Build your Cleric
"Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" -
These Dnd 5e guides are focused on the mechanics of the game, especially combat. D&D 5e being a ROLE-PLAYING game, a player can have fun playing any combination of race and class they find interesting, regardless of its effectiveness. Without lessening any other approach to the game, these guides are aimed at those who want information about the effectiveness of certain aspects of the classes and the pros-cons of the various decisions that punctuate the character’s growth.
5/5 Gold
4/5 Blue
3/5 Green
2/5 Purple
1/5 Red
When gods walk among men, their will and power made manifest in the mortal realms, Jehova’s witnesses become a lot more annoying and harder to deal with.
Cleric is the OG divine caster class, able to channel the power of the gods in a form similar to the arcane spells of wizards and sorcerers, providing prevalently support and healing effects.
In D&D 5e, divine domains confer many more benefits other than an expanded spell list, acting as the ‘subclass’ and one of the most important choices when customizing a cleric.
Class Features
Level 1
2/5 Hit Dice. d8, clerics oftenly spend more time in the front lines compared to other casters, and this hit die does not help with that.
4/5 Medium armor proficiency. Good place to start and it’s easily extended to heavy armor with some domain features. No more free heavy armor proficiency, though.
2/5 Simple Weapon Proficiency. While it’s easy to gain more proficiencies through domains as well, the default weapons list is very limited.
4/5 Saving Throws Proficiency. WIS and CHA, better than it looks, but still vulnerable against many common hazards such as poisons and Fireballs.
Spellcasting: See related section
Divine Domain: See related section
Level 2
3/5 Channel Divinity. Effectiveness varies between domains, but it’s consistently strong agains the ever present undead.
Level 5
2/5 Destroy Undead. Useful only against hordes of extremely weak undead. Makes you look really cool when it works.
Level 10
Divine Intervention. Stupidly inconsistent before getting to level 20. Only consider it as a last resort in a desperate situation. Once the capstone is reached, however, it becomes an extremely powerful tool.
ABILITY SCORES
It’s mandatory for any caster to prioritize their spellcasting stat (WIS for cleric) when leveling in order to improve spell save DC and attack bonus. Since weapon and armor proficiencies are strictly linked to the domain choice, the importance of raising DEX and STR varies greatly.
3/5 Strength. Importance based mostly on domain and build.
3/5 Dexterity. Third place if you don’t get heavy armor proficiency from your domain. Not very relevant otherwise, unless going for finesse weapons.
4/5 Constitution. Second most important stat, durability is important.
1/5 Intelligence. There’s literally only one class that wants this and it’s not this one.
5/5 Wisdom. Top priority stat to improve your spells.
1/5 Charisma. Let your gods do the talking.
RACES
“You have 5 seconds to tell me the name of a single gnomish deity”
Disclaimer: We want to mention somewhere the possibility to ignore WIS in favor of other stats like STR when looking at ability score increases and racial bonuses. Doing this requires carefully selecting prepared spells that do not have saving throws or attack rolls, such as heals and buffs.
We think that, while it’s possible to do this, the ability score flexibility is not worth the massive loss in versatility due to the reduced number of viable spells.
For brevity’s sake we are not going to take in consideration this type of builds in our ratings.
5/5 Hill Dwarf. Perfect for the War Domain and for fisticuffs in general thanks to Dwarven Combat Training.
Dwarven Resilience is also awesome: healers aren’t supposed to die.
3/5 Mountain Dwarf. The lack of a WIS bonus is noticeable and clerics already have medium armor proficiency. Still, you can do far worse than +2 STR +2 CON.
2/5 High Elf. Unless you’re wearing heavy armors, +2 DEX is very welcome, while the INT bonus is completely useless. Grants some extra weapon proficiencies, but if you really want those just go with the next race.
5/5 Wood Elf. WIS +1 and Elf Weapon Training make this an excellent class for cleric builds focused on Dexterity.
2/5 Drow. Slightly worse than high elf, Sunlight Sensibility can be very annoying and the additional abilities don’t really make up for it.
2/5 Lightfoot Halfling. We don’t need CHA, even if Lucky is pretty good.
3/5 Stout Halfling. Better than the Lightfoot counterpart thanks to its CON, but you still want a WIS bonus somewhere.
2/5 Human. Suffers a lot from competing with its variant. SPOILER: this rank will not be different for any other class.
5/5 Human (variant). 5e’s feats are much stronger and give more impactful bonuses than in the past. They aren’t mandatory for casters, but you can still find some really good ones, like Lucky, War Caster, Resilient (CON) or Great Weapon Master if you plan on using 2-handed wapons.
2/5 Dragonborn. Dragons are better at being worshipped rather than worship and so do their descendants.
1/5 Forest Gnome. +2 INT and no WIS? Next.
1/5 Rock Gnome. +2 INT and no WIS? Skip.
4/5 Half-Elf. One of the best races in the Player’s Handbook, enough to make us tolerate its +2 CHA thanks to its traits and the flexible extra ability score +1.
3/5 Half-Orc. Nice for direct combat builds, like War Domain characters.
1/5 Tiefling. Stats are a real mess. The only appealing features are its fire resistance and the perceived correlation to satanism.
Tortle Package
5/5 Tortle. +2 STR & WIS, minimum AC fixed to 17. Absolutely amazing.
Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
2/5 Duergar. No WIS. STR +2 and COS +1 can still be useful for War Domain, but Sunlight Sensibility really makes it hard to recommend this race.
5/5 Ghostwise Halfling. +2 DEX +1 WIS, possibly the best Halfling. Lucky allows you to ignore those pesky nat 1, while Silent Speech can be really helpful.
Half-elf Variant. Losing 2 skills in exchange for Elf Weapon Training can be a good idea for DEX builds using short swords and bows. Cantrips gives access tto stuff like Message and Minor Illusion (ignore spells that require attack rolls, as they are only affected by INT). All other options are useless.
1/5 Tiefling Variant. Nothing worthwhile, but the Winged variant’s ability to fly is noteworthy.
Elemental evil
5/5 Aarakocra. Undoubtedly in the top 3 races for the class: DEX +2, WIS +1 and F L I G H T.
1/5 Deep Gnome. Not even the gods can stand gnomes.
Genasi. +2 CON is great for any character.
2/5 Air genasi. Skills are interesting but no WIS is a problem.
2/5 Earth genasi. +1 STR makes this race a slightly better fighter, but the other features aren’t very impressive.
1/5 Fire genasi. Worst element. It’s hard to learn the holy scriptures when yours keep catching fire.
5/5 Water genasi. Excellent spellcaster: +1 WIS, Acid Resistance and some extra spells
Volo’s Guide to Monsters
Aasimar. Ironically, not a good choice despite being the holiest playable race, since their +2 CHA is wasted. The extra features are impressive though: Healing Hands and Celestial Resistance especially.
4/5 Protector aasimar. The best subrace choice, with +1 WIS and Radiant Soul. In case you haven’t noticed yet, flight is pretty valuable.
1/5 Scourge aasimar. Sir, paladin school is the third door on the right down the hallway.
1/5 Fallen aasimar. Blackguards’ is downstairs, next to the cafeteria.
5/5 Firbolg. Absolute bringer of slaps.
The only race with +2 WIS at base, with nice features to boot.
