DnD 5e - The Cleric Handbook

Disclaimer

I will use 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 which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Introduction

Clerics are among the most diverse and interest 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, Clerics are the best healers in the game, and have among the best support, utility, and
divination options in the game.

Cleric Class Features

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

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

Proficiencies: Medium armor and shields will 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
damage output with weapons. Clerics don't get any tools, and get two skills from a very short list
of options.
Spellcasting: The Cleric is a Wisdom-based full caster. With the ability to prepare any Cleric spell
at the beginning of the day, the Cleric's spell list is even more open than the Wizard's. Your
choice of Divine Domain also grants 2 to 10 free prepared spells, allowing you to play to your
domain's theme without cutting into your normal prepared spells. Clerics have some of the best
divination options in the game, all of the best healing options, and many of the best buffs and
debuffs.

Divine Domain: See "Subclasses - Divine Domains", below.

Channel Divinity: While Turn Undead is situational, Channel Divinity itself is a great ability. Your
domain will provide one or more additional uses, many of which can and should be used once
per short rest because their effects are both potent and extremely useful.

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

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

Subclasses - Divine Domains

ArcanaSCAG: The Arcana Cleric steals some options from the Wizard, giving the Cleric a lot of
really great utilities and support options, as well as some decent offensive options.

Domain Spells: Some very good options, including some great utilities, but also a few
options which you will almost never need.

1st-Level: Detect Magic is one of the most useful and important Divinations in the game.
Magic Missile is a fantastic, reliable damage option.

3rd-Level: Both situationally useful at best.

5th-Level: Dispel Magic is an extremely important tool, but Magic Circle is very situational.
 7th-Level: Arcane Eye is a fantastic way to scout areas which may be difficult or dangerous
to explore in person. Secret Chest is a weird option that many people don't use a lot, but it's a
great way to store sensitive or dangerous items like quest items.

9th-Level: Both are very situational.

Arcane Initiate: A free skill and two cantrips! Wizards have a very diverse set of options with
some excellent effects. Don't feel like you need to run straight to the damage options.

Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration: Situational, but outsiders (Celestials, Elementals, Fey,
and Fiends) are very common enemies which make up a huge chunk of the monster manual.
This only affects one target, so you generally want to use it on the biggest thing in the room,
even if you can't banish it. The banishment effect is terrible considering how easy it should be to
kill the creatures which it affects.

Spell Breaker: If you have Healing Word prepared (and you should), you can raise its level to
whatever you need to remove whatever debuff you like as a Bonus Action.

Potent Spellcasting: This is already great for most Clerics, but it's especially good for the
Arcane Cleric because your free Wizard cantrips are treated as Cleric Cantrips, so they get the
bonus damage too!

Arcane Mastery: This is absurdly versatile. The number of potential options is huge.

DeathDMG: A highly offensive domain, Death adds martial weapon proficiency and a lot of
options for dealing single-target damage. However, the domain lacks almost any support or
utility options, so if your party wants buffs they may need to look elsewhere.

Domain Spells: A lot of very good options, some of which aren't on the Cleric spell list. The
3rd-level options are the worst part of the domain, but the rest of the spell list is great.

1st-Level: False Life is a fantastic buff at any level. The hit points aren't big, but with an
hour duration you can afford to spend a level 1 spell slot several times a day to reduce your need
to heal your allies. Ray of Sickness is nice damage at low levels, but your cantrips will outpace it
at by 10.

3rd-Level: Both of the effects last only a minute, and allow repeated saves. Unless you can
almost gurantee that the target will fail their save, these arent reliable debuffs.

5th-Level: Animate Dead requires frequent re-casting in 5e, so having it prepared every
day for free is nice. Vampiric Touch is a great way to combine healing and damage output, and
isn't normally available to Clerics.

7th-Level: Blight deals decent damage, especially against plants, but doesn't scale
particularly well and doesn't have a fun secondary effect. Death Ward seems horribly out of
place on the Death domain, but it's a great buff.
 9th-Level: Antilife Shell is a great way to protect yourself, but Cloudkill is very hard to use
since you can't redirect its path, and the damage isn't justifiable if it only hits enemies once.

Bonus Proficiency: Martial weapons are nice, but the difference between a mace and a
longsword isn't significant since Clerics never get Extra Attack. You probably don't want to use
reach weapons, either, since you don't have heavy armor to keep your AC high when you forgo a
shield.

