The Divine Protector: d4

[@ChrisBri77on]

I’m currently playing a forge cleric. Our campaign hasn’t lent itself strongly toward the magical fabrication benefits the forge domain provides so I’ve been highly limited in opportunities to use Artisan’s Blessing for utility. So instead I’ve turned it into an opportunity for roleplay and have been creating statuettes of the significant creatures we’ve encountered so I can decorate the lower deck of our spelljammer

[@Panzersoldat]

I have this image of you and your fellow PCs sitting around a table in the lower deck, using these statuettes as part of a game you invented. Playing D&D WITHIN D&D ;)

[@Thorgard360]

I played a dwarf divine forge for 2 years. Level 4 i took heavy armor master, level 8 I took resilient constitution. I quickly found out my protection from good and evil is one of the most op spells in the game with 22 AC and if needed sanctuary. Only thing that dropped me was some creature the DM through at me with like 10 attack per turn in Avernus. I fabricated many epic items within the infernal forges of Avernus. Even repaired us a mad max devil car (can't remeber what they were called) I am trying to figure out my next character... but it's hard to beat a forge dwarf cleric.

[@dwightweiers830]

That’s cool

[@ChrisBri77on]

@@Thorgard360 that sounds crazy and yeah PFGAE is amazing in the right setting/campaign. My dwarf forge cleric’s main goal was reuniting with his daughter after 20 years which I’m about to do next week! She’s my next character and will be the introduction to firearms to the campaign as a Renegade Fighter. Her father used to dabble in weapon design and had a prototype rifle that he could never quite get to work. When she left she took it with her and has been working as a mercenary for the last decade after fixing it. It’s sad to be retiring a fun character but exciting to try something new! Remember that many adventurers can have simple goals and can quietly retire with their newfound experiences.

[@Thorgard360]

@@ChrisBri77on is she a dwarf lol? Because I'm doing the same thing but made Thorgard (forge dwarf) brother who is looking for him because he never came back from Avernus. It's like once you go dwarf...how does that saying go 😆

[@BLynn]

The Divine Protector: d4 #110 Level 1:(see above) [artificer 1 & race] Level 2:(see above) [artificer 2] Level 3:(@20:34) [artificer 3 & sub-class] Level 4:(@24:00) [wizard 1] Level 5:(@27:54) [cleric 1 & sub-class] Level 6:(@32:13) [cleric 2] Level 7:(see above) [cleric 3] Level 8:(@39:14) [cleric 4 & ASI] Level 9:(@39:59) [cleric 5] Level 10:(see above) [cleric 6] Level 11:(@44:06) [cleric 7] Level 12:(@45:47) [cleric 8 & ASI] Level 13:(@47:45) [artificer 4 & ASI] Level 14:(see above) [cleric 9] Level 15:(@52:14) [cleric 10] Level 16:(@53:02) [cleric 11] Level 17:(@54:26) [cleric 12 & ASI]

[@galipettepistache8239]

Making a healer who lasts long and take hits away from its allies has got to be the best way to protect your party like a true mom character

[@vinspad3]

And Earth Genasi is out of MoM, too!

[@wesleykushner8028]

Now when is colby going to make a dad character that synergizes with these moms?

[@drumlineking07]

@@wesleykushner8028 the Whip-poorwill build can be a dad character. Reflavor the whip as a belt lol

[@atomictree5000]

@@drumlineking07 dark, but funny lol.

[@kvici]

@@wesleykushner8028 dad = 'deals all damage'?

[@jdoge10]

One awesome use of the Artisans Blessing channel divinity I used was to create a locked leaded box that was 6 inches thick on all sides in order to block a gang of thieves from tracing a magical item we had stolen from them.

[@leeyates7483]

you know it's weird, but i haven't ever played a game of DnD personally but i have always had this love for the game. Gotta say it's this love for the game that i find myself gravitating towards channels like this one, so Keep it up Colby. thanks for the content.

[@japanadian879]

My friends played it, but I hadn't. I watched a bunch of videos like this and puffin Forrest, and it always sounded super fun. Eventually I asked my buddies if I could play with them. Best thing I did. You should try and find a group!

[@HappyCatholicDane]

Find a group to play with 👍. If you don’t have friends that are interested. Look online, or join Adventure League.

[@kan4210]

Having a crap time, doing dnd builds is proving a very good way to relax. The challenge of putting all the pieces together, your episodes are very much inspiring my creativity. My artwork for them is definitely not as good as Randall but again creativity relaxation, even if it is not impressive.

[@BDTMack]

Really excited to see this in my feed! Cleric my favourite class in 5e. I love playing that they're a tanky support character with lots of other versatility from their domain spells. I'm really interested to see your take on a tank with all the flavour and support options of a cleric!