2/5 Goliath. Best suited for those who want some extra durability, but even then goliaths get easily overshadowed by Half-Orcs, Centaurs, Firbolgs and Simic Hybrids.
5/5 Kenku. +2 DEX +1 WIS, excellent stats for a variety of builds. Extra proficiencies are always welcome and Mimicry is a versatile out of combat skill.
5/5 Lizardfolk. +2 CON +1 WIS, perfect stats for a spellcaster. Lots of additional skills, the best of which are Hunter’s Lore and Hungry Jaws.
2/5 Tabaxi. +2 DEX +1 CHA. Cool but no WIS.
3/5 Triton. If you want to make a cleric of Poseidon. Best paired with a domain that gives martial weapons proficiency.
2/5 Bugbear. In this case +1 CON would have been better than the +1 DEX Fun Fact: Inflict Wounds with 10ft range is pretty cool.
2/5 Goblin. Too cowardly to make themselves heard by the gods, still +1 CON and Nimble Escape.
1/5 Hobgoblin. Too ugly to make themselves heard by the gods.
1/5 Kobold. Too cowardly and ugly to make themselves heard by the gods.
2/5 Orc. Worse off without a human half, but they’re good brawlers.
2/5 Yuan-ti. Not red thanks to their absurd skills.
Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
1/5 Tiefling. Not in my christian blog!
2/5 Eladrin. +2 DEX +1 CHA. Fey Step can’t be ignored, but we can do way better.
3/5 Sea Elf. +2 DEX +1 CON, decent stat spread, but the rest isn’t really that great.
.4/5 Shadar Kai: +2 DEX +1 CON, much better thanks to Necrotic Resistance and Blessing of the Raven Queen.
2/5 Githyanki. +2 STR and +1 INT, at least the spells are neat.
4/5 Githzeray. +2 WIS and good spells, too bad for the INT bonus.
Guildmaster’s Guide to Ravnica
5/5 Centaur. +2 STR +1 WIS. Brutal melee clerics. Charge gives an extra attack under certain conditions, which is really apreciated.
5/5 Loxodon. +2 CON +1 WIS, Excellent for any kind of build. Loxodon Serenity makes your willpower unbreakable. Additionally, you can hold your material focus with your proboscis, if both your hands are full.
3/5 Minotaur. Even without WIS. deserves praise as a great frontliner: Goring Rush is compatible with Divine Strike and Hammering Horns is a nice option.
5/5 Simic Hybrid. A race that excels in all fields, on par with Human Variant and Half-Elf. +2 CON e +1 to any stat of your choice (WIS), Darkvision and the versatile Animal Enhancement:
- 4/5 Manta Glide. Gliding isn’t the same as flying, but it’s good regardless.
- 4/5 Nimble Climber. Climbing is very useful as well.
- 1/5 Underwater Adaptation: Consider this only if you foresee an underwater campaign in the near future.
- 2/5 Grappling Appendages. More often than not a very risky choice.
- 5/5 Carapace. Simple and effective. Obviously useless if you plan on wearing heavy armors.
- 1/5 Acid Spit. Toll the Dead is more than enough for damage.
5/5 Veldaken. One of the few races that manage to be worthwhile despite an INT bonus, thanks to Veldaken Dispassion: advantage against mental Saving Throws, because science. The extra language and proficiencies are the cherry on top.
Eberron: Rising from the Last War
2/5 Changeling. Shapechanger and +1 WIS are nice, but not enough to make up for the +2 CHA.
5/5 Kalashtar. as a counter-example, +2 WIS, Advantage on WIS saving throws (even if a bit redundant) and two-way Telepathy definitely make up for the CHA bonus.
Shifter. Varied and interesting subraces, but the Wildhunt is the only one we’re interested in.
- 5/5 WildHunt. +2 WIS +1 DEX, Shifting Feature isn’t great but it’s far from useless.
5/5 Warforged. +2 CON +1 wherever (WIS). Turns out having customization options in a race makes it really good: +1 AC, Constructed Resilience and Additional tool proficiency are possibly the best ones.
Dragonmarks: short explanation.
Dragonmarks for Humans and Half-Orcs are considered as race variants and replace the base features.
Dragonmarks for Half-Elves only replace Ability Score Increase and Skill Versatility, while all other traits, such as resistances/immunities are still present.
Dragonmarks for Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Halflings replace their subrace features.
Each mark wil be displayed together with the related house and races.
Dragonmarks also provide extra spells, creating a huge variety of unexplored class/race combos.
To keep the guide under 600 pages, we are NOT gonna cover those combinations in detail.
5/5 Mark of Detection [Half-Elf, House Medani]. +2 WIS + 1 free, for high versatility. Gives Invisibility and practically all spells starting with ‘detect’. Perfect for the Domain of Knowledge.
5/5 Mark of Finding [Human or Half-Orc, House Tharashk]. Excellent stats! Spells are meh, except Faerie Fire.
5/5 Mark of Handling [Human, House Vadalis]. +2 WIS +1 free. The spells are obviously druid oriented, but Calm Emotions, Aura of Vitality and Awaken are fun and useful.
3/5 Mark of Healing [Halfling, House Jorasco]. Stats would be good, but the spells are entirely redundant.
1/5 Mark of Hospitality [Halfling , House Ghallanda]. No WIS, no biz.
2/5 Mark of Making [Human, House Cannith]. +2 INT + 1 free. INT is useless and the spells aren’t that great.
5/5 Mark of Passage [Human, House Orien]. +2 DEX +1 free with a mix of mobility and defensive spells.
1/5 Mark of Scribing [Gnome, House Sivis]. Horrible.
5/5 Mark of Sentinel [Human, House Deneith]. Good stuff for a frontliner. Unfortunately, many of the spells are already in your list.
1/5 Mark of Shadows [Elf, Houses Phiarann and Thuranni]. Nope
1/5 Mark of Storm [Half-Elf, House Lyrandar]. No WIS, just stick with the Storm Domain if you want to play Thor.
1/5 Mark of Warding [Dwarf, House Kundarak]. All Wrong.
Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
3/5 Ravenite Dragonborn. +2 STR +1 CON, breath weapon and a counter. Excellent candidate for War Domain and similar.
1/5 Draconblood Dragonborn. Intelligent and elegant, with an unfortunate predisposition to atheism.
5/5 Lotusden Halfling. +2 DEX +1 WIS, spells are nothing to write home about except Spike Growth but it’s an overall good choice.
5/5 Pallid Elf. Wonderful: +2 DEX +1 WIS, Invisibility and other mildly interesting stuff.
5/5 Hollow One. Technically, not a proper ‘race’, but a set of features you can add to your character upon being resurrected after dying. Cling to Life recovers 1 hp on a 16+ roll on a death save and Unsettling Presence gives disadvantage to Saving Throws to a target. Spectacular.
Mythic Odisseys of Theros
5/5 Leonin. +1 STR +2 CON: Excellent fighters with an extra proficiency and a ‘fear’ effect based on your CON.
2/5 Satyr. Clerics of Dyonisus spend more time drinking than praying, as it should be. Magic Resistance would be really good, if the race had a WIS bonus.
Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft
How the new lineages works. Lineages are chosen on top of a race and replace every trait except skill proficiencies and climbing, flying or swimming speed. You can increase an ability score that you choose by 2 and another one by 1, or three ability score by 1. Because of that, the lineages are gold by default. For the chads minmaxers, choose an Aarackocra as a race so you retain the flying speed.
5/5 Dhampyr. The only race with permanent Spider Climb, absolutely fantastic. They also don’t need to breathe and can bite to regain hp or get a bonus to the next roll.
5/5 Hexblood. Spooky race which can give one of his tooth to an ally to telepathically communicate with him or see what he sees. Useful for scouting or infiltration. Plus this race can cast Disguise Self or Hex once for long rest. Hex is an useful battle spell, perfect to ramp up the damage of weapon-based builds
5/5 Reborn. Dudes who faced death and don’t want to repeat the experience: resistance to poison and disease,advantage on death saving throw, immunity to magic-induced sleep, and no need to eat, breathe or drink. Plus they can add a d6 to any ability check, initiative included, a number of times equal to proficiencies bonus.
DIVINE DOMAINS
“Tell me who you wordhip and I will tell you how much of a heretic you are.”
3/5 Knowledge Domain
“I have an approximate knowledge of MANY things.”
Domain focused on intelligence gathering and skill checks. Useful outside of combat, but a bit situational.
3/5 Extra spells. While Identify, Suggestion and Arcane Eye are really good, most other spells, like Legend Lore, are very situational.
2/5 Blessings of Knowledge. Double proficiency bonus is always great, even if it’s a bit wasted on knowledge based skills.
4/5 Channel Divinity. Knowledge of the Ages. Proficiency on a skill or tool for 10 minutes. Good versatility at a high cost.
4/5 Channel Divinity. Read Thoughts. Replaces the mind probing effect of Detect Thoughts with a free Suggestion, not bad.
4/5 Potent Spellcasting. Finally something for combat: add WIS on cantrips damage. Magic-focused domain gain this feature.
2/5 Visions of the Past. Allows to see the near past events concerning an object or area. Situational, but useful in the right campaign.
5/5 War Domain
“Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!”
Domain completely focused on combat. The low versatility is more than compensated by the amount of violence and resistance it is capable of.
4/5 Extra Spells. Great offensive spells, such as Spirit Guardian, Spiritual Weapon and Hold Monster
5/5 Bonus Proficiencies. Heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency. Absolutely vital to be relevant in combat.
5/5 War Priest. An extra attack at such low levels is amazing, enough to make the War Cleric the best fighter at low levels.
4/5 Channel Divinity. Guided Strike. +10 on an attack roll. When you REALLY need to hit something. Works on spells too.
4/5 Channel Divinity. War God’s Blessing. +10 on someone else’s an attack roll. When somebody else REALLY needs to hit something. Works on spells too.
4/5 Divine Strike. A permanent and consistent damage bonus. Works well with War Priest. Martial-based domains share this feature.
4/5 Avatar of Battle. Resistance from non-magical damage is great, even if you get access to it a lot later than barbarians.
2/5 Trickery Domain
Power Word: Homeopathy
“Stealth” cleric option. Unfortunately not specialized enough to truly succeed in the field.
4/5 Extra Spells. advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. The best part of this domain: Mirror Image, Dispel Magic, Polymorph, Dimension Door and Dominate Person are all excellent spells.
3/5 Blessing of the Trickster. Advantage on stealth checks for yourself or an ally. Useful in absence of a scout or to help clumsier party members.
2/5 Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity. Summon a illusory copy of the cleric. The main issue is the concentration requirement: there are already lots of better ways to use it for a spellcaster.
3/5 Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows. Invisibility per un turno. A high cost for an effect that lasts a single turn, but it can save lives in dire situations.
2/5 Divine Strike. Poison: the worst element when talking about common monster resistances. You don’t even have the proficiency to apply it to other than simple weapons.
2/5 Improved Duplicity. KAGE BUSHIN NO JUTSU. 4 illusory clones at once when you use Invoke Duplicity. A good buff to an underwhelming ability.
3/5 Light Domain
Pew Pew Pew Pew
An offensive spellcaster, mainly thanks to Fireball. Could have been a laser cleric, but turns out it’s more of a disco ball.
4/5 Extra Spells. Lasers, lasers and fire. Great offensive toolkit, especially Fireball.
1/5 Bonus Cantrip. Light cantrip. It’s basically the same as having a lighter in your pocket.
4/5 Warding Flare. Impose disadvantage on attack directed to yourself. A nice defense against both magic and normal attacks. Bonus points for enabling the Krilin cosplay.
2/5 Channel Divinity: Radiance of Dawn. 2d10 + level damage in a fairly large area. Too few uses and horrible scaling.
3/5 Improved Flare. Now Warding Flare can be used to protect allies.A nice boost, even if the number of uses is still limited.
4/5 Potent Spellcasting: A must for an offensive spellcaster.
4/5 Corona of Light. WAhile already good on it’s own with your Fireball, it benefits all other party members too.
4/5 Nature Domain
Shillelagh is a good spell
For those who really wanted to be a Druid but weren’t ready to give up on their social life. Incredible defensive skillset with some melee sprinkled on. In reality it’s for those who recognize Shillelagh as the One and Only God.
2/5 Extra Spells. Nothing relevant, we’re gonna get Shillelagh anyway.
4/5 Acolyte of Nature. The only reason for not picking Shillelagh is being a druid multiclass and have already learned it. With Shillelagh you can make melee attacks using WIS, allowing to focus on that stat.
4/5 Bonus Proficiencies.Heavy armor, yeah. No martial weapons, but who cares when you got Shillelagh.
2/5 Channel Divinity. Charm Animals and Plants: At best, useful at low levels or in a jungle environment. Doesn’t synergize with Shillelagh.
5/5 Dampen Elements. Shillelagh is my Sword. Dampen Elements is my shield. One of the most powerful defensive effects available to clerics.
5/5 Divine Strike. The only Divine Strike that can adapt it’s element to an enemy’s weakness.
1/5 Master of Nature. Not very useful at such high level, unless you can somehow find a pack of Shillelags.
4/5 Tempest Domain
Prerequisites: proficiency in throwing hammers and helmets with little wings on top.
Offensively oriented domain based on thunder and lightning damage. Nothing else to add, really.
3/5 Extra Spells. Why the F@CK isn’t Lightning there. No, Call Lightning doesn’t count.
5/5 Bonus Proficiencies. ALL the proficiencies.
3/5 Wrath of the Storm. Strong at low levels, but scales poorly. Still, more damage is always nice
4/5 Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath. The reason Lightning is not in the spell list: allows to maximize the damage of a thunder or lightning spell. Shatter and Call Lightning are the best alternatives.
3/5 Thunderous Strike. You can push people around with lightning damage. People literally bounce off you.
4/5 Divine Strike: Yay, more damage!
4/5 Stormborn: Flight is always great. Too bad for the restrictions.
5/5 Life Domain
The best (and only) subclass properly focused on healing. It’s also really good at it.
4/5 Extra Spells. Healing and support, the essential tools for a healer. This gives you more freedom in the choice of daily prepared spells.
4/5 Bonus Proficiencies. Heavy armors, because nobody likes a dead healer.
4/5 Disciple of Life. Every heals is now stronger. Very effective together with AoE heals, even if it doesn’t scale well.
