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Cleric Subclasses 5e

Published on December 6, 2024

Explore the best Cleric subclasses in D&D 5e. Discover how each divine path shapes your character’s style, abilities, and storytelling potential.

A Dragonborn Cleric wielding a divine blade and wearing heavy armor steps in front of his vulnerable party members.

Aaron Miller - Wizards of the Coast - Nadaar, Selfless Paladin

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Your Guide to DnD 5e Cleric Subclasses

Clerics are one of the few classes that get their subclass at 1st level, and this choice is where your divine connection truly takes shape.

Your Domain not only influences the spells you’ll wield and the features you’ll gain but also defines your role within the party and your character’s relationship with their deity. Whether you’re a healer, protector, or divine warrior, your Domain sets the tone for how you channel your god’s power.

What is this guide?

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the 5e clerics subclasses. For the full overview of the cleric class, check out our cleric class guide.

To allow you to scan through the options quickly, we use the following color rating scheme:

  • Red : Isn’t going to contribute to the effectiveness of your character build at all
  • Orange : Situationally good, but a below-average option otherwise
  • Green : A good option
  • Blue : A great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
  • Sky Blue: An amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

Arcana Domain

Arcana Domain Clerics get access to useful spells as well as cantrips from the Wizard spell list, granting new options to support the party. This subclass fares best against celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead.

1st level

Arcana Domain spells: There are some strong spells here, though several are situational.

1st level

  • Detect Magic: Every party should roll with at least one character who has access to detect magic.
  • Magic Missile: Your standard first-level damage dealer. This spell always hits which is nice. This spell is great if your targeting a spellcaster with the intention of making them drop concentration because they’ll need to make a DC 10 CON check for each dart you send at them.

3rd level

  • Magic Weapon: Making your weapon magical is necessary against some enemy types and the +1 to attack and damage rolls is nice. Concentration hurts if you’re going to be using this then charging into the fray. Good option when you party is lacking magic weapons, but can be dropped once you get into higher levels.
  • Nystul’s Magic Aura: This spell is situational and definitely more of a DM-focused spell. But ,with some creativity and a DM who plays into your shenanigans it could be useful in some circumstances.

5th level

  • Dispel Magic: Always make sure at least one of your party members has this.
  • Magic Circle: While celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead are quite common, this spell provides a very lackluster effect against them. As the creatures can still attack inside the cylinder and can still teleport out using a CHA save, it’s not very effective at containing, nor protecting from, these creatures.

7th level

  • Arcane Eye: A great scouting tool and can be moved as an action, making it a worthy spell to pickup.
  • Leomund’s Secret Chest: Hide stuff in the ethereal plane. Very, VERY situational.

9th level

  • Planar Binding: The 1 hour casting time makes this a fairly hard spell to pull off. If you manage to pull it off, this can be an extremely powerful spell when combined with summon greater demon or something of the like.
  • Teleportation Circle: Great teleport spell that requires some prep before it can become really effective. That said, it’s nice to not have the ability to fail during your teleport like is possible with teleport. Awesome utility spell to have in your back pocket.
  • Arcane Initiate: Arcana proficiency and two Wizard cantrips is fantastic. There are several staple Wizard cantrips that are very useful.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration: More hate against celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead.

6th level

  • Spell Breaker: This is perfect for removing debuffs cast by enemy spellcasters on your allies, given that you can cast a high enough level healing spell.

8th level

  • Potent Spellcasting: Makes the damage output of your damaging Cleric cantrips much more reliable. Remember that the cantrips gained from the Arcane Initiate feature count as Cleric cantrips.

17th level

  • Arcane Mastery: There are so many incredible Wizard spells to choose from to round out your character and party. Whether you need damage, utility, or just want to cast Wish as a Cleric, this has you covered.

Death Domain

The Death Domain focuses on dealing damage to your enemies with necrotic damage instead of buffing and healing allies. There are interesting roleplay opportunities here, because unlike most clerics, this subclass is intended to worship evil gods or deities.

Check out our Death Domain 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Death Domain subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.