Reaper: Currently the only choices are Chill Touch and Spare the Dying. Spare the Dying is
already a Cleric cantrip, so Chill Touch seems like the obvious choice. Of course, Chill touch does
decent damage, so it's a reasonable choice anyway.

Channel Divinity: Touch of Death: This really isn't a lot of damage.

Inescapable Destruction: Consider you probably took Chill Touch, and many of your spells
will deal Necrotic damage, resistance to Necrotic damage is a huge problem which this
completely removes. Immunity is still and issue, but complete immunity to necrotic damage is
rare, and generally limited to very high level creatures, many of which you will probably be
friends with (Liches, etc.).

Divine Strike: This will help keep your melee damage on par with your cantrips, and since
you ignore resistance to Necrotic damage, you almost never need to worry about damage types.

Improved Reaper: Many powerful Necromancy spells like Blight and Finger of Death are
single-target. The ability to affect two targets with one casting doubles their effectiveness.

KnowledgePHB: Knowledge provides some very good abilities, and a lot of great options for
gathering information by mundane, magical, and potentially metagame means. Unfortunately,
the spell list is disappointing, and doesn't provide many options which will see frequent use.

Domain Spells: A handful of good divinations, but the majority of the spells are very
situational, and can typically wait for a long rest for you to prepare them.

1st-Level: Command can be very helpful if you use the right command, but Identify is very
situational, and you can generally wait to identify things until you can take a long rest.

3rd-Level: Suggestion is a great way to handle a lot of problems if you use it well. Augury
is easily on of my favorite divinations, though it takes a bit of practice and familiarity with your
DM to really make it work. If your group is ever stuck arguing about how to proceed, Augury and
be used to quickly narrow your possibilities by eliminating options which yield "woe" results.

5th-Level: Both options are very situational.

7th-Level: Arcane eye is a very effective way to scout nearby areas which might be
dangerous or difficult to access normally. Confusion is a difficult spell to use, but if your targets
will reliably fail the Wisdom saving throw, they lose 80% of their turns for the duration.
 9th-Level: Legend Lore and Scrying are very situational options which see infrequent use,
and can nearly always wait for you to take a long rest to prepare them on the rare occasions that
you need them.

Blessings of Knowledge: Two languages are nice, but quickly stop mattering when you gain
access to Tongues. The two free Knowledge skills are much more important, especially since you
get to add twice your proficiency bonus.

Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages: This is a fantastic utility ability. Forgot to bring a
Rogue? Grab some thieves tools.

Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts: Reading minds is situationally useful, but Suggestion can
be very effective.

Potent Spellcasting: By this level you can easily have 20 Wisdom, giving an impressive boost
to your damage output. Note that this only applies to Cleric cantrips, so you can't use it in
conjunction with Magic Initiate.

Visions of the Past: This is very hard to analyze. If your DM is creative and open-minded, this
could grant you profound insight into the plot of the game, and can provide a very potent story-
telling tool. If your DM is tight-lipped, and doesn't like giving up secrets, you may find this ability
to be difficult to use effectively.

LifePHB: Magical healing is one of the Cleric's most important functions, and no Cleric can
compete with the Life Cleric's capacity for healing. The Life Cleric also doubles as a solid melee
character due to their access to heavy armor.

Domain Spells: The low level options are absolutely fantastic, and many of the Life domain
spells are essentially required for a Cleric to take. Unfortunately, the high level options are less
useful.

1st-Level: Nearly every Cleric will take these spells. Cure Wounds is basically required to
survive any game of DnD, and Bless is nearly a win condition at low levels where adding 1d4 to a
roll can exceed your proficiency bonus.

3rd-Level: Lesser Restoration is nice to have handy, but much of the time the effecs which
it removes can wait until you can rest and prepare spells to fix them. Spiritual Weapon is a great
way to handle things like ghosts, and to use your Bonus Action. Of course, Life Clerics will
typically take Word of Healing, so much of the time your Bonus Action will be dedicated to
healing.

5th-Level: Beacon of Hope is situational, but can be nice to cast before a rest to maximize
the effectiveness of your healing spells. Revivify is the "Cleric Tax", so getting it for free is really
nice.
 7th-Level: Two interesting options with 8 hour durations.

9th-Level: Both situational options, and you already have better options which will solve
the same problems.

Bonus Proficiency: With heavy armor and a shield, you can work on the front lines as well as
any Fighter. The improved AC will also help to reduce the need to heal yourself instead of healing
or supporting your allies.