4/5 Channel Divinity: Preserve Life. Saves you a slot and decently heals up to 5 targets.
3/5 Blessed Healer. Who heals the healmen? (answer: themselves)
2/5 Divine Strike. If you wanted to deal damage you should have probably avoided this domain.
5/5 Supreme Healing. Maximize every healing spell. No reason to bring dice with you anymore.
Sword and Coast Adventurer’s Guide
4/5 Arcana Domain
If it exists, I can cast it. The sequel.
For those who wanted to be a Wizard, but the party really needed a healer.
4/5 Extra Spells. It’s so satisfying to always have Dispel Magic and Arcane Eye at your disposal when you need them. Magic Missile and Circle of Teleportation will also find use in the long run.
4/5 Arcane Initiate. Steal some cantrips! Together with Potent Spellcasting lets you out-wizard the other party members.
4/5 Channel Divinity: Arcane Abiuration. Turn Fairies, Turn Elementals, Turna Angels and Turn Demons all in one. Starting from level 5 it becomes an AoE Banish.
2/5 Spell Breaker. While very useful on paper, it requires high level slots to remove the most dangerous effects. Dispel Magic is a lot more efficient and works on multiple effects at once.
4/5 Potent Spellcasting. Best friends with Arcane Initiate.
5/5 Arcane Mastery. Where Divine Intervention fails, Wish will take care of it.
Dungeon Master Guide
4/5 Death Domain
A lot less philosophical than it seems
Domain unexpectedly not focused on necromancy, but on hitting really hard with Channel Divinity.
3/5 Extra Spells. Antilife Shell, Blight and Animate Dead stand out as good spells in an otherwise unimpressive list.
3/5 Bonus Proficiencies. Martial weapons are great and all, but it lacks heavy armors to avoid spending stat improvements on DEX.
4/5 Reaper. The only cantrip you can get outside of the standard cleric list is Chill Touch. Doubling the targets of your basic damage action is excellent, however.
4/5 Channel Divinity: Touch of Death. While melee range without heavy armor can be risky, the extra damage is worth it.
3/5 Inescapable Destruction. The ability to ignore resistances is both rare and powerful. Unfortunately not many monsters possess necrotic damage resistance.
4/5 Divine Strike. While Potent Spellcasting would have been better, Divine Strike is more in tune with the spirit of the subclass.
4/5 Improved Reaper. Twin your spells! This ability makes Revivify, Blindness/Deafness, Blight and 5th level or greater Inflict wounds (+ Touch of Death) a lot more powerful.
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything
4/5 Forge Domain
Ok guys, who wants a +1 shield?
A mix of support and utility skills, with a bit of damage on top. Might be a good multiclass option.
4/5 Extra Spells. Nothing impressive overall, but Wall of Fire and Animate Object more than compensate for that.
4/5 Bonus Proficiencies. No martial weapons is disappointing, but heavy armors are there so we can’t complain.
4/5 Blessing of the Forge. More useful than it seems, especially at low levels when being able to overcome non magic damage resistance is not guaranteed.
3/5 Channel Divinity: Artisan’s Blessing. Situational, but effective in its use case.
5/5 Soul of the Forge. Resistance to fire, the most common element, and extra AC. Nothing to add.
3/5 Divine Strike. Martial weapon proficiency would have made this a lot more effective.
5/5 Saint of Forge and Fire. Fire immunity and some other resistances straight outta nowhere.
5/5 Grave Domain
“Mutant Heaven has no pearly gates, only revolving doors.” — Professor Charles Xavier
A fantastic support both offensively and defensively.
3/5 Extra Spells: Having Revivify and Raise Dead always ready is important for any party, but the rest of the list isn’t great,
4/5 Circle of Mortality. Ranged Spare the Dying as a bonus action with maximized effect .Extremely handy.
2/5 Eyes of the Grave. Did you know buried corpses are granted full cover?
5/5 Channel Divinity: Path of the Grave. The unlucky target become vulnerable (double damage) to the next damage. Got a paladin or a fighter in your team? Say goodbye to that boss.
5/5 Sentinel at Death’s Door. No more crits ruining your day! Allows to ERASE crits.
4/5 Potent Spellcasting: Always appreciated.
4/5 Keeper of the Souls: Free Heals when somebody dies. Bonus points for being able to redirect the healing.
Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
4/5 Order Domain
Domain reminiscent of the Warlord class in older editions: able to give allies extra attacks and using Command on enemies.
4/5 Extra Spells. Many interesting options: Command, Hold Person, Mass Healing Word, Slow and Dominate Person. Some of these also synergize with Embodiment of Law
4/5 Bonus Proficiencies: As long as heavy armors are there, we’re happy even without martial weapons.
5/5 Voice of Autority. This skill alone makes this domain worthwhile. Grants an extra attack to an ally whenever we buff or heal (or damage if you really need it) them. Prioritize Rogues for Sneak Attack and Paladins for Divine Smite.
3/5 Channel Divinity: Order’s Demand. AoE Comando with fewer options. Strong against humanoids with weapons, irrelevant against spellcasters and monsters with natural weapons.
5/5 Embodiment of Law. You can cast Enchantment school spells as a bonus action. Unfortunately it’s not easily abused since the cleric spell list has very few anchantment spells.. The ones available are not bad though. An obvious reason to multiclass another caster into cleric if you can afford the stat requirements.
4/5 Divine Strike. Again, martial weapons would have helped, but the psychic element is probably the best one you can get
2/5 Order’s Wrath. 2d8 extra damage at level 17 and only after making an attack.
This is sad.
4/5 Peace Domain
This archetype’s main feature is the ability to link allies and split damage between them. Tricky to use, but very effective in a well coordinated team.
3/5 Extra Spells. A set of neat support spells, even if the only one that’s unequivocally useful is Greater Restoration.
1/5 Implement of Peace. Pales in comparison to all other skills that give armor proficiencies, but it’s an extra feature compared to other spellcasting domains, so it’s no big deal.
5/5 Emboldening Bond. Basically a lesser version of Bless that doesn’t require concentration, which makes it incredible.
4/5 Channel Divinity: Balm of Peace:
Literally Zenyatta’s ultimate: Heals people while moving at your full speed. Excellent at first, remains solid at high levels to pick multiple unconscious allies up without consuming too big of a spell slot.
4/5 Protective Bond. Changes entirely your approach to any encounter. Distributing damage around various party members allows a huge control over the flow of battle, especially in a well organized group.
4/5 Potent Spellcasting. Works well as usual.
4/5 Expansive Bond. Upgrades both Emboldening and Protective Bond.
5/5 Twilight Domain
Incredible all-rounder domain that excells in keeping people alive. Would need just a bit more damage to be perfect.
5/5 Extra Spells. Faerie Fire and Greater Invisibility are awesome, but Circle of Power is the one to really look forward to: a very powerful spell normally unavailable to Cleric.
5/5 Bonus Proficiencies. Heavy Armors and Martial Weapons, can’t ask for anything more.
3/5 Eyes of Night. GIGA DARKVISION. Score is entirely dependent on numerous factors such as character race, campaign setting and most importantly wheter or not your DM has read our article on the many effects of visibility.
4/5 Vigilant Blessing. Free advantage to initiative rolls for a target. Give it to your controller Wizard and let them do their thing.