1st level

Death Domain spells: Great list of spells that are interesting for cleric, with some duds

1st level

  • False Life: Temporary hit points are always useful, especially at very low levels where characters can be taken out in a single hit.
  • Ray of Sickness: Damage isn’t great but Poisoned is a nasty condition. Unfortunately, the save targets CON, a common proficient saving throw, and immunity to the Poisoned condition is also fairly common. Don’t try to cast this at Constructs, Fiends, or Undead at the very least.

3rd level

  • Blindness/Deafness: Very effective debuff that doesn’t require concentration. The only downside is that it targets CON.
  • Ray of Enfeeblement: Concentration, 1 minute duration, only affects STR weapon attacks, and CON saves for the enemy to escape. Most STR-based enemies you target with this spell will have great CON saves, which makes this a very clunky spell.

5th level

  • Animate Dead: More options for your bonus action and another body between you and the baddies. For necromancers that are looking to guide a horde of undead, this is the best option you’re provided. Essentially, you can use a 3rd-level spell slot to animate one undead, or reassert your control over four undead. Depending on how many spell slots you have to work with, you can steadily grow your undead army. Just make sure you have the spell slots to reassert your control or your undead horde will revolt.
  • Vampiric Touch: Gives you a 3d6 melee weapon with life drain as long as you can concentrate but those concentration checks are going to kill you. You essentially need War Caster to make this worth it.

7th level

  • Blight: 4th-level single-target spell that targets a common save. It barely out damages 4th-level fireball and flat-out doesn’t work on some common creature types. SKIP.
  • Death Ward: Has an 8-hour duration and doesn’t require concentration so it could be a good spell to cast pre-emptively if you have the ability to regain spell slots during a short rest.

9th level

  • Antilife Shell: Great option if you find yourself in trouble in melee combat. It will also hedge out your allies so keep that in mind.
  • Cloudkill: Not great in an open field but if you can get the drop on an enemy or contain a group of enemies within the spell it can be very effective because it deals damage turn after turn, as long as the caster keeps concentration. It can also be effective to block off a vantage point used by ranged enemies.
  • Bonus Proficiency: Martial weapons can be slightly better than simple weapons damage-wise, though with a single attack you won’t notice much of a difference. This exists mostly for role-playing purposes.
  • Reaper: There are some decent damage dealing cantrips like Chill Touch and you’ll get a lot more mileage out of them by being able to hit two targets.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Touch of Death: Extra damage is nice, but with a single attack per turn this won’t be that much of a game changer.

6th level

  • Inescapable Destruction: This subclass has lots of ways to do necrotic damage, so ignoring resistance to it is very helpful as you might not have many other damage type options.

8th level

  • Divine Strike: Combined with Touch of Death you are now dealing a significant amount of extra necrotic damage on each hit.

17th level

  • Improved Reaper: Now that you can hit multiple targets with necromancy spells as well you can wreak havoc every time you cast a spell. The only downside is that the targets have to be very close together for this to work.

Forge Domain

The Forge Domain has one of the most well-rounded spell lists of the Cleric subclasses, along with some pretty stellar subclass features.

Check out our Forge Domain 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Forge Domain subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.

Grave Domain

The Grave Domain commits to a balance between life and death, offering a mixture of damage and healing abilities.

1st level

Grave Domain spells: The Grave Domain's spell list focuses on channeling negative energy and reviving allies.

1st level

  • Bane: A simple and effective low-level debuff. If you have access to it, bless is strictly better because it doesn’t require a CHA saving throw.
  • False Life: Temporary hit points are always useful, especially at very low levels where characters can be taken out in a single hit.

3rd level

  • Gentle Repose: Extremely situational spell.
  • Ray of Enfeeblement: Concentration, 1 minute duration, only affects STR weapon attacks, and CON saves for the enemy to escape. Most STR-based enemies you target with this spell will have great CON saves, which makes this a very clunky spell.

5th level

  • Revivify: Every party needs a party member with revivify. The nature of D&D is such that PC deaths happen fairly easily, so your friends will be looking to you to save them from that fate. Because each round of combat is 6 seconds, a party member that dies during combat can typically be revived within 1 minute. Make sure you’ve got diamonds worth 300 gp on you if you’re planning on stocking this spell.
  • Vampiric Touch: Gives you a 3d6 melee weapon with life drain as long as you can concentrate but those concentration checks are going to kill you. You essentially need War Caster to make this worth it.

