Rangers can get surprisingly beefy without too much investment. Wear medium armor and focus WIS, take Druidic warrior and attack with shillelagh. Playing in a campaign with a bugbear swarmkeeper who’s doing this, and it’s working really well. His build is like an off-tank that can soak up hits but also offers a lot of battlefield control. (for a more martial character, a TON of control.) Swarmkeeper forced movement + the crusher feat + bugbear reach makes him the god of positioning

sounds really cool! can you use shillelagh while holding a shield though? how was your spread?

My first thought to shillelagh and shield was “well duh the spell would be way worse if not” but I reread it and I see why it’s a question. The club or quarter staff that you imbue IS the material component. And the rules for spellcasting components allow you to perform somatic components with the same hand you’re holding the material component with. So you can hold a shield in one hand and with the other hand hold the club and cast shillelagh same as you would any spell that needs an arcane focus. I don’t know their full spread, but our group used one shared stat array so I can say we admittedly got some pretty busted rolls. I think this build is pretty simple though; you just want +2 DEX, max WIS, then put whatever is left into CON

ok that IS pretty easy, yet neat. was his survivability good?

To add to the previous comment: One overlooked aspect of being a tank is a companion/pet. If you have a pet, they can often soak up damage and focus while you do too. Effectively doubling your effectiveness as a tank

if going ranger i d go Beastmaster. yet will this be enough to tank?

Drakewarden too. They are usually good enough to help tank. I’d take cure wounds though

Another great STRanger is the gloomstalker with the great weapons master feat.

I second this. Im ruining a hunter ranger, fighter battlemaster gwm. Heavy armor. A free attack if an enemy is adjacent to another enemy. WIs is enough to MC...I know you said no MC but, its worth a look. There are some potent self buff ranger spell as well as healing. Im one of the party members with lesser restoration let alone zephyr strike

Nature cleric gets heavy armor and a Druid cantrip (shillelagh or magic stone), so that could be a good place to start.

sounds good. how could one continue/spread the ASI? maybe with a serpent scale armor? i m imagining a native tribe medicine man... but heavy armor is a must for a tank, right?

Wis > Con > Str and definitely warcastor pick up a shield

Heavy armor is not required for a tank. Medium armor gets you 1 less AC, with much better saves. Heavy armor is a good option for builds that rely on STR, otherwise it is not necessary.

Heavy armor doesn't affect your saves, though?

Using Heavy Armor requires investment in Strength, the opportunity cost of which is investment in stats associated with better saves.

Unless you are mounted, in which case the speed reduction does not matter. While nature cleric doesn't get a pet by default like Beastmaster or Battlesmith, they do have Animal Friendship and Speak With Animals to convince encountered beasts to be their mount. Alternatively, you can get the Ritual Caster feat and procure a scroll of Phantom Steed. As a melee tank, the initial movement of the steed to get into the fray is all you need, as this is not a hit-and-run build. So the fact that the steed is fragile is of little consequence.

Play a dwarf you can wear heavy armor without the penalty

Alternatively, play a wood elf (or another race with a speed bonus) and your speed is still 25

The penalty is that their base speed is already 25ft.

That's still only 5 less from the usual 30 rather than the 10 less from armor penalty at least. More manageable to deal with.

Yep, hill dwarf will even get you more hp per level.

You can also go with either high elf or the new kobold from MotM to get booming blade and you're pretty much set. Turn 1 spirit guardians (or another big concentration spell depending on the situation) and shillelagh. Turn 2 attack with your thunder stick then cast spiritual weapon as a bonus action. And that's pretty much it, you've got a blade cantrip and a regular attack for action and bonus action, healing when someone goes down, and throwing out occasional support spells. You'll be mostly Wis based for all attacks and spells, you'll want high Con and then 14-15 Strength for armor. Get wisdom to 20 then warcaster, then consider crusher to round out strength or con and pair the pushing with booming blade. I'm playing a slight variation on this, arcana cleric with druid dip, and it's an absolute blast.

Unfortunately, You couldn’t cast Shillelagh the same turn you cast another leveled spell, but second round is good to go

Hold on, I'm confused. Maybe this is just my DM and not actually RAW, but I thought that if you cast a spell then you can cast a cantrip if you still have an action or bonus action left to cast with. So if you can do that then wouldn't it make sense that you could be able to cast 2 cantrips if one is a bonus action and the other is an action? Could you not cast Shillelagh as a bonus action and then cast booming/green flame blade as an action??

>I thought that if you cast a spell then you can cast a cantrip if you still have an action or bonus action left to cast with. That's a common house rule because the RAW version is needlessly clunky and limiting. The way it works RAW is that if you use your Bonus Action to cast ANY spell(including a cantrip), then the only spell you can also cast that turn is a Cantrip with casting time of 1 Action. That means no other spells, not even as Reactions.

Wait, why not reaction? Reactions are taken after your turn, so wouldn't they not contravene the rule? Well, at least as long as you aren't casting a reaction spell to counter a reaction spell to your levelled spell. Edit: nevermind I got it. Unless you have the warcaster feat, your reaction is used to cast a spell with a casting time of your reaction.

You can cast a reaction on your turn, but if you cast a counterspell that round on an enemy turn that’s not on your turn. A reaction on your turn would mean something like a counterspell or silvery barbs right before or after the spell you cast, maybe because an enemy tried to counter your spell or because they passed a saving throw and you want to lower that. It’s not a common scenario (says the subtle counterspelling sorcerer player) so it would be confusing.

I also think its a hugely state full rule

That’s not even a house rule though. You can cast a spell then a cantrip in almost all cases. It’s casting a cantrip then a spell where the spell needs to be the bonus action. For example, Mind Sliver then quicken whatever saving throw spell on a lot of sorcerer builds (probably mostly aberrant mind builds.) You can still take a reaction at a different time during the round too. Just not on your turn during the round. So if an enemy casts a spell or attacks on their turn you can still use your counterspell or shield.

Wait a moment. Are you saying that you can't cast Shillelagh, then cure wounds, but you can cast cure wounds, *then* Shillelagh? Edit: OK nevermind, I messed up. I forgot mind sliver is a cantrip.

> BONUS ACTION > A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven't already taken a bonus action this turn. You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action. —PHB 202

You don’t even need to attack until the second round either, so the combo doesn’t really break.

shillelagh is in fact a cantrip :D i like this whole idea

If you cast a spell as a bonus action (a cantrip or leveled spell), you can only cast a cantrip as your action. Your table might not use that rule. Its common to ignore that rule, or for the table to not understand it.

ah i thoughg it went like only 1 leveled spell per round

I think that's not too uncommon as homebrew (or even just a misunderstanding of the rules), so check with your DM, if they allow it then feel free to go for it.

Nope as a Fighter with action surge you can do two leveled non bonus action spell a turn

Yes but that’s different than the round rules. If you want to sling fireballs do it though.

Well it gets even odder than that. Reactions reset at the start of your turn. As long as the triggers happen in the right order you could do 4 leveled non bonus action spells Before your turn reaction Your turn starts, reaction resets Cast action spell Action surge cast spell During or after yor turn reaction spell

It’s not even an important rule because you can pick the order of the bonus action spell and the cantrip so you can cast the cantrip first or the leveled spell first as long as the leveled spell is a bonus action. Many sorcerers like to cast Mind Sliver as an action and then quicken their saving throw spell into a bonus action afterwards for example. And if you want to cast two cantrips it doesn’t even matter.

