then they become fairly good arrow users, while concentrating on something like hold person, bless, spirit guardians, etc.

If you want a cleric that is very strong in melee, you need to multiclass or perhaps try war domain. They get an extra attack as a bonus action, at the cost of one of their channel divinity charges.

If you find yourself with a bonus action that you have no use for, try drinking a potion, or dipping your weapon in some poison or a candle.

[Malus]

Inflict wounds is one of the best close combat spells in the game. No weapon needed for that.

Also Light is the best cleric class.

[PaloG]

As a cleric you will never be as effective in weapon combat as a martial class. Even if you build your character with the stat distribution to not hit like a wet noodle you'd still not get the additional attack at lvl 5 the non spellcasters do, meaning you'd still do half the damage any martial would.

As already mentioned one of your best avenues for frontline is to use spirit guardians and beyblade around the batlefield

[Silyon]

Define "wet towel". Clerics are primarily spellcasters, so yes it is true that their hit rates and damage lag behind classes like Fighter or Barbarian. Same can be said of making a melee Wizard or Sorcerer. Clerics contribute in other ways, mainly applying concentration-duration buffs to themselves and their allies to make up for having a weaker bite or by hindering enemy units in a varaity of ways.

Clerics are not bad at just smacking the bad guys with the pointy end, of the casters they're probably the best at it because of the buffs and debuffs they can set up. It should never be their main focus though, rather a thing to fill air when spells arn't nessasary. General suggestion is to focus on finesse weapons and pump Dex to be your second-highest stat.

[Neialeis]

A common way to do melee cleric is to get Druid's shillelagh cantrip(via feat or multiclass), which let's you enchant a club or staff to use your spellcasting ability for hit/damage.

Aside from that you really just need str. You can sacrifice some wis for str and go with support spells, but at that point you may be better off going fighter or something.

[Banelord]

id say spirit guardians and lathanders blood

[em_t_hed]

i dont understand the cleric necromancy association...

what does speaking with the dead or necrotic touch or turn undead have to do with being a cleric?

[Ranpo]

Spirit Guardians and just run around. Clerics do support, basically crowd control, healing and buffs. Damage is supplementary, not their main goal. That's what your other teamates are for.

[Pixel_Kitsune]

I've run a Storm Cleric in Melee, but the trick is to remember it's a Tabk, not a top DPS. Standard operation is Spirit Gusrdians and Spiritual Weapon round 1. Then Shocking Grasp in melee (picked up in my case from a Storm Sorcerer dip). It's my MC and has Heavy Armor so they have Str and Sex at 10, Int at 8. Then started with 14 Con and 16 Wis and Cha. Works just dandy as the center my party operates around.

[Shaalanaar]

Originally posted by em_t_hed:

i dont understand the cleric necromancy association...

It is from earlier D&D. Healing spells were part of the necromancy domain as a result of their manipulation of life energy.

Putting undead to rest, healing, and resurrection are "good" uses of necromancy.
Necrotic damage spells, raising undead, and life leech spells are "bad" uses of necromancy.

[MensRea]

Originally posted by aquila:

Picked a cleric class for our koop run for the heals, and picked tempest class because it has some cool AOE spells, but do I just have to accept that in combat, apart from spells my char hits like a wet towel?

What would be the best combination of skills and weapons to be at least viable when hitting with a weapon?

It depends on what you want to do with your Cleric and when/how you use them. If you want to be a front line warrior you want more str/dex and wisdom does not get maxed, if you want to support your party, higher wis/con helps so you land spells (on enemies, your friendly spells always land as best as I can tell) or don't break concentration. A lot of the clerics job is making others stronger and keeping them from falling as easily vice 'killing things'. That being said, Act 2 with a high wisdom cleric with spirit guardians and light/daylight spells is putting the region on easy mode with the click of a button (give them a certain mace and it gets REALLY easy cause it blinds that regions creatures).

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by aquila:

How to use Cleric in Close Combat?
Picked a cleric class for our koop run for the heals, and picked tempest class because it has some cool AOE spells, but do I just have to accept that in combat, apart from spells my char hits like a wet towel?

What would be the best combination of skills and weapons to be at least viable when hitting with a weapon?

Sounds like a stats issue. Care enough to share screenshots of character sheets and equipment?