Come child, come see if the divine life of a Cleric is the right path for you. All that is needed is a willingness to help others, devotion to one of the many deities of our world, and the strength of will to crush a few kobold skulls when the situation calls for it.

Sorry, did that last one throw you off? As the spellcasting class with the most martial prowess in the game, you’ll be spending as much time curing wounds as you will pounding non-believers into a fine pulp.

And unlike other squishy spellslingers, arrows and firebolts alike will plink off your hefty armor without having to sacrifice any magical might. Your friends will be begging you to cast one of your many buffs on them—or maybe you’ll just cast one on yourself to become even stronger.

No matter what draws you to Cleric, taking up a holy symbol will reward you with the chance to play the foremost support caster in D&D. If you’re ready to spread the good word by the sword, read on!

Using This Guide

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

The Basics

Hit Dice

Cleric uses a d8 hit die, like most spellcasting classes. You’ll need to rely on armor a little more than usual, but you should still have a big enough health pool to survive combat.

Saving Throws

You are proficient in Wisdom and Charisma saves, the former being very useful for resisting spells and the latter being a decent runner-up. Against magic, you’ll never need to worry, but you are left without any good martial saves.

Proficiencies

You get light armor, medium armor, and shield proficiency. But don’t despair if you want heavy armor—several subclasses give you proficiency, and shields go a long way to bumping up your AC anyway. All this is excellent compared to other spellcasters.

Due to your armor proficiencies and access to all martial weapons, Cleric is already a frontline spellcaster, able to do just fine in melee combat as well as throwing out spells.

Skills

Insight and Medicine are Wisdom skills, which you’ll be cranking as high as possible, so these two make great picks. Your other options are dependent on whether you dump Intelligence or Charisma, but either way aren’t especially handy.

Ability Scores

🆗 Strength

Cleric can be pretty fighty, so Strength is your attack/damage ability. You also need a high Strength to use heavy armor if your subclass allows it.

⚠️ Dexterity

You’ll probably end up using medium armor, so a decent Dexterity will be nice. This is only a priority if you make a light-armor-finesse-weapon build.

🆗 Constitution

Many of Cleric’s buffs require concentration, so a high Constitution score helps you keep your friends powered up longer. You also get more HP, meaning you can wade into the fray yourself.

⛔ Intelligence

Dump stat.

✅ Wisdom

Cleric is a spellcaster, and Wisdom is your spellcasting ability. This is a no-brainer, especially since lots of healing spells get better with a higher Wisdom score.

⛔ Charisma

Dump stat.

⚔ Player Tip: Is Cleric Easy To Play? ⚔

For a new player, wrapping your head around spell slots can be tricky, and having to pick a subclass immediately at 1st level can feel like a shot-in-the-dark without understanding your options. But once you have your character made and cast a few spells, Cleric is a very straightforward class with a lot of power, making it well-suited to new players if their DM can take the time to help at first.

Races

Getting a high Wisdom is a priority for Cleric, so choose a race with a Wisdom bonus and either a Strength or Constitution bonus, plus some useful features to strengthen your defense. Some of the best races for a Cleric are Hill Dwarf, Firbolg, Githzerai, Lizardfolk, Loxodon, and Tortle. Here is a complete breakdown of the best Cleric races.

⚠️ Aarakocra

Really only viable for a Dexterity build, but getting a 50 ft. flying speed allows agile maneuvering in battle, which can help you avoid attacks or deliver healing.

Aasimar

⛔ Fallen: No Wisdom bonus.
🆗 Protector: The Charisma bonus is a lost opportunity, but every other racial ability is great. Two damage resistances, a flying speed, extra radiant damage, and some free healing. Apart from the weak ability score bonuses, it feels like Protector Aasimar was built for Cleric.
⛔ Scourge: No Wisdom bonus.

🆗 Centaur

Centaur pushes you towards a more aggressive playstyle to take advantage of its charge and its lethal hooves. For a Cleric looking to dish out as much damage as they heal, this is a great mix of abilities.

