April 25, 2023 • 19 mins
FIGHTER CLERIC MULTICLASSING- A 5E GUIDE FOR HOLY BEATDOWNS Fighters are the versatile masters of the battlefield capable of taking on any combat role that possess every sort of weapon mastery. Clerics are versatile holy priests that can suit any deity, able to pick and choose from all the divine spells and the widest range of archetypes in 5e. Support the Channel: RPG Dice Subscription: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/products/rpg-dice-subscription Get dice every month, no repeats. Andrar's Vault is Open - Over 100 Unique Magic Items: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/products/andrars-vault
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Fighters and Clerics may not seem likethey go together, but in five E
I think just how well these twoclasses work together will surprise you. It
definitely did for me. As aresult, we have an unusually high amount
of multi class builds to go throughtoday, so I'm going to spare you
the preamble on this video and justsay there's something for just about everyone here,
even with just a single level DIP. I think you'll be impressed by
(00:21):
how much of these two classes complimenteach other. Before we get into the
video, we sure to like andsubscribe because we put out new content like
this all the time. But nowinto the Cleric Fighter multi class. Fighter
and Cleric are debatably the most versatilecore classes in five E, and by
(00:42):
combining them you have what is possiblythe widest range of options available. Now,
putting those options together into something worthplaying more than a straight fighter or
straight Cleric is its own issue,but simply having all those options that your
fingertips is a tempting prospect as abaseline. Adding access to cleric spells with
healing magic and magical utility to afighter is potentially worth the level, and
(01:03):
adding a fighting style to a morecombat focused cleric build can also be worthwhile.
This is a multi class that worksbest as small level dips to augment
a core focus, and enhancing yourstrategy with only a level or two dip
can be a major boost without muchinvestment. There are, of course,
some downsides. The first thing you'llneed to ask yourself when building a Fighter
Cleric multi class is why not simplybuild a paladin. Paladins are already holy
(01:26):
fighters, and if you're just lookingto add a few divine spells and damage
to your martial character, that maybe the better option. And like every
multi class combination, even a leveldip means giving up on some late game
class features like ninth level spells thatwe'd get from a single class. We're
also combining a spellcasting in martial classwhose features don't really stack up in a
meaningful way, so our progression oneither will be slowed down compared to straight
(01:48):
Cleric or straight fighter. As forwhen a fighter Cleric starts to kick in,
a few of our builds here areessentially only level dips, so they'll
kick in with only a single leveldip. Our more synergistic builds tend to
wire a level or two and Clericand the third level fighter archetype features,
so those will start working around levelsfour or five. Now let's get into
(02:08):
the class features that we care about. We've got several strategies to go for
here, so not all of thefollowing fighter abilities and cleric abilities will necessarily
apply to every build, but they'regenerally the features that we're going to care
about. Starting with significant fighter features, we have hit points, and while
the upgrade to one D ten isn'texactly huge, it's worth considering that on
(02:28):
average, every level of fighter youtake will get you a little bit more
beefier than the cleric. Next,we of course have fighting style obtained with
only one fighter level. The archerydueling, two weapon fighting, and thrown
weapon fighting options all provide a bitof extra damage in different ways and for
different strategies. The new Superior Techniqueoption also provides a way to pick up
a maneuver with only one fighter leveland without taking up the Fighter archetype.
(02:52):
You'll want to use this feature forweapon specialization, and you should figure out
what basic combat strategy you want togo for first. Also picked up with
only one fighter level, we havesecond Wind, and this feature gives us
a decent healing option. We're gettingfar more healing potential from more cleric levels.
Don't get me wrong, but extrahealing is always nice. Gained a
second level, we have Action Serge, and this is the king of fighter
(03:13):
abilities, which is merely great forfair builds and absolutely bonkers for unfair builds.
Now, sadly, we still havea hardcap on spellcasting in five V,
so we can't use Action Surge tocast multiple spells, but there are
still plenty of uses for an emergencyaction. We'll go over more detail about
the archetypes in just a moment,but know that they are important to some
of the builds that we'll be talkingabout in today's video. And then we
(03:35):
have Extra Attack. Several of theCleric archetypes have features that sort of make
up for their lack of extra attack, but fall short of a full extra
attack. Five levels are a bigcommitment if you're core cleric, but it
can potentially be worth it now toget into these significant cleric features. We
of course have spellcasting. Clerics area full prepared spellcasting class, and this
means that you have access to thefull cleric spell list. You just have
(03:59):
to pick which spell as you prepareeach day. Clerics have a couple really
good damage spells, but you'll likelyget the most value out of their utility
buffing and healing spells. And thenwe have channel divinity. Clerics get a
special divine resource in their uses ofchannel divinity. You first gain this feature
with your second cleric level, andyou get one of these uses of channel
divinity every short or long rest,and more uses at your six cleric level.
