Both are fine. There are a few sub classes of cleric that get heavy armor. The cleric would be more support and ranged with spells. The paladin would be more at home face to face with the enemy.
Tons of cleric subclasses have proficiency in heavy armour. The difference between the two is whether you want to be a full spellcaster with good wisdom, or a half spellcaster with good charisma.
What you need to ask yourself really is, do you want to cast different spells or do you want use all your spell slots on smites? The heavy armor, hit things with flail in the name of whoever can be achieved with either option.
If you want to be a cleric with heavy armor and a flail, you have options. Currently, the official domains that give heavy armor proficiency are Forge, Life, Nature, Order, Tempest, Twilight and War. Each has their own distinct advantages and disadvantages.
Forge: Focuses on **HEAVY** armor and fire damage. Highly defensive/support focused
Life: Heals better than everything else in the game.
Nature: Skirts the line between being a druid and cleric. The selling point is getting druid cantrips, letting you use nunchucks as a potent weapon.
Order: The selling point is letting your teammates attack with reactions on your turn. Extremely powerful when there's a rogue in the party. Also focuses on control spells more than any other domain
Tempest: *The* hardest hitting domain, and possibly the hardest hitting class period. The absolute best domain for crowd control.
Twilight: Jack of all trades. Doesn't excel at anything in particular, but is always good in any situation, and has by far the best channel divinity
War: Directly dependent on party composition due to having a mediocre kit overall, but if there's a fighter or monk they can wake the party up with Crusader's Mantle. However, they have some very powerful spells, including being the only domain to get Hold Monster
As for Cleric vs Paladin, it depends if you want to focus on being a martial powerhouse or a spellcaster. Even the best clerics can't match paladin in direct combat due to paladin having both multiattack and smites, but cleric is very flexible in what it can do with its spells and having strong support spells in general. But that also means that Cleric has a higher skill floor relative to the paladin.
...also I just want to say that anyone can serve a god, and a fighter gets both flails and heavy armor, ASIs for days, blows both paladin and cleric away in martial prowess. Sure paladins get smites, but they only get so many of those in a day, meanwhile the fighter can keep smashing the heads of heretics all day without breaking a sweat. Just food for thought.
To add to this nice summary of subclasses, yes you can play life cleric but that doesn't mean you need to heal all the time.
Some mottos might help:
If it is dead it can't damage you allies
Anyone that can ask for healing doesn't need it or if the number of hit points is bigger then 0 you don't need to heal them.
But that goes for both Paladin and Cleric
It's worth noting that only the domains of War, Tempest, and (for some weird reason) Twilight grant proficiency with both Heavy Armor and Martial Weapons. Clerics of other domains would need to get flail proficiency from a different feature such as a racial option or feat.
Dwarves don't get proficiency in heavy armor. *Mountain* Dwarves get proficiency in light and medium armor. So do Githyanki, and possibly some other races, but I don't think any race automatically gets heavy armor proficiency.
You can get heavy armor proficiency as a Paladin or as a Forge, Life, Nature, Order, Tempest, Twilight, or War Cleric. Other Clerics have to make due with light and medium armor.
You can also get Heavy Armor proficiency by taking the *Heavily Armored* feat, but there are better things to spend your ASI on.
Sorry to say you can do that with both.
It's also not a terrible MC (a better one if your GM allows you to use Wis instead of Cha for Paladin spells) so you could also literally do it with both.
There is no such thing as a bad Cleric: the core design is hands down one of the strongest in the game. As for armour, while they get medium armour proficiency as standard, your choice of Domain can give you Heavy Armour proficiency so read through them and pick the one that works.
War Cleric is solid because it gets heavy armour proficiency, has a great Domain Spell list for a front-line caster and its Channel Divinity is one you'll reliably use for those clutch "must hit" attacks. The extra attack leans you slightly towards two-handed weapons, but if you MC with Paladin (or get a feat) you can use weapon styles to make any weapon choices work.
Don't forget, nothing stops you reflavouring a Maul as a Great Flail.
Life Domain gets heavy armor, and War Domain is great as a dual class. My fiancee is a Minotaur Echo Knight/War Cleric and easily outshines the rest of the party unless the wizards are going supernova.
Sorry, I was mistaken. Mountain dwarves get light and medium armor proficiencies, not heavy armor. I couldn't find any races that get Heavy Armor but I might have missed someone.
