Unearthed Arcana Unearthed Arcana Presents The Cleric's Order Domain

1) I'm glad those archetype designs appear on UA, most of them are wildly exotic and the concept behind them is real interesting.
2) This domain is probably one of the first cleric domain to actually interests me. I love the cleric class chassis, but most of the domain dont inspire me much (maybe the knowledge domain, but since I play with a bunch of murderhobbos, the features are useless). Order Domain may be the one that convinces me to play one.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

The Life cleric remains the gold standard for healing. In my head I know that the cleric now supports a variety of roles. But the old-school part of me still finds itself measures the effectiveness of a cleric by healing ability.

I don't follow when you ay "lack of strong healing". It's on the cleric chassis which starts with strong healing, plus it has a potent ability that goes off whenever it targets an ally with a spell - including healing - so it's more likely to cast them because it gets more for the slot then other clerics.

It may not be "the best healing in the game" but you start with a strong heal list with full casting and get heal+attack for what other clerics would just get a heal. That sounds like it's one of the top.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I find Life cleric is healing overkill. I suppose if it was a large party with no secondary healers (paladins etc) it might be useful to have that much.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I don't understand why it gets Voice of Authority for free while the Battle Master must spend a bonus action to deliver Commander's Strike. I'd like some kind of limit on the use of that specific ability. Either that or, as I see it, the bonus action requirement is working as an unnecessary nerf for the Battle Master ability.

I think this was written on the basis that casting a spell is a full action. However, this is not necessarily the case - a spell might be a bonus action (Healing Word seems the most likely candidate for this). And a spell cast as a reaction might be completely broken, but I don't think there are any valid candidates (maybe some jiggery-pokery with Hellish Rebuke?) for that.

It still has a resource cost of one spell slot though.

 

[Dausuul]

I'm now envisioning a party with an Order cleric, a couple of battlemaster fighters with Commander's Strike, and a single rogue whose nickname is "Locus of Death."

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

I'm now envisioning a party with an Order cleric, a couple of battlemaster fighters with Commander's Strike, and a single rogue whose nickname is "Locus of Death."

o-o That's a lot of nagging. Poor rogue!

 

[R_Chance]

I wish we had 2E style Cleric domains in 5E, with Clerics getting access (or not getting access) to different Cleric spells based on the domain they chose. It made Clerics of different gods a lot different from each other besides the weapon they chose to wield.

That makes two of us. The ability to construct your own priesthoods to fill various religious niches in your campaign world was great. And if some were more popular than others for adventurers, that was fine...

 

[SkidAce]

That makes two of us. The ability to construct your own priesthoods to fill various religious niches in your campaign world was great. And if some were more popular than others for adventurers, that was fine...

Agreed.


I kinda still do this in my campaign.

Step 1, any spells not in the PH are off the cleric list until taught/inspired/found in game via rp and adventuring.
Step 2, make note of "banned" spells that are thematically or functionally opposed to the faith.
Step 3, find a few "unique" spells for the faith.
Step 3, assign religions and powers several domains. This sometimes give them special spells of other lists etc that are thematic to the religion.


Its not as easy as kit basing the clerical spheres was, but since I only add/ban maybe 3 or 4 spells (step 2 and 3) its no harder than deciding the religion's favorite colors, animals, and or weapon.

 

[Gardens & Goblins]

o-o Ok. Wrong.. thread. My bad.

I mean - I agree with that guy/gal/misc. Yup, we need more of whatever they're on about!

 

[R_Chance]

Agreed.


I kinda still do this in my campaign.

Step 1, any spells not in the PH are off the cleric list until taught/inspired/found in game via rp and adventuring.
Step 2, make note of "banned" spells that are thematically or functionally opposed to the faith.
Step 3, find a few "unique" spells for the faith.
Step 3, assign religions and powers several domains. This sometimes give them special spells of other lists etc that are thematic to the religion.


Its not as easy as kit basing the clerical spheres was, but since I only add/ban maybe 3 or 4 spells (step 2 and 3) its no harder than deciding the religion's favorite colors, animals, and or weapon.

I'm tempted to dive back into it... I've never been happier with my games religious situation than in 2E with the Complete Priests Handbook. Which I dug out of a box.... Spheres, Granted Powers, Specialty Priesthoods and the whole 5 yards... customizing priesthoods for various deities was fun. Having multiple religious orders with different areas of expertise for more diverse / powerful deities. And if some were better than others for adventuring that was fine. The others were better suited for their particular deities focus...

 

[smbakeresq]

True. That makes it less OP, and less spammy.

As now you switch back and forth between spamming command + spritual weapon and spamming healing word + cantrip.

If you can pick up booming blade then you can use that and Divine Strike and later Orders Wrath and then healing word a friend to pile on damage. Then another friend can Dissonant Whispers or something to force them to move and get the extra BB damage. IIRC at 8th level you can get in W + mods + d8 thunder + d8 Force + your friend attack + 2d8 thunder if target moves.

It all adds up and you get the healing too.

The spell used for the Voice of Authority doesn't have to be a cleric spell, so trying to get all the buff spells you can through multi-classing seems like a good idea. Buffing an ally is sometimes worth it in place of affecting the enemy, buffing and ally and giving them an attack is well worth it.

Really this class should not have heavy armor and be a support/buff class that gets its damage contribution across through buffing allies. Shield of Faith plus an ally attack changes the nature of that spell, for example.