Cleric 5e: DnD 5th Edition Class Guide – RPGBOT (2024)

Introduction

DnD Clerics are among the most diverse and interesting classes in 5e DnD.Because your choice of Divine Domain so greatly affects your capabilities,Clerics can fit a variety of roles and play styles. More generally, Clericsare thebest healers in the game, and have among the best support, utility, and divination options in thegame. However, they are by no means limited to healing and support roles.Clerics have abundant offensive options, and can even be somewhat effectivewith weapons.

Before considering a subclass, the Cleric can serve effectively as a Healer,a Support caster, and can provide a little bit of Blaster and Striker, thoughthey won’t match a wizard. Different subclasses will offer different optionswhich can expand your roles within the party. Light Domain adds Blaster,Knowledge Domain adds Scholar, and many other domains add Defender to yourlist of roles. Every individual cleric can feel very different in great partdue to the huge number of subclasses available.

After reading this handbook, consider our other supporting material for the Cleric:

• Cleric Races Breakdown
• Cleric Spells Breakdown
• Cleric Subclasses Breakdown
• RPGBOT.Podcast: 5e Cleric Optimization Part 1
• RPGBOT.Podcast: 5e Cleric Optimization Part 2

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Cleric Class Features
  • Optional Class Features
• Ability Scores
• Cleric Races
• Cleric Skills
• Cleric Backgrounds
• Cleric Feats
• Cleric Weapons
• Cleric Armor
• Multiclassing
• Cleric Magic Items
  • Common Magic Items
  • Uncommon Magic Items
  • Rare Magic Items
  • Very Rare Magic Items
  • Legendary Magic Items
• Example Cleric Build – Hill Dwarf Cleric (Life)
  • Abilities
  • Race
  • Skills and Tools
  • Background
  • Feats
  • Levels

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options whichare extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful optionsthat only apply in rare circ*mstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essentialto the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Cleric Class Features

Optional Class Features are detailed below under Optional Class Features.

Hit Points: d8 hit points is good for afull caster, but it can be problematic since many Clerics fight on the frontlines. Fortunately, Clerics have the best healing abilities in the game, sothey can easily compensate for a small pool of hit points.

Saves: Wisdom and Charisma saves cover someof the most debilitating effects in the game.

Proficiencies: Medium armor and shieldswill give you a decent AC, especially if you’re not building for melee combat.Simple weapons will be fine, especially once your spells eclipse your damageoutput with weapons. Clerics don’t get any tools, and get two skills from avery short list of options.

Spellcasting: The Cleric is a Wisdom-basedfull caster. With the ability to prepare any Cleric spell at the beginning ofthe day, the Cleric’s spell list is even more open than the Wizard’s. Yourchoice of Divine Domain also grants 2 to 10 free prepared spells, allowing youto play to your domain’s theme without cutting into your normal preparedspells. Clerics have some of the best divination options in the game, all ofthe best healing options, and many of the best buffs and debuffs.

For help selecting spells, see ourCleric Spell List Breakdown.

Divine Domain: Cleric subclasses are briefly summarizedbelow. See myCleric Subclasses Breakdownfor help selecting your subclass.

• Arcana Domain: Borrow spellcasting and utility options from the Wizard.
• Death Domain: Highly offensive, and focused primarily on dealing necrotic damage.
• Forge Domain: A front-line, heavily armored cleric with a good mix of offensive fireoptions and utility spells.
• Grave Domain: Straddling the line between life and death, the Grave domain adds a mixof offensive, defensive, and healing options.
• Knowledge Domain: Blessed with both magical and mundane knowledge, the Knowledge Domaingrants Expertise in two knowledge skills, a number of excellent divinationoptions, and the ability to temporarily gain proficiency in a set oftools.
• Life Domain: The iconic healer, but also a strong heavily-armored Defender.
• Light Domain: Praise the sun, then blast your foes with fire and radiant damage.
• Nature Domain: Heavy armor, numerous spellcasting options from the Druid spell list, andpowerful abilities to deal and resist elemental damage.
• Order Domain: A heavily-armored commander, the Order Domain adds great options to leadtheir allies and enchant their foes in battle.
• Peace Domain: Nominally themed around a peaceful approach to problems, the Peace Domainoffers powerful options to heal and defend your allies, turning them intoefficient, resilient, nearly-unstoppable combat monsters.
• Tempest Domain: Heavily armored and ready to command thunder and lightning to destroyyour foes.
• Trickery Domain: Skilled in stealth and illusion, the Trickery Domain is welcome among aparty or rogues, sneaks, and ne’er-do-wells.
• Twilight Domain: Use the mystical power of twilight to empower and defend both yourselfand your allies to overcome any challenge.
• War Domain: Direct and simple, the War Domain brings heavy armor, martial weapons,and spells and abilities which allow you to thrive on the front lines ofcombat.

Channel Divinity: While Turn Undead issituational, Channel Divinity itself is a great ability. Your domain willprovide one or more additional uses, many of which can and should be used onceper short rest because their effects are both potent and extremely useful. Asyou gain levels you’ll gain additional uses per Short or Long Rest which makesChannel Divinity and easy go-to tactical option which you might consider usingbefore resorting to spells.

Destroy Undead: Enemies weak enough to bedestroyed by this will be easy to kill with any number of AOE spells.