Disciple of Life: This isn't a ton of healing, but it will be especially useful with Word of
Healing, which is a good choice because it uses a Bonus Action, but normally doesn't heal for a
particularly large amount.

Channel Divinity: Preserve Life: Fantastic when you're looking at a possible TPK. Since you're
healing so much, most characters of your level will go from 0 to half hit points, unless you're
looking at someone like a Barbarian with d12 hit dice and 20 Constitution.

Blessed Healer: Coupled with your excellent AC, there is now almost never a reason to cast a
healing spell on yourself instead of helping your allies.

Divine Strike: Clerics don't get Extra Attack, so your weapon damage will start falling behind
somewhere around level 5. Divine Strike does a little bit to help, but you may still find that your
cantrips do more damage, and you certainly can't expect to keep pace with more martial classes
like Fighters or Paladins.

Supreme Healing: As you add more and more dice, your rolls will skew toward the statistical
average, meaning that each d8 from Cure Wounds is effectively 4.5 points of healing. Maximizing
the die improves this to 8 points of healing, almost doubling the effects of your healing spells.

LightPHB: The Light Cleric is a Controller and a Striker, specializing in dealing damage both to
single targets and to areas. Clerics already have the best Radiant damage spells in the game, and
the Light domain supplements those spells with some of the best Fire damage spells. If your
party doesn't have room for both a Cleric and a Wizard, the Light domain is a good choice
because you can so easily replace the Wizard's ability to quickly handle groups of weak enemies.

Domain Spells: A fantastic set of offensive spells which close the gap between Clerics and
Wizards.

1st-Level: Faerie Fire is a great way to handle invisible creatures, but it's hard to justify
preparing it every day. Fortunately, you get it prepared for free. Burning Hands is also a great
low-level AOE damage spell, but resist the urge to burn all of your spell slots casting it or you
won't have any slots to heal with.

3rd-Level: Both spells are extremely efficienct ways to use your spell slots for damage, but
they don't work well against multiple targets.
 5th-Level: Daylight is situational, but Fireball is the sledgehammer of offensive spells:
sometimes you just need to hit your problems until they fall down.

7th-Level: Excellent area control options.

9th-Level: Flame Strike is considerably less important since you get Fireball, and Scrying is
situational.

Bonus Cantrip: Not spectacular, but a Light Cleric really should have light, and someone in
every party should be able to cast it.

Warding Flare: You won't get a ton of uses, so save this for enemies which can do a lot of
damage.

Channel Divinity: Radiance of the Dawn: The damage isn't great, but magical darkness can
really cause problems, and a guranteed way to remove it is very convenient.

Improved Flare: Fantastic if you have allies who are squishier than you like a Wizard, or if
you need to buy time until you can heal someone.

Potent Spellcasting: By this level you can easily have 20 Wisdom, giving an impressive boost
to your damage output. Note that this only applies to Cleric cantrips, so you can't use it in
conjunction with Magic Initiate.

Corona of Light: If you're anything like me, you want to make a joke about light beer
whenever you see this ability. But unlike light beer, this is fun. It's essentially an overdrive button
for your fire and radiant damage spells, which is especially nice with the Light domain's Domain
Spells.

NaturePHB: Nature provides a lackluster spell list, and a Channel Divinity ability which only
functions against a small sliver of the monster manual. The domains other abilities are fantastic,
but since spells and Channel Divinity are such major parts of how the Cleric operates, it's hard to
recommend this domain.

Domain Spells: The nature spell list includes no truly fantastic options, and most of the
options are either situational or outright bad.

1st-Level: Both spells are very situational.

3rd-Level: Barksin isn't worth your Concentration, but dropping Spike Growth on or in
front of a troublesome enemy can be an excellent deterrent.

5th-Level: Plant Growth is an interesting area control spell, and a great way to make
hedge mazes or befriend farmers. Wind wall is situational.

7th-Level: Both are very situational. Grasping Vine seems like it should be a great single-
target crowd control effect, but it doesn't actually prevent the target from moving out of the
vine's 30 foot range, so it quickly loses effectiveness.

9th-Level: Insect Plague is a good crowd control option, and Tree Stride is a fun long-range
travel option for Clerics, who typically last options like Teleport.

Acolyte of Nature: Druids have some fantastic cantrips, including some great utility options
which are usually exlcusive to Druids. The bonus skill is nice, too.

