D&D (2024) Cleric Playtest Summary

[Haplo781]

You can either use your action to attack or cast a cantrip, not both.

It's also 1/turn. So not even booming blade or quicken sorcerer would help. It's a nerf to multi-attacks (war cleric)

So the only character this is a boost for is one who switches. And they're still behind due to needing both Str and Wis.

You're still gaining an extra feature.

 

[Vael]

I like decoupling Holy Order and moving Blessed Strikes as a general Cleric ability. Clerics have never been my class of choice, they are literally the last caster class I'd choose to play, but everything here is solid.

 

[OB1]

I feel like the War/Knowledge/Theurge concepts are reflected in the level 2 Holy Order choice. I'd expect to see options more along the lines of Light or Tempest for the remaining subclasses.

Very well could be, and that's a good point about the Holy Order choice. But I would say that the Holy Order choice could also either lean into my set of proposed subclasses or give some additional range past the subclass you do choose. I'm just sticking with my feeling of all subclasses being related to the class groupings until proven otherwise

 

[Minigiant]

Channel Divinity
Nice. But I don't like the change to Long rest.

Holy Order
Love it. I've been wishing for it. Clerics are strongest at Religion

Domain
Separate form Order. Awesome

Blessed Strikes
All clerics get Potent Cantrip and Divine Strike. Powerful. Gotta see Mages and Warrior though.

 

[Neonchameleon]

Very well could be, and that's a good point about the Holy Order choice. But I would say that the Holy Order choice could also either lean into my set of proposed subclasses or give some additional range past the subclass you do choose. I'm just sticking with my feeling of all subclasses being related to the class groupings until proven otherwise

I hope you are wrong and we don't see War/Knowledge/Theurgy domains at all. Mostly because, especially if we have holy orders, a Tempest Protector cleric is a fairly classic war cleric - but so is a Life Protector as a battlefield medic. And the big question about knowledge clerics is what they know about; a Knowledge Scholar is gilding the lilly in a way that Life Scholar and Tempest Scholar (for example) aren't.

 

[Neonchameleon]

And now I come to think of it the other reason not to have War/Knowledge/Theurgy as domains is that it invites probably unwanted direct comparisons. Which is better between a Knowledge Thaumaturge or a Theurgy Scholar? The concepts are almost the same.

 

[Charlaquin]

Turn undead now causes undead that fail their save to gain the (new to this packet) dazed condition, can only use their action to dash, and if they move, must end the move further from you than they started it. Cool.

Checked the dazed condition. The dazed creature can only move or take an action (not both), and can’t take reactions or bonus actions. So… what’s the point of turned undead being able to use the dash action? I feel like they should be allowed to Dodge instead.

Also, Smite Undead replaces Destroy Undead. Instead of undead of a certain CR being automatically destroyed when they fail their saves against Turn Undead, Turn Undead just deals Prof bonus d8 damage to all undead who fail their saves. Not sure if that’s an improvement or a downgrade. I guess it depends.

Healing spells all seem to be Abjuration now. That’s interesting.

 

[Stalker0]

So my group has generally considered clerics a bad class in 5e. Its just so....boring, so incredibly boring. Every player who has played a cleric in my game at one point considered changing to something else.

And this version, its a step forward and a few steps back.

The Good

• Holy Order is a good change, though it needs some cleanup. I love that clerics can be "the best" at religion now. It is awkward though that a 1st level cleric that takes religion can't technically take holy order to get the bonus in religion without losing a skill proficiency. I am sure that's not the intention, that's just a wording cleanup. This is by far the best change.
• Prayer of Healing is good now. I am assuming this is planned with the continuing removal of short rest abilities in favor of long rest ones, otherwise this could get broken fast. But as one part natural heal, one part divine, I think its a solid bonus now.
• Channel Divinity at 1st level: Giving all clerics a little free healing is not a bad thing at all.

The Bad

• Its not enough change. The cleric is still so damn generic, it still feels like a platform for bless, healing, and spirit guardians.
• The new smite turning is more generically useful, but its lost all of its cool. The old ability lets you destroy swarms of undead with a single flick of your clerical finger, that was awesome....and it was a great hook for a DM to make a clerical play feel cool. The new one is just more generic, and that is the kill word for the cleric, the cleric DOES NOT NEED TO BE MORE GENERIC! As an example, a 5th level cleric can currently mow down a hoard of a zombies. To the equivalent with this new cleric, you would need to be 13th level (+5 prof bonus), and its still no guarantee you roll the 22 damage you need on a 5d8 to do the job.
• I really appreciate they continue to work on guidance (which needs to be reigned in), but 10 feet range....come on. You are effectively expected the party to walk with a cleric and every other party member huddled next to them like some weird celebrity with their encourage. 10 feet is stupidly close when you are not in a combat situation.
• They killed Spiritual Weapon: Yes its scaler is better now, and that's great. But THE REASON this spell was good was the lack of concentration, one of the few spells the cleric could use to augment combat while they were blessing or spiritual gardening....and now that's gone. Very bad change.
• The cleric lost huge amount of spell preparation flexibility. First off, you get less spells prepared at the lowest levels (1st and 2nd level). But now you are rigid in what spell levels you have to prepare, whereas before you could prepare a bunch of high level spells, a bunch of low levels, or anything in between. This is worse in almost every way.

 

[Charlaquin]

They killed Spiritual Weapon: Yes its scaler is better now, and that's great. But THE REASON this spell was good was the lack of concentration, one of the few spells the cleric could use to augment combat while they were blessing or spiritual gardening....and now that's gone. Very bad change.

Note that it now scales +1d8 damage per slot level above 2nd instead of per two slot levels. So that’s nice.

 

[OB1]

@Stalker0 Smite turning feels a bit underpowered to me as well. Should either be a flat 10x prof bonus or 2xprof-d8s and in either case should also do half damage on a save (but no Daze on a save).

The new guidance I think is a great fix to both the PHB and Packet 2 versions.

I think spell prep needs to add that you can prepare your Wis modifier or prof bonus number of spells from any level.

I think the Daze will end up working better in actual play than the old rules. First you take care of the still active ones, then you gang up and knock out the others one by one (or run away). Makes it easier to chase them down if they do decide to run since they can't get as far.

I'm 50/50 on Spiritual Weapon. If they're going to make it concentration, then at least let it move 50' a round.