5/5 Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary. One of the best Channel Divinity: tons of AoE healing each turn. At high levels, your DM will struggle to find ways to even scrape your party’s knees.
5/5 Steps of Night. Flight from 6th level with the requirement of being in the shadow. I don’t think you straight up fall when exposed to sunlight, but that would be kinda funny.
4/5 Divine Strike. Always a classic.
5/5 Twilight Shroud. Now Twilight Sanctuary grants an additional +2 AC. Totally balanced.
FEATS
Necessity and effectiveness of feats vary between domains: i.e. Great Weapon Master is essential for War Domain, pretty good for Storm Domain and completely useless for any spellcasting focused domain. Generally speaking, builds that fight mainly using weapons require at least a feat, while pure spellcaster can usually get away with just improving their WIS score.
5/5 GO(L)D TIER
Lucky. This feat will never move from this tier.
War Caster. Almost mandatory for any Cleric. Allows to maintain concentration and to cast freely holding a sword and shield.
Resilient (CON). Same role as War Caster regarding the concentration, but nothing stops us from taking both and keep buffs up while drowning in lava.
4/5 GOOD TIER
Fey Touched/Shadow Touched (TCoE). Both great options: +1 WIS and 2 spells. The choice should be based mostly on personal preference.
Great Weapon Master. Godlike for War Domain thanks to Guided Strike offsetting the attack roll penalty. Cool for Tempest and Forge Domain, but otherwise worthless for anything else.
Magic Initiate. To learn Shillelagh with all your characters.
Alert. Being able to have buffs like Bless up before the enemy acts in combat has a huge impact.
Telepathic. +1 WIS, telepathy and Detect Thoughts. Borderline in the lower tier, depending on how lenient your DM is about player characters speaking to each other without being heard.
3/5 DECENT TIER
Telekinetic (TCoE). +1 WIS, Mage Hand and push as a bonus action. Not a very powerful ability.
Crusher/Slasher/Piercer. Much better for War Domain, decent for all others.
Observant.+5 to passive perception basically means no more ambushes from anything that isn’t actively trying to hide. Good feat, not very compatible with the cleric’s role.
Sharpshooter. Like Great Weapon Master, but for DEX builds, much less common for this class.
Shield Master. Helps against the many DEX saving throws you will inevitably face.
Bountiful Luck (Racial, XGtE). Perfect for a Ghostwise Halfling
Orcish Fury: (Racial, XGtE). For War Domain clerics that finally accepted their Fighter identity.
Skill Expert (TCoE). The most appealing skills to get from this would be Medicine and First-aid Kits, in case you really need it. +1 to any stat also makes this feat worth mentioning.
2/5 NOT GARBAGE TIER
Chef (TCoE). Cute feat: a bit more healing and once per day makess cookies for the party. Not very good, but great flavour, very appropriate.
Heavy Armor Master. Relevant only to Nature, Tempest and War Domains. Consider it only if you have feats to spend.
Polearm Master. Again, only relevant for few domains. Could be useful to get a pseudo extra attack, if it didn’t conflict with War Priest and Spirit Weapon.
Crossbow Expert. Most cleric spells have saving throws rather than attack rolls, making this even less useful.
Note: this feat also removes disadvantage from casting a ranged spell with attack roll in melee range.
Elemental Adept. Only for Tempest and Light Domains.
Dragon Fear (Racial, XGtE). Best case scenario, you have an odd STR or CON score and somehow CHA isn’t your dump stat.
Second Chance (Racial, XGtE). A bit more durability for Ghostwise Halfings, hooray!
Fighting Initiate (TCoE). Maybe, just maybe useful to get a Fighting Style when your DM has banned multiclassing for some reason.
1/5 GARBAGE TIER
Everything else.
SPELLS
“The face of any to-be cleric after accidentally killing somebody with a Hail Mary”
Note: Spells marked with an asterisk are from Tasha’s Cauldron to Everything
4/5 Sacred Flame. Cleric’s signature cantrip, until Toll the Dead came out. Unfortunately deals no damage on succesful saving throw.
4/5 Guidance. Excellent free buff to skill checks, very flexible.
3/5 Light. It’s always good to see in the dark, but it’s always bad to be seen in the dark.
3/5 Resistance. Not very useful, but it’s enough for a cantrip.
2/5 Mending. Can’t fix your broken relationship with your parents.
2/5 Spare the Dying. Stabilizing unconscious allies is important, but there are better ways than this. Good as a desperate measure.
3/5 Thaumaturgy. Tremendously versatile cantrip, especially for roleplaying purposes.
5/5 Toll the Dead [XGtE]. Highest damage cantrip in the game. A must unless you have problems with dealing necrotic damage.
4/5 Word of Radiance [XGtE]. An AoE damage cantrip is nothing to be scoffed at, even if the area is very small.
2/5 Animal Friendship [Nature Domain]. Situational at best. Prepare only if you forgot your druid at home.
3/5 Bane [Grave Domain]. Could be a good debuff, but the concentration requirement and it’s Saving Throw scaling off CHA hold it back.
5/5 Bless. Likely the best 1st level Cleric spell. A huge buff that scales well and stays relevant at higher levels.
2/5 Disguise Self [Trickery Domain]. Kinda useful in a small set of roleplay scenarios.
3/5 Ceremony [XGtE]. The Bonuses are substantial, but more often than not the cast time makes this spell unfeasible to use.
3/5 Charm Person [Trickery Domain]. Solid spell overall, if a bit situational.
3/5 Command. Generally a nice option, has a lot of potential for stupidity if the DM allows it.
2/5 Create or Destroy Water. You’ll be glad you prepared this when confronted with a VERY suspicious puddle.
4/5 Cure Wounds. Every heal is a good heal, and this is the most basic but reliable.
4/5 Guiding Bolt. Good damage, advantage to allies and the scarcity of direct damage spells in the list make this a great tool. Too bad it scales poorly with slot levels.
3/5 False Life [Grave Domain, Entropy Domain]. A sizable amount of HP at low levels. Scales horribly so there usually are better options.
1/5 Divine Favor [War Domain]. Concentration and a 1st level slot for an average of 2 extra damage per attack. Not worth it at all.
3/5 Identify [Knowledge Domain, Forge Domain]. Situational but mandatory if no other caster in the party has it.
3/5 Detect Evil and Good. Not impressive, but makes you feel safer when in really bad (or really nice) environments.
3/5 Detect Magic. Another mandatory spell that usually falls off the responsabilities of a Cleric.
2/5 Detect Poison and Disease. Rarely useful but can save your life. Just keep a scroll with you at all times.
3/5 Inflict Wounds
FUN FACT: The maximum damage achievable with an action at 1st level is 60, with a crit from this spell. That being said, range and scaling aren’t the best.
4/5 Luminescence [Light Domain]. Decent damage, even if the DEX saving throw is one of the easiest types. Watch out for friendly fire (light?).
3/5 Burning Hands [Light Domain]. Average damage, but great area coverage.
2/5 Fog Cloud [Tempest Domain]. Unfortunately, obscured areas have less impact compared to old editions, leaving this as mediocre spell.
3/5 Thunderwave [Tempest Domain]. Good damage in a very limited area. The loud sound it emits can be both a blessing and a curse, much more frequently a curse.
