Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Proficiencies, Attributes, Backgrounds, and Class Features
- Domains.
- Races
- Feats
- Spells
- Equipment
- Multiclassing
- FAQ
- Builds and Combos
(If anyone can help me find a picture that might go with this.)
For this guide I am going to use the typical color scheme for ratings.
Red: No please don’t
Purple: Really, I guess if you want to.
Black: Not bad, not the best, but ok.
Blue: Good:
Sky-Blue: Really good
Gold: What is stopping you?
Green: The thing in question has too many variables (maybe mostly how your DM acts) to rate well.
Part 1: Introduction.
The basic cleric has been in every version of dnd. In some editions they were the only healers. Even when there were other classes with healing they were best class for healing. In this addition they still have some of the best healing spells. So if you play a cleric, most people at the table will expect you to patch up their booboos. The nice thing that this edition kept from 4th edition is that you can heal and still lay some smack down.
For most clerics your damaging will come from weapons. This means you will need a good strength or dexterity to use those weapons. You will most likely want a good wisdom as that is your spellcasting attribute. This gives you 2 stats that you need to maintain. (There are a couple of builds that use a certain spell that can make you single stat class but without that option you need two stats to be high.)
Part 2: Proficiencies, Attributes, Backgrounds, and Class Features.
Proficiencies:
Armor: Baseline clerics get light and medium armor and shields. Some domains (see domain section) get access to all armor, which is even better.
Weapons: For the most part clerics only get simple weapons. There are two domains that also get martial weapons. So they are better.
Tools: No tools except for what you might get in a background.
Saving Throws: Rather baseline. You get Wisdom and Charisma saves. (Which means it will be difficult to take you over mentally.
Skills. You get to choose two skills from a set of 5 skills. For the cleric class it is rather lackluster. Only two of the skills use one of your primary stats. The others use stats, that depending on what you wish to do may be dump stats.
History: This skill is intelligence based. If you value intelligence it might be good for you. It also depends on the campaign.
Insight: Try to figure out the motivation of NPCs. Are they lying? And you will be good at it.
Medicine: Remember your party is going to look for you to keep them from meeting their deities. When you run out of spells this might help.
Persuasion: Good skill to have. But depending on your build and your charisma score you might pass.
Religion: You think you should be good at this, yet this is an intelligence based skill yet again. If you choose to be intelligent it might be for you.
Attributes:
I tried to come up with some basic guidelines, but your attributes can really vary. Here is the best advice I can give.
Strength or Dexterity: With one build exception one of these two should be high. You are not going to be able to use all of your spell slots in combat. For those who have access to heavy armor you will want a high strength and can probably dump dexterity. Those who will fight with strength but use medium armor probably want at least a 12 dexterity. Clerics who fight with dexterity probably still want at least a 10 strength especially depending on how picky your DM is on encumbrance. The only build that can keep these scores from the top would be a Nature cleric that is picking up Shillelagh.
Wisdom: This is your spell casting attribute. It is also the attribute that fuels your channel divinity and many other abilities for your cleric. This attribute should be a pre-racial 15. Unless you don’t care about that stuff and are thinking you are only going to cast spells for healing and utility. You still probably want at least a 14.
Constitution: Hit points and concentration checks. Need I say more? Minimum 12.
Intelligence and Charisma: Many of you are going to put a pair of 8s here. If you still have build points, or you are rolling you may want one of these to be 10 - 12. Three of your five class skills use these stats. Also depending on the party you might be called to be the negotiator. Whichever one you put some points to, the other you need to dump.
Backgrounds:
Acolyte: Although some believe this is the background made for clerics, it doesn’t help you much. The two skills are skills that are on the class list, making it so that you will have proficiency in skills that you probably don’t have a natural gift for.
Charlatan: This is for the clerics who are using their dexterity. If you also put some points into Charisma you have some nice skill options that are not on the main list. Plus you get proficiency in a couple of tools that depending on the campaign can be cool or useless.
Criminal Again for those clerics for whom dexterity is their attack stat. You get Stealth and thieves tools. If you don’t have a rogue you can fake one.
Entertainer If you want to have agility and fight with dexterity this could work.
Folk Hero: Two skills that are not on your list, and that you should be good with. A set of Artisan’s tools and land vehicles. Not too shabby.
Guild Artisan: Again there is too much overlap in skills here in my opinion.
Hermit: Ok this background also has the skill overlap, but more than makes up for it with the Herbalism kit. Depending on the campaign you can now craft your own potions of healing.
Noble: You are not going to be wonderful at your skills. If for roleplaying you want to be a noble go for it, but for optimization . . . meh.
Outlander: Here is the first not too bad background for clerics who want to beat things with a big weapon. Since you are going strength Athletics and Survival will both be good skills for you.
Sage: Only clerics of the Knowledge domain will be interested in this, and their own gifts make this background not one to consider.
