The wall of lightning trap... genius! Loved this build :)

Druids with Circle of the Land (Mountain) get the Wisdom-based Lightning Bolt y'all

One spell I think would be really good for this build that you didn't mention is Melf's Minute Meteors. While it covers less area than a fireball, it has potential to do more damage to single targets and can be aimed more easily, and more importantly, each meteor counts as its own instance of damage, which means each one will trigger the thunderbolt strike push.

My favorite lightning build is Armorer 5/Tempest Cleric 2/Rogue. Maximizing Sneak Attack damage on your Lightning Launcher is pretty great.

It hurts me to see unique and interesting builds like this where the mage has a defined theme and fun options but it's painfully outclassed by the generic do-everything Wizard.

Wow, the Wall of Lightning combo with the Tempest push back ability is just mean, but I love it. I sense my DM would have a lot of the enemies be able to teleport after a few battles. Great build man.

Spike growth (dealing lightning damage) with thunderous smite sounds hilarious

Alternative race: Mountain Dwarf. Start at 8/10/15/16/16/10 with heavy armor at no penalty, with Resilient (CON) getting us to 16 instead of 15 at level 4, plus all the other Dwarf benefits and a bazillion tool proficiencies after swaps. The War Caster benefits are marginal if you never need to hold a weapon and plan on buffing your saves with Bless anyway, depending on if your DM ever allows you to make AOOs.

My level 9 cleric picked up Transmuted Spell from Tasha’s new Metamagic feat. Cast Spirit Shroud, changing the damage to lightning, fun little combo while it lasts.

I think part of the appeal of the cleric dip on a storm sorcerer is to get the proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor.

It kinda seemed like the new transmute spell metamagic in Tasha's could make Sorcerer a more appealing (or at least possible) option. Hard to beat the Scribes wizard for transmuting spell types though.

Very enlightening build

Wall of fire only has one save, when it appears. The damage from staying in the circle and the damage from passing through the wall again are automatic, no save.

14 seconds in. Yes Chris, I have heard that. Well I guess I don’t need to watch the rest of the video, see you on Friday! Haha. All joking aside thanks for the video Chris, I really appreciate you always bringing us such consistent content.

Since the Tempest pushback ability always pushes an enemy *away* from you, wouldn't they be able to escape the Wall of Lightning by going through the back or the sides? The pushback wouldn't send them towards the center, and might even push them *out* of the ring. (I suppose you could manage if you held an action to Dash, but that would require Quicken Spell, which eats up one of your feats and has very limited uses per day. It also probably requires you to have a mount, cause your movement on your own won't be enough to get around the massive ring of lightning you've made, at least most of the time.) Also, there are some easier alternatives. A Scibes Wizard with Crusher and bludgeoning spells can manage quite well for themselves, similar to a Dao Warlock with Crusher. (Though without the Eldritch Blast shenanigans or Spike Growth, I suppose it's not quite as potent.)

Just one thing. You dont need to prepare the spell if you want to use its damage type in your casting of another spell. "When you cast a wizard spell with a spell slot, you can temporarily replace its damage type with a type that appears in another spell in your spellbook, which magically alters the spell’s formula for this casting only. The latter spell must be of the same level as the spell slot you expend." This clearly states you can use a spell of the same level in your spellbook but mentions nothing about having it prepared. So if you have chromatic orb for level 1, all done and dusted. Level 2 all you need is dragons breath. Level 3 you can have lightning spell to make a lightningball(fireball spell). You only need to have the spell in the spellbook and not waste a preparation slot on the spells you will rely on to change the damage to. Or am I missing something? EDITED .....SORRY YOU STATED THE INFORMATION CORRECTLY. MY APOLOGIES, I SHOULD HAVE WATCHED THE WHOLE VIDEO BEFORE MAKING A POST. I GOT AS FAR AS ABSORB ELEMENTS AND WAS LIKE HUH. MY BAD

Going full Tempest Cleric with Metamagic Adept feat should work well too, right? You only have two transmuted spells bullets per day for a good damage spell, but at least the character progression will not be delayed

I would check with your DM about a couple of the rules you mentioned, especially Black Tentacles staying restrained even outside of it, that's the kind of thing I could easily see many DM's not allowing. Really interesting video, not something I'd ever have considered really.