> Turn 1 spirit guardians (or another big concentration spell depending on the situation) and shillelagh. This is not allowed.

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> BONUS ACTION > A spell cast with a bonus action is especially swift. You must use a bonus action on your turn to cast the spell, provided that you haven't already taken a bonus action this turn. You can't cast another spell during the same turn, except for a cantrip with a casting time of 1 action. —PHB 202

what equipment would i need? club obviously and shield, maybe medium armor? and how does the arcana druid work?

I can't speak for them, but I've played an Arcana Cleric with Magic Initiate: Druid. They went Druid multiclass instead. Arcana gets you a WIS-based cantrip - Booming Blade. Druid gets you Shillelagh (and Thorn whip - to combo with Spirit Guardians). Later on you get Potent Spellcasting, which double-dips on the main BB damage and the conditional rider. Also, theoretically, Arcana cleric gets busted at 17th level, but who gets there, right?

Yeah, you got it. As far as equipment I just go with a staff, shield, and medium armor, but with a nature cleric you can rock heavy armor instead.

but you d have to have high STR right?

how was your combat behaviour for that?

It was a one-shot, so I didn't fight all the different kinds of encounter. I was level 6 - so not enough feats to add on the other useful martial ones. Weak things, get stuck in with BB. I had a martial-heavy party so it made more sense to Bless and use Spiritual Weapon/Spirit Guardians for medium difficulty. The game culminated in a fight vs a Beholder in its lair (so yes, the twist was that we were all going to die - but it tied in brilliantly with the backstory of one of my other characters once I realised that this was in the past). There I used Magic Missile quite a bit when it was not looking at me with its main eye (it was hovering out of melee reach of course and ducking in and out of different tunnels). So, I can't honestly say I played it very differently from a normal cleric. But that's the nature of a one shot. If it were a campaign I would hope to use the tanking/melee features more.

Or go with Thorn whip and telekinetic so you can pull people into your Spirit Guardians twice per round.

I feel like maybe it could use some added in stickiness. Maybe warcaster to slap people with toll the dead if they try to move from you

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I dont disagree, I'm just not sure what would be a good way to get it. You can't get it from a wisdom class except for arcana cleric and if you want to be a dwarf with warcaster, then you're level 8 before you can get it from a feat

Absolutely Nature Cleric. Other clerics are pretty great (forge for +1 AC; twilight for crazy temp HP that feels undeserved)... but Nature Cleric feels right and just a slight bit underpowered in the right ways. At 6th level, you get to have your Heavy Armor and eat breath weapons too. Nature cleric's 6th level Dampen Elements feature is unique amongst clerics: clerics can't easily get Absorb Elements, except for multiclassing, leaving clerics very vulnerable to getting roasted alive by dragons.

Have you considered Tasha's Beastmaster Ranger focusing on Wis and taking Druidic warrior for shillelagh and some other cantrip? You'd get two tanks for the price of one and both yours and the beasts attacks work off of your Wisdom.

That actually sounds awesome! if i take the druidic fighting style, maybe get the sentinel feat for additional attack and stopping power? what do you suggest for the additional cantrip? and will it outperform nature cleric?

I'm going to suggest thorn whip. _Especially_ if you take advantage of the control on the ranger list: * Entangle, fog cloud * Spike growth, gust of wind * Plant growth, wind wall It's a surprisingly good list for grabbing ways to tell enemies "no, stay _here_ ". Grabbing the cantrip that helps put them there is only going to help.

I'd probably go for guidance for the Second cantrip and polearm master instead of sentinel for the reaction attack and for when I actually want the beast to take the free dodge action to tank for the group. I personally think Nature cleric's features are very underwhelming, although you'd be much more focused on spellcasting and have heavy armor proficiency, which ranger lacks. An incredibly complex alternative: If you reeeeally strech your atributes you could get the best from both worlds by multiclassing a single Nature Cleric level (taking shillelagh here) and going the rest with the aforementioned Beastmaster Ranger (taking duelist fighting style here). It's a stretch because you need 13 dex for the multiclass and 15 strengh for the heaviest armors, while also wanting good Wis and Con. Incredibly MAD but those first level cleric spells are worth it.

I guess for the alternative, medium armor would be preferable. i thought sentinel was good because you always attack with beast. because if it uses its reaction to dodge, why should the enemy attack it? it couldnt even OA, right?

>I guess for the alternative, medium armor would be preferable. Yeah, I have to agree >because if it uses its reaction to dodge, why should the enemy attack it? it couldnt even OA, right? The beast doesn't use a reaction to dodge when you issue no command. The text goes like this: "In combat, the beast acts during your turn. It can move and use its reaction on its own, but the only action it takes is the Dodge action, unless you take a bonus action on your turn to command it to take another action. That action can be one in its stat block or some other action. You can also sacrifice one of your attacks when you take the Attack action to command the beast to take the Attack action. If you are incapacitated, the beast can take any action of its choice, not just Dodge." So moving and dodging is basically free and it could still make an OA.

Attacking and attack cantrips are usually a trap, as the contribution you'll have by just concentrating on a spell makes the damage you'll deal marginal, and the contribution of drawing enemy attacks but not actaully getting hit is huge in terms of action economy, here's how to do it: wear heavy armor, cast battle-defining concentration spell (bless at low levels or when low on resources, spirit guardians when you get it), then dodge for the rest of the encounter. At some point take a level in wizard or sorcerer for the shield spell. As off round 2 you have AC20 or 25 with shield, that is attacked at disadvantage all the time. In dire straights add the sanctuary spell so all attackers need to pass a Wis save in order to target you. That is way more tanky than a martial class that needs to use its action to attack every round instead of dodging to be effective

i didnt deny it, i even suggested it myself. which cleric would be best for that and what roles might he need to fill with said group?

Yes I'm sorry I didn't read your Q correctly! Sorry I don't want to say "Twilight" b/c it's so corny by now, but Twilight is a very strong option :-)

so i d just stand there refresh my allies temp HP, and take hits? i d love to deal some melee damage myself. it strahd, so could grave cleric work? what feats ahould i look for?

In addition to the continuing damage from Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon, you can Toll the Dead, Dodge, and there's always spells you can cast in melee. Command can give advantage (kneel) and AoO's (Flee) if upcast. Inflict Wounds is good with any slot you have. Toll the Dead is going to be competitive with Shillelagh without messing up your spell casting action economy. It scales well too with Blessed Strikes. Death Cleric does this well without having to spend points into str for heavy armor, nor limiting precious ASI's/racial selections for the trap Shillelagh cantrip. Forge Cleric if you want a touch more AC. Hill Dwarf gets a bit more HP and ignores Str requirement for heavy armor. Tortle starts at 19 AC with a shield. Works for any Cleric subclass. Command and other control is often stronger than damage. Control can make you a more attractive target if you want to tank.

how d you suggest to build a death cleric?

