Cleric Domains: DnD 5e Cleric Subclasses Breakdown – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

Your choice of domain is the single most important decision that you will make when playing a cleric. Your domain determines not only your character’s central them as a divine spellcaster, but also your role on the battlefield. Depending on your Divine Domain, you might serve as a front-line martial warrior similar to the Paladin and the Fighter, you might be a durable support caster and healer, or you might largely ignore friendlier spellcasting in favor of incinerating your foes with divine magic.

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Divine Strike vs. Cantrips
  • Blessed Strikes
• Cleric Subclasses – Divine Domains
  • Arcana Domain (SCAG)
  • Death Domain (DMG)
  • Forge Domain (XGtE)
  • Grave Domain (XGtE)
  • Knowledge Domain (PHB)
  • Life Domain (PHB)
  • Light Domain (PHB)
  • Nature Domain (PHB)
  • Order Domain (GGtR / TCoE)
  • Peace Domain (TCoE)
  • Tempest Domain (PHB)
  • Trickery Domain (PHB)
  • Twilight Domain (TCoE)
  • War Domain (PHB)
• 3rd-Party Publishers

Divine Strike vs. Cantrips

Weapon attacks and cantrips are both viable options for the clerics offensively. Until level 5 when cantrip damage increases and martial characters typically get Extra Attack, you can be effective with either regarless of your Divine Domain. At 5th level and beyond, your domain will determine which options are effective.

Levels 5 through 7 are notably painful for clerics that prefer to use weapons, but after that point Divine Strike makes weapon damage roughly comparable to unmodified cantrips for clerics expected to use weapons in combat.

However, being roughly comparable to un modified cantrips is hardly an incentive to use weapons. Other clerics get Potent Spellcasting, which puts them 5 damage ahead of unmodified cantrips, and therefore 5 damage head of whatever a cleric with Divine Strike could do with a weapon. There is a brief period from levels 14 through 16 where Divine Strike puts weapons attacks ahead unmodified cantrips, but it’s by 3 or 4 damage with a one-handed weapon which is still a smaller gap than what Potent Spellcasting provides.

The table below was originally a product of my article on Writing Homebrew Character Options, but the data is very helpful for choosing a cleric subclass so I’ve included it here for reference. Note that the numerical bonus assumes that you’re enhancing Strength as quickly as possible (or using Shillelagh or something), which is generally a terrible idea and puts Divine Strike even further behind Potent Spellcasting in terms of effectiveness because you’re now sacrificing your class’s primary function (spellcasting) to prop up what is essentially filler to be used in between leveled spells.

Blessed Strikes

If your group uses Optional Class Features, strongly consider using the Blessed Strikes class feature to replace Divine Strike. Yes, the damage bonus is lower than Divine Strike, but it has several qualities which make it worthwhile:

First and most obvious, the bonus works on cantrips. 1d8 will average to 4.5 which isn’t quite as good as Potent Spellcasting, but it’s close. This allows you to totally abandon the idea of using weapons if you choose to do so while still playing a subclass expected to use weapons. The bonus only applies to a single target, so Potent Spellcasting still wins with multi-target spells like Word of Radiance, but Sacred Flame with an extra d8 damage is still better than you could possibly do with a non-magic weapon. You’re basically giving up on using a weapon and getting 1d8 damage on top of what you were already going to deal to single targets.

Second, Blessed Strikes applies on Opportunity Attacks. That’s a funamental and honestly baffling lack of functionality in Divine Strike. You could choose to wield a weapon in case you want to make opportunity attacks, but if don’t have a weapon in hand, Blessed Strikes still applies if you make an unarmed strike.

Finally, Blessed Strikes deals Radiant Damage. It’s very rarely resisted, and it’s much more reliable than many Divine Strike damage types like fire and poison.

The one case where I might recommend sticking to Divine Strike is if you have easy access to magic weapons. You might find that the damage boost from such weapons is enough to make using a weapon appealing. However, given the choice between a magic spellcasting focus and a magic weapon, you should always go for the spellcasting focus. Remember that the Cleric is a spellcaster first, and weapons are an entirely secondary function.

Cleric Subclasses – Divine Domains

Arcana Domain ^(SCAG)

The Arcana Domain Cleric borrows some options from the Wizard, giving the Cleric a lot of really great utilities and support options, as well as some excellent offensive options. Access to wizard cantrips, even a limited number of them, allows the Arcana Domain easy access to cantrip damage types which go beyond the necrotic and radiant damage which are normally a staple for the cleric. You also add a number of leveled spells which cover a broad variety of options including offensive buffs, utility spells, attack spells, and divinations used for scouting, and at high levels you can permanently pick four wizard spells to add to your spell list.

Arcana Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: Some very good options,including some great utilities, all of which are borrowed from the Wizardspell list.
   1. 1st Level: Detect Magic is one ofthe most useful and important Divinations in the game, and since you always have it prepared, you can always cast it as a ritual. Magic Missile is a fantastic,reliable damage option.
   3. 3rd Level: Magic Weapon is a goodbuff if your party needs access to magic weapons to overcomeresistances, but you haven’t found any yet. However, it requiresConcentration and the Cleric already has a ton of excellentConcentration buffs like Bless which may be more numericallyeffective.
   5. 5th Level: Dispel Magic is anextremely important tool, but Magic Circle is very situational.
   7. 7th Level: Arcane Eye is a fantasticway to scout areas which may be difficult or dangerous to explore inperson. Secret Chest is a weird option that many people don’t use alot, but it’s a great way to store sensitive or dangerous items likequest items.
   9. 9th Level: Planar Binding is verysituational. See myPractical Guide to Summoning Spellsfor help with it. Teleportation Circle is a great teleportationoption, provided that you know enough destinations, but it will bemostly replaced by Plane Shift once you can cast 7th-level spells.
1. Arcane Initiate: A free skill andtwo cantrips! Wizards have a very diverse set of options withsome excellent effects. Don’t feel like you need to run straight to thedamage options, though those options are certainly tempting. Utilitycantrips have a lot to offer, especially options like Prestidigitation andShape Water. If you do go for offensive options, go for ones that expandyour damage type options like Mind Sliver or options which improve yourmelee weapon attacks like Booming Blade if you plan to fight in melee.
2. Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration:Situational, but extraplanar creatures (Celestials, Elementals, Fey, andFiends) are very common enemies which make up a huge chunk of the monstermanual. This only affects one target, so you generally want to use it onthe biggest thing in the room, even if you can’t banish it.

   The banishment effect is terrible considering how easy it should be tokill the creatures which it affects. It’s intended to mirror the abilityto destroy low-level undead, but since Arcane Abjuration issingle-target rather than an AOE, it’s barely worth considering.

6. Spell Breaker: If you have HealingWord prepared (and you should), you can raise its level to whatever youneed to remove whatever debuff you like as a Bonus Action. Do you need toremove spells from multiple allies? Try Mass Healing Word. Unfortunately,this only applies to spells and enemy spellcasters make up a small portionof the creatures you’ll face in a typical campaign, so this is onlysituationally useful.
8. Potent Spellcasting: This is alreadygreat for most Clerics, but it’s especially good for the Arcana DomainCleric because your two Wizard cantrips are treated as Cleric Cantrips, sothey get the bonus damage too! If your cantrips affect multiple targets(already possible for the Cleric thank to Word of Radiance), this bonusdamage applies to all of them.

   Acid Splash gets the bonus against bothtargets, and if you use Green-Flame Blade, Jeremy Crawford has confirmedon Twitterthat the bonus applies to the secondary target initially and to bothtargets once you hit level 5 and Green-Flame Blade adds fire damage toyour weapon attack. I haven’t found a specific answer, but I assume thatthe same applies to Booming Blade, so the damage bonus applies both on theinitial hit and on the secondary damage if the target moves.