Bonus Proficiency: With heavy armor and a shield, you can work on the front lines as well as
any Fighter. The improved AC will also help to reduce the need to heal yourself instead of healing
or supporting your allies.

Channel Divinity: Charm Animals and Plants: Very situational.

Dampen Elements: This is insanely useful.

Divine Strike: Considerably better than the Life Cleric's version. Note that you get to choose
the damage type every time you hit, so you can easily switch energy types as the need strikes.

Master of Nature: Very situational.

TempestPHB: Tempest is very offensive, falling somewhere between Life's durability and
Light's damage output. Tempest's abilities and spells provide several fun crowd control and area
control options.

Domain Spells:

1st-Level: Fog cloud is a great escape or crowd control mechanism, and Thunderwave is
great for when you get in over your head in melee and need to buy yourself some space.

3rd-Level: Both spells are very situational.

5th-Level: Sleet storm is a mediocre crowd control spell, but Call Lightning is really great.
You can start your cloud at the beginning of a fight, and spend the next 10 minutes killing things
with a single spell slot. Since the damage scales at 1d10 per spell level, it remains viable into high
levels.

7th-Level: Ice storm combines decent damage with a small crowd-control effect, but
Control Water is only useful on those rare days when you have a large body of water handy.

9th-Level: Destructive Wave does excellent damage of types which are very rarely
resisted, and Insect Plague is a fantastic area control option.

Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor is great on a Cleric, and Martial Weapons add a few more
combat options. With heavy armor and coupled with Wrath of the Storm, you might even
consider pickup up a 2-handed weapon.
 Wrath of the Storm: At low level this will outright kill enemies. At high levels it's a mild
deterrent, but hopefully won't get used much because you should have excellent AC.

Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath: Great for when you absolutely, positively need to
Thunderwave every enemy in the room. Don't be tempted to use this with Wrath of the Storm;
that's a tragic waste of a great ability.

Thunderbolt Strike: This combines well with Wrath of the Storm when you need to get out
of melee for whatever reason, and as far as I can tell it stacks with Thunderwave's push effect.

Divine Strike: Thunder is one of those handful of energy types that almost nothing is
resistant or immune to, so it's a great option. However, you can't shift energy types to gain
bonus damage like a Nature Cleric, and you won't get bonus damage against undead like a Life
Cleric.

Stormborn: Near-permanent flight! Flight is absolutely crucial at high levels, and getting it
this easily can free up resources for more exciting things.

TrickeryPHB: Trickery offers a great spell list, but the class abilities aren't very good.

Domain Spells: Lots of really fun options, many of which aren't normally available to Clerics.

1st-Level: Disguise Self and Charm Person can diffuse quite a few social situations, but
Charm Person can't completely replace a real Face.

3rd-Level: Mirror Image is arguably better than having a decent AC, and Pass Without a
Trace turns a party of stompy Fighters into a roaming ball of quiet murder.

5th-Level: Blink gives you a 50% chance to be untargetable between turns, which is great
since you're probably your parties healer, so it costs you very little be untargetable by allies.
Dispel Magic is situational, but its so useful that not preparing it can often be a lethal mistake.

7th-Level: Dimension Door is situational, but very effective. Polymorph is one of the most
versatile effects in the game, and call allow you to solve a wide variety of problems with the right
beast form.

9th-Level: Modify Memory is situational, but Dominate Person is a great way to turn a
powerful enemy into a fun pet for up to a minute.

Blessing of the Trickster: You can't use this on yourself, so use it on whoever in your party is
making a ton of noise stomping around in heavy armor.

Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity: This can be difficult to use effectively, but once you get
your head around it, it's very potent.

Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows: Invisibility is great, but one round just isn't enough.
 Divine Strike: A lot of things have resistance to poison, but nothing has weakness to poison.
Still, much of the time the damage poison will be very helpful.

Improved Duplicity: This allows you to keep duplicates near all of your allies to buff or heal
them with touch range spells, or to keep your enemies very confused.

WarPHB: The War Cleric reduces the gap between the Cleric and the Paladin, emphasizing
front-line martial prowess a bit more than spellcasting. While this is a fun concept with several
great options, it's often difficult to use the War domains options in conjunction because so many
of them depend on Concentration and/or Bonus Actions.

Domain Spells: Many really fantastic options, but more than half of the domain spells
require Concentration, which makes it hard to use more then one or two in a fight.

