Forge Domain 5e Guide Rating Scheme

This guide is meant as a deep dive into the Forge Domain Cleric subclass. For a full overview of the Cleric class, check out our cleric 5e Guide.

For our full class guides, 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 is a good option
• Blue is a great option, you should strongly consider this option for your character
• Sky Blue is an amazing option. If you do not take this option your character would not be optimized

For our subclass guides, we focus mainly on the Blue and Sky Blue options, because the other options are discussed in the parent guide or other subclass guides. We also discuss options that normally would be good for a typical build, but underperform when used in a subclass.

What is a Forge Domain Cleric?

Forge Domain clerics, found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything, are artisans that draw their power from a god of forging, metallurgy, and fire. Their expanded spell list and subclass features deal mainly with fire damage and metalworking.

Strengths

Forge Domain clerics gain access to heavy armor and some great damage-dealing spells. They are most comfortable going into battle with a hammer in one hand and a shield in the other, switching between dealing damage and supporting their party.

Weaknesses

Because Forge Domain clerics want high STR for heavy armor, attacks, and damage, high CON for tanking, and high WIS for spellcasting, they are seen as a very multi-ability dependent (MAD) build. Throw in the fact that these Forge Domain Clerics usually want at least one feat in War Caster, and you find yourself strapped for ability scores off the get-go.

In addition, Forge Domain clerics rely on spells to keep up with other melee classes for damage output. That being said, they have access to Heat Metal, Spiritual Weapon, and Spirit Guardians, which are amazing multi-turn damage spells.

Before You Start

Races

Check out our Guide to DnD Races for non-standard races. Keep in mind, most races and subraces are limited by the setting and source material chosen by the DM. Below are some of the best options for Forge Domain Clerics from the standard races.

Dwarf: Dwarves are a very synergistic Cleric race. Their CON boost and Darkvision are great starts and their subraces really bring it home.

• Hill: The WIS bonus here is great for any Cleric build.
• Mountain: The +2 STR bonus is helpful for a melee Cleric. Not many builds get to start with +4 ASIs, but melee Forge Domain Clerics certainly can make the most of this.

Half-Orc: +2 STR and +1 CON is a great start for melee Forge Domain Cleric builds. Relentless Endurance keeps you in the fight to save your friends. The lack of WIS hurts though.

Variant Human: Boosting your WIS/STR, or WIS/CON is where you want to be at the start. As mentioned previously, Forge Domain Clerics are at their best when they have the War Caster feat, so picking it up at 1st level is a huge boon.

Backgrounds

Forge Domain Clerics are particularly inclined to buff their STR. This makes a background that provides Athletics as a skill proficiency a solid pick.

• Acolyte: Insight and Religion aren’t very exciting, but roleplaying wise this is a good pick.
• Pirate: This might be a harder one to sell roleplaying wise, but the Athletics and Perception proficiencies are worth it.
• Sailor: Same trouble with roleplay as the Pirate, same great benefits. If you can make it work, this is a great choice.
• Soldier: A Soldier background for a Forge Domain Cleric is certainly easier to believe than Pirate or Sailor. Athletics is a great pickup and Intimidation is a good social skill, just be sure to make good use of this in social encounters.

Ability Scores

Ability Score Increases (ASI) at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level.

As mentioned before, Forge Domain Clerics suffer from being MAD as they have to focus on STR, CON, and WIS. Seeing as Clerics are a full caster, they need to be able to make full use of their spell slots so buffing WIS is the highest priority. From there, you need to make the decision to pump either CON or STR.

Because Forge Domain Clerics will likely be upfront and personal with enemies while concentrating on spells, CON is typically the better choice. Maintaining your concentration on Heat Metal or Spirit Guardians will be worth a lot more than the STR modifier bonus.

In summary, Forge Domain Clerics should prioritize WIS > CON > STR.

STR: This is your plus to hit and damage. Get this to at least 15 for plate armor.

DEX: Unfortunately, you don’t get to be stealthy or agile when wearing heavy armor.

CON: CON will mean more hitpoints and better concentration checks. This is extremely important for characters who will be in melee when buffing party members.

INT: No benefit for a Forge Domain Cleric.

