The Order Cleric: D&D #152

if you love chaos but you also love control  or maybe if you love support characters who   can also do big Nova damage once in a while  with the help of their allies or maybe if   you just want to play an order cleric then you  are going to really enjoy this video Welcome to [Music] D4 hey everybody so here at D4 each week  I take a deep dive into specific character builds   for my favorite role playing games I like to  crunch numbers about them Theory craft about   them not so that I can tell you like the right way  or the best way to play a certain character but   to explore one potential way to build something  that's both really fun but also really powerful   so if you enjoy creating characters for your  favorite role playing games almost as much as   you enjoy playing the actual game itself or  if you're just looking for tips or ideas on   how to build something that you're thinking about  playing then welcome home this is absolutely where   you belong and I am so glad you're here so thank  you for watching my name is Colby uh not Cody or   um Colton and you know if you get my name wrong  that's okay but anyways I put out videos every   Tuesday and sometimes other days as well but  primarily the build videos are Tuesdays and if   you enjoy the content I hope that you'll consider  joining this channel as a member there's a little   button uh down there that says join and if you  click it you can learn about member benefits like   access to the level byle guides I write up for  every build so that you can more easily recreate   the character yourself if you want to or access  to our awesome D4 Discord server or even access   to our monthly live Q&A hangout sessions I call  that sliding into my DMs uh it's just a great   way to interact with this incredible Community a  little more and give a little more support to the   channel so huge thank you and shout out to all  channel members I could not do this without you   guys and for everybody else I appreciate you too  no worries if you can't or even just don't want to   be a member just watching liking subscribing are  great ways to support as well so thank you all   right longtime viewers of my channel know this  but my favorite way to build and play support   characters is to build them so that they can do  more than just support their allies I appreciate   that many of you out there are perfectly content  to just stand back and heal and buff your allies   and I truly hope that there is a special place in  the afterlife for all of you Saints where you get   to enjoy the rewards of your selflessness but for  the rest of us heathens we like to hit stuff once   in a while too right so yes building a character  who's capable of decent support but also can excel   at sustained damage for example is a lot of  fun but what's even better in my opinion is   to build support characters who can Nova or burst  damage because I mean if you're playing support   you should probably be spending a lot of your  actions and bonus actions well supporting right   healing buffing debuffing controlling inspiring  so building in some great burst damage capability   to a support is a great way to let you have like  your support cake and eat it too by blowing up an   enemy or two once in a while okay that metaphor  kind of got away from me a little bit there but   you know what I mean now a while ago I did a build  that was intended to be a fantastic non-magical   support a battlefield Commander build that was all  about being like the best drill sergeant ever uh   check out the video there if you want you know we  were bolstering our allies inspiring them making   them hit harder making them hit more often and so  on it was a really fun build conceptually I think   and yeah the aim was to make it work without magic  or at least mostly without magic and what little   magic we did use was very easy to like flavor and  pretend like it wasn't really magic I'm talking   spells like motivational speech for example but  there's arguably an even better way to do this   like make my allies hit more often thing if we let  ourselves use magic specifically Divine magic so   maybe here we're a little less of a drill sergeant  or platoon leader and more of a you will follow my   guidance and heed my word to stand in the light or  else kind of thing but the best part is going this   route we get a heaping of burst damage healing  and other support capabilities to boot and yes   I'm talking about the order cleric order clerics  are so good they are to me the ultimate character   in all of D and D if you really want to like watch  your allies shine first of all because they're a   cleric so they can buff and heal with the best  of them right but most especially because of   their really fantastic voice of authority feature  that lets their Ally get an extra attack with that   Ally's reaction so so long as we cast a spell of  first level or higher on that Ally of course me   being me I want to take that idea and stretch it  as far as I can what if we could give two allies a   reaction attack fairly reliably at least once in a  while and like couple it with some spell damage of   our own wouldn't that make a really incredible  support character who could semi-frequently do   some decent burst or Nova damage to at least a  couple of different enemies on the battlefield   via their own spells and the use of their allies  I think it would so let's break it down in D and   build number 1052 Order and Chaos Harvey Dent the  judge lawful chaos order of Discord how about law   and disorder yeah that's my favorite and a huge  shout out to Discord user and channel member lost   soul for coming up with that name and yeah as an  aside I'm probably going going to be asking for   help uh from channel members on Discord to help  me like name builds going forward at least from   time to time so that's fun anyways also a big  shout out to my good friend Randall Hampton for   the Fantastic artwork that he's created for  this build he is a fantastic Artist as you   can obviously tell if you'd be interested in  following him on social media or potentially   reaching out to see if you could commission  him to create some art for your character or   even your entire party I will as always put links  in the video description on how to do so Randle   also I am thrilled to have cheku as a sponsor  for the video again this week and okay if you   guys don't know cheku then you have been missing  out big time they are some of the best ttrpg map   makers in the world and are the number one RPG  map Creator on patreon with over 20,000 patrons   very impressive and there's a reason to date  they've created over 4,000 handdrawn maps that   you can use in DND Pathfinder or whatever other  game you might be playing at your table and I'm   going to highlight some of those in a second  and these maps are stunning super high res with   map options for every conceivable environment and  game setting whether you're looking for a classic   Dungeon Crawl or something more offbeat like a  giant Airship or an alchemist's dungeon and yeah   speaking of getting outside the norm for ttrpgs  today I wanted to tell you guys about something   that cheku does that I haven't really talked  about before and it's their love of and focus on   creating sci-fi battle maps maybe you want to take  a break from swords and sorcery and try your hand   at starfinder or cyberpunk or the Star Wars ttrpg  right or maybe you