17. Arcane Mastery: This is absurdlyversatile. The number of potential options is huge. You’re obviously goingto select Wish for the 9th-level spell (see myPractical Guide to Wish), but forthe other spell levels, see myWizard Spell List Breakdown. You can use Wish for any situational spells or spells with costlycomponents (e.g. clone), so for the 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-level spells youshould stick to spells which you’ll be able to use frequently.

Death Domain ^(DMG)

Nominally intended for use by evil cleric NPCs, the Death Domain is hidden away in the Dungeon Master’s Guide. Playing a death cleric typically means worshipping an evil deity, which in most campaigns can quickly turn into a problem since the player’s are typically intended to be the “heroes” of the story. That said, mechanically there’s no reason to deny access to the Death Domain.

A highly offensive domain, Death adds martial weapon proficiency and several options for dealing necrotic damage. However, the domain lacks almost any support or utility options, so you’ll need to fall back on the Cleric’s normal spells and core features to provide those capabilities.

1. Domain Spells: A lot of very goodoptions, some of which aren’t on the Cleric spell list. The 3rd-leveloptions are the worst part of the domain, but the rest of the spell listis great.
   1. 1st Level: False Life is a fantasticbuff at any level. The hit points aren’t big, but with an hourduration you can afford to spend a 1st-level spell slot several times aday to reduce your need to heal your allies. Ray of Sickness is mediocre at best.
   3. 3rd Level: Both of the effects lastonly a minute, and allow repeated saves. Unless you can almostgurantee that the target will fail their save, these arent reliabledebuffs.
   5. 5th Level: Animate Dead requiresfrequent re-casting in 5e, so having it prepared every day for free isnice. Vampiric Touch is a great way to combine healing and damageoutput, and isn’t normally available to Clerics.
   7. 7th Level: Blight deals decentdamage, especially against plants, but doesn’t scale particularly welland doesn’t have a fun secondary effect. Death Ward seems horribly outof place on the Death domain, but it’s a great buff.
   9. 9th Level: Antilife Shell is agreat way to protect yourself, but Cloudkill is very hard to use sinceyou can’t redirect its path, and the damage isn’t justifiable if itonly hits enemies once.
1. Bonus Proficiency: Martial weapons arenice, but the difference between a mace and a longsword isn’t significantsince Clerics never get Extra Attack. You probably don’t want to use reachweapons, either, since you don’t have heavy armor to keep your AC highwhen you forgo a shield, though the Whip may be a worthwhileexception.
1. Reaper: There aren’t many necromancycantrips and some of them are already on the Cleric’s spell list like Tollthe Dead. Chill Touch seems like the obvious choice: it has better rangethan offensive cleric cantrips (Sacred Flame and Toll the Dead have rangeof just 60 ft.) and the damage is good. You’ll want to use Toll the Deadif you can get within range, but having expanded range makes it morelikely that you can reach two enemies within 5 feet of each other.
2. Channel Divinity: Touch of Death: Thisreally isn’t a lot of damage. It’s a nice damage boost, but you wantChannel Divinity to be more impactful than this. If your group uses theOptional Class Features, you’ll almost certain get better results fromusing Harness Divine Power to get another spell slot.
6. Inescapable Destruction: Consideringthat you probably took Chill Touch and/or Toll the Dead, and that some ofthe cleric’s go-to single-target damage spells will deal Necrotic damage,resistance to Necrotic damage can be a problem. Immunity is still andissue, but complete immunity to necrotic damage is rare, and generallylimited to very high-level creatures (Liches, etc.). Still, the Cleric’sbiggest sources of damage typically deal radiant damage, so on the rareoccasions that you do encounter resistance or immunity to necrotic damageit’s easy to switch to radiant.
8. Divine Strike: Necrotic damage isamong the most reliable damage types, so as far as Divine Strike goes it’shard to find a better option. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips,above.
17. Improved Reaper: Many powerfulNecromancy spells like Inflict Wounds, Blight, and Finger of Death aresingle-target. The ability to affect two targets with one casting doublestheir effectiveness, though requiring the targets to be adjacent doesseverely limit how often you can apply this.

Forge Domain ^(XGtE)

A great spell list, a clear role on the front lines in combat, and unique utility and support options. The Forge Domain is excellent in every aspect. Forge Domain Clerics make good Defenders, and have enough damage output to be a threat in combat even without relying on spellcasting.

Forge Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: Absolutely stellar. TheForge Domain’s spell list is almost entirely composed of spells notnormally available to clerics, including a couple excellent offensiveoptions from the Paladin spell list and some great utility options fromthe Wizard spell list.
   1. 1st Level: Identify is onlyoccasionally necessary, and can generally wait for you to take a fullrest to prepare it. Searing Smite isnormally a paladin-exclusive spell, and your spell saveDCs will be higher than most paladins’. Even at high levels, itremains a cheap and reliable damage boost for your weapon attacks,though it may not be worth concentrating on it to maintain the 1d6 ongoing damage unless your target isconcentration on a spell or they’re a troll. Searing Smite targeting a Con save doesn’t help, either.
   3. 3rd Level: Heat Metal is onlysituationally useful since most monsters don’t use armor or weapons,but when it works it works very well. Magic Weapon is a great buff,but you already have Blessing of the Forge, so it feels redundant.
   5. 5th Level: Elemental Weapon andMagic Weapon are partially redundant, but it’s nice that you get bothoptions. Elemental Weapon is great for characters who make numerous attacks, like fighters. Protection From Energy is a staple buff that every partyneeds handy.
   7. 7th Level: Neither spell is on theCleric spell list, and both are excellent.
   9. 9th Level: Again, neither spell ison the Cleric spell list. Both spells are fantastic.
1. Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor isalways welcome on a cleric, regardless of their role, but it’s especiallyimportant on a front-line cleric like the Forge Domain Cleric.
1. Blessing of the Forge: Put a free +1weapon into the party on a functionally permanent basis. Absolutelycrucial if your game doesn’t use magic items, but even if it does this isa wonderful and flexible buff.
2. Channel Divinity: Artisan’s Blessing:Possibly situational, but extremely versatile. Trapped in a pit? Make aladder. Stuck door? Make a portable ram. Blocked tunnel? Make a pickaxe.
6. Soul of the Forge: The damage resistanceis welcome, but a fixed bonus to AC like this is extremely rare in 5e.
8. Divine Strike: The bonus damage isgood, but fire is among the most commonly-resisted damage types. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips.
17. Saint of Forge and Fire: This isarguably too good, even at this level.

Grave Domain ^(XGtE)

A spellcasting-focused domain with a little bit of healing and a little bit of damage, the Grave Domain strikes an interesting balance between offensive and healing options. Most of the abilities are good, but there are a handful of very weak abilities thrown into the mix.

Grave Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: Excellent, with ahandful of spells that won’t be especially useful on a regular basis.
   1. 1st Level: False Life providestemporary hit points for an hour. As a 1st-level spell it willeventually become a trivial expenditure of your daily spellcasting.When you get to high levels, casting this before your first and after every fightis a great use of a spell slot. Oh, and you get some other spellthat’s already on your spell list that I don’t care for.
   3. 3rd Level: Both spells aresituational, and neither is particularly good.
   5. 5th Level: Revivify is a cleric tax,and every cleric should take it because it’s too good to not do so.Vampiric Touch is a great option if you get dragged into melee, buttry to avoid needing it.
   7. 7th Level: A decent damage optionthat’s not on the Cleric spell list, and a crucial buff with a nice,long duration.
   9. 9th Level: Antilife Shell is afantastic defensive option which will keep melee enemies at bay whileyou kill them with ranged spells. Saddling you with Raise Dead everyday is pointless.
1. Circle of Mortality: This makes CureWounds considerably more appealing when an ally hits 0 hit points. Thedifference in the amount healed between Cure Wounds and Healing Word canbe significant, especially if you up-cast the spells. This on its own isgreat, but it only marginally improves the tactical benefit of in-combathealing. The ability to use Spare the Dying at range as a Bonus Action isintended to fill in for Healing Word so that Cure Wounds is moreappealing, but personally I still think that Healing Word is a bettertactical option in most cases.

