D&D (2024) Complete Divine Power: Cleric Domain Tier List

[Zardnaar]

Usual story ranking the archetypes. They are being compared to other archetypes not each other. S tier is borderline OP or broken or otherwise ahead of the other archetypes. D is bad. As per usual first ten levels are the most important.

In general the 2024 cleric got some minor buffs overall. Some spells got nerfed a lot got buffed. Spiritual Weapon was the main nerfed spell casualty. Spirit Guardians was the other big note worthy change. While there's a few hypothetical builds around in general a fast or mobile cleric would be useful.

Other small changes are things like divine order and blessed strikes. Every archetype can now double down on wisdom vs the pre tashas domains. The base cleric is also quite good so how much an archetype buffs that base will determine the ranking.

Domain Ranking
Life: B
Light: A
Trickery: A
War

 

[Zardnaar]

Life Domain
Life domain benefits a lot from the buffs to healing in 2024. Downside is you're a healer which may or may not be needed. Still you're better than a base cleric.

Level 3

Disciple of Life
Bog standard healing buff spell. Hasn't changed much but no longer combos with good berry. Decent ability and more or less works as advertised.

Domain Spells
Reasonably weak list as they're all cleric spells that you can take anyway. On the plus side a lot of them are spells you want access to. Exciting as a vanilla milkshake but gets the job done.

Preserve Life.

Kind of buffed from the old version. Still frustrating to use due to bloodied requirement. A reverse radiance of the dawn that heals 2d10+cleric level would be nice imho. This ability frustrates me tbh.

Level 6
Blessed Healer.

Heal someone else, heal yourself. Work as advertised. Very low healing however. Eg a cure spell heals them 2d8+3+ wisdom modifier. You gain 2 hp. Meh.

Level 17.

Unlikely to be used but maximized healing. Always good but not very exciting and is level 17.

Overall the life Domain is good. You're the clerics cleric. It doesn't detract from what you're supposed to do. Would be a B+ if blessed Healer was more effective along with Preserve Life. Overall a B. It's good but not particularly exciting and you double down on healing. Problem is a couple of abilities are not great and killing stuff faster is always better than healing. Espicially with 5E bloated hit points and damage.

Light Domain

On the 2014 release I would have rated this as an S tier archetype. Powercreep knocked it down for example Twilight Clerics. The archetype hasn't been changed to much. However general power creep has made it stand out less imho.

Level 3.

Domain Spells. Generally the light domain has a great selection of spells most of which are lacking from the cleric spell list. Lots of fire and light spells and some utility. Fireball gets the glory but a nod to Faerie Fire as well. Lots of blasting spells on top your cleric spells. Very good list.

Radiance of the Dawn.
Use channel divinity 30' radius emanation 2d10+cleric level radiance damage. This ability is great and it doesn't use your spells as a resource. The danage scales poorly but it's very good at low levels vs fodder and at high level often hits multiple opponents. It's comparable to a level 2 spell slot imho that late game is comparable to a level 3. It's also radiant damage which matter's vs a lot of undead and rarely resisted by anything else.

Warding Flare.

Use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll on a creature within 30'. Very similar effect to the shield spell you can generally use 3 or 4 times. On top of your spells and radiance of the dawn. Your low level light cleric essentially makes the first few levels easy mode.

Level 6

Improved Warding Flare.
Warding Flare now refreshes on a short rest and grants temporary hit points. This ability is great. Negating an attack and temporary hit points is better than healing afterwards. And doesn't require spell slots.

Level 17.
Corona of Light. Magic action. Create Impose disadvantage on saves with Radoance of the Dawn and Radiant spells. For the most part this beans sunbeam and sunburst. Great if "pre cast". Otherwise high opportunity cost. When it's relevant though whatever you're facing is probably going to get melted fast and lots of blindness. I'll mention sunbeam again. Level 17 though.

So the light cleric is great but doesn't break the game as such or quite reach the S tier. Blasting is cute and you're good at it but it's "only" blasting. On top of everything else and as a package with warding Flare I'm rating this cleric as an A. You're not a Twilight cleric. Borderline A+ it's great.

 

[Zardnaar]

Trickery
The former worst cleric in the PHB it was generally a C tier archetype. Made worse by Shadowheart in BG3 which made it a bot more obvious. It's been buffed a lot and benefits from changed to the base cleric.

Level 3
Blessing of the Trickster.
Magic action grant advantage on stealth checks. At will but limited to one creature at a time. Includes yourself. This ability is situational but potentially great. I like it and it encourages sneaky sneaky.

Invoke Duplicity.

Spend your channel divinity to create a duplicate. You can cast spells through it and it grants advantage. Best part bonus action. Personally I find it annoying missing with guiding bolt for example. This helps with that. Very good ability.

Domain Spells.
The trickery domain is full of utility and control spells absent from the Cleric spell list. Overall it's a very strong list and gives you alternatives to Spiritual Guardian spam.

Level 6
Tricksters Transposition
Basically when you use your invoke Duplicity ability you can swap places with your duplicate. Lots of uses for this I'm combat and out. A mobility cleric using Spirit Guardians I suspect is a new meta thing to do. If you're not a Orc this ability enables that along with various other tricks one can dream up. Makes a very good ability into a great one.