WIS: Your spellcasting modifier is always your most important ability score when you are a full caster. This means more damage, healing, and higher save DCs for all of your lovely spells.

CHA: Dump and focus on other stats.

Forge Domain Cleric Class Progression

1st Level

2nd Level

Channel Divinity:

• Turn Undead: This is a great anti-undead feature that is made even better by the Forge Domains proclivity for melee combat.
• Artisan’s Blessing: While this may not seem like an overly exciting ability, you’d be surprised how many times being able to create any object that has metal in it, under 100gp, can be useful.

3rd Level

Domain Spells:

• Heat Metal:  No save and consistent, stellar damage. You can also cause an enemy to attack with disadvantage if they want to keep using their weapon. It also scales quite well at higher levels.
• Magic Weapon: There are usually better options for your concentration slot than an extra +1 to damage and attacks, especially if your weapon is already magic from Blessing of the Forge.

5th Level

Destroy Undead: This gets a slightly higher ranking here than in our 5e Cleric Guide because Forge Domain Clerics like to be on the frontlines, which will likely increase the number of undead you can catch.

Domain Spells:

• Elemental Weapon:  Good for targeting a specific weakness, but there is no way you use this over the Spirit Guardians spell in your concentration slot.
• Protection from Energy: Granting resistance to a specific damage type is situational but could save a life or enable taking a path that may not be otherwise traversable.

6th Level

Soul of the Forge: Damage resistances are great, especially when the damage type is as common as fire is. The +1 to AC while wearing heavy armor is another huge plus because of the lack of AC scaling in 5e. At this point, you can easily have 21 AC with plate and a shield. Add Shield of Faith and another +1 from Blessing of the Forge and you could have a pretty consistent 24 AC at 6th level. Awesome!

7th Level

Domain Spells:

• Fabricate:  Situational, but is truly only limited by your imagination.
• Wall of Fire: One of the better battlefield control options. If used correctly, Wall of Fire is pretty devastating.

8th Level

Divine Strike: An extra d8 of damage once per turn is always nice. As mentioned before, fire damage is a common resistance, but not common enough to make this undesirable. The increase at 14th level is a great way to keep your melee damage scaling.

9th Level

Domain Spells:

• Animate Objects:  Animate Objects is really, really good. A 5th level spell that allows you to make 10 attacks with a +8 to hit and 1d4+4 damage as a bonus action is insane, even if it requires concentration.
• Creation: This, unfortunately, is a bit of an underwhelming spell. It is difficult to imagine a scenario where this may be useful.

10th Level

Divine Intervention: Refer to the 5e Cleric Guide.

17th Level

Saint of Forge and Fire: Immunity to fire damage is absolutely stellar. The resistance to slashing, piercing, and bludgeoning from non-magical attacks is great but will be skirted around a lot by this late in a campaign.

Feats

Forge Clerics are pretty Multi-Ability Dependant (MAD) builds because they will need WIS for spellcasting, STR for heavy armor and melee attacks, and CON for survivability. Also, if you plan on running a front-line caster build, you will absolutely need the War Caster feat. Combine these two issues with the fact that Clerics don’t get a whole lot of ASIs and you will realize that you don’t have the luxury to take a bunch of cool feats. The following feats (except for War Caster) are great “half-feats” that will allow you to pump an ability score while also picking up a cool feature. If you end up with an odd STR or CON score after character creation, the following feats are a great pickup.

Heavy Armor Master: HAM is amazing for tanking at lower levels and, while it may taper off at higher levels, can certainly still help survivability.

Resilient: Cleric’s don’t have CON proficiencies which really hurts when trying to maintain concentration on spells. If you are planning on getting hit a lot, this is a solid pick.

War Caster: Advantage on CON saves and casting spells as opportunity attacks are both beneficial components of this feat. In addition, you won’t need a free hand to cast, meaning you can hold your shield or weapons in both hands. Overall a really solid choice for Forge Domain Clerics.

Cleric Spells

Refer to the 5e Cleric Guide.

Example Forge Domain Cleric Build

This build is the typical Forge Domain Cleric. You are going to be fighting with a hammer in one hand, a shield in the other, and bringing the wrath of a fire god down on your enemies.

