To be blunt: D&D has a lot of deities. So it should be no surprise that there are lots of options for Clerics. Depending on what deity you devote yourself to, you could end up projecting domes of magical twilight or spend your days forging armor out of your own sweat and tears.

With a total of 14 subclasses (called Divine Domains), Clerics have the widest selection of subclasses out of any D&D class. Each domain is radically different, so you could put two different Clerics in a room and they’d have as much in common as a Barbarian and a Bard.

It may take some serious consideration to pick an appropriate domain, but don’t despair! Read on, and this guide will take you through each subclass so you can find the perfect pick for your playstyle.

Using This Guide

Everything in this guide has an emoji, ranking how useful a given ability or feature is to playing Cleric effectively.

✅ — An absolutely crucial feature. Often forms the backbone of a class’ look and feel. Will provide some bonus that can’t be found through other means.

🆗 — A solid feature that does its job well. Not game-breaking, and certainly replaceable, but a strong choice that shores up some weakness.

⚠️ — A debatable choice. Could work for a specific build, but otherwise is either a wasted opportunity or is just weaker than other alternatives.

⛔ — Outright bad and detrimental. This weighs down the class and just takes up space on the character sheet. A weakness you will have to accommodate for.

These rankings are meant to help you create an optimized class build but remember—DnD isn’t a game where you need to win to have fun. Weaker but flavorful builds also have their place and can make for fulfilling characters.

What Are Cleric Subclasses?

A Cleric’s divine domain is its subclass, defined by what aspects of reality the Cleric’s chosen deity commands. You’ll pick your deity, and therefore your subclass, at Level 1. That means you’ll gain subclass features that steer your gameplay in line with your deity’s personality and ideals right at the beginning. But choose wisely because you can’t swap out your domain if you change your mind later, and you can only choose one.

🆗 Arcana Domain

Arcana is definitely a spellcasting subclass, but doesn’t push you towards any particular playstyle. If you’re up for the challenge of carving out your own gameplay niche from scratch, the Arcana Domain gives you the tools to do so while covering any weaknesses.

🆗 Domain Spells

A good selection of utility. The big buff from magic weapon is a big win, and detect magic, dispel magic, magic circle, and teleportation circle make for a well-rounded adventuring toolkit.

✅ Arcane Initiate

Cleric has restrictive-yet-powerful cantrip options. Mixing that up with more damage and utility options can appeal to veteran Cleric players and power-gamers alike.

⚠️ Channel Divinity: Arcane Abjuration

Like Cleric’s Turn Undead, this is situational, and banishing little beasties is inefficient because their CR has to be so much lower than your level.

🆗 Spell Breaker

All healing spells you cast now include lesser restoration! Great to help an ally recover from a turn or two out of the fight.

✅ Potent Spellcasting

More damage for a subclass that’s more reliant on its cantrips for damage than other subclasses. Excellent upgrade.

✅ Arcane Mastery

Flexible and powerful options abound. Great choices include prismatic wall, Mordenkainen’s magnificent mansion, true polymorph, and wish.

🆗 Death Domain

True to its name, the Death Domain is all about killing enemies. Your melee damage, ranged damage, and area-of-effect damage are all supercharged. Sadly several abilities are weakened by the fact that you’ll rely on melee attacks without having many defensive bonuses.

🆗 Domain Spells

Kind of a mixed bag. False life and death ward provide much needed defensiveness, cloudkill is perfect for clearing a crowd, and spells like vampiric touch or blight will be go-to damage options. But not many open up new possibilities, they just improve the ones you have.

✅ Bonus Proficiency

A basic improvement to your melee damage.

✅ Reaper

Toll the dead is your premier option for this. Getting to double-up on a cantrip can help clear hordes of weak enemies.

✅ Channel Divinity: Touch of Death

Kind of like Paladin’s Smite, but you deal a flat amount of damage, which keeps it predictable. Does require a melee attack though.

⚠️ Inescapable Destruction

Good against undead, but not much else. Really just undoing a downside rather than providing a bonus.

🆗 Divine Strike

Even more melee damage. Great for a subclass that likes getting stabby.

🆗 Improved Reaper

Provides incredible value, turning one-shot necromancy damage spells into crowd clearers. Still, there are only about 10 spells in the game that this applies to, so not perfect.

🆗 Forge Domain

Forge gives phenomenal AC bonuses and fire immunity, bolstering your defenses. Its spells give you some utility and some hard-hitting buffs for your allies. Even while bogged down with a handful of non-synergistic features, the Forge Domain has some serious power.

🆗 Domain Spells

To buff your allies, magic weapon and elemental weapon are home-runs. And wall of fire is a great control spell. However, the utility spells are all pretty weak, and the remaining spells feel like they were thrown in at the last minute.