Divine Intervention: This won’t be reliableuntil 20th level (10%-19% of the time, works every time), but when it works itshould be extremely potent. You’ll need to work with your DM to determine theexact effect of the ability, but if your DM is open-minded you can get awaywith something very exciting.

Optional Class Features

Introduced in Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Optional Class Features offer ways to add additional features or replace existing ones. These rules are optional, and you should not assume that your DM will allow these features without consulting them first.

Assessments and suggestions for specific Optional Class Features are presented here, but for more information on handling Optional Class Features in general, see my Practical Guide to Optional Class Features.

Additional Cleric Spells (Addition):Everything added by this optional feature makes sense on the Cleric’s spelllist, And some spells like Aura of Vitality and Aura of Life make more senseon the Cleric’s spell list than on the spell lists where they werepreviously.

I recommend allowing the expanded spell list on all clerics. The new spellsare mostly situational options which won’t be go-to spells for the vastmajority of clerics, so nothing here is going to unbalance the game.

Harness Divine Power (Addition): For divinedomains with poor or situational Channel Divinity options, this offers a greatway to make use of a resource which might otherwise be ignored for severalsessions at a time.

I recommend allowing this on all clerics who take divine domains which I haverated orange orred. The cleric won’t get anything bigger thana 3rd-level spell slot, and since Proficiency Bonus improves so slowly thatthis won’t cause any huge problems. But the Cleric is also one of the strongerclasses in the game, and they don’t need any improvements to keep the classinteresting and effective. Consider allowing this on clerics who take divinedomains that I’ve rated green on acase-by-case basis, especially if the domain has particularly poor ChannelDivinity options.

Cantrip Versatility (Addition): Retrain onecantrip every few levels. Sometimes a cantrip doesn’t work out how you hope itwould, or maybe as you gain levels you’ve found that your leveled spells canfill needs which previously required cantrips (attack options, etc.).

I recommend allowing Cantrip Versatility on all clerics. You can’t getanything which you couldn’t already have, so it doesn’t make your charactermore powerful. Hopefully it will make your character more satisfying toplay.

Blessed Strikes (Replacement): BlessedStrikes makes cantrips more appealing for domains which which get the DivineStrike feature at level 8. The math on Divine Strike is disappointing, sotaking Blessed Strikes and using cantrips in favor of weapons makes domainsdesigned to use weapons roughly comparable to cantrips for domains designed tofocus on spellcasting. I go into more detail on myCleric Subclasses Breakdown.

I recommend allowing Blessed Strikes on any cleric who takes a divine domainwith the Divine Strike feature which is ratedorange orred. Consider allowing this on clerics whotake divine domains that I’ve rated green ona case-by-case basis. You might also choose to mandate it for all clerics. The4.5 bonus damage isn’t far from the expected +5 for Potent Cantrips, so itdoesn’t weaken anyone significantly, but it might encourage caster clerics tograb a mace from time to time.

Ability Scores

Cleric’s abilities all center around Wisdom, but depending on your build youmay need to shuffle your other abilities around to accomodate whatever type ofarmor you’re using and your role in the party. Martial clerics will want moreDexterity and Constitution, but caster clerics might make some room forIntelligence or Charisma in order to expand into skill-based roles within theparty.

Str: Lightly-armored and medium-armoredClerics can dump Strength. Heavily-armored Clerics can afford more Strengthsince they can dump Dexterity, but it’s only strictly necessary if you want toavoid the speed penalty from heavy armor. Weapon attacks are mathematically apoor choice compared to cantrips, so there is very little reason to investheavily in Strength and Strength-based weaponry.

Dex: Lightly-armored Clerics needDexterity for AC and for their weapons. Medium-armored Clerics should try tohave 14 to boost their AC. Heavily-armored Clerics can dump Dexterity.

Con: Hit points are always important, andif the Cleric goes down the rest of the party typically follows.

Int: Dump stat. Keep a bit if you’re aKnowledge Cleric, or if you need to use Knowledge skills.

Wis: The Cleric’s spells depend onWisdom.

Cha: Persuasion is the Cleric’s only Faceskill, so you can probably dump Charisma unless you need to serve as a Face.If you decide to be a Face, be sure to pick up a Background which gets youother Face skills like Deception and Intimidation.

Cleric Races

Wisdom is crucial. Constitution is similarly useful regardless of build, buteasy access to healing spells means that you can mitigate damage by healingyourself so Constitution isn’t as crucial as it is for martial classes. Thediversity of divine domains and cleric builds means that beyond those corerequirements, your race options are decently flexible. Look for traits thatyou can’t replicate with cleric spells like Darkvision, damage resistances,and flight.

For a durable front-line cleric with a classic feel, consider the hill dwarf.For cleric who insists on using weapons, the high elf can get you BoomingBlade. For an extra durable cleric, consider the Warforged. For a long-rangesupport build, consider a flying race like Fairy or the Winged Tiefling.

For help selecting a race, see ourCleric Races Breakdown.

Cleric Skills

• History (Int): Situationally usefuldepending on the style of your campaign and your DM’s play style.
• Insight (Wis): Helpful for a Face, and youhave the Wisdom to back it up. Since many Faces tend to have low Wisdom,it’s a very good idea for you to pick this up.
• Medicine (Wis): This skill is useless.Medicine is best done magically.
• Persuasion (Cha): Crucial for a Face, butyou can skip it if someone in the party has more Charisma than you.
• Religion (Int): The Cleric’s bestKnowledge skill, and important to the theme of the class.