Thanks Treantmonk! Storm magic (lightning, thunder, water) is my absolute favorite thematically. I’ve even played a Tempest Cleric 2, Storm Sorc X several times because I like the flavor. I can’t wait to give this one a try. Side note: I think there is a way to make storm Sorc workable with a renewable source of temp HP, making it more of a berserker type build. It may be fun for you to play with.

This guy is going to shock the world. Because he's none other than, THE. SHOCK. MASTER!

That Wall Of Fire circle trap is insanely good...not to mention the potential combos you could do with a second caster wow...my DM is going to /hate/ me even more. This is an incredible build, and speaks so much to the value of smart multiclassing

Cool video. I just started a nautical themed campain and the first thing that came to mind was storm sorcerer. Then I read up on the class, they really have nothing to offer. Went with a scribe wizard.

I've been recently obsessing over lightning themed characters in 5e so this video came at the perfect time lol

Good insights as always. Prior to Tasha's my favorite Cleric was always Light. I'm more interested in your War Wizard / Battle Master build and whether it's still optimal given the Bladesinger rework in Tasha's.

I like min-maxing just as much as the next guy, but I have played Tempest Cleric 2/ Storm Sorcerer 18 in Adventurer's League all the way to level 20 and I can say from first hand experience that it does work and it works well. Most of the time in combat and even out of combat I outshined other players, even players that also had well built characters (Great Weapon Masters/Sharpshooters, etc.). Maybe my character didn't do the maximum lightning damage possible, but he sure did do a hell of a lot of it and instakill many mobs. I wanted to play as a demigod son of Talos that used divine sparks to purge the lands of evil. Using your own definition of "optimization", if I wanted to play as this character, and optimize it, I did exactly that. Storm Sorcerer's bonus action movement got me out of sticky situations all the time, vastly increasing my survivability while keeping up my dps and impact in battle. I actually felt kind of bad playing in the tier 4 epic I took part in. At level 20, giving my whole group concentration free flight partially trivialized the big final battle and being able to quicken and empower meteor swarm helped too. Just imagine if Tasha's was out by then and I could have transmuted it into a lightning or thunder swarm.

The transmute spell metamagic could be useful here for the levels where you don’t have other lightning damage options

Been playing my tempest8/hexblade5/stormsorc4 since level 4 and Ive been loving it. Using a CD on a crit booming blade its pretty great. I also have used storm sorcs 10ft fly bonus action quite often.

Have a solution to this one in AL before Tasha's. Tempest 17/Evocation 3. Took Wizard because he found a Staff of the Magi so 1ASI and Linguist feat later he became a Wizard and he already had a headband of Intellect and with access to Halister's collected spellbooks. He copied every 1st and 2nd lvl spells and retains access to the books to share with others.

Excellent ideas, sounds like a lot of fun. I don't think that the wall of fire strategy works quite as well as you portray though. The lightning damage doesn't necessarily push the creature back within the bounds of the wall (the source of the damage), it pushes the creature 'away from you'. So if it were to try to exit the wall in the opposite direction to you, the forced movement would actually help it escape (though as per the wording of thunderbolt strike you 'can push' them, you don't have to). Still think it would have plenty of strategic benefits, but if the creature decides to move in any direction other than directly towards you it isn't quite as trapped as it would initially seem.

Ayyy! Love your vids

I played a Mountain druid with 2 levels of Tempest cleric in a oneshot and it was actually incredibly strong. A 2-level Cleric dip is one of the most universally useful in the game because you get subclass features, a Channel Divinity, and AMAZING 1st-level spells, and in this case it uses the same main stat as Druid. As for character concept, he was a gruff, stern Dragonborn who grew up in a mountain-dwelling tribe and was a seer of sorts who spoke to the god of storms.

Sorcerer with the transmuted spell metamagic feat. EVERYTHING is lightning!

I will stick with my Tempest (2) / Storm Sorcerer (18) and Transmute spell Meteor with max dmg on half of it. Now only to get to lvl 19...

25:00 lightning lure back and forth in a spike growth....the buzzsaw!