(04:21):
The base use of your channel divinityis turned undead, which is unsurprisingly
only useful if you're running into undeadmonsters. All the cleric archetypes, however,
provide us with much more interesting usesof our channel divinity power. Tasha's
also gave us another base use ofour channel Divinity power called harness divine power
that lets suspend it to regain alost spell slot. You can only do
(04:43):
this once per long rest to stopus from farming spell slots all the time,
but you can do it more oftenat higher cleric levels. And then
we have divine domains. Clerics gaintheir archetypes at first level, and more
than most classes, you'll be gettingmost of your unique class features from your
archetype. Typically you gain some skillchecks or our proficiencies at minimum for a
one level dip. In particular,we're going to care about the features gained
(05:04):
at first and second cleric levels andalternate uses for our channel divinity feature.
Now, let's touch upon ability scores. Just like with a normal Fighter build,
we're going to need to pick betweenstrength and dexterity as our primary damage
ability. Next, we'll want tohave high wisdoms since that's our cleric spellcasting
ability score. Finally, we're likelygoing to be in the thick of combat,
(05:27):
so we want constitution as our thirdhighest score if possible. For our
ability score improvements. We're not toostretched or too reliant on our spellcasting modifier,
so you're free to snag feats likepolar Master or Sentinel. For classic
Fighter Shenanigans, intelligence and charisma arelargely irrelevant for us and can be used
as dump stats. When it comesto equipment, the Fighter class gives us
full access to heavy armor and shields, and we should be taking advantage of
(05:49):
that. A one handed melee weapon, shield and the best heavy armor that
we can get our hands on isgoing to be the primary setup for most
of our builds. With Fighter,we have full martial weapon proficiencies, simple
weapons and armor proficiencies, so thesky's the limit on weapon style. We
can switch that up to a mediumarmor or light armor with a rapier if
we're going for the dexterity route,which should get us to similar acs.
(06:13):
Depending on the setting or original campaign, you might even be able to swing
firearms and get a sort of shotgunpreacher build going on. So keep the
decks version on the backburner just incase. And now let's get into spells.
A single level dip gives us accessto claric spells, many of which
can be incredibly helpful for a martialstrategy. Most of our builds aren't pushing
(06:33):
too high into cleric levels, sowe're mainly interested in low level spells like
can trips and first or second levelspells. Third level spells may seem attractive,
but it's unlikely worth that deep ofa dip. We're also planning on
being in the thick of combat,so spells that require concentration are less valuable
to us, and we're incentivized tolook for spells we can cast in addition
(06:53):
to our attacks. Starting us off, we have the guidance can trip.
This can trip lets you grant anextra one D four to your own ability
checks or the ability checks of yourallies. The nice thing here is that
since it's a can trip, it'sessentially always going to be free in situations
where time isn't an issue. Thatmeans your entire party gets this one D
four to practically anything they attempt todo outside of combat. Next, we
(07:14):
have Resistance, and this can tripis essentially the same as guidance, except
you get a bonus to saves insteadof ability checks. A one D four
bonus to saves is rarely ever goodenough to use in combat, but it
can come in handy when trying toavoid traps, and you can essentially keep
using it on yourself outside of combatto keep the extra one D four up
for any surprises your DM might throwat you. And then we have Word
of Radiance. This can trip isunique to clerics and is often forgotten when
(07:36):
picking offensive spells. You get toforce any number of creatures within five feet
of you to take a constitution saveor take one D six radiant damage with
cantrip scaling increases. This is especiallygreat for us, as Marshall builds when
we expect to be right in thethick of combat. It even allows you
to pick and choose the targets,so even though it's sort of an area
of effect around yourself, you're neverat risk of hitting your allies. And
(08:00):
then we have Cure Wounds, whichis bog standard and boring, but it's
a staple for a reason. It'sa first level healing spell that can definitely
help keep you when your party alive. Mostly another dull spell, but probably
one of the most useful out ofcombat spells in the game Detect Magic,
which essentially gives you a magic flashlightthat detects craziness in any room that you're
in. Moving on to one ofthe best low level offensive spells in the
(08:20):
game, Guiding Bolt is a rayof four D six radiant goodness that leaves
an after effect, gaining advantage onthe next attack against your opponent. Even
only using a first level spell slot, Guiding Bolt is amongst the most powerful
spells and will remain a relevant anduseful attack into second and third tiers of
play. And then we have HealingWord, which does significantly less healing than
(08:41):
Cure Wounds at the same level,but it has two differences that make it
worth taking. First, healing Wordhas a range of sixty feet versus the
touch range of Cure wounds, whichmeans with Healing Word you can save a
downed ally even when you can't physicallyreach them. Second, Healing Word only
uses a bonus action, which meanswe can use it and still make our
attack on the same turn. Nextwe have Sanctuary and this forces enemies to
(09:03):
make wisdom saves if they want toattack you. I wouldn't recommend this normally
since it's a concentration spell, butkeep this spell in mind for one of
the later bills that makes better useof it. And then at second level
we get Aid, which increases themaximum hit points of up to three creatures
by five and it lasts for eighthours. This is a better defensive boost
than temporary hit points since the actualmaximum is increased and you can heal back
(09:26):
up to that new limit. Forus in particular, it's also a buff
spell that doesn't use concentration, andthose are few and far between. Next
we have Prayer of Healing, andthis lets you heal up to six creatures
for two D eight plus. You'respell casting modifier, but it takes ten
minutes to cast. It's the equivalentof casting six second level cure wound spells,
but only uses one slot at thecost of requiring essentially a miniature short
(09:48):
rest, but in situations where youcan take a breather but not in actual
rest, this spell can refresh yourentire party. So if you're in a
what you think is an out ofthe frying hand into the fire situation,
I imagine this could be very helpful. Next, we have Spiritual Weapon.