just want to take your DND game   into the future or into the astral plane or like  a plcape setting it's a little more alien a little   more futuristic if so no worries cheku has got you  covered so if you need spaceships space stations   alien worlds vehicles or mechs there's probably  a perfect map on cheeku site to fit your needs   best of all the mech and spaceship maps have  both inter interior and exterior versions so   whether you're fighting inside room to room  or in a dog fight on the surface of a space   station for example you can see your environment  in beautiful detail getting access to their Maps   is super simple you just support them on patreon  there are a couple of Support options there's a $1   per month option which gives you the basic day and  night VT compatible digital battle maps and then   a $5 a month option giving you access to all map  variations as well as music animations and even   Foundry VT modules best of all when you sign up  to support them you automatically get access to   their entire existing backlog you are not charged  for anything that they've already created only for   new stuff going forward and you can cancel at  any time with no strings attached it's such an   incredibly generous business model you should  absolutely take advantage to do so just go to   chu.com right here and if you like what you see  which I'm sure you will then go to their patreon   at patreon.com cheku and show them some love I'll  put those links in the video description of course   so huge thanks to cheku you guys are amazing and  let's jump into the build all right at level one   for our starting class for this order cleric we're  going to start off as a sorcerer naturally okay   look we do want some sorcerer levels eventually  on this character and I'll get into some of the   why later but we want to start sorcerer for  two main reasons first up Constitution saving   throw proficiency Sorcerers are the only full  spellcast in game who get this and we don't want   to multiclass into anything on this build that's  going to keep us from Full spellcaster progression   at least not until later anyways and Constitution  save proficiency is so strong helping us succeed   on those concentration checks with a lot more  regularity but the other reason that we want to   start sorcerer is for access to one single very  important very powerful spell oh and by the way   there is a way to build this character that I'm  doing today that is mostly sorcerer actually and   it in fact comes online a little bit sooner and  hits a little bit harder at least early on I'll   go over how to do it in the final thoughts so  stay tuned if you want to check that out as for   our race I'm going to go unfortunately maybe with  yeah my old standby custom lineage there is a feat   that is incredibly important for this build to get  us firing on all cylinders as quickly as possible   and I just don't want to delay getting that feet  and since that feet is a half feet custom lineage   is the way to go since it gives us a plus two  increase to one ability score of our choice and   a free feat letting us thus start with an 18 in  our most important ability score as for the free   feat that we're taking yes it's going to be fate  touched one of my favorites it's one of the best   Feats in the game it is absolutely perfect for  this character it gives us first of all a plus   one to our wisdom score but then also the Misty  step spell perfect on every character for some   nice teleportation ability and then one other  first level spell of our choice so long long as   it's from the enchantment or divination schools  of magic and there is an enchantment spell that   we very much want on this character and it is  dissonant Whispers dissonant Whispers is I think   a pretty underrated spell it does decent damage  3d6 but then if the enemy fails their wisdom save   against it they also have to use their reaction  to immediately run away as far from you as they   can avoiding obviously Dangerous Ground now I've  talked about this before in my eldrich Whisperer   build but a lot of people are still confused  about this so I want to reiterate something   here when an enemy fails their save against  dissonant Whispers and has to run away yes   they do provoke opportunity attacks if you or  an ally is standing next to them when they run   people get confused by this it's true that if  you are moved without using your Movement Like   if you're shoved or hurled by a Thunder Wave or  something then no you don't provoke opportunity   attacks but if you use your movement and in this  case the dissonant whisper Target is very much   much using their movement to run even though  they're being like compelled or forced to do so   then yes they still will provoke an opportunity  attack look at up in the sage advice compendium   if you need to or just keep telling me I'm wrong  in the comment section it's okay that's good for   the algorithm anyways this is the first thing  we will be doing on our Nova round to get more   damage albeit from our Ally since our attacks on  this character are pretty weak take advantage of   a harder-hitting friend instead all right as for  ability scores I assume as always that we're going   point by here and say let's start with a 15 wisdom  and then take plus two from our racial there and   the plus one from the feed right so we've got an  18 and then a 14 Constitution and a 14 Charisma   remember we have to have at least a 13 Charisma  to multiclass into or out of sorcerer this does   mean that we're going to have a crap dexterity  and yeah only a mediocre Charisma even for our   sorcerer spells and things so we're basically the  worst level one character of all time horrible AC   mediocre at best spells just hang out in the back  and hold on for deer life things get much better   at level two as for equipment I'm going to say  let's go with the gold buy method and just buy   some scale mail and a shield I know we can't even  use them yet but we are going to want them soon   so just like stick them in your bag as for our  sorceress origin our subass which Sorcerers get   right at level one what do you think I'm going  with here there are plenty of great options uh   aberant mind gets dissonant Whispers for free and  we wanted that spell right but in that case you'd   be using your charisma for the spell DC right and  we're not planning on bumping our Charisma for the   rest of our character's life so that's not awesome  but they do still have a nice spell list Clockwork   Soul has an arguably better one Shadow sorcerer  gets some decent little survivability lunar   sorcerer gets to use the shield spell for free  once per day storm sorcerer wouldn't be terrible   for the fly away without provoking opportunity  attack feature but you know what I want more than   any of them and honestly it's primarily for like  thematic or character concept purposes wild magic   yes indeed I have gone on record saying that I'm  not a big fan of wild magic and like chaos magic   in this game but for this character I just have  to we start out our career as this Champion who's   been touched by the Fay right and it has done  something to us it's made us volatile infused   us with magic that cannot be controlled we try  and try and try to hold on to these surges raging   inside of us but every once in a while something  EXP explodes and it is driving us insane we have   got to find a way to control it and we will  stop at nothing