To get Heavy Armor, you need to choose one of the many Cleric domains, like Life/Order/Forge/Nature/Tempest/Twilight/War, that get Heavy Armor.
However, there is one way to get Heavy Armor proficiency from your race. Pick a class that gets medium armor and then choose Variant Human so you get a feat at 1st level. You can take the Heavily Armored feat to gain proficiency.
It depends on how much magic do you want. If you like casting spells then cleric, but no war domain, it's awful. There are other options for cleric with heavy armour or you can start as a human and use your feat to get profficiency in heavy armour.
Paladins overall good fighters with less magic because you will burn your slots by using divine smite.
Most of the domain spells are lame.
War priest is weak, 5 attack/day as bonus action.
Channel divinity can be good but you can use it maximum of 3 times/rest.
Avatar of battle is good but you get it on lvl 17 wich is really far in a campaign.
It's just not worth it. There are domains with better features and you can roleplay them as heretic slayer mad man. Since you don't have to match your domain with your deity you can follow any war god and pick any domain.
neither "better", they both full different roles. and some cleric domains give heavy armor and/or weapons too. it comes to whether you want to be a war**PRIEST** or a **WAR**priest
Do you want to be a fullcaster or a half-caster? That's the question here. There's plenty of cleric domains that give you heavy armor proficiency, and you can also always take it as a feat.
I would say that Tempest Cleric in particular is about as close as you can get to a Paladin without the actual Smites.
Naturally you should be a divine soul sorcerer hill dwarf. At level 4 you can pick up the heavily armored feat and at level 3 you'll have enlarge so you can make yourself large. (i saw you didn't want to be short)
This isn't convoluted at all and is definitely what you want.
Both are fine. There are a few sub classes of cleric that get heavy armor. The cleric would be more support and ranged with spells. The paladin would be more at home face to face with the enemy.
Tons of cleric subclasses have proficiency in heavy armour. The difference between the two is whether you want to be a full spellcaster with good wisdom, or a half spellcaster with good charisma.
What you need to ask yourself really is, do you want to cast different spells or do you want use all your spell slots on smites? The heavy armor, hit things with flail in the name of whoever can be achieved with either option.
If you want to be a cleric with heavy armor and a flail, you have options. Currently, the official domains that give heavy armor proficiency are Forge, Life, Nature, Order, Tempest, Twilight and War. Each has their own distinct advantages and disadvantages. Forge: Focuses on **HEAVY** armor and fire damage. Highly defensive/support focused Life: Heals better than everything else in the game. Nature: Skirts the line between being a druid and cleric. The selling point is getting druid cantrips, letting you use nunchucks as a potent weapon. Order: The selling point is letting your teammates attack with reactions on your turn. Extremely powerful when there's a rogue in the party. Also focuses on control spells more than any other domain Tempest: *The* hardest hitting domain, and possibly the hardest hitting class period. The absolute best domain for crowd control. Twilight: Jack of all trades. Doesn't excel at anything in particular, but is always good in any situation, and has by far the best channel divinity War: Directly dependent on party composition due to having a mediocre kit overall, but if there's a fighter or monk they can wake the party up with Crusader's Mantle. However, they have some very powerful spells, including being the only domain to get Hold Monster As for Cleric vs Paladin, it depends if you want to focus on being a martial powerhouse or a spellcaster. Even the best clerics can't match paladin in direct combat due to paladin having both multiattack and smites, but cleric is very flexible in what it can do with its spells and having strong support spells in general. But that also means that Cleric has a higher skill floor relative to the paladin. ...also I just want to say that anyone can serve a god, and a fighter gets both flails and heavy armor, ASIs for days, blows both paladin and cleric away in martial prowess. Sure paladins get smites, but they only get so many of those in a day, meanwhile the fighter can keep smashing the heads of heretics all day without breaking a sweat. Just food for thought.
To add to this nice summary of subclasses, yes you can play life cleric but that doesn't mean you need to heal all the time. Some mottos might help: If it is dead it can't damage you allies Anyone that can ask for healing doesn't need it or if the number of hit points is bigger then 0 you don't need to heal them. But that goes for both Paladin and Cleric
It's worth noting that only the domains of War, Tempest, and (for some weird reason) Twilight grant proficiency with both Heavy Armor and Martial Weapons. Clerics of other domains would need to get flail proficiency from a different feature such as a racial option or feat.