With this spell, you conjure abig ghostly weapon and hit your enemies with
it every turn for one D eightplus your wisdom modifier at the cost of
(10:11):
your bonus action. We're already notusing our bonus actions for much, so
this spell typically translates to straight extradamage and it's one of the best arguments
for taking your cleric levels up tothree just to get it. And now
it's time we actually discuss these multiclass builds. Clerics are primarily spellcasters and
fighters are absolutely marshal, so we'renot going to get far with an even
(10:33):
split. Instead, most of thefollowing builds focus on getting the most out
of a small level dip, startingoff with the build the Peace Troll.
For this build, our goal isto royally hose a boss monster so that
they waste their attacks every turn.To accomplish this, we want two levels
of Cleric taking the Peace domain,and three levels of fire taking the Cavalier
archetype. The levels and Cleric areonly a dip, and the remaining levels
(10:54):
should go towards fighter, giving usa final split of two Cleric an eighteen
fighter at third level. When wefirst gain the Cavalier archetype, we gain
a bonus proficiency, a bonus tomounted combat, but more importantly, we
get the feature Unwavering Mark. UnwaveringMark lets us mark any creature we hit
with a melee attack, and whilewithin five feet of a mark creature,
they make all their attacks at disadvantageunless they target you. From our levels.
(11:18):
In Peace Cleric, we get anotherbonus proficiency and two prominent features,
Embolding Bond at first level. InChannel Divinity option Bomb of Peace at second
level. Emboldening Bond works essentially likea super version of the Guidance spell,
letting us grant ourselves and some ofour allies an extra one D four on
all their attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws for ten minutes.
Balm of Peace gives us an oddsort of dash movement that doesn't provoke attacks
(11:41):
of opportunity, but every one ofour allies that we run past as we
do so heals two D six wisdomhit points. So how do we do
this? Firstly, we just runin and smack the big boss monster with
our melee weapon of choice. Whenwe hit the creature, we activate our
Unwavering mark for free, giving themdisadvantage on every target that is in us,
so long is there in melee rangeof us. Next, using our
(12:03):
bonus action, we cast the spellSanctuary, which is conveniently a domain spell
for the piece cleric. Think ofSanctuary as a sort of truce. So
long as you don't make attacks.Creatures that attempt to hit you have to
succeed on a Wisdom save in orderto do so. You've now set up
a scenario where the boss monster hasto pass a save to attack you and
has disadvantage on anything but you,and is pretty much screwed either way.
(12:26):
For your turns. While this ishappening, you can either make your attacks
and then simply cast Sanctuary again,or you can use this time to heal
your allies using any number of healingspells or the Bomb of Peace as you
keep locking down the boss. Next, we have the Flashbang Fighter build.
Technically this is more of just arecommended level dip with a full build,
but you can gain a lot ofpower to any fighter build with a single
(12:48):
Cleric level dip to take the Lightdomain. The light Cleric gains the ability
warding flare at first level. Thatcan be amazing for a martial character.
Whenever you're attacked by something within thirtyfeet, you can throw up a flashlight
to impose disadvantage on the attack asa reaction. You can do this Flashbang
maneuver a number of times per dayequal to your wisdom modifier and regain them
on a long rest. Beyond that, a single level is getting you three
(13:11):
cantrips and two first level Cleric spellslots ready for wound curing. This one
level dip adds survivability for any typeof fighter build. Battlemaster is an excellent
option for battle maneuvers, but Ithink it pairs best with the Run night
fighter archetype, specifically taking the Cloudrun. The Cloud Run lets you magically
swap the target of an attack andforce your enemy to hit their ally once
(13:31):
per short rest put together, thisbuild has a ton of opportunities to swerve,
deflect, and divert the nastiest attacksyou run into with only a minimal
level DIP. You can consider takinga second level in Cleric for the channel
Divinity Radiance of Dawn feature for bonusradiant damage, but since it doesn't scale
up, I don't exactly recommend itunless you know it will be a short,
(13:52):
low level campaign. Next, wehave the triple threat. Imagine combat
you well, rather, your characterwalks up to join, and then a
duplicate joins, and then another duplicate. One of your triplets casts a spell
and the other swings a sword,and your enemies are left utterly baffled as
their attacks seem to pass harmlessly throughone duplicate and they're beaten by the others.