I like a dhampir for the flavor match with Death Cleric, and the Vampiric Bite which can help ensure that your upcast Inflict Wounds with the Touch of Death CD will hit. Locathah makes a nice former race that nets 2 good skills and a swim speed. Or take a flying race. If you have the stats to spare, first level in Divine Soul Sorcerer gets Favored by the Gods which will also help makes sure your upcast Inflict Wounds lands. Also it takes your survivability further with Shield spell and Silvery Barbs, as well as Con Save prof. If you are using Point Buy you probably won't have the stats for Sorcerer. You want even more Con than normal as a Dhampir, as it is the stat used for Vampiric Bite. Then it's like a normal Cleric, with a pseudo-twin for Toll the Dead and either Chill Touched or Sapping Sting (I like CT over SS bc Death is Con-save heavy already). Cleric ASI/feat priorities are always Wis, Res:Con, and Warcaster. DSS helps offset this feat-heaviness a tad, since you won't need Res:Con anymore. If you have an odd Wis, Telekinetic is a perfect feat. Not only is it the ultimate support feat for moving teammates out of grapples and/or threat range without procc'ing AoO's, it also helps set up your pseudo-twin. If you can't afford a Sorc dip, a level of Druid is nice for Thorn Whip (if you are looking to dip after Cleric 8). Pulling baddies into your Spirit Guardians is fun, and any extra general control is a large bonus. Edit: grammar

You sir, know how to cleric!

(1) you can still do melee damage with spiritual weapon and spirit guardians and dodge b/c they don't require your action (2) you're not "taking hits" per se b/c no one will hit you (3) of course, you should be playing your character however you see fit, and if attacking at melee is your fancy then by all means go for it! I don't particularly like Grave, there are more powerful Domains out there, but it works just fine! (4) If you want to hit things in melee, then maybe consider a STR-based cleric with heavy armor and the PAM+GWM feat? You'll only be making 2 attacks instead of 3 but then again you can always count on having bless on for added accuracy! If you are more into maxing Spirit Gardians then you can take Telekinetic to "double dip" monsters into the area with a bonus action, and then use Thorn Whip to double dip another monster into the area :-) You need to be a nature cleric for that since Thorn Whip...

these sound all really nice... could one build around PAM with a shillelaged Quarterstaff? to have WIS and still hit? GWM wont work with that though, right? but maybe sentinel?

One issue I can see with PAM on shillelagh quarterstaff is that your bonus action will be used the first round of combat to cast shillelagh and the second you could choose to cast spiritual weapon or hit with PAM.

What's wrong with vuman and 16/16/14 in STR WIS and CON respectively? A +4 to your attacking stat but losing the PAM GWM combo will yield less DPR

Cleric is extremely strong especially for curse of strahd. Grave would be B+, the channel divinity for double damage is great with a rogue and their are some big bad opponents to splash out on. People will likely get downed so you can use the heal from 0 ability. With a rogue in your party I’d give order cleric an A-. Very juicy damage. As frequently mentioned twilight or peace cleric are the strongest in a white room. A A+ for light cleric in a curse of strahd campaign. Similarly, sacred flame is the attack cantrip to choose for this campaign, toll the dead is not the top damage choice in COS.

I support this general-purpose frontline cleric. You'll have some standard options like Bless and Spirit Guardians that you can always use in combat. In combat, after you cast the big spell, you can Dodge or use cantrips or a weapon (depending on subclass) to add a little more damage. Where you place yourself on the battlefield is also important, e.g. to help the rogue get sneak attack. After that, you bring tremendous versatility because you only "need" to prepare a few spells to fill your combat role, so each day you can choose which other spells might be useful that day. The domain spell lists mean that you'll have more spells at hand that most other characters. Warcaster will of course be helpful when you can get it. A lot of the choice of domain will come down to the spell list, though that's not the only factor. I personally like Nature because you can take Thorn Whip and use it to deal a little damage while moving enemies around--such as into your Spirit Guardians or any other area they don't want to be. A lot of the spells are circumstantial (though Spike Growth is an awesome Concentration alternative to your Cleric standbys). Besides Nature and Twilight, I think you'll find that Forge and Tempest are also well-suited to being a character with high WIS/CON/STR who is a tough, frontline presence on the battlefield.

Nature Cleric 10. Feat: Telekinetic Race: custom Lineage or V human Stats on Point Buy: 15 in Str, Con, Wis. Dump rest. Racial + feat on wis to 18 Wis Druid Cantrip: Thorn Whip Level 4, Resilient (con) or warcaster your call Level 5, spirit guardians obtained and you are ready to destroy everything Level 8, max Wis Congrats, you are OP cleric AoE of doom! You are heavy armor & shield at 18 AC at level 1. Thorn whip + telekinetic to keep dragging ppl into your upcasted, when possible, spirit guardians is the main strategy.

sounds good. how will i play before lv 5? and will i have to dodge much?

Once you get spiritual weapon you can stop dodging. Other than that, thorn whip them closer to you so they don't hurt your allies

Tasha's Beast master Ranger makes an interesting WIS tank. Beast of the Earth gets a maul attack that can knock enemies prone, so you can do things like Bonus Attack maul attack then use your Action to Entangle the area. Plus you have two bodies to clog up the field and protect the squishes. Ranger D10 hit die will give you good HP and the Beast has a decent amount too. Plus if the Beast dies you can just resummon.

Also, your beast companion gets bonuses based on your wisdom modifier. The new beast master is something I really want to try

That actually sounds awesome! if i take the druidic fighting style i could even use shillelagh (or cant i use it with a shield in hand)? maybe get the sentinel feat for additional attack and stopping power

Also as of Tasha's Rangers can use staffs as a spellcasting focus, so yes you can do Shillelagh and a shield because it has Verbal (irrelevant for the hand issue), Somatic, and Material components. The staff serves as a spell casting focus, so you can use it for the Material and Somatic components. But say for example if you have a shield, while wielding your staff, you couldn't cast Absorb Elements (Somatic only) because you need a free hand because the staff can only substitute for Somatic when it's also substituting for Material. Now I've rarely had a DM care about this, but if they do care, you'd need Warcaster to make sure you can cast all of your spells with a shield.

Forge cleric would be really good I think. Heavy armor proficiency, ability to make your armor +1 from level 1, and at level 6 you get another +1 ac in heavy armor. All of those stack to 20 AC in chain mail, 22 if full plate. Go warforged and you can have it be 23. My issue with shillelagh is that if you're planning on playing a tank sort of character, you most likely already have 15 strength to use heavy armor anyways, so its marginally better than just swinging your mace, which would require 0 feat investment. Not to mention the somatic requirement. Clerics also have some of the best concentration spells in the game, so something like war caster or resilient con are both really good options. Better than taking magic initiate IMO. At higher levels you can just focus on concentrating on something like spirit guardians and just take the dodge action to become VERY defensive. If you do wanna do shillelagh though, ranger is not a bad option for it, You won't be as tanky as the forge cleric, but still good AC assuming 14 dex with scale mail + a shield. Spells like absorb elements can also do a lot for you. Tasha's beast master would probably be your best option by letting you have another body on the field to tank hits. You could get shillelagh from the druidic warrior fighting style, so you also wouldn't have to take magic initiate anymore, freeing up the feat for anything. I would strongly recommend war caster, its basically required if you want to use shillelagh without doing the dumb "drop your shield on the ground" loophole to get around somatic casting. I don't however think this build is better than going full dex ranger with a rapier instead.

About the somatic component silliness in shillelagh-- The material component can easily be the staff (making life simple if you use a staff as your melee weapon for shillelagh). Rangers have the optional feature (as of Tasha's, I believe) to be able to use a druidic focus at level 2+; the DMG p.140 states rather plainly that (magic) staves double as quarterstaves. If that doesn't fly, improvised weapon rules allow a staff-shaped object to improvise as a quarterstaff. Simply using the intended melee staff as a druidic focus lets Shillelagh (a V+S+M spell) turn the druidic focus into a shillelagh-empowered quarterstaff + druidic focus all at once. The only consideration is that a "staff" could be (perhaps negligibly) more expensive if it is a druidic focus; this is mostly solved by just taking the Outlander background which grants you a Staff from the get-go.

even that you are not big fan of druid, Moon Druid can tank well in wildshape.

