D&D 5e Cleric Subclasses Ranked Worst to Best
by Prince Phantom
The Cleric is a class that’s really tough to make a ranking like this for, both because there are so many subclasses and also because they are mostly all somewhat similar in terms of power, besides a few major exceptions. Really, your choice of Cleric domain will more noticeably affect your playstyle and general strategy rather than your power level, as pretty much all of these can be built to be very strong characters. That being said, we’re not here to give out participation trophies, so someone has to be the winner and someone is very clearly the loser. Additionally, all Clerics can take the Divine Strike feature and replace their 8th level feature, and it is almost always correct to do so, so those features will not be considered for this ranking.
14: Life Domain
Hot take, I know, but I’m prepared to defend my argument. It has become more commonly accepted as fact that has always been actually true; healing is only useful for getting people off of 0 hp. The only exception to this is when you can heal absolutely massive quantities to HP through things like the Aura of Vitality, Heal and Mass Heal spells.
The tiny bit of additional healing and self healing that this subclass provides will be completely useless the majority of the time, and pushes players into playing a deeply unpleasant and flawed playstyle. This subclass is actively bad for the game for that reason.
Clerics are not healers, they are AoE damage dealers and support casters thanks to spells like Spirit Guardians, Aid, and Bless. There is the exploit where you can take one level of this to make the berries from Goodberry heal 4hp rather than 1, but that was clearly unintentional design, and really more of a happy accident rather than a mark in this subclasses favor.
The biggest point in this subclass’s favor is the expanded spell list. It’s pretty much all Cleric spells, but many of them are spells that we would likely prepare anyway, freeing you up to select other options. Please, stop telling new players to play this subclass as their first Cleric.
13: Knowledge Domain
This one pains me to admit, because I have a deep love for the mechanics of Knowledge Domain, but they sadly just don’t translate well to actual play at most tables. Nearly everything we get is for outside of combat, so definitely don’t take this one to a dungeon crawl campaign.
The skill expertises are nice, though they are in some of the least impactful skills in the game. The first channel divinity gives us proficiency in “fill in the blank” for 10 minutes, again nice but not revolutionary. The second channel divinity is much more interesting, allowing us to read minds and automatically succeed at casting Suggestion, one of the best 2nd level spells in the game, on our target.
This requires two turns of actions in combat, but could still be worth it. The capstone is something that would undoubtedly be super cool, but an information gathering feature for our capstone can’t be anything other than disappointing. Getting Suggestion as a domain spell is pretty great though.
12: Grave Domain
First, Grave Domain has one of the worst domain spell lists of them all. The only bright spot is Revivify, a spell we likely would have prepared anyway, allowing us to select something else instead. Spare the Dying is a terrible cantrip, even as a bonus action and even with 60ft range. The 1st level feature will rarely ever matter, as you likely used Healing Word to pick up that downed teammate, and going from 6.5 to 8 hp is not enough for them to survive an extra hit.
Eyes of the Grave is a worse version of Paladin’s Divine Sense, a feature that isn’t very good to begin with. The only reason to take this subclass is the Channel Divinity and 6th level feature. Giving a creature vulnerability to the next instance of damage can be amazing if you coordinate with a party member who can do a big single hit like a Rogue or Paladin. This does require you to have someone like that in your party however, and note that it only works with attack rolls, so you can’t make a creature take double damage from a Fireball.
Sentinel at Death’s Door gives you the ability to say “NO” to a crit, though the short range limits it greatly. This will prevent a significant amount of damage, and is a genuinely good feature, just don’t position yourself in harm’s way just to potentially use it.
The capstone is laughable, giving maybe 20hp at most when you kill the Ancient White Dragon, because you definitely needed that HP now that the dragon is dead. Take this subclass with a plan in mind or don’t take it at all.
11: War Domain
War Domain is so close to greatness, but the limitations keep it in check a bit too harshly. War Priest would be a heck of a feature if it wasn’t so limited in uses, and that limitation makes it hard to build for. The channel divinities are just plain boring, even if they can potentially cause a fair chunk of damage.
I believe that the true power of this subclass is often overlooked, as it is the single easiest way to pair Animate Dead with Crusader’s Mantle, potentially creating a very hard hitting army of undead. There’s some build potential here, but if you don’t go into this with a plan, you’ll leave disappointed.
10: Forge Domain
We’re at the point where I’m pretty happy with any of these domains, so we’re mostly nitpicking here. Forge Domain is very unexciting to me, giving a bunch of flat bonuses to AC and attack rolls along with fire resistance which eventually becomes immunity.