   You can notably choose to cast Spare theDying as either an Action or a Bonus Action, which is neat if you want todo something like cast Sacred Flame (an Action) in the same turn. Justremember that if you cast any spell as a Bonus Action, including a cantrip, you can’t cast leveledspells that turn.

   Circle of Mortality can be abused by taking allies who are at very fewhit points and beating them unconscious to get extra free healing, whichcan be cathartic, but your allies may be nervous about allowing you todo so and your DM might get ideas about imposing a drawback of somekind.

1. Eyes of the Grave: Detect Evil is on theCleric spell list, and does the same thing, but detects more creatures.Sure, the area is smaller, but that doesn’t seem like enough to make thismeaningful.
2. Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave: Usethis with a rogue or with a spellcaster with a high-damage spell thatrequires an attack like Inflict Wounds.
6. Sentinel at Death’s Door: Critical hitson your allies can turn a tough fight into a crushing defeat in a singleroll. Abilities which mitigate critical hits are few and far between,making this a rare and potent defensive option.
8. Potent Spellcasting: By this level youcan easily have 20 Wisdom, giving an excellent boost to your damageoutput. Note that this only applies to Cleric cantrips, so you can’t useit in conjunction with Magic Initiate or cantrips gained bymulticlassing.
17. Keeper of Souls: This probably won’tprovide a significant amount of healing, but it’s a fun passive abilityand it might even allow you to rescue an ally at 0 hit points withoutcutting into your actions on your turn.

Knowledge Domain ^(PHB)

Knowledge provides some very good abilities, and a lot of great options for gathering information by mundane, magical, and potentially metagame means. Unfortunately, the spell list is disappointing, and doesn’t provide many options which will see frequent use.

1. Domain Spells: A handful of gooddivinations, but the majority of the spells are very situational, and cantypically wait for a long rest for you to prepare them.
   1. 1st Level: Command can be veryhelpful if you use the right command, but Identify is veryalways an excellent addition if we’re missing a Wizard to ritual cast it out of a spellbook.
   3. 3rd Level: Suggestion is a great wayto handle a lot of problems if you use it well. Augury is easily oneof my favorite divinations, though it takes a bit of practice andfamiliarity with your DM to really make it work. If your group is everstuck arguing about how to proceed, Augury can be used to quicklynarrow your possibilities by eliminating options which yield “woe”results.
   5. 5th Level: Both options are verysituational.
   7. 7th Level: Arcane eye is a veryeffective way to scout nearby areas which might be dangerous ordifficult to access normally. Confusion is a difficult spell to use,but if your targets will reliably fail the Wisdom saving throw, theylose 80% of their turns for the duration.
   9. 9th Level: Legend Lore and Scryingare very situational options which see infrequent use, and can nearlyalways wait for you to take a long rest to prepare them on the rareoccasions that you need them.
1. Blessings of Knowledge: Two languagesare nice, but quickly stop mattering when you gain access to Tongues. Thetwo free Knowledge skills are much more important, especially since youget to add double your proficiency bonus, easily making up for apotentially poor Intelligence score.
2. Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages:This is a fantastic utility ability. Forgot to bring a Rogue? Grab somethieves’ tools, cast Guidance, and you’re ready to go.
6. Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts:Reading minds is situationally useful, but Suggestion can be veryeffective, especially because activating this effect has no outwardly visible effect, and they automatically fail the save against Suggestion, so you don’t have to worry about what someone might do if you cast a spell at them and it doesn’t work.
8. Potent Spellcasting: By this level youcan easily have 20 Wisdom, giving an excellent boost to your damageoutput. Note that this only applies to Cleric cantrips, so you can’t useit in conjunction with Magic Initiate or cantrips gained bymulticlassing.
17. Visions of the Past: This is very hardto rate. If your DM is creative and open-minded, this could grant youprofound insight into the plot of the game, and can provide a very potentstory-telling tool. If your DM is tight-lipped, and doesn’t like giving upsecrets, you may find this ability to be difficult to use effectively.

Life Domain ^(PHB)

Magical healing is one of the Cleric’s most important functions, and no character can compete with the Life Cleric’s capacity for healing. The Life Domain took 1st overall in The Healbot Olympics by a large margin, and coupled with the Cleric’s abundant options for resisting and removing status conditions, there really isn’t another character who can match the Life Cleric’s capacity as a healer.

The Life Cleric also doubles as a solid front-line Defender due to their access to heavy armor, allowing them to serve double duty as both a Defender and a Healer. Offensively you’ll need to rely almost entirely on spells or weapons, but with the Cleric’s abundant and powerful spells that’s really not a problem.

Life Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: The low level optionsare absolutely fantastic, and many of the Life domain spells areessentially required for a Cleric to take. Unfortunately, the high leveloptions are less useful.
   1. 1st Level: Bless is nearly a wincondition at low levels where adding 1d4 to a roll can exceed yourproficiency bonus, and it remains a staple buff at basically any levelso long as you don’t need your Concentration for something else. CureWounds is a fine healing spell, but in combat you want to rely onHealing Word and spend your Action on offense.
   3. 3rd Level: Lesser Restoration isnice to have handy, but much of the time the effects which it removescan wait until you can rest and prepare spells to fix them. SpiritualWeapon is among the Cleric’s most efficient uses of both spell slotsand Bonus Actions.
   5. 5th Level: Beacon of Hope issituational, but can be nice to cast before a rest to maximize theeffectiveness of your healing spells when Hit Dice are running short.Revivify is the “Cleric Tax”, so getting it for free is reallynice.
   7. 7th Level: Two interesting optionswith 8-hour durations, but Death Ward is definitely the better of thetwo.
   9. 9th Level: Mass Cure is redundantwith Preserve Life, and if you need Raise Dead prepared every day youare either in a terrible game or in a game with a ZealotBarbarian.
1. Bonus Proficiency: With heavy armor anda shield, you can work on the front lines as well as any Fighter. Theimproved AC will also help to reduce the need to heal yourself instead ofhealing or supporting your allies, especially when supplemented by spellslike Shield of Faith and Sanctuary.
1. Disciple of Life: This isn’t a ton ofhealing all at once, but it will be especially useful with Healing Word,which is a good combination because it uses a Bonus Action, but normallydoesn’t heal for a particularly large amount. Over the course of yourcareer, the total amount of additional healing will be significant, so Iencourage you to keep a running score if for no other reason than toremind your party members how badly they need you to survive.
2. Channel Divinity: Preserve Life:Fantastic when you’re looking at a possible TPK. Since you’re healing somuch, most characters of your level will go from 0 to half hit points,unless you’re looking at someone like a Barbarian with d12 hit dice and 20Constitution or if you’re splitting the points between multiple allies.Even so, the scaling is excellent as you gain additional uses of ChannelDivinity this will quickly become your go-to option for large amounts ofhit point recovery while in combat.
6. Blessed Healer: Coupled with yourexcellent AC, there is now almost never a reason to cast a healing spellon yourself instead of helping your allies. However, casting a healingspell to restore hit points should not happen frequently during combat, sothis may not trigger as frequently as you would like.
8. Divine Strike: Radiant damage is amongthe most reliable damage types available. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips.
17. Supreme Healing: As you add more andmore dice, your rolls will skew toward the statistical average, meaningthat each d8 from Cure Wounds is effectively 4.5 points of healing.Maximizing the die improves this to 8 points of healing, almost doublingthe effects of your healing spells and thereby making your spell slotsspent on healing much more efficient, allowing you to reserve high-levelspell slots for more interesting things. However, since in-combat healingis generally not a good idea, there are few situations where this will besignificantly impactful. In a fight, if you need healing you should castHeal or Mass Heal, neither of which involve dice.