to do so so yes at this level   wild magic Sorcerers get a couple of features  first and most famously wild magic surge which   tells us that whenever we cast a sorcerer spell  of first level or higher our DM can have us roll   a D20 and then if we roll a one we get to roll on  the wild magic surge table and here's hoping that   your DM does this every time you cast a sorcerer  spell or what's the point of playing a wild magic   sorcerer honestly but anyway yeah if you roll a  one something crazy happens you roll a D100 and   consult the wild magic table to see what you've  done and it could be awesome like you get to cast   magic Missile as a fifth level spell or it could  be terrible like casting Fireball on yourself or   it could be benign and hilarious like making your  hair fall out but then it grows back in 24 hours   it's fun it's zany and it makes my OCD I twitch  we also get tides of chaos which just gives us   advantage on an attack a save or an ability check  once prong rest though we get that use back when   we roll on the wild magic surge table and our  DM can even just decide to make us roll when we   cast a spell we're told so again here's hoping  that's happening semi often I'm not actually   planning on making attacks on this character  so yeah my decision to go wild magic is truly   motivated almost exclusively by character concept  here as always feel free to go a different route   but hey having advantage on a saving throw when we  really need it is pretty nice as for first level   sorcerer spells um I mean Mage Armor and sleep at  this level are great and we are a pretty crappy   level one character but we only get two spells  as a sorcerer one and we're not coming back to   sorcerer for a while meaning we couldn't switch  those out for a bit right so I'd probably just   try and survive level one and instead take Shield  here always a fantastic defensive reaction opt to   increase your AC by five for a round when you  get hit but most important of all yeah silvery   barbs a lot of people complain that this spell  is overpowered most of you know I don't really   think that's the case though I am often getting  attacked by the silvery barbs mob for um saying as much admittedly it is very very strong and it's  especially good on order clerics though clerics   don't typically get access to the spell hence  this is our other main reason for wanting to   start sorcerer right with this spell you use  it as a reaction when a creature within 60   ft presumably an enemy succeeds on an attack  a save or an ability check this spell forces   them to roll the die potentially failing so a  nice way to help an ally stay safe or cause an   enemy to fail that saving throw after all kind of  thing regardless of whether they fail that second   role or not though we importantly get to choose  another creature and give them advantage on their   next attack save or ability check as part of the  spell right this is the best spell ever for order   clerics especially and we'll get into why in just  a second because yes at level two at this point   our champion has discovered something to give them  hope for controlling the chaos that rages inside   of them maybe they heard a sermon from a priest  of Fus or were inspired by a paladin of tear but   something convinced them that this deity or order  can give them respit power and above all control   of the wild magic if they will but pledge their  Devotion to them and follow their Creeds so yes   whatever your reasons we are taking cleric levels  now and as a cleric one we also get our subclass   our divine domain and of course we are going  with the domain of order now order clerics get   some incredible features at level one among the  best of all clerics I think first off heavy armor   proficiency Hallelujah so throw on that scale  maale and Shield you've been lugging around uh   inexplicably for this first level yeah clerics  get Shield proficiency too right and maybe you   can even work this out in advance with your DM  and like have you received this armor and shield   from the church maybe when you first take your  vows of Faith or something like that you also get   Proficiency in either intimidation or persuasion  intimidation feels a little more fitting to me   personally for this character but do what you  want but then we get the incredible amazing   voice of authority feature which which like I  mentioned in in the Preamble lets us cause an   ally that is affected by one of our spells of  first level or higher to immediately use their   reaction to make an attack if a spell affects  multiple allies we choose which Ally gets the   extra attack right and this is why silvery barbs  is so good for us because even though it affects   an enemy by causing them to roll a successful role  remember it also affects an ally in that we get to   give someone Advantage so yeah whenever an enemy  succeeds at something we really don't want them   to succeed at we can both force them to re and  give an ally advantage and upon doing so that   Ally will immediately make an attack now with  advantage and it's just so Perfection so yes at   this point here's what our Nova round looks like  we cast dissonant Whispers with our action doing   damage and hopefully causing an enemy to flee  provoking an opportunity attack from ideally our   hardest hitting Ally later in the round as soon  as an enemy succeeds at anything we use silvery   barbs to force a roll and Grant advantage to to a  different Ally I mean and for that matter we could   use silvery barbs with our reaction immediately  if they were to succeed on their save against   dissonant Whispers right greatly increasing the  chance that dissonant Whispers Works which is   awesome but yes generally this is going to be  a second Ally right because the first one used   up their reaction so unless it's happened at a  point in the round where our friend has already   taken their turn and now they have the reaction  again we got to pick somebody else but then yes   this second Ally also gets to use their action  to make an attack and we've just done quite a   bit of damage over the course of the round though  admittedly most of that damage was coming from our   puppets um I mean our allies not to mention doing  a bit of potential control by causing an enemy to   flee and further supporting our team by forcing  an enemy to roll a successful save or attack we   are amazing and maybe best of all we can make  our allies better and help them have more fun   by giving them more opportunities to do cool  things we do get cleric Spells at this level   of course too and Order clerics get command  and heroism for free both decent spells to   give an enemy a one- turn command or bolster  an ally with some temporary hit points every   round and of course you should grab guidance  for some nice utility and healing word for a   great heal from range as a bonus action but  the most important ones for us are going to   be toll the Dead the hardest hitting can trip in  game outside of a buffed eldrich blast anyways   doing 1 D12 of damage to an enemy who fails their  wisdom Savage against it so long as they aren't at   full hit points anyways otherwise it's a d8 and  then either bless or Bane both of these spells   are fantastic either buffing allies with a D4 to  their attacks and saves or debuffing enemies with   a minus D4 to their attacks and saves which one's  better to use it all depends of course uh Chris   Triant monk actually