Sailor: I wasn’t going to rate any background above blue, but if you are a strength cleric this is a very good background. Athletics and Perception both will be good skills for you.
Soldier: Again for the strength cleric. But if you want training in athletics, there are better options.
Urchin: This isn’t bad for a dexterity based cleric. Another background with thieves’ tools.
Class Features:
Spellcasting: Clerics are full casters. They only start with three cantrips. Personally I would like to see more options for the spellcasting cleric who didn’t fuel the warrior nature.
Ritual Casting: Allows you to cast many utility spells without actually using slots. Although unlike the Wizard, you need to have the spells prepared.
Spellcasating Focus: Put that holy symbol on your shield and you don’t need material components. (unless they are costly)
(Domains will be reviewed in their own section.)
Channel Divinity: Turn Undead: Well you get it. If you have a lot of undead in your campaign it could be very handy. If not. . .you may not use it at all.
Ability Score Improvement You get the 4th 8th 12th 16th 19th that most folks get.
Destroy Undead Again the usefulness of this may be campaign dependent. Although when the DM pulls out the hordes of low level undead. . . you just might love this.
Divine Intervention Ok I might have some personal bias against this one. First of all, if you are using it outside of combat you are really only using it for utility and that utility might be better served with preparing some utility spells and casting them as rituals. If you are using it in combat, for levels 10 – 19 you are using your action to have an 81 – 90 percent chance of doing nothing. If your party is in such a dire predicament that you are trying this, do you really want such a high chance of doing nothing? Then if it does work, what happens is up to your DM. That leaves a lot of variation. Plus there is no guidance for what the DM should do. (Which from the DM perspective I appreciate.) I have had some DMs that would make this a joke.
Part 3: Domains:
Each domain gives the cleric a lot of abilities.
Knowledge
To say one positive about this domain it can be used as part of a skill monkey build. Bard 10 / Rogue 1 / Knowledge Cleric 2 has “Expertise” in 8 skills and once every short rest can gain proficiency in any skill or tool. Is it worth it?
Domain Spells The only spells that are not already on your list are identify, suggestion, nondetection, arcane eye, and confusion. Some of these spells are ok. Nothing stands out as staggering.
Blessings of Knowledge: You learn two languages and two intelligence skills which you gain double proficiency. It isn’t bad, but there are better things to have.
Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages Gain proficiency in a skill or tool for 10 minutes. If you have a DM who likes using skills and a lot of fellow PCs who are clueless this could see some benefit.
Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts The nice thing about this is the suggestion. But you do already have that spell on your list.
Potent Spellcasting Add your Wisdom modifier to damage with any cantrip. Too bad the only damage dealing cantrip is Sacred Flame. This might get better if new books give more spells.
Visions of the Past:I am being generous here. In some campaigns this could be amazing.
Part 4 Races:
Mountain Dwarf: +2 to str +2 con no wisdom bonus. Could make a good War or Tempest Domain cleric.
Hill Dwarf: One of the few races that give +1 wisdom, but no bonus to an attack stat. Could make a very good Nature cleric.
High Elf: +2 dex, so we know the attack stat. Again no wisdom bonus.
Wood Elf: Here is the package deal. Dex and wisdom bonuses. Not too much better.
Drow: You still get the +2 dex. But unless you are in a campaign that will never see the light of day, the sunlight sensitivity is too restrictive.
Lightfoot and Stout Halfling: Dexterity bonus and lucky. Can’t complain about either of these.
Human: Bonus to every stat covers wisdom and an attack stat. I should probably rate this higher but it is overshadowed by…
Variant Human:Bonus to wisdom and an attack stat. Plus you get a feat. Oh yeah and a skill. A very powerful build right from the get go is Nature Cleric wielding a Quarterstaff and the Polearm Master feat. Bonus and reaction attacks right from 1st level.
Dragonborn: Strength bonus, but no wisdom bonus again. There might be some synergy between lightning breathing Dragonborn and Tempest Domain.
Forest Gnome: The dexterity bonus is the only thing this has going for it for a cleric.
Rock Gnome: No appropriate stat bonuses, nothing that says cleric at all.
Half Elf You don’t get the feat of the variant human, but you get 2 stat bumps of your choice (Wisdom and attack stat) and you get an additional +2 charisma, Darkvision and an extra skill over the variant human.
Half Orc: Big strength bonus gets the nod again.
Tiefling: Nothing to help for a cleric.
Part 5 Feats
Having two stats that you want top notch is not going to leave a lot of room for feats. The Nature cleric, who can become single stat dependent can have more feats. Assuming that you are using a point buy, most clerics will not get more than 2 feat if that.
Alert +5 to initiative and you can’t be surprised. Only reason it is not higher is well. . . why aren’t you pumping your stats?
Athlete You get some nice movement abilities and it still bumps your attack stat, no matter which one you choose.