    Knowing how best to apply this requires a little bit of math. Forsingle-target healing, anything of 6th level or above should still beHeal or a 9th-level spell like Mass Heal. The Cure Wounds spell cast at 6th level healsjust 48+Wis hit points compared to Heal’s 70 (without consideringDisciple of Life which applies the same bonus to either). Formulti-target healing, Prayer of Healing is your best option, but with a10-minute casting time you’re more likely to use Mass Healing Word.

Light Domain ^(PHB)

The Light Cleric is a Controller and a Striker, specializing in dealing damage both to single targets and to areas. Clerics already have the best Radiant damage spells in the game, and the Light Domain supplements those spells with some of the best Fire damage spells. If your party doesn’t have room for both a Cleric-equivalent and a Wizard-equivalent, the Light domain is a good choice because you can so easily replace the Wizard’s ability to quickly handle groups of weak enemies.

Light Domain Cleric Example Build

1. Domain Spells: A fantastic set ofoffensive spells which close the gap between Clerics and Wizards.
   1. 1st-Level: FaerieFire is a great way to handle invisible creatures, but it’salso helpful support option for allies that rely on attacksbecause it’s an easy source of Advantage against multipletargets. Burning Hands is a great low-levelAOE damage spell, but resist the urge to burn all of yourspell slots casting it or you won’t have any slots to healwith. At high levels, Faerie Fire remains incredibly potent,but Burning Hands will be obsolete after a few levels.
   3. 3rd-Level: ScorchingRay is a great option, especially if you have Bless or Faerie Fire running to boostthe attack rolls. Flaming Sphere is strictly worse than SpiritualWeapon, but it’s good enough that you could consider not preparingspiritual weapon if you’re short on space for prepared spells.
   5. 5th-Level: Daylightis situational, but Fireball is the sledgehammer of offensivespells: sometimes you just need to hit your problems untilthey fall down. In terms of instantaneous area damage, thereisn’t another spell that can compete with Fireball until 9th-levelspells introduce stuff like Meteor Swarm.
   7. 7th-Level: Wallof Fire is among the best area control spells in the game.
   9. 9th-Level: FlameStrike is considerably less important since you get Fireball,and Scrying is only situationally useful so it’s frustratingto have it prepared every day.
1. Bonus Cantrip: Not spectacular, buta Light Cleric really should have Light, and someoneshould be able to cast it in most parties (unless every has Darkvision).
1. Warding Flare: You won’t get a ton ofuses, so save this for enemies which can do a lot of damage on a singleattack. This needs to be activated “before an attack hits or misses”, whichis frustratingly vague, but I assume it means “before the result of theattack is determined”. So your DM could roll, ask “Does a 25 hit?” knowingfull well that it does, and you could scream “Warding Flare!” before the DMsays “you are hit” and the DM would then roll with Disadvantage (meaningthat they roll a second die and choose the lower of the two results, notthat they need to dump whatever they’ve already rolled).

   Of course,your DM might read that differently and take my portrayal of that interactionpoorly, so check with your DM before you assume how this works.Tragically, Jeremy Crawford’s only response on the subjectdoesn’tactually clarify the answer.

2. Channel Divinity: Radiance of the Dawn:The damage isn’t great beyond low levels. Magical darkness canreally cause problems, and a guranteed way to remove it is very convenient,but you can also negate magical darkness with the spell Daylight, which youget prepared for free once you hit level 5. So there’s a small level windowwhere this might be impactful, but once you get through low levels you’ll frequently getbetter results from the Harness Divine Power Optional Class Feature if your DM allows it.
6. Improved Flare: Fantastic if you haveallies who are squishier than you (like a Wizard) or if you need to buytime until you can heal someone.
8. Potent Spellcasting: By this level youalmost certainly have 20 Wisdom, giving an impressive boost to your damageoutput. Note that this only applies to Cleric cantrips, so you can’tuse it in conjunction with Magic Initiate to turn things like EldritchBlast into a problem, but adding Wisdom to staples like Sacred Flame, Wordof Radiance, and Toll the Dead is still great.
17. Corona of Light: If you’re anything likeme, you want to make a joke about light beer whenever you see thisability. But unlike light beer, this is fun. It’s essentially anoverdrive button for your fire and radiant damage spells, which isespecially nice with the Light domain’s Domain Spells and with Clericstaples like Spirit Guardians.

Nature Domain ^(PHB)

Nature provides a lackluster spell list, and a Channel Divinity ability which only functions against a small sliver of the monster manual. The domains other abilities are fantastic, but since spells and Channel Divinity are such major parts of how the Cleric operates, it’s hard to recommend this domain.

1. Domain Spells: The nature spell listincludes no truly fantastic options, and most of the options are eithersituational or outright bad.
   1. 1st Level: Both spells are verysituational, and will become less important as you gain levels andbeasts fall out of the CR scale. But if you do encounter beasts,Animal Friendship doesn’t allow a save for the vast majority ofbeasts, so those encounters are instantly trivialized.
   3. 3rd Level: Barkskin isn’t worth yourConcentration, but Spike Growth is a good and inexpensive area controloption.
   5. 5th Level: Plant Growth is aninteresting area control spell, and a great way to make hedge mazes orbefriend farmers. Wind wall is very situational.
   7. 7th Level: Both are very situational.Grasping Vine is just a terrible spell, and if you need to causetrouble for a single target, Spiritual Weapon remains reliable andeffective.
   9. 9th Level: Insect Plague is a goodcrowd control option, and Tree Stride is a fun long-range traveloption for Clerics, who typically lack options like Teleport and needto rely on Plane Shift instead.
1. Acolyte of Nature: Druids have somefantastic cantrips, including some great utility options which are usuallyexclusive to Druids like Shillelagh, but Sacred Flame and Word of Radianceare still typically better choices. The bonus skill is nice, too.
1. Bonus Proficiency: With heavy armor anda shield, you can work on the front lines as well as any Fighter. Theimproved AC will also help to reduce the need to heal yourself instead ofhealing or supporting your allies.
2. Channel Divinity: Charm Animals and Plants: Very situational. Use the Harness Divine Power Optional Class Featureif you can.
6. Dampen Elements: This is insanelyuseful. It’s like Absorb Elements without a spell slot, and you can use iton yourself or any other creature within range. You’re still limited toone Reaction per round, unfortunately, so at times you may be forced tochoose between two or more allies who are taking damage from the samesource like a fireball or a breath weapon.
8. Divine Strike: Note that you get tochoose the damage type every time you hit, so you can easily switch energytypes as the need arises, allowing you to avoid resistances and immunitiesand capitalize on vulnerabilities. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips,above.
17. Master of Nature: The problem with Mastureof Nature is that it only affects creatures Charmed by your ChannelDivinity: Charm Animals and Plants feature, which only lasts for oneminute. You need to find creatures, charm them, move them where you needthem, and do whatever you were planning to do inside the tiny time windowof one minute.

    Even if you somehow manage something ridiculous with AnimalFriendship and squish a bunch of animals into the 30-foot radius of CharmAnimals and Plants, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to accomplishanything of note before Charm Animals and Plants expires. You couldrefresh Charm Animals and Plants, but you get just two uses of ChannelDivinity per Short or Long Rest, so you’re getting at most 2 minutes at atime to use your subclass’s capstone feature.

Order Domain ^{(GGtR / TCoE)}

The Order Domain is an excellent option for a cleric looking to lead or support their party. In heavy armor you’re fine on the front lines, and Voice of Authority provides a significant force multiplier for anyone in your party who deals big piles of damage on a single attack. However, for Voice of Authority to be useful, you need a suitable party member with big single attacks, so characters that rely on numerous relatively small attacks are less helpful.

Order Domain falls somewhat flat around mid levels. Order gets one of the better versions of Divine Strike, but it’s still not a great fit for the Cleric because cantrips are so much more effective. Order’s Wrath seeks to improve upon Divine Strike, but by level 17 cantrips are so far ahead of Divine Strike in efficacy that Order’s Wrath becomes difficult to justify using.