7th level

  • Blight: 4th-level single-target spell that targets a common save. It barely out damages 4th-level fireball and flat-out doesn’t work on some common creature types. SKIP.
  • Death Ward: Has an 8-hour duration and doesn’t require concentration so it could be a good spell to cast pre-emptively if you have the ability to regain spell slots during a short rest.

9th level

  • Antilife Shell: Great option if you find yourself in trouble in melee combat. It will also hedge out your allies so keep that in mind.
  • Raise Dead: A more powerful resurrection spell than revivify because it has a 10 day time span and can cure Poisons and Diseases. Unfortunately, if you resurrectee is missing their head or other body parts, you’ll have to wait until you get resurrection.
  • Circle of Mortality: Max the health you restore when healing downed allies. This is somewhat situational because it only applies to allies with 0 HP. When it works, you’ll love this feature.
  • Eyes of the Grave: Magically detect any undead within 60 feet of you that isn’t behind full cover. Only really helpful against invisible spirit-type undead.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave: Double the damage dealt by the next attack dealt to a creature. This can be insanely potent when combined with high-damage options like the Paladin’s Divine Smite or Rogue’s Sneak Attack.

6th level

  • Sentinel at Death’s Door: Cancel crits against your allies within 30 feet a number of times equal to your WIS modifier each long rest. This is a great passive feature to always have active.

8th level

  • Potent Spellcasting: If you’ve been increasing WIS with your ASI, Potent Spellcasting gives you a significant damage increase with your cantrips.

17th level

  • Keeper of Souls: Heal yourself or allies each time a creature dies within 60 feet. This will have a slight, but noticeable benefit over the course of encounters.

Knowledge Domain

Knowledge Domain Clerics excel in campaigns where information is king. If you won’t be doing a lot of investigating, many of the spells and abilities may feel wasted.

1st level

Knowledge Domain spells: The effectiveness of the spells depends on your campaign. If you run exclusively combat scenarios, the spell list is mediocre at best. If you're doing detective work, it's awesome.

1st level

  • Command: Very effective charm spell that can be very versatile in combat, you can lock down opponents, cause them to drop important items, and so on. Make sure the target can understand your language before casting. Unfortunately, it only lasts one round so using it out of combat is pretty tricky.
  • Identify: You can spend a short rest in physical contact with a magical item to identify it. In addition, most cursed items are not revealed to be cursed when this spell is cast. The main purpose this spell serves is to identify something quickly, which is rather situational.

3rd level

  • Augury: This is a fun spell but, unfortunately, D&D is a game of chance and the results of your next 30 minutes will likely be left to chance. This means you’ll be getting weal and woe most of the time.
  • Suggestion: Never underestimate the power of suggesting a course of action to an NPC. Yes, Mr. Scary Guard, why don’t you give us the keys to your king’s treasure vault?

5th level

  • Nondetection: Your campaign will really cater to this spell for it to have any kind of application. This is much more of a DM-focused spell, players often won’t find a use for this once in an entire campaign.
  • Speak with Dead: Get some interesting lore, help solve a mystery, or get advice on how to proceed through a dungeon.

7th level

  • Arcane Eye: A great scouting tool and can be moved as an action, making it a worthy spell to pickup.
  • Confusion: Bestow curse is a better targeted debuff and is a full spell slot lower.

9th level

  • Legend Lore: Gain some knowledge on things of legendary importance. While cool, it doesn’t do much most of the time.
  • Scrying: Useful but niche.
  • Blessings of Knowledge: It’s always helpful to know more languages. Plus, expertise in two INT skills makes you more useful to the party

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages: More ways to be useful to your party.

6th level

  • Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts: Having more information about a given NPC can help you approach it in the best way possible. It also synergizes well with Suggestion, since you can then cast it on the affected creature without expending a spell slot.

8th level

  • Potent Spellcasting: If you’ve been increasing WIS with your ASI, Potent Spellcasting gives you a significant damage increase with your cantrips.