Actor Nothing there helps you.
Charger Can attack with bonus action after using the Dash. If your DM typically puts monsters 40+ feet away this might be ok. Otherwise meh.
Crossbow Expert Maybe a Dexterity fighting cleric who wants to fight with two hand crossbows might put this to use. Since most of the attack spells on the Cleric list are saves, nothing else should pique your interest.
Defensive Duelist: I don’t see the interest for a cleric. Even if you are using a finesse weapon.
Dual Wielder: Knowledge on the boards is that two weapon fighting doesn’t keep up at higher levels. I haven’t worked out the math myself. Trusting that why invest a feat on an attack strategy that can’t keep up.
Dungeon Delver: If you are somehow trained in perception this might not be too bad to help find traps.
Durable: Really good feat. But again not worth if you aren’t increasing your attack stat or wisdom.
Elemental Adept: Unless you are Tempest or Light domain, you really don’t have enough spells that do the appropriate damage to make it worth this feat. Tempest has both lightning and thunder so you can’t help with both. Light domain clerics might need help with all their fire damage.
Grappler Clerics, even those who fight with strength will not be the best grapplers. And word on the boards grapplers want a different feat.
Great Weapon Master: If you use an appropriate weapon this is good. Otherwise ignore.
Healer: If you are playijng Adventure League, or have a DM who lets you have rests between fights, this might be a way to free up some of your spell slots. If your DM does not set up the game for you to take as frequent rests and your adventures last for several days at a time I don't believe at high levels this will be sufficient to help enough especially since you can only gain the healing from the feat once per rest.
Heavily Armored: The only Domains that do not get heavy armor proficiency to start are Knowledge, Light and Trickery. Knowledge and Light are designed to be more caster like and would probably not find interest. My guess Trickery would more be using Dexterity as the attack stat and wouldn’t want to have the weight burden.
Heavy Armor Master: For those of you who have heavy armor proficiency this isn’t a bad one to pick up. One exception would be the War domain folks. You 17th level feature actually makes this worse as you apply modifiers to damage before you half the damage.
Inspiring Leader: I actually like this feat. But unless you are a half elf, you will more than likely NOT have the 13 charisma to take it.
Keen Mind: Bump intelligence and have a lot of stuff that you probably can cast a spell and do any way. Pass
Lightly Armored: You have this already.
Linguist: Again intelligence bump. Also you have Comprehend Languages and Tongues.
Lucky: Basically getting advantage three time per day (or giving an enemy disadvantage) can be bad.
Mage Slayer: If you are one who fights on the front line this can be helpful.
Magic Initiate: This feat has a little rule controversy with it. The way I and some others read it is that the first level spell you get from this can only be used once per long rest. If your DM is in that category the ONLY good reason to get this is for the non Nature druids to also pick up Shillelagh. If your DM is in the other camp which say you can use your spells slots to cast it, and can cast it once without using a slot, this could be a good way to pick up some nice spells from another class list. Do remember though that the spells you get use the spell casting ability of the other class which means (unless it is Druid) you will not be able to support that.
Martial Adept: You get two maneuvers from the Battle Master and one d6 superiority die. There are some nice maneuvers there and you might find a lot of versatility there.
Medium Armor Master: For those using dexterity as an attack stat you might gain some benefit from this.
Mobile: Some nice stuff here. Nothing amazing.
Moderately Armored: You have this already.
Observant: +1 wisdom and +5 passive perception.
Polearm Master: Those who use martial weapons or Nature druids will really love this. Others can pass.
Resilient: This is to become proficient in con saves. If you have a lot of concentration spells that you like to cast you may really want this.
Ritual Caster: The only benefit for you is that you can cast rituals of spells that are not on your spell list. (you can choose another class.) There are much better options.
Savage Attacker: Not bad but there are better feats for you.
Sentinel: If you are one of the main front line fighters and there are a lot of squishy folks in your party you may want this.
Sharpshooter: If you use ranged weapons this might be nice, but in my experience long range is rarely used.
Shield Master There are some nice benefits there. Especially if you fight with a shield and use your strength modifier.
Skilled: Skill are nice and all but there are not enough feats to go around.
Skulker: For those who use dexterity as an attack stat and use ranged weapons. Meh.
Spell Sniper: Once I have looked at all the spells in the cleric list I might rate this lower.
Tavern Brawler: Nice stuff here, but you are not going to be a good grappler so why bother.
Tough: Again a good feat but there are too many of those.
War Caster: You are a caster. You fight on the front line. Too many good things for you not to take.
Weapon Master: For those who don’t already have martial weapons there are not any weapons worth a feat
Part 6: Spells
WIP
Part 7: Equipment
Part 8: Multiclassing
This is a work in progress, but a few words to start out.