⚠️ Dhampir

This is one of the recently released races that let you customize your ability score bonuses, skill proficiencies, and even languages. This means these races are viable for any character, but their racial abilities can be a mismatch. That’s the case with Dhampir and Cleric—you can get a good Wisdom bonus, but the other racial abilities add little, so while it’s not a complete wash, it is a touch blasé. If you really like the idea of being undead, try the Hollow One racial option instead.

Dwarf

⛔ Duergar: No Wisdom bonus.
✅ Hill: The basic Dwarf bonuses of poison resistance and a Constitution bonus are solid choices for defense. However, Hill Dwarves are tough, so they get extra HP. This is a great way to stack on even more HP for fighting or an opportunity to invest ability score increases in something other than Constitution. Top it off with a small Wisdom bonus, and this is a home run.
⛔ Mountain: No Wisdom bonus.

Elf

⛔ Drow: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Eladrin: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ High Elf: No Wisdom bonus.
⚠️ Pallid Elf: Nothing stands out here unless you’re playing one of two specific characters. First, a Trickery Cleric will appreciate some of the bonus spells and the Dexterity boost. Second, a detective-esque Knowledge Cleric could make good use of the stronger Insight and Investigation checks.
⛔ Sea Elf: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Shadar-Kai: No Wisdom bonus.
⚠️ Wood Elf: Pushes you toward an agile, light armor cleric. No big bonuses here, but it can work.

⚠️ Fairy

Another always-viable-through-customization race. Fairy is helped by the fact that it gets a flying speed, but you can’t be wearing medium or heavy armor, so you’re pushed into a Dexterity build. Not bad, not great.

✅ Firbolg

Firbolg is incredible for Cleric, bringing lots of good spellcasting to the table while also acting as the party’s strongman. You get a great foundation that can adapt to whatever subclass you choose, all without a drop in power.

Genasi

⛔ Air: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Earth: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Fire: No Wisdom bonus.
🆗 Water: The Constitution bonus makes you tankier. Acid damage is decently common, but the resistance is hard to come by. A few free spells, a small Wisdom bonus, and a swim speed round out your build nicely.

Gith

⛔ Githyanki: No Wisdom bonus.
✅ Githzerai: Being able to shrug off charm and frighten effects is extra powerful because you’ll already have a very high Wisdom save, making you effectively immune to these effects. And for martial threats, you have the ever-indispensable shield spell. Githzerai gives you a balanced mix of abilities, though you only get a couple of them.

Half-Elf

⚠️ Standard: A small Wisdom bonus is a bad start, and there are no other handy abilities for Cleric. Only play a Half-Elf if you’re determined to be a skill-monkey Knowledge Cleric.
⚠️ Dark Elf Heritage: This gets a mention for the handful of useful spells it gives you, but you cast them with Intelligence, so be wary.
⛔ High Elf Heritage: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Sea Elf Heritage: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Wood Elf Heritage: No Wisdom bonus.

Halfling

⚠️ Ghostwise: The Wisdom bonus isn’t much, but you get access to Halfling luck, which can save your butt in a pinch.
⛔ Lightfoot: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Lotusden: No Wisdom bonus.
⛔ Stout: No Wisdom bonus.

🆗 Harengon

Another always-viable-through-customization race. Getting a bonus on Dexterity saves—probably the most common save—is a nice way to shore up a weakness. And a bonus to initiative means you can buff your allies before they attack.

⚠️ Hexblood

Another always-viable-through-customization race. However, this is little here for a Cleric other than access to hex if you like dealing damage.

Human

⚠️ Standard: A tiny boost to Wisdom isn’t much, but getting an equally tiny boost to all your abilities can help you with weapon attacks and defense.
🆗 Variant: The small Wisdom bonus is balanced out by the free feat, although there aren’t many that supercharge Cleric. Your best options are improving your medium armor, becoming proficient with heavy armor, getting a passive Perception buff, or getting advantage on Constitution saves to maintain concentration.