[@torunsmok5890]

on the whole infusing the gauntlets thing, considering a later feature specifically lets you count your armor as separate pieces for infusions, and it lists the gauntlets/launchers weapons as part of that... I dont think its supposed to be separately infusable until you get that

[@nasazh]

This would be my ruling as well

[@stecon5]

This is absolutely my favorite character archetype so I am so excited for this. Understand that a lot (most?) viewers of the channel love doing tons of damage and I think that’s great. Let me play a character that puts you in a position to succeed! Thanks for all the work you do good sir. Edit: three levels in and we’re starting my favorite subclass everything is coming up Millhouse 😊

[@mydknightcloud]

Hell yes man, thing is, you can hit top tier numbers with spiritual weapon and spirit guardians and STILL have an action free every turn to cast some support spells, while making it hard for enemies to run past you. That's some tank material!

[@norbertles7454]

Great build as always. Speaking of Death Ward, I once jumped from a flying dragon and smashed to the ground. It was pretty impressed by it.

[@DnDDeepDive]

Ha ha! Awesome.

[@JohnTCampbell1986]

YMMV by DM. I've played with DM's (fortunately not anymore) who would say the fall damage would kill you outright so you never drop to 0 and die instantly). I now play with a DM basically lets you ask for any item "if you can justify it with backstory/plot" and he'd 100% let you use the artificer/cleric features on magic items haha

[@CardboardLord]

Okay I literally just started to make lunch and thought, do I have a d4 video to make this better, and I did ♥

[@agilemind6241]

Colby you are missing the most effective soft-taunts: crippling concentration debuffs - Banishment is one of the most effective taunts in the game... Or you know, just being an epic healer. If you just heal back any damage done to your allies then the enemies have to attack you if they want to actually make process. Unlike the DisAdv soft-taunts these work as group-taunts thus far more effective!

[@Wulfiebaby]

That's an excellent point.

[@silbernehand]

Forge cleric/kensei monk started the campaign trapped in a metal cage about 15 feet above the ground. Asked the DM if there is any movement around him and how long he has already been there. No movement, several hours. Starts to meditate and asks DM to tell him when 1h is over. After one ingame hour the dm asks the player "what now?". Player "Now the cage has no bottom and I am falling 15 feet with a Katana [Longsword reskin] in hand". Proceeded to searing smite a trapped dino which went rampage and the character walked out, undisturbed, with a new weapon.

[@roronoa1243]

I'm running a tank cleric in my Out of the Abyss game and I'm really enjoying it. I think if you don't take a class that gets shield, MoM githzerai is a great way to get the spell. Currently rocking a 2 level stars druid dip on a forge cleric at DM's allowance, which both allows you to always roll a 10 on concentration saves for your spirit guardians, as well as getting thorn whip and primal savagery to steal a trick from the Nature's Wrath cleric and get a little more damage out of melee range when needed.

[@Forbeplay]

I’m actually playing a Cleric Tank right now in our Strahd campaign. I love this build, maybe you’ll inspire me to change mine up. 👀 Excited to hear what you have to say!

[@theFunkyThumb]

I dig this. Currently playing in a "difficult " campaign where no one picked a "healer" so i tried my best to just make an unkillable character. Reborn zealot barb/undead warlock. Running in with armor of agathys while raging has been amazing, and once those temp hp go i form of dread. I cant be stopped

[@ryanmcmenamim9871]

My forge cleric made a replacement leg segment for a mechanical spider tank, which let us pilot it, and it came in super handy in a fight against a purple worm.

[@timovandervalk679]

A very nice build idea, I am excited to so see what you came up with. I also have a build suggestion: The Divine Striker It is basically a Bloodhunter Ghostlayer / Lifecleric multiclass. I know, you usually stray away from the bloodhunter, but you will be surprised how well these work togheter. The improved crimson rite features as well as spells like spirit shroud and the divine strike ability from the cleric can add a huge pile of radiant damage on-hit, while you can heal your friends with your bonus action. And Flavourwise it also fits very well in a campagin, that focuses a lot on fighting undead.

[@joeedgar700]

In my current campaign I am playing a warforged forge cleric. One of the best things I managed to do with it was pull most of the iron out of the inside of prison cell bars, essentially making them into just a brittle facade that can be broken with your hands. Another thing I love to do since our rogue has just terrible luck with thieves tools rolls is to simply melt the locks off of crates or doors. I have many pounds of gold that I just keep in our bag of holding from pulling metal out of things.

[@BovineTerror]

My current armorer artificer/forge cleric (not the same tanky build that you have, she’s focused on optimizing tool profs and crafting useful things for the party) has and is using her channel divinity to convert metal items looted from enemies into single platinum pieces so we don’t need to worry about selling them, using scrap metal to create a lock pick to escape prisons, and take looted metal items and turn them into mithril and adamantine bars to later craft into magic armor! It’s been a fun ability, especially since you can use it to transmute metals.

[@jacobyspurnger8488]

Thunder gauntlets aka taser gloves are so thematic for a cleric. You're not stabbing, you're slapping heathens. Possibly joker-style hand shocker. You could even state that you're using non-lethal force.

[@ChickenSoupMusic]

Mmmm pimp slap them with the hand of God. kzbin.info/www/bejne/aH-af4d-iMmkq9k

[@PyrielKathos]

I've been looking forward to this once since the tank ranking video, and more-so since the tease yesterday. My group's upcoming new campaign next year needs both a tank and could do with a healer too (lots of charisma and/or dex based dps or control, nothing else so far) and this sounds like a fun way to combine the two into my next character.