My comments here reflect that I don't much appreaciate the capstone ability of the cleric. If your DM works with you will on divine intervention and you like, that you might not want to multiclass. Otherwise some suggestions:
Clerics who use strength or dexterity when attacking with weapons. Dipping a few levels into fighter is not a bad option. Two levels of fighter can give you Action Surge. Taking 6 levels of fighter can give you an extra attack AND you don't lose a feat/ability bump. You do lose your 8th and 9th level spells.
Clerics who use dexterity when attacking with weapons might find some use dipping into Rogue or even Monk.One level of rogue can give you some extra damage. 3 levels of rogue can give you some nice tricks with bonus actions. One level of monk can give you a bonus action attack. Extra levels can even give you more fun things.
Outside of these options I don't see a lot of possible beneficial multiclassing interactions.
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Ok I still have a lot of work to do, but I thought I should start. Will get more done this weekend. I also know the formatting is not exactly as I wanted it. (But with the cut and paste it is better than I thought.) I will work on the formatting as well as I get time.
I think it is worth mentioning the weapon proficiencies that Dwarves get, which are quite useful if your wanting to melee cleric but want to pick the Life domain. The Warhammer is a perfect weapon for a Life cleric who has the heavy armor but lacks any Martial Weapons proficiencies
You under rated the healer feat. It should be blue for all clerics, sky blue for light clerics and maybe tempest clerics. You also under rated the light cleric as it is probably 2nd or 3rd best cleric. Imagine a light cleric who can use all of there spell slots on BURN due to the healer feat. Someone in the party should probably take the healer feat. Light clerics also get one of the best buff spells in the game with faerie fire so the healer/resilient/warcaster feat is a bit of a no brainer for them and at level 8 they actually have a half decent cantrip to use. You also underrated the flare ability which has some interesting interactions with the sentinel feat. The light cleric is also the better blaster than a tempest cleric and radiant dawn is so good at low levels, scales, 30' radius and recharges every short rest. It will easily out damage any of the other cleric channel divinty abilites and you can solo an encounter with it. Even if it doesn't kill stuff it opens up follow on attacks or a one two punch with a fireball or two cast after it.
You are also over rating the life cleric as heal spells are not really all that in 5E and you are also over rating martial weapons unless you want a cleric with a 2 handed weapon.
The nature cleric is also a bit of a funny one. Unless you like moving slow or are a dwarf you more or less need a 15 strength to use heavy armor anyway so using shillagh isn't all that. Bless is almost a gold spell for clerics and it also works well with the resilent and/or warcaster feat. Every time I cast guiding bolt, inflict wounds, bane, farerie fire etc I kind of feel dirty as bless is better 80% of the time, the other 20% of the time it is mostly faerie fire. Bless is also interesting with any other concentration spells any other caster in the party casts from faerie fire for Druids and bard though to haste for wizards. Or bless a moon druid using bark skin in beast form.
Next time someone plays a cleric using bless keep a track of how many "hits" everyone else does that would have missed without bless and pretend that damage is actually yours. I think you will find you are in effect dealing the most damage out of everyone in the party.
Re: Magic Initiate. If you read it your way and can only cast the 1st level spell once/long rest and you're picking up Shillelagh, you should probably pick up Goodberry as your 1st level spell to go with it.
I also forgot to add the downside of a dex based cleric is you have to make the choice between buffing your dex or your wisdom otherwise your AC will start to suck at higher levels. If you buff your dexterity your wisdom is not going up. Its one advanatge medium armor has over light as you just have 14 dex and forget about buffing it. This still lets you picjk up the steal skill and use int in breastplate (AC 18 with shield) or just screw it and take 19 AC but have disadvantage on stealth checks. Stealth being useful for clerics/everybody. A high dex wood elf cleric (16 dex) might want to look at the medium armor master feat have AC20 and sneak around with no disadvantage on stealth rolls using guidance or enhance ability to be about as sneak as a Rogue. AC 19-20 surprise round fireball is nasty.
My light cleric (human) has the following stats at 5th level
Str 14 (19 via gauntlets)
Dex 14
Con 12
Wis 18
Int 8
Cha 10
Background Sailor
Skills
Persuasion
Stealth
Perception
Athletics
Insight
Feats
Warcaster
Picked up gauntlets of ogre power, lightbringer mace and +1 breastplate armor from the LMoP so has an AC of 19. The gauntlets and mace are not really that good I rarely use physical attacks anyway and will probably just use sacred flame at level 8 most of the time. Whatever cleric you take use guidance on everything for skill checks outside combat.
Thanks for taking this one on. The Cleric is probably one of the most intricate and deep classes of 5e, so a guide is sure to be helpful.
My two cents: I think you underestimate the value of Shield Master (and to be fair, I am a huge advocate for this feat). 5e is a *very* defensive oriented edition, and survivability is pretty much a must have for every character. If you use a shield, which most Clerics will, the added perk of being able to add the shield bonus to your save is great. Being able to take no damage on a successful save is even better.