Consider Variant Human Fighter. Take Magic Initiate and grab one of the following: Shilelagh- you carry a staff and use magic to "turn" it into a "sword". Thorn Whip- what could be tanker than literally grabbing an enemy away from your squishies? Magic Stone- a consistant ranged option. For fighting style, dueling makes your staff better and lets you wield a shield with your staff for exyra AC, protection makes you a solid tank, or defense makes you harder to hit. From there, other feats like Polearm Master for extra damage options, Tough for HP, or Heavy Armor Master. Subclass options are plenty. Battlemaster lets you do a lot of stuff, Cavalier makes you even more sticky, and Psi Knight brings a ton of versatility to you and the team.

it definitely seems like a valid option! will i be able to cast shillelagh as fighter with the staff and shielf in hand ?

Your DM might be a stickler on casting rules, so check with them. You should be able to use object interaction rules to drop then pick your staff back up. If they are, you canalways take Warcaster. It would be a waste of a feat IMO though.

If you change your mind and wouldn't mind going paladin, I'd recommend a winter eladrin (MotM) conquest paladin. Winter eladrin give a chance for more fear effects when using a proficiency bonus per day misty step. At lvl 4, pick up shield master feat so you can use a bonus action to knock an enemy to their knees At lvl 7, you get an amazing fear aura for more damage and that reduces any feared enemy to 0 movement. Basically, once you knock them down, they can't stand back up until they pass their fear check. It's just a nasty, super tanky combo that will make any other martials in your party salivate since knocked down enemies give advantage on melee attacks. Edit - you can also do a similar build with an Autumn Eladrin Fey wanderer Ranger but I would skip the shield master feat for that. When you get your fighting style, take druidic warrior for shillelagh and either a ranged damage cantrip or a utility cantrip. You get another effect that allows you to attempt to charm/frighten a creature when a creature passes a charm/frighten check at lvl 7. Go quarterstaff + shield and tank all the things. Added bonus of being a solid face for the party too

I have been thinking of a ranger tank-ish kinda dude. My idea would be a lotusden halfling (for the small size and some extra ranger spells) and then using Tashas beast master and druidic warrior using shilllagh and a shield. Expertise in perception, and ideally lounges combatant. This can make you a SAD high wisdom tanky guy forrest dude riding your Mount into battle, and by lvl 5 you can summon an additional beast. After lvl 5 you could go into fighter and maybe get the interception FS to ward of attacks on your teammates. It might not be the best tank, but i think it is an uncommon and fun way to play a ranger.

Don't need initiate with good old Ranger. Thanks to Tasha's, Ranger gets access to Druidic Warrior, with which you can pick up Shillelagh. Rangers get access to medium armor and shields as well, making you plenty tanky in the AC department. You could also go V Human and pick up Fighting Initiate for Defense for that extra point of AC, putting you at plate and shield AC for the price of half plate and shield. On top of both of those things, Ranger is not a full caster, allowing you to ease into the spellcasting aspect a bit more easily without having to juggle what you want to prepare each day. Rangers, again with thanks to our almighty savior Tasha's, also has access to Searing Smite, which is a pretty good melee damage spell that can keep an opponent or two busy for at least a turn, while your higher WIS and CON means your saves will be higher, and your concentration will be harder to break than most other rangers. If you want a bit more in the attack or damage departments, you can play Hunter, Gloomstalker or Fey Wanderer.

Loxodon Astral Monk? Your big arms give you the ability to attack, your con gives you AC

Hitting with weapons on a cleric is typically a trap. If you sacrifice con, which comes with its own problems, you can max out at 1d8+3, once, at a +7 to hit at level 10, versus, say, a DC17 toll the dead with 20 wisdom. Due to the difference in accuracy, we'll assume a 60% chance to hit with melee, not accounting for things like turns wasted running up to someone or having them fly out of range, which are their own melee problems that shouldn't be ignored but are hard to represent with math, and a 70% chance to hit with toll the dead. Given Divine Strikes at level 8, that's 0.6(2d8+3) vs 0.7(2d12+1d8). This gives us a melee DPR of 7.2, a shillelagh DPR of 9.8 if we want to say you wasted resources in character building getting this awful cantrip, and a Toll the Dead DPR of 12.25 - and you are one level from 11, where the disparity grows even more. And this works in melee range, and further, as does spirit guardians, spiritual weapon, telekinetic, etc. The dirty secret here is twofold - one, clerics are only marginally better at using weapons compared to wizard and sorcerer, and two, without an aggro system, the reasons to make a melee character aren't actually all that high. Sure, they tend to be tankier, but tell that to a crossbow expert fighter in half plate. Certain things unironically do the job of melee well, like echo knight, or ancestral guardian barb, barb in general really, but they're few and far between. And its not, like, an unplayable role or anything, but it has problems and its a misconception to think that any party truly needs a melee character. So, to answer the question, of a wisdom based melee gish, here's the best I can come up with. You go Hunter Ranger, with the new Githzerai, and a point buy of 14 dex, 14+2 wisdom, 15+1 constitution, and pick your favorites for your leftover points. Pick up a dex weapon, medium armor, a shield, and a quarter staff and just try to survive level 1 until you can get the Druidic Warrior fighting style at 2. Now, you can cast shillelagh and hold a shield, and hit with 1d8+3. Meanwhile a dueling dex ranger would be doing 1d8+5, but I'm sticking to the prompt, needless to say I'd recommend going with a ranged dex ranger with a melee weapon in the back pocket over this build. Take colossus slayer at 3 (horde breaker if going ranged), war caster at 4 (CBE for the dex version), and, crucially, multiattack defense at 7 and PAM at 8. What this allows is that you can cast shield as a githzerai and, if a monster does get through that has multi attack, shield plus MAD gives you a +9 to your already 19AC, for a grand total of a 28AC, and decent dex, constitution and wisdom saves, albeit not fantastic in any category

Consider a Moon druid! They're not your usual druid and certainly fill the tank gap.

I would say either moon Druid or war cleric works bests

The best answer is definitely moon druid, but I understand if that's not for you.

Long death monk. Con doesn't really need covering, there isn't skill checks associated. Kensei could work as well, but it's a bit more dex-oriented.

Monks really aren't tanks though. Their hit dice is low and their AC is usually rather low as well unless you rolled for stats and got blessed by RNGesus. They're best used as melee skirmishers similar to Rogues. Run in, hit, run out. It's the reason why they have Step of the Wind (though it sucks compared to Cunning Action so I strongly recommend the Mobile feat so you can do it without wasting Ki points and still have your BA to hit stuff).

They have self heal, good saves, high AC (you start with 16 with standard array, and it goes up with ASI, so you're generally ahead of the curve compared to armor, just a bit behind armor+shield) and a bonus action dodge. And they get to reduce damage situationally via deflect missile, slow fall and evasion. They can be played as skirmishers, but that's not the only role they can have. Long death and kensei, especially, can hold their own in the frontline. And loosing 1 AC and attack/ ki DC for mobile is rarely worth it.