(14:13):
To accomplish this will need to atleast have two Cleric levels taking the
Trickery domain and three fire levels takingthe Echoonite archetype. The Echo nit lets
us create a copy of ourselves asa bonus action, and though we can
only have one Echo at a time, it's essentially free. This echo has
an AC equal to fourteen plus ourproficiency bonus a single hit point, and
(14:33):
on our turn we can move itup to thirty feet at the low cost
of absolutely nothing. As a bonusaction, we can swap places with our
echo whenever we make melee attacks.We can make our melee attack using the
echo, and we can make attacksof opportunity using the echo. Also at
third level, we can get thefeature Unleash Incarnation that lets us make an
extra attack through our echo when wemake an attack, and we can do
(14:56):
this a number of times per longrest equal to our constitution modifier. Now
the trickster Claric gets their duplicate throughthe Channel Divinity Invoked Duplicity feature at the
cost of our channel Divinity use.We can create a duplicate illusion as an
action that lasts one minute. Ourduplicate illusion is less real than the echo,
and we can't make attacks through it, but we can cast our spells
(15:16):
through it and move it up tothirty feet as a bonus action. One
of the best parts here is sincethe duplicate is just an illusion, it's
also essentially invulnerable, and if youcan get the enemies to attack it,
they'll basically just waste their attacks.We can control the echo for free and
the illusion using our bonus action.So together we can move all three of
ourselves every turn and just utterly confoundour enemies while hitting them from multiple size
(15:39):
using your attacks and attacking through yourecho using unleash incarnation. It'll be easy
for your enemies to poof away yourecho, but it's just as easy for
you to resummon it as a bonusaction, and you should be able to
waste a ton of your enemies attackson your cackling counterparts. And if all
else fails, you can consider takingjust one more level of cleric to gain
access to second level claic spells andmirror image. It'll technically be easier to
(16:03):
spot you since you're a triple andyour echo and illusion won't be, But
man, it's flavorful and useful fora fire. This build is more than
a defensive boost. It's a wholeunique strategy. It relies a bit on
your DM ignoring meta knowledge and lettingthe enemies be confused by your copies,
which I think any decent DM shouldbe able to do. But yeah,
(16:26):
keep this in mind if you thinkthis is something you can get away with
at your table. Now let's moveon to some honorable mentions. With the
first level domain cleric powers along withthe access to basic healing magic, this
makes a single level dip into Claricpotentially worthwhile for an otherwise peer fighter build.
The following options are decent enough toget an Honorable Mentioned for a single
(16:47):
level dip. I also want tonote that the popular death clerics really don't
mesh all that well, and theyeven missed this Honorable Mentioned list as the
necrotic damage boost just isn't that worthit to me. This is also a
combination that's strangely invites even more secondaryclasses and can potentially benefit from level dips
in things like Beastmaster Ranger, TransmutationWizard, Gloom Stalker Rangers, Storm Sorcerer,
(17:10):
Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, Fay Wander Ranger, and a whole host of other
strange combinations. We focused only onfighter Claric combinations here, but triple class
combinations actually work here, and that'snot often the case. First, we
have the extra Magic Fighter. Bytaking a level in the Arcana domain,
you gain a whopping five cantrips that'stwo from the wizard spell list and three
from the Cleric spell list. Inorder to access healing, magic to tech
(17:33):
magic, and magic missile. Especiallyat tier one. Just one level dip
into Arcana Cleric, your fighter canbe healer, utility, castor, and
a frontline fighter for your party allin one. And then we have the
free magic item build. You canessentially get free magical items by taking one
level in the Forge domain. Blessingsof the Forge give you either some armor
faith plus one armor, or plusone magic weapon whenever you need it.
(17:56):
At early levels, guaranteed access toa magical weapon can be a big help,
especially in a campaign with low magicitem acquisition. Magic items along with
the base spellcasting can make this worththe level dip. And then we have
the Storm Fighter. With one levelof Tempest Cleric, you gain the feature
Wrath of the Storm, which letsyou retaliate when hit for two to eight
thunder or lightning damage a number oftimes per day equal to your Wisdom modifier.
(18:21):
If you go one level deeper,you get Channel Divinity Destructive Wrath,
which lets you maximize lightning or thunderdamage. But other than that, it
doesn't scale, so I really don'trecommend this dip if you plan on playing
up to tier two. It doesnothing for your normal attack damage roles and
the ability never scales higher. Youdo get searing smite, though, which
is a decent way to add moredamage to weapon attacks. Funnily enough,
(18:45):
the only Cleric Fighter multi class buildsI've ever had at my table were from
two players in the same campaign,and I could tell by the time that
they took their level dips into theirrespective multi class builds. It was about
level ten or twelve, I think, and they did it, and it
was purely so they could just havea little bit more versatility on the battlefield.
We were in a group of sixor seven people, so the threats
(19:07):
I threw at them were either reallynumerous or really big, and I think
they just wanted a little bit moreversatility on the battlefield. So if that's
something you're looking for in your campaign, I can definitely recommend you pick up
one of these multi class builds we'vetalked about. Thank you guys so much
for watching. I really appreciate it. Be sure to like and subscribe because
we put out new content like thisall the time. Be sure to check
us out on scal spwitter dice dotcom to see what we are up to.