Order Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: The spell list oscilatesbetween pairs of fantastic options and pairs of situational options.Overally it’s fairly good, and you’ll get a lot of use out of many of thespells, especially the enchantments.
   1. 1st Level: Both excellent optionswith a wide variety of uses, and they remain useful well into highlevels.
   3. 3rd Level: Hold Person issituational, but can be very handy in a campaign with a lot ofhumanoid enemies. Zone of Truth is rarely important in anycampaign.
   5. 5th Level: A staple cleric spell,and a good crowd control option.
   7. 7th Level: Both spells aresituational at best.
   9. 9th Level: Commune is one of myabsolute favorite divinations because it’s so versatile and reliable.Dominate Person is technically situational, but if there’s a humanoidenemy in an encounter it’s hard to think of a better spell tocast.
1. Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor isalways a fantastic option for clerics, and an additional skill is alwayswelcome.
1. Voice of Authority: Despite many valiantattempts, clerics are nearly never as good at weapon attacks as their moremartially-minded allies. Use this to give your rogue a chance to deliver aSneak Attack during your turn (Sneak Attack is once per turn, not once perround), or if there isn’t a rogue in the party give it to whoever willdeal the most damage.

   The spell you cast only needs to be a leveled spell,so when you’re high enough level that your low-level spells won’t make abig direct impact in combat, you can use bonus action spells like Healingword to trigger this effect and spend your action casting a cantrip. Onceyou get Embodiment of Law you can cast enchantment spells as bonus actionsa few times per day, which gives you even more ways to do this.

   It can also be used to do neat things if your friends happen to haveone of a few feats.

2. Channel Divinity: Order’s Demand:Disarm every target within 30 feet on failed Wisdom saves. Excellent againsthumanoid enemies, but less useful against monsters.
6. Embodiment of Law: 3-5 times per daydoesn’t seem like a lot, but with the Order domain’s emphasis onenchantment spells that’s probably enough to cover most situations whereyou want to cast an enchantment and do some other action on the sameturn.
8. Divine Strike: Psychic damage is amongthe most reliable damage types in the game, but unintelligent creatureslike zombies and constructs are frequently immune so you’ll want to bringother offensive options to handle those enemies. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips.
17. Order’s Wrath: This is very weak forsuch a high-level feature, and it simply doesn’t match the capabilitiesprovided by most other subdomains at this level. Life gets to maximizehealing dice. Nature gets to command an army of beasts. Trickery gets topretend to be in five places at once and cast spells from any of them.Order gets to maybe deal 2d8 damage, provided that you hit withyour one attack per turn and have an ally handy to hit the same creature.

    Your ideal use case for this is to hit an enemy with your weapon anddeal Divine Strike damage, then cast a leveled spell as a bonus actionto trigger Voice of Authority and have your ally hit the same target totrigger the bonus damage.

    That means you’re dealing 4d8 psychic damage(2d8 from Divine Strike, 2d8 from Order’s Wrath) plus whatever yourweapon does plus whatever your ally’s attack does. That’s pretty good,but by this level you’re dealing 4d8 damage with Sacred Flame (more withother options like Word of Radiance or Toll the Dead), and yourspellcasting DC will be probably be more reliable than your attackbonus, so casting a cantrip is a much more consistent source of damageoutput.

Peace Domain ^(TCoE)

Ban this domain. I do not say that lightly. Ban this domain.

The Peace Domain domain is full of extremely obvious abuse cases and problems which break the math of the game and can turn an otherwise totally normal party into an unstoppable force of both incredible tactical efficiency and absolutely ridiculous shenanigans. Right from first level, Peace Domain can provide +2d4 on attack rolls and saving throws to two members of the party, mathematically trivializing combat.

As the cleric gains levels, that two-person limit scales to gradually include the whole party, and they gain the ability to teleport and redirect damage from any source, eventually adding resistance to that damage, thereby effectively giving the whole party perpetual resistance to damage (so long as their Reaction has not been used), and making them immune to grapples and many other crowd control effects by allowing them to teleport to each other.

I go into the implications of these problems at greater length in this Patreon post. The issues are extensive and might not be obvious, and it takes me three pages of text to explain them all. People told me I was out of my mind when I first advocated banning peace domain, and now I see my arguments repeated all over the place online.

If you want to allow this domain in your game, I recommend these changes:

• Rule Change: Only one die can be added to any given d20 roll. No more stacking Bless, Guidance, Bardic Inspiration, and whatever else. (I recommend this as a house rule anyway; this issue long predates Peace Domain.)

• Emboldening Bond:
  • If a creature willingly attacks another creature in the bond, the bond is immediately broken for all creatures. That creature cannot be part of another Emboldening Bond until the cleric completes a long rest. This prevents the abuse cases I describe below where the party can teleport for free by punching each other or throwing rocks.
  • The number of uses and targets increases by the same amount and at the same levels as your Proficiency Bonus increases (5th, 9th, 13th, and 17th level), but is not actually tied to your Proficiency Bonus. This is solely to prevent multiclass abuse.
• Protective Bond: Consider one of these options:
  • The user immediately loses the benefits of the Emboldening Bond for the remainder of the effect, allowing them to sacrifice their own benefits in order to save an ally from a potentially lethal source of damage.
  • Split the damage between the original recipient and whoever spends their Reaction to activate Protective Bond using the same rules as the Warding Bond spell.
• Potent Spellcasting: Considering the theme, I honestly don’t know why this is here. Leave it here as a peculiarity, or replace it with something novel like allowing Guidance to be cast at 30-foot range.

• Expansive Bond: Remove the resistance mechanic. Doubling the range is plenty considering how good Emboldening Bond is already.

With those changes in place, this is an excellent support subclass. Warding Bond really emphasizes teamwork and sticking together, and provides fantastic benefits for doing so. Emboldening Bold is useful throughout your career, and your ability to use it on more targets as you gain levels is incredibly useful on top of the growing benefits. If you want to play a back-line support caster, it’s hard to go wrong here.

Despite the name of the domain, there’s not much to do with “peace” here. Sure, none of the class options are offensive (except Potent Spellcasting, which is inexplicably present here), but the Peace Domain’s primary function is making your party of violent murderers more effective at performing violence. Sure, you don’t need to get your hands dirty, but that doesn’t absolve you.

1. Domain Spells: Mostly healing anddefensive options, but taken as a whole the spells address a variety ofproblems that an adventuring party will face in typical adventures. Withthe right spell from the Peace Domain’s spell list, you can prevent orrepair most problems which might afflict your party with the exception ofactual hit point damage since none of the Peace Domain’s spells restorehit points. Fortunately, you can still depend on your regular allotment ofspells, and Channel Divinity: Balm of Peace provides some additionalhealing.
   1. 1st Level: Excellent defensiveoptions for yourself or an ally.
   3. 3rd Level: Aid is good enough thatmany people prepare it every day, so getting that for free isfantastic. Warding Bond is more situational, but since Peace Domain isa back-line cleric subclass you’ve got a big pool of hit points whichyou’re not doing much with so you may as well share it with whoever isserving as your party’s Defender.
   5. 5th Level: Two situational optionsthat you’re not likely to use every day.
   7. 7th Level: A situational defensivebuff and a save-or-suck which amounts to a “time out bubble”.
   9. 9th Level: Greater Restoration isonly situationally useful, but it’s an essential healing option sohaving it handy is nice. Telepathic Bond is a huge advantage foradventurers and you should use it frequently.
1. Implement of Peace: A free skill isalways welcome. Insight is typically a great choice for the Cleric sinceit’s Wisdom-based, but Persuasion is also very helpful.
1. Emboldening Bond: This is spectacular.This is basically Bless but with a 10-minute duration and it also appliesto Ability Checks. Bless will admittedly be more useful for creaturesmaking more than one attack per turn, but that’s fine.They stack. Let me say that again:Emboldening Bond and Bless stack. Level 1, pick two people andthey get +2d4 to attacks and saving throws. On average, thatdoublesa level 1 character’s expected attack bonus, and saving throws aredramatically less threatening.

