D&D 5E Clerics in 5e - how do they play? The mega-buffs are gone...

[Ancalagon]

Hello

(please note - next to no experience in 4e)

So when 3e came out, it was pretty exciting to see what they did to make clerics more appealing to play - and they really did. By having everyone use the same stats (no "special stats" for fighters anymore), the combat potential of clerics was increased. Healing was easier. Self buffing spells became *very* potent, and if you had time to stack a few, your cleric became a walking engine of doom, a living persona of your god's wrath. I had a cleric of St Cuthbert with protection and destruction as domain, and it was fearsome.

But honestly, they went overboard. Especially if you had more than one healer in the party, the clerics could use so much buffing that they were quite frankly too strong. (I hear that in 5e the bard got that treatment, but let's not get sidetracked here).

When I started looking at 5e and I saw the concentration rule, I went "aha! No more stacking a ton of buffing spells! Brilliant way to balance the cleric!" I just assumed that the spells hadn't changed that much. But now I see that many bluff spells like Divine Power, or even lesser buffing like bull's strength, are gone.

So I started looking at the cleric more closely. I see you can easily play a "blasting" cleric or a healing specialist. But is the battle-cleric of old still effective? I mean I look at the war cleric and I see a bit of damage adding at level 8, a few extra attacks (but not many for a 6-8 encounters day...)... but it seems a bit underwhelming no? Am I misreading this?

So how are clerics playing in 5e?

 

[ForceUser]

I have DMed a few clerics and I'm playing a multiclass cleric/monk right now.

Short answer: they're fun.

Light clerics are basically wizards that can heal (fireball, baby). Life clerics can stand in melee and dish out powerful healing--the best heals of any specialization, and heavy armor, too. Storm clerics are druid-y. They all feel very different. Because of the 5E magic rules and the cleric's particular spell kit, you have a lot of choices for spellcasting in combat, and you can juggle multiple spells at once---for instance, in the same round you might use your Action to cast cure wounds, your Bonus action to attack with spiritual weapon, and maintain concentration on a third spell at the same time, such as bless. Your spell attacks run off your Wisdom modifier instead of Dexterity. You have three or four good skills. Many of your spells are scalable. It's a good gig all the way around.

Thumbs up for 5E clerics.

 

[happyhermit]

I don't have tons of experience with 3.x, but as for how they play in 5e, I would say great. I haven't seen much of a really non-heal-y type cleric, most of the ones I have seen are only a little bit about buffing, a fair bit about healing, and then mostly about magic and/or combat. The bard seems to be more likely for a buffing character ime.

Starting off with a somewhat decent ranged damage cantrip has really worked well imo, it gives the player an easy thing to fall back on and fills out their options nicely.

I do see them doing an awful lot of "utility" type magic, more than I expected.

 

[Illithidbix]

They seem pretty good to me, esp. watching different people play and enjoy them.

The Domains give pretty chuncky benefits that reinforce them, esp. Channel Divinity.

Channel Divinity is very cool because it recharges on short rests and you get additional uses of it at level 6 and 18.

The high-power of 3.5E clerics tended to occur when they had time to prepare.

 

[The Crimson Binome]

If you're asking whether you can play a Cleric and short-term buff yourself to be a better melee fighter than a Fighter is, then the answer is no. You can buff yourself to be almost as good as a Fighter, in addition to healing and whatever else, but you don't get to outshine the Fighter at its own game.

 

[FormerlyHemlock]

When I started looking at 5e and I saw the concentration rule, I went "aha! No more stacking a ton of buffing spells! Brilliant way to balance the cleric!" I just assumed that the spells hadn't changed that much. But now I see that many bluff spells like Divine Power, or even lesser buffing like bull's strength, are gone.

So I started looking at the cleric more closely. I see you can easily play a "blasting" cleric or a healing specialist. But is the battle-cleric of old still effective? I mean I look at the war cleric and I see a bit of damage adding at level 8, a few extra attacks (but not many for a 6-8 encounters day...)... but it seems a bit underwhelming no? Am I misreading this?