(19:29):
We have a book of magical itemsthat I think you should check out
called Andrewar's Vault. And if youguys are going to be making a Cleric
Fighter multi class, I would loveto hear about it down in the comments.
And if you guys have any ideasor videos you'd like us to put
together, please leave those down thereas well. My name's Patrick Ferguson from
skal spwlitter Dice and until next time, farewell
Fighters and Clerics may not seem likethey go together, but in five E
I think just how well these twoclasses work together will surprise you. It
definitely did for me. As aresult, we have an unusually high amount
of multi class builds to go throughtoday, so I'm going to spare you
the preamble on this video and justsay there's something for just about everyone here,
even with just a single level DIP. I think you'll be impressed by
(00:21):
how much of these two classes complimenteach other. Before we get into the
video, we sure to like andsubscribe because we put out new content like
this all the time. But nowinto the Cleric Fighter multi class. Fighter
and Cleric are debatably the most versatilecore classes in five E, and by
(00:42):
combining them you have what is possiblythe widest range of options available. Now,
putting those options together into something worthplaying more than a straight fighter or
straight Cleric is its own issue,but simply having all those options that your
fingertips is a tempting prospect as abaseline. Adding access to cleric spells with
healing magic and magical utility to afighter is potentially worth the level, and
(01:03):
adding a fighting style to a morecombat focused cleric build can also be worthwhile.
This is a multi class that worksbest as small level dips to augment
a core focus, and enhancing yourstrategy with only a level or two dip
can be a major boost without muchinvestment. There are, of course,
some downsides. The first thing you'llneed to ask yourself when building a Fighter
Cleric multi class is why not simplybuild a paladin. Paladins are already holy
(01:26):
fighters, and if you're just lookingto add a few divine spells and damage
to your martial character, that maybe the better option. And like every
multi class combination, even a leveldip means giving up on some late game
class features like ninth level spells thatwe'd get from a single class. We're
also combining a spellcasting in martial classwhose features don't really stack up in a
meaningful way, so our progression oneither will be slowed down compared to straight
(01:48):
Cleric or straight fighter. As forwhen a fighter Cleric starts to kick in,
a few of our builds here areessentially only level dips, so they'll
kick in with only a single leveldip. Our more synergistic builds tend to
wire a level or two and Clericand the third level fighter archetype features,
so those will start working around levelsfour or five. Now let's get into
(02:08):
the class features that we care about. We've got several strategies to go for
here, so not all of thefollowing fighter abilities and cleric abilities will necessarily
apply to every build, but they'regenerally the features that we're going to care
about. Starting with significant fighter features, we have hit points, and while
the upgrade to one D ten isn'texactly huge, it's worth considering that on
(02:28):
average, every level of fighter youtake will get you a little bit more
beefier than the cleric. Next,we of course have fighting style obtained with
only one fighter level. The archerydueling, two weapon fighting, and thrown
weapon fighting options all provide a bitof extra damage in different ways and for
different strategies. The new Superior Techniqueoption also provides a way to pick up
a maneuver with only one fighter leveland without taking up the Fighter archetype.
(02:52):
You'll want to use this feature forweapon specialization, and you should figure out
what basic combat strategy you want togo for first. Also picked up with
only one fighter level, we havesecond Wind, and this feature gives us
a decent healing option. We're gettingfar more healing potential from more cleric levels.
Don't get me wrong, but extrahealing is always nice. Gained a
second level, we have Action Serge, and this is the king of fighter
(03:13):
abilities, which is merely great forfair builds and absolutely bonkers for unfair builds.
Now, sadly, we still havea hardcap on spellcasting in five V,
so we can't use Action Surge tocast multiple spells, but there are
still plenty of uses for an emergencyaction. We'll go over more detail about
the archetypes in just a moment,but know that they are important to some
of the builds that we'll be talkingabout in today's video. And then we
(03:35):
have Extra Attack. Several of theCleric archetypes have features that sort of make
up for their lack of extra attack, but fall short of a full extra
attack. Five levels are a bigcommitment if you're core cleric, but it
can potentially be worth it now toget into these significant cleric features. We
of course have spellcasting. Clerics area full prepared spellcasting class, and this
means that you have access to thefull cleric spell list. You just have
(03:59):
to pick which spell as you prepareeach day. Clerics have a couple really
good damage spells, but you'll likelyget the most value out of their utility
buffing and healing spells. And thenwe have channel divinity. Clerics get a
special divine resource in their uses ofchannel divinity. You first gain this feature
with your second cleric level, andyou get one of these uses of channel
divinity every short or long rest,and more uses at your six cleric level.