   Even better, this whole thing progresses based on your Proficiency Bonus.If you took one level of cleric and never came back, you’re just as goodwith this feature as a cleric of the same level.

   Emboldening Bond is the Peace Domain’s central feature, and who gets tobe part of the bond is an extremely important tactical decision for thePeace Domain Cleric. Since Proficiency Bonus advances so slowly, youcan’t cover a full party of 4 until level 9. That somewhat limits thebenefits, but if you stay out of trouble and rely on saving throwcantrips like Sacred Flame there’s little reason why you need to bepart of the bond. Put it on your front-line allies, and gradually addyour back-line allies as your Proficiency Bonus scales.

2. Channel Divinity: Balm of Peace: Notmuch healing, especially compared to something like Channel Divinity:Preserve Life, but if your party is close enough together you can hit allof them and any pets or summons in the same action, especially if you havea lot of speed and are flying (centaurs and aarakocra are great for this).At low levels, this can prevent a TPK. It’s also a great way to expendremaining uses of Channel Divinity before you take a rest.

   However, as you gain levels its usefulness in combat will diminish, andit will become that thing you use before short rests to save on spending hit dice.

6. Protective Bond: Fantastic both forprotecting frail allies like spellcasters (including you, potentially) andfor repositioning allies in a hurry. There’s no limitation on how oftenyou can use this beyond their Reaction, and in a pinch you could make an unarmed strike againstan ally and use Protective Bond to pull another ally adjacent to thetarget.

   This does consume the Reaction of the creature that teleports, butthat’s a price that is absolutely worth paying for many characters. When people have underutilized reactions to spare, this might see lots of use in combat. If the party is heavily invested into their own reactions on the other hand, it might not get used because the guy who wants to take the hit already used his reaction on a Polearm Master attack and the guy getting attacked is going to just cast Shield to have 24 AC prevent the attack doing any damage in the first place.

   Outside of combat, it does have teleportation utility. If your party includes a familiar, you can putthe familiar into your Emboldening Bond (provided that you have space tojustify doing so). Familiars get just one hit point, so even thesmallest amount of damage kills them and the owner of the familiar needsto invest the time and gold to bring them back. Protective Bond allowsyou to both keep the familiar alive and use the familiar as apotentially flying teleportation beacon.

   Send the familiar where youneed to be, throw a rock at them, then teleport to them and absorb thedamage. Your Bonds can similarly punch themselves to trigger teleportation. The entire Bond could even teleport off of one punch, simply have each one react to the damage of the previous reaction trigger.

   Another example of shenanigans: A Path of the Totem Warrior can haveresistance to all damage while raging by this level. Throw Heroism (or better yet, have a second Cleric of the Twilight Domain for Twilight Sanctuary) ontop of that, and they’re a nearly-bottomless mountain of hit points andcan use their Reaction every turn to happily take damage for the rest ofthe party, conveniently halving all damage that they take all whileenjoying Heroism’s perpetually-replenishing pool of temporary hitpoints.

8. Potent Spellcasting: By this level youcan easily have 20 Wisdom, giving an excellent boost to your damageoutput. Note that this only applies to Cleric cantrips, so you can’t useit in conjunction with Magic Initiate or cantrips gained bymulticlassing.
17. Expansive Bond: Considering thatProtective Bond has no usage limitaiton beyond taking a Reaction, this isan easy way to effectively give your whole party resistance to all damageby shuffling the damage between members of your party. So long as everyonehas a decently pool of hit points (wizards may need be selfish here),everyone can sacrifice a little bit for the whole party to benefitconsiderably.

Tempest Domain ^(PHB)

Tempest is both offensive and durable, falling somewhere between Life’s durability and Light’s damage output. Tempest’s abilities and spells provide several fun crowd control, area control, and area damage options, allowing the Tempest Cleric to serve is an effective threat both at short and long range. Tempest domain provides no utility or support options, so expect to lean on your spell list to solve problems that can’t be solved by hitting them.

Tempest Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: A handful of utilityoptions, but mostly blasting. Clerics don’t have many built-in options forlightning or thunder damage, so these are great additions in conjunctionwith Tempest Domain’s other features.
   1. 1st Level: Fog Cloud is a greatescape or crowd control mechanism. Thunderwave is tempting for when youget in over your head in melee and need to buy yourself some space orneed to break a grapple, but remember that it’s on a Constitution save,and those tend to be high.
   3. 3rd Level: Gust of Wind is verysituational, but Shatter is basically diet fireball, and it works withChannel Divinity: Destructive Wrath so you can maximize the damage.
   5. 5th Level: Sleet Storm is a mediocrecrowd control spell, and Call Lightning is frustrating and can be verydifficult to use to great effect. Note that Channel Divinity:Destructive Wrath only applies to a single damage roll, not to the wholespell, so using it with Call Lightning is largely pointless.
   7. 7th Level: Ice Storm is a bad spell,and Control Water is only useful when you have a large body of waterhandy, which isn’t often in most campaigns.
   9. 9th Level: Destructive Wave doesexcellent damage of types which are very rarely resisted, but since thedamage type is split, Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath only maximizeshalf of the damage dice. For the same 5th-level spell slot, Shatter does6d8 damage (maximizes to 48), while Destructive Wave will deal 47.5 onaverage (30 maximized, plus 17.5 average) in a much larger AOE whilealso excluding your allies, so Destructive Wave does still win overShatter in the vast majority of situations. Unfortunately, DestructiveWave doesn’t benefit from upcasting because it’s intended to be aPaladin spell.

      Insect Plague is a fantastic area control option, but has someoverlap with Spirit Guardians. Insect Plague uses larger damage dice,but due to spell slot scaling deals roughly the same damage as SpiritGuardians. Both spells have 10-minute durations and requireConcentration. Insect Plague is cast at range and has a larger AOE, soyou don’t need to stand in the middle of the AOE, but you also can’tmove it. The two spells are roughly equivalent, but excel in differentsituations.

1. Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor is greaton a Cleric. Martial Weapons add a few more combat options, but clerics arebad at using weapons and martial weapons don’t change that. With heavy armorand Wrath of the Storm, you might pick up a 2-handed weapon, though cantripswill still be more effective as you gain levels and add extra damagedice.
1. Wrath of the Storm: At low level, thiswill outright kill enemies. At high levels it’s a mild deterrent.
2. Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath:Great for when you absolutely, positively need to Shatter every enemy in theroom. Don’t be tempted to use this with Wrath of the Storm; that’s a tragicwaste of a great ability. Unfortunately, the Cleric’s spell list includesvery few spells which qualify for this, so your best options are from yourdomain spell list unless you multiclass.
6. Thunderbolt Strike: This combines wellwith Wrath of the Storm when you need to get out of melee for whateverreason, and since Wrath of the Storm still deals half damage on a successfulsave you’re guaranteed to get the push effect. Unfortunately, clerics don’thave access to any cantrips which deal Lightning damage. This would be greatif it worked with Lightning or Thunder damage, but it doesn’t.

   Like many similar effects, this only specifies that you push the target “away”, rather than“directly away”. This means that you’re free to push them upward and away, potentially launchingenemies 10 feet into the air and forcing them to fall 10 feet from where they were previously.

8. Divine Strike: Thunder is among the bestdamage types in the game, but clerics are still bad at using weapons. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips,above.
17. Stormborn: Near-permanent flight! Flightis absolutely crucial at high levels, and getting it this easily can free upresources for more exciting things. You won’t be able to use this insidedungeons and other common adventuring locales, but this is still veryhelpful.