17th level

  • Visions of the Past: Probably the best way to solve mysteries or to prepare for traps in a dungeon. All you need now is the Mystery Machine!

Life Domain

Life Domain Clerics are perfect for players who need a healer in the party. This subclass is considered the best healer character in the game.

Cantrip

Life Domain spells: The Life Domain spell list starts off great, but peters out at the higher levels. Even still, the Life Domain is the epitome of healing in D&D 5e.

1st level

  • Bless: Bless is simply an amazing 1st-level buff. Adding 1d4 to all attacks and saving throws can really add up over a combat encounter. When given the choice, it’s almost always worth it to cast bless on your party than bane on your opposition.
  • Cure Wounds: Healing is important so pick it up if you think you’ll need it.

3rd level

  • Lesser Restoration: Diseases and conditions do come up from time to time, so you’ll be happy to have this when they do.
  • Spiritual Weapon: Spiritual Weapon is an amazing spell that can provide tons of damage and action economy over an encounter. The fact that the weapon sticks around without needing concentration, is a bonus action to summon, has an effective damage type, and scales with your spellcasting modifier make this an absolutely stellar spell.

5th level

  • Beacon of Hope: Beacon of hope seems to be best used in a moment of desperation when many of your party members are severely hurt. Unfortunately, this spell uses up your action so you can’t get to healing until the next round.
  • Revivify: Every party needs a party member with revivify. The nature of D&D is such that PC deaths happen fairly easily, so your friends will be looking to you to save them from that fate. Because each round of combat is 6 seconds, a party member that dies during combat can typically be revived within 1 minute. Make sure you’ve got diamonds worth 300 gp on you if you’re planning on stocking this spell.

7th level

  • Death Ward: Has an 8-hour duration and doesn’t require concentration so it could be a good spell to cast pre-emptively if you have the ability to regain spell slots during a short rest.
  • Guardian of Faith: A decent way to get some extra damage in if you know that a fight will take place in a specific location. Guardian of faith can also be used as a sort of alarm when taking a long rest in a dangerous place.

9th level

  • Mass Cure Wounds: Range, multiple targets, and decent healing power. One of the best bang-for-your-buck spells if you have multiple party members down.
  • Raise Dead: A more powerful resurrection spell than revivify because it has a 10 day time span and can cure Poisons and Diseases. Unfortunately, if you resurrectee is missing their head or other body parts, you’ll have to wait until you get resurrection.
  • Bonus Proficiency: Heavy armor is great when you’re tanking as well as being relied on to heal and buff the party.
  • Disciple of Life: More healing is always better of course, but the amount of additional healing isn’t that significant at higher levels.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Preserve Life: Scales well, doesn’t use a spell slot, and can be used on multiple targets at once. An effective feature regardless of your level.

6th level

  • Blessed Healer: Not worrying about having to heal yourself is a nice feeling, and also frees you up to do other things on your turn instead of healing yourself.

8th level

  • Divine Strike: Divine Strike helps your melee damage output not fall too far behind the other classes.

17th level

  • Supreme Healing: Reliable healing in those critical moments is everything. Supreme Healing does away with many of the “feel bad” moments where you heal a party member for a measly amount only for them to immediately get knocked out again.

Light Domain

Light Domain Clerics play more of a damage dealing role than a support one. This subclass has excellent spells and powerful higher level subclass features.

1st level

Light Domain spells: The Light Domain spell list turns the cleric into a spellslingin', damage dealin' powerhouse

1st level

  • Burning Hands: One of the better AoE damage spells you can get at 1st-level but there are better direct damage spells and better mass effect spells. This filler spell can be great if you catch a group of enemies close together.
  • Faerie Fire: Giving your allies advantage is really good, especially if you have a rogue or paladin in the party. Invisible creatures can also be a nuisance, so having a way to deal with them as extra value is sweet.

3rd level

  • Flaming Sphere: Not the best damage, but AoE and the ability to move the sphere as a bonus action are useful if up against a horde of weak enemies.
  • Scorching Ray: A potential 6d6 focused damage at a 2nd-level spell slot, can target multiple opponents, and has crit potential.

