Few adventurers are saddled with a responsibility like Grave Clerics are. It’s their duty to keep the natural cycle of birth and death, ensuring none live beyond their appointed lifespan while also saving chosen heroes from dying before their time. Whether your backstory leads you to try and forestall death or drives you to end unnatural undeath, you’ll be touched by the grave wherever you go.

Fluff aside, Grave Clerics make for some of the best support characters in the game, working double-time to keep their party alive and kicking. Toss in some insane damage potential, and you have a well-rounded build that will become an integral part of your party.

Grave Clerics dedicate themselves to one of many gods who guard the balance of life and death, such as Kelemvor, Lathander, Myrkul, Savras, or Sehanine Moonbow. If you’re looking to play a necromancer without being evil, Grave Cleric is the choice for you. Read on for tips on how to play this unique subclass!

Using This Guide

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

How to Play a Grave Cleric

Out of all the Cleric subclasses, the Grave Domain is best at keeping your party from dying. Your role is to hand out buffs like candy while your party is fighting, then when one of them is knocked unconscious, you swoop in to save them before they fail their last death save (Support). Just be wary—your own defenses aren’t great, so keeping yourself away from danger is the best way to support your party.

Hitting your optimization threshold as a Grave Cleric can be tricky because most of your best subclass features and spells work reactively. Your best bet is to assemble as many tricks as you can in your spellcasting toolbox, get your Wisdom to 20 as soon as possible, then play for a while to see what unexpected weaknesses arise.

Being an Effective Support

Most of the time, you should be running a buff spell that makes it more difficult for a party member to die. Another viable option is buffs that increase your party’s damage output so combat ends before anyone gets hurt.

When a party member does go down, heal them as soon as possible. If some pressing need forces you to cast some other spell on your turn, at least use spare the dying as a bonus action to stabilize them. To prevent your friends from getting knocked unconscious in the first place, keep healing them. Also, try to preempt damage with protective spells; it’s often more efficient than just healing up someone as they continuously get stabbed.

🛡️ Looking for another subclass? Check out our guide to Life Domain Cleric

Grave Domain Subclass Features

Your primary role as a Grave Cleric will be to keep your allies alive, either through healing, negating threats, or reviving them once they fall. The variety of your subclass features allow you to fill this role in several ways, though you’re always pushed towards helping reactively.

✅ Domain Spells

1st Level

🆗 Bane

A d4 penalty is nothing to scoff at, even against big monsters, but only use this if using a buff instead would be ineffective.

🆗 False Life

A solid HP bump at lower levels, but you’ll probably rely on it less at higher levels. No concentration makes this especially useful.

2nd Level

✅ Gentle Repose

Makes your resurrection spells much better since their power scales with how quickly you need to cast them. An excellent spell to have permanently prepared.

⚠️ Ray of Enfeeblement

Not a particularly powerful effect. Except against huge beasties like dragons.

3rd Level

✅ Revivify

Resurrection spells are crucial for a support class, and having this permanently prepared means the time limit is less limiting. A staple spell for Grave Cleric.

🆗 Vampiric Touch

A cost-efficient attack for a decent bit of damage. Nothing huge, but fairly reliable, and healing yourself should never be underestimated.

4th Level

✅ Blight

Powerful and scales well when cast with higher-level spell slots. A good go-to if you are backed into a corner and need to deal damage.

✅ Death Ward

An absolute must. Have it on at least one of your party members at all times. The 8-hour duration and the fact that it doesn’t require concentration make this spell essential.

5th Level

🆗 Antilife Shell

Very effective at staving off a wave of melee-attacking enemies. Can also be used to block off a corridor.

✅ Raise Dead

Other than revivify, this is the only resurrection spell that really benefits from being permanently prepared. More flexibility makes this a powerful tool.

🆗 Circle of Mortality

Extra healing for downed allies equals great value. But the real winner here is spare the dying as a bonus action with range. So much easier to stabilize a friend without having to sacrifice your turn.

⚠️ Eyes of the Grave

In an undead-heavy campaign (looking at you, Curse of Strahd), this is only occasionally useful. The rest of the time, it’s pretty weak. If you want this, multiclass as a Ranger with undead as your favored enemy.

✅ Channel Divinity: Path to the Grave

Setting up a double-damage hit is a superb way to spend your turn when you’re not healing or buffing someone. Combine this with a crit or a sneak attack and it gets insane.

✅ Sentinel at Death’s Door

A surprise critical can kill a friend before you get a chance to heal them. Negating that crit is, therefore, indispensable and leaves your ally in a better place to counterattack and be healed.

✅ Potent Spellcasting

You’re a spellcaster, so you will use cantrips to attack all the time. Excellent damage boost.

🆗 Keeper of Souls

This provides some passive healing, so your party is constantly getting topped up. Takes some of the pressure off of you and offers your party members a nice reward for hunting down the biggest threats.

🛡️ Not convinced yet? Try playing a Twilight Domain Cleric instead

The Perfect Grave Domain Build

Ability Scores

⛔ Strength

Dump stat.

🆗 Dexterity

You probably won’t use this for weapon attacks, but the AC bump is a welcome defensive bonus.

🆗 Constitution

Your party is really screwed if you drop, so extra health is essential to not dying. Also helps you maintain concentration on buff spells.

⛔ Intelligence

Dump stat.

✅ Wisdom

Your magic uses Wisdom, and you are a spellcaster before anything else. Keep this high so enemies can’t resist your effects and so you heal for extra health.

⛔ Charisma

Dump stat.

Races

✅ Protector Aasimar is one of if not the best race for Grave Cleric since their myriad of extra abilities gives you tons of flexibility as a support. Githzerai, Hill Dwarf, Lizardfolk, and Tortle are also quality options that improve your defenses to keep you alive and healing.

🆗 Variant Human with the war caster feat makes for a strong start. Firbolg, Reborn, and Warforged are decent defensive options. Otherwise, Water Genasi, Harengon, and Kalashtar are well-rounded picks.

Feats

✅ Heavily Armored

If you can meet the Strength requirement, this helps shore up your AC and lets you take more risks in combat.

✅ Lucky

You’re a little weak defensively, so making an attack miss you can be a lifesaver.

🆗 Medium Armor Master

Eeking out a little extra AC never hurts, and ditching the disadvantage on stealth makes higher AC medium armor more viable.

✅ Tough

You really don’t want to go down in battle. With limited AC, more HP is your best way to survive.

✅ War Caster

You want to be dropping buffs as much as possible, so improved concentration checks are a big help. Plus you can sneak in some serious damage with opportunity attacks.