I'd also consider a second look at Defensive Duelist. While it's a little niche as it's geared towards Dex based Clerics, the benefit is incredibly solid. This edition is all about that action economy, and having a solid fallback to use your Reaction on a regular basis is pretty great.
In the section for backgrounds, it states you can take a different skill or tool if you would gain proficiency in it from two sources. I don't know if that affects your ratings much, but it might be something to consider. PHB 125
Great guide! I like you you listed the subraces individually; I think I will steal that for my Rogue's Handbook.
A small note: Human variant Clerics with 16 Wis, perception proficiency, and Observant can potentially have a godly 20 passive perception at level one! It's practicaly game breaking.
I would consider ranking Hill Dwarf as a sky blue choice for race. They get a racial Wisdom bonus, +2 Con, and +1hp/level, plus darkvision, dwarf weapon training, etc. In every way this race is a strong choice as a cleric of any domain. Although I can see why you might not, given that they get no built-in bonus to an attack stat (Str/Dex). Overall though, I think the benefits of this race outweigh not being able to start with a 16 in Str or Dex.
Direach wrote:
Thanks for the guide! Any chance on approaching non-class skills for people with overlapping skills in backgrounds, Half-elves/Humans, or Knowledge Clerics?
Also, don't diss Divine Intervention :-p
Thanks for all the comments folks. I will keep these in mind as I continue to write this thing. I'll address some of them this weekend when I get a chance to work on this again. (Just realized I have a half hour before I will be able to go to bed so I might as well give some of my thoughts.
Hill dwarves. I guess I was trying to use a single rating system. Yes if you are going nature cleric (or some other alternative to only use your wisdom) Hill dwarf is a very strong choice. Otherwise starting a low attack stat can be a bad way to go, no matter how many benifits your race has.
Dwarven proficiencies: Yes that should be a consideration I'll add that as I revise.
Feats in general: I tried to rate the feats in mind with the fact that they are a limited resource. You will only get 5, 6 if you are variant human. And acutally you won't even get that many. Because a feat takes an ability bump. You will want to bump your abilities especially wisdom. So you really won't get that many. Most folks will not get more than 2 (3 if human) feats. There are many good feats, but I had to make some priorities.
Shield Master: Yes this is a good feat. But if you don't want that bless spell (as mentioned in one of the other posts) to go puff you better investment is either in warcaster or Resiliant (con)
Healer. Maybe in a low level campaign your plan will work. At higher levels relying on a healing kit to restore parties hp is not sustainable. If there were a retraining option in 5th edition I would maybe recommend it for low levels to be trained out of later. Without that it isn't worth it in my opinion.
Dex clerics bumping dex vs wis. If you bump your wisdom first move to moderate armor. I am going to talk about this in the equipment section but
studded leather +16 dex = chain shirt +16 dex
studded leather + 18 dex = Scale mail/Brestplate and dex
studded leather + 20 dex = halfplate + dex
Since everyone is proficient with both light and moderate armor this can help you choose which type of armor you will wear as you raise your skills.
Domain Ratings:
Light: I may have under rated light domain. I don't know if it is one of the best. (Maybe it has the best 17th level feature)
Nature: Yes the nature domain cleric needs a 15 strength for the heavy armor. But that is it. You don't have to waste any stat bumps to it, so all you have to do is raise you wisdom. That gives you the ability to take an extra feat or two which could be a great help.
Non-class skills: I will work on that adding comments on those.
DanMathMan wrote:
I think you overrate heavy armor.
Generally, it's +1 AC. Nice but not sky blue nice.
Also, you overrate martial weapons. Most of the time it's +1 damage per turn. Since you otherwise don't have multi-attack.
Also, you underr rate potent cantrip and overrate divine strike.
2d8+Wis is better then 2d8+Str, since that's your casting stat. It also scales higher (4d8+wis vs 3d8+wis)at higher levels, and it's ranged / melee (as a DC save), without needing multiple weapons. You can even hold a potion in your empty hand.
The only real reason to stay with weapons is for OA's. (Though warcaster is a good feat anyways).
And War domain, because he actually does get to make extra attacks, and get's +10 to hit. So much better accuracy.
DanMathMan wrote:
Unless I made a mistake if the only bonus was heavy armor I rated blue, if they got both heavy armor and martial weapons I rated sky blue. If that is wrong someplace I will correct it. I rated it as I did, because if you are using a point buy, you don't have to put as much focus on dex as you might in medium armor. And as far as marital weapons you get access to reach weapons with martial weapons, and if you decided to forgo the heavy armor you get the better finesse weapons with the martial weapons. (With simple weapons you only get a dagger.)
My problem with potent cantrip is that sacred flame is the only cantrip it works for. Maybe I added some personal bias, but spamming one spell for the most part would be boring. Also I think there are ways for clerics to get attacks on their reaction you get the divine strike damage of those as well.