I don't know if Chris takes requests from non-patrons, but would he be willing to make a video articulating the ultimate party buffer? I'm guessing that it will just be a wizard again, but even seeing how to make a wizard who is really good at buffing the rest of the party would be very illuminating to me. (If he's already done this somewhere, would someone be willing to tell me where?)

Mind you, if the spider gets out of the circle throught the sides, or the back, the forced movement doesn't impede it getting out.

Are you *sure* you wouldn't rather just be a Daolock with Repelling Blast and Spike Growth?

If your game is being extra generous with content allowed, Plane Shift has the Zheal Cleric which can do most of this straight through. You can even get wall of fire if you're using the Guildmaster's Guide to Ravinica backgrounds including the expanded class spell lists. The Rakdos Cultist or Boros Legionnaire both include wall of fire among other top picks, like Hellish Rebuke, burning hands, and flaming sphere for Rakdos Cultist and aid and scorching ray for Boros Legionnaire. This gets the wall of fire 10 ft push back trap at Level 7 instead of Level 13. I really like the build options the expanded class lists built into the backgrounds offer, I wish this type feature was added in as an optional feature to all backgrounds, like maybe an assortment of expanded spell lists that come as a package that you can choose which package to add to your class spell lists as part of your background. Then you probably want something for the non-casters as well or at least a different choice not involving expanded spells lists.

Thumbs up for the shot of your hometown and mine.

That wall of lighting is awesome. It would be great if you had a teammate cast spirit guardians or spike growth to lower there movement speed.

I played a build similar to this a while ago in a 13th level one shot, only i was able to get headband of intellect which made the build much less MAD, and it was a ton of fun to play

Glyph of Warding is also an option for a 3rd level spell that references lightning damage. I, too, would keep lightning bolt around for upcasting, but GoW is an option.

Loved the build! In a one-shot campaign starting at LVL 12, what would you change? stats?

I think that if I were to play this character, I'd work with my DM such that they would have spent the first 6 levels as a standard Cleric with an ample Wisdom score and "only" 13 Intelligence. Then, right as they reach level 7, they find and attune to a Headband of Intellect. When they put it on, they can suddenly see connections and possibilities they'd never imagined before... and begin frantically scribbling notes EVERYWHERE. (Also, would 100% flavor Telekinetic as manipulating the wind.)

Hey Chris. When considering the build for this video, did you consider the armorer artifcer infiltrator mode?

I am getting ready to run a Storm Sorcerer 11 / Tempest Cleric 2 right now, and I rolled good wisdom and charisma, so it works for me. Close-quarters blaster caster with spells to augment defenses (Shield, Absorb Elements) and spells for good damage (cone of cold, chain lightning, fireball, thunder wave), as well as some utility (fly, feather fall, gust of wind). A pretty good turn for this character would be to Quicken Mind Sliver, then Empower a saving throw damage spell like Chain Lightning (doesn't work if you need to also Transmute the spell). If you happen to be concentrating on Bane, all the better - an average of -5 to the target's save against a max-damage spell. Going Cleric 6 is fun for pushing enemies, but I just can't pass up those higher level spells!

The sorcerer build is possible with Transmuted Spell metamagic. You can use this to change Thunderwave, Wall of Fire, etc to Lightning.

2 tempest cleric/x order of scribes wizard. The wizard spell list has great and versatile lightning spells available at every spell level with the exception of 5th level spells. The issue with mixing up character levels for me would be that the more even the level split, the less your high level slots can be used for the theme. For example, a 6 tempest cleric/7 order of scribes wizard would have access to 7th level spell slots, but would only be able to change damage types of spells using spell slots up to 4th level. This is because the roll type change is limited by what you have in your wizard spell book, and you can’t have over a 4th level spell in your book because of the rules. This means your 5th, 6th, and 7th level spell slots can’t be used and also change damage types. Glyph of warding could be your level 3 lightning spell instead of lightning bolt. It actually covers acid, fire, cold, lightning, and thunder damage for a bit more versatility. This build makes wall of fire(lightning) awesome like you talked about. Not only is there the forced movement you can use to put creatures in the center of the wall for more damage almost guaranteed, but with manifest mind you can float it above the center and still be able to target those creatures. The wall of fire blocks sight both ways, so this is normally not possible. I’d rather do a Dao genie warlock, a fathomless warlock, or a gravity wizard for focusing on forced movement though.

