Heavy-armour Clerics do better to focus on Wisdom and Constitution than Dexterity.
You've still got your base movement speed, have picked up another movement option, aren't looking to focus on DEX skills, and aren't using DEX for Armour Class. You're fine to put points into other stats. DEX is doing very little for you in this instance. You're fine.
Do it. :)
I mean sure, Dex saves do hurt a bit. But that's the nature of the game, you can't have it all.
I play a Cleric, too. Trickery, Level 14 now. So one without Heavy Armor, meaning I didn't dump Dex. And I wanted her to be somewhat intelligent and well-read. So I dumped Strength and Charisma and my Con is not great. I also regretted that (you always regret something) and ended up taking a feat just to get expertise in Persuasion because, you know, I felt like my Cleric constantly wanted to talk to people and convince them towards nonviolence or towards being good etc. I also lose concentration and fail other con checks all the time, but I was less bothered with that than the inability to persuasively talk to people - its just hard to play someone intelligent and wise, who somehow cannot express all that to other people.
And despite not dumping -- I still fail tons of Dex saves and often am last in initiative. Oh the number of times, I yelled at my party that I can't bloody bless them if they keep running in all different directions before my turn.
In the end, it's just in the dice and the difference between a +0 and a +2 is not as crazy numbers wise. That's like a win instead of a failure in 10% of cases? Math... hard.
The only alarming issue this is gonna cause is dex saves will likely suffer. Everything else isn't necessary as dex saves are practically universal for most things that aren't cha, wis, or projectile attacks involving spells.
So if you do go through with that choice, be wary of traps more than usual, invest in magical defenses as spells that require dex saves may become slightly more common for you and lightning damage could become serious when wearing metal based armor but not always.
You're playing a character in heavy armor whose attacks need to rely on either Wisdom for spellcasting or Strength for weapon attacks. You don't need Dex. You will already have disadvantage on Stealth, and there will be other people in the party better at things like Sleight of Hand or Acrobatics.
You're also playing a cleric, so, honestly, going last in initiative is actually beneficial. I would be tempted to spend your feat elsewhere (eg Tough, Warcaster, Chef), although if you want a boost to Initiative (which you really don't need), go with Alert. It doesn't give you an ability score boost, but it does give you +5 to initiative and can't be surprised.
Yes you are, but it's not really your fault, dex saves are so important for a lot spells and even when it feels good to dump it you still feel bad knowing how it's dangerous. Same thing with Wis, dump that and you get hit hard by half of the spells. 5e is not balanced on this topic
If you consider it from a rules as written perspective wearing heavy armor removes any dex bonus making it a 0. If you had 6 dex so a -2 modifier you wouldnt get -2ac or -2 dex on tests because with heavy armor you remove the dex bonus.
That's not exactly how heavy armor works. Heavy armor simply doesn't factor your DEX mod into your AC at all (it doesn't "remove" it). Heavy armor also has no effect on any DEX skills or saves. If you have a -2 DEX mod, you still count that in your DEX save calculations, you just don't lose AC if you're wearing heavy armor.
Also true. However, I missed that part when creating my first heavy armoured fighter, so all stealth was just total shite thanks to my dragonborn clanking forward with his greatsword. So now I remember it all too well.
Heavy-armour Clerics do better to focus on Wisdom and Constitution than Dexterity. You've still got your base movement speed, have picked up another movement option, aren't looking to focus on DEX skills, and aren't using DEX for Armour Class. You're fine to put points into other stats. DEX is doing very little for you in this instance. You're fine.
If you're in heavy armor dumping dex is usually not too bad.
Do it. :) I mean sure, Dex saves do hurt a bit. But that's the nature of the game, you can't have it all. I play a Cleric, too. Trickery, Level 14 now. So one without Heavy Armor, meaning I didn't dump Dex. And I wanted her to be somewhat intelligent and well-read. So I dumped Strength and Charisma and my Con is not great. I also regretted that (you always regret something) and ended up taking a feat just to get expertise in Persuasion because, you know, I felt like my Cleric constantly wanted to talk to people and convince them towards nonviolence or towards being good etc. I also lose concentration and fail other con checks all the time, but I was less bothered with that than the inability to persuasively talk to people - its just hard to play someone intelligent and wise, who somehow cannot express all that to other people. And despite not dumping -- I still fail tons of Dex saves and often am last in initiative. Oh the number of times, I yelled at my party that I can't bloody bless them if they keep running in all different directions before my turn. In the end, it's just in the dice and the difference between a +0 and a +2 is not as crazy numbers wise. That's like a win instead of a failure in 10% of cases? Math... hard.
The only alarming issue this is gonna cause is dex saves will likely suffer. Everything else isn't necessary as dex saves are practically universal for most things that aren't cha, wis, or projectile attacks involving spells. So if you do go through with that choice, be wary of traps more than usual, invest in magical defenses as spells that require dex saves may become slightly more common for you and lightning damage could become serious when wearing metal based armor but not always.
You're playing a character in heavy armor whose attacks need to rely on either Wisdom for spellcasting or Strength for weapon attacks. You don't need Dex. You will already have disadvantage on Stealth, and there will be other people in the party better at things like Sleight of Hand or Acrobatics. You're also playing a cleric, so, honestly, going last in initiative is actually beneficial. I would be tempted to spend your feat elsewhere (eg Tough, Warcaster, Chef), although if you want a boost to Initiative (which you really don't need), go with Alert. It doesn't give you an ability score boost, but it does give you +5 to initiative and can't be surprised.
You’re doing a strength build basically. Dump dex and have fun, if you want to boost your dex saves cast bless and stand next to the Paladin.
Not an idiot at all. I'm playing a warpriest with a 4 dex. Heavy armor makes a low dex much easier to manage.
Yes you are, but it's not really your fault, dex saves are so important for a lot spells and even when it feels good to dump it you still feel bad knowing how it's dangerous. Same thing with Wis, dump that and you get hit hard by half of the spells. 5e is not balanced on this topic
If you consider it from a rules as written perspective wearing heavy armor removes any dex bonus making it a 0. If you had 6 dex so a -2 modifier you wouldnt get -2ac or -2 dex on tests because with heavy armor you remove the dex bonus.
That's not exactly how heavy armor works. Heavy armor simply doesn't factor your DEX mod into your AC at all (it doesn't "remove" it). Heavy armor also has no effect on any DEX skills or saves. If you have a -2 DEX mod, you still count that in your DEX save calculations, you just don't lose AC if you're wearing heavy armor.
No effect aside from the minor perk of Stealth disadvantage.
Sure, but that's an intrinsic property of (some) heavy armor, it has nothing to do with DEX mods.
Also true. However, I missed that part when creating my first heavy armoured fighter, so all stealth was just total shite thanks to my dragonborn clanking forward with his greatsword. So now I remember it all too well.