did a great video back in  the day uh kind of talking about which is better   to use when check it out uh up there but for us  yeah Bane would make our enemies less likely to   resist our to the dead and distant Whispers but  bless would make our allies more likely to hit   with those opportunity attacks that we're giving  them by our first damage report we're going to be   concentrating on something else so I'm not going  to worry about doing the math too much here but   I think personally I'd probably lean towards  Bane for these early levels the enemy does get   to save against Bane but it's a Charisma save so  very few enemies are going to succeed we've got   an 18 wisdom right I especially don't want them  succeeding against dissonant Whisperers since so   much of our damage is dependent upon that spell  both hitting and then causing them to flee which   is to trigger a reaction attack anyways know your  options at level three we would be a cleric 2 and   all clerics get channel Divinity at this level  which they can use once per short rest to do   one of three things first turn Undead which lets  you use your action to force Undead within 30 ft   to make a wisdom save or run away from you for a  minute more opportunity attacks hooray uh everyone   gets harness divine power to let us recover some  spent spell slots or as an order cleric we get   the option to use orders demand which similar to  turn Undead lets us use our action to force all   enemies within 30 ft of us to make a wisdom save  or be Charmed by us and drop what their holding   that's situationally useful at best Charmed just  means they can't attack or harm us specifically   and that we have advantage on social ability  checks with them and it only lasts until they   take damage or until the end of our next turn  honestly on this character I'm probably using   Channel Divinity for harness divine power mostly  when I can unless I'm up against Undead or really   need to charm a bunch of people whether because  I'm about to ask them something or because I'm   about to die and I can't take any damage or  something like that anyways at level four we   would be a cleric 3 and that means we get second  level cleric spells order clerics get hold person   and zone of Truth for free which are both great to  either paralyze humanoid or get someone to confess   all their secret plans but otherwise I'd probably  just go for the usual cleric 2 options here Aid   to heal three-party members by five and give them  five more maximum hit points right scaling up by   five with every spell level above second that  you cast it this is a super potent buff lesser   Restorations a nice cure all and sure spiritual  weapon for a concentration free ethereal weapon   that you can make attacks with using your bonus  action outside of your Nova round at level five   we would be a cleric 4 and that means we get  an ability score increase or feat and we are   for sure bumping wisdom here to cap it at 20 as  that affects just everything we're doing damage   wise and also increases our heals Etc don't forget  also at this level um to the dead goes up to 2D2   we're not using it during our Nova round yet  but it's something that we'll be using quite a   bit I think outside of our Nova round so anyway  2D2 damage not bad at level six we would be a   cleric 5 and first up we get destroy Undead this  lets us when we use turn Undead against Undead   creatures of challenge rating 1/ half or lower  if they fail to save against it they just poof   into skeleton dust that's always fun um but then  we also get third level cleric Spells Of course   order clerics get Mass healing word and slow for  free and mass healing word is a little meh unless   you have multiple allies that are unconscious but  slow that's incredible one of the best debuffs in   the game lowering enemy AC deck saves move  speed and keeping them to only an action or   bonus action no multi-attack possibly slowing  down spellcasting even it's so good but I'm not   assuming we'll be using it for our concentration  uh during our Nova round because we get so many   other amazing third level options here revivify  of course in case someone bites the bullet dispel   magic is great aura of Vitality is one of the  most efficient heal spells in game I love to   use it between combat encounters especially since  it requires concentration but there are two that I   especially want to highlight here first up Spirit  Guardians Of course that cleric staple that with   our concentration does 3d8 damage or half on a  wisdom save every single round to enemies who   either start their turn within 15 15 ft of us or  enter that same area on a turn no we're not going   after any silly Shenanigans to move enemies into  the area with this build um check out the nature   cleric for that but especially for someone who's  focused on doing damage to a couple of enemies   like we are it's just hard to beat this spell and  yeah it's great not just for our Nova round but   for every round doing wonderful things for our  sustained damage too right it even slows enemies   down if they're affected by it the worst thing  about the spell honest L is that it means no more   bless or Bane and that we can't use it with slow  right I really hope that you've got a paladin or   like Divine Soul sorcerer or someone who can keep  bless up on the party now there is an argument to   be made for using bless still anyways as the  benefit to your entire team might outweigh the   damage that you do with Spirit guardians but  that's impossible for me to know so I'm just   going to assume that we are switching to Spirit  Guardians here the other spell that I wanted to   mention I'm not actually planning on using right  now but I might later once in in a while it's   bestow curse this is a really interesting spell  that I probably don't use enough honestly it lets   you inflict all kinds of potential curses on an  enemy you can only choose one curse but you get to   choose from a nice list probably the best one is  that you can curse an enemy so that they have to   make a wisdom save at the start of every turn and  if they fail they don't get to do anything that   round awesome also interesting for us especially  though is that you can give them disadvantage on   ability checks and saving throws to an ability  of your choice in case you haven't noticed every   saving throw that we are forcing enemies into on  our Nova round are wisdom saves and while that's   generally a good save to be targeting for us  giving disadvantage on that save is going to   be even better and then there's the all of your  attacks and spells do an extra da8 of damage to   the Target curse which I mean more damage is  always welcome right now the spell requires   concentration so I'm not actually planning  on using it at the moment but if you upcast   it to fifth level or higher it doesn't require  concentration any longer and that's fantastic   will I try to put it in the damage report once  we get to fifth level spell slots I don't think   so it takes an action to use which means we don't  get Spirit Guardians going on round one and we're   not going Nova until like round three I can see it  being useful in a really big long fight especially   where you might have three or more really tough  enemies but in that case probably curse someone to   take them out of the fight unless they make their  wisdom save right and then focus on damaging two   other enemies anyways I just wanted