Divinity, prayers of healing, and the ability to be more of a jack of all trades than even the bard. A cleric in Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a holy force to be reckoned with. As healers, they can be the centrepiece to any assault, healing their wounded allies and broken teammates. Although, like most classes in 5e, the Cleric is diverse enough to take any role in a group, instead of being a stereotypical hero. Alternative support, tank role, DPS, and RP focused roles are all archetypes able to be filled by the clerics one way or another. The Divine Domain is their key component, both feature-wise and storywise, as a cleric may only get the powers of divinity through their worship of gods and other religious aspects. A rather fun class to play in all regards, however this guide will exhibit clerics under the most common archetype of this class, being the healer.
The cleric doesn’t get a good pool for their health, honestly, but that would not matter much due to the cleric having the greatest opportunities to protect themselves, with proficiency to medium armour and shields as a guarantee, alongside safety from the magical aspects of combat with saving throw proficiencies in both wisdom and charisma. The initial set of simple weapons do beg for a more diverse selection, but ultimately do not have any impact on clerics due to them being full-casters that use Wisdom as their spellcasting ability, thus making it the most important skill of the six. For the two skills to pick from, going for the most common skills of the two, insight and persuasion, would be best, but if you wish to play into the niche skills that a cleric may be exposed to, then medicine and religion may be a better choice for certain characters.
Clerics are a spellcasting class. They get the ability to prepare spells, both as innate bonuses from their subclasses, alongside a vast variety of spells available to all clerics. Not only that, but the cantrips available as a cleric are quite powerful, especially Guidance, and Sacred Flame. Also, the cleric can commit a ritual casting, for spells that permit it, able to allow for extra spells to be cast. In truth, most of the spells given to you through your choice of subclass is what makes the Cleric unique. Wisdom casters are always fun in 5e, I’ve noticed. Clerics, obviously, and rangers are both fun to play as, especially thematically, and their spellcasting abilities can make that rather obvious, with the overabundance of charisma casters. The most popular spells to pick as a cleric would be;
- Guiding Bolt
- Cure Wounds
- Animate Dead
- Revivify
- Spirit Guardians
Channel Divinity is another set of power for being a cleric, directly given to the character from their divine being or faith. The most well-known, and standard, ability for the cleric with Channel Divinity is Turn Undead, initially starting off at level two, allows for the undead to become repelled by you. It only gets stronger, starting at level five, by having the undead affected by the spell get instantly destroyed. By the end of the levelling system for clerics, this ability can instantly destroy banshees, undead nagas, vengeful wights, and hoards of zombies. This embodies an idea of support as a cleric, and shows it off rather well when faced with a hoard of zombies. With a high enough level, a single action can wipe them all off of the face of the Sword Coast.
When it comes to the later abilities of the Cleric, they rely heavily on the subclass. Base-line clerics can be seen as rather simple. Alongside their ability score improvements, the only addition to the cleric is Divine Intervention, which allows for a chance of your deity bestowing a boon onto the current situation. At 20th level, however, the element of chance to this ability is removed. Each intervention is guaranteed to occur, a testament to the strength of the character’s devotion. Although, such strength can only be used once every seven days. A finale of glory is what can perfectly describe such an ability if used correctly, or one of devastation when failed. Their ability score improvements should focus on increasing wisdom to a reputable level, and then constitution in order to keep up with high pools of damage at later levels. Feats wise, nothing necessarily shows off any proper advantage to the cleric, which means if you wish to pick a Feat, it is best to look at the character and their backstory, rather than class-feature synergy.
To simply state, base-game cleric is basic, but holds rather powerful abilities. The domain of the cleric is where the class shines, with dozens of new spells and features exclusive to each subclass. This class is thematically fun, and holds a lot of merit to creating a character. One of the best of 5e, in my opinion. Also, the ability to destroy undead will forever be cool.
To recommend a race with the Cleric, I’d suggest the Kobold. Orthodox, yes, but just hear me out; the darkvision is an immediate bonus, and the versatile ability score increases come in rather handy for boosting the stats that may have been neglected. Also, the draconic cry allows for a natural sense of support to your allies. These dragon-lites can be support-characters without even being level one! Adding it onto clerics already makes these little guys so much more helpful to their allies. Access to draconic sorceries only propels this option. Booming blade can be the aid needed for the DPS of a cleric to be boosted, when out of spell slots. For the list of abilities, from most important to least important, the list goes;
- Wisdom
- Constitution
- Charisma
- Strength
- Dexterity
- Intelligence
Who really needs intelligence when your faith is all you need? And dexterity, whilst generally useful, is not that important when compared to Wisdom or other abilities as a cleric. Clerics, to conclude, are a staple to TTRPGs. Especially D&D, and a fan-favourite, popular class. There’s a reason it has been in every edition of D&D since 1e, hasn’t there?
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