DanMathMan wrote:
DanMathMan wrote:
mellored wrote:
mellored wrote:
bid wrote:
mellored wrote:
I think that the Knowledge domain needs reassessment, because Read Thoughts is sky blue bordering on gold.
On first blush, it's a poor man's Suggestion, in that it takes -two- actions to kick it in, one to use Channel Divinity for Read Thoughts and the second to cast the Suggestion. That said, one then realizes:
1. Knowledge Clerics are medium-armor wearers, which means it's not too hard to be decently stealthy as one, and in fact your build -should- be decently stealthy. Be a Wood Elf utilizing natural light cover with a Stealth score of +2+prof.
2. CD has no V or S components, so you can Read Thoughts from hiding and I don't see any reason the target should be aware of the mental incursion even though it's making a Wisdom save. So now you can "preload" a failed save before the surprise round. (If you pick your target poorly or it gets real lucky and saves, burn another CD use on its buddy.)
3. Once the fight starts, you open with a no-save Suggestion. Just in case that was too subtle, 
the saving throw for Suggestion already has been failed . Advantage vs charm effects? Suck it, you don't get it vs this version of the spell.
4. You will almost always have this option available because it's a concentration spell in a CD slot. You'll usually short-rest before you burn through your CD uses at all but early levels.
Suggestion is probably the best second-level spell in the game. A version that can be cast in stealth mode, bypass charm resistance, and be renewed for one to three uses per short rest without consuming spell slots is monstrously powerful in clever hands.
Rancid_Rogue wrote:
I've been seeing this circle around Necromancer discussions... does this help this guide any?
DanMathMan wrote:
So I made a War Cleric for Adventurer's League. While a bit outclassed by my compatriots for the particular module (it was levels 1-4), it was still tons of fun praising Tempus and dropping my warhammer on the faces of my enemies. Nothing like some violent zealotry! Also it was downright euphoric when I one-shotted a Shadow (some things that sap your Strength when they hit you) with Guiding Bolt.
Do you think that my go-to concentration spells at levels 1 and 2 should simply be Divine Favor and Shield of Faith? Should I even bother with stuff like Bless and Bane? Should I try to help my party out with their actions and/or defenses or should I just focus on helping myself be the best tanky beatstick I can be? I'm a variant human and I took War Caster, which might let me go either way, since being up in the faces of the enemies doesn't risk me losing my concentration reagrdless of who I'm buffing.
Obviously these choices can be situational, but I was just wondering if there was any general concensus on what my pro strats should be.
Darlos9D wrote:
Finieous wrote:
If they ever do elemental weapons in this edition, a Dex / Tempest cleric with hand xbow becomes one of the best at placing enemies where he wants them to be.
DanMathMan wrote:
Defensive Duelist: I don’t see the interest for a cleric. Even if you are using a finesse weapon.
Strill wrote:
Are domain spells granted at cleric levels or player levels?
Say I'm a Cleric 1/Wizard 5, would I have a second tier of Domain spells?
HeirRaktus wrote:
MikeN wrote:
Don't overlook the Str stat for anyone wanting Heavy Armor (Life, Tempest, War & Nature Cleric). They will need a 13 for Chain or a 15 for splint/plate, regardless of how strict the DM is about encumbrance. Even the one exception (Nature Cleric with a magic stick) has to spend some points in it or they lose out on the good Heavy Armors.
They can still use Ringmail, I guess, if they want to cover up a negative dex modifier, but that's no better than medium armor if you have at least 10 dex.
SterlingRat wrote:
SterlingRat wrote:
DanMathMan wrote:
Not a bad guide, though the Trickery Domain cleric, Improved Duplicity, and the Actor feat are all very underrated. This domain, more than any other has the potential to derail or negate encounters. Half-Elf and Variant Humans are naturals. Lightfoot Halflings and Drow also have amazing abilities to add to multi-class characters.
Great sub-class that makes excellent use of multiclass potential with Rogue or Warlock up to level 3.
Skulker also has many applications.
Good Background ratings, I would personally custom remove sleight of hand from Urchin for something else in almost every case, but the Trickster Cleric can actually make exceptionally good use of it if the character is built properly (perhaps third best use of this skill after Arcane Trickster and Theif).
*This is not conjecture, I have witnessed a cleric at my FLGS completely dismantle Hoard of the Dragon Queen on organized play nights with this sub-class. The synergy in skills that a rogue often lacks (lots of great ways to get stealth, not so many to be perceptive or insightful) are answered quite well in the Trickster cleric.
**Also of note, many of the best spells, and none of the class abilities that come with the Trickster cleric require wisdom, so the stat can be entirely disregarded and an amazing character can still be made. In terms of dealing straight damage, the sub-class isn't that great, but as mentioned earlier, it is probably one of the best sub-classes at negating most combats and defeating most challenges without ever having to draw a weapon! Guidance, plus blessing of the trickster, plus pass without trace and disguise self along with the actor feat are utterly rediculous when witnessed in action...and all by level 3 if playing a variant human!