(04:21):
The base use of your channel divinityis turned undead, which is unsurprisingly
only useful if you're running into undeadmonsters. All the cleric archetypes, however,
provide us with much more interesting usesof our channel divinity power. Tasha's
also gave us another base use ofour channel Divinity power called harness divine power
that lets suspend it to regain alost spell slot. You can only do
(04:43):
this once per long rest to stopus from farming spell slots all the time,
but you can do it more oftenat higher cleric levels. And then
we have divine domains. Clerics gaintheir archetypes at first level, and more
than most classes, you'll be gettingmost of your unique class features from your
archetype. Typically you gain some skillchecks or our proficiencies at minimum for a
one level dip. In particular,we're going to care about the features gained
(05:04):
at first and second cleric levels andalternate uses for our channel divinity feature.
Now, let's touch upon ability scores. Just like with a normal Fighter build,
we're going to need to pick betweenstrength and dexterity as our primary damage
ability. Next, we'll want tohave high wisdoms since that's our cleric spellcasting
ability score. Finally, we're likelygoing to be in the thick of combat,
(05:27):
so we want constitution as our thirdhighest score if possible. For our
ability score improvements. We're not toostretched or too reliant on our spellcasting modifier,
so you're free to snag feats likepolar Master or Sentinel. For classic
Fighter Shenanigans, intelligence and charisma arelargely irrelevant for us and can be used
as dump stats. When it comesto equipment, the Fighter class gives us
full access to heavy armor and shields, and we should be taking advantage of
(05:49):
that. A one handed melee weapon, shield and the best heavy armor that
we can get our hands on isgoing to be the primary setup for most
of our builds. With Fighter,we have full martial weapon proficiencies, simple
weapons and armor proficiencies, so thesky's the limit on weapon style. We
can switch that up to a mediumarmor or light armor with a rapier if
we're going for the dexterity route,which should get us to similar acs.
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Depending on the setting or original campaign, you might even be able to swing
firearms and get a sort of shotgunpreacher build going on. So keep the
decks version on the backburner just incase. And now let's get into spells.
A single level dip gives us accessto claric spells, many of which
can be incredibly helpful for a martialstrategy. Most of our builds aren't pushing
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too high into cleric levels, sowe're mainly interested in low level spells like
can trips and first or second levelspells. Third level spells may seem attractive,
but it's unlikely worth that deep ofa dip. We're also planning on
being in the thick of combat,so spells that require concentration are less valuable
to us, and we're incentivized tolook for spells we can cast in addition
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to our attacks. Starting us off, we have the guidance can trip.
This can trip lets you grant anextra one D four to your own ability
checks or the ability checks of yourallies. The nice thing here is that
since it's a can trip, it'sessentially always going to be free in situations
where time isn't an issue. Thatmeans your entire party gets this one D
four to practically anything they attempt todo outside of combat. Next, we
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have Resistance, and this can tripis essentially the same as guidance, except
you get a bonus to saves insteadof ability checks. A one D four
bonus to saves is rarely ever goodenough to use in combat, but it
can come in handy when trying toavoid traps, and you can essentially keep
using it on yourself outside of combatto keep the extra one D four up
for any surprises your DM might throwat you. And then we have Word
of Radiance. This can trip isunique to clerics and is often forgotten when
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picking offensive spells. You get toforce any number of creatures within five feet
of you to take a constitution saveor take one D six radiant damage with
cantrip scaling increases. This is especiallygreat for us, as Marshall builds when
we expect to be right in thethick of combat. It even allows you
to pick and choose the targets,so even though it's sort of an area
of effect around yourself, you're neverat risk of hitting your allies. And
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then we have Cure Wounds, whichis bog standard and boring, but it's
a staple for a reason. It'sa first level healing spell that can definitely
help keep you when your party alive. Mostly another dull spell, but probably
one of the most useful out ofcombat spells in the game Detect Magic,
which essentially gives you a magic flashlightthat detects craziness in any room that you're
in. Moving on to one ofthe best low level offensive spells in the
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game, Guiding Bolt is a rayof four D six radiant goodness that leaves
an after effect, gaining advantage onthe next attack against your opponent. Even
only using a first level spell slot, Guiding Bolt is amongst the most powerful
spells and will remain a relevant anduseful attack into second and third tiers of
play. And then we have HealingWord, which does significantly less healing than
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Cure Wounds at the same level,but it has two differences that make it
worth taking. First, healing Wordhas a range of sixty feet versus the
touch range of Cure wounds, whichmeans with Healing Word you can save a
downed ally even when you can't physicallyreach them. Second, Healing Word only
uses a bonus action, which meanswe can use it and still make our
attack on the same turn. Nextwe have Sanctuary and this forces enemies to
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make wisdom saves if they want toattack you. I wouldn't recommend this normally
since it's a concentration spell, butkeep this spell in mind for one of
the later bills that makes better useof it. And then at second level
we get Aid, which increases themaximum hit points of up to three creatures
by five and it lasts for eighthours. This is a better defensive boost
than temporary hit points since the actualmaximum is increased and you can heal back
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up to that new limit. Forus in particular, it's also a buff
spell that doesn't use concentration, andthose are few and far between. Next
we have Prayer of Healing, andthis lets you heal up to six creatures
for two D eight plus. You'respell casting modifier, but it takes ten
minutes to cast. It's the equivalentof casting six second level cure wound spells,
but only uses one slot at thecost of requiring essentially a miniature short
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rest, but in situations where youcan take a breather but not in actual
rest, this spell can refresh yourentire party. So if you're in a
what you think is an out ofthe frying hand into the fire situation,
I imagine this could be very helpful. Next, we have Spiritual Weapon.