Because of the low hit dice of the Cleric class, AC is our primary defensive concern. As for offense, we will be giving some focus to melee damage, but will also be relying on spells to dish out damage.

This tanky, solid damage-per-round build is rounded out with some buff, healing, and utility spells. Seeing as Clerics can prepare any spell from the Cleric spell list after a long rest, these are suggestions of some foundational spells to take. If you know you are going into a situation that will call for a different spell, feel free to switch them out at you see fit.

Spells marked with an asterisk (*) are domain spells and are always prepared.

1st Level:

• Race: Hill Dwarf
• Background: Acolyte (Insight, Religion)
• Ability Scores (Point Buy): STR 10 (+0), DEX 11 (+0), CON 17 (+3), INT 10 (+0), WIS 16 (+3), CHA 10 (+0)
• Skill Proficiencies: Persuasion, History
• Equipment: War hammer, chain mail, hand axe, explorer’s pack, necklace (holy symbol)
• Divine Domain: Forge Domain
  • Domain Spells
  • Bonus Proficiencies
  • Blessing of the Forge
• Spells:
  • Cantrips: Guidance, Sacred Flame, Word of Radiance
  • Add 1st Level: Bless, Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Shield of Faith, Identify*, Searing Smite*

2nd Level:

• Channel Divinity (one use per short/long rest)
  • Turn Undead
  • Artisan’s Blessing
• Spells:
  • Add 1st Level: Command

3rd Level:

• Spells:
  • Add 2nd Level: Heat Metal*, Magic Weapon*, Spiritual Weapon

4th Level:

• Feat instead of ASI: War Caster
• Spells
  • Add Cantrip: Mending
  • Drop: Cure Wounds
  • Add 2nd Level: Prayer of Healing

5th Level:

• Destroy Undead (CR 1/2)
• Spells:
  • Add 3rd Level: Elemental Weapon*, Protection from Energy*, Spirit Guardians

6th Level:

• Channel Divinity (2/rest)
• Soul of the Forge
• Spells:
  • Add 3rd Level: Revivify

7th Level:

• Spells:
  • Add 4th Level: Banishment, Fabricate*, Wall of Fire*

8th Level:

• ASI: +2 WIS (WIS 18)
• Destroy Undead (CR 1)
• Divine Strike (1d8)
• Spells:
  • Add 2nd Level: Blindness/Deafness, Enhance Ability

9th Level:

• Spells
  • Add 5th Level: Greater Restoration, Animate Objects*, Creation*

10th Level:

• Divine Intervention
• Spells:
  • Add Cantrip: Toll the Dead
  • Add 5th Level: Flame Strike

11th Level:

• Destroy Undead (CR 2)
• Spells:
  • Add 6th Level: Heroes’ Feat

12th Level:

• ASI: +2 WIS (WIS 20)
• Spells:
  • Add 5th Level: Mass Cure Wounds
  • Add 6th Level: Heal

13th Level:

• Spells:
  • Add 7th Level: Fire Storm

14th Level:

• Destroy Undead (CR 3)
• Divine Strike (2d8)
• Spells:
  • Add 7th Level: Divine Word

15th Level:

• Spells:
  • Add 8th Level: Holy Aura

16th Level:

• ASI: +2 CON (CON 19)
• Spells:
  • Add 3rd Level: Dispel Magic
  • Add 5th Level: Raise Dead

17th Level:

• Destroy Undead (CR 4)
• Saint of Forge and Fire
• Spells:
  • Add 9th Level: Mass Heal

18th Level:

• Channel Divinity (3/rest)
• Spells:
  • Add 5th Level: Geas

19th Level:

• Feat instead of ASI: Resilient (CON)
• Spells:
  • Add 7th Level: Conjure Celestial

20th Level:

• Divine Intervention Improvement
• Spells:
  • Add 6th Level: Planar Ally

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Hope you liked the guide! If you have any questions or feel like we missed something for the Forge Domain Cleric, go ahead and post a comment below. If you like our content subscribe to Arcane Eye!

Sources Used in This Guide

• 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
• VRGtR: Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft
• VGtM: Volo's Guide to Monsters
• XGtE: Xanathar’s Guide to Everything

Other Cleric Guides

• Cleric 5e Overview
• Death Domain
• Twilight Domain
• Peace Domain