5th level

  • Daylight: The light cantrip on steroids. The biggest downside of this spell is the misleading name which causes people to think that this spell actually produces daylight, which can be helpful when fighting creatures with Sunlight Sensitivity. Dispelling darkness could be situationally useful.
  • Fireball: The gold standard for damage spells in 5e. This spell was intentionally designed to be overpowered for a 3rd-level slot, making it the most optimal choice when looking to lay the hurt down.

7th level

  • Guardian of Faith: A decent way to get some extra damage in if you know that a fight will take place in a specific location. Guardian of faith can also be used as a sort of alarm when taking a long rest in a dangerous place.
  • Wall of Fire: Amazing battlefield control option to divide enemies and deal massive damage.

9th level

  • Flame Strike: Not particularly exciting when compared to fireball. It does the same amount of damage but has a better damage type (half radiant/half fire) and has a slightly larger radius. The “improved” damage type doesn’t mean much because it still does half of it’s damage as fire damage. So, if you’re looking to work around fire resistance, this won’t be a worthwhile choice.
  • Scrying: Useful but niche.
  • Bonus Cantrip: Light is a decent cantrip, but not exciting in the least.
  • Warding Flare: Imposing disadvantage on enemy attacks against you keeps you in the fight.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Radiance of the Dawn: Underwhelming damage as you start to take on more deadly foes. However, it can do what Daylight does without expending a spell slot.

6th level

  • Improved Flare: Protecting your most fragile allies is what makes Warding Flare really shine (had to get at least one light-related pun in there).

8th level

  • Potent Spellcasting: If you’ve been increasing WIS with your ASI, Potent Spellcasting gives you a significant damage increase with your cantrips.

17th level

  • Corona of Light: Combos very well with whatever fire and radiant damage you can throw at your enemies. Nobody can deny that you’re a Light Domain Cleric when you pop this one off.

Nature Domain

The Nature Domain spells are pretty weak and uninteresting, though several of the subclass features are very powerful. This is the pick if you want to be closer to a Druid in playstyle.

1st level

Nature Domain spells: A lot of what happens in the Nature Domain spell list overlaps with the Druid. Most of the time the Druid class can just do these things better.

1st level

  • Animal Friendship: This will likely get you out of at least one low-level beast encounter.
  • Speak with Animals: Situationally useful to learn more about a place or to get something done.

3rd level

  • Barkskin: Decent defensive buff, but is hampered by the concentration requirement.
  • Spike Growth: Moderately good crowd control or can be used to stage an ambush because it is camouflaged.

5th level

  • Plant Growth: Slows down pesky enemies moving around a lot or trying to escape, but not particularly good at either. Also cool for story beats to restore nature that has been devastated by war.
  • Wind Wall: Useful against lots of archers, swarms of flying enemies, or against deadly fog. Other than that the damage is pretty bad.

7th level

  • Dominate Beast: Not many Beasts are going to be worth your 4th level spell to dominate. If you’re fighting a CR8 T-Rex you’ll wish you had this spell.
  • Grasping Vine: Only really works if you can pull the creature into something that is actually going to hurt it.

9th level

  • Insect Plague: A decent AoE damage and crowd control option.
  • Tree Stride: A fun spell with a multitude of uses if you can get a bit creative. Without trees nearby you won’t be striding anywhere though.
  • Acolyte of Nature: A free skill and a druid cantrip, some of which are really good.
  • Bonus Proficiency: Heavy armor is great when you’re tanking as well as being relied on to heal and buff the party.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Charm Animals and Plants: Yes, it’s the Nature Domain Cleric… but all these spells and features that only affect beasts and plants make the character build very one dimensional.

6th level

  • Dampen Elements: Resistance to elemental damage as a reaction is amazing. Being able to use it on an ally makes Dampen Elements that much more useful.

8th level

  • Divine Strike: The better version of Divine Strike. Being able to choose the damage type is fantastic once you figure out an enemy’s weaknesses.

17th level

  • Master of Nature: That’s enough with the plants and animals, thank you very much. At 17th level you’re much more likely to be fighting some kind of gargantuan monstrosity than a plant.

Peace Domain

Peace Domain Clerics have good protective spells, but their features are where they really shine, edging this subclass into the near-broken territory.