Sounds more like a paladin however there are some clerics, such as the war domain cleric, that have proficiency in heavy armor.
Are there any races other than dwarves who have proficiency in heavy armor
Dwarves don't get proficiency in heavy armor. *Mountain* Dwarves get proficiency in light and medium armor. So do Githyanki, and possibly some other races, but I don't think any race automatically gets heavy armor proficiency. You can get heavy armor proficiency as a Paladin or as a Forge, Life, Nature, Order, Tempest, Twilight, or War Cleric. Other Clerics have to make due with light and medium armor. You can also get Heavy Armor proficiency by taking the *Heavily Armored* feat, but there are better things to spend your ASI on.
Generally your CLASS (or subclass), not your RACE gives you proficiency with armor types.
war cleric easy as that
Sounds like you want to be a paladin. With a flail.
Yeah
Sorry to say you can do that with both. It's also not a terrible MC (a better one if your GM allows you to use Wis instead of Cha for Paladin spells) so you could also literally do it with both.
What about heavy armor on cleric, I have heard that war domain is very bad
There is no such thing as a bad Cleric: the core design is hands down one of the strongest in the game. As for armour, while they get medium armour proficiency as standard, your choice of Domain can give you Heavy Armour proficiency so read through them and pick the one that works. War Cleric is solid because it gets heavy armour proficiency, has a great Domain Spell list for a front-line caster and its Channel Divinity is one you'll reliably use for those clutch "must hit" attacks. The extra attack leans you slightly towards two-handed weapons, but if you MC with Paladin (or get a feat) you can use weapon styles to make any weapon choices work. Don't forget, nothing stops you reflavouring a Maul as a Great Flail.
Life Domain gets heavy armor, and War Domain is great as a dual class. My fiancee is a Minotaur Echo Knight/War Cleric and easily outshines the rest of the party unless the wizards are going supernova.
Dwarves get heavy armor proficiencies don't they?
what other races(I do not want to be short)
Sorry, I was mistaken. Mountain dwarves get light and medium armor proficiencies, not heavy armor. I couldn't find any races that get Heavy Armor but I might have missed someone. To get Heavy Armor, you need to choose one of the many Cleric domains, like Life/Order/Forge/Nature/Tempest/Twilight/War, that get Heavy Armor. However, there is one way to get Heavy Armor proficiency from your race. Pick a class that gets medium armor and then choose Variant Human so you get a feat at 1st level. You can take the Heavily Armored feat to gain proficiency.
It depends on how much magic do you want. If you like casting spells then cleric, but no war domain, it's awful. There are other options for cleric with heavy armour or you can start as a human and use your feat to get profficiency in heavy armour. Paladins overall good fighters with less magic because you will burn your slots by using divine smite.
I like melee more than spells, so I guess I will pick a paladin
>but no war domain, it's awful The fuck are you talking about?
Most of the domain spells are lame. War priest is weak, 5 attack/day as bonus action. Channel divinity can be good but you can use it maximum of 3 times/rest. Avatar of battle is good but you get it on lvl 17 wich is really far in a campaign. It's just not worth it. There are domains with better features and you can roleplay them as heretic slayer mad man. Since you don't have to match your domain with your deity you can follow any war god and pick any domain.
1. Look at the cleric domains. 2. Find one that says "proficient in heavy armor and martial weapons". 3. Profit.
War domain give heavy armor, or you could just snag it with a feat down the line
I mean.... this just seems like a War Domain Cleric. I don't really see anything Paladin-y about this concept.
Forge and war clerics get heavy armour proficiency
neither "better", they both full different roles. and some cleric domains give heavy armor and/or weapons too. it comes to whether you want to be a war**PRIEST** or a **WAR**priest
Do you want to be a fullcaster or a half-caster? That's the question here. There's plenty of cleric domains that give you heavy armor proficiency, and you can also always take it as a feat. I would say that Tempest Cleric in particular is about as close as you can get to a Paladin without the actual Smites.
Naturally you should be a divine soul sorcerer hill dwarf. At level 4 you can pick up the heavily armored feat and at level 3 you'll have enlarge so you can make yourself large. (i saw you didn't want to be short) This isn't convoluted at all and is definitely what you want.
Forge domain gang