🆗 Kalashtar

The important stuff is advantage on all Wisdom saves and a big Wisdom bonus. These together negate a lot of spells that you could be targeted with since you’ll never fail a Wisdom save again. Resistance to psychic damage is fun against mind flayers, too.

⚠️ Kenku

Hear me out—Trickery Cleric. Otherwise, never pick Kenku.

✅ Lizardfolk

Both ability score bonuses are very relevant for Cleric, and you get lots of flavorful and synergistic abilities. Plus, many of your skill proficiency options are Wisdom-based, your natural armor helps keep you alive before you buy good armor, and your bite attack is a good backup for when you run out of spell slots.

✅ Loxodon

Good ability scores plus advantage on some conditions commonly imposed by spells. Loxodon natural armor is special too, since it lets you add your Constitution modifier instead of your Dexterity modifier. This is a great race for a sturdy Cleric build.

⚠️ Owlin

Another always-viable-through-customization race. You can fly if you’re not wearing medium or heavy armor, so good for a maneuverable Dexterity Cleric.

🆗 Reborn

Another always-viable-through-customization race, but better than the rest for one ability: advantage on death-saving throws. Since you pack most of your party’s healing power, if you die, everyone will follow. This ability keeps you alive longer and can even help you get back up with 1 HP if you roll a lucky natural 20.

✅ Tortle

Nice ability bonuses for a melee-heavy Cleric. The star here is your shell, giving you insane AC. You can heal your friends without a care in the world for your own safety—grab a shield for 19 AC at 1st level. That’s just nuts.

⚠️ Vedalken

Small Wisdom bonus? Meh. Advantage on Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma saves? Yup! This means you can shake off about half the spells that target you.

🆗 Warforged

Constitution and Wisdom are good abilities for Cleric, rounding out your defense. You know what else helps defense? +1 to AC, that’s what! Warforged has a little bit of everything to keep you alive.

⛔ Races Without Any Wisdom Bonus

Bugbears, Changelings, Dragonborn, Gnomes, Goblins, Goliaths, Grung, Half-Orcs, Hobgoblins, Kobolds, Leonin, Locathah, Minotaurs, Orcs, Satyrs, Shifters, Simic Hybrids, Tabaxi, Tieflings, Triton, Verdan, and Yuan-Ti are at a disadvantage since their lack of a Wisdom bonus makes their spellcasting less powerful. But since you can play a Cleric where spellcasting is not the focus, you might still consider these races if their other ability score bonuses work for you.

Class Features

Divine Domain

A Cleric’s deity oversees a certain domain of reality, so a god of healing is a part of the Life domain. A Cleric is expected to respect the tenets of their deity’s domain, and it defines their subclass features. Clerics tend to be specialized with little overlap between domains, so choosing your domain will radically shift how you play your character. Differences range from magic or martial combat to radiant or necrotic damage.

✅ Spellcasting

No matter which domain you choose, Cleric is a spellcasting class first and foremost. Even if you pick up martial weapon proficiency, you never get an extra attack, whereas your spell slots go all the way up to 9th-level.

Your spell list has the best support spells in the game, like healing, resurrection, AC buffs, extra dice for your allies to add to checks, and area-of-effect protective measures. A Cleric can prepare a number of spells after a long rest, choosing from the entire Cleric spell list. This means you may swap out your spells with ease, allowing you to be ready for one or two things you want to focus on for the day.

Having an extensive pool of spell slots (which recharge after a long rest) and a flexible list of prepared spells makes Cleric’s spellcasting very versatile. You get to cast a large quantity of just-the-right-spells-for-the-job, so every spell lands with maximum effect.

✅ Channel Divinity

Unlike most Cleric abilities that only recharge after a long rest, Channel Divinity refreshes after any short or long rest. So you can be very liberal about when you use your Channel Divinity, even using it to strategically save on spell slots.

Every Cleric gets the Turn Undead option for their Channel Divinity feature, which is useful only in very specific undead-heavy situations. It can actually be detrimental to use because undead will flee out of reach or take the dodge action, making them a pain to mop up.