✅ Bonus Proficiencies

Heavy armor keeps you alive as your friends rely on you for buffs. You also need heavy armor for later subclass bonuses.

🆗 Blessing of the Forge

A simple-but-effective bonus that makes combat a little easier. Kinda small, though.

⚠️ Channel Divinity: Artisan’s Blessing

Very flavorful and can be cleverly used to resupply the party, but not very strong.

✅ Soul of the Forge

Fire damage is very common, so resisting it is incredible. And more AC will never be a bad thing.

✅ Divine Strike

Quite useful since your high AC means you can actually get into melee range.

🆗 Saint of Forge and Fire

Fire immunity is a straightforward upgrade. Very good. But by Level 17, most enemy attacks are magical, so the other resistances are probably void.

✅ Grave Domain

With a Grave Domain Cleric on-hand, your party will rarely ever go unconscious, let alone lose a friend. Grave is a very reactive spellcasting subclass that also has surprising damage options, making you extremely well-rounded.

✅ Domain Spells

Having revivify and raise dead automatically prepared is essential, so this frees you up to prepare other spells. Also, bane, vampiric touch, and blight are all top-tier damage options, giving you flexible magic damage. The others spells are an odd assortment, but worthwhile.

🆗 Circle of Mortality

The extra healing gets a friend back on their feet with enough health to be helpful, and whipping out a quick spare the dying will save a lot of lives.

⚠️ Eyes of the Grave

Good around undead. Never good otherwise.

✅ Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave

Doubling damage can lead to easy instant kills. Imagine doubling a critical hit or a sneak attack.

✅ Sentinel at Death’s Door

Leaving an ally wounded rather than knocked down is very powerful. You get to use this a good number of times, too.

✅ Potent Spellcasting

If you’re not healing, you’re casting a cantrip. Simple but strong.

🆗 Keeper of Souls

Healing every time your party kills something? Yes, please. Passive healing means you can spend your turn on big, battle-altering spells.

🆗 Knowledge Domain

Knowledge leads you down the path of the skill monkey and gives you roleplay-heavy utility magic too. It doesn’t synergize well with most other Cleric abilities, but the Knowledge Domain knows what it wants to do, and does it well.

🆗 Domain Spells

An indispensable toolbox of info-gathering spells. Identify, speak with dead, and legend lore are handy in many situations, and augury and scrying help with scouting out a threat. You also get some lite mind control spells in command and suggestion, which are fun during roleplay encounters.

✅ Blessings of Knowledge

Double proficiency (expertise) is a rare ability for a reason: it essentially guarantees passed ability checks. So good.

🆗 Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages

Proficiency on demand! Strong because it’s so flexible.

🆗 Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts

The mind-reading is fine. Constantly casting suggestion is great, and this doesn’t even use up a spell slot.

🆗 Potent Spellcasting

It’s nice to boost your basic attacks, especially since you don’t have much to do in combat other than cast cantrips.

🆗 Visions of the Past

Fills in the gaps between what identify, legend lore, and scrying can tell you—a nice way to round out your toolset.

✅ Life Domain

This is the prime choice if you want to lean into classic Cleric archetypes. The Life Domain Cleric is unmatched for healing potential and has good survivability. Add in some extra features for bonus damage, and you have a magical field medic ready for battle.

✅ Domain Spells

Having key healing spells like cure wounds and mass cure wounds always prepared is a literal lifesaver. Same with resurrection spells like revivify and raise dead. The other standout is spiritual weapon, which helps you keep up your damage output while also healing on your turn.

✅ Bonus Proficiency

Improves your survivability. Nice and simple.

🆗 Disciple of Life

More healing is always a nice bonus. If you keep healing the same target, the bonus adds up quickly. The big advantage is that your healing spells have a higher floor rather than relying on a dice roll.

✅ Channel Divinity: Preserve Life

At lower levels, this is your best option for a group heal. At higher levels, it scales up and makes for a lot of restored health.

✅ Blessed Healer

Never take a turn off healing to patch yourself up! Keeps you alive to make sure your friends never drop.

⚠️ Divine Strike

Damage is nice, but you’re not here to deal damage.

✅ Supreme Healing

It’s simple math. This is more healing. Obviously excellent.

Read our complete guide on the Life Cleric here.

✅ Light Domain

One of the most spellcasting-heavy domains, Light gives you incredible ranged magic damage. You become your party’s premier striker with excellent area-of-effect damage while also being able to heal—a potent combination that makes it difficult for enemies to take you down.

✅ Domain Spells

Cleric lacks good low-level area-of-effect damage, but burning hands and fireball fix that problem. Faerie fire is an excellent support spell, and you even get premium control options in flaming sphere and wall of fire. Lots to love on this list.