1st-Level: Divine Favor won't remain useful beyond low levels, but at low level it's a nice
bit of extra damage with a decent duration that costs a swift action to cast. Shield of Faith will
remain useful at every level. +2 AC is big in 5e, and 10 minutes is a fantastic duration for a spell
slot. However, it requires Concentration, which means that you can't combine it with other great
low-level buffs like Bless.

3rd-Level: Since Magic Weapon requires Concentration, you generally only want to use it
if you lack permanent magical weapons, and only against enemies that resist non-magical
weapons. Spiritual Weapon is a great way to convert your Bonus Action into damage output.

5th-Level: Crusader's Mantle is Divine Favor for the whole party. The damage is still small,
but if you have someone using Two-Weapon Fighting, or someone with Extra Attacks, it gets a bit
better. Spirit Guardians is a great way to either keep enemies away from you, or to wear down
enemies who aren't able to move away from you fast enough to stay out of the aura. If you're
facing something that likes to grapple, turn this on and go get friendly.

7th-Level: Stoneskin is a fantastic buff, especially since gold isn't particularly useful in 5e,
but won't help you once you get Avatar of Battle. Freedom of movement is very situationally
useful.

9th-Level: Flame Strike is a fantastic damage spell, and Hold Monster is a great way to
remove an enemy from a fight.

Bonus Proficiencies: Heavy armor is great on a Cleric, and Martial Weapons add a few more
combat options.

War Priest: As many as five extra attacks per day! This is terribly disappointing.

Channel Divinity: Guided Strike: It's pretty rare that your attacks are crucial enough to justify
using this, but sometimes you just really need to hit something once.

Channel Divinity: War God's Blessing: While Clerics don't typically deal a huge amount of
damage on their attacks, allies like Rogues certainly do, and when they miss their one attack for
the round a +10 can really change the outcome of a fight.

Divine Strike: While not as flashy as the Nature Cleric's version of Divine Strike, the ability to
deal the same damage as your weapon allows you to change damage types with relative ease by
changing weapons.

Avatar of Battle: Most damage of those types comes from non-magical weapons or from
monsters with non-magical bodyparts.

Abilities

Cleric's abilities all center around Wisdom, but depending on your build you may need to shuffle
your other abilities around to accomodate whatever type of armor you're using.

Str: Lightly-armored Clerics can dump Strength. Heavily-armored Clerics can afford more
Strength since they dump Dexterity, and they are better-equipped to survive in melee. Medium-
armored Clerics may want to dump Strength and stick to spellcasting unless they also get
proficiency with Rapiers.

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

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

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

Wis: The Cleric's spells depend on Wisdom.

Cha: Persuasion is the Cleric's only Face skill, 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
you other Face skills like Deception and Intimidation.

Light Armor Medium Armor Heavy Armor

Point Buy Standard Array Point Buy Standard Array Point Buy Standard Array

Str: 8

Dex: 14

Con: 14

Int: 8

Wis: 15

Cha: 12

Str: 8

Dex: 14

Con: 13

Int: 12

Wis: 15

Cha: 10

Str: 8

Dex: 14

Con: 14
Int: 8

Wis: 15

Cha: 12

Str: 12

Dex: 13

Con: 14

Int: 10

Wis: 15

Cha: 8

Str: 14

Dex: 8

Con: 14

Int: 8

Wis: 15

Cha: 12

Str: 13
 Dex: 8

Con: 14

Int: 12

Wis: 15

Cha: 10

Races

Wisdom is crucial, but other abilities depend on your build and your choice of Divine Domain.
Unfortunately, no published race has a +2 to Wisdom, so you'll need to survive with a +1 bonus.

AarakocraEEPC: Dexterity and a bit of Wisdom are great for a lightly-armored Cleric, and flight is
always fantastic.

Dwarf: Dwarfs are very durable, which is a good thing when you're the party's healer.

DuergarSCAG: Similar to the Mountain Dwarf.

HillPHB: A bit of Wisdom and additional hit points further improve the Dwarf's durability.

MountainPHB: While the bonus Strength isn't particularly useful for the Cleric's spellcasting, a
heavily-armored Cleric may welcome the extra help with weapon attacks.

DragonbornPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

ElfPHB: High Dexterity is nice for lightly armored Clerics, and Perception is a great skill for Clerics
due to their high Wisdom.