Both this one and the Stormlord builds are fantastic, it would be fun to revisit the tactics of the lightning pushers I think

A good pick up with this and many other builds if DM allows is The uncommon magic item “Mizzium Apparatus” from one of the MTG books or a similar homebrew replacement. Allows you to cast spells you don’t have prepared as long as you have the spell slots for it. Perfect for multiclassing as you can cast higher level spells with it.

I've played a Tempest Cleric/Divine Sorcerer a few times now. It's fun at low levels, and a blast at high levels. I start Cleric 2, the rest is Sorcerer. Grab the new Elemental Metamagic from Tasha's and you're off to the races.

Nothing about this build clicked until the wall on the grid. You’re the epitome of lawful evil, my guy.

I have something similar. What I did was took the classic cleric and sorcorer, but instead of being a storm cleric, my tactic is high damage spell and the transmuted spell metamagic. Instead of fireball, take a max damage, up casted LIGHTNING ALL!

You're from Calgary? That is awesome. Great city.

The spider in the fire circle can exit out the back. Your push ability says you can push things away from you. Not away from where they enter the damage.

0:30 i have had the same though myself sometimes, but sorcerer was not my prefered option for this build. in my theoretical version of it, i went for evocation wizard (scribe didn't exist at the time). i guess blue dragon sorcerer could also somewhat work

The other fun with the lightning fire shield, You can also use your reaction for the cleric lightning and push back twice from one hit.

I've played 2 bronze dragonborn tempest clerics, auto-max damage breath weapon is just so much fun to role play!

That's pretty fun. I kinda want to drop some difficult terrain inside that lightning wall trick just to eat up more movement, but it's probably not worth it b/c the cheapest thing I can think to do it with is Erupting Earth.

I'm playing a storm sorc multiclass with tempest cleric. Started the campaign before tashas came out, but the dm allows me to change every spell to storm related stuff, as soon as I come up against something immune to lightning though, I'm screwed.

Unrelated to the video but about Wizards: Wall of Force can be used just about as well as Forcecage, the only improvements I see are that it doesn't take concentration (I'll come back to that), and that it forces a saving throw for magically leaving. The radius of a Wall of Force is 10 feet, which means it's a sphere 20 feet long end to end, so unless a creature is particularly cuboid, it should fit just as well as a Forcecage. You say Forcecage is useful because you can get magical effects in, and also you can use your concentration on them, but you can do a very similar thing with a Wall of Force. The thing is, you can cast spells into Wall of Force, it's transparent, some spells can be cast on a point you can see within range. There is indeed a damage over time spell that can be cast through transparent walls and does not require concentration, it is Mordenkainen's Faithful Hound. Though when using Faithful Hound, you must size the WoF to fit the creature, otherwise it may go out of range. As a side note, if any of your party members have Silence (it's not available to wizards sadly), it can be cast on the WoF/Forcecage to prevent all teleportation spells and the Disintegrate spell as a bonus. You may have heard the above information already, but I've heard you talk about WoF and Forcecage several times without you bringing it up, so it is what it is.

Love it.

Scribes wizard. Magic missile + witch bolt(or thunderwave) = lightning missile Shatter + dragons breath = thunder breath Lightning bolt + fireball = lightning ball (or spirit shroud? Might need to double check rules, that doesnt feel like it should work) Elemental bane + wall of fire = wall of lightning And then no lightning/thunder 5th level spells I feel like this isnt the best, but it adds some fun and fits the flavour of a character who always does lightning and thunder.

Good video, sweet build :) correct me if I’m wrong though, can’t the enemy in the wall of lightning just go north instead and not worry about being pushed inside - since you only can get pushed away from you?

Sorcerer meta magic transmute damage turns Fireball into lightning ball. Also can max thunder damage ase well. Scribes wizard also allows you to change damage type without using a resource. So a 2 level dip in tempest gets you heavy weapon and armor proficiency as well as the channel divinity. Wrath of the storm is a decent reaction at least at lower levels. I think you can make it work pretty well even if it isn't maybe optimized

I'm wondering about ascendant dragon monks. A 6 level investment isn't a dip, but I think you could really make use of moving enemies around with superior movement and spirit guardians

Colby's Ashardalon Strider likely has some inspiration from this one.

