D&D 5E Cleric Tier Ratings

[Todd Roybark]

I would put it in A tier, let down slightly by it's channel divinity.

Yeah and Druids are so much better at charming plants, with their class powers like.......?
Damn...maybe that CD is rather good after all

 

[Zardnaar]

Yeah and Druids are so much better at charming plants, with their class powers like.......?
Damn...maybe that CD is rather good after all

Either way it's not going to come up to often.

 

[DeviousQuail]

Tempest Domain.

At first glance Tempest domain is great. It has a decent spell list, martial weapons and is full of thematically appropriate things to do. High marks for it's theme.

However it's a hot mess mechanically and doesn't know what to do with itself. It's a hybrid between melee and a blaster cleric. Overall it tends more towards melee IMHO.

Wrath of the storm it a reasonably small amount of damage situational on being hit. When combined with martial weapons and heavy armor it leans heavily towards this IMHO. It also doesn't scale.

The tempest cleric gets destructive wrath as it's channel divinity. You can maximise any thunder or lightning damage. This is best used on you spells which for the most part means thunder wave, shatter or call lightning.

Call lightning doesn't work outside, thunder wave not the best and loud, this mostly means shatter. It's a blaster ability but you can it use it on somewhat weak spells. Pity you got call lightning instead if lightning bolt.

It's a blaster ability while your other abilities lean towards melee. MAD here we come. Thunderbolt strike is ok, you can push something 10' when you deal lightning damage. Then you realise you only have two sources of lightning damage, call lightning and wrath if the storm. Derp.

Your Divine strike is thunder damage, one of the better damage types to deal. The problem being MAD. You will want a decent constitution, wisdom and strength to have an effective tempest cleric.

Overall I would rate this as a B tier domain. If you use rolled stats and have high ability scores or gauntlets of ogre power this domain can sneak up to A tier. However you are still outclassed by the S tier domains with the same ability scores.

I always figured they didn't put lightning bolt on the Tempest spell list because it would be too good when paired with destructive wrath. Still, destructive wrath is good because it helps balance the blaster side with the melee side of the Tempest. Boosting Strength (or Dex, I won't judge) has the opportunity cost of not increasing Wisdom and your save DC. So a feature that maxes an aoe damage spell once per short rest, twice at 6th and three times at 18, was a nice way to balance the increased likelihood of enemies making their saves.

Thunderbolt Strike is annoying because it should've been called Lightning Bolt Strike! Terribly misleading. That said, it can combine well with wrath of the storm, call lightning, and any lightning damage items. Keep an eye out for a javelin of lightning, wand of lightning bolts, spell scrolls, or staff of thunder and lightning. Very fun.

The lack of resistance to thunder and lightning compared to other damage types helps divine strike. Definitely a class that can do great things in melee thanks to the cleric chassis and subclass features. Finding a way to get booming blade wouldn't hurt.

From my experience if you go Tempest you should embrace the melee and not worry about getting Wisdom or Strength to 20. Use your concentration to control the battlefield, blast enemies that are silly enough to stand near each other, and smack around the unworthy (I guess you can heal too if you want).

I already said earlier that Tempest is S tier for me but for others that don't share my particular tastes, B tier seems appropriate. Keep them coming, Zardnaar.

 

[Zardnaar]

I always figured they didn't put lightning bolt on the Tempest spell list because it would be too good when paired with destructive wrath. Still, destructive wrath is good because it helps balance the blaster side with the melee side of the Tempest. Boosting Strength (or Dex, I won't judge) has the opportunity cost of not increasing Wisdom and your save DC. So a feature that maxes an aoe damage spell once per short rest, twice at 6th and three times at 18, was a nice way to balance the increased likelihood of enemies making their saves.

Thunderbolt Strike is annoying because it should've been called Lightning Bolt Strike! Terribly misleading. That said, it can combine well with wrath of the storm, call lightning, and any lightning damage items. Keep an eye out for a javelin of lightning, wand of lightning bolts, spell scrolls, or staff of thunder and lightning. Very fun.

The lack of resistance to thunder and lightning compared to other damage types helps divine strike. Definitely a class that can do great things in melee thanks to the cleric chassis and subclass features. Finding a way to get booming blade wouldn't hurt.

From my experience if you go Tempest you should embrace the melee and not worry about getting Wisdom or Strength to 20. Use your concentration to control the battlefield, blast enemies that are silly enough to stand near each other, and smack around the unworthy (I guess you can heal too if you want).

I already said earlier that Tempest is S tier for me but for others that don't share my particular tastes, B tier seems appropriate. Keep them coming, Zardnaar.

If it had lightning bolt and potent cantrip yeah possible S tier. Even then still probably outclassed by light.

 

[Voadam]

You also pick up heavy armor, probably better off not using it though without high score to back it up.

I am wondering on your thinking here.