Cleric Backgrounds

This section does not address every published background, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover the options which I think work especially well for the class, or which might be tempting but poor choices. Racial feats are discussed in the Races section, above.

Clerics have high Wisdom, so skills like Insight and Perception are helpful,but other skills will be of varying usefulness depending on your abilityscores.

If you’re having trouble deciding, here are some suggestions:

• Acolyte^PHB: The default Cleric background, and it’s a solid choice. Insight is greatfor Clerics and Religion is an obvious choice (though not particularly greatsince many Clerics dump Intelligence). Bonus languages are nice at lowlevels since Clerics don’t get Comprehend Languages, but they do get Tonguesas a 3rd-level spell.
• City Watch^SCAG: Insight is great, but Athletics is hard for Clerics.
• Cloistered Scholar^SCAG: Knowledge skills are hard for most Clerics, but if you put some resourcesinto Intelligence you have the ability to get 4 knowledge skills.
• Courtier^SCAG: Insight and Persuasion are great if you get stuck playing the Face, andthe bonus languages will be great until you can use Tongues.
• Criminal^PHB: A Trickery Cleric with decent Dexterity could use this to partiallyreplace a Rogue in the party.
• Faction Agent^SCAG: Insight is great, and the free mental skill will let you pick upPerception or whatever other skill you decide you need. The bonus languageswill be great until you can use Tongues.
• Far Traveler^SCAG: Perfect skills and a free language, but gaming sets and instrumentsaren’t terribly useful.
• Guild Artisan^PHB: Not a bad choice, but Artisan’s tools aren’t particularly useful soAcolyte is better.
• Hermit^PHB: Medicine isn’t a terribly useful skill, but Medicine and Insight bothcapitalize on your Wisdom and the Herablism Kit allows you to make healingpotions.
• Noble^PHB: Persuasion and a Language are fine, but half of the background iswasted.
• Sage^PHB: Knowledge skills are hard for most Clerics, but if you put some resourcesinto Intelligence you have the ability to get 4 knowledge skills.
• Urban Bounty Hunter^SCAG: A Trickery Cleric with decent Dexterity could use this to partiallyreplace a Rogue in the party. Criminal and Urchin are probably better.
• Urchin^PHB: A Trickery Cleric with decent Dexterity could use this to partiallyreplace a Rogue in the party.

Cleric Feats

Thissectiondoesnotaddresseverypublishedfeat,asdoingsowouldresultinanever-growinglistofoptionswhichdon’tcatertotheclass.Instead,thissectionwillcoverfeatswhichIthinkworkespeciallywellfortheclassorwhichmightbetemptingbutpoorchoices.

• Alert^PHB: Going first can be helpful for setting up area control spells or buffslike Bless.
• Athlete^PHB: Awful.
• Actor^PHB: Trickery Clerics might enjoy this.
• Cartomancer^BoMT: The card spell effectively lets you choose one spell from your spell list (not from your prepared spells) and quicken it ahead of time. You do still need to spend a spell slot, so this isn’t any better than quickening a spell with Metamagic Adept, and you give up the ability to change which spell you quicken. This isn’t bad, it’s just not as good as Metamagic Adept for prepared spellcasters.
• Charger^PHB: If you’re too far away to get into melee in one turn, cast a spell.
• Chef^TCoE: With the choice of a Constitution or Wisdom increase, it’s easy for manyclerics to fit this into their build. The temporary hit points are easy toshare, especially with allies who don’t rely heavily on their Bonus Actions,and the hit point mitigatiokn added by the treats means that you can spendfewer spells healing your allies. However, clerics frequently commit theirBonus Action to spellcasting (Spiritual Weapon, etc.) so you may find thatChef provides little direct benefit to you. And if you plan to share thetreats, you’ll likely find that Inspiring Leader is more effective.
• Crossbow Expert^PHB: Use spells.
• Defensive Duelist^PHB: Most Clerics won’t use Finesse weapons, and the ones who do have plentyof options to boost their AC.
• Dual Wielder^PHB: You won’t use the Attack action enough to justify two-weapon fighting,and you need a shield for the AC bonus and to hold your holy symbol, andDivine Strike only works once on each of your turns.
• Dungeon Delver^PHB: Traps should be handled by someone with Thieve’s Tools proficiency.
• Durable^PHB: Use magical healing.
• Elemental Adept^PHB: Most Cleric spells that deal damage deal either Necrotic or Radiantdamage, both of which are very rarely resisted. However, some domains likethe Light domain offer access to damage types which can take advantage ofElemental Adept.
• Fey Touched^TCoE: Misty Step is a fantastic spell that’s not on the Clerics’s spell list,so getting it once per day and the ability to cast it again using your spellslots is a huge benefit. The additional 1st-level spell known is good, butthere aren’t many great options for the Cleric since the best spells whichFey Touched can get you are mostly cleric spells. Compelled Duel may beworthwhile for clerics build for melee.

  For more advice on Fey Touched, see mySpellcasting Feats Breakdown.