to mention  the spell as it's potentially a really good one   and I probably don't talk about it enough don't  forget um at this level clerics also get channel   Divinity now twice per short rest so that's great  both if you want to turn Undead and recover spell   slots or Charm some people right all right  at level six it is time for our first damage report here is what combat is going to look like  for us at this level assuming that we're trying   to do as much damage as possible on round one  we're getting Spirit Guardians going but then   on round two or whenever we're ready to burst with  our action we're upcasting dissonant Whispers as   a third level spell potentially doing 5 D6 to  an enemy and forcing them to run provoking an   opportunity attack from an ally when they do  so and then with our reaction later or maybe   even this turn if they succeed against distant  Whispers right but as soon as an enemy succeeds   against something we silvery barbs granting  advantage to a different Ally and letting them   make a reaction attack as well now of course  if we're trying to calculate how much damage   we are doing doing with all of this we have a  huge problem and it's that I have no idea who   your allies are and what kind of damage they're  able to do reliably so yes unfortunately I'm going   to have to make some assumptions here the best  ally you could be targeting with silvery barbs   especially is an Allied Rogue since they would be  making their attacks with their reaction and thus   getting to use sneak attack again look it up I  promise that's how it works rules is written and   especially since you're giving them Advantage  via silvery barbs they're for sure sure going   to be able to trigger sneak attack right I tried  to take advantage of this fun little tactic uh in   one of my first ever teamup builds a long time ago  the battery and the blender anyways do you have a   rogue in your party I have no idea I'm going to  assume that you do but let's just say it's like   a plain old Rogue with nothing fancy I don't care  about their subass I don't assume they have magic   weapons they're just a level six Rogue using  a short sword with an 18 dexterity so if they   hit it would be for 4 D6 plus 4 as for the other  Ally I mean is it too much to say they're like a   barbarian or a fighter using a great sword with  like the great weapon Master feet that's pretty   vanilla not incredibly optimized but also I mean  definitely not in every party right but I mean you   could do better a great weapon Master devotion  Paladin who could Smite with a nice plus a hit   chance for example let's call Companion number  two a champion fighter with an 18 strength using   a great sword and the great weapon Master feed  results will vary raise or lower these numbers   that I'm reporting on according but under  these assumptions if everything sticks we   would be doing 5 D6 for dissonant Whispers 3 d8  * 2 Enemies I'll assume for Spirit Guardians 2d6   plus 14 for the fighter and 4 D6 plus 4 for the  Rogue again likely to be different targets here   for a grand total of 11 D6 + 6 d8 + 18 divided  among two enemies and thus against enemies with   a 10 Armor class and a plus zero to their wisdom  save we would on average do 75 damage during our   Nova round here and against an enemy with a 15 AC  and a plus five to their save it would be 61 Nova   damage and compared to other burst damage against  multiple enemies builds that I've done to date uh   check in the video description there's a link to  a graph where you can see these other builds right   and how they stack up this is pretty dang good  by comparison it's near the top of the pack at   this level second only to the burst of light  cleric who was slinging fireballs and doing   damage to three enemies so yeah this build here is  beating out even some builds doing damage to three   remember I'm calculating total damage done here  so I mean if you can get three enemies into the   area of your spirit Guardians the number is going  to go up right but of course yes the numbers are   going to VAR widely depending on your allies so  could be a lot better could be a lot worse but I   feel like this is a decent estimate one note the  rogue's damage is significantly better than the   fighters here right largely because I decided to  give the Rogue advance it just felt like the more   honest way to go if I was going to assume that  the rogue's getting sneak attack if they can   sneak without that Advantage give advantage to a  great weapon Master user instead if you have one   anyways the damage is good but it is about to  get a whole lot better so let's keep going at   level seven we would be a cleric 6 and this is  a really important level for this build I wish   I could have gotten here by the damage report  because it sort of completes the core of the   build and we actually get the ability that sort of  inspired me to to try to build this character in   the first place I was kind of building around  this feature but starting out as sorcerer one   just felt too important so that we could have  Constitution saving throw proficiency and silvery   barbs right out of the gate anyways yes now we  are finally a cleric 6 and as an order cleric   that means the really cool and fun embodiment of  law this tells us that wisdom modifier times per day just doesn't quite roll off the tongue  like anyway uh so five times per long rest   now for us we can cast an enchantment spell with  a casting time of one action as a bonus action   instead that's awesome it's kind of like having a  restricted Quicken spell and yeah I haven't really   mentioned this but the really fantastic thing  about both of our Stellar order cleric features   is that they're not restricted to cleric spells I  love that so much it really frees up what we can   do with these abilities so now during during our  Nova round we could dissonant Whispers with our   bonus action then use our action to cast to The  Dead remember if we cast a spell with our bonus   action any spell then the only other spells we  can cast on this turn are canant trips right no   worries to the dead is a good spell and it hits  for 2D2 now if the enemy fails or save against   it right and we're going to find ways to make it  even better also don't forget at this level thanks   to multiclassing we do have fourth level spell  slots meaning we could upcast Spirit Guardians   now to do 48 damage per enemy each time it does  damage to them and spirit Guardians is the spell   that I would focus on upcasting I think with this  build all right at level eight now that we have   the all-important spirit Guardians and we can  cast dissonant Whispers as a bonus action five   times per day freeing up our action for a can trip  I yeah I want to make that can trip a little more   powerful like I just said so this means going back  to sorcerer for a bit so yes at this point in our   character's career just when they felt like they  had the whole chaos thing under control something   happened happens and the surges maybe start  to show up again maybe more frequently I would   definitely talk this over with your DM and kind  of like plan on a cool story moment to happen as   you take some more sorcerer levels here to kind of  show the struggle between Order and Chaos inside   of you like intensifying somehow regardless as a  sorcerer or two here we simply get font of magic   right sorcery points so now we can create more  spell slots with our sorcery