[@danielbeshers1689]

Lots of Charisma and/or Dexterity DPS and Control sounds like 5e summed up pretty well, tbph.

[@PyrielKathos]

@@danielbeshers1689 You're not wrong ha, I prefer playing as a 'slot filler' though so leaving the tank role open is great. I get choice paralysis if I have too many options.

[@sleidman]

Awesome build! I think I would have gone with Githzerai for the Shield spell instead of earth genasi and a wizard dip. Maybe go to Armorer 5 for extra attack right off the bat. Definitely cool seeing a viable clerificer.

[@mydknightcloud]

i have been playing a life cleric for a long time that is both our parties main tank and support caster. I picked up magic initiate (druid) at first level to get shillelagh and thornwhip with goodberry. Mostly stood at the front lines and then once i got spirit guardians/spiritual weapon combo started chain sawing my way through my enemies. (4th level I picked up resilient con for concentration protection). This is mostly like your nature cleric except I got to dole out a free 40 hp at lower levels and get more bang for my buck using healing word/mass healing word if my allies fall in combat. Truly, I spirit guardians is so strong its a must have for any cleric build.

[@T-Mo]

Nice bulwark build :) If the DM throws Save or Suck spells at you, one additional Level of Wizard for War Magic might be a consideration - plus the Initiative bonus 💪

[@chrisv.h.2307]

A gnome forge cleric in one of my games flavored his divine creations as being crafted by dozens of tiny smurf-like gnomes who traveled in his pockets everywhere. What a fantastic character.

[@targetdreamer257]

Since Artisan's Blessing says that it makes even non-metal parts you can make a wagon, which costs only 35 gp. That means if you have a druid in the party you can be total hoarders. If you are in an area it is snowing you can burn it for heat. If you are in a dungeon you can make the wagon in an area that is a choke point to limit how creatures come at you, or make it so it is turned on it's side to provide cover. Yes the wagon thing is not a combat viable option because it takes any hour to make but it is still possible with some forethought and planning. If for some reason you need things that cost less then one gold, and that is all you have, you can use ball bearing. 10 ball bearing equal 1 copper. You can make a Crowbar for advantage on strength checks for prying things open. A Block and Tackle multiplies your strength by 4. So you can move that heavy stone that is blocking you way. I got 100 more ideas for Artisan's Blessing.

[@dwightweiers830]

I know healing word is a bonus action spell, but cure wounds as a touch spell has a longer range when cast by a familiar. If you have Wizard anyways casting via your familiar does increase the range of a lot of touch spells.

[@Tusitala1967]

Great song choice, Colby. I am very partial to The Only Living Boy in New York, but Cathy's Song is right up there.

[@richardgesegnet5481]

Thanks! My wife and I are going to use a combination of Sorlock Cheese Grater and this build "Tinkering Templar". Keep you updated.

[@DnDDeepDive]

Sweet please do! And thanks!

[@richardgesegnet5481]

Really excited for this campaign. It took awhile to figure until I fleshed out game mechanics that felt right. I didnt stray at all from your original build. I took the background of Failed Merchant and made a young genassi lad born to human parents. One of his ancestors had crossed a wrong line into elemental arcana and was blasted with raw and very powerful earth plane energy. Every few score years his line would produce a non-human child on the fathers side, specifically a dao genassi. He learned nature, crafting, artificing(from his father) and dabbled at wizadry(motherside). Growing up in Baldurs gate he apprenticed in both masonry and carpentry learning both trades at once. Although masonry held his attention the best, he grew up loving all nature in all forms and shapes. For failed merchant i took masonry tools and for proficiency from the class I picked up carpentry, thieves, and tinker(which I plan on using to cheese through dungeons) My idea here is early game to rig and degrade objects in the early game. I picked up investigation and needed one more skill so I settled on history. So that makes nature, investigation, history, persuasion. The end game engine took forever to figure out like I said. Instead of crafting mundane stuff and magic I settled for earth bending from Last Air Bender. Crafting can really drag a game to a halt. So I decided to use the spell Fabricate over all else. With fabricate ill use masonry, carpentry, thieves, and tinker tool proficiences to earth bend my way through obstacles. An earth bending support tank healer.

[@MalloonTarka]

I'm currently playing a Forge cleric. I used Artisan's Blessing to rework my chain mail into having the colours and symbols the soldiers of a castle we were infiltrating. It gave me advantage on deception checks to make it seem like i belonged. I'm sure I'll use it for other things in the future.

[@JChe-ft4zc]

Fantastic build, as always. I love your and Treantmonk's channels for the massive +2 to Build Insight. I'm unsure if this has been already discussed, but if you really want to be able to double "taunt" every round, you can always drop the shield (net -1 AC, assuming no magic items, see below) and the +2 to Con (net -15 {PC Lvl} HP) and pick up the "Dual Wielder" feat, since both of your gauntlets can count as weapons. This gives you +1 AC, bonus action "Backhand the Boss", and allows you to draw and throw 2 daggers, if you need 4-7 (or 8-14) damage to "end an enemy rightly" that's just out of reach.