• Fighting Initiate^TCoE: Clerics simply don’t get enough attacks to make the offensive optionsviable, and if you’re looking at Defense you should just cast Shield ofFaith. Protection/Interception may be interesting, but those are unusualchoices.
• Gift of the Chromatic Dragon^FToD: Share Chromatic Infusion with an ally. Reactive Resistance is great forclerics because you can’t cast Absorb Elements, and reducing damage isnearly always better than trying to heal it later.
• Gift of the Gem Dragon^FToD: Front-line clerics are likely the best candidate for this feat. Clericsdon’t have many things that use their Reaction and increasing your Wisdommakes sense even if you’re on the front lines because cantrips areconsistently better than weapons for nearly every cleric.
• Gift of the Metallic Dragon^FToD: Protective Wings is very tempting since the Druid’s AC is typically worsethan that of a comparable cleric. It even works while using Wild Shape. Butpersonally, I think it makes more sense to take Fighting Initiate to getFighting Style (Defense) for the persistent bonus to AC, or you can castspells like Shield of Faith.
• Great Weapon Master^PHB: Very few Clerics can manage a two-handed weapon successfully, and it’sunlikely that your attack bonus will be good enough to suffer the 05penalty.
• Healer^PHB: Use magical healing.
• Heavily Armored^PHB: If you want heavy armor, pick a domain which gives it to you.
• Heavy Armor Master^PHB: Heavily-armored Clerics might enjoy this, but you probably donm’t haveenough Constitution to max it out.
• Inspiring Leader^PHB: This can be a great way to supplement your healing abilties and reducethe need for you to heal your allies in combat, but few clerics have enoughCharisma that this feels like a good idea. Remember that while you do addyour Charisma modifier to the temporary hit points granted, you also addyour level so as you gain levels your Charisma modifier will be lessimportant.
• Keen Mind^PHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.
• Linguist^PHB: Use magic.
• Lucky^PHB: Good on anyone.
• Mage Slayer^PHB: Too situational.
• Magic Initiate^PHB: Clerics get all of the spells they need, including Cantrips. If you wantCantrips from other spellcasting classes, several domains provide them. Ifyou’re considering War Caster, options like Booming Blade combine well.Shillelagh and Shape Water from the Druid spell list also have a lot goingfor them.

  For more advice on Magic Initiate, see mySpellcasting Feats Breakdown.

• Metamagic Adept^TCoE: Excellent on any spellcaster. The Cleric has some great options forExtended Spell like Aid. For advice on Metamagic Adept, see mySorcerer Metamagic Breakdown.
• Martial Adept^PHB: Not useful enough with only one superiority die.
• Medium Armor Master^PHB: Trickery Clerics who can’t afford to bump their Dexterity past 16 mayprefer to stick to Medium armor instead of dropping to light, so this willhelp with both Stealth and your AC.
• Mobile^PHB: Most clerics aren’t terribly mobile in combat.
• Mounted Combat^PHB: It’s hard to play a mounted character without a special mount ability ofsome kind.
• Observant^PHB: Clerics already have high Wisdom, so Perception is a really greatoption.
• Polearm Master^PHB: You should be saving your Bonus Actions for spells, and your attackswon’t be dangerous enough to make this very effective unless you’rehandicapping your spellcasting.
• Resilient^PHB: Proficiency in Constitution saves really helps with Concentration, not tomention how common Consitution saves are. If you care primarily aboutConcentration it’s easy to compare this to War Caster. Advantage works outto a little more than +3, so once your Proficiency Bonus hits +4 Resilientbecomes the more effective option of the rwo.
• Savage Attacker^PHB: This is a bad feat. The largest damage die (d12), yields an average of 2extra damage per turn.
• Sentinel^PHB: Melee Clerics can be very effective, especially once you get abilitieslike Divine Strike, so your opportunity attacks can be very lethal. However,you’ll probably do better with War Caster.
• Shadow Touched^TCoE: Invisibility isn’t available to most clerics, and the 1st-level spellsare mostly new options, too. Even the Trickery Domain can’t castInvisibility or Silent Image, so adding those options can make for a veryinteresting trickery cleric.

  For more advice on Shadow Touched, see mySpellcasting Feats Breakdown.

• Sharpshooter^PHB: Clerics generally don’t need ranged weapons.
• Shield Master^PHB: You should be saving your Bonus Actions for spells, and you’ll use theAttack action very rarely as you grow in level.
• Skill Expert^TCoE: With your high Wisdom, Expertise in Perception is a massive asset foryour party. Spend the skill proficiency on Perception if you don’t alreadyhave it, get Expertise in Perception, and increase your Wisdom by 1. If youhave an odd-numbered Wisdom score, this is an easy, reliable featchoice.
• Skilled^PHB: Some Clerics already get a lot of skills, and if your abilities are setup to support a wide set of skills, you can benefit a lot from gaining extraskill proficiencies.
• Spell Sniper^PHB: Very few Cleric spells require attack rolls, and the only viable spellsthat you can get are from the Druid’s spell list and there is nothing thatyou want from the Druid that qualifies for Spell Sniper.

  For more advice on Spell Sniper, see mySpellcasting Feats Breakdown.