What about a combination between tempest cleric and circle of the land (mountain gets lightning bolt) druid? It wouldn't depend on as many ability scores for spell casting

The opener describing tempest/storm characters was fantastically shady and hooked me instantly.

hey I really like your videos. Could you please make one about the grappling-focused builds?

I love the creativity here, but it seems to sacrifice so much for a rather limited trick. Comes online at high level and is lackluster before then, doesn't affect anything bigger than large, and even then they can leave things like the wall trap by flying/burrowing/sightless teleport/high speed.

Would love to see one on fire damage. Draconic bloodline Sorc, Light Cleric, Celestial Warlock, Evocation Wiz all add modifiers, although with different stat scalings. What would be the best combination for big fire spells? Edit: Wildfire Druid gets it too as someone noted.

Thoughts to twist this build. Arshardalon"s Stride lightning damage and the 10' push to everyone along a path! Or Combine Tempest cleric with ascendent dragon monk (no longer mad) and the punch someone anywhere with lightning fists.

There is also the idea of Transmuted Spells metamagic and spells like armor of agathys or fire shield, switching the damage to lightning. It could be a sweet idea, but I'm not sure how to approach it.

Fun build TM, but as it come online in Tier 3 and you won't be able to cast lvl 9 spells, how would you continue the progression? Going full wizard? More cleric levels? Which spells would be good choices at higher levels? I have never played a full caster so heavily multiclassed in 5e.

Hmm Chris, from your sky line it seems I live just a bit south of you in Kingston.

How about bestow curse and scorching ray? Switch both types to lightning (+1d8 necrotic => lightning damage / attack). Does every ray push back 20ft?

Magic missile, tempest pushing, and spike growth=15d4+3 damage?

If you are willing to go with the Ravnica or Strixhaven backgrounds you can cast spiritual guardians as a Wizard... doing lightning damage.

Very cool

I preferred just 2 levels in Tempest cleric rest in Scribes wizard. The heavy armor, Utility cantrips, extra Spells known, minor reaction for low levels, and finally short rest maximize spell 12 levels lower than evocation wizard is worth it. Playing one ATM and low teir was decent, the 2 level delay damage wise was negligible.

So what about just doing tempest claric 20 take magic initiate for booming blade and lightning lure and metamagic adept for the element change. Sure can only change a spell type a couple times with it, but should still work fine.

Can't the spider exit out the back or side of the gift shop? It's pushed away from you, not away from the source of damage, so it'd be ejected by the knockback.

for the lightning wall trap couldn't it escape away from you since the lightning push away is away from YOU specifically?

I think you've somewhat underestimated the synergy of Storm Sorcerer's Heart of the Storm with Tempest Cleric's heavy armor + shield proficiency. On its own, Storm Sorc is too squishy and low AC to be so close to enemies and utilize that feature. I'd actually never dare do that with a solo-class Storm sorc. However, with a plate armor (assuming you can manage to get 1500 gold pieces) and shield in hand + Shield or Absorb Elements spells if needed, you are much more resilient even with low HP, able to withstand taking some damage to dish out a little bit of extra. It doesn't seem like much, but those little +3 or more guaranteed damage bonuses add up quickly over time. Sure, you don't deal massive damage with a single spell all the time, but with the added extra bit of guaranteed damage from Storm Sorc as well as Tempest Cleric's reaction damage, you are able to have a pretty consistent damage output round after round, even if doing nothing but first and second level spells. In a way, you're a frontline hybrid between a nova and a DPR-caster, you kind do both things 75% competently, which makes you able to fit several primary and secondary combat roles. I will yield to you it's not the best blaster out there, far from it. That's part of the wider 5e problem, outside of fire damage, there's really not that many options for blaster-casters. There are far better combinations that do a lot more damage and more battlefield control, but if someone wants to play a lightning specialist, I don't think that person would be disappointed with a Storm Sorc/Tempest Cleric combo, especially if Transmuted Metamagic is allowed, which, judging by the poll on my Community tab, most DMs would allow.. Your build here is, in comparison, built for a different, albeit similar purpose. I don't think it's even fair to compare the two of them. I personally don't like 50/50 splits, unless it's a Tier 3 or 4 one-shot, which you even said this build is best suited for. But, it's more a personal preference rather than an objective fact. To each their own, theorycrafting is interesting because multiple opinions can co-exist and nobody is necessarily right or wrong, as long as the end user is having a blast during a session, literally and figuratively.