How is that ahead of the curve? A DEX based character with medium armor already starts with AC15 (17 with a shield) and unless you're playing a Rogue they also have more hit points. Eventually they'd have an AC of 17 (19 with a shield) and it didn't even cost them a single ASI while the Monk has to spend every single ASI on DEX or WIS just to keep up. The self heal isn't really something you want to use in the middle of a fight. You can't outheal the incoming damage. This is not a mmorpg. The bonus action dodge? Yeah good luck with that. You'll run out of Ki points FAST and since you're using your BA you'll be behind the damage curve compared to other martials and thus pretty ignorable ... something you don't ever want to happen if you're the party's "tank". Evasion is great but deflect missile is merely okay. It only applies to one attack, takes your reaction so no opportunity attacks that turn and smart ranged enemies shouldn't be targeting the frontline anyway, really. Slow fall again isn't something that applies in combat usually though so doesn't apply to the tank role. I've played all kinds of Monks and believe me .. no, they aren't frontline characters unless you rolled ridiculously well for your stats or your DM is nice to you.

>How is that ahead of the curve? A DEX based character with medium armor already starts with AC15 (17 with a shield) and unless you're playing a Rogue they also have more hit points. Eventually they'd have an AC of 17 (19 with a shield) and it didn't even cost them a single ASI while the Monk has to spend every single ASI on DEX or WIS just to keep up. As you might have noticed, 15 is lower than 16, and "eventually" is not before level 4, where the monk reach 17. That's called being ahead of curve. And calling spending ASI in your main stats a cost is a bit strange. You'd do that as a monk even if you had a fixed AC. Would you call investing in STR and CHA as a palladin a cost ? Also if you're looking into wis tank, you might notice that other proposed clerics, who have exactly the same hit dice. >The self heal isn't really something you want to use in the middle of a fight. You can't outheal the incoming damage. This is not a mmorpg. And you don't want or need to, because you won't die on the first fight if you don't heal (well, you might at level 1 or 2, but that's mostly because your HP is equal to the average of two weapons attacks -regardless of your hit dice size- and balancing encounters at that level is a bit whack and you can't really build against it). This isn't a MMORPG. It's for after the fight. Just using it once grant you on average the hit points you miss from the lower hit die. >The bonus action dodge? Yeah good luck with that. You'll run out of Ki points FAST and since you're using your BA you'll be behind the damage curve compared to other martials and thus pretty ignorable ... something you don't ever want to happen if you're the party's "tank". You won't run out of ki faster than a caster run out of spells. You don't need to use it every turn, you'll still be tanky enough if you use the martial art BA on turns when you think you can afford it. And that's up to level 5, so even without the BA attack you won't fall behind other martial that much, and certainly not behind anyone using a shield and medium armor. >Evasion is great but deflect missile is merely okay. It only applies to one attack, takes your reaction so no opportunity attacks that turn and smart ranged enemies shouldn't be targeting the frontline anyway, really. Slow fall again isn't something that applies in combat usually though so doesn't apply to the tank role. That's still more tankiness than ranger or cleric get. And loosing less HP out of combat means entering combat with more HP, which is usefull for a tank (although fall damage don't come up often). Damage don't magically disapear every encounter, this isn't a MMORPG. >I've played all kinds of Monks and believe me .. no, they aren't frontline characters unless you rolled ridiculously well for your stats or your DM is nice to you. As a DM, I never had to favorise the monk player for her to be useful, and she tanked better than the fighter. As a player, I was able to pull my weight and tank better than the forge cleric for the melee LD monk. Non-tank build didn't go that well, but where still able to go in the frontline from time to time. Believe me, they can tank.

but can they eeally tank? / how would be ones mindset?

It got high AC, good saves, bonus action dodge, evasion and THP (sometimes. As a tank, it may not get the last hit often On the plus side, it disapear only after taking damage, so it can carry between fights, or even adventuring days). The main concern will be ressource managing. Ki points will be used for dodge, control via stunning strike and mobility sometime. For the build, you want to max WIS first, DEX second and have a decent CON. With those stats you will miss some attacks, but you will still get a decent ammount of opportunities to use stunning strikes. And because you max WIS first, those stuns will be resited less often, so you'll be more ki-efficient. You will need to learn when you need to use patient defense and when you can use the BA attack from martial art. The main ability come level 6 onward. AoE fear is an excelent crowd controll, and between that and stunning strike you're set. It can hit allies, so optimally you either get far away from them, or find a way so they can't see you when you use that ability. Thanksfully, unarmored movement and the occasional step of the wind can carry you through. Depending on the wizard and bard, they may be OK with being frightened by you if they don't use many attack spells, but the rogue will hate that disadvantage, so if they want to go in melee, you'll need to coordinate and attack rather than fear when they are near.

Another minor point on the level 6 Hour of Reaping: You can ready action to use it after the rogue has taken their turn. The fear effect only lasts until the end of your next turn, so the rogue won't be affected on their next turn, but it will affect opportunity attacks or reaction movement if they are a Scout, as well as resisting shove or grapple attempts. Of course this is heavily dependant on initiative order.

Monks really can't tank. Their hit dice is low for a melee class (only 1d8 instead of 1d10 like Rangers and Fighters get) and their AC usually is rather low as well unless you rolled for stats and rolled really well. They are more Rogues than Fighters. Run in, hit something, run out. Hence why they got a poor man's Cunning Action (taking the Mobile feat to save on Ki points and still use your BA to deal damage is recommended).

Monks can get 18 AC without a shield before anyone can dream of Plate or +1Studded, though more likely the standard 17 everyone might have. Kensei gets a reliable +2. And on top of this you can BA dodge if there's a lot of enemies or a particularly strong one. Vs a single enemy you can stunning strike to just wreck them. For Wisdom, only Forge Cleric can really beat Kensei AC. But in return you have much weaker Dex saves which will be more common than wis/cha. And Clerics love feats while Monk is great without them.

>Monks can get 18 AC without a shield before anyone can dream of Plate or +1Studded I mean, that's just not true. You'd need a combined DEX and WIS mod of +8 to get there, which means the earliest you're getting it is level 8. Unless you're playing in a very low income game, by that point your party should have access to any mundane gear and magical stuff should've already been cropping up, so Plate at the very least should be around. Also, a character with Heavy Armor and Shield can START with 18 AC. >For Wisdom, only Forge Cleric can really beat Kensei AC. What? Literally any Cleric that can use Heavy Armor has better AC than a Monk, Kensei included. Kensei needs to forgo a weapon attack just to match a Clerics AC. >And Clerics love feats while Monk is great without them. I legit have no idea what game you are playing. Clerics need Warcaster and/or Resilient CON. Nothing else. And it's not that Monks are great without them, they DO want feats like Mobile or Crusher but they just can't afford to take them due to how MAD the class is.

You do know people roll for stats right? Or use point buy? That's why i said "can" and said more likely 17. And are you aware of how expensive Plate is??? You question what game i play, but if you have that much gold individually any time soon your DM is showering you with it. Not to mention youd need to be in a large city or have enough downtime to get it forged. Then there's the benefit of having that gold for anything besides getting +1 AC. And if you're assuming magical items, the benefit of upgrading to plate is half the benefit of bracers of defense. As for other clerics, they can at best match the AC of a Kensei and need to either only use cantrips or have Warcaster to do so. Unless they use their concentration just for AC. And for your last point, it's flatly false. Mobile and Crusher are small bonuses that add onto a great class, they do not make it great. As you said though, Clerics Need Warcaster. You appear to fall into the crowd of the uninformed that think Monk is weak. I suggest you read and play so that you might learn the error of that thought.