Check out our Peace Domain 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Peace Domain subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.

1st level

Peace Domain spells: Excellent utility and party supporting spells.

1st level

  • Sanctuary: A good spell to have in your pocket if a team member is in dire straits or you need to protect an NPC.
  • Heroism: Great buff effect, scales nicely as well.

3rd level

  • Aid: Proactive healing rather than reactive healing and at a higher, guaranteed rate than Cure Wounds. 5 hit points can make a huge difference in keeping the party alive, and the spell doesn’t require concentration. Can be cast at higher levels.
  • Warding Bond: This buff is really good, but can be quite risky for yourself if used at the wrong time. Make sure you aren’t overwhelmed by enemies and have a sizeable amount of hit points and AC.

5th level

  • Beacon of Hope: Beacon of hope seems to be best used in a moment of desperation when many of your party members are severely hurt. Unfortunately, this spell uses up your action so you can’t get to healing until the next round.
  • Sending: Solid communication spell for at least one party member to have.

7th level

  • Aura of Purity: You won’t use this all the time, but if you face a lot of enemies that can inflict negative status conditions this is great.
  • Otiluke’s Resilient Sphere: DEX-based save or suck. Great way to take a baddy out of the fight while you finish off its friends.

9th level

  • Greater Restoration: Great spell to have that can get you or party members out of very tricky situations.
  • Telepathic Bond: Allows your party to communicate when they normally wouldn’t be able to.
  • Implement of Peace: Free skill proficiency is nice, especially since one of the options is Insight, a WIS skill.
  • Emboldening Bond: Giving your allies an extra d4 for every roll is already good, but combined with Bless or Guidance this is just crazy. It also gets better as you level up as the number of creatures you can use it on depends on your proficiency bonus.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Balm of Peace: A strong emergency option since you can move to an ally and heal them without taking an opportunity attack.

6th level

  • Protective Bond: Useful to protect weaker allies and to move melee allies around the battlefield.

8th level

  • Potent Spellcasting: If you’ve been increasing WIS with your ASI, Potent Spellcasting gives you a significant damage increase with your cantrips.

17th level

  • Expansive Bond: Significantly improves the incredible class features by extending their range, allowing you to protect and buff the whole party on the battlefield.

Tempest Domain

The Tempest Domain Cleric has a nice theme to it while offering some good Area of Effect damage and control, though nothing here explicitly buffs your allies in battle

1st level

Tempest Domain spells: Many of the spells are quite repetitive and there isn't much in the way of single target with high damage. Despite these shortcomings, the Tempest Domain spell list does what it sets out to do: be like Thor.

1st level

  • Fog Cloud: Obscuring an area can be better than it sounds. While inside the fog cloud, creatures are effectively blinded so make sure you use the spell in a way that makes it advantageous.
  • Thunderwave: A fantastic, low-level way to knock opponents back if you find yourself in a sticky situation. Damage isn’t bad either but it targets CON saves.

3rd level

  • Gust of Wind: This spell is usually useless unless you find yourself in a rare situation where you can use it to push multiple enemies off of a cliff.
  • Shatter: Decent AoE that can be super effective against specific creatures. Also good for destroying inanimate objects.

5th level

  • Call Lightning: Thematically cool spell that you can keep reusing for free each round. The damage increases nicely at higher levels as well.
  • Sleet Storm: Messes with enemy concentration, can extinguish flames, and has the potential to knock enemies prone.

7th level

  • Control Water: A very effective spell, but only if you’re around water.
  • Ice Storm: You already have fireball, and ice storm does less damage, and the terrain control doesn’t make the reduced damage worth it.

9th level

  • Destructive Wave: Really good damage, and knocking enemies prone is great. Also, you can choose which creatures are affected. All around great AoE.
  • Insect Plague: A decent AoE damage and crowd control option.
  • Bonus Proficiencies: The bonus proficiencies for the Tempest Domain include martial weapons in addition to heavy armor. Tanking and new weapon options all in one.
  • Wrath of the Storm: Potent way to use your reaction. 2d8 damage is a lot at 1st level.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath: Perfect for this build. Ensuring maximum damage every time you connect with a lightning or thunder attack will put the hurt on really quickly.

