Edited.
I've posted about this before, but I think WotC really dropped the ball in the way they baked combat vs spellcasting options into domain choice rather than making it independent and by not emphasizing it enough in the way they designed the cleric in 5e. There's a clear "charismatic man of the cloth" archetype gap continuing from previous editions when it could have easily been designed into the 5e cleric.
I wrote some houserules to address this and wanted to start up some discussion about it. The gist of it is that the choice of features basically gives you a choice between being a strength-secondary cleric or a charisma-secondary cleric in a way that represents layered options instead of base changes to the class. I feel charisma is under-emphasized for clerics in the core rules so this is a two-birds-with-one-stone approach for me.
Faith Armor
Many clerics avoid the front lines and are not accustomed to physical combat. These clerics may eschew armor in place of ceremonial vestments and trusting their faith or deity for protection.
Clerics that do not gain heavy armor proficiency at 1st level based on their domain selection instead get this ability. When not wearing armor and not using a shield, your AC is 10 + Dexterity modifier + Charisma modifier. Visibly wearing or holding a holy symbol grants an additional +1 AC.
Channel Divinity - Renewal
All clerics gain Channel Divinity - Renewal at 2nd level.
You can use your Channel Divinity to swap out a prepared spell for a different one and regain one spell slot in the process. This can only be done once per day. The maximum spell level is equal to 1/2 your current spell level. So, if you are able to cast 4th level spells, you can do this with a spell of 2nd level or lower.
Domain Options
The Life, Light, and Nature domains are versatile and provide feature options. At 1st and 8th levels, the player can choose either Faith Armor and Potent Spellcasting (Castigate) respectively, or Heavy Armor Proficiency and Divine Strike.
Potent Spellcasting
This is renamed to Castigate. You add your charisma bonus instead of your wisdom bonus to cantrips. Currently, Potent Spellcasting is considered superior to Divine Strike. This is a slight nerf that brings it more in line with Divine Strike and helps ensure balance between melee-oriented clerics and laser-clerics.