• Tavern Brawler^PHB: You should be saving your Bonus Actions for spells.
• Telekinetic^TCoE: This is objectively great, but if your Bonus Action is idle it should bespent on Spiritual Weapon in almost every case.
• Tough^PHB: Considering that you can heal yourself magically whenever you need to,there’s very little reason to invest so heavily in an enormous pool of hitpoints.
• War Caster^PHB: Many Clerics, especially heavily-armored Clerics who like to wade intomelee, can get a lot of use out of this. Advantage on your Constitution saveto maintain Concentration goes a long way since many great spells requireConcentration, though I would consider Resilient first if that’s all thatyou care about. The Reaction mechanic works fine with the Cleric’s existingcantrips (Toll the Dead is a great go-to), but if you pick up Magic Initiatefor Booming Blade it’s a very effective option. The ability to performsomatic components with your hands full of weapons/shields is nice, but easyto overemphasize. If your spell requires inexpensive material components,you can use your shield as a focus (assuming that it’s emblazoned with aholy symbol, which it should be). Otherwise, you can just put away yourweapon for a round. You might hesitate to put away your weapon, but unlessyou’ve picked up Booming Blade or something, there’s very little need tohold a weapon between turns since you’re going to be using cantrips forOpportunity Attacks anyway.
• Weapon Master^PHB: Weapons are not a good choice for the Cleric, and upgrading to martialweapons doesn’t solve that problem.

Cleric Weapons

• Crossbow, Light: This may do more damagethan your Cantrips at low levels because weapons add your ability bonus todamage. If you have good Dexterity, consider a crossbow until your cantripsscale at 5th level.
• Javelin: Same logic as the LightCrossbow, but Strength-based.
• Mace: The iconic Cleric weapon. It’s notgreat, but it gets the job done. Carry one for when you need to wade intomelee.

Cleric Armor

• Leather: If you start with 18 Dexterity,this will match Scale Mail. Otherwise Scale Mail is strictly better.
• Scale Mail: Starting gear for mostClerics.
• Chain Mail: Starting armor for Clericswho get heavy armor proficiency from their domain.
• Half plate: Most Clerics will max out atHalf plate.
• Shield: You can put your holy symbol onyour shield, so there is almost no reason not to have one.
• Full Plate: Life Clerics should absolutelyupgrade to Full Plate as soon as they can afford it.

Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

• Barbarian: Rage won’t be particularlyuseful since Clerics don’t get Extra Attack, and Unarmored Defense will onlywork if you have a third high ability score, which is hard to do.
• Bard: The Bard’s low-level abilities scalewith class level, so they don’t work particularly well for a class dip.
• Druid: The Cleric and the Druid shareWisdom-based spellcasting, so a few levels to get low-level class featuresand some low-level spell options like Shilleagh and Faerie Fire can be veryeffective. However, Magic Initiate will typically suffice if you just wantspelcasting, and the prohibition on metal armor can be a problem.
• Fighter: A level or two of fighter mightbe a good choice, depending on your build. Fighting Style is always great,and Second Wind allows you to heal yourself a bit without cutting into yourspell slots. Action Surge is especially tempting, as it opens up thepossibility of casting two spells in the same turn. Remember that if youcast a bonus action spell you can only cast cantrips with your remainingactions, so in a turn when you plan to use Action Surge be sure to cast twospells with a 1 action casting time.
• Monk: The Monk’s Unarmored Defense workswell for Clerics since they need so much Wisdom. 20 Wisdom with UnarmoredDefense will match Half plate, but remember that Unarmored Defense doesn’twork with shields, so you’ll need 18 Dexterity to match the AC of a normalCleric with a shield.
• Rogue: Expertise and skills are tempting,but the Rogue doesn’t really offer anything that the Cleric needs.
• Wizard: Clerics and Wizards have accessto some of the best spells in the game, but multiclassing between primarycaster classes delays how soon your get higher level spells.

Cleric Magic Items

Common Magic Items

• Clockwork Amulet^XGtE: Only works once per day, but in many encounters a guaranteed 10 on attackroll will guarantee a hit (Players will hit an average CR-appropriateenemy’s AC on an 8 or better. See my article onThe Fundamental Math of Character Optimization.) For high-value attacks like an attack with a leveled spell like GuidingBolt or Inflict Wounds, that can be great insurance. Even better: you don’tneed to attune this, so you can rotate through a stack of them if your DM issomehow crazy enough to let you get away with it.
• Ruby of the War Mage^XGtE: Clerics can emblazon a holy symbol on a shield to solve the same problemthat Ruby of the War Mage solves.