[@JChe-ft4zc]

It's probably just coincidence that throwing daggers seems to do as much damage per round as you've lost off your Max HP.

[@chrisvossler8795]

Nice! I was wondering how you would get a "soft taunt"; the Forge Cleric in my game is actually a High Elf and took Booming Blade as his wizard cantrip, giving him a "soft taunt." Currently his AC at level 3 is 19, though he doesn't have Shield. The flavor of Artificer with Forge Cleric really works well. For Artisan's Blessing, I gave the party a base to work out of, which includes a forge that the cleric can find materials in (it's a roll to see how much raw material his deity "shows him"). So far the most exciting thing he's done is to turn adamantine coins into adamantine arrows, though I did tell him that if he wants to forge his own armor, he can use Artisan's Blessing to create all the separate pieces (up to 100 gp-worth at a time), and then connect all the pieces together.

[@WunDumDorf]

Beyond the standard use for armor or weapons, you can always use Artisan’s Blessing to create a carriage to haul away all of that sweet dungeon loot. (or the wounded if things don’t go well 😢)

[@ljt974]

On the Blessing of the Forge ability, I have a ranger who dipped one level of forge cleric to get heavy armour in my campaign, and to make sure the ability stayed relevant I made it so you have two choices: Use it on a nonmagical item to make it +1 until you long rest. Or use it on a magical item to make it +1 for an hour. That's helped it stay relevant but not allow him to get bonuses to hit/damage or AC too high for the whole day. Hope that helps anyone wishing to play/DM a forge cleric and give them a helping hand!

[@zero11010]

10:52 “let’s jump into the build”

[@infra_r3d133]

Ty

[@AriesBozz]

I have a DMpc named ProtoGen that’s a war forged who has this build! Been using him for months. Hands down one of my party’s favorite addition to any campaign when he shows up. Lvl one having an AC of 20 by going forge cleric with heavy armor and a shield first off. Glad I’m not the only one putting this fun build to use.

[@ralorieth6858]

Another great episode as always! I would love to see your take on a wizard healer using mark of healing halfling!

[@DnDDeepDive]

Will put it on the to do list!

[@shawntoups2454]

I would second that! Was playing around with the idea for a game I might be playing in.

[@beastzerkerjet]

you could also just take a cleric dip on any wizard build

[@davidraff2241]

I’d also like to see your take. Had fun with my mark of healing scribe wizard on what ended up being a one shot and wish I could have played it more.

[@RoninXDarknight]

I've always assumed you could use any armor/helm/boots/weapon infusion on the arcane armor since the armor specifically includes all of those things and at later levels you gain the ability to treat all of those components as separate pieces for the purpose of adding infusions. Armorer's entire thing is modifying their armor in ways other artificers can't so it would be silly to not let them do the thing. Artisian's Blessing has always felt like a way to generate ammo for our ranged fighters if you don't have any other use for it. Love Forge Domain though. Hands down my favorite cleric.

[@SeanBlader]

Since you asked, yeah, I played Everquest 2, and I had an evasion off-tank Monk, but I also had a Templar. And absolutely there was the holy trinity designed into the game. If your group was lucky you had a few of each... and they were different types of tanks and healers. There was the mitigation tank, who just had big heavy armor and shields to block most of the damage. These worked great with my Templar who's magic would repair wounds right after they were dealt to the character they were cast upon, called a reactive healer. But my evasion tank monk who in big groups would use the superior mobility to peel hostiles off the DPS and healers, and would most often dodge any incoming damage, didn't have the mitigation or health pool to take the damage and then be healed, so the best healer for me would be the Warden who would ward off that damage before it was applied. The warden would've been considered a proactive healer. To be fair to those games, when my last group started a high level "campaign" (starting at 18) I rolled up a straight healer as a Life Domain Cleric. I made sure to NOT multiclass because I wanted Supreme Healing. When our team would take ANY damage my next turn would be to heal exactly that amount of damage because I had written up a table listing exactly how many points Supreme Healing would restore, so if someone took 21 points of damage, I'd make a note and on my next turn cast healing word at 4th level giving 16hp healing and +5 for Wisdom would recover exactly 21hp. My objective was to full on use ALL my spell slots for making sure we made it out.

[@Suitcase08]

23:40 Regarding the +1 magic weapon on your gauntlets counting them as separate, an argument that your armor/gauntlets cannot be separately infused is that it is a feature you get as an Armorer Artificer at level 9: "At 9th level...That armor now counts as separate items for the purposes of your Infuse Items feature: armor (the chest piece), boots, helmet, and the armor's special weapon." I suppose you could give your +1 Enhanced Defence to your shield and +1 Enhanced Weapon to your armor, but perhaps I missed another infusion as I'm watching this in the background. Thanks for the lovely video, those minis look really cool! Thinking of grabbing some for my dungeon master! :D

[@ronalddupuy2452]

Such a great idea. I like the idea of playing a character who is a front-lining tank in heavy armor with STR and DEX as dump stats. Something about it just tickles my fancy. I had a similar idea for a cleric tank, but I hadn't considered artificer for the taunt and other features. The character was mainly using peace cleric rather than forge cleric to teleport around and take damage for allies, while mixing in warding bond. I think I'll incorporate some ideas from this and mix it in. Great work!