***Invoke Duplicity is probably one of the best ambush setups in the game, because even when the rouse is realised, the rouse is still quite dangerous, by both being a space to cast from for the cleric and granting advantage when both the duplicate and cleric are within 5 feet of an enemy.
****Improved Duplicity and Mirror Image has got to be one of the best things to see in action at a Dungeons and Dragons table ever. Yes blindsight and truevision negates the fun, but the answers to those encounters are within the given spell list for the domain alone, not including what can be found in the cleric spell list. In two rounds 1 cleric becomes 8 possible threats or targets...absolutely hilarious!
P.S. This is most likely a skyblue domain for anyone that has actually seen it played in the hands of a creative and knowledgable player. When only judging the sub-class by what is on paper in the phb, and when rating clerics for dpr or hpr...the current guide ratings might be close to accurate
I have to say that I disagree with a lot of the ratings, but thank you for providing this guide. As mentioned in earlier comments, a cleric using cantrips for his at-will damage is quite an option, so that would make wisdom the most important ability, thus changing the ratings of the races. I also definitely don't see half-elf as sky blue, charisma is not important for the cleric (unlike 3e where turn undead was tied to it), so a feat (granted by variant human) is waaaaay more useful than a +2 to charisma.
Finieous wrote:
I see the spells section has not been worked out yet.
I must give my recommendation for Conjure Celestial. Currently it has one fanfreakingtastic summon option.
The Couatl.
AC 19, 97 HP, Fly 90'
Con, Wis, and Cha Save Proficiencies
Resistance to Radiant damage. Immunity to pyschic and your typical non-magical weapon damages.
Truesight 120', PP 15
ALL languages, telepathy to 120'
Innate spellcasting at DC14. At-Will detect E&G, detect magic, detect thoughts, 3/day bless, create F&W, cure wounds, lesser restoration, protection from poison, sanctuary, and shield, 1/day dream, greater restoration, scrying
Attacks are magical, shielded to scrying, emotion, thought, or location reading
Poison-dealing bite, but more importantly Constrict. Grapple, restrain, fly straight up 45', drop grappled creature.
Change Shape - Can turn into any humanoid or beast of CR 4 or lower. Current humanoid options: Aarakocra, Bugbear, Bugbear Chief, Drow, Githyanki Warrior, Githzerai Monk, Gnoll, Gnoll Pack Lord, Deep Gnome, Goblin, Goblin Boss, Grimlock, Hobgoblin, Hobgoblin Captain, Jackalwere, Kenku, Winged Kobold, Kobold, Kuo-Toa, Kuo-Toa Whip, Lizardfolk, Lizardfolk Shaman, Lizard King/Queen, Wereboar, Wererat, Weretiger, Werewolf, Merfolk, Orc, Orc War Chief, Orc Eye of Gruumsh, Orog, Quaggoth, Sahuagin, Sahuagin Priestess, Thri-Keen, Troglodyte, Yuan-Ti Pureblood, Acolyte, Bandit, Bandit Captain, Berserker, Commoner, Cultist, Cult Fanatic, Druid (MM), Guard, Knight, Noble, Priest, Scout, Spy, Thug, Tribal Warrior, Veteran... and if I understand correctly, it may be able to take on the form of a PC as well, but has none of the class features of that PC.
Seems like a useful use of the slot, right? Only issue is only having the thing for an hour. Make that hour a useful one, I suppose.
Judou_Hanabi wrote:
Might as well talk shop about spells while we're waiting. I mean, that is the big part of being a Cleric and all.
I'll offer this: For the Cleric, the classic Cure Wounds ... is purple. One reason is Healing Word, which is a bonus action and only 2 points less healing per slot level. Healing as a bonus action + taking an action (Cantrip, Attack, Help, certain Channel Divinity powers) is always going to be more efficient in some way than wasting your action to heal just a piddly amount more.
Plus starting at only Lv. 3 you get 2nd-level spells and Prayer of Healing for out-of-combat healing, which is essentially Cure Wounds at the same level, but for six people all at once. Then at 3rd-level spells (Lv. 5) comes Mass Healing Word, a multiple healing spell that is also a bonus action.
Sadly for Cure Wounds, it just never gets to see any meaningful face time with so many other, better healing options around, all in the first 5 Cleric levels.
GladiusLegis wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
Strill wrote:
Zardnaar wrote:
Here's spells I'd rate Gold. As in, every Cleric should have these prepared at all times:
1st-level
Bless: No, not "broken," but it is really good and easily THE staple combat buff for multiple allies at this level and for much of your career. Most of a Cleric's other Concentration spells will compete directly against this.