6th level

  • Thunderbolt Strike: The option of pushing creatures away from you with a lightning attack is quite a bit of utility.

8th level

  • Divine Strike: Thunder damage is really powerful as it is rarely resisted. That said, melee-focused Clerics are usually suboptimal because they are so multi-ability dependant. Even this bonus damage won’t make attacking more optimal than casting spells.

17th level

  • Stormborn: A true superhero ability. Flying whenever you want just feels cool. Sadly it can only be done outdoors.

Trickery Domain

Trickery Domain Clerics have an excellent spell list that feels like a combination of a Rogue and a Wizard, though this also makes them more vulnerable in battle as they aren’t necessarily meant to tank.

1st level

Trickery Domain spells: Trickery Domain clerics have some of the best spells available to them out of any of the subclasses.

1st level

  • Charm Person: One of the better options for dealing with NPCs outside of combat. Good for quick interactions, but the biggest caveat to this spell is the target knows it was charmed by you once the effect ends.
  • Disguise Self: Great 1st level infiltration spell.

3rd level

  • Mirror Image: Great way to avoid damage with a low level spell slot. Plus, it doesn’t require concentration. Overall a solid option.
  • Pass without Trace: If you are infiltrating an area with your party that you are unwelcome, the +10 bonus to Stealth is massive.

5th level

  • Blink: 50% chance of completely avoiding any damage for a turn is more consistent over a long period than mirror image and better for builds with lower ACs than blur. Plus, it isn’t concentration.
  • Dispel Magic: Always make sure at least one of your party members has this.

7th level

  • Dimension Door: Teleport, with a friend, over a much longer distance than misty step. Unfortunately, it’s two spell slots higher than misty step and a full action to cast. Still, this spell can save your bacon is a tight circumstance.
  • Polymorph: The best save or suck spell at this level. The hour duration makes transforming a hostile creature and running away a viable option or will give you more time to finish of its friends before it transforms back. This also allows you to shape-shift a friendly party member into a beast for combat or exploration purposes. The sheer utility this spell offers makes it an incredibly effective spell to keep in your arsenal.

9th level

  • Dominate Person: Amazing spell when fighting humanoids. Taking over the mind of an enemy can completely swing the direction of the encounter. While spells like hold person can take an enemy of the fight, dominate person can make that enemy into an ally essentially creating a two for one. If you are fighting against humanoids a lot in the late game, this is a simply outstanding spell.
  • Modify Memory: A relatively powerful spell for infiltration and social encounters. There are a lot of caveats imposed on this spell, mainly to ensure it doesn’t become too broken. If you’ll be heading into an enemy fortress or to a rival’s political meeting, this is a good spell to stock.
  • Blessing of the Trickster: Heavy armor users get disadvantage on stealth checks, so using this feature cancels out that penalty.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity: A good way to confuse your enemies, and deliver spells on your behalf. Outside of combat, you’ll have to be creative on how you use it.

6th level

  • Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows: Becoming invisible without expending a spell slot is neat. Unfortunately it only lasts until your next turn making this feature pretty much pointless.

8th level

  • Divine Strike: Possibly the worst version of Divine Strike, since poison is a common resistance to have.

17th level

  • Improved Duplicity: Having four duplicates opens up a lot of options during battle. Your enemies will probably also waste some attacks on your illusions.

Twilight Domain

Twilight Domain clerics have a strong set of protective and buff spells and some of the best class features out of all clerics. Twilight clerics like their allies to be close to them to get the full benefits of their powerful aura.

Check out our Twilight Domain 5e guide for a more in-depth breakdown of the Twilight Domain subclass, including build recommendations, playstyle breakdowns, and an example build.

War Domain

War Domain Clerics care more about melee fighting than spellcasting, but without permanent extra attacks it falls a bit short.

1st level

War Domain spells: This spell list is well-rounded to suit many fighting situations.

1st level

  • Divine Favor: Solid turn after turn damage for the cost of a 1st-level spell slot and a bonus action. Unfortunately, it can’t be used to buff other party members so you have to be a weapon-wielder in order to use it. Plus, it requires concentration.
  • Shield of Faith: +2 AC is quite good, especially in the early game. Sadly, this spell requires concentration. Great buff for a tanking party member if you intend to stay out of the fray.