1/5 Speak with Animals [Nature Domain]. Go be a druid somewhere else.
5/5 Healing Word. Cast as bonus action, good range and synergy with Life Domain. Contends with Bless the title of best 1st level spell.
4/5 Protection from Evil and Good. Objectively a strong effect for a level 1 slot.
2/5 Purify Food and Drink. Very situational unless you’re playing a highly realistic survival campaign.
4/5 Sanctuary. Effective and versatile. Can make you target of the hate of both DM and party members.
4/5 Shield of Faith. Useful and less situational than it looks.
2/5 Searing Smite [Forge Domain]. Too little damage for the cost. Needs improvement.
4/5 Aid. Nice amount of max hp increase. One of the only ways to heal multiple creatures at once at low levels.
2/5 Magic Weapon [War Domain, Forge Domain]. Would be great if it didn’t require concentration: a meager +1 is not worth the cost. The main use of the spell is against non-magic resistant enemies at lower levels, where having magic weapons at your disposal isn’t certain.
5/5 Spiritual Weapon. The main source of damage for all spellcaster Clerics. Bonus action cast time and damage over time with no concentration requirement.
An outstanding spell.
3/5 Hold Person. The effect is really, really powerful, able to instantly end the showdown against your evil wizard final boss, or at least burn one of its legendary resistances. Too bad the Saving Throw is on the easier side.
3/5 Calm Emotions. A questionably good spell. While the effect is undoubtebly strong and the Saving Throw is against CHA, a more strict DM may limit its use.
2/5 Enhanced Ability. Questionable Choice: the bonuses are not worth the spell slot.
4/5 Blindness/3/5 Deafness. Another awkward spell to rate. Depending on the enemy, blindness goes from being letal to having no effect at all. Deafness works the same but it’s more situational.
2/5 Spike Growth [Nature Domain]. Difficult terrain and very low damage. Not really on par with other 2nd level spells.
2/5 Continual Flame. Go be Prometheus somewhere else.
3/5 Gust of Wind [Tempest Domain]. Situational, but useful to push away evil looking rain clouds.
4/5 Shatter [Tempest Domain]. “See that door?” SBAM. Pro: No more Door. Con: the ‘SBAM’.
4/5 Mirror Image [Trickery Domain]. Popular sayings tell us that if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. Popular sayings know shit about action economy.
3/5 Locate Object]. “Remember the amulet the BBEG was wearing in the first session? I know where it is.”. An incredibly useful spell most of the time, unfortunately countered by the simplest of anti divination measures.
2/5 Pass Without Trace [Trickery Domain]. Used in case you’re missing a Druid in your party. Or a Ranger. Or a Rogue. Or some chains to drag on the ground to cover your tracks. tl;dr: go be a Druid somewhere else..
1/5 Barkskin[Nature Domain]. Covering your heavy armor in bark doesn’t really improve things.
4/5 Prayer of Healing. Absolutely deserving of respect for the amount of targets it can heal. Unfortunately, in a post Healing Spirit society, 10 minutes casting time is excessive.
2/5 Augury. Interesting for roleplaying purposes, even if it won’t be used often.
2/5 Protection from Poison. Mediocre, but worthwhile to prepare in case you suspect yuan-ti might be involved in your adventure, such as 70% of the official WotC campaigns published in the last 4 years.
4/5 Scorching Ray [Light Domain]. Lots of damage that can be distributed between multiple targets and scale well with slot levels.
2/5 Gentle Repose [Grave Domain]. It doesn’t matter how well preserved the princess’ body is, it’s still necrophilia.
4/5 Heat Metal [Forge Domain]. Extremely annoying spell that deals damage over multiple turns but requires concentration. Best used against metal armors or other difficult to remove items.
3/5 Lesser Restoration. Tremendously weaker than in past editions, can still be used to cure poisons, illnesses and status effects.
2/5 Find Traps. Most of the time, having a Rogue or a sacrificial gnome around is much better.
4/5 Silence. Despite the small area of effect, it’s still the best way to deal with spellcasters at low levels.
4/5 Suggestion [Knowledge Domain]. Great spell under most circumstances. Scales off your DM’s permissiveness
3/5 Ray of Enfeeblement [Grave Domain]. As cool as the effect may be, it doesn’t stay relevant for a long time.
3/5 Warding Bond. +1 to AC, Saving Throws and damage resistance are big buffs, even considering the split damage.
3/5 Zone of Truth. More humane, albeit less ethical than torture.
3/5 Animate Dead. Skeletons are excellent companions, if the party allows them.
2/5 Nondetection [Knowledge Domain]. Only useful when the PCs actually knows that they’re actively being scryed upon, which is not often.
1/5 Elemental Weapon [Forge Domain]. Like Magic Weapon, with a bit more damage. Laughable effect for a 3rd level slot.
5/5 Aura of Vitality*. Allows to heal 2d6 hp with a bonus action every turn for a minute. The best way to go full healer when the encounter needs it.
2/5 Water Walk. The reason Jesus wasn’t really taken seriously while visiting Faerun.
3/5 Magic Circle. Hard to rate: the various effects are powerful, but it’s easy to find a way arond them.
3/5 Clairvoyance. Excellent divination. A must whenever you need to hunt for information.
2/5 Create Food and Water. Like Purify Food and Water, even better in extreme survival environments but almost never worth preparing in your everyday campaign.
1/5 Plant Growth [Nature Domain]. At this point you should know where to go be a Druid.
4/5 Dispel Magic. As common as it is in the various spell lists, this is a case where redundancy is necessary, to avoid losing the only person that can cast it to an effect that can only removed by it.
3/5 Beacon of Hope. IFirst two effects are negligible, but healing maximization is a juicy addition.
2/5 Meld into Stone. When you REALLY don’t want to get through the dungeon to get to your destination.
2/5 Glyph of Warding. As with any Glyph and Symbol in this game, it would be nice if it could move a little bit.
4/5 Spirit Guardians. Decent damage in a sizable AoE. The most common way to use concentration during battle.
3/5 Blink [Trickery Domain]. “Not existing” for entire rounds is an effective defensive maneuver, even if it doesn’t help the rest of the party.
2/5 Sending. Message on steroid. There’s no reason not to call home every now and then, even as an adventurer.
3/5 Call Lightning [Tempest Domain]. Damage output isn’t the best and requires concentration, but it’s still an AoE.
3/5 Life Transference [XGtE]. There are definitely better heals out there, but can still be used as a last resort.
2/5 Tongues. Usually better to leave this to Bards and Wizards.
3/5 Daylight. Does exactly what the name implies. Works like a charm agaianst sunlight sensible creature, however, since it’s not true light from the sun, some very specific creatures, like Vampires are unaffected.
2/5 Crusader’s Mantle [War Domain]. Under normal condition, it has the usual problem of not offering enough extra damage for its cost. Notable exception: extremely good together with spells or skills that add allied creatures to the fight, like Animate Objects.
2/5 Feign Death. A creative tool useful in some situations.
3/5 Wind Wall [Nature Domain]. Damage isn’t great, but the effect can have a huge impact if used intelligently.
5/5 Fireball [Light Domain]. Doesn’t require introductions nor explanations.
2/5 Speak with Dead. Not a spell you keep prepared at all times, but it’s no big deal since a corpse is gonna be there the day after and if it isn’t you already got a cleric to take care of that.