points and then   at next level level 9 we would be a sorcerer 3 and  we get meta magic so that we can use those sorcery   points for cool awesome stuff now we get to pick  two metam magic options from a nice juicy list and   I think for the first time ever on this channel  I'm not going to recommend taking quickened spell   I know I'm just as surprised as you are I mean  we already have our bonus action spellcasting   ability right and yes arguably we could have  gotten to this earlier to let us do that bonus   action spellcasting thing earlier on again stay  tuned for the final thoughts where I'll talk about   that alternative but anyways yeah Quicken spell is  still great I mean I I still might take it anyway   but alternatively heightened spell could be good  it's expensive but it gives the enemy disadvantage   on a saving throw versus a spell that we use this  with right subtle spell always a classic but the   one I want to make sure that we grab here is yes  twin spell this lets us take a spell that normally   can affect only one target to instead affect two  the cost is equal to the Spell's level so it can   get expensive fast and while sure you could twin  dissonant Whisperers to potentially do damage to   two Targets and then make both of them run away  if we're upcasting that we won't even have the   sorcery points to Twin it forcing us to lower the  damage that it could potentially do and I mean we   don't really want to assume that we have a third  party member now that's a decent melee combatant   and getting opportunity attacks right feels like  stretching it a little too far instead let's go   ahead and just twin to the dead it's only a single  sorcery point to Twin cantrips and doing 2 D12 to   both of our targets that were hit right feels  really nice for sure we also get second level   sorcerer spells here and while there are plenty  of good ones to choose from the two that I'm going   to highlight here are first a spell I've never  talked about in a build before wither and Bloom   this spell is honestly not amazing but in the  hands of an order cleric it becomes much better it   basically does a little damage it's only 2 D6 in  a small 10t radius area but then it also lets you   heal an ally in that same area of effect they use  one of their unspent hit ice to heal unfortunately   but then add what will be for us our Charisma  modifier to the healing and of course since you've   now affected an ally with a spell they get to make  a reaction attack not something we'd necessarily   be using our action on during our Nova round right  but on other rounds especially if an ally needs   a little heal it can be a great way to pack a big  punch to an otherwise fairly lackluster spell the   other spell I'd say to make sure and grab here  is Vortex warp man I love this spell this might   be my favorite spell for this build it just lets  you teleport either an enemy if they fail their   constitution save or more likely for us an ally  anywhere within 90 ft of us which is just a huge   area and of course since we're an order cleric we  can not only teleport them but upon arrival they   could instantly make an attack against an enemy  that they land next to it's just a perfect like   speedball get help combo and I love it with all  of my heart and honestly so will your ally raging   Barbarian too far away to hit an enemy and might  be at the risk of losing rage not anymore Vortex   warp and surprise it's like a blink strike that  you get to cast on your ally it's so great don't   forget we do get fifth level spell slots at this  level thanks to multiclassing and yes that means   we could now potentially use bestow curse and  spirit Guardians if we wanted right again I'm   not going to assume that we are because of the  setup cost a whole action to get bestow curse   going but if you somehow manage to get it off  like maybe before combat starts or something it   could take an En enemy out of the fight or help  you do more damage to at least one of them all   right level 9 time for our next damage report  since last check we have added not only a 2D2   toll the dead to our Nova round but a twined 2D2  toll the dead to two enemies our spirit Guardians   can potentially be upcast to do 5 d8 per enemy  now with our fifth level spell slot and we could   upcast dissonant Whispers to do 6 D6 damage with  a fourth level slot as well not saying that we   should of course but as always we're exploring the  limits of what's possible right oh and I guess our   fighter now has a 20 strength and our Rogue has  both a 20 decks and their sneak attack has scaled   to like 5d6 so against enemies with a 10 Armor  class and a plus zero to their wisdom saves here   we would on average do 128 damage during our Nova  round and against a 16 and a plus six it would be   101 damage to just two enemies not bad little  Two-Face Harvey Dent little judge since last   check um the evoker has slipped ahead of us on  the spreadsheets but this build is still beating   out every other two enemy Nova damage dealer that  I've ever done to date at this level and even some   three enemy builds right and the support and the  control and the party Feelgood levels are through   the roof but at level 10 now that we've got um  twin spell and those second level sorcerer spells   under our belt I think we just go back to cleric  here so we'd be a cleric 7 and that means we get   fourth level cleric spells um order clerics get  compulsion and locate creature for free compulsion   is particularly interesting for this build  conceptually as it forces a number of creatures   to run away in any direction that you choose  could provoke a world of opportunity attacks   I guess but as it requires our concentration I'm  going to be sticking with Spirit Guardians locate   creature brings some nice potential utility  when you really need to find someone whether   Friend or Foe right but beyond that sure just  go for banishment to like just remove an enemy   from the fight especially if they're from another  plane of existence like a devil or something as   then they're gone permanently and I'd grab death  Ward for sure to give someone in your party a get   out of jail free card when they drop to zero hit  points letting them drop to one instead at level   11 we would be a cleric 8 and that means we  get another ability score or feat and I mean   you know what sure I'm going to take metamagic  Adept I mean we could get more sorcerer levels   to get more sorcery points right or we could do  the smart thing and use this feet to increase our   defense maybe bumping our constitution to 16 or  taking warcaster for Advantage on concentration   checks and so we could cast a spell when we get  an opportunity attack or maybe even heavy armor   Master to reduce damage dealt To Us by three  but I like metamagic Adept because it lets us   learn a couple more metam magic options pick your  favorites there and then gives us two more sorcery   points per day to spend on them and that makes  like twinning dissonant Whispers for example a   little more viable or just lets us twin toll the  dead more often or I don't know Vortex warp two   allies a little more regularly etc etc I want  more sorcery points take something else if you   want we also get blessed strikes at cleric 8 and  this isn't huge but it will add a d8 of damage to   either a weapon attack or a can trip and since  we're using canant trips pretty reliably it's   a nice little bump unfortunately it will