🆗 Bonus Cantrip

Neat. Nothing to write home about.

✅ Warding Flare

A reliable way to avoid weapon attacks, which are your biggest vulnerability. And since it only takes a reaction, you never lose the chance to burn up some baddies.

✅ Channel Divinity: Radiance of the Dawn

Strong area-of-effect damage without burning a spell slot. Plus, using your Cleric level ensures you deal a sizable chunk of damage.

✅ Improved Flare

A nice twist that helps you maintain your support role.

✅ Potent Spellcasting

For a damage-dealing spellcaster, you couldn’t ask for better.

🆗 Corona of Light

Forcing disadvantage against your two most common damage types is helpful for you, but doesn’t do anything for the rest of your party.

⚠️ Nature Domain

The Nature Domain tries to act as a more combat-ready Druid, but falls flat. There are some good features here, but Druid proper can do most of them better. And since Druid and Cleric are both very good support classes anyways, Nature just isn’t unique enough to stand out.

⚠️ Domain Spells

Insect plague is the only spell here not shared with the default Cleric spell list. Good news: you gain access to tons of new spells. Bad news: you could get better by playing Druid. If you really want a Cleric with more control and utility magic, this is fine, but still a bit lackluster.

🆗 Acolyte of Nature

Another skill is solid, but not many exciting cantrip options. Mold earth or shape water are probably your best choices.

🆗 Bonus Proficiency

Keeps you alive, but this isn’t a fight-y subclass.

⛔ Channel Divinity: Charm Animals and Plants

A multi-target animal friendship with 0.0007% the duration is not only lame but a wasted opportunity for a better Channel Divinity.

✅ Dampen Elements

Stupidly good considering the rest of the subclass. This will eat so much damage over the course of a campaign.

⚠️ Divine Strike

Same with the heavy armor proficiency: nice, but you’re not a fighter. Potent Spellcasting would probably have been more useful.

⚠️ Master of Nature

Does make your Channel Divinity better, but still situational, and at this level, a horde of CR 1 beasts won’t be much help.

✅ Order Domain

The Order Domain Cleric sets you up as a front-line defender, buffing your friends as you shout orders and drop control spells. Many of your features tilt the action economy in your favor, letting you overwhelm your enemies with sheer bang-for-your-buck value.

🆗 Domain Spells

Lots of control spells that give your allies an opportunity to exploit the enemies’ weaknesses. Slow and dominate person help you break the action economy further, mass healing word is great in a pinch, and you otherwise get some decent utility.

✅ Bonus Proficiencies

Heavy armor is good because you’ll want to be near all your martial allies. The skill is cute but nothing special.

✅ Voice of Authority

Incredibly good for getting more damage per combat round. Heal an ally while also dealing damage by proxy. And this has unlimited uses too.

✅ Channel Divinity: Order’s Demand

Buys your party a turn to recoup, and you get a chance to disarm your enemies. Nice to have when combat goes south.

✅ Embodiment of the Law

Most of your buffs and debuffs are enchantments, so that’s a lot of bonus action casting, often netting you two spells per turn. Great value.

🆗 Divine Strike

You’re on the front lines. When you’re not healing, you might as well kill something.

✅ Order’s Wrath

A pretty reliable damage boost. Essentially doubles the damage of your attacks by proxy.

✅ Peace Domain

A famously powerful subclass, the Peace Domain encourages your party to work as a team for maximum effectiveness. Your features reward clever maneuvering and ensure nobody gets ganged up on.

✅ Domain Spells

Otiluke’s resilient sphere makes for excellent defense, and you can use all the buff spells to double-down on the buffs your subclass features already grant your allies. Sanctuary, aid, warding bond, and beacon of hope all help your party maintain the advantage in a fight.

⚠️ Implement of Peace

One skill is fine, but not great.

✅ Emboldening Bond

This basically guarantees free d4s for your party during every combat. Stacked with bless, this becomes absolutely broken. This feature alone makes this subclass ultra-powerful.

✅ Channel Divinity: Balm of Peace

You get to run from danger and give all your friends a heal along the way. If used properly, it puts the party in an advantageous position at the end of your turn.

✅ Protective Bond

Great way to protect your squishy spellcasters or reposition mid-fight.

🆗 Potent Spellcasting

Cantrips are your main form of attack, making this quite useful.

✅ Expansive Bond

Direct upgrades to everything about your bond. Straightforward but very good.

✅ Tempest Domain

The Tempest Domain Cleric grants you the best control spells available to the class while striking the perfect balance between both spellcasting and martial prowess. You’ll be maintaining giant control spells or powerful buffs without dropping concentration.

