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

[Kobold Stew]

No one has to be the cleric in a 5e party -- there's enough other ways to heal (either with druid/bard/paladin, or through short rests), and buffing is a reasonable tactical choice, but because of the concentration mechanism it's not a necessary choice for a cleric player.

But it's a fun class, with a variety of exciting build possibilities.

 

[Tormyr]

We have had a war cleric, a life cleric, and a nature cleric at various times in our party. At other times there has been no cleric. They play well and extend how far a party can be stretched between short and long rests. The war cleric did a pretty good nova damage, the life cleric handed out hp like it was candy, and the nature cleric has not been in the party enough yet. The cleric seems like a good choice for a more teamwork/support oriented player, but it is also fertile ground for role play opportunities.

 

[Zardnaar]

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.

The kind of can but only for the occasional fight not every fight. Spiritual weapon+ spirit guardians for example. Our clerics tend to cast bless in a level 3 slot instead of spiritual guardians. Light clerics, tempest clerics, and nature clerics seem to be the bet ones followed by war and life. Tempest clerics are surprisingly good at beat down with the polearm master feat+ quaterstaff+shillagh. Death clerics are also decent and some of the 3pp ones look interesting as well such as the Flame and Protection ones from EN5ider.

The casters generally take warcaster/resilient and/or use bless. The ones that do not are usually beatstick or boom types combined with spells like blindness instead of hold person.

 

[CapnZapp]

I notice these few last replies all talk about the cleric as a healer.

But our Tempest Cleric is not concerned about healing. He wants to bash things over the head, even if he commonly realizes his spells are better tools for the job.

Sure, he has Healing Word prepared, but only as an emergency life saver, not as a spell to make fallen allies stand back on their feet. Basically a Spare the Dying but without its crippling Touch range.

5th edition is made with the assumption the hit points you have are enough for even a deadly encounter; the need for in-combat healing is basically a 3E-ism we're slowly unlearning. Healing is to make sure you don't have to walk into a combat at anything less than full hit points. Since hit points is the most important indicator of power and level, entering a fight at only 50 hp rather than 70 hp, say, is to enter that fight (in)voluntarily as a 6th level character instead of the 8th level character you could be. That is: you'll do it if you absolutely have to, but generally D&D never makes you do stuff now that can't wait an hour.

But the argument "we don't have a Cleric because there's enough healing in the game" should be met with "try playing a Cleric that doesn't heal before you say that again"

 

[CapnZapp]

Our clerics tend to cast bless in a level 3 slot instead of spiritual guardians.

Their players sure are an unselfish lot. Or they listen too much to the other players...

My cleric player rates good spells highly, but good spells that put the glory on him even higher

 

[Zardnaar]

Their players sure are an unselfish lot. Or they listen too much to the other players...

My cleric player rates good spells highly, but good spells that put the glory on him even higher

We have always tried to maike the team better from bless and the healer feat in 5E back to Righteous Wrath of the Faithful (+3 to hit and damage+ extra attack 5th level cleric spell) in 2E.

 

[Raith5]

I love 5e clerics - the various Domains give really distinct flavours. The Tempest domain is great - our Dwarven Tempest cleric is dangerous in combat and also the tank of the party. I have also been a life cleric and it was great. The only thing I kind of miss is that in 4e healing and general spells were in separate silos - there have been times when I was playing a life cleric when I would have been killed by the other party members if I used my spells for purposes other than healing. Though the Bless spell is powerful in the longer combats (and popular with the party!).

 

[Ancalagon]

Their players sure are an unselfish lot. Or they listen too much to the other players...

My cleric player rates good spells highly, but good spells that put the glory on him even higher

Sounds like a 3e cleric

 

[Tony Vargas]

Now the cleric is more similar because of the domains and the way they use different channel divinity powers and domain spells. This definitely started with 3e, but 5e seems to have gone a little further.

It started with 2e dividing the cleric & druid lists into 'spheres' and the 2e Complete Priests' Handbook introducing alternate granted powers and priesthoods, including priests of philosophies & forces. Really, 5e doesn't go as far as 2e did, in that sense.

I was also asking out of another concern though - some players sometimes feel like they "have" to be the cleric, and if they asked "how do they play in 5e" I wanted to be able to give an accurate answer. In 2nd ed it wasn't so great...

They're wrong, but not wrong, it's just that "cleric" in that context means support-role-full-caster - it can be a Cleric, Druid, or Bard. It can even be a Paladin since they have support-oriented class abilities to supplement their half-casting, or several half-casters and feat-users sharing the duties. Or two or more of the above. It's hard to have too many full-casters or too-much support in a party.

 

[TerraDave]

To add to the above, 5E characters have HD and fairly generous long rests and don't need as much healing as 3E and earlier ones did. (4E is more complicated to compare, but could also involve a lot healing).

The fighter also has an under-rated self healing ability and barbarians get damage resistance. Paladins also have healing. This means that your front line melee characters, which could be huge healing sponges in past editions, can often get through a fight, then use HD to recover, with no or little healing from another character.