only  affect one target not both even if we're twinning   it right but it's better than nothing and it works  every time we do damage with the cantrip not just   on our Nova round at this level destroy dead bumps  up to work against Undead enemies with a challenge   rating of one or lower we get six level spell  slots now thanks to multiclassing and toll the   dead bumps to 3d2 per enemy hit so that's awesome  but at level 12 now that we've got that little   blessed strikes bump and level six spells I can  wait no longer I have held out beyond my capacity   for holding out we are a Nova damage character  people I have to take fighter levels come on guys   I have to okay fine I don't have to you certainly  don't have to but I'm going to because yeah I want   to actually surge especially with twin spell  it just does really nice things for our double   damage dealing selves so we'd be a fighter one  here we get second win do a little self-heal as   a bonus action once per short rest and then we  get a fighting style and I would probably take   defense here to bump our Armor class by one giving  us you know plate mail a shield and the defensive   fighting style that's a 21 AC without any magic  items that's awesome but then at level 13 we would   be a fighter 2 so yes we could get action Surge  and this would let us if we wanted to cast to the   dead twice on our turn once per short rest anyways  and yeah there's no reason why we couldn't twin to   the dead both times using action search here you  can't usually use more than one metam magic option   per spell with a couple of exceptions there's no  limit to how many spells you can use metamagic on   during your turn if you're casting multiple spells  on your turn right and especially now that to the   dead is doing 3 D6 per gong that's 612 of damage  more potentially if we use action Surge and twin   it again and that's just too good to pass up and  this all comes just in time for our next damage report since last check we have now increased the  potential damage from Spirit Guardians to 6 d8   per enemy our dissonant Whispers to 7 D6 damage  but honestly don't use a fifth level spell slot   on disent Whispers that's just silly again we're  just exploring what's possible here we saw a bump   to our told the dead and are now using it twice  on our turn potentially twinning it both times   and adding a little extra eight of damage once  to one of those targets our Rogue has seen an   additional 2d6 increase to their sneak attack but  our fighter hasn't really increased in any way as   per my assumptions at least aside from like maybe  getting a better magic weapon that I'm not going   to account for so anyway against enemies here with  a 10 Armor class and a plus Zer to their wisdom   save we would on average do 201 damage during our  Nova round and against a 17 and a plus s it would   be 148 we broke the double century mark and that  kind of just keeps us in in the same place though   outpacing all but the best three Target AOE builds  at this level for burst damage by comparison and   I'm perfectly thrilled to be here considering all  the potential support that we're bringing and the   way we get to make our allies shine and just have  more fun all right at level 14 we kind of have a   decision to make you might want to just go back  to sorcerer from here it would really just be to   get more sorcery points above all but bend luck  from Wild magic isn't terrible it basically lets   you spend sorcery points to add or subtract a D4  from an ability check a save or an attack roll so   you could use it either offensively or defensively  it's pretty nice but it does require our reaction   and remember during our Nova round I'm assuming  we're using silvery barbs with our reaction right   so doesn't do much for us there regardless more  sorcery points and better sorcerer spells are   great but we also don't have a fantastic Charisma  so those better sorcerer spells are less appealing   than they would be otherwise and we've got enough  sorcery points to be great during our Nova round   at least we can spend some lowlevel spell slots  to recover more sorcery points if we wanted to   and I don't know I wanted to be a cleric here and  like feel like a cleric you know so let's go back   to cleric I say this would give us fifth level  cleric spells here Order clerics get commune and   dominate person for free those are both nice  commune is a ritual and it just sort of lets   us talk with our deity to get yes or no answers to  questions that we have can potentially be a little   gamebreaking so be careful here but then dominate  person I mean take total control of a humanoid if   you want to use concentration potentially super  powerful beyond that I just make sure to grab   greater restoration as it always seems to come  in handy for hard to get rid of conditions at   level 15 we would be a cleric 10 and that  means we get divine intervention and while   I kind of have mixed feelings about this ability  it feels just super clery right once per day you   can reach out to your deity and ask for a special  blessing you only have a 10% chance of succeeding   and if you succeed the DM decides what it looks  like talk about a Fickle God if you succeed you   can't use it again for a week I don't know it's  awesome potentially when it works it just doesn't   work often enough and removes the control from our  hands in a way that I just kind of struggle with   I appreciate the changes that they're making  to this actually with one D and D but for now   we'll enjoy those epic moments when it succeeds  and continue to be frustrated when our prayers   go unanswered don't forget we have seventh level  spell slots now thanks to multiclassing at level   16 we would be a cleric 11 and that means we  get sixth level cleric spells six level cleric   spells felt like an important place to get to  that means we could get heal and it's just a   fantastic bam you're healed for 70 hit points  and cured of blindness deafness and disease be   healed it's a nice big like break glass in case  of emergency in combat option of course Heroes   Feast might be the better pick here giving your  entire party a fantastic 24-hour buff that gives   advantage on wisdom saves immunity to poison  and fear and a maximum hit point increase of   2 d10 and unlike temporary hit points there's no  rule that says you can't benefit from more than   one source of Maximum hit point increase right  so yeah this would stack with aid for example if   you've got an hour to spare to eat the feast and  1,000 gold uh for the spell component that gets   consumed it's worth the spell slot I think also  destroy Undead jumps up to challenge rating two   or lower now and then finally for us at level 17  we would be a cleric 12 and that means we get yet   another ability score increase or feat and yeah  I'm probably taking one of the aforementioned   options right increasing our constitution or  taking War Caster or maybe even heavy armor   Master you might have an even better idea if so  let me know in the comments but regardless pick   your favorite we do have eighth level spell  slots now thanks to multiclassing so Spirit   Guardians could potentially be doing 8 d8 damage  to each enemy whenever they're affected by it and   then toll the dead and all cantrips get their  final buff here too so to the Dead's going to   be doing 4 D12 damage to each enemy each time  we use it and so for our final final damage report since