The channel divinity feels like a bad first draft of the Creation Bard’s Song of Performance. I hate this channel divinity for every reason that I love the Creation Bard’s feature. The best part of this domain is the expanded spells, specifically Wall of Fire at 4th, and Animate Objects at 5th, both of which are amazing spells that any Cleric would love to have.
9: Death Domain
I see this as an improved version of War, allowing us to more easily and effectively focus on making one big attack powered up by our channel divinity, and then relying on spellcasting for our other needs in combat.
Twinning Toll the Dead is pretty cool, though that’s about all there is to be excited about here. Build towards that one big attack, (just like we did in a build on this very website!) or don’t build this subclass at all.
8: Arcana Domain
Please note that if you happen to be playing in a campaign or one-shot starting at 17th level or above, Arcana Domain is actually the best Cleric Subclass, and maybe one of the best subclasses in the game.
Stealing the best 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level spells from the Wizard list is exactly what a high level Cleric needs to make their spellcasting compete with the other full casters. The truth is, most of you will never actually see this come into play, so how is the rest of the subclass?
Well, two Wizard cantrips can potentially go a long way if you specialize into something like Booming Blade, or just give you great utility options like Minor Illusion and Mage Hand. The channel divinity basically increases the pool of monsters that we can turn, or potentially even banish, and the 6th level ability may come up once in a blue moon to turn a Mass Healing Word into itself plus a Mass Lesser Restoration.
There’s some neat stuff in the domain spell list, such as Magic Missile for low level play, Magic Aura, Magic Circle, and Planar Binding can be used to break 5e wide open in a variety of very silly ways, and it’s nice to have Detect Magic and Dispel Magic automatically prepared. Ignoring the capstone, this is a perfectly average subclass.
7: Nature Domain
Most of you probably expected this to be dead last, but the Nature Domain is one that I like more and more every time I read it. The real power is in getting a Druid cantrip (pick Thorn Whip) and the expanded spell list, which includes the two Druid all-stars: Spike Growth and Plant Growth.
Dampen Elements is also a really nice reaction to have around, healing your party in the best way; preventing the damage in the first place. Yes, the channel divinity and capstone are extremely circumstantial and likely useless in many situations, but just focus on the good stuff and you’ll find a lot to love here. Pull an enemy through Spike Growth with Thornwhip one time and you’ll be convinced.
6: Tempest Domain
Tempest Domain is a few words away from being truly great, but it’s still very good as is. I’m mostly talking about the seemingly mishmashed features where some deal/trigger off of thunder damage, some do the same for lightning damage, and some do both. While I said that the 8th level features wouldn’t be considered for this ranking as they can all be replaced, this is almost an instance where you wouldn’t want to.
Sadly, our 6th level feature keys off of lightning damage, and our 8th level feature lets us deal thunder damage. Since that synergy doesn’t work, what are we left with? Well, one of the better domain spell lists including such hits as Sleet Storm, Shatter, Fog Cloud, Control Water, and Destructive Wave, free damage from our 1st level feature that does work with our 6th, and that 6th level feature is still a really compelling build around.
The channel divinity likely drew your attention the hardest though, allowing us to maximize the damage of a roll of lightning or thunder damage. The easiest way to exploit this is to take the Metamagic Adept feat, grab Transmute Spell, and transmute a spell like Fire Storm into one of the two damage types and deal a flat 70 damage to a huge area, 35 on a successful save. Alternatively, you could multiclass to get spells like Lightning Bolt. Definitely a great subclass whether you play it straight or if you try to tinker with it in a build.
5: Order Domain
Order Domain thrives on teamwork and good coordination, meaning its usefulness could vary widely from table to table. The big selling point is right at level 1, as we can use this on a friendly Rogue to allow them to use Sneak Attack twice in one round of combat. Alternatively, just use it on your hardest hitting weapon user and it will still feel pretty great.
The channel divinity can just end a combat against anyone who uses a weapon to fight, assuming your allies are able to snatch away those weapons before the enemy’s next turn. They are charmed though, so even if that isn’t the case you should be able to convince them to stand down until your party can collect their weapons.