Drow: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

 High Elf: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Wood Elf: A bit of Wisdom, plus access to Shortswords means you have a Finesse weapon to
make use of your high Dexterity. Mask of the Wild looks like a great option for Trickery Clerics.

GenasiEEPC: The Constitution bonus matches that of the Dwarf, but Genasi don't get any other
base racial abilities.

Air: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Earth: Nothing sspecifically useful for the Cleric.

Fire: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Water: A bit of Wisdom, and access to Shape Water, which is one of my absolute favorite
Cantrips.

Gnome: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Deep (Svirfneblin)EEPC / SCAG: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

ForestPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

RockPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

GoliathEEPC: Nothing specifically useful for the Cleric.

Half-Elf: Abilities similar to the Human, but much of the vanilla Half-Elf's abilities are wasted
unless you're a Face.

AquaticSCAG: Only if you're in an aquatic campaign.

DrowSCAG: Faerie Fire provides an excellent way to handle invisible creatures which isn't
normally available to clerics, and Darkness can be very useful if you're clever.
 High/Moon/SunSCAG: Several wizard cantrips are very good, but cleric cantrips do just as
much damage and the utility options likely aren't as useful as two skills.

Keen SensesSCAG: The sidebar describing half-elf variants specifices that you can take Keen
Senses in place of Skill Versatility, or a trait based on your elf parentage. Keen Senses give you a
single fixed skill, and you're giving up proficiency in any two skills. It should be immediately
apparent that this is a terrible trade.

WoodSCAG: Weapon training is tempting since Clerics are generally limited to simple
weapons, but most melee clerics will do fine without them, and ranged clerics will deal better
damage by relying on cantrips than they would do with weapons. The other options are wasted
on most clerics.

VanillaPHB: Two skills allows you to pick up any Face skills you didn't get from your
class/background or some knowledge skills if your party needs them.

Half-OrcPHB: Nothing specifically useful for the Cleric.

HalflingPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric. A Thievery Cleric might consider the Halfling, but
without a Wisdom bump or abilities which play well to the Cleric's specialties you'll do better
with the Wood Elf.

Lightfoot: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Stout: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

HumanPHB: Versatile and fantastic at everything.

Vanilla: Clerics have a weird skill set which demands a broad range of abilities. If you don't
need a feat, the Vanilla Human can get you bonuses to several skills if you buy your ability scores
carefully.

Variant: You still get crucial bonus to your Wisdom and something else, and you can get an
awesome feat at level 1.

Tiefling: Nothing helpful for Cleric.

 FeralSCAG: Nothing helpful for Cleric.

Devil's TongueSCAG: Nothing helpful for Cleric.

HellfireSCAG: Nothing helpful for Cleric.

VanillaPHB: Nothing helpful for Cleric.

WingedSCAG: Nothing helpful for Cleric.

Skills

History (Int): Situationally useful depending on the style of your campaign and your DM's play
style.

Insight (Wis): Helpful for a Face, and you have 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): You can do this much better with magic.

Persuasion (Cha): Crucial for a Face, but you can skip it if someone in the party has more
Charisma than you.

Religion (Int): The Cleric's best Knowledge skill, and important to the theme of the class.

Background

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

AcolytePHB: The default Cleric background, and it's a solid choice. Insight is great for Clerics
and Religion is an obvious choice (though not particularly great since many Clerics dump
Intelligence). Bonus languages are nice at low levels since Clerics don't get Comprehend
Languages, but they do get Tongues as a 3rd-level spell.

CharlatanPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

 City WatchSCAG: Insight is great, but Athletics is hard for Clerics.

Clan CrafterSCAG: There are plenty of similar backgrounds which work better for the Cleric.
Consider Guild Artisan.

Cloistered ScholarSCAG: Knowledge skills are hard for most Clerics, but if you put some
resources into Intelligence you have the ability to get 4 knowledge skills.

CourtierSCAG: Insight and Persuasion are great if you get stuck playing the Face, and the
bonus languages will be great until you can use Tongues.

CriminalPHB: A Trickery Cleric with decent Dexterity could use this to partially replace a Rogue
in the party.

EntertainerPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Faction AgentSCAG: Insight is great, and the free mental skill will let you pick up Perception or
whatever other skill you decide you need. The bonus languages will be great until you can use
Tongues.

Far TravelerSCAG: Perfect skills and a free language, but gaming sets and instruments aren't
terribly useful.