⚠️ Destroy Undead

This strictly improves Turn Undead, allowing you to instantly wipe out undead mooks while turning bigger undead monsters. However, it is still very niche, and for this to be effective your DM needs to be throwing lots of tiny undead monsters at you even at higher levels when they’re not really a threat to anyone.

🆗 Divine Intervention

One of the most flavorful features in the game. There are lots of ways to exploit Divine Intervention to wipe out a big enemy, resurrect a friend while saving a spell slot, or solve a big campaign-wide mystery. The more creative you get, the more powerful this feature is. But that power is balanced by a dice roll, making this feature unreliable.

⚔ Player Tip: What Is The Best Domain? ⚔

Cleric domains are very specialized. If you want to deal damage with spells, Death and Light domains are good choices. For playing the support role, nothing beats Life or Peace. To dominate at melee combat, pick Forge or War. As a general rule, the best domain is the one you fully commit to and focus your build around.

Subclasses

A Cleric’s subclass will radically change how they solve problems and what role they serve in the party. You could end up incinerating crowds with radiant blasts, smacking enemies with a mace, or healing from the backlines. For a closer look, check out our guide to Cleric subclasses.

🆗 Arcana Domain

This subclass works as a direct upgrade to your normal Cleric capabilities by providing more spells, a tweaked version of your Turn Undead feature, and turning all your healing spells into mini minor restorations.

Getting access to a handful of Wizard spells and cantrips opens up lots of flexibility in combat. You can grab some of the best damage cantrips in the game, plus either control, damage, or utility spells at higher levels, depending on what you want to specialize in.

🆗 Death Domain

Necromantic spells abound! At lower levels, you’ll be pushed into a melee build to take advantage of this (and your martial weapon proficiency), while at later levels you get better ranged area-of-effect options. No matter what, dealing damage is the priority for this subclass.

This subclass can feel a little thin because it really only helps you deal more damage to more enemies. However, if you only like risking combat when you’re certain you can win, that might suit you just fine.

🆗 Forge Domain

You might feel a bit like a worse version of Artificer at times, but this subclass gives Cleric unmatched AC and resistance and immunity to one of the most common damage types—fire. Your spell list is also filled with handy buffs to make a martial party especially efficient in combat.

Sadly, your other subclass abilities are a bit of an odd mix and don’t synergize very well with Cleric. You don’t even get martial weapon proficiency to join the fight yourself with your high AC.

✅ Grave Domain

Every ability this subclass gives you excels at keeping your party from dropping below zero HP or helping them recover when they do. That means you’re the ultimate support character, with the added ability to occasionally double the damage one of your party members deals with an attack.

Your spell list contains many essential Cleric spells, allowing you to use your prepared spells to branch out into more damage or more utility. The result is an incredibly well-rounded, versatile, and useful character.

🆗 Knowledge Domain

A magically-superpowered skill monkey. Cleric is very handy in combat but can struggle to be relevant outside it because of a lack of useful utility spells. This subclass makes you the party’s go-to for Intelligence checks and any other odd jobs, so you always have something to do.

This subclass adds something totally new to Cleric rather than strengthening an existing part of the class. So, while the subclass may not be very powerful, it rounds out your character.

✅ Life Domain

Healing is the bread-and-butter of this subclass, letting you restore extra health with your spells and making them more efficient. In particular, the base amount of health a spell restores is increased, and it also restores your own health, so you’ll never have to spend a turn healing yourself. This subclass is regarded as the all-time best healer for good reason.

You also get a small amount of combat ability, gaining heavy armor and powerful weapon attacks so that you can stand alongside the frontline fighters even as you pump them full of healing.

✅ Light Domain

One of Cleric’s best subclasses for combat spellcasting. Your domain spells give you lots of area-of-effect damage at earlier levels, and the default Cleric spell list will provide more at later levels. You can also boost your cantrip damage and use Channel Divinity to clear a crowd.

Once some more subclass abilities kick in, you can even turn to control casting since you can impose disadvantage on enemy attacks, and your domain spells start giving good control options.

