D&D 5E (2014) 14th level cleric

[wicked cool]

So on Monday night my character became a 14th level cleric and the ability they gained was cr3 destroy undead
My question is why? Why so late and 99% useless. My character at this point is fighting much more powerful undead etc etc so I actually found level 14 to be insulting . No new spells, some hp which is fine and this ability
Did they fix turn undead in 2024?
So maybe maybe I’ll run into an enemy that has some mook undead guardians but at this point a cleric past level 10 should already have this

 

[plecostomus]

2024 Cleric has Sear Undead at Level 5.
Whenever you use Turn Undead, you can roll a number of d8s equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1d8) and add the rolls together. Each Undead that fails its saving throw against that use of Turn Undead takes Radiant damage equal to the roll’s total. This damage doesn’t end the turn effect.

2024 Cleric also has an additional Channel Divinity in the base class, Divine Spark:
As a Magic action, you point your Holy Symbol at another creature you can see within 30 feet of yourself and focus divine energy at it. Roll 1d8 and add your Wisdom modifier. You either restore Hit Points to the creature equal to that total or force the creature to make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes Necrotic or Radiant damage (your choice) equal to that total. On a successful save, the creature takes half as much damage (round down).

 

[aco175]

You can now destroy wights and mummies which are cr3. Wights have that pesky HP drain that does not heal which comes in handy if you want to protect your allies. I guess by level 14 though a few dozen HP to a fighter is no big deal for a day or two. I tend to use these lower CR monsters in mobs though and would throw 25 at the level 14 party knowing that half would be killed by this or a fireball and such, leaving only 12 to drain the PCs.

One could also argue that the 2024 sear undead damage is not a big deal at level 14, even with a 20 WIS and dealing (5d8), but 20 points of damage is not nothing to everything not turned to powder.

 

[Zardnaar]

I guess they thought DMs woukd bother sung them. The encounters rules kindly of stop ot

That's probably something like 10 of them so 450 iirc to chew through.

At those levels CR3 are essentially mooks.

 

[J-H]

It lets you go "haha, I'm cool" and wipe out a bunch of mooks. If you end up defending against a town against a horde of skeletons/zombies/wights/shadows/ghouls, your character can pick points that are close to being overrun, show up, and blast them all with no effort several times per day.

 

[Distracted DM]

Part of the answer here is legacy, because this is how high level clerics have worked for many editions. It's not supposed to be incredibly effective and used all the time, it's supposed to be for the rare/occasional "oh this room full of skeletons that'll bog us down? Insta-kill. Those mummies and wights that're supporting the greater threat? Poof."
It's supposed to let the cleric really shine at being anti-undead, while not instakilling real significant threats at that level. Basically, you're too important/powerful to be bothered by skeletons and zombies.

 

[Distracted DM]

2024 Cleric has Sear Undead at Level 5.
Whenever you use Turn Undead, you can roll a number of d8s equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum of 1d8) and add the rolls together. Each Undead that fails its saving throw against that use of Turn Undead takes Radiant damage equal to the roll’s total. This damage doesn’t end the turn effect.

That's an interesting change. So instead of Destroy Undead, auto-killing CR# and lower, they do enough damage to destroy the low-level stuff but probably not stuff like Wights and Mummies. Basically it'll work against all undead cuz they'll take some damage, but it's actually less effective against CR 1-3 stuff because it probably won't instakill them. It starts more effective at 5, and tapers off later on.

 

[J-H]

On the upside, it doesn't require the metagame knowledge of "what CR is this creature?" so it's easier to use... and still does something to bigger undead.