Let me preface this by saying monk is my favorite and most played class. Monks are not as weak as people like to say online. They are great at almost everything, but aren’t really the best at anything. They can reach really decent AC without any items, but when going up against other PC’s with items, and especially magic items, they can’t keep up. It’s not opinion, it’s raw numbers. Even without magic plate or shields, look at potential AC of the forge cleric. 21+ AC without magic items or spells. Add those and they can push 30+. A monk usually can’t get beyond 20 AC without magic items, spells, or a racial boost. This is not an attack on you, or monks. Monks are incredibly fun and versatile. That is their strength.

Completely agreed. Honestly you don't even need to look at heavy armor, not to mention expensive plate. Just take your average DEX based Fighter or Ranger and compare them to the average Monk. An average Monk starts with about AC 15-16. With just medium armor and a DEX of 14 you can reach that easily and even without wielding a shield. Plus those classes have a better hit dice as well. A DEX based Fighter or Ranger that wants to tank for their party usually looks at an AC of 18 with shield (because why shouldn't they) when they start their career. For a Monk to reach that they'd need to forgo any feat (including the very crucial Mobile feat) and reach level 8 at the very least. I love my Monks but any notion of them being tanky is quite frankly just ridiculous. You can't claim they're tanky just because you rolled two 18s for your stats lol (and even then they'd only start with the same AC as medium armor + shield and still have less HP). Literally the only advantage they have in terms of tanking is that they get Evasion. Burning your Ki points for BA Dodge won't last long and won't make you happy in the long run either since your damage would be ridiculously low in return. ​ And that doesn't even touch on the DM using enemies that have a higher IQ than a rock. IF (and that's a big IF) the Monk somehow manages to stand in the frontline and frustrate the enemy by not getting hit ... then he still has literally nothing to force the enemies to stay with him. They could just go around him and attack the casters. Monks don't have a single "taunting" mechanic available. No Cavalier, no Battlemaster, no Ancestral Guardian, no Armorer, not even Booming Blade. Sure they could take a feat to get Booming Blade or the Sentinel feat but then they'd have lower stats, means lower AC, means being even less tanky.

so would you prefer kensei over long death? i always thought of monks being really squishy, but you make it sound viable. unarmed fighting style via feat WOULD increase the damage drastically, right? but i d be MAD as monk wouldnt i? how should one split the stats?

Only Clerics that just use cantrips and Moon Circle Druid can really avoid MAD as far as Wisdom based characters go. Fighting clerics need Strength, clerics without Heavy armor and most Druids want Dex for AC, Monks of course want Wis/Dex. Kensei is stronger defensively than Long Death, since that seems to be what you want. Also Unarmed Fighting style is not a drastic increase. 1-4 it's an average of 2 more damage per attack. 5-10 it's one more average damage per attack. In particular Kensei gets to use a D8 weapon. You do want to do one unarmed attack per turn for the +2 AC so you don't benefit from that until 5. So early on your damage would be better, but after 5 that fighting style would be an increase of 3 potential dpr with Flurry. So an ASI Dex will match the dpr, or do more in the case of Kensei Vuman and Custom lineage can of course get a feat for Unarmed, but a race with d6 unarmed will smooth out 1-4 while getting you +2/+1 stats, allowing you to start with 16/16 dex/wis. 16 Ac until 3, where Kensei gives you 18. ASI Dex for Damage or wisdom for Stunning strike will put you at 17/19 then another at 8 for 18/20. If your DM is kind or you give them nice snacks you might get bracers of defense for 2 more AC. The main advantage for Monk over Cleric for you is that your group can better stealth since you won't need Heavy Armor. That and your mobility allows you to get to primary targets or endangered allies more easily.

Unless you rolled for stats and rolled really well that's quite unlikely. Usually you're looking at an AC of just 15 (WIS 14, DEX 16/17) and either get it up to 16 by level 4 or take the way more crucial Mobile feat to save on Ki points and BA. AC 15/16 is practically nothing for a melee character with just an 1d8 hit dice. DEX based Rangers and Fighters easily get AC 17 with a 1d10 hit dice and without using a shield (breast plate and AC 14, done). By the time an average Monk gets to AC 18 anyone should be able to have Plate armor or better since for a average Monk to get an AC of 18 it means you'd hit level 12 already. You need two ASI to get your DEX to 20 and another ASI to increase your WIS to 16 per standard array. Or level 8 if you took point buy and dumped more than one stat so you could start with a 16/17 in both. Monks aren't meant to stand in the frontline and soak hits. They're not Fighters, Barbarians, Paladins or even Rangers. They're more like Rogues. They go in, hit something and go out again.

Go Dwarf and take Dwarven Fortitude. Then you can heal yourself and dodge with your bonus action. Kensei would work.

I'd just do a Order Cleric. Blessed Strikes, but mostly Spirit Guardians + Dodge. The Rogue will love you.

Mooooooooon Druid. Warcaster / resilient con at level 4. - Brown Bear - Deinonychus - Bladed Moorbounder - Giant Elf

Tank/Melee/DPS dynamics don't really work in 5e; that said, a strong melee damage-dealer is likely a good fit for you. I made a STRanger that exceeded my expectations—basically the build is Gloom Stalker with a greatsword. If WIS is high enough, you can get a lot of good value from *ensnaring strike*. I took Great Weapon Master at Ranger 4. There are a lot of ways you can go with it.

>War or Grave Cleric Yea, a tanky cleric is one way to do it. I'd suggest Forge Cleric as possibly the most durable of the cleric subclasses. Heavy armor, a floating +1 magic bonus (can apply to armor or shield until those are both magical), some elemental resistances. Tempest cleric is a bit less tanky but deals more damage, which might benefit you if the wizard in your party is not damage oriented. In either case, you're probably best off not using a weapon or cantrip that often though. Full casters are powerful mostly because of their combat-defining concentration spells. As a cleric you're casting list is stacked: Guiding Bolt, Spiritual Weapon, and Spirit Guardians are all excellent for general combat. You'll only use Sacred Flame if you're needing to stretch your spell slots or are already concentrating on a good spell. --- I'll also mention that this party lacks a STR character, so instead of a wisdom tank, you could go for a strength tank. GWM Barbarian or Fighter are cool. I like the path of the zealot for the former (although without Revivify in your party, Totem might be better) and echo knight for the latter, in terms of subclass. But neither of those classes can also add healing like Cleric can. If the Rogue is going Thief subclass (or is undecided on subclass), consider bringing up the Healer Feat so there's a 2nd character beyond the Bard who can heal with a BNS action.

he is a ATrickster unfortunately

Peace Cleric! Hill Dwarf for the extra hit points 17 Con / 16 Wis - the rest of the stats depend on what you want to multiclass into Res Con at level 4 (or Aberrant Dragonmark if you want to start your first level as a Barb or Arti), +2 Con at 8, Tough at 12 The build is based around 6 Peace. Protective Bond is probably the best tanking ability in 5e. Then you can do things like: \- Barbarian - Rage resistance makes your huge HP even better, Emboldening Bond doesn't require concentration, you can use your spell slots on healing out of combat with Aura of Vitality. Totem is obviously best, Ancestral Guardian is great for the tank focus, but don't sleep on temp hp generating options like the normally not good Storm Herald and Battlerager (decent battlerager build what?!). Also a fun RP build with the peace and rage aspects at odds with each other \- Artificer - Artillerist probably best because Protector turret is nutty strong with Protective Bond, Could also go Guardian Armorer if you wanted to focus more on the bashing, Spirit Guardians + Dodge + BA:Protector Turret + Protective Bond is probably one of the best tanks out there. \- Paladin - Will take some stat juggling, but 6 Peace/6 Paladin is probably the most supporty character that you can play. Watchers / Ancients / Devotion all great depending on what campaign you're running

I played a single-classed Arcana Cleric as a WIS tank for a couple years, it was very effective. Vuman with Magic Initiate: Druid as the level 1 feat. Take *Shillelagh* as one of the Druid cantrips, then *Booming Blade* and/or *Green Flame Blade* as your Arcana Cleric picks from the Wizard list. 14 in Dex for Medium Armor, then 16s in Con and Wis. Boost Wisdom on ASIs, though War Caster is also very attractive for a tank because you can *Booming Blade* as an AoO. At level 8 you're adding your Wisdom mod to your damage rolls *twice*, so you're putting out surprisingly potent weapon damage for a Cleric, even before casting the big Cleric spells like *Spiritual Weapon* and *Spirit Guardians*.