Uncommon Magic Items

• Adamantine Armor^DMG: Curiously, due to the insanely high price of full plate and theinconsistent price of magic items, adamantine full plate can often be lessexpensive than regular full plate. Based on the expected gold awarded perlevel, most characters can’t afford full plate until around level 5 withoutborrowing from their party, while Uncommon magic items may be availableseveral levels earlier. This mechanical oddity is a popular trick inAdventurer’s League. For heavily-armored clerics this is a great item, butfor medium-armored clerics it’s much less important.
• Amulet of the Devout: +1 to spell attacksand save DC’s, and you get an extra use of Channel Divinity per day. Ifyou’re using the Harness Divine Power Optional Class Feature, thiseffectively serves double duty as a spellcasting focus and as a Pearl ofPower.
• Cloak of Protection^DMG: Good on any character, but it requires Attunement and it’s not veryinteresting.
• Eyes of the Eagle^DMG: A Sentinel Shield is a better option for the Cleric.
• Gloves of Missile Snaring^DMG: Similar to the Monk’s Deflect Missiles feature, this is an interestingdefensive option for melee characters. However, ranged missile attacks arerelatively rare since so many monsters can’t fight at range and many rangedenemies will be spellcasters, so this is situational by nature.
• Guardian Emblem: This can prevent a tonof damage to your party. Three times per day may not sound like much, butit’s still enough to make a huge impact.
• Pearl of Power^DMG: Useful on any spellcaster.
• Sentinel Shield^DMG: Perception is the most frequently rolled skill in the game, and you arelikely the person in the party who is best at it (provided that you gotproficiency from your race or your background). Advantage provides a greatdeal of insurance and protection against ambushes and other surprises.Advantage on Initiative rolls is really nice so you can get a buff or andare control effect running before everyone else starts moving. This is agreat item on any character using a shield, but the Cleric and the Druid areprobably the two characters best-suited to using it.
• Shield, +1^DMG: +1 AC, no attunement. Nothing fancy, but very effective.
• Slippers of Spider Climbing^DMG: The next-best thing to flight. Walking up a wall has all the benefits offlying out of reach, making this an excellent option for ranged builds.
• Staff of the Adder^DMG: Very easy to overlook, but a fantastic weapon for melee clerics.Activating the staff as a Bonus Action is somewhat annoying and I don’tthink you can use Shillelagh in conjunction with the snake attack, but ifyour Strength is good enough to make Strength-based weapon viable, thepossibility of 3d6 poison damage is a huge boost. The attack doesn’t specifythat it’s a weapon attack, but it’s not a spell attack and being a weaponattack is the only other option, so it appears that Divine Strike works withthe snake attack. You need to be cautious about the snake’s 20 hit points ifyour enemies figure out that they can attack the snake, but deanimating thenreanimating the snake (which takes two Bonus Actions) restores it to fullhit points so you can quickly repair your snake whenever it’s hit.
• Staff of the Python^DMG: A decent low-level summon. At CR 2, the Giant Constrictor Snake isexcellent at incapacitating single targets, especially if they have poorbonuses to Athletics and Acrobatics. With blindsight, the snake can evenfunction is area of magical darkness or other sight-blocking conditions likefog or smoke, allowing the snake to be useful well above what its CR wouldsuggest. Keep in mind that the snake’s 12 AC and 60 hit points won’t standup to repeated attacks, so plan to revert the snake to its staff formquickly or risk losing the item permanently.
• Stone of Good Luck^DMG: Excellent on literally any character, but if you just want better defensea Cloak of Protection may be more effective. Stone of Good Luck shines ifyou’re heavily reliant on skills and ability checks.
• Wand of the War Mage^DMG: Amulet of the Devout is strictly better.
• Weapon, +1^DMG: Potentially helpful for clerics who insist on using weapons, but it’s notenough to make weapons more effective than your cantrips.
• Winged Boots^DMG: Excellent on its own, but Winged Boots are more limited in use than abroom of flying, and they require Attunement. If you’re wearing heavy armoryou might prefer Winged Boots because they don’t care about weight.

Rare Magic Items

• Amulet of Health^DMG: Setting your Constitution to 19 means that you don’t need to put AbilityScore Increases into it unless you’re really certain that you want 20Constitution. Less ASI’s into Constitution means more room for feats.
• Amulet of the Devout: +2 to your spellattacks and spell DC’s. See Amulet of the Devout under Uncommon Magic Itemsfor more.
• Armor of Resistance^DMG: Excellent, but unpredictable in most games since you can’t perfectlypredict what sort of damage you’ll face. Fire and poison are safechoices.
• Armor, +1^DMG: +1 AC, no attunement. Nothing fancy, but very effective.
• Barrier Tattoo (Rare)^TCoE: +1 breastplate will provide the same without requiring attunement andstill doesn’t impose Disadvantage on Stealth checks, so even lightly-armoredclerics will do better in actual medium armor.
• Belt of Giant Strength (Hill)^DMG: An excellent way to keep melee weapons viable without investing inStrength, which for many clerics means not investing in Wisdom. If you havea strength-based martial character in the party this will usually be moreeffective if you give it to them, but if they’re already at 20 Strength theywon’t benefit so you may decide to keep this for yourself.
• Cloak of Displacement^DMG: Among the best defensive items in the game. Taking damage from any source(spells, etc.) suppresses the effect temporarily, so make a point to killanything that can damage you without an attack roll.
• Devotee’s Censer^TCoE: The damage boost stacks with Divine Strike, making this an interestingoption for weapon-using clerics. However, a +2 weapon is the same rarity andwill be considerably more effective. Even without Divine Strike, a +2 weaponwill yield comparable improvements to damage output, but since clerics getjust one attack per turn, you really want the reliability that a +2 weaponprovides. The healing effect is neat, but it’s not going to change yourtactics much. Your best bet is either to use it when you might otherwise useHealing Word, or to use it outside of combat when the party can crowd aroundand everyone can enjoy the 10d4 healing.
• Fate Dealer’s Deck +1^BoMT: Amulet of the Devout will be more consistently useful on many builds and is one rarity lower for the same bonus, but this still have some neat things to offer. The bonus to spell attacks and DCs is good, but Amulet of the Devout’s is +1 better at the same rarity, which makes it hard to justify intentionally selecting this. Still, the ability to spend hit dice to heal or deal damage is interesting even if it’s not especially powerful. For a back-line healer, it’s a great way to turn unused hit dice into something helpful. The damage notably doesn’t allow a save, either, which is neat but not reliably useful since it’s so little damage.
• Mace of Distruption^DMG: Slightly better at killing undead and fiends than your average weapon.The 25 hp cap will br a long-term source of frustration because enemies willoften go from too healthy to dead between your turns, leaving no opportunityfor you to attack them and hopefully destroy them outright. This is also nobetter than a general magical mace against creatures other than fiends andundead, so unless you face those foes exclusively a +1 weapon will beconsiderably more effective.
• Necklace of Prayer Beads^DMG: Unpredictable, but potentially very powerful. You’ll get an average of4.5 beads, and the effectivenss of the item varies wildly depending on whatyou get. You can notably cast every spell from the beads as a Bonus Action(yes, including Planar Ally which normally has a 10-minute casting time),allowing you to quickly heal allies or get Bless running while leaving yourAction for attacks or cantrips.
• Periapt of Proof Against Poison^DMG: Poison damage is very common across the full level range, so immunity toit is a significant improvement in your durability.
• Ring of Evasion^DMG: A great way to mitigate damage from AOE spells and things like breathweapons which can often be problems from front-line characters.
• Ring of Protection^DMG: Cloak of Protection is lower rarity and has the same effect.
• Ring of Resistance^DMG: A fine item in a vaccuum, but a Ring of Spell Storing full of AbsorbElements will be much more effective.
• Ring of Spell Storing^DMG: Fill it with Absorb Elements and Shield and recharge it wheneverpossible, and this is a spectacular defensive asset.
• Shield, +2^DMG: +2 AC, no attunement. Nothing fancy, but very effective.
• Sun Staff^BoMT: The attack and damage bonuses aren’t enough to make the Cleric’s weapon attacks good, and the damage reroll isn’t useful enough to justify actively trying to get one of these. The best user for this is an Eldritch Knight with Polearm Master, but they can’t attune to this without multiclassing.
• Weapon, +2^DMG: Potentially helpful for clerics who insist on using weapons, but it’s notenough to make weapons more effective than your cantrips.