The 6th level feature is an interesting build around, allowing any enchantment spell to be cast as a bonus action. This poses the question: what do we do with this action that has been freed up? We can’t cast another leveled spell, but we could cast a cantrip. That’s thinking too small though. How about multiclassing to get extra attack? We can’t cast a leveled spell, but we can use spell actions like what Sunbeam provides. There’s a lot more options than this, and it’s a great feature to get theorizing about how to use it best.
The domain spell list is average, with the only non-Cleric spell I’m excited about being Slow. The capstone kinda sucks, but most won’t make it to that point anyway. Played straight, this is a pretty average domain, but when pushed to its limit, this can be a central pillar of your party’s combat strategy.
4: Light Domain
Light Domain is the Cleric that gets Fireball. For most of you, that was all you needed to hear. For the rest of you still reading, there’s some other great stuff here, especially if you want to play more of a blaster. Warding Flare is a neat defensive option, and it improves a little at level 6, but the big thing here is our channel divinity.
Radiance of the Dawn is one of the best low-level blasts in the game, even beating out the best spells until 3rd level spells become available. This thing is bigger than a Fireball and while it will only eclipse Fireball damage around level 15, it’s still a great secondary blast to sweep up everything that the Fireball didn’t kill.
This is a great domain list, even outside of Fireball, with things like Faerie Fire, Flaming Sphere, and Wall of Fire. This Cleric is perfect for fulfilling the blaster caster fantasy and seeing the enemies of your god reduced to burn marks on the cobblestone.
3: Trickery Domain
Now many of you have read the features of Trickery Domain and written it off as underpowered, and if that was all this gave you, you’d be correct. Invoke Duplicity has too many strings attached to be easily usable, Blessing of the Trickster is nice but not that powerful, and Cloak of Shadows only lasting one round is criminally lacking in usefulness.
No, this subclass earns this placement by owning the single best domain list of them all. Every. Single. Spell. Charm Person, Disguise Self, Mirror Image, Pass Without Trace (best 2nd level spell), Blink, Dispel Magic, Dimension Door, Polymorph (best 4th level spell), Dominate Person, and Modify Memory are all at the very least useable, and at best some of the best spells in the game. The best part? They are all non-Cleric spells!
Let’s be clear here, we are playing a full caster. We came to the table to cast powerful spells. This subclass provides that in spades. Once you play Trickery, you’ll have trouble playing any other domain once you realize all the amazing spells you have to give up to do it.
2: Peace Domain
To clarify, this and the #1 spot are both some of the most broken subclasses in all of 5e. Both are significantly stronger than all other options and can throw off encounter balance like no other. Here’s why that’s true for Peace Domain.
At first level, we get concentration free Bless that scales with our proficiency bonus, making it a perfect one level multiclass dip. I’ve even done so in a few of my builds on this site. Past that, we get a channel divinity that puts the entire Life domain to shame, and a 6th level feature that lets your entire party spread out the damage that they take evenly among the players. That may not sound overpowered at first, but when you see it in play you’ll understand.
You can also combine this with summons and undead to have them take the damage instead of your party. This even doubles as an out of combat way for your party to teleport to each other. The domain list is mostly Cleric spells, with the notable exceptions of Resilient Sphere and Telepathic Bond, both of which are fantastic options.
The ability to evenly distribute damage across your party while still letting your party focus fire means that your enemies are at a major disadvantage. One of the best ways for a DM to challenge a strong party is to focus their members down one at a time. This is one of the only ways in the game to completely negate that strategy.
1: Twilight Domain
Twilight Domain presents a problem for DMs, and I don’t know how to solve it. If you choose to use your channel divinity for the combat, then your party is basically invincible and to even challenge your party your DM would need to crank up the encounter difficulty to a ludicrous extreme. However, if the DM does that and you either can’t or choose not to use your channel divinity, that will likely result in a TPK.
Gaining double digit temporary HP every turn essentially means that unless the monsters are dealing more than 15 or so damage per round, they aren’t doing any damage at all, and this feature scales with your level! Oh and it also negates any charm or fear effect. All this and I’ve only mentioned the channel divinity.
We get 300ft darkvision, advantage on initiative, perfect weapon and armor proficiencies all at level 1, and flight at level 6. Oh and throw an amazing domain spell list on top of that with such hits as Sleep, Faerie Fire, Aura of Vitality, Tiny Hut, Greater Invisibility, and Circle of Power. If you’ve never heard of that last one, it’s because it’s a 5th level Paladin exclusive spell that you’d normally only see at level 17 or above. We get it at 9th level. I can honestly say that I would hesitate to allow this at my tables, and I advise you to do the same.
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