⚠️ Nature Domain

This subclass toes the line between Cleric and Druid but, unfortunately, brings nothing new to the table. You either feel like you wasted a chance to get better subclass abilities or like you should have just played a Druid.

Taking the subclass at face value, you get more utility and an adaptable damage-resistance-ability that can cumulatively protect your party from a lot of damage. But unfortunately, there’s not enough power here to be anything better than mediocre.

✅ Order Domain

As a unique twist on combat, you help your party by exploiting the action economy. Make enemies skip a turn, give allies an extra attack, or cast buffs and debuffs as a bonus action. This subclass helps you squeeze value out of every turn of combat, eventually overwhelming your opponents.

Your attacks also get some strong damage boosts, and your domain spells make many enemies less threatening. When you’re not busy commanding the party in battle, you can be crushing skulls.

✅ Peace Domain

Note: This subclass is infamously powerful. Many DMs ban it at their table or homebrew fixes. Check in with your table before picking this domain because even if it is allowed, your DM will likely have to bump up the encounter challenge to compensate.

The free buffs your subclass abilities give you are perfect to help support your weaker party members huddled at the back of combat or further strengthen your frontline fighters. At higher levels, when you can apply your bond to your entire party at once, your collective power level skyrockets.

On a different note, your domain spells are chock full of great abjuration effects to keep beasties at bay, making you more of a control caster at times, though you are still mainly there for support.

✅ Tempest Domain

Another great spellcasting subclass, splitting its power between straight damage and control effects. You strike the perfect balance, able to concentrate on an ongoing area-of-effect spell while dealing maxed-out damage to single targets. Or hold off a swarm of enemies while also healing your party. The ability to do both well is quite strong.

Surprisingly, this subclass also grants heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency, so while you excel at spellcasting, you can also safely enter the fray to protect your friends.

🆗 Trickery Domain

Your passion for stealth pushes you towards a Dexterity and light armor build, but you’ll still spend most of your time casting spells, which is great because your domain spells are excellent. These give you great maneuverability and some powerful control effects like polymorph or dominate person.

However, being good at bamboozling people is hard to turn into a tangible advantage, and you definitely move away from Cleric’s support focus which makes this subclass a bit weaker than others.

🆗 Twilight Domain

Kind of an eclectic mix of abilities, but all quite useful. Handing out temporary HP and granting allies half cover makes combat much less lethal. Getting to fly and see in the dark makes you a better scout. Heavy armor and martial weapons make you a stronger fighter. Nothing to complain about.

The thing is that aside from the combat bonuses, your subclass abilities are tricky to leverage for extra power. Even your domain spells are a bit bland, so you need to get creative to tap into this subclass’ true strength.

⚠️ War Domain

This is one of Cleric’s main martial subclasses. You get an extra attack as a bonus action (barely better than dual-wielding) complemented by the ability to gain massive bonuses on your attack roll, so you always hit. Add in heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency, and you’re a discount Paladin.

The downside is that Cleric’s strength lies with its spells. Forgoing a support buff or a healing spell to make one or two weak attacks is hardly worth it, so this subclass can shoot itself in the foot sometimes.

Spells

The core of Cleric’s spell list is its support spells (both buffs and healing), to sprinkle liberally on your friends. Outside of that, you’ll also have some powerful radiant and necrotic damage spells for offense. Many of your spells improve when cast with a higher spell slot, so be careful about which slot you expend when.

What follows is a list of the most indispensable Cleric spells, which any Cleric should consider keeping prepped at all times. For an exhaustive list, check out our guide to the best Cleric spells.

Cantrips

✅ Guidance: Makes you more useful outside of combat since you can pass more ability checks with this buff. And since it’s a cantrip, you can have this running essentially all the time.
🆗 Sacred Flame: A great go-to damage cantrip that skips cover to blast your enemies.
🆗 Spare the Dying: Quick and easy way to save your friends from death, even if you’re out of spell slots.
✅ Toll the Dead: An even better damage cantrip since the damage increases against wounded enemies. Can add up to a lot at higher levels.
🆗 Word of Radiance: Reliable area-of-effect for when you get surrounded.