Trickery Domain ^(PHB)

Trickery offers a great spell list, but the class abilities are challenging to use to good effect. This isn’t an easy subclass to play, but an experienced player can turn the Trickery Domain into a powerful support and utility caster. With a little bit of work you can also jump into melee combat with some success, but that’s typically not the go-to option for Trickery Domain.

Multiclassing into rogue is an interesting option for the Trickery Domain. Trickery Domain’s spellcasting feels very similar to the Arcane Trickster, and many of the Trickery Domain’s features synergize very well with the Rogue’s class features. If you go this route, I recommend starting with a single level in rogue so that you get more skill proficiencies, and build around Dexterity and Wisdom. Two more levels to get a subclass can help if you want something like Booming Blade, but that’s not strictly necessary unless you definitely want jump into melee.

However, this class dip isn’t necessary by any means. Many problems that the Rogue solves by mundane means can be solved using spells on the Trickery Domain’s spell list, such as Disguise Self (replacing disguise kits), Charm Person (replacing Face Skills), and Pass Without Trace (replacing or at least augmenting Stealth).

Trickery Domain Handbook

1. Domain Spells: Lots of really funoptions, many of which aren’t normally available to Clerics.
   1. 1st Level: Disguise Self and CharmPerson can diffuse quite a few social situations. Charm Person can’tcompletely replace a real Face, but it gets pretty close.
   3. 3rd Level: Mirror Image is arguablybetter than having a decent AC, and Pass Without a Trace turns a partyof stompy Fighters into a roaming ball of quiet murder.
   5. 5th Level: Blink gives you a 50%chance to be untargetable between turns, which is great since you’reprobably your party’s healer, so it costs you very little to beuntargetable by allies and prevents you from drawing unwantedattention. Dispel Magic is technically situational, but it’s so usefuland important that not preparing it can often be a lethal mistake.
   7. 7th Level: Dimension Door is goodshort-distance teleportation that the vast majority of clerics simplycan’t replicate. Polymorph is one of the most versatile effects in thegame, and can allow you to solve a wide variety of problems with theright beast form. Remember that you don’t need to cast it on yourself,so turning an ally into a dinosaur and riding them around isabsolutely an option,
   9. 9th Level: Modify Memory is verysituational, but Dominate Person is a great way to turn a powerfulhumanoid enemy into a fun pet for up to a minute.
1. Blessing of the Trickster: You can’tuse this on yourself, so either use it on whoever in your party is makinga ton of noise stomping around in heavy armor or put it on your party’sScout and send them off on their own. Between this and Pass Without Trace,stealth checks are nearly guaranteed to be successful for your party.
2. Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity:This can be difficult to use effectively, but once you get your headaround it, it’s very potent. Keep in mind that it requires Concentration,so you can’t combine it with staple cleric options like Spirit Guardians,and since it uses your Bonus Action to move it, you may struggle to use this atthe same time as Spiritual Weapon.

   The best use case is to put the illusion somewhere visible while you’rehidden nearby and use the illusion as the origin point of yourshort-range spells. Options like Word of Radiance are much safer whenyou can walk your illusion into a crowd of enemies to cast it, and sincethe illusion isn’t a creature it’s not worried about things likeOpportunity Attacks, area control effects, or even enemy creaturesblocking spaces.

   You can use the illusion to get yourself Advantage in melee, but I’mnervous to recommend capitalizing on that as a go-to tactic. In onlymedium armor you’re not as durable as other front-line clerics, and weaponattacks aren’t a great option for clerics most of the time. Easy accessto Advantage may make weapons viable compared to cantrips (which is veryhard for most clerics to do), especially once you get Divine Strike, butdon’t let that compel you to build around melee. This notably applies toall attacks, so the Advantage offsets disadvantage for making rangedattacks, and it also applies to spell attacks so you can deliver spellslike Inflict Wounds and Spiritual Weapon with Advantage.

   If you’re happy using your illusory double as a distraction and as acourier for your spells, you can totally ignore the Advantage part ofInvoke Duplicity and you’ll still do just fine.

   Strangely, Invoke Duplicity doesn’t offer details on how to handleinteraction with the illusory double. What happens if the illusion isattacked? Can creatures disbelieve it, and if they do so, how do theythen perceive the illusion? If creatures are aware that the double is anillusion, do you still get Advantage on attacks when you and your doubleare adjacent to a creature? Jeremy Crawford has confirmed that theduplicate isimmune to damage and that weapons pass right through it, but that’s the only useful rules answer that I’ve found on thesubject.

6. Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows:Invisibility is great, but one round just isn’t enough. It’s immenselyfrustrating that this is the Trickey Domain’s only option forinvisibility.
8. Divine Strike: Poison is among themost commonly-resisted damage types in the game, and immunity is commontoo. Bring damage cantrips for foes like undead and constructs. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips,above.
17. Improved Duplicity: This allows you tokeep duplicates near all of your allies to buff or heal them with touchrange spells, to keep your enemies confused about your position andideally to trick them into wasting attacks/spells on your duplicates, todeliver short-range spells like Harm from a safe distance, and to movebetween targets and get Advantage on melee attacks against them.

Twilight Domain ^(TCoE)

A very well-rounded subclass, the Twilight Domain thrives on the front lines where they can both protect their allies effectively and make themselves a decent threat. Their abilities are primarily buffs, utilities, and defensive options, and offense is mostly an afterthought, but Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary makes the Twilight Domain cleric a perfect option for a party full of “glass cannons”.

The Twilight Domain’s tactics are extremely simple. Keep Vigilant Blessing running in case combat breaks out. When combat starts, start with Twilight Sanctuary and keep your allies in the radius to protect them with the temporary hit points. In open areas that will mean moving with your party to get into melee or fighting at range, so be prepared to handle those situations. After that, default to normal cleric things: swing weapons or cast spells.

Twilight Cleric Subclass Handbook

1. Domain Spells: Almost all good options,but a handful of situational options which you may have trouble using.
   1. 1st Level: The lowest-level counterto invisibility, and a staple low-level save-or-suck. Sleep will stopbeing reliably useful after low levels, but Faerie Fire never stopsworking.
   3. 3rd Level: See Invisibility isanother excellent counter to invisibility, and having Faerie Firehandy allows you to easily spot invisible foes then reveal them to yourparty without needing to have See Invisibility running on everyone.Moonbeam is a great combat option for the narrow window of levels 3and 4 before your cantrip damage increases and Sacred Flame will bealmost as effective as a 2nd-level spell which requires Concentration.After that, you’ll never use it unless you meet a shapeshifter.
   5. 5th Level:Enormous quantities of slow healing balanced around being cast by a high-level Paladin,and a magical place to rest which doubles as a go-to option whenyou’re out in the open and need cover.At medium levels, a single Aura of Vitality can effectively replace all the healing a party would get out of a short rest without feeling like a huge resource cost. If you’re a group that doesn’t have any other short rest-recharge resources, spending a minute walking and getting back up to full HP lets you easily roll over theexpected pacingand become epic all the quicker.
   7. 7th Level: Aura of Life isgenerally only useful against certain types of undead like shadows,but Greater Invisibility is one of the best buffs in the game.
   9. 9th Level: Circle of Power isnormally a Paladin exclusive, and you get it long before the Paladindoes. Mislead is neat, but very situational.
1. Bonus Proficiencies: Perfect for afront-line cleric.
1. Eyes of Night: Darkvision is great ifyou don’t already have it, and the absolutely absurd 300 ft. range isunprecedented. 120 ft. would be blue. Ontop of that, you can share it with your allies for an hour at a time andyou can refresh the ability by spending a spell slot of any level.Considering that the Darkvision spell is 2nd-level, that’s phenomenal.
1. Vigilant Blessing: But wait, there’smore! On top of the other amazing stuff that Twilight Domain gets at firstlevel, you can give someone Advantage on their next Initiative roll. Irecommend an Assassin Rogue if one is in your party, otherwise, go for oneof the primary battlefield controller in your party even if that means you. The effect lastsuntil it expires, so you want to get this set up again the moment thatcombat ends so that you’re never not benefiting from this.
2. Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary: Ifthis were a fire-and-forget effect that granted temporary hit points orremoved charm/fear once, I would rate itbluebecause the pool of temporary hit points is enormous. Instead, itrefreshes every round for a minute. Remember that clerics can use ChannelDivinity once per short rest at this level, going up to 3 times per shortrest. This makes your whole party incredibly difficult to kill, and makesthem all but immune to both charm and fear effects.