5/5 Mass Healing Word. Healing Word for multiple targets. Doesn’t scale well, but that’s not the reason you’re gonna use it.
2/5 Protection from Energy [Forge Domain]. Like all other long duration buffs, it would have been better if it didn’t require concentration.
4/5 Remove Curse. Removing afllictions and curses is one of the main responsibilities of a cleric. Bonus points for turning cursed items into useful magic items.
5/5 Revivify [Grave Domain]. This spell alone reduces by 50% the adventurer mortality rate and resurrecting people with 3rd level slot is cheap. Sucks for your friend that got cleaved in half last time.
3/5 Bestow Curse. The natural character development of any cleric always goes through the phase where they would like, for once, for the rest of the party to grovel at their feet begging to remove a curse. This is how this spell came into this list.
2/5 Spirit Shroud (TCoE). 1d8 extra damage against creatures within 10ft. Better for War Domain clerics with their pseudo extra attack, otherwise stick to Spirit Guardian.
4/5 Sleet Storm [Tempest Domain]. An area of effect large enough to make vision and terrain debuffs worthwhile.
4/5 Vampiric Touch [Grave Domain]. Average damage, but the free heal is very helpful.
3/5 Aura of Purity*. Immunity to many statuses. Never forget you can prepare this, because it renders a lot of encounters, like mummies and gas traps, trivial.
3/5 Aura of Life*. AoE Resistence to necrotic damage. Another spells that makes certain monsters much less threathening. The additional raising effect is not as strong as it looks but it’s invaluable if you’re getting unconfortably close to a TPK in battle.
4/5 Blight [Grave Domain]. Consistent damage with a decently hard saving throw.
4/5 Confusion [Knowledge Domain]. A big debuff/control effect. Worthwhile despite the random outcome.
2/5 Control Water. Aquaman can do the same but still prefers stabbing people with a trident. You draw your own conclusions.
4/5 Divination. Easily abusable ritual. Keep in mind that getting informations directly from a god (and by extension, your DM) can be a double edged sword.
3/5 Dominate Beast [Nature Domain]. Ok, this is not entirely useless. You can be a Druid, just this once.
4/5 Banishment. It’s really satisfying to send a summoned being back homeor remove a key target from the fight for up to one minute. Note: nitpicky DMs might ask you to provide specific material components based on the target place of origin.
2/5 Fabricate [Forge Domain]. Absolutely top tier in terms of versatility. In practice, however, you’re gonna struggle to justify spending a 4th level slot on this.
3/5 Guardian of Faith. Interesting visual description. Very DM dependant, use with caution.
3/5 Death Ward [Grave Domain]. A bit costly for a situational effect, but the long duration partially makes up for that.
2/5 Freedom of Movement. Excellent to help allies escape from grapples or traps. Not much else.
3/5 Locate Creature. Like Locate Object, but now you can directly look for the BBEG.
5/5 Polymorph [Trickery Domain]. Generally considered one of the best spells in D&D 5e. Hard not to recommend spamming it.
5/5 Wall of Fire [Light Domain, Forge Domain]. Area control, line of sight negation and decent damage all in one. Versatile and powerful.
3/5 Arcane Eye [Knowledge Domain]. Decent scouting tool, but there are many cheaper and faster alternatives.
3/5 Stoneskin [War Domain]. Non magical damage resistance is good, but it doesn’t come cheap in this case. Still a lot better than bark.
4/5 Dimensional Door [Trickstery Domain]. Any blink or teleport is an invaluable mobility and repositioning asset, and Dimensional Door is no exception.
1/5 Grasping Vine [Nature Domain]. For a 4th level slot? Hard pass.
2/5 Stone Shape. Like Meld into Stone, but you don’t need to get inside the wall anymore, for better or for worse.
4/5 Ice Storm [Tempest Domain]. Another spell where otherwise unimpressive effects shine thanks to a huge Area of Effect.
3/5 Antilife Shell [Grave Domain]. This effect is objectively massive and the value of this spell grows inversely proportional to the amount of undead and golems in your setting.
5/5 Animate Object [Forge Domain]. Animating 10 knives/coins/pebbles and throwing them at the enemy will make you the life of the party. By far the spell with the highest maximum damage per spell slot in the game. A bit unfortunate that the damage isn’tconsidered magical, but I’m sure that you will be drowning in +1 daggers at this point.
3/5 Hold Monster [War Domain]. Requires far too many failed saving throws to work, even if the effect is amazing.
4/5 Flame Strike. While the damage is a bit below average, the split element and the ability to target any place in radius without requiring line of sight make this a very versatile combat spell.
3/5 Commune. Three questions to your deity are always a (mostly) safe way to confirm wheter or not you’re on the right track with your quest. Bonus points for being a ritual.
1/5 Legend Lore. A 5th level slot for what is essentially a Knowledge check is definitely not a fair trade.
3/5 Contagion. The various diseases aren’t bad and a week long duration is something you don’t see very often in a spell.
4/5 Geas. A slave for 30 days, essentially. You can come up with lots of fun things to do with this, if your DM allows.
2/5 Creation [Forge Domain]. Not an impressive spell. The produced items having limited duration doesn’t help.
4/5 Mass Cure Wounds. While the amount of hp recovered is higher, it’s not as efficient as Mass Healing Word (which require only a bonus action). Still one of the best healing options during combat.
3/5 Dawn [XGtE]. Negligible damage, but nice secondary effects.
4/5 Dispel Good and Evil. A quick and dirty way to remove a possessing spirit from someone or destroy lesser undeads.
3/5 Dominate Person [Trickery Domain]. Similar to Geas, with a shorter duration and allows for direct control over the target. The main issue is the repeated saving throw each damage instance.
4/5 Holy Weapon [XGtE]. A noteworthy buff that uses concentration. It’s selling point is the long duration, possibly lasting for more than one encounter.
2/5 Planar Binding. Powerful effect with limited scope of use, mainly during campaigns with frequent interplanar travelling.
2/5 Modify Memory [Trickstery Domain]. Much more useful to a DM than to a player, but nothing should stop you from experimenting with it.
4/5 Destructive Wave [Tempest Domain]. Decent damage output in an area comparable to Fireball. Given the additional effects, definitely a solid choice.
3/5 Insect Plague. Slightly worse version of Dawn. Could be a lot worse.
4/5 Raise Dead [Grave Domain]. First real “resurrection” a cleric gets access to. Sucks for your friend that fell down a ravine last time.
5/5 Greater Restoration. Helps with a lot more dangerous effects compared to its little brother.
4/5 Hallow. A versatile spell with many layers of protective effects.
4/5 Scrying. One of the best divination spells around, can’t go wrong with this.
5/5 Summon Celestial (TCoE). A powerful long lasting summon. The bow version deals consistent damage, while the mace version is much more durable and helps a bit with the healing too.
3/5 Tree Stride [Nature Domain]. Eco-friendly version of Teleport.
4/5 Planar Ally. As with all summon spells without a specific outcome, ,it’s effectiveness depends a lot on how much the DM actually likes you. Summoning stuff is still good tho.
4/5 Sunbeam.* A giant laser beam with low damage but the ability to blind enemies that can be cast once per turn while maintaining concentration. If the enemies have eyes, this spell is guaranteed to be worth the cost, even if the saving throw is the worst possible for us.