Level 17
Improved Duplicity. Your duplicate buffs allies and heals 17-20 hp when it ends. The healing is mostly incidental at this point but the first parts great. More awesome sauce layered on your best feature. Comes so late it will probably never matter.

Overall it's all about yur invoke Duplicity that upgrades. Downside is it's competing when you actually need to turn undead. Light domain for example gets a few more resources on top of its radiance of the dawn. Whike no twilight cleric worthy of S tier I'm giving this a very strong A. Light domains also an A and is likely a bit more casual friendly. For those tactically minded players and powergamers this cleric might be better. Personally if I have to be the cleric again I'm picking this due to I've seen multiple light clerics in action (3 or 4) and my last PC was an Order Cleric. Zards favorite Cleric 2024 edition for what it's worth.

War

The war cleric was probably an effort to enable a weapon using cleric. Unfortunately the game mechanics tend to reward the pure cleric as a spellcaster. SAD vs MAD and with potent cantrip, spiritual weapon and guardians the war cleric was in a poor position.

Strangely enough nature and arcane clerics were often better at beat down than the war cleric. So how does the 2024 War Cleric 2.0 hold up?

Level 3. Guided Strike.

Use yur channel divinity gain a +10 bonus to hit. Can also be used on an ally. With a big spell effect or if you really need to hit. Almost a guaranteed hit just don't roll a 1. Decent ability potentially situationally great.

Domain Spells.

A lot of cleric spells but there's some great Stan outs here. Crusaders Mantle is a Paladin spell you can cast before the paladin. And steel wind strike is a lvl 5 ranger spell with potentially 30d10 force damage available at lvl 9. Hold monster as well. Good spell list overall B+.

War Priest.

Bonus action attack equal to wisdom modifier. Can now be refreshed on a short rest. The poor man's extra attack. To really use this you really need a decent strength scre or use a raper and moderate dexterity score. And can't be used with true strike.

Personally I would probably lean towards a 14 dexterity medium armor build and use a rapier. Also competes with spiritual weapon and the level 6 ability. Potentially great on a multiclass character.

Level 6 War God's Blessing.

Spend your channel divinity concentration free Shield of Faith or Spiritual Weapon.
Spiritual weapon got nerfed as it requires concentration now. However it scales better now with upcasting it. Shield of faith +2 AC 10 minutes concentration free. Options are nice. Good ability.

Avatar of Battle.

You gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage. Comes late but works as advertised. By level 17 probably not great but decent at least.

So relative to where it was this is a great improvement. I find the abilities interesting and it's getting the creative juices flowing. Do I like this cleric? Yes. Would I want to play this cleric? Yes. Overall I would give this archetype a B+.

 

[mellored]

Life Domain
Life domain benefits a lot from the buffs to healing in 2024.

Disagree. The fact that everyone can heal better means the life cleric's boost is less noticeable.


Before
1d8+3 (+3) was a 40% boost.
Now
2d8+3 (+3) is 25% boost.



Unless you mean the level 17 feature. That got a bit of a boost with more dice being rolled.
Before
 Before
5d8+5(+7) Maxed: 50% boost
Now
10d8+5(+7) Maxed: 61% boost

 

[mellored]

Unlikely to be used but maximized healing.

Just to check.

Base Cure wounds level 6: 12d8+5 = 59

Heal level 6: 70(+8) =78 (+Blind, Posion, Deafened)

Cure Wounds level 6, maxed: 12*8+5(+8) = 111

So yea. Use a maximized cure wounds.

 

[mellored]

Preserve Life.

Kind of buffed from the old version.

I don't see any difference besides using "bloodied".

Level 6
Blessed Healer.

Heal someone else, heal yourself. Work as advertised. Very low healing however. Eg a cure spell heals them 2d8+3+ wisdom modifier. You gain 2 hp. Meh.

2+Spell level. So 3.

Probably worth about +2HP per level, or the Tough feat.

 

[Zardnaar]

Just to check.

Base Cure wounds level 6: 12d8+5 = 59

Heal level 6: 70(+8) =78 (+Blind, Posion, Deafened)

Cure Wounds level 6, maxed: 12*8+5(+8) = 111

So yea. Use a maximized cure wounds.

True but more like the game is unlikely to reach level 17.

Traditionally heal has also been about fixing conditions vs regaining HP imho.

Great catch though about the high level spells being mediocre vs buffed cure spells.

 

[Zardnaar]

Light domain done. Trickery is up next.

 

[Mort]

Warding Flare.

Use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll on a creature within 30'. Very similar effect to the shield spell you can generally use 3 or 4 times. On top of your spells and radiance of the dawn. Your low level light cleric essentially makes the first few levels easy mode.

Warding flair is decent but not nearly as good as shield, except you can use it to protect others.

1. Unlike Shield, you must declare before you know if the attack hit, meaning it can be wasted.

2. It only works against one attack, so gets much less useful at mid-higher levels. Interestingly, the protection fighting style which suffered from the same flaw, was fixed.

 

[Horwath]

Disagree. The fact that everyone can heal better means the life cleric's boost is less noticeable.

100%

before that +3 HP was a nice boos to 1st level healing, now it's just meh, and the scaling is still horrible.
+5 heal per spell level would say that you are a better healer.

and the 6th level ability is still horrible.
You need to heal your self, well just forget about your subclass feature.

at least they had sense with trickery to remove limit on not affecting yourself with it's feature.