[@Peter_Larsen]

I wish you’d mentioned when you reach Cleric 9 to pick up Summon Celestial. At the level you could take it (level 14), you’d be the equivalent of a 12th level caster, meaning a 6th level spell slot. Cast at 6th Level, Summon Celestial’s Defender option would bring a 19 AC, 50 HP, 40ft fly speed, 3 attacks per turn that heals for 1d10 temp HP per hit and deals 1d10 + 9 damage per hit. That’s a huge threat to be able to manifest, and it’s just a verbal command, no action economy required, to control it. Simply brutal

[@justinaakre2705]

60K subscribers! Congrats Colby! I remember when you had less than 3000! What a fun journey it's been!

[@spectralfire4842]

At 14 I thought you were going to get one more level in wizard for abjuration. The shield would only be 5hp (3 int + 2 wizard levels) but most of the spells you used in this build would refresh it. Shield, absorb elements, aid, warding bond, death ward, aura of purity, etc

[@trautsj]

I love aura of life simply because like 2 battles in a single campaign years ago. I had a campaign a while back with some more squishy classes as companions and a couple of times I was just pulling the "Back on your feet soldier!" routine as we barely scraped by a few encounters LOL It was brilliant and truly one of those classic DnD scenarios that you'll just remember forever.

[@mattyspoons777]

Another amazing build!! Thanks Colby. Commenting here to feed the algorithm beast!

[@romannadolishny2423]

Very excited. Playing a forge cleric in a party where it is the only frontliner, healer, and tank. It's a glass cannon party overall.

[@Deailon]

>Says: "Durability is of the charts". >Makes a chart. I love this channel :)

[@DnDDeepDive]

😬😬😬

[@WereDictionary]

I love how many characters the armorer ends up creeping into just because of the soft taunt.

[@grizzlednerd4521]

In my experience a lot of taunting can be achieved with positioning and a nasty opportunity attack. The first is often through teamwork but, for a gish with War Caster, the second can be done with Booming Blade. One of my favorite 5e characters was a multi Eldritch Knight War / Domain Cleric. They were Variant Human, started Fighter then did an initial dip into Clertic at 2nd and then fighter till 9th level. After that Cleric all the way. Picked up the V.Human feat closely followed by the early bonus fighter feat at 5th and the standard on at 9th. So War Caster, capped STR, Extra Attack and War Priest 3/LR...while generally running Divine Favor, or Heroism or Bless.

[@sdjmar]

I am playing a Forge Cleric currently, and I picked the subclass pretty much entirely due to Artisan's Blessing. Fortunately for me, I am playing in a campaign with relatively high tech, and as a result one of the most common things I make with it are Fragmentation Grenades which have gotten us out of several binds. That said, the best use I have made of Artisan's Blessing is in a forest that was infested with Lightning Mephits and magical electricity strong enough to KO any party member instantly should we step foot into it. The DM had implied that there was another area that we should go to first in order to get a magic orb which would shield us from this lightning so we could get to the dungeon in the middle of it. However, me being the crazy guy I am, decided to convert 100gp into a mobile Faraday Cage (connections to the ground were made with copper chains that brushed the ground) that was just light enough for our Goliath Fighter to pick-up and carry, while big enough for the entire party to fit in safely. As everything in the immediate area could only do lightning damage, or VERY minor physical damage, the DM couldn't get to us and we were able to get to the dungeon in the forest pretty much unimpeded.

[@DUES_EX]

My favorite archetype is the Barbarian. Sadly you don’t see many books, or class creations with this class. So I get excited when Colby does Barbarian stuff. That being said my second favorite class is Fighters/Clerics. So this build is appreciated

[@justinrobey6055]

Immediately paused the video to sign up for Mini's Monthly. Have been looking for a good source of minis for a while and these look great.

[@DnDDeepDive]

Yay!

[@mdlittle5466]

Mountain Dwarf Clerics are awesome in this aspect as they have a tendency to have longer staying power via racial traits and stat bonuses alone providing more opportunities to heal/buff/retaliate. Warhammers go well with the theme if the character worships some sort of 'Dwarven Forge God". Needless to say, I'm an avid Dwarf Cleric player. :)

[@boltairnalt4177]

The problem I have with Warding Bond is that, if you are concentrating on a spell (which you should be), you will be rolling Concentration saves twice as often.

[@frogguts233]

Love what you do man : ) welcome home gets me every time. I think it’d be cool to make a powerful persuasive build where you’re able to negate fights be persuading people outright. n if not really dish out the damage then : j

[@ulrikfonlistenstine6012]

This might be a little out of place, but I really love the extended spell metamagic option. You talked about death ward lasting for 8 hours, why not extend that right before a long rest and enjoy your 8 hours of free death ward. (16 - 8 for the long rest). Maybe an interesting divine soul sorcerer strategy. Loved the video btw!