last check to the dead got another  D12 bump we can upcast Spirit Guardians for 8 d8   damage and dissonant Whispers if we're crazy for  9 D6 and then we just got a whole ton of awesome   Undead destroying divine intervention having big  party buffing options as well just thanks to more   cleric level but as for our allies the Rogue got  another 2d6 to their sneak attack and the fighter   got nothing but against enem is here with a 10  Armor class and a plus zero to their wisdom save   we would on average do 262 damage during our  Nova round and against an 18 AC and a plus 8   it would be a 187 and yeah still beating out all  multi-target Nova damage builds but the evoker   and the light cleric but again doing that much  damage to only two enemies while bringing all   kinds of great support to the table along the  way so let's get into some final thoughts here   the tier score for this build if you just take the  damage that they were doing at each of those armor   classes at each of the four damage reports you  just average it all into one big number we end   up with a 120 putting us firmly in third place on  that AOE Nova tier ranking sheet but the truth is   it's not a great apples to Apple's comparison that  sheet right the light cleric currently leading the   pack there shows Damage Done to three enemies  now they were throwing Fireballs so there's a   bigger area of effect there so three felt like a  better number but they were using Spirit Guardians   too for a of their damage and for ease of number  crunching I just said okay well three enemies for   everything but on this build I'm like well just  two enemies cuz we've only got two allies that   are making attacks right so we got to take all  of this with a grain of salt of course probably   most importantly a lot of the damage this build is  doing came from our allies and I mean those allies   were super unoptimized and apparently never using  magic weapons right to be fair I don't account for   magic weapons on any of my builds but ignoring  that is going to have a lot bigger impact on   this this build than on a character who's built  to throw Fireballs like the light cleric right so   you could easily see a big increase over these  numbers that I've reported if your allies are   building their characters with an eye towards  optimization and getting good gear but even if   the numbers didn't move much from what I said they  were going to be I still love where we ended up   with this character not only a healthy heaping  of burst damage to multiple enemies but yeah   so much great potential support and like clery  goodness here honestly I think this is is like   my favorite character that I've built in a long  time just for the sheer flavor and concept alone   I really love this internal war between Chaos and  Order and I just think it would be so much fun to   bring this character to the table where you can  make everyone at your table feel stronger and   more powerful than ever while laying down some  serious Nova damage and Battlefield disruption   while having some fantastic roleplay hooks to  really lean into as well finally I promised a   mostly sorcerer version of this concept that's  going going to come online damage-wise a little   sooner and here's how I'd build it youd start off  Divine Soul sorcerer here not wild magic at level   two just take a single level dip into order cleric  for the voice of authority and heavy armor and   shield proficiency then back to sorcerer until  sorcerer level five Divine Soul Sorcerers get   access to both the cleric and sorcerer spell list  so you can get Spirit Guardians and toll the dead   right and use your charisma modifier to impact  them you can also grab quick and spell of course   along with twin spell meaning that you can do the  same dissonant Whispers as a bonus action thing   and still twin your to the dead in fact you'd be  twinning it more often because you'd have a lot of   sorcery points right and or twinning that upcast  dissonant Whispers potentially it all comes online   a little bit sooner It generally hits a little  bit harder at least early on we'd miss out on   a teeny bit of damage from blessed strikes on the  cleric later on as well as other cool clery things   like Channel Divinity divine intervention destroy  Undead not to mention a bigger hit die so more hit   points right I don't know even though both builds  would function very similarly I just like the feel   of the law and disorder character that we ended  up with better you know if nothing else I think   they tell a better story but regardless that's  the build for the week I hope you guys enjoyed   it I hope you know that I love you because I do  you're so awesome thank you so much for all that   you do for me for the channel I hope you have a  fantastic day and a great week and if you don't   I hope you'll hang in there because I believe  you can get past this thing but I hope that   you will be kind and do good and that I see  you again very soon but until then take care [Music] bye but you held your course to  some distant war in the corners of your   mind from the second time around the only love  I ever found oh Angela it's a long long time coming Hess ran out of breath how do they hold that note  out for so long I am not the biggest Lumineers fan   in the world but I really like that song um so  so what am I missing what else out there is uh   is good that I should be listening to I need  to know I also need to know is it just me or   is there like a little little dot right there  what is that it's like a it's like a lens flare   or something is there is there something on  my uh on my teleprompter H well hopefully it   wasn't bugging you the entire video cuz I don't  have any Windex on me and I need to get started   recording if I want to get this done today  so sorry sometimes the camera likes to focus   on Shepherd and I understand cuz I also like to  focus on Shepherd but I don't like it when it's   like really sharp there there we go there we  go now if I scoot back can you maintain no the focus okay I think that's good I uh I'm kind of getting over a  cold right now and yeah I don't know   hopefully my voice will hold out for the next  90 minutes while I record and I won't get too like seriously that dot why why are you there  dot stop it now watch it's like not even going   to show up in the post and I'll just be like goby  hallucinating about an imaginary friend is he   seeing things he started the descent into Insanity  it's the chaos it's the wild magic I knew it would   get me you will follow my guidance and heed my  words no wait say that differently first level of full just looked like I was winking  I don't know if I can just do a minor   twitch on demand something like that anyways  maybe I should have waited a day to record   too late now assuming I can keep going and I  don't and my voice doesn't just crumble into   dust M I have a cough drop I don't want to  wait 5 minutes while I suck it down though at this state Brain Brain Brain  Brain Brain okay all right I did   it oh now I need to go take a bath  and like spray some stuff in my nose

Channel: d4: D&D Deep Dive

Views: 38,652

Keywords: D&D, dnd, dungeons & dragons, heal, healer, support, cleric, order, burst, nova, fighter, wild magic, sorcerer, fun, best, how to, guide, character, creation, build, min max, optimize, bonus action

Id: OD5eWhnW_A0

Length: 56min 41sec (3401 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 12 2023