1st Level

🆗 Bane: Never underestimate how effective a d4 penalty can be on every attack or save an enemy makes. Strong even at higher levels.
✅ Cure Wounds: Your best friend as Cleric. You’ll spend a lot of time casting this for its great healing-to-slot-level value.
✅ Guiding Bolt: Strong ranged damage that lets your allies double down on your poor target.
✅ Healing Word: Not as much healing as cure wounds, but this has range and only takes a bonus action to cast (which spell is better is an ongoing debate). Very convenient to throw down one of these and then cast a cantrip in the same turn.
✅ Shield of Faith: One of Cleric’s many strong defensive buffs that use concentration. If you can avoid getting hit, or just tank the hits, you can give an ally a serious defense boost.

2nd Level

🆗 Enhance Ability: Good on an ally, good on you. Just helps someone pass more checks, which always rocks.
🆗 Lesser Restoration: May not be needed often, but you’ll thank your lucky stars you have this spell prepared when the situation arises.
✅ Prayer of Healing: Simple group heal. Gives you excellent value for your spell slot.
✅ Spiritual Weapon: This is a stupid spell. Stupid good. A bonus action attack lets you affect the battlefield even if you spend your turn healing.

3rd Level

🆗 Aura of Vitality: Easier than popping healing word as your bonus action and lets you use a full-action spell on your turn while still healing.
✅ Beacon of Hope: Advantage on Wisdom and death saves keeps your friends alive, and maximum healing gets them back on their feet if they do fall. Provides tons of buffs for one little spell slot.
⚠️ Dispel Magic: Important utility to have, though you might want to let another party member handle utility as you cover healing.
🆗 Magic Circle: An excellent way to give your entire party a key advantage over a group of enemies. The only trick is keeping the relevant parties within the circle.
⚠️ Mass Healing Word: Mostly useful because it gives you group healing while only taking a bonus action to cast. Still, not very efficient.
✅ Revivify: The first spell in the game that brings back dead party members. This should be prepared at all times so that you can rush over and save your friend from needing to tear up their character sheet.
🆗 Spirit Shroud: A good spell for a melee Cleric. Goad a crowd of enemies into attacking you while this spell is active, and you can tear through them while drawing focus away from your allies.

4th Level

🆗 Aura of Purity: That is a lot of conditions to have advantage against. Not great when your party is already half-dead, but a good spell to lead with in combat. Just be ready to drop it when more pressing needs arise.
✅ Death Ward: This does not take concentration. If you have the spell slots, you could apply this to every party member and give them all a 1UP. That is all.
🆗 Guardian of Faith: The super-long duration means this spell will deal 60 damage guaranteed, which is more than a max-damage fireball could do with this level spell slot. Quite efficient and perfect for blocking off a doorway or covering a flank.

5th Level

🆗 Dispel Evil and Good: The upgrade from protection from evil and good is that the disadvantages apply to all the creature types—you’re not limited to just one type of your choice. Also, getting to instantly blast a creature to a different plane is very fun and powerful.
🆗 Flame Strike: Now we start getting into Cleric’s best damage spells. Flame strike certainly does a lot of damage, and in a cylinder too, so you can hit flying monsters. It’s not as good as fireball, but for Cleric’s spell list, it’s great.
🆗 Greater Restoration: Not often used, but good for some important effects like removing curses or un-reducing someone’s max HP.
⚠️ Hallow: The casting time drags this spell down, but powering-up your party’s home base protects you against ambushes and assassinations.
✅ Holy Weapon: An incredible buff for any martial party member, and it lasts for an entire hour. Very much worth the spell slot.
✅ Mass Cure Wounds: Excellent group heal for mid-level parties, and scales well at higher levels.
✅ Raise Dead: A much less restrictive way to bring back a dead friend than revivify, though the material component can get expensive.