Folk HeroPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Guild ArtisanPHB: Not a bad choice, but Artisan's tools aren't particularly useful so Acolyte is
better.

HermitPHB: Medicine isn't a terribly useful skill, but Medicine and Insight both capitalize on
your Wisdom and the Herablism Kit allows you to make healing potions.

InheritorSCAG: Very few helpful bits.

Knight of the OrderSCAG: Not terrible, but you need to pick from skills which aren't great for
the Cleric and you get saddled with a useless game/instrument proficiency.

Mercenary VeteranSCAG: Persuasion is the only bit which will be useful for most Clerics.

NoblePHB: Persuasion and a Language are fine, but half of the background is wasted.

OutlanderPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

SagePHB: Knowledge skills are hard for most Clerics, but if you put some resources into
Intelligence you have the ability to get 4 knowledge skills.

SailorPHB: Perception is great, but that's the only interesting bit.

SoldierPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

 Urban Bounty HunterSCAG: A Trickery Cleric with decent Dexterity could use this to partially
replace a Rogue in the party. Criminal and Urchin are probably better.

UrchinPHB: A Trickery Cleric with decent Dexterity could use this to partially replace a Rogue in
the party.

Uthgardt Tribe MemberSCAG: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

Waterdavian NobleSCAG: Persuasion and the language are fine, but half of the background is
wasted.

Feats

AlertPHB: Going first isn't terribly important for anyone but Rogues.

AthletePHB: Awful.

ActorPHB: Trickery Clerics might enjoy this.

ChargerPHB: If you're too far away to get into melee in one turn, cast a spell.

Crossbow ExpertPHB: Use spells.

Defensive DuelistPHB: Most Clerics won't use Finesse weapons, and the ones who do have
plenty of options to boost their AC.

Dual WielderPHB: You won't use the Attack action enough to justify two-weapon fighting, and
you need a shield for the AC bonus.

Dungeon DelverPHB: Traps should be handled by someone with Thieve's Tools proficiency.

DurablePHB: Use magical healing.

Elemental AdeptPHB: Most Cleric spells that deal damage deal either Necrotic or Radiant
damage, both of which are very rarely resisted.

GrapplerPHB: Grappling isn't a great option for Clerics.

Great Weapon MasterPHB: Very few Clerics can manage a two-handed weapon successfully,
and it's unlikely that your attack bonus will be good enough to suffer the 05 penalty.

HealerPHB: Use magical healing.

Heavily ArmoredPHB: If you want heavy armor, pick a domain which gives it to you.
 Heavy Armor MasterPHB: Heavily-armored Clerics might enjoy this, but you probably donm't
have enough Constitution to max it out.

Inspiring LeaderPHB: If you have decent Charisma, this can be a great way to supplement your
healing abilties and reduce the need for you to heal your allies in combat.

Keen MindPHB: Nothing useful for the Cleric.

LinguistPHB: Use magic.

LuckyPHB: Good on anyone.

Mage SlayerPHB: Too situational.

Magic InitiatePHB: Clerics get all of the spells they need, including Cantrips. If you want
Cantrips from other spellcasting classes, several domains provide them. If you're considering
War Caster, options like Booming Blade combine well. Shillelagh and Shape Water from the
Druid spell list also have a lot going for them.

Martial AdeptPHB: Not useful enough with only one superiority die.

Medium Armor MasterPHB: Trickery Clerics who can't afford to bump their Dexterity past 16
may prefer to stick to Medium armor instead of dropping to light, so this will help with both
Stealth and your AC.

MobilePHB: Clerics aren't terribly mobile in combat.

Mounted CombatPHB: It's hard to play a mounted character without a special mount ability of
some kind.

ObservantPHB: Clerics already have high Wisdom, so Perception is a really great option.

Polearm MasterPHB: You should be saving your Bonus Actions for spells, and your attacks
won't be dangerous enough to make this very effective. Plus, most Clerics don't get access to a
decent polearm.

ResilientPHB: If you were going to be good at a save, your class would have given it to you. If
you depend heavily on Concentration spells, you might consider Resiliant (Constitution) to
improve your saves to maintain Concentration, but you might get more mileage from War Caster.

Savage AttackerPHB: This is a bad feat. The largest damage die (d12), yields an average of 2
extra damage per turn.

SentinelPHB: Melee Clerics can be very effective, especially once you get abilities like Divine
Strike, so your opportunity attacks can be very lethal. However, you'll probably do better with
War Caster.
 SharpshooterPHB: Clerics generally don't need ranged weapons.