Very Rare Magic Items

• Amulet of the Devout: +3 to your spellattacks and spell DC’s. See Amulet of the Devout under Uncommon Magic Itemsfor more.
• Animated Shield^DMG: Tempting for anyone not fighting with a one-handed weapon, but a Cloak ofProtection is two rarities lower, works persistently, and arguably providesa better numeric bonus.
• Armor, +2^DMG: +2 AC, no attunement. Nothing fancy, but very effective.
• Barrier Tattoo (Very Rare)^TCoE: The fixed AC matches full plate, so you don’t need to worry aboutDexterity to boost your AC and you don’t even suffer Disadvantage onDexterity (Stealth) checks. However, a suit of +2 medium armor will likelyyield better total AC.
• Belt of Giant Strength (Frost, Stone, Fire)^DMG: A great item, but definitely overkill for the Cleric. You shouldn’t bemaking enough weapon attacks for this to make sense.
• Fate Dealer’s Deck +2^BoMT: Amulet of the Devout’s bonus is better. If it’s an option, get the +1 version of this so that you can use the hit die effect, but otherwise stick to an Amulet of the Devout for actual spellcasting.
• Manual of Bodily Health^DMG: Permanent Constitution bonus and raises your cap by 2. Unless you’reusing a magic item that fixes your Constitution as a specific score, this isexcellent.
• Rod of Hellish Flames^BoMT: The damage resistances are nice, but you’re here for the ability to maximize fire or necrotic damage once per day. Easily missed but very important: It’s not “the first damage roll” like most similar effects. You simply don’t roll damage. That means that this works with spells that do repeated or ongoing damage such as Spirit Guardians. Yes, it’s only once per day, but you can get a ton of mileage out of that single use. This gets way better for light domain clerics.
• Shield, +3^DMG: +3 AC, no attunement. Nothing fancy, but very effective.
• Tome of Understanding^DMG: Permanent Wisdom bonus and raises your cap by 2.
• Weapon, +3^DMG: Potentially helpful for clerics who insist on using weapons, but it’s notenough to make weapons more effective than your cantrips.