its funny this build inspired a character im about to play but its sorcerer 3 / cleric x. since spirit guardians scales so well and transmute is an elegant option for changings damage types it actually is a faster road towards lightning push concentration tactics albeit not as potent.

Regarding the Wall of Fire(Lightning), the wall ALSO has the 10 foot "broiler" on one side of the wall. So what would happen if you put the hazard side on the INSIDE of the circle? Would the creature just basically pinball around the inside of the wall until it's dead?

The exact build I was looking for, does anyone know if there’s a subclass for a fighting type class that can use electric elemental enhanced swords and attacks? Like a hex blade warlock but with electricity out the wazoo

I think there might be one minor issue with the wall of fire trick, which is that Thunderbolt Strike only pushes enemies away from you. If an enemy uses their movement to move out of the circle to either the back or sides, you push is then helping them escape. This is pretty minor given that they have willingly moved away from you and your party to make this work, but it does limit the trapping ability of the spell somewhat. Seems like you might be better off with a plain old wall instead of the circle so that it s harder to go around, even if the damage will be lower.

Human Shock Jock... got to find a way to put Stern in his name somewhere.

Why not clockwork sorcerer with metamagic transmute spell?

35:20 What if this creature inside the wall of fire just go the other way? You can only push it away from you, so if it will go up pushing effect will not keep it in the wall, in fact it will help it escape the area.

Great, played the thurlist (spelling) UA, with this and yeah that was broke, but was limited to lightning bolt... Don’t quite get why grab lightning bolt, if upcasting counts... the absorb elements has you covered...

If you multi class with tempest cleric and sorcerer, and cast a twin spell, would both spells be maximized by your channel devinety?

With magic missile "only" rolling one dice and applying damage to all darts, would you consider elemental adept for this build?

What's the first level wizard spell that deals lightning? Did I miss that? You need it to convert your other first level spells to lightning damage.

3:11 They don't get a saving throw when they move through the wall, they just take the damage automatically, so even better ;)

Yes, but I can understand this but with Tasha’s new meta magic abilities with sorcerer. They can use sorcery points to make the abundance of fire spell and some cold spells into spells that do lightning damage. So if you have a 17th level spec and 2nd level cleric your can cast meteor swarm and do 120 damage plus a bunch of bludgeoning. Or you could use high level flame blade and with haste from fellow party member or yourself you can do 72 damage and with crits even more each then.

Artificer's need more lightning spells. I know you can flavor your spells however you want, but iunno lightning just feels right for the class. Sadly there are only about half a dozen lightning spells total. Of those the 'neatest' is probably chain lightning. Not a lot of utility spells that include lighting which, makes a certain amount of sense but eh. I always like playing in a dynamic setting where things can progress and adapt. That's personal preference and I know not everyone has the same viewpoint. One thing I've noticed in 5e is there aren't a lot of inter party combo potential beyond knocking prone/graple. or flanking. In fact it's like the devs specifically tried to limit them. Grease isn't even flammable. I love 5e, I do. However the 'simplicity' of the system sometimes feels stifling.

couldnt you do scibe wizard tempest cleric combo? in theory you could change the damage type of multiple spells that have incredibly high damage numbers. like in theory at level 20(19 wizard, 1 cleric) you could cast meteor swarm, change both damage types to lightning, channel divinity and do a literal 240 flat damage no rolls, in i think like a 40ft area, i could be wrong but i think that is possible unless there is something specifically written in the rules im not aware of. im pretty sure the tempest cleric channel divinity says nothing about the spell being super charged needing to be base lightning damage, it just says that any spell with lightning damage, and since scribe wizard can change the damage type i dont see why it wouldnt apply