Shield MasterPHB: You should be saving your Bonus Actions for spells, and you'll use the
Attack action very rarely as you grow in level.

SkilledPHB: Some Clerics already get a lot of skills, and if your abilities are set up to support a
wide set of skills, you can benefit a lot from gaining extra skill proficiencies.

SkulkerPHB: Sniping is for Rogues.

Spell SniperPHB: Very few Cleric spells require attack rolls.

Tavern BrawlerPHB: You should be saving your Bonus Actions for spells.

ToughPHB: 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 hit points.

War CasterPHB: Many Clerics, especially heavily-armored Clerics who like to wade into melee,
can get a lot of use out of this. Advantage on your Constitution save to maintain Concentration
goes a long way since many great buffs require Concentration. The reaction mechanic works fine
with the Cleric's existing cantrips, but if you pick up Magic Initiate for Booming Blade it's a very
solid option.

Weapon MasterPHB: You get all of the weapon proficiencies that you need to function.

Weapons

Crossbow, Light: This may do more damage than your Cantrips at low levels because weapons
add your ability bonus to damage. If you have good Dexterity, consider a crossbow until your
cantrips scale at 5th level.

Javelin: Same logic as the Light Crossbow, but Strength-based.

Mace: The iconic Cleric weapon. It's not great, but it gets the job done. Carry one for when
you need to wade into melee.

Armor

Leather: If you start with 18 Dexterity, this will match Scale Mail. Otherwise Scale Mail is
strictly better.
 Scale Mail: Starting gear for most Clerics.

Chain Mail: Starting armor for Clerics who get heavy armor proficiency from their domain.

Half plate: Most Clerics will max out at Half plate.

Shield: You can put your holy symbol on your shield, so there is almost no reason not to have
one.

Full Plate: Life Clerics should absolutely upgrade to Full Plate as soon as they can afford it.

Spells

This is not a comprehensive guide to every available spell, as that would be an exercise in
madness. The following is a brief compilation of the most notable spells available to the class.
Spells available via Magic Initiate are also excluded; for suggestions for Magic Initiate, see the
"Feats" section, above.

Cantrips

GuidancePHB: As long as you're not conentrating on something with a long duration between
fights, you should be constantly throwing this on your allies. Your Rogue should have Guidance
for every skill check they make while searching, sneaking, handling traps, etc.

Spare the DyingPHB: Tempting, but once you're got a reasonable number of spell slots, you
can just use Healing Word.

1st-Level Spells

BlessPHB: At low levels, Bless can decide if you win or lose a fight.

Cure WoundsPHB: Crucial for healing, and a great way to spend your remaining spell slots at
the end of the day.

Healing WordPHB: Because death is so gentle in 5e, Healing Word is extremely powerful. You
can save it for when your allies drop to 0, get them back on their feat, then wait to heal them
again until they get dropped back to 0. Sincet his is a bonus action, you can still use your action
to hit something with a mace or cast a cantrip.
3rd-Level Spells

Revivify: The "Cleric Tax". This spell is just too good to not prepare every day. Raise Dead costs
considerably more, and with a full minute to use this after your ally dies, Revivify is extremely
easy to use.

5th-Level Spells

Raise Dead: Don't bother preparing this unless someone is already dead. If your ally dies,
they'll still be dead the next day when you prepare Raise Dead.

Multiclassing

Barbarian: Rage won't be particularly useful since Clerics don't get Extra Attack, and
Unarmored Defense will only work if you have a third high ability score, which is hard to do.

Bard: The Bard's low-level abilities scale with class level, so they don't work particularly well
for a class dip.

Fighter: A level or two of fighter might be 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 your
spell slots. Action Surge is especially tempting, as it opens up the possibility of casting two spells
in the same turn. Remember that if you cast a bonus action spell you can only cast cantrips with
your remaining actions, so in a turn when you plan to use Action Surge be sure to cast two spells
with a 1 action casting time.

Monk: The Monk's Unarmored Defense works well for Clerics since they need so much
Wisdom. 20 Wisdom with Unarmored Defense will match Half plate, but remember that
Unarmored Defense doesn't work with shields, so you'll need 18 Dexterity to match the AC of a
normal Cleric 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 access to some of the best spells in the game, but
multiclassing between primary caster classes delays how soon your get higher level spells.