6th Level

✅ Harm: Quite simply a lot of damage at good range. Sometimes the best way to protect your friends is to instantly kill a threatening monster.
✅ Heal: At this level, dropping this spell will probably bring someone back up to full health or near to. But really, the big benefit here is not rolling for healing. Having a static amount of health restored adds some nice reliability to your repertoire.
✅ Heroes’ Feast: This is expensive for a reason. You and your eleven closest friends get some crazy buffs for a whole day. Perfect for wrapping up a long rest before a challenging dungeon crawl or boss fight.
✅ Sunbeam: When did Cleric get so good at damage? Throwing down a slightly-weaker lightning bolt every turn adds up to a lot of dead enemies.

7th Level

🆗 Divine Word: This would be hit-or-miss except for two things: it only takes a bonus action to cast, and you can target any number of creatures in range. You can outright kill packs of weak enemies with this, so be sure to soften them up first.
🆗 Fire Storm: A huge area-of-effect. Powerful if unexciting.
🆗 Plane Shift: By this level, your party will probably be plane hopping, so having one or two party members with this spell is important.
🆗 Regenerate: Healing is nice, but regrowing a limb? You’d be hard-pressed to find another magical effect that does that!
✅ Resurrection: Reliable way to bring back a party member that is so lenient you don’t need to rush in the slightest.

8th Level

🆗 Antimagic Field: It’s not a huge radius, but enough to squeeze in your whole party. The ultimate defensive shield against spellcasters, counterspell, or summoned beasties.
✅ Holy Aura: The one-size-fits-all buff for your party. For the low price of one spell slot, your allies get stronger, your enemies get weaker, and attacking your party just makes things worse for monsters. Lots of value in one package.
🆗 Sunburst: Lots of damage with a huge range. Good for taking out armies.

9th Level

🆗 Gate: If you find yourself burnt out on planeshift, this is a more flexible version of the same effect. Again, great if your party is traveling the multiverse. Someone in your party should have this spell ready.
✅ Mass Heal: The best group heal in the game. Unless you have a massive party, all your friends will be back up to full health after this.
🆗 Power Word: Heal: A complete single-target heal. Mass heal is usually better since it’s the same spell level. The only exception is when you need to heal yourself, in which case this takes the cake.
✅ True Resurrection: The crown jewel of Cleric’s spell list. A no-holds-barred resurrection spell that doesn’t even weaken the creature you bring back. It’s prohibitively expensive, so a different resurrection spell will probably be a better choice for most situations, but never doubt the sheer power on display here.

Feats

Cleric does well with lots of ability score increases, rounding out their martial skills, spellcasting, and saving throws. But if a feat is calling to you, here are the best options.

⚠️ Fighting Initiate: None of your options are crazy good, and you might be better off taking a flashier feat. But if you really want to gain +1 AC or the ability to impose disadvantage on attacks versus allies, this is an easy way to do so without having to multiclass.
✅ Heavily Armored: If you didn’t get heavy armor proficiency from your subclass and really need the AC boost, this is an easy choice, especially at early levels.
✅ Inspiring Leader: It may take some investment to get your Charisma high enough to take this feat, but spending a measly 10 minutes before a boss fight to increase your party members’ HP by about a dozen points each is worthwhile.
⚠️ Medium Armor Master: The stealth penalty of some medium armor can get annoying, and this is the best way to overcome it. Adding another point of your Dexterity modifier to your AC is nice too, but if you want a straight armor boost, heavy armor proficiency is usually better.
🆗 Observant: More Wisdom and +5 to your passive perception synergize with what Cleric is already doing, making you an eagle-eyed scout.
🆗 Tough: More health is more good for a defensive class. Clean and simple.
✅ War Caster: Many of your best spells are buffs requiring concentration, and your party members will rely on that buff staying active as they wade into a crowd of enemies. Maintaining your concentration as Cleric is crucial, so this feat is too. And getting a cheeky toll the dead or blight as an opportunity attack is quite good as well.

To Sum It Up

Hopefully, the excellent flavor, versatility, and raw support power of Cleric has caught your interest. If you appreciated this guide, be sure to let us know in the comments. We’d love to hear about your new Cleric character. And share this guide with any friends looking to try out Cleric!