   The light effect here is a bit unclear, as it doesn’t explain how itinteracts with other light sources. Does it reduce existing lightlevels? How does it interact with magical light? What about spells likeDaylight or Darkness? I’m honestly not sure and I’m hesitant to offersuggestions. It’s possible that brighter light simply overrides thelight from Twilight Sanctuary, and if that’s the case I’m fairlyconfident that that doesn’t cause you any problemsexcept trying to activate your Steps of Night.

   This ability is exceptionally powerful. The amount of temporary hp ishuge and the fact that it refreshes is terrifying. If it’s a problem inyour game (and it might bestarting in midgame when two per short rest doesn’t feel like it’s too precious to use often), there areseveral variations that you could try to address it with. If you try any ofthese or if you have your own fixes,email me and let me know what youtried and how it went.

   • Fix A: The cleric must maintain Concentration asthough Concentrating on a spell. This prevents them from combiningTwilight Sanctuary with the Cleric’s best spells, including thingslike Bless and Spirit Guardians.
   • Fix B: Applying either of the two effects takes thecleric’s Reaction, so they’re only able to affect one creature perround.
   • Fix C: The temporary hit point option applies onceper creature, and the temporary hit points disappear if the creatureexits the area of effect.
   • Fix D: Adjust the number of temporary hit pointsgranted. 1d6+level is a lot. Try 1d6+Wisdom (may be slightly higherthan intended at low levels, but will max out at 1d6+5 by level 8).You might also try just a flat 1d6 or just the cleric’s Wisdommodifier.
   • Fix E: Instead of automatically removing aCharm/Fear effect, creatures can re-attempt their save against oneCharm/Fear effect currently affecting them at the original save DC. Ifthis feels like too much of a “nerf”, you might grant Advantage on thesave.
   • Fix F: The temporary hit points granted by TwilightSanctuary end when the effect ends or if the creature leaves the areaof effect.
6. Steps of Night: Magical flight is acrucial tactical option, and activating it as a Bonus Action withoutspending spell slots is phenomenal. Granted, you can only trigger this in Dim Light and Darkness, but you can produce Dim Light with Channel Divinity:Twilight Sanctuary, or in a dark place you can hold a candle.The ability also doesn’t require you to stay in those lighting conditions to keep using it.You can usethis a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus every day, which isfrequently enough to get you through every occurrence where you’ll absolutelyneed to be flying.
8. Divine Strike: Radiant damage is amongthe most reliable damage types available. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips.
17. Twilight Shroud: Effectively +2 AC foryour whole party. Mathematically impactful at any level, and it stillstacks with the vast majority of other AC buffs. Your allies may also beable to use this cover to hide, but check with your DM.

War Domain ^(PHB)

The War Cleric slightly reduces the martial capability gap between the Cleric and the Paladin, emphasizing front-line martial prowess a bit more than spellcasting. While this is a fun concept with several great options, it’s often difficult to use the War Domain’s options in conjunction because so many of them depend on Concentration and/or Bonus Actions.

Where the War Domain struggles is its attempt to lean into using weapons. Weapons are mathematically worse than using cantrips, and spending spells and Channel Divinity to make them work does little to help. War Priest allows you to attack as a Bonus Action a few times per day, which is tempting enough to make the War Domain look appealing, but beyond low levels you’ll find that most of the subclass features aren’t helping you very much. The Spell list is fine, but the best options on the list are all cleric spells already, so all it does is save you the trouble of preparing those spells.

Fixing war domain requires fixing weapons for clerics, which requires fixing Divine Strike. Simply changing the damage progression on Divine Strike might be enough. Try +1d6 at level 5, then add a d6 at levels 11 and 17.

War Domain Cleric Handbook

1. Domain Spells: Many really fantasticoptions, but more than half of the domain spells require Concentration,which makes it hard to use more then one or two in a fight.
   1. 1st Level: Divine Favor won’tremain useful beyond low levels, but at low level it’s a nice bit ofextra damage with a decent duration that costs a bonus action to cast.Shield of Faith will remain useful at every level. +2 AC is big in 5e,and 10 minutes is a fantastic duration for a spell slot. However, itrequires Concentration, which means that you can’t combine it withother great low-level buffs like Bless.
   3. 3rd Level: Since Magic Weaponrequires Concentration, you generally only want to use it if you lackpermanent magical weapons, and only against enemies that resistnon-magical weapons. Spiritual Weapon is a staple cleric option, andgreat way to convert your Bonus Action into damage output withoutrequiring Concentration.
   5. 5th Level: Crusader’s Mantle isDivine Favor for the whole party. The damage per attack is stillsmall, but if you have someone using Two-Weapon Fighting, allies withExtra Attack, or just a large party, the value adds up quickly. But itgenerally can’t compete with Spirit Guardians, which you also get.Spirit Guardians id among the most efficient damage options in thegame, and many clerics prepare it every day.
   7. 7th Level: Stoneskin is afantastic buff, but it’s very expensive and it won’t help you once youget Avatar of Battle. Freedom of movement is situationally useful.
   9. 9th Level: Flame Strike is a decentAOE damage spell, but for the same spell slot I would much rather castSpirit Guardians and walk into a fight. Hold Monster is a simplesave-or-suck spell, and it scales well with spell level so it remainseffective for a long time.
1. Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor isgreat on a Cleric, and Martial Weapons add a few more combat options,including better two-handed options if you want to go that route.
1. War Priest: As many asfive extra attacks per day! This is terribly disappointing. Thefact that it takes your bonus action is absurd on top of the tragicallylow number of times you get to use it. Divine Strike adds to the damage soyour attacks will at least feel impactful, but Divine Strike only appliesonce on each of your turns, so generally activating War Priest is onlyuseful at low levels or if you’re high level and missed with yourattack.
2. Channel Divinity: Guided Strike: Thisisn’t limited to weapon attacks, and clerics have a few powerful spellattacks like Inflict Wounds which will benefit. However, spell attacksbecome uncommon beyond low levels, so the value of Channel Divinity:Guided Strike diminishes over time. At high levels it’s likely better touse the Harness Divine Power Optional Class Feature.
6. Channel Divinity: War God’s Blessing:While Clerics don’t typically deal a huge amount of damage on theirattacks, allies like Rogues certainly do, and when they miss their oneattack for the round a +10 can really change the outcome of a fight.
8. Divine Strike: While not as flashy asthe Nature Cleric’s version of Divine Strike, the ability to deal the samedamage type as your weapon allows you to change damage types with relativeease by changing weapons. However, against enemies with resistance tonon-magic weapon damage, this will be very frustrating. If your gamedoesn’t use magic items, be sure to prepare Magic Weapon or similar buffswhich cause your weapon to deal damage as a magic weapon. See also:Divine Strike vs. Cantrips,above.
17. Avatar of Battle: Most damage of thosetypes comes from non-magical weapons or from monsters with non-magicalbodyparts, so this resistance is consistently useful even at highlevels.

3rd-Party Publishers

RPGBOT has covered some 3rd-party content from our favorite creators. This content is published under the Open Gaming License, under Creative Commons, or through DMsGuild, and is not considered official content. As such, it is not available in Adventurer’s League organized play, and your group may not allow it in your game. If your group wants to explore 3rd-party content, we hope that these articles will help you make them work for you.

• Tal’Dorei Blood Domain Cleric Handbook