When I played a life domain cleric the decision to go 15, 15, 15, 8, 8, 8 for high wisdom, strength, and con and tank up in heavy armor seemed an easy call to dump stat dex and have a decent AC. Even if you wanted a better than 8 int or cha, a standard array 15, 14, 13 for wisdom, con, str, would still get you starting chain mail at AC 16 versus a 17 with 750 gp half plate and dex 14.

 

[Zardnaar]

I am wondering on your thinking here.

When I played a life domain cleric the decision to go 15, 15, 15, 8, 8, 8 for high wisdom, strength, and con and tank up in heavy armor seemed an easy call to dump stat dex and have a decent AC. Even if you wanted a better than 8 int or cha, a standard array 15, 14, 13 for wisdom, con, str, would still get you starting chain mail at AC 16 versus a 17 with 750 gp half plate and dex 14.

The trade off there is 3 dump stats. Also as you level up you still have to make the trade off with buffing wisdom or your attack stat.

All for +1 AC.

And you'll end up with a cleric stats inferior at melee than one who focused on buffing wisdom and makes a half decent skill monkey with better rounded stats that you can use with guidance.

 

[Zardnaar]

Trickery domain.

Well the trickery domain scores reasonable marks for the theme. Mechanically it's a bit of a mess.

Blessing of the trickster is potentially useful, depends on how much stealth scouting your PC can do. It's at will but it's a bit situational. Sometimes brilliant, other times useless as it also relies on the DMs take on stealth.

It's spell list quite good with several spells outside the cleric list to use. This is the highlight of the class.

Channel Divinity invoke duplicity.
This ability looks great but it requires an action and is very short duration. It doesn't do a lot that going defensive doesn't achieve.

Could be useful out of combat to sneak across a road or alley since you can activate it and make a stealth check the next round.

Divine strike

Very typical cleric ability. The downside is poison is the worst bonus damage in the game due to the sheer quantities of poison resistance and immunity in the game. It's worse than fire.

Overall the class is C tier. It's a Hodge pidge of lots of random abilities that a creative player and DM could have a lot of fun with. How useful those abilities will be seems to be very ymmv based on the campaign and DM.

High marks for fun factor and theme but not a fan of it mechanically.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The 3rd edition trickery domain had many of the same problems. But one feature of 3e was clerics was the gained proficiency in a deity's favoured weapon. It wouldn't be broken to grant this on a 5e trickery cleric.

 

[Zardnaar]

War Cleric.

Wrapping up the PHB. At first glance the war cleric looks amazing. Heavy armor, martial weapons,some paladin spells and a great looking channel divinity. Overall top marks on the phb for themes for most of the clerics.

The war cleric however gas a large glaring flaw. That is MAD. To use your heavy armor effectively and to melee you need a high strength. And a decent constitution and you're still a cleric so wisdom is useful.

You could go dex based and go ranged but you still get MAD and you may as well play a different cleric if you're going ranged. New Gish type archetypes are getting to use their spellcasting stats to key weapon attacks off as the designers have figured this out.

On the plus side mist if your abilities function with spelks but once again play a different cleric.

High rolled stats or fauntlets can make these problems go away and function as intended IMHO. Several other clerics are strangely competitive even in the niche a war cleric seems designed for.

Be a better cleric IMHO than trying to be a bad fighter. Still heavy armor and martial weapons can be useful.

The war cleric gets a decent spell list. Most are cleric spells with a sprinkling of paladin and wizard spells.

War Priest.
A nice ability that can be used with ranged or melee weapons. Extra attacks as a bonus action are always useful but you don't get many of them and it's keyed off wisdom. See previous comments about MAD.

Guided Strike.
This is a great ability that it best used to make sure a spell connects such as guiding bolt. This feature interacts well with the -5/+10 feats but is so limited I think I would prefer to use it to make sure you hit with a spell. At least this ability is always useful in combat.

Divine strike.

Extra damage typical cleric ability. This is based on the weapon you are using. It's weaker than some of the other cleric weapon damage however IMHO such as radiant or nature clerics choice of elemental damage.

Overall the war cleric is a disappointment IMHO. It's the closest thing to a trap option due to MAD. Even with good to great rolled stats it's still outclassed by the Tempest cleric IMHO. Sure you can take one of the -5/+10 feats but I would rather take say warcaster.

For this reason the war cleric is going to be the first cleric ranked D. Even with the best stats rolled (eg 18,18,16 or similar) it's no higher than B as with stats that high there's still better options.

 

[Zardnaar]

The 3rd edition trickery domain had many of the same problems. But one feature of 3e was clerics was the gained proficiency in a deity's favoured weapon. It wouldn't be broken to grant this on a 5e trickery cleric.

3E had better buff spells so any cleric was potentially great.

5E has some good ones as well but they are different in application.