With this spell, you conjure abig ghostly weapon and hit your enemies with
it every turn for one D eightplus your wisdom modifier at the cost of
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your bonus action. We're already notusing our bonus actions for much, so
this spell typically translates to straight extradamage and it's one of the best arguments
for taking your cleric levels up tothree just to get it. And now
it's time we actually discuss these multiclass builds. Clerics are primarily spellcasters and
fighters are absolutely marshal, so we'renot going to get far with an even
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split. Instead, most of thefollowing builds focus on getting the most out
of a small level dip, startingoff with the build the Peace Troll.
For this build, our goal isto royally hose a boss monster so that
they waste their attacks every turn.To accomplish this, we want two levels
of Cleric taking the Peace domain,and three levels of fire taking the Cavalier
archetype. The levels and Cleric areonly a dip, and the remaining levels
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should go towards fighter, giving usa final split of two Cleric an eighteen
fighter at third level. When wefirst gain the Cavalier archetype, we gain
a bonus proficiency, a bonus tomounted combat, but more importantly, we
get the feature Unwavering Mark. UnwaveringMark lets us mark any creature we hit
with a melee attack, and whilewithin five feet of a mark creature,
they make all their attacks at disadvantageunless they target you. From our levels.
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In Peace Cleric, we get anotherbonus proficiency and two prominent features,
Embolding Bond at first level. InChannel Divinity option Bomb of Peace at second
level. Emboldening Bond works essentially likea super version of the Guidance spell,
letting us grant ourselves and some ofour allies an extra one D four on
all their attack rolls, ability checks, and saving throws for ten minutes.
Balm of Peace gives us an oddsort of dash movement that doesn't provoke attacks
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of opportunity, but every one ofour allies that we run past as we
do so heals two D six wisdomhit points. So how do we do
this? Firstly, we just runin and smack the big boss monster with
our melee weapon of choice. Whenwe hit the creature, we activate our
Unwavering mark for free, giving themdisadvantage on every target that is in us,
so long is there in melee rangeof us. Next, using our
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bonus action, we cast the spellSanctuary, which is conveniently a domain spell
for the piece cleric. Think ofSanctuary as a sort of truce. So
long as you don't make attacks.Creatures that attempt to hit you have to
succeed on a Wisdom save in orderto do so. You've now set up
a scenario where the boss monster hasto pass a save to attack you and
has disadvantage on anything but you,and is pretty much screwed either way.
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For your turns. While this ishappening, you can either make your attacks
and then simply cast Sanctuary again,or you can use this time to heal
your allies using any number of healingspells or the Bomb of Peace as you
keep locking down the boss. Next, we have the Flashbang Fighter build.
Technically this is more of just arecommended level dip with a full build,
but you can gain a lot ofpower to any fighter build with a single
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Cleric level dip to take the Lightdomain. The light Cleric gains the ability
warding flare at first level. Thatcan be amazing for a martial character.
Whenever you're attacked by something within thirtyfeet, you can throw up a flashlight
to impose disadvantage on the attack asa reaction. You can do this Flashbang
maneuver a number of times per dayequal to your wisdom modifier and regain them
on a long rest. Beyond that, a single level is getting you three
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cantrips and two first level Cleric spellslots ready for wound curing. This one
level dip adds survivability for any typeof fighter build. Battlemaster is an excellent
option for battle maneuvers, but Ithink it pairs best with the Run night
fighter archetype, specifically taking the Cloudrun. The Cloud Run lets you magically
swap the target of an attack andforce your enemy to hit their ally once
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per short rest put together, thisbuild has a ton of opportunities to swerve,
deflect, and divert the nastiest attacksyou run into with only a minimal
level DIP. You can consider takinga second level in Cleric for the channel
Divinity Radiance of Dawn feature for bonusradiant damage, but since it doesn't scale
up, I don't exactly recommend itunless you know it will be a short,
(13:52):
low level campaign. Next, wehave the triple threat. Imagine combat
you well, rather, your characterwalks up to join, and then a
duplicate joins, and then another duplicate. One of your triplets casts a spell
and the other swings a sword,and your enemies are left utterly baffled as
their attacks seem to pass harmlessly throughone duplicate and they're beaten by the others.