3/5 Heroes’ Feast. The casting time is VERY long, but the buffs are VERY nice.
3/5 Blade Barrier. An interesting ‘wall’. Unfortunately the low damage isn’t worth the slot.
3/5 Create Undead. Same rules as Animate Dead apply: this creatures can be tremendously useful if the party decides to leave them un-alive.
4/5 Harm. Lots and lots of damage, even if against a CON saving throw.
5/5 Heal. The biggest single target heal at your disposal. Used to replenish fully the hp of medium to high level PCs.
2/5 Word of Recall. A decent panic button, at a very high cost.
2/5 Forbiddance. Not even the massive area of effect helps this very situational and DM dependant effect getting a higher score.
1/5 Find the Path. Or you could just hire one of the locals for 50gp.
4/5 True Seeing. A lot of things at high levels tend to be invisible or hidden by default, so this is a great tool that requires no concentration.
3/5 Conjure Celestial. Planar Ally on steroids, with the same limitations.
3/5 Etherealness: As many other spells at this point, the effect must justify the use of such a high level slot. This is no exception, even if it is a nice way to get in and out of a fight and become mostly untouchable.
5/5 Divine Word. A pf-based spell which allows to clear up an entire army of minions, plus to banish every celestial, elemental, fey, or fiend in sight.
5/5 Resurrection: Sucks for your friend that got disintegrated last time.
3/5 Regenerate. Can’t make you grow more limbs that were originally on your body and that makes me sad.
2/5 Symbol. Very cool and versatile spell hindered by its immobility. A must if you’re defending a specific place and have time to prepare.
4/5 Plane Shift. The universe is your oyster, you just need some imagination and this versatile spell.
3/5 Fire Storm. Good damage output, but not what you would expect from a 7th level spell.
5/5 Holy Aura. Probably the best effect to maintain concentration on for a high level cleric.
5/5 Anti-Magic Field. Be careful where you put this, especially if your party has many spellcasters. That being said, this can absolutely shut down some of the most feared monsters out there.
3/5 Control Weather. As cool as it may look, there are better ways to bring large scale devastation with an 8th level slot, like Earthquake.
4/5 Terremoto [Earthquake]. “See that city over there?” SBAAAAM. Pro: no more city. Con: what con?
5/5 Mass Heal. Heals more hp than you will ever need to restore at once.
4/5 Power Word: Heal*. Removes all status effects and fully heals the target. Watch your DM cry as you use this on your level 20 barbarian/druid friend he spent the last hour taking down.
3/5 Gate. The ultimate teleport. It should be considered the most powerful damage spell available, for example by pulling a Goblin Slayer and opening a portal to the ocean floor. Unfortunatelly the text is unclear about this type of situations, so it’s ultimately your DM’s call. Alternatively you can just open a portal to an inhospitable zone, like the Sun (should be much more than 24d10 in my opinion).
Generally, always talk to your DM about it beforehand to avoid a long discussion mid-session.
3/5 Astral Projection. Cool, but situational. Probably the least effective 9th level spell.
5/5 True Resurrection. Sucks for your friend that fell into a Sphere of Annihilation last time.
MULTICLASS
“God lies in all things, other classes included.”
This class’ capstone, Divine Intervention, is one of the best, rewarding the players who stick with cleric till the very end. That being said there’s a lot to be gained from taking some levels in other classes.
1/5 ARTIFICER
We’re men of faith, not science.
1/5 BARBARIAN
While it would make sense for many gods to bestow their blessing in the form of inhuman strength and resistance, the fundamental structure of the multiverse (the game mechanics) doesn’t allow it: too many spells that require concentration, which you can’t maintain during Rage. Luckily for Gruumsh and barbarians in general the Path of the Zealoth exists.
2/5 BARD
There’s not much synergy and the CHA requirement is annoying. May be worth to pick up Jack of All Trades and Expertise if you plan on making a skill monkey build using the Knowledge Domain.
4/5 DRUID
CIt shares the same main stat and turning into an animal can be useful in many ways. Looking at the spells, SHILLELAGH is hands down the best cantrip for a cleric, while Goodberry and Healing Spirit become almost broken used by a Life Domain character.
2/5 Circle of the Land: Requires at least a 3 level investment to become good. Coast is the best terrain, thanks to Misty Step and Mirror Image.
3/5 Circle of the Moon: MVery effective at low levels, the contibution scales poorly unless you’re willing to put a lot of levels in the class. Still, the additional hp from the animal forms is quite nice.
2/5 Circle of Dreams (XGTE): A pseudo Healing Word that will be useful at the start of your career. Not much else to talk about.
4/5 Circle of Shepard (XGTE): Helps with buffs to other party members. The Hawk spirit is always useful and doesn’t require a lot of investment in the multiclass.
4/5 FIGHTER
Excellent for any melee build, especially with domains that do not grant enough proficienct, like Forge.
1st level: A good Fighting Style always makes the difference in combat, while Second Wind, even with all the healing naturally at our disposal, is still free so we can’t complain.
2° livello: ACTION SURGE. As usual, an ability broken beyond belief. Among many things, it allows to cast two spells in a turn once every short rest. Fuck Metamagic.
3° livello:
4/5 Battlemaster: More damage and versatile maneuvers.
2/5 Champion: Clerics have neither many attacks nor ways to gain advantage. Next.
1/5 Eldritch Knight: Have fun leveling up INT, WIS, STR and CON at the same time.
1/5 Arcane Archer (XGTE): Same as above, but ranged
3/5 Cavalier (XGTE): AMight as well become a Paladin. Anyways, the taunt is great if you have a way to survive the following beating.
4/5 Samurai (XGtE): PExtra hp and advantage to attack rolls. Excellent for those rare moments you aren’t spamming Healing Word.
2/5 ROGUE
Requires too many levels to be worth it. A dip to get Expertise wouldn’t be bad for Knowledge Domain. It could also be a way to make good uise of the Trickery Domain, but that looks more like a build that should base off rogue rather than cleric.
1/5 WIZARD
Until prestige classes are reintroduced, functional dualcasters are going to be a memory from the past, especially if they have different main stats.
1/5 MONk
To role play as a classic western monk. In reality you are not gonna get very much from it: Unarmed strikes and Ki Points require too much investment.
3/5 PALADIN
While close in theme and concept, it’s hard to make a cleric/paladin work unless you’re willing to manage the CHA requirement. Fighting Style, Lay on Hands and Divine Smite almost make it worth it. Almost.
2/5 RANGER
While not sharing main stat, fighter already offers everything ranger does, plus more. Unless you really want to befriend animals, the abilities aren’t great and the spell level progression is too slow to even be considered a factor beyond level 1.
1/5 SORCERER
Same situation as wizard: different main stat, even if Metamagic is really enticing.
Mixing spell slot progressions is like mixing water with wine: you’re gonna end up ruining both.
IMPORTANT: A Tempest Domain cleric/Storm Sorcerer can potentially destroy entire armies at once combining Chain Lightning with Destructive Wrath. We’re gonna expand on this in the sorcerer’s guide.
1/5 WARLOCK
Please forward any idea on how to justify this multiclass both mechanically and ideologically to no.gnomi@icastshield.gmail.com.