[@JayskaTeag]

I totally agree with you on using a Thunder Gauntlet as a "weapon" for Booming Blade. The Armorer feature states "you treat this as a (I think Simple?) Melee weapon" and your armour costs a lot more than 1 silver lol

[@barrygray5227]

My personal twist on the build, is: Githzerai (Adds Shield to the list). Level 5 Artificer straight off to Taunt 2 targets instead of 1 then straight Forge Cleric, not as good on the spreadsheet, but gets higher level cleric spells in the end (or just the base 3 levels l, but not grabbing second attack feels untanky)

[@merlannin2108]

This is a fantastic tank build with a lot of utility and buff spells. I really enjoy this build.

[@jordanwitt7217]

My wife used artisan’s blessing on her forge cleric to fabricate a suit of plate armor one piece at a time. She did the research and found a diagram of a deconstructed plate suit; then basically put it together 50 or 100gp at a time. It was very cool.

[@lordravne]

I'm actually already playing this build on our twitch streamed game! Warforged cleric/artificer. Although, I only have one lvl of artificer and 5 cleric, for now. As for Artisan's Blessing, I'm using it to create plate armor in pieces. I'm scrounging for every piece of serviceable steel to reduce cost of plate armor. Also, I made a prosthetic hand out of wood and metal scraps for a child in an industrial accident. I also beefed up my character's HP using False Life, which stacks w/ Aid

[@brianmallis2666]

So I was playing around with a forge cleric and artificer build last night. Excited for this.

[@adriel8498]

I love your builds,I have seen almost all your videos. I would love to see more dedicated to one spell like toll the dead or vampiric touch. Scorching ray build was really fun.

[@MadnessOpus]

Forge is my favorite Cleric domain, bar none. There is something so alluring behind gaining even more AC than a regular cleric would. Twilight and Peace? What are those even? Although… yeah. My first ever character was a water genasi Forge Cleric, and honestly, from my experience I can say that (in Tyranny of Dragons, at least) the best use for its Channel Divinity is… Harness Divine Power. 😅

[@MadnessOpus]

Addendum: I ended up with Cleric 9/Fighter 1 to get martial weapons proficiency (why isn’t it native to Forge Cleric, I have zero idea), but if I were to take my dear Wixtram further, I'd definitely go Eldritch Knight Fighter 3 for Booming Blade, Shield, Absorb Elements and Find Familiar. Probably the safest way to get those without putting 13 in Intelligence or Charisma.

[@lokimidknight7319]

I had a warforged forge cleric that would use artisans blessing to erect monuments honoring the fallen (friends, enemies, bystanders, etc) after battles. Also used it to make toys for village children.

[@ScarletSky155]

Currently playing this build as a half-orc for that sweet relentless endurance. My group is squishy as hell so I'm both the only healer and the only tank, so being able to stay standing at the end of the battle is wonderful

[@GramGramAnimations]

The little bit of singing at the end was a pleasant surprise. Part of the reasoning I like listening to these is you just have a nice voice, but apparently you also have a great voice for singing Simon & Garfunkel

[@DnDDeepDive]

Thanks! ;)

[@ryanthomasjones]

PBTPD. Never gets old seeing that on my screen.

[@UberAffe1]

Peace cleric 6 for protective bond to absorb damage from allies as a reaction without concentration. Use concentration on bane to reduce enemy capabilities. Warlock 2 with eldritch mind and fiendish vigor for concentration and free temp hp. Then spiritual weapon with bonus action. So each round you can absorb damage with your reaction, refresh your temp hp as an action and attack with your bonus action. All of that only has setup cost, you have tons of resource left for either a directed heal or group heal with channel divinity. You can also pick up a magic initiate to grab silvery barbs and vicious mockery for more low cost disadvantage options. This is what I am playing minus the warlock multi-class. It makes me feel a bit bad for the DM at times. I've stopped so many nat 20s.

[@theweeze]

Just did session zero with my warforged cleric of the forge. Very pumped. Cool video, thanks for some ideas

[@qazaq25]

Well the best part of having a new number one is looking forward to seeing what eventually takes it place. By the way here's a potentially interesting build concept, though admittedly probably numerically weak... A hawk-headed Aven beast master has the potential use nets without disadvantage and still multi attack by having your companion attack, then casting hail of thorns should not only lets the net actually deal some damage (AoE damage even...) but also give advantage to your companions attack and disadvantage to the enemies save against hail of thorns thanks to being restrained by the net. Where the character would go beyond that point I don't know but its certainly a start.

[@ednantais3263]

Definitely had our party's barbarian go down with a flying ship. Max falling damage but he raged on his way down and had high enough hp to survive. Crazy goblin.

[@danielknight2872]

I saw your youtube short video and decided to build my Tank Cleric first before this video came out. I decided on Watcher Paladin 3, Shepard Druid 2, Twilight Cleric 12. I took the crusher feat, magic initiate wizard for shield and booming blade. Use a Quarterstaff. Use Shillelagh as a bonus action round 1, use action to channel divinity paladin to give all players advantage on INT, WIS, and CHA saving throws for round 1, Round 2, bonus action Spirit totem bear spirit to give free temp HP each turn and advantage on STR Saving Throws. Now wade into combat using your quarterstaff attacking with booming blade, knocking them back 5 ft. You support your teams saving throws, give everyone free HP each round. If things get real difficult, you can concentrate on Aura of Vitality whiile using the Unicorn Spirit and then Also channel divinity the twilight cleric option and deliver even more temp hp per round and heal 2d6 per turn with a bonus action and continue booming blade on attacks with your quarterstaff.