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To accomplish this will need to atleast have two Cleric levels taking the
Trickery domain and three fire levels takingthe Echoonite archetype. The Echo nit lets
us create a copy of ourselves asa bonus action, and though we can
only have one Echo at a time, it's essentially free. This echo has
an AC equal to fourteen plus ourproficiency bonus a single hit point, and
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on our turn we can move itup to thirty feet at the low cost
of absolutely nothing. As a bonusaction, we can swap places with our
echo whenever we make melee attacks.We can make our melee attack using the
echo, and we can make attacksof opportunity using the echo. Also at
third level, we can get thefeature Unleash Incarnation that lets us make an
extra attack through our echo when wemake an attack, and we can do
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this a number of times per longrest equal to our constitution modifier. Now
the trickster Claric gets their duplicate throughthe Channel Divinity Invoked Duplicity feature at the
cost of our channel Divinity use.We can create a duplicate illusion as an
action that lasts one minute. Ourduplicate illusion is less real than the echo,
and we can't make attacks through it, but we can cast our spells
(15:16):
through it and move it up tothirty feet as a bonus action. One
of the best parts here is sincethe duplicate is just an illusion, it's
also essentially invulnerable, and if youcan get the enemies to attack it,
they'll basically just waste their attacks.We can control the echo for free and
the illusion using our bonus action.So together we can move all three of
ourselves every turn and just utterly confoundour enemies while hitting them from multiple size
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using your attacks and attacking through yourecho using unleash incarnation. It'll be easy
for your enemies to poof away yourecho, but it's just as easy for
you to resummon it as a bonusaction, and you should be able to
waste a ton of your enemies attackson your cackling counterparts. And if all
else fails, you can consider takingjust one more level of cleric to gain
access to second level claic spells andmirror image. It'll technically be easier to
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spot you since you're a triple andyour echo and illusion won't be, But
man, it's flavorful and useful fora fire. This build is more than
a defensive boost. It's a wholeunique strategy. It relies a bit on
your DM ignoring meta knowledge and lettingthe enemies be confused by your copies,
which I think any decent DM shouldbe able to do. But yeah,
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keep this in mind if you thinkthis is something you can get away with
at your table. Now let's moveon to some honorable mentions. With the
first level domain cleric powers along withthe access to basic healing magic, this
makes a single level dip into Claricpotentially worthwhile for an otherwise peer fighter build.
The following options are decent enough toget an Honorable Mentioned for a single
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level dip. I also want tonote that the popular death clerics really don't
mesh all that well, and theyeven missed this Honorable Mentioned list as the
necrotic damage boost just isn't that worthit to me. This is also a
combination that's strangely invites even more secondaryclasses and can potentially benefit from level dips
in things like Beastmaster Ranger, TransmutationWizard, Gloom Stalker Rangers, Storm Sorcerer,
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Clockwork Soul Sorcerer, Fay Wander Ranger, and a whole host of other
strange combinations. We focused only onfighter Claric combinations here, but triple class
combinations actually work here, and that'snot often the case. First, we
have the extra Magic Fighter. Bytaking a level in the Arcana domain,
you gain a whopping five cantrips that'stwo from the wizard spell list and three
from the Cleric spell list. Inorder to access healing, magic to tech
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magic, and magic missile. Especiallyat tier one. Just one level dip
into Arcana Cleric, your fighter canbe healer, utility, castor, and
a frontline fighter for your party allin one. And then we have the
free magic item build. You canessentially get free magical items by taking one
level in the Forge domain. Blessingsof the Forge give you either some armor
faith plus one armor, or plusone magic weapon whenever you need it.
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At early levels, guaranteed access toa magical weapon can be a big help,
especially in a campaign with low magicitem acquisition. Magic items along with
the base spellcasting can make this worththe level dip. And then we have
the Storm Fighter. With one levelof Tempest Cleric, you gain the feature
Wrath of the Storm, which letsyou retaliate when hit for two to eight
thunder or lightning damage a number oftimes per day equal to your Wisdom modifier.
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If you go one level deeper,you get Channel Divinity Destructive Wrath,
which lets you maximize lightning or thunderdamage. But other than that, it
doesn't scale, so I really don'trecommend this dip if you plan on playing
up to tier two. It doesnothing for your normal attack damage roles and
the ability never scales higher. Youdo get searing smite, though, which
is a decent way to add moredamage to weapon attacks. Funnily enough,
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the only Cleric Fighter multi class buildsI've ever had at my table were from
two players in the same campaign,and I could tell by the time that
they took their level dips into theirrespective multi class builds. It was about
level ten or twelve, I think, and they did it, and it
was purely so they could just havea little bit more versatility on the battlefield.
We were in a group of sixor seven people, so the threats
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I threw at them were either reallynumerous or really big, and I think
they just wanted a little bit moreversatility on the battlefield. So if that's
something you're looking for in your campaign, I can definitely recommend you pick up
one of these multi class builds we'vetalked about. Thank you guys so much
for watching. I really appreciate it. Be sure to like and subscribe because
we put out new content like thisall the time. Be sure to check
us out on scal spwitter dice dotcom to see what we are up to.
(19:29):
We have a book of magical itemsthat I think you should check out
called Andrewar's Vault. And if youguys are going to be making a Cleric
Fighter multi class, I would loveto hear about it down in the comments.
And if you guys have any ideasor videos you'd like us to put
together, please leave those down thereas well. My name's Patrick Ferguson from
skal spwlitter Dice and until next time, farewell
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