✅ Domain Spells

All incredible area-of-effect spells. Control spells like fog cloud or sleet storm help cover your party’s flanks, and damage spells like thunderwave, shatter, ice storm, and destructive wave wipe entire crowds of enemies from the battlefield—especially if paired with this subclass’ Channel Divinity.

✅ Bonus Proficiencies

Both essential for a melee fighter like yourself.

🆗 Wrath of the Storm

Little bit of extra damage to soften up an enemy in melee range.

✅ Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath

Will often result in 20 or more guaranteed damage. You don’t have too many spells this will apply to, but it works great with your Divine Strike subclass feature.

✅ Thunderous Strike

Synergizes perfectly with your control spells. Smack an enemy and push them into a lingering area-of-effect spell for more damage.

✅ Divine Strike

Encourages you to use weapon attacks more often, and thunder damage is rarely resisted.

✅ Stormborn

Comes a bit late, but a flying speed with no serious caveats is excellent.

🆗 Trickery Domain

Trickery blends stealth, single-target control spells, and some defensive features, making you akin to an Arcane Trickster Rogue with less damage. It can be tricky (pardon the pun) to make all your abilities synergize, and you’re not great at support, but the roleplay potential is crazy good.

🆗 Domain Spells

Mirror image and blink are great at improving your comparatively weak defenses, while pass without trace and dimension door help you sneak around. But the big guns are polymorph, dominate person, and modify memory, all more than capable of instantly eliminating a major threat with one failed saving throw.

🆗 Blessing of the Trickster

Improves the stealth capabilities of the whole party. Perfect for a heavy-armor-wearing Paladin with no Dexterity.

🆗 Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity

Giving your spells extra range and getting flanking on your attacks are both quite handy in combat. Otherwise, this is best for roleplay and not much else.

✅ Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows

Cast invisibility without using a spell slot. Helps you maneuver, infiltrate, and retreat if you use it right.

⚠️ Divine Strike

Extra damage is good, but you’re honestly not sturdy enough for weapon attacks.

⚠️ Improved Duplicity

More duplicates give you more options in combat, but the Invoke Duplicity buffs don’t stack, so one duplicate is usually enough.

🆗 Twilight Domain

Twilight Cleric makes you great at empowering the rest of your party, but with some nice twists that make you flexible enough to still be useful outside combat. You flip-flop between focusing on combat or spellcasting, but either side of you is strong enough to make an impact.

🆗 Domain Spells

Many of your buffs are aura effects that require allies to be near you to be empowered, so keep close to your party. Aura of vitality, Leomund’s tiny hut, aura of life, and circle of power are all examples of this. Otherwise, you get a mix of useful utility.

🆗 Bonus Proficiencies

These proficiencies place you firmly in the front line, where you’ll need to be for your subclass features to be effective.

🆗 Eyes of Night

Infinite darkvision for you and your party is incredible.

🆗 Vigilant Blessing

Perfect for helping a spellcaster (including yourself) go first and land a buff or debuff before combat starts in earnest.

✅ Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary

Constantly refilling temporary HP makes this insane because it means anyone close enough to you has an ever-present HP boost that makes them very difficult to knock down. And the range is pretty good too.

✅ Steps of Night

Flying is excellent, and this gives you plenty of uses with few restrictions.

🆗 Divine Strike

If you’re joining the fight, may as well get extra damage.

🆗 Twilight Shroud

Half cover is +2 AC. A simple but powerful bonus.

⚠️ War Domain

The War Domain tries to improve your combat capabilities, but unfortunately, several other Cleric subclasses are simply more powerful fighters. War does excel at landing hits and can deal good magic damage, so it’s reliable if nothing else.

Domain Spells

Lots of good buffs for you and your party alike. Shield of faith, magic weapon, crusader’s mantle, and spirit guardians all help tip the scales in combat, and spiritual weapon gives great value. The rest of this list adds little.

✅ Bonus Proficiency

The two proficiencies you need for this kind of build.

⚠️ War Priest

This sadly adds up to very few extra attacks, so you won’t be mowing down enemies.

⚠️ Channel Divinity: Guided Strike

When you really need that attack to hit. Very useful, but the damage will be as meager as ever.

🆗 Channel Divinity: War God’s Blessing

A good upgrade, since you can ensure a higher damage attack lands, like your Rogue’s sneak attack.

🆗 Divine Strike

More damage is very important for this subclass. Sadly dealing more bludgeoning, piercing, or slashing damage will often run up against common resistances.

⚠️ Avatar of Battle

Resistances are great, but many attacks will be magical by this level.

Until Next Time

Cleric domains give you tons of options. Did this guide help you narrow down your choices? Let us know in the comments. And if you found this guide helpful, share it with your friends! Cleric is so multi-faceted there’s a subclass for everyone.