Healing Word: The best in-combat heal at this level, thanks to it being bonus action and only 2 HP/slot level less than Cure Wounds. (Let's be honest though, you wouldn't cast either with a slot above 5th level anyway.)
2nd-level
Prayer of Healing: The best out-of-combat heal, and in terms of raw healing numbers the best in the 1st- to 5th-level bracket.
Spiritual Weapon: THE Cleric's staple personal combat buff for pretty much their entire career. Doesn't even require Concentration, so you can still have Bless up.
3rd-level:
Animate Dead: I think we all know the power of the undead army by now.
5th-level:
Contagion: One of the actually few spells in 5e you can legitimately call outright broken. The effect even wrecks legendary monsters and bypasses their resistances.
6th-level:
Heroes' Feast: You might as well consider this a donation of a 6th-level slot at the start of every adventuring day, as awesome as the party-wide benefits are. (Cures disease and poison, immunity to poison, immunity to fear, WIS saves with advantage, hit point max +11 avg. for up to 12 people.)
9th-level:
Mass Heal: The ultimate healing spell, obviously.
Strill wrote:
Sky blues (not mandatory, but highly recommended to keep prepared):
2nd-level:
Hold Person: Obviously, paralysis of humanoids. Sets up auto-crits for everyone. Concentration spell, but worth casting over Bless for against a particularly strong humanoid enemy.
3rd-level:
Dispel Magic: Obvious.
Mass Healing Word: Your main in-combat heal for multiple allies. Multiple heals run the risk of waste, or the "save it until everyone needs it trap," which is why this isn't gold.
Revivify: Raise someone who just died, taking only an action to do so. The only spell of its type that you'd always need to keep prepared, because of the time limit. Raise Dead and higher have far more liberal time limits, so you can prepare those only as needed.
4th-level:
Banishment: Can remove one big threat from combat and make the rest of the fight much easier for the party to deal with. Concentration spell.
Freedom of Movement: Immunity to paralysis is a very, very good thing. So is automatically escaping grabs. Doesn't need Concentration, either.
6th-level:
Create Undead: An army of ghouls is a solid step up from an army of skeletons/zombies. Can be upcast.
Heal: Easily the best single-target heal at this level, with 70 HPs (+10 per higher spell slot) and curing all diseases beating the pants off Cure Wounds or Healing Word cast with a 6th-level slot. Only Heroes' Feast prevents this from being gold.
7th-level:
Conjure Celestial: For the Couatl, as IxidorRS described above.
Plane Shift: Can either be free planar travel for your party, or a more-or-less permanent version of Banishment against an enemy you don't mind not looting.
8th-level:
Earthquake: Terrific against hordes of anything that can't fly (and if there's structures around, even things that can fly can get whacked). With a range of 500 feet, it's a great way to thin such a horde well before it can close in on your party.
My light clerics prepared spells at level 7. Note I do not have to heal as such as I am the tertiary healer behind the thief (healers feat) and druid.
Guidance
Light
Resistance
Sacred FLames
Thaumaturgy
*= domain spell
*Faerie Fire
* Burning Hands
Healing Word
Bless
*Flaming SPhere
*Scorching Ray
Lesser Restoration
Spiritual Wepaon
Enhance Ability
Prayer of Healing
Hold Person
*Daylight
*Fireball
Spiritual Guardians
Create Food and Water
Dispel Magic
*Wall of FIre
*Guardian of Faith
Divination
Create Food and Water is memorized because we are on a ship and in the fantasy land version of the Amazon jungle. Create food and water is a floater it gets changed depnding on the situation.
I know you don't think much about a Knowledge Domain cleric, but he could be really useful if the magic user in the party isn't a bookworm type. You need to have someone with those study skills and background provding intros.
My son is making his Perception skill be his double focus skill. He got lucky and rolled an 18 for his Wisdom and now gets to double his bonus to it? His passive Perception is quite high.
Spells haven't made the cut let alone DMG material and the OP hasn't been back to this thread in 2-3 months. What you see may very well be what you get.
Huntsman57 wrote:
jaappleton wrote:
Mello, I'd be utterly thrilled if you did one. I've read and used your stuff before, always top notch!
mellored wrote:
It is quite a nice guide.
My question is since i am not far in the campaign.. lvl 3. My only concern is the race. I am debating between human and half-elf. Yes human variant gives a nice feat but what will be more usefull between choosing a feat or having darkvision and immune to sleep further down the road? Holding a torch while having a warhammer and a shield.
Looking forward to your replies
jaappleton wrote:
DanMathMan wrote:
I have moved this guide to EN World, Here:
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?468835-GUIDE-For-God-and-Party-A-Cleric-s-guide&p=6704038#post6704038
If the original creator would like to take control of the guide over there, please PM me or Morrus at EN World and we will transfer ownership. As the guide was never completed with spells or equipment, I suspect it will eventually be completed by others if the original poster doesn't have any further thoughts on it.