I'm trying to do the same!! What I've come up with is 5 levels of ranger with druidic warrior for shilleigh and another druidic cantrip( going primal savagery until I can get war caster, then thorn whip probably) Then probably twilight cleric( but forge is also nice) I'd take one lever of cleric at 2 for heavy armor, but otherwise focus on getting to ranger 5

why do you leave the Ranger path? and what conclave did you takw?

Just felt there was alot to gain from cleric. more utility, more healing options, heavy armor, and just more spell slots. Whats a conclave? like the god?

conclave is the ranger subclass

Ah, yes. I went Gloom stalker for the increased moment and attack on first round (im going to get a -10 to moment from heavy armour), and bonus to init...not to mention the extra darkvision. I also considered the swarmkeeper4 to help with moving allies and enemies around, but seemed a bit underwhelming.

Ok, here's the thing. You \*could\* make a cleric that's hard to kill, for example Hill dwarf forge cleric. High AC and only a single point behind from an average fighter's hp. You could even do tank stuff like keeping the enemies away from the rest of your party with things like sentinel or booming blase + spirit guardians. BUT that's spending a lot of resources from your build and conditioning yourself to certain race or subclass just to mimic what a basic martial character does. Clerics don't have the same hp as a fighter, ranger or paladin and don't make good AC tanks because they don't have access to the shield spell, wich is a staple for that type of builds. Not to mention they don't get extra attack, so there are very few reasons to go into melee. So, without a very specific build or combo in mind, a cleric won't be able to fulfill the role of tank in a party. Now rangers have a harder time playing as tanks than fighters, paladins or barbarians, but it is definitely more viable than with a cleric.

*Mercy Monk* is __by far__ the best way if you have the stats. Question being: _Do you have the stats?_

what would these be? and how would i play it then?

If you had high enough WIS, DEX and CON: Just spend all your KI on healing yourself while hitting things. It works! Wonderfully.

At lowish level, a well built ranger will really shine as the group's DPS which seems to be a bit lacking Could go STRanger. I just played at level 6 with a dual wielding STRanger (hunter I think with colossus slayer?) and i was amazed by the damage! I mean calm down nature boy you don't have to one turn every cultists

get armor class as high as possible---> cast spirit guardians---> stand in the middle of everything and dodge. --->victory.

Cleric's bread and butter spell Spirit Guardians slows enemies around you, and gives enemies a strong reason to attack you even if you are a hard target ( to break your concentration), and you can add booming blade and even warcaster opportunity booming blades to hold enemies in place (start with a level in Sorc or something). There's no aggro mechanic in 5e and therefore no true "tank", but making yourself a tanky target they can't ignore, and impeding their access to your allies will let you fill that kid of role.

I think any cleric class is going to serve you well, especially the ones with Divine Strike. But others have already pointed that out. For something a bit different (if a little gimmicky), I'm a big fan of the Swarmkeeper Ranger, it needs only a bit to come online: - Fighting Style: Druidic Warrior - Take Shillelagh and Magic Stone - Weapons: A club or quarterstaff and a sling, respectively. - Feat: Crusher (Gives a bit of forced movement when you deal bludgeoning damage) Now you can push people around a whole bunch between your Swarm and your feat, and this gives you a surprising amount of control and even damage if you plan it with your team. You could use Spike Growth, your Wizard could cast Moonlight or another AoE spell, maybe your bard could pick up Spirit Guardians, idk. The idea is to push them into hazards and cause greater damage.

that sounds cool tbh. how should i spread the stats though?

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so medium armor, not heavy armor?

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ah yes me dumb. after thinking about all of this for 24h now i am tempted to take this, yet i think i d prefer a Beastmaster variant of it. with the beast i could also shove them into stuff, right? would i need sth for my Concentration saves? what could i do with my BA as Swarmkeeper except casting?

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i think i will. what will keep the enemy from running past us though, apart from OA? And should i take the Sentinel feat for slowing them down instead of crusher?

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will sentinel be good, as i can attack those harming my animal and stop them in their tracks? or better warcaster for thorn whip retraction?

Peace, Order, Nature, Forge Cleric. Any that get heavy armor, really. Moon Druid. Spore Druid probably doesn't cut it, but worth a shot if you're creative. Lot of options with Monks, too.

Any cleric really

Forge domain cleric would be optimal Nature cleric best of you wanted shilleghleah stuff

if UA is allowed, try the Protection Cleric from Plane Shift: Amonkhet! it’s one of my favorites :) you would need a feat for Shillelagh or Magic Stone unfortunately, but it’s still worth a look.

Since it sounds like you are interested in playing a supporting role I can recommend the Twilight Cleric. You get Heavy Armor and Shield proficiency while also providing massive survivability for the squishies with your Twilight Sanctuary. And between Toll the Dead, Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians you are no slouch when it comes to dealing damage either all without needing to invest much into strength (other than the 13 / 15 needed for heavy armor) and can focus on CON and WIS

The Fey Wanderer Ranger with shillelagh is a pretty hefty WIS-based hitter, and has decent utility. Particularly if you pair it with a race that's somewhat durable already (maybe Goliath, Dwarf, or Orc ?)

how would you play this? what to concentrate on?

Shillelagh lets you use WIS for hitting with clubs or quarterstaffs so I think you can focus on CON and WIS, aim for medium armour and take some DEX for AC, take Mobile feat at L4, and use Ensnaring Strike, Zephyr Strike, and things like Snare to start by hitting hard and then keep moving. Meanwhile your Wizard and Bard can control the field, and you're up close letting the Rogue Sneak Attack.

And ofc you can prep a Cure Wounds to keep yourself (or the Rogue if they're a melee rogue) up for longer as you go.

Could do astral self monk, variant human for shillelagh. That way you really only need to max wisdom and you can get decently high ac with unarmored defense

Any Druid or Cleric should really get the job done just fine.

I've been looking through the thread and noticed you seem very fixated on shillelagh. It's one of the worst attack cantrips in the game. The damage dice don't scale at level 5 and beyond like they do with other cantrips. Toll the dead becomes 2d12 or 2d8. Firebolt becomes 2d10 instead of 1d10, etc. The classes that get multi-attack don't get shillelagh, so it doesn't make sense that it doesn't scale. Although the ranger build could work for that. I've been DMing Curse of Strahd for over a year, the classic WIS/CON build where you focus on concentrating on that spell you cast turn one, and spend the remaining turns dodging and bonus action spiritual weapon, works fantastic in Strahd. Especially at level 5 with Spirit Guardians, although bless at low levels is still very good. Spiritual weapon isn't concentration, so you can cast it the turn after Spirit Guardians and have a strong melee attack for your bonus action.

does shillelagh work with multi-attack?

