Cleric Subclass Tier Ranking in D&D 2024

TIME STAMPS
00:00 - Intro
00:31 - Sponsor
03:50 - Life Domain
13:24 - Light Domain
22:09 - Trickery Domain
32:33 - War Domain
44:49 - Final Rankings

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[valerius]

I like the new focus on S tier, no longer being just "really good", instead being "potentially broken or problematic at tables". That feels much more helpful for players and the right focus in general for analysis of how the classes and subclasses are balanced.

[AnimatingClass]

I think we're overlooking the changes to healing spells for high level life domain clerics that just max out dice. A 3rd level spell slot can easily mean 18 healing per person as a bonus action.

[Jin_]

My favorite life domain memory is when the Monk was getting eaten by a T-Rex and kept going onconscious while the life domain Cleric constantly got them back up.

[Draeckon]

I really wish the Life domain cleric had a class feature that let them grant temporary HP (besides a Spell) or to Overheal, giving Temp HP (or increasing Max HP) by the amount of excess healing.

[christaylor]

As others have pointed out, you seem to have missed this part of Preserve Life for Life Domain: "This feature can restore a creature to no more than half its Hit Point maximum."

[Zagrakhen]

For comparison, this is what Monty & Kelly gave 4 years ago for the Cleric Subclass Tier Ranking :
- Life Domain : S
- Light Domain : A
-Trickery Domain : B
-War Domain : C

[docnevyn]

My understanding is 2024 Disciple of Life only applies the turn you cast the spell. Therefore, it will have little effect on Aura of vitality (round 1 only) and none on goodberry.

[mcsherman]

6:32 Preserve life can't restore hit points past half a characters hitpoint max correct?
Makes this ability much more niche, you would use it when a few party members are really low.

[odinulveson]

Tempest for me aall the way! Thunder and lightning for the wicked there will be smiting!

[michaellawyer]

I've played a 1-20 War cleric using the 2014 rules, and the 2024 updates are amazing and remove the bumpiness. Personally I'd rate it an A. If I had the 2024 rules, Id never run out of War Priest Bonus Action attacks as my Wis modifier was 3+ and that's how long fights last, and I generally prepped with Spiritual weapon and either shield of faith or spirit guardians before combat starts.

[matthewlaird]

Also if you have a DM that refuses to have his enemies attack you duplicate and they just somehow know witch one is witch and they only swarm you, just switch place with your duplicate as a bonus action.

[MrsAjergirl]

47:43 Thanks for the little poem Kelly!
"But if I had to rank them, one through 4,
It goes; Trickery, Light, Life, War."

[saintpaulsnail]

I'm part of a 4-person party playing Curse of Strahd. Originally, we had a paladin, fighter, druid, and rogue. Healing was being provided primarily by the druid. After having the druid go down, and the paladin out of position, we realized we needed a cleric. By chance, my ability scores as a fighter were high because of good rolls, and I took a 13 in wisdom for a perception boost. When we leveled up from first to second level, I took a level in Life domain (2014 rules). With a wisdom of 13, my spell save DC and spell attack bonus were going to be minimal. I picked Life domain because the spells I picked were buffs, so DC and attack bonus don't matter. My pick of Protection from Evil and Good were clutch because we had two members who were in two different solo fights with ghouls. The fact that the ghouls were fighting with disadvantage meant our party members survived. Not the typical reasons for choosing Life domain, but it's working for us.

[MinhDuong-lguk]

Invoke Duplicity mimics your movements. Therefore, if you Invoke Duplicity and give yourself invisibility, you would not be able to "snatch the McGuffin" without detection because your Duplicate would "act out" every step you make. Outside observers would not know exactly where you are, but they would be able to watch you climb a latter, walk across a ledge and jumping down to a lower area (with a good investigation roll).

[shaneconnolly]

37:21 the feature says the spell ends if you cast it again, so no putting Shield of Faith on multiple party members with this.

[brandontaylor]

They added "regains additional Hit Points on the turn you cast the spell." so Aura of Vitality only gets one extra bonus to healing

[Shive]

If you can't spiritual guardians with trickster, then you can't thunderwave, you can't do touch either, as you would have it originate from your real self. The same with guiding bolt and so on and so on. It either lets you have spells 'shootout'/emenate/originate or whatever from the duplicate or you cannot.

[SamFinklestein]

Important note on True Strike: it will not help War Priest, since that is a weapon attack, and True Strike only allows you to use wisdom for the casting of the spell.
Still, Magic Initiate (Druid) can give you both Shillelagh and Magic Stone to allow both a melee and a ranged wisdom-based weapon attack for the price of one feat. Then take Absorb Elements or something for the 1st level spell.
In addition, something that might resolve the traffic jam: When you get to War God's Blessing, you have a way to focus War Priest in the few encounters where you don't use Spiritual Weapon, and you don't need to be concerned about running out of uses of either.

[AwesomeWookiee]

The temporary hit points from Light Cleric's level 6 feature is also a form of Multiattack defense. Very good design scaling.

[joeymarlin]

Pages 75 and 76 in PHB24 describe the Trickery Domain Cleric. Invoke duplicity is described as mimicking your expressions and gestures. It does not say the duplicate does every motion or movement your character does. Think of Loki's duplicates - they all could be expressing and moving their bodies in different ways, but Loki's personality is shown in each clone. You could therefore hide and have the enemy think you are the duplicate as you command your duplicate to run around and you cast spells through the duplicate.

Regarding casting spells through the duplicate - the PHB24 says you can cast spells as if you were in the duplicate's space but you use your own senses to cast them. With that wording, I feel spirit guardians would work with the duplicate. Spirit Guardians has a range of self with a 15ft emanation. So casting SG as if YOU were in the duplicate's space seems possible with rules as written.

This would make the Trickery Domain S Tier IMO.