[@Blindshot951]

Hi Colby, So I have a artificer 9 forge cleric 2 build going right now. ( hopefully this will help to feed the algorithm) My DM does allow for plate armor to be made 100G at a time. We dont have much down time in our games so 100 gold per long rest and I piece work the armor together. Also I ran the bladesinger artificer in Curse of Strahd. It was insanely fun to play so thank you. Also I would love to see a Vedalken build taking advantage of the Vedalken Dispassion for a tank. Amazing as always and thank you for your hard work

[@helixxharpell]

You pronounced Genasi correctly! 😊 I'm so proud of you Colby! You've come a long way! Now we have to work on your Yaun Ti.. it's pronounced Wahn Tee. 😉

[@Spiceodog]

Peace cleric is seriously all the “ taunt “ you’ll ever really need. You could just quick dip it and go barbarian the rest of the way

[@DnDAnalysis]

My friend is currently playing a forge cleric in the game I DM. I try to go out of my way to remind him to use his channel divinity, even giving him a magic item that let's him use it as an action once per day. I also let him craft things piece by piece, so with a week of downtime he can conjure a suit of plate. He did conjure some iron bars to fortify a position in a tunnel/dungeon which was pretty cool.

[@aceofdiamonds2002]

Wow that EverQuest name drop took me down memory lane ❤

[@ReaverKain]

I'd grab War Caster to use Booming Blade after using Thorn Whip to bring an enemy into range. Great way to rack up damage.

[@AnaCristina-dv6qu]

Another cleric guide 🥳🥳🥳, I couldn’t be more happy :’3

[@danielknight2872]

I once wanted to be able to do the gauntlets with the +1 and the armor itself. To me it didn't make sense that you can't do both because lets face it. The gauntlets aren't mechanically armor in d&d mechanics, but..... if you look over the Level 9 Armorer Feature: Armor Modifications 9th-level Armorer feature You learn how to use your artificer infusions to specially modify your Arcane Armor. That armor now counts as separate items for the purposes of your Infuse Items feature: armor (the chest piece), boots, helmet, and the armor’s special weapon. Each of those items can bear one of your infusions, and the infusions transfer over if you change your armor’s model with the Armor Model feature. In addition, the maximum number of items you can infuse at once increases by 2, but those extra items must be part of your Arcane Armor. It expresses very precisely that your armor's special weapon is in fact part of the armor itself. Until level 9, you cannot add it to both the armor and the weapon unless the said weapon is not your gauntlets. That being said, if I was your DM, I would be totally okay with you using it. If your DM is playing by RAW, no. you cannot.

[@richardgesegnet5481]

My wife and I are gonna use your builds in our next campaign. She naturally plays the cheese grater and imma try the divine protector

[@JaminHGrilla]

I had a character that I had intended to follow a similar profession. Campaign didn't last long but she was a tinker gnome (for the adv on mental saves) artificer who was due to multiclass cleric. I was planning to use magic initiate for shield. Never considered dipping into wizard though.

[@Justin-md1nv]

I think the upside of infusions and blessings of the forge is that any other magic item that's found by the party can be handed off to another party member to use. So instead of 1 suit of +1 armor the party has 2

[@benaiahtheophilus]

You did a great joerrrerrb on this video, Homestar, I mean Colby!

[@ThePhysicist33]

Armorer artificer is easily one of my favorite subclasses in the game! Mixing that with Cleric sounds really fun

[@rowanash7716]

It would be cool if at some stage you did a video where you did go over what the best magic items for several builds. Perhaps one for each rarity, and how that would effect the character.

[@mattyspoons777]

Another great build! Absolutely love your work, and your kind nature. Just became a member of the channel. Keep up the great work!

[@DnDDeepDive]

Thanks and welcome!

[@studynot757]

Party up with that Creation Bard and they can supply the spell component for Heroes Feast no problem! Side note, Dwarves feel more efficient here to me. Hill dwarf gets you ignore Str for armor and half the tough feat to free a feat up. Only thing missing is the taunt. Cavalier fighter with sentinel feat? That + spirit guardians will almost guarantee pulling enemies

[@Rabijeel]