Legendary Magic Items

• Armor of Invulnerability^DMG: Resistance (immunity sometimes) to non-magical damage may protect youfrom most weapon attacks. At high enough level that you might have this itemthere will definitely be enemies with access to magic attacks (spellcasters,magic weapons, natural weapons which count as magical, etc.), but in manyencounters this will still provide a great deal of protection.
• Cloak of Invisibility^DMG: Invisibility is extremely powerful in 5e. Note that this is just theinvisible condition, not the spell spell Invisibility, so you can stillattack or whatever while invisible. Unless you’re playing a Defender andactively trying to draw attacks away from your allies, this is absolutelyamazing.
• Fate Dealer’s Deck +3^BoMT: Amulet of the Devout’s bonus is better. If it’s an option, get the +1 version of this so that you can use the hit die effect, but otherwise stick to an Amulet of the Devout for actual spellcasting.
• Ioun Stone (Mastery)^DMG: Proficiency Bonuses apply to a lot of things and a +1 bonus goes a longway. Attacks, saves, skills, etc. all benefit. However, most clerics relymostly on spells which require saving throws so it’s not as beneficial as itwould be for other characters. A Stone of Good Luck may be just asuseful.
• Orb of Skoraeus^GotG: Darkvision, see in magical darkness, a bonus to saves to maintainconcentration, and mitigate 300gp of material component costs per day. Thisfeels very tempting, but it’s just not good enough for this rarity. By thislevel, 300gp is a pittance, and you have access to magical options that makemagical darkness much less of a problem.
• Ring of Amity^GotG: Hit yourself with Heal or Mass Heal and automatically heal a friend forthe same amount. Great for healing yourself and your party’s Defender at thesame time regardless of distance.
• Ring of Spell Turning^DMG: Given the choice, I would much rather haqve a Mantle of Spell Resistancesimply because the Ring of Spell Turning doesn’t provide any protectionagainst area effect spells. Otherwise, this is a really fun item, and if itprovided Advantage on saves against area of effect spells it would shootstraight up to blue.
• Ring of Three Wishes^DMG: Use this to do one of the things that risks permanently removing theability to cast Wish, such as granting 10 creatures permanent resistance toonce damage type. If you lose the ability to cast Wish, pass this off toanother ally who will never be able to cast Wish by any other means. Repeatuntil the last charge is used.

  For more help with Wish, see myPractical Guide to Wish.

• Scarab of Protection^DMG: An upgrade from the Mantle of Spell Resistance, the Scarab of Protectionadds a limited benefit against necromancy and undead creatures, and doesn’ttake up your cloak slot, leaving you free to take items like a Cloak ofProtection or Cloak of Invisibility instead.
• Sonebreaker Breastplate^GotG: Permanent resistance to the three most common damage types in the game,and breastplate is one of the better medium armor options.
• Talisman of Pure Good / Talisman of Ultimate Evil^DMG: An Amulet of the Devout will be more broadly useful, but the uniqueability to save-or-suck an evil is a great way to instantly defeat majorenemies. You may also be able to weaponize the on-touch damage, but I thinkthe intent is that the creature needs to willingly touch or try to pick upthe talisman rather than being struck with it.

Example Cleric Build – Hill Dwarf Cleric (Life)

Sorilae the Hill Dwarf Life Domain Cleric

The dwarf rests a fist on a warhammer holstered at her hip, head bowed andeyes shut in prayer. With her other hand she wields a shield emblazoned withthe hammer-and-anvil symbol ubiquitous among dwarven iconography, but inthis case no doubt meant to honor Moradin, lord of the dwarf pantheon. Suchdevotion is common among dwarves of all stripes, but something about thisdwarf’s presence hints at power behind that prayer.

— Boxed text provided by dScryb^{(affiliate link)}

Thisisa“StapleBuild”.Thisbuildissimple,andreliesonoptionsfromtheSRDandtheBasicRuleswhereverpossible.Ifyouneedafunctionalbuildwithnothingfancyorcomplicated,thisisagreatplacetostart.

A life cleric is equal parts tank and divine artillery piece, but they’remostly a mountain of healing. While being a healbot is a curse I would neverwish on a friend at the table, the utility of a reliable source of largeamounts of healing is undeniable, and in a party with injury-prone members ormembers with big pools of hit points but terrible AC (looking at you,barbarians) a life cleric is an astonishingly useful asset. The Life domain’scapabilities dramatically improve the Cleric’s already excellent healingcapabilities, raising them to the point that you’re often free to focus yourprepared spells on other concerns while still being a better healer than otherclerics.

For a more optimized example, see ourLife Domain Cleric Handbook.

Abilities

We will assume the point buy abilities suggested above for clerics in heavyarmor. If you want to emphasize knowledge skills like History and Religionrather than Face skills like Persuasion, consider switching Intelligence andCharisma. You might also choose to reduce your Strength to put those pointsinto other ability scores. Cantrips work fine in place of a weapon, sophysical ability scores are largely unimportant. However, low Strength meansthat most races will suffer a speed penalty in heavy armor, though our hilldwarf is conveniently not affected.

Race

Hill Dwarf. Half of the reason to play a life cleric is that they’reextremely durable, and while heavy armor and a shield go a long way, theCleric still has d8 hit die and padding your defensive options will help keepyou alive to heal and protect your allies. You also get the crucial Wisdomincrease needed to keep pace with your spellcasting.

Skills and Tools

1. We’ll take Insight and Persuasion. That positions us well to serve as aFace if no one else in the party has those capabilities. You might drop oneof those skills in favor of Medicine, but Medicine is extremely limited andyour healing capabilities come from your magic rather than your skills.

Background

Acolyte is tailor-made for clerics. Two skills from the Cleric’s skill list,a free holy symbol, and some other stuff. Unfortunately, Religion isIntelligence-based so you’ll be bad at it despite proficiency unless youswitch Intelligence and Charisma.

If you’re happy emphasizing Face skills, you might consider the Noblebackground instead, but all of the skills granted by both Acolyte and Nobleare one the Cleric skill list so neither has a significant mechanicaladvantage over the other.

Feats

The Life Cleric needs high Wisdom, but little else. More Constitution isnice, but you may get more benefit from feats like Tough. Once you have 20Wisdom, consider introducing feats once you’re more confident in yourunderstanding of the game.

Levels