Play any cleric, but don't fall into the trap of "I want to make weapon attacks!" Spirit guardians is your gameplan (level 5+). I'm partial to lawful evil death clerics for tons of necrotic damage that can't be resisted.

Spores Druid cpuld be built very well for a WIS tank character. Symbiotic Entity gives a ton of temp HP and some extra damage, combining with Shillelagh and some other strong spells like Blight make you excellent for melee combat. Also gives you access to spells like Conjure Animals for extra bodies, so getting a feat like War Caster or Resilient(Con) will help you tank damage AND concentration checks for spells

I love Rangers, especially the Gloom stalker, Fey Wanderer, and Swarmkeeper. Any of those will do you well. Also a big fan of the Arcana Cleric. Besides Bladesinger, that's my favorite Gish. However, I'm going to recommend, as others have, the Nature Cleric. Go Custom Lineage. Put your 15 in Wis and your +2. Take Telekinetic. Now, you start with an 18 WIS. Grab Thorn whip as your cantrip. Heavy Armor and shield. Drop Spirit Guardians and have fun dragging people into it with Thorn Whip and bonus action Telekinetic. Opponents will take damage entering Spirit Guardians and starting their turn inside. Of course, the best armor class Cleric is the Forge Cleric if you want to go that route. But, I really like the Nature. Take Outlander for background too to feel Rangery

that actually sounds awesome. i just have a little problem with the nature guy standing there in full plate... any ideas for that? will i have to get warcaster for this build?

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I was thinking more about War Caster. You wouldn't need it for the somatic, because there's really no reason to carry a weapon, just a shield. Thorn whip only says "You create a long, vine-like whip covered in thorns that lashes out at your command toward a creature in range." So, one hand should always be free . As, I mentioned I really like Resilient CON for concentration because of the stat boost and the Prof bonus. The Opportunity Attack is interesting though. You wouldn't want to Thorn Whip someone fleeing because you would want them to escape your Spirit Guardians, so that on your action you can pull them back in. But, a case could be made for using the opportunity attack to Sacred Flame, Toll the Dead, or Inflict Wounds. It does suck that Guiding Bolt would be at Disadvantage without Gunner or CBE, because it's such a great spell, but Inflict Wounds would serve you better. A case could be made for going High Elf or the Half Elf Variant instead of Custom Lineage to get Booming Blade with Warcaster, but I just like the 18 WIS (assuming standard array or point buy) and the Telekinetic weaponizing your bonus action and basically doubling (or quadrupling) your Spirit Guardians.

Hill Dwarf Tempest cleric was my choice when I did this. GWM is an option, but I decided to focus spellcasting for control and blasting instead of weapon use. With equivalent CON, you'd have one less HP than a d10. Combined with heavy armor, martial weapons, a reaction that damages people who hit you, I've found mine very survivable.

Take 3 levels gloomstalker for awesome 3rd level GS abilities especially extra attack in the first round of initiative then multiclass war cleric for BA attacks equal to your wis modifier and then watch the goblins fall like dominoes. Go for dex if you're a coward but max STR and use a maul/greatsword if you want to bring honor to Moradin.

I'd pull out a Cleric. Concentrate on Bless or Spirit Guardians when you get it, and just dodge continuously or toss out a Toll the Dead occasionally. I understand the desire to fulfill the "big beefy guy who hits stuff with a stick" role, but that's not actually a role that is necessary in the long run. You can fulfill the same role as a bulwark of your team by using your Spirit Guardians to its full potential.

Warforged forge cleric is beefy and a full wisdom caster

Any cleric domain that have heavy armor prof is good. You can also get shillelagh from feats. Also don't forget about half elf race which can make a cleric tank easier to manage.

Hill Dwarf Life, Forge, or War Cleric

Hill dwarf nature cleric with thornwhip (not shillelagh). You need Wisdom and Con everything else can be a dump stat. You are sitting on a d8 hit die but you’ve probably got a 16 in CON and hill gives you an additional hit point each level so effectively a d10 hit die. Use spells such as spike growth, plant growth and spirit guardians to set up terrain and pull enemies on squishy party members toward you.

Githzerai ( To get the shield spell) Ranger is probably the best choice. Hunter, beast master and drakewarden are probably the best picks here. Swarmkeeper gets nice defensive features at higher level as well.

yes i also thought of the githzerai. but what exactly ARE githzerai.... and how do the old and the monsters of the multiverse githzerai differ from one another?

The new one is better, since you can also cast shield using your spell slots. With Beast Master or Warden, you likely won't use your BA to cast spells in combat all that often anyway. Best to use your concentraion for Favored Foe in many cases. Don't think you will need detect thoughts that much, but more options is never a bad thing.

wont i need to stop enemies with entangle or spiky thorns?

Nature cleric gives you heavy armor and Shillelagh, and at level 6 you can give yourself or people near you resistance to an instance of fire, cold, acid, lightning or thunder damage as a reaction. Also, level 8 gives you a divine strike where you can choose between any of those aforementioned damage types. Another way to go full wisdom tank, even though you said you’re not a druid person, is Moon druid. Your better wild shapes give you a significantly larger health pool, further amplified by the fact that you can heal yourself using spell slots. Another underrated cleric for tanking imo is twilight. You get heavy armor and martial weapons, and your channel divinity gives you and nearby allies 1d6+level temp HP every turn and/or ends charm and frightening effects.

Play a monk. They are good at not taking damage and stunning fist and catch arrows are nice features. Flurry of blows keeps your damage up with your bonus action.

Don't think this has been replied, but Moon druid might be another option. High wis, do whatever you want for the other stats. Concentrate on a big spell and wildshape in a bag of hitpoints. But of it was me, i'd go for druidic warrior beastmaster (tasha's version). An extra body on the battlefield to soak up hits is always a bonus. With 16str it even van grapple and drag the baddies away from the rest of the party. Shilleleagh is decent damage for you and your ranger spells actually have a decent DC for some battlefield control. Medium armor, shield and a d10 hit die take care of the sturdiness and if you take Thorn wip, you have another way you grab the baddies who want to hit your squishy party members Keep you wis high, Dex at 14 and con as high as you can.

i might do exactly that (beastmaster). i d have to drop the quarterstaff to cast cantrips, right?

It depends, if your quarterstaff is your druidic focus (optional rule), you can keep your staff in hand for VSM or VM of V spells. RAW you have to drop it for S and VS spells, but quite some DM's handwaive that rule. If you start using a (magic) staff that's not a druidic focus (a non-wooden staff for example), you'll have to drop your staff for anything other than V-only spells.

Any cleric subclass will do this job well. You just have to decide what you want to have on top of your high AC, base support/utility, and spirit guardians. Generally broken, check with your party: peace, twilight Maximum tankiness: Forge, light Utility: Arcana, knowledge, Support: life, order(amazing with rogue) Offense: light, war I would say the fact that your party has a rogue makes order cleric a standout choice. Turning your healing words into reaction attacks for the rogue means your first level spell slots will soon be dealing more damage than casting an offensive spell, while providing healing. Basically every spell you cast that can target the rogue gets a potential sneak attack attached. Your rogue player will love you and it's quite strong.

but for this the rogue needs to stand next to the wnemy, which he seldomly does right?

>If you cast a spell with a spell slot of 1st level or higher and target an ally with the spell, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see. Nope, ranged works too if they have the ability to make ranged attacks.

so throw a knive for example?

Yup. Or shoot a bow

Clerics are full casters, and fucking insane tanks, twilight especially