First of all: Would love to run along that Concept with my "Celestial Protector". On this thought of Char Concept one of my worst because disgustingly high Damage Dealers came out untintentionally. Mainly, it is just Celestial Sorc(14)/Warlock(3) as Basic Structure - the last 3 Level can be distributed to give it a certain tendency towards Spellcasting or towards Melee. Originally, I used Paladin(3), but there are other options here and nowadays I would go for Pally(2) and one more Level in Warlock or full Warlock using Eldritch Smite instead of Pally Smites. Keep in mind, even if it looks so, this Char is heavily depending on a Party around him and getting him focussed from more than one Attack Source will down him quick as any Caster would be. You Protect, you do not go Solo. You support, you are not the Main Char. Doing so will get you killed fast as this will expose him to his weaknesses. You start as Aasimar celestial Warlock(1) what gives you nice Heal along the Aasimar Heal. Then, get Sorc(3) for Guiding Bolt as main Attack and Quicken Spell/Twinned Spell. Now, we go Paladin(2) just for the Smite and Protection Fighting Style. Now, we go three more Warlock up to Warlock(4), allowing us to take Relentless Hex, Thirsting Blade and Improves Pact Weapon for it to be a Focus. You will be established as Heal with a good Damage Capability now, but it gets now real and your Caster have to Counterspell a lot more. So, you will help out here as well by going on the Sorclane further on - this just grows your Spellslots more and more and with Quicken you can Attack twice Smiting while Bonus Casting Spells. Basic Spells are the Bread and Butter here - Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians are your basics and make you a awesome thirdliner and a good second Liner along a Rogue. Counterspelling is always a hassle and you can do so as well - and your Sorc-Spells alsoprovide you with Elemental Absorption and Shield from the beginning. Surely, putting in Cleric (even only one Level) would grant you far more Spells to use and 2 Level of divination Wizzard would make it also great - but that means to miss out on the Sorc-Wings at 14(20). And Wings are cool.

[@0_Body]

The artillerist also gives you the shield spell and can give your team temp hp with Protector at the cost of your bonus action. I definitely haven't used this to be the tank of the team protecting the full casters while our barbarian rogue goes Yolo

[@mattgopack7395]

For the shield spell situation, I think it's worth calling out the Githzerai from MotM - they get the spell as a racial feature, which can be better than doing a level in a class that gets it. Particularly good for clerics/druids that don't already have a INT/CHA multiclass planned, IMO - it's one I really like for a big healer build I made as well (1 level life cleric, X levels sheperds druid). Also, while it does feel noticeably different - a typical cleric can tank relatively well just by virtue of spirit guardians painting a huge target on them. Obviously this one ends up being very nicely resilient and able to pin down a single opponent, but I think it's worth pointing out that a baseline of "cast spirit guardians at highest level, move near enemies, and dodge" is always a good cleric option. Especially with even higher AC and the shield spell :P

[@TheCmachine2005]

I've been dabbling with a Hill Dwarf Hunter Ranger 5 / Forge Cleric 15 as a martial focused tank+support. Extra attack, Divine Strike, Colossus Slayer, Magic Initiate Wizard feat for Booming Blade and Find Familiar, Druidic fighting style for shillelagh, Spiritual Weapon, and Spirit Guardians, heavy armor, shield, forge AC buffs... this makes me a huge target for mobs. If my calculations are correct: Find Familiar advantage + 2d8 attack + 5 shillelagh WIS modifier + 1d8 colossus + 2d8 Divine Strike + booming blade + spiritual weapon bonus action + spiritual guardians AOE on a single turn Or if single target, skip spirit guardians and grab Holy Weapon for single target damage. For support, spells like Bless, Aid, Lesser Restoration, Greater Restoration, Healing Word, Shield of Faith, Aura of Vitality, Prayer of Healing, Heal, Remove Curse, Holy Aura, Guidance, Goodberry, Spare the Dying, Revivify For control and protection, wall of fire, Holy Aura, Guardian of Faith, Conjure Celestial, Banishment, Antimagic Field, Longstrider For utility, Fabricate, Creation, Channel Divinity Artisans Blessing, For blasting, Heat metal, Dawn, Animate Objects, Absorb Elements, Guiding Bolt, 21 AC and 189 HP Warcaster, Magic Initiate Wizard, max out WIS to 20. 12 S, 13 D, 16 C, 10 I, 20 W, 8 C But this build does a better job with taunting. This build is neat. A little convoluted with all the multiclassing for my tastes, but impressive!

[@DoctorMcHerp]

Once I played a Life Cleric/Pact of the Chain Celestial Warlock. Investment of the Chain Master makes you take max healing from ALL sources if your familiar is within 100 feet of you. Pick Imp or Sprite and have them stay invisible. Sit in the front line in your heavy armor and Aura of Vitality to regenerate 17 HP every turn due to Disciple of Life. If they're not hitting you, then you can give that 2d6 to your party members for your bonus action while menacing enemies with your action.

[@yodaleiaheehoo9960]

Sounds of Silence is a magnificent album!

[@Alex-rd6jl]

45:46 LMAO, my cleric actually did this, my party was in flying Island and just killed the BBEG that was trying to make one of the players that had royal blood to become a kind of a Death Warrior, this was from my Death cleric backstory, his village was being effected by a plague and he became a adventurer to find a cure, he NEEDED to use death ward to jump because his Order friends were in a battle, in the end basically all of them died and he is now switching his Order because all of this is Death's fault and he's tired of seeing their friends name on graves. talked w/ my DM and I'll change my build, maybe a less broken twilight cleric

[@rdchris6556]

Alright, haven't watched the rest of the video, but looking at what we have so far just from the artwork: I'm guessing earth genasi cleric (unsure which yet), armorer artificer, cavalier fighter.

[@mattdahm4289]

Thank you Colby!