So how are clerics playing in 5e?

Most of the really interesting cleric spells from AD&D are gone, unless you re-invent them. Things like Mental Domination and Spacewarp are now the sole province of wizards. Physical Mirror and Reverse Time don't exist. Wide-area clerical healing or crop blessing spells like Breath of Life and Abundance are now scaled down and belong to druids, not clerics, unless they're on the Nature domain list (I don't remember).

Draw Upon Holy Might wasn't that interesting but it was definitely strong, and it's gone, regrettably.

Clerics do have a number of interesting buffs and abilities in 5E, but they're completely different from AD&D-era clerics. If you want to be impressed by clerics, you need to check out Sanctuary, Warding Bond, Shield of Faith, Spiritual Guardians, Death Ward, and possibly Command. Also look at Planar Ally and consider hiring by the minute instead of the day--if you can manage to borrow a Solar just long enough to help kill the Ancient Red Shadow Dragon, he will deserve every gold piece of his share of the treasure. (The biggest problem actually with Planar Ally isn't effectiveness, it's flavor--why do all of these planar creatures suddenly turn mercenary just because you summoned them through a spell instead of through a planar rift or something? The guidelines feel incomplete--work with your DM on this, or if you're a DM, work with your players to give them a version of the spell that offers more predictability/agency.) Regenerate is now an interesting combat buff too because the auto-healing occurs at the beginning of the recipient's turn, so auto-stabilizes and gets to act. When you're going to fight a shadow dragon, stack Death Ward and Regenerate on whomever you think is most likely to eat punishment from the dragon.

Clerics also have reasonably good opportunity attacks, and they can do a fair amount with melee cantrips, although not so much that I'd build a PC cleric around melee cantrips specifically.

So, mechanically, 5E clerics are interesting. I just can't intellectually respect them for their standards of worship... but the powergamer in me kind of wants to find a way to play one anyway, maybe by making a cynical one who only pays lip service.

 

[Tony Vargas]

So when 3e came out, it was pretty exciting to see what they did to make clerics more appealing to play - and they really did.

They made them more effective, certainly. Not quite as interesting as all the priesthoods theoretically possible with the CPH in 2e, nor, as Hemlock points out, with the more esoteric spheres.

But honestly, they went overboard.

Yep. Tier 1. CoDzilla.

When I started looking at 5e and I saw the concentration rule, I went "aha! No more stacking a ton of buffing spells! Brilliant way to balance the cleric!"

There's more too the mechanic than that, really. It also serves to force casters to conserve spells so they can get by with fewer slots/day, since there's less 'layering' possible (on more than just buffs, too), for instance.

And any caster who gets to prep from his whole list daily and use slots to cast spontaneously and has at-will cantrips to fall back is going to be pretty capable.

I just assumed that the spells hadn't changed that much. But now I see that many bluff spells like Divine Power, or even lesser buffing like bull's strength, are gone.

Yeah, those'd've broken Bounded Accuracy.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Yes, clerics are fun and effective. I have a 7th level Tempest cleric. Even with only Healing Word for healing, he is effective. Channel Divinity to max damage his thunder and lightning damage. Control water shut down an entire encounter. Spiritual Guardians and Weapon and heavy armor make him awesome. Warcaster feat to opp attack with Inflict Wounds.

Sent from my SM-G900P using Tapatalk

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

To answer the OP's question, I can only say this: How do they play? Well with others, that's how.

 

[Ogre Mage]

Bless is deceptively powerful, especially for a 1st level cleric spell. To those of us weaned in 3.X edition it may not look very impressive at first. But in a system with bonded accuracy +1d4 to hit and on saving throws is extremely powerful and useful in most combat situations. When in doubt I cast bless -- it is the sort of spell the party can build around given that it targets three party members, more if you cast as a higher level spell. Even better when backed up with Resilient (Con) or Warcaster. With the caveat that I have little experience with 6th level and higher spells, Bless and Greater Invisibility are my two favorite spells in 5E.