3rd level

  • Magic Weapon: Making your weapon magical is necessary against some enemy types and the +1 to attack and damage rolls is nice. Concentration hurts if you’re going to be using this then charging into the fray. Good option when you party is lacking magic weapons, but can be dropped once you get into higher levels.
  • Spiritual Weapon: Spiritual Weapon is an amazing spell that can provide tons of damage and action economy over an encounter. The fact that the weapon sticks around without needing concentration, is a bonus action to summon, has an effective damage type, and scales with your spellcasting modifier make this an absolutely stellar spell.

5th level

  • Crusader’s Mantle: Great if you have loads of martial characters with you, poor in a party of casters. This spell requires concentration which will likely make you a target if you’re wading into battle with it activated.
  • Spirit Guardians: Acts as a deterrent against melee attackers or gives them a hard time moving away. This will be especially potent if you plan on diving into the fray.

7th level

  • Freedom of Movement: It’s nice to give extra movement options to allies, but there are better buff spells and this one is pretty situational.
  • Stoneskin: Effectively double your or your favorite melee fighter’s hit points. Better at lower levels or when fighting enemies without magical attacks. If you’ll be casting this on yourself, make sure you have a decent CON modifier and consider taking the Resilient (CON) feat if you don’t have proficiency in CON saving throws or the War Caster feat for advantage on concentration checks.

9th level

  • Flame Strike: Not particularly exciting when you compare it with fireball but seeing as the War Domain cleric doesn’t get fireball this is as good as your AoE will get.
  • Hold Monster: Spell that can take a creature out of the fight. Allows for a save after each turn which makes it worse than banishment for consistently keeping a monster out of the fight, but the monster can be attacked with advantage which will make quick work of it after it fails a save or two.
  • Bonus Proficiencies: The bonus proficiencies for the War Domain include martial weapons in addition to heavy armor. Tanking and new weapon options all in one.
  • War Priest: Essentially a limited “Extra Attack” feature. This is quite strong at lower levels because you gain access to it right at 1st-level. Once you reach 5th-level, this will start to fall behind as martials start being able to Extra Attack each turn, unrestricted.

2nd level

  • Channel Divinity: Guided Strike: Not bad to have in your back pocket for when you really need it. A +10 to the attack roll should let you hit almost anything with an average roll.

6th level

  • Channel Divinity: War God’s Blessing: Being able to give +10 on an attack roll to an ally instead is quite a bit better than using it on yourself. Other martial classes can probably deal significantly more damage than a cleric on a single attack.

8th level

  • Divine Strike: If you have multiple weapons on your person with different damage types, you can change the damage type almost as easily as a Nature Domain Cleric.

17th level

  • Avatar of Battle: Resistance to nonmagical damage is certainly a strong feature. Unfortunately, by 17th-level you will be facing a lot of magical damage.

Sources Used in This Guide

  • : 2014 Player's Handbook
  • 2024 PHB: 2024 Player's Handbook
  • BR: Basic Rules
  • GotG: Bigby Presents: Glory of the Giants
  • SotDQ: Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen
  • ERLW: Eberron: Rising from the Last War
  • EEPC: Elemental Evil Player’s Companion
  • EGtW: Explorer’s Guide to Wildemount
  • FToD: Fizban's Treasury of Dragon
  • GGtR: Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica
  • MotM: Monsters of the Multiverse
  • MToF: Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes
  • MOoT: Mythic Odyessys of Theros
  • PAitM: Planescape: Adventures in the Multiverse
  • PHB: Player's Handbook
  • SAiS: Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
  • SCoC: Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos
  • SCAG: Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
  • TCoE: Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything
  • TTP: The Tortle Package
  • WBtW: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight
  • : Unearthed Arcana
  • VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
  • VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
  • XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Other Cleric Guides

Mike Bernier

Mike Bernier is the lead content writer and founder of Arcane Eye. He is a Adamantine best-selling author of Strixhaven: A Syllabus of Sorcery on DMs Guild and is a contributing author at D&D Beyond. Follow Mike on Twitter.

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