Clerics in 5e - Not a Healbot

Do you play a cleric because “the group needs a healer”, or are you simply drawn to the idea of a character powered by divine magic? Are you also someone who is put off by the expectation that you will have to be a ”healbot”? You aren’t alone.

I recently interacted with a player with a negative opinion; she was stuck in the lie that clerics are healers and should focus on that. This led her to pick the Life Domain and embody the idea of the healbot. She told me she didn’t enjoy combat at all as it wasn’t fun for her —it was boring— so she’d rather play in a session with minimal combat. This perplexed me, as I know cleric is arguably the most powerful class in 5e D&D.

After realising she simply didn’t know her options and her previous group had likely never told her, I thought I would write this article to help out the new cleric players.

Tempest Domain Cleric

The class that made the player who hated combat fall in love with it. Blast your enemies from the sky with lightning magic. Wear heavy armour to shrug off those hits, and blast any foes who dare hit you with the Wrath of the Storm. The signature feature? Gain the ability to do MAXIMUM DAMAGE on any lighting or thunder damage you deal — no rolling required! This spell list includes control and damage spells, allowing you to completely take over the battlefield and terrify your enemies.

Light Domain Cleric

Sticking with the blasty theme for now, the light cleric is the only cleric to gain access to one of Dungeons & Dragons’ most iconic spells — FIREBALL! This cleric wants to be within 30 feet of the action, allowing you to impose “disadvantage” on enemy attack roles or burn them with your radiance of the dawn feature. For the Tempest’s mastery of lightning and thunder damage, the Light cleric makes up with some of the best damage spells in the game with the fire-based spell list.

Knowledge Domain Cleric

Feeling a bit jealous of the wizard’s utility and smarts? How about expertise in one knowledge-based skill? In addition, if you really need proficiency in something right now, use Knowledge of the Ages to gain proficiency with any tool or skill for ten minutes. At later levels, you can even gain the ability to read thoughts. This spell list is focused on gaining knowledge and power over others with spells like Command, Suggestion and Speak with Dead. A really awesome roleplay-focused class.

Death Domain Cleric

Ever wanted to play a vampire-themed cleric, sucking the life out of your enemies and empowering yourself and your allies? This is the cleric for you. An interesting Domain with a focus on necrotic damage with bonuses to both your weapon’s damage and forms of necromancy. This spell list is focused on making your enemies weaker and yourself stronger. Later you’ll get Animate Dead, allowing you to raise your enemies and send them against their former allies.

Peace Domain Cleric

One of the Domains from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, and one of the classes that are so powerful there are veteran DMs running scared. Yeah, that guy who is your world’s version of god is scared of you. You may want to check with them before deciding to play as this cleric. So why is it so powerful? Well, besides a spell list of truly awesome buff and utility spells, you’ll gain proficiency in a social skill and you’ll gain Emboldening Bond. Which acts as a form of the Bless spell, which is one of the best spells in the game. Oh, it also stacks with Bless itself, allowing your party members to add 2d4 to an attack roll, an ability check, or a saving throw once per turn. Or 1d4 to one of those twice in a single turn. In a game where a +1 bonus is a big deal, the ability to dish out between +1 and +4 to your party is huge. In addition, Balm of Peace allows you to do drive-by healing and protective bond will allow your party members to TELEPORT to each other! Your DM is very scared right now.

All this in addition to a cleric class which is one of the best classes, if not the best class, in the game. There are a ton of other fun Domains I haven’t touched on, like the borderline broken Twilight Domain or the aggressive War Domain.

With this in mind, you do not have to be a healbot or even a healer if you want to play a cleric. If your party really starts to hurt for healing you can still swap in Cure Wounds and Healing Word to cover their basic healing needs. Healing Word is also a ranged bonus action, so you don’t even need to spend your whole action getting a party member back up.

I hope this persuades you that you can have fun as a cleric and there are so many different playstyles available to you, if you just apply a little creativity. Don’t let others tell you what a cleric has to be.