Cleric Subclasses - Tasha's

 So we come to the conclusion of the Cleric subclass review. So far, I think that there are more subclasses that work pretty decently than I'd have expected, though I still think Life and Grave are your best choices for playing a straight-up healer. Let's see what the latest ones bring.

Also, to repeat this note: I'm going to breeze past Divine Strike and Potent Spellcasting - each subclass gets one or the other at level 8, with the only difference being that the damage of Divine Strike tends to change with the subclass. There's also the optional Blessed Strike, which doesn't upgrade like Divine Strike, but also applies to cantrips and also deals radiant damage, making it a pretty decent option in many situations (and if you have a Divine Strike subclass and would prefer to stay at range with spells, this is a good thing to pick up.)

Order Domain:

Originally published in Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica, this is the subclass mostly associated with the Azorius Senate and the Orzhov Syndicate (though I always saw it as closer to the former than the latter.) You're devoted to institutional obedience, meaning that you're basically always going to be some flavor of lawful. Given the lack of gods (or at least the scarcity of them and their influence) in Ravnica, this is designed more around being a "philosophical cleric," though of course deities in other settings might represent order - whether that's a benign one, a neutral one, or a malevolent and despotic one.

Your domain spells are Command, Heroism, Hold Person, Zone of Truth, Mass Healing Word, Slow, Compulsion, Locate Creature, Commune, and Dominate Person. As this was designed initially to work for the Azorius, who are one of the two law-enforcement guilds in Ravnica, it makes sense that this has a lot of enchantment spells to force foes (criminals?) to stop and even answer your questions.

You also get proficiency with heavy armor, as well as your choice of Persuasion or Intimidation.

At 1st level, you get Voice of Authority. If you cast a spell  using a spell slot that targets an ally, that ally can use their reaction immediately after the spell takes effect to make one weapon attack against a creature of your choice that you can see. If the spell targets multiple allies, you choose which one can make the attack. I like how, flavorfully, this kind of gives you a leadership position. It's also nice as you can cast bless on the party and then have one of your allies make a newly-enhanced attack with it.

At 2nd level, you get Channel Divinity: Order's Demand. As an action, you present your holy symbol (man, they don't seem to want Clerics to use a component pouch) and all creatures of your choice within 30 feet of you who can see or hear you makes a Wisdom saving throw or gets charmed by you until the end of your next turn or until they take any damage. You can also force the charmed creatures to drop what they're holding when they fail the save - this latter can be great, as your allies can then sweep up their weapons (as usual, just because you've charmed them doesn't mean your allies have, but forcing a foe to drop what they're carrying can have some very useful applications.

At 6th level, you get Embodiment of the Law. If you cast an enchantment spell of 1st level or higher, you can change the spell's casting time to a bonus action (as long as its normal speed is 1 action.) You can do this a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier per long rest. Ask a sorcerer how useful Quickened Spell is, and you can see how useful this is (for example, freeing up your action to disengage or dash.)

At level 8, you get Divine Strike, dealing psychic damage.

Finally, at 17, you get Order's Wrath. If you deal your Divine Strike damage to a creature on your turn, you can curse the creature. The next time one of your allies hits a creature with an attack, the target also takes 2d8 psychic damage and the curse ends. You can only curse a creature this way once a turn. So A: RAW this doesn't work with Blessed Strike, so you probably don't want to take that. B: this really encourages you to mix it up in melee with your weapons, as you can get in a pretty substantial amount of damage between your extra 2d8 and your ally's.

To me, this seems like one of the most martial-based Clerics, and could potentially increase the damage output of your party by a decent amount. It does seem pretty appropriate for the urban combat you'd find in Ravnica, but could apply in any party with martial characters.

Peace Domain:

We've had Death and Life domain, so why not have Peace to offset War? This is probably one of the most obviously good-aligned domains, and while you'll be able to aid allies in fights, it seems like you ought to RP this as someone who tries to prevent conflicts.

Your domain spells are Heroism, Sanctuary, Aid, Warding Bond, Beacon of Hope, Sending, Aura of Purity, Otiluke's Resilient Sphere, Greater Restoration, and Rary's Telepathic Bond. Weird to me that Calm Emotions isn't on this list, but there's definitely a lot here to save someone from harm and open lines of communication.

You get Implements of Peace, gaining proficiency in your choice of Insight, Performance, or Persuasion.

At 1st level, you get Emboldening Bond. As an action, you choose a number of willing creatures within 30 feet of you (it can include yourself) equal to your proficiency bonus. (Technically it does not say "up to," though I would probably rule that if you have fewer people around you can use it on them still.) For 10 minutes or until you use this feature again, if any bonded creature is within 30 feet of another, they can add a d4 to one attack roll, ability check, or saving throw per turn (not per round, notably, so they can still use it on a save on a foe's turn.) You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus per long rest. So, you get a somewhat watered-down (but longer-lasting) Bless spell, which can also stack with the Bless Spell (meaning that together, they can add 2d4.) Bless is amazing, and while the once-a-turn thing here is a bit of a bummer, it's still very good.

At 2nd level, you get Channel Divinity: Balm of Peace. As an action, you can move up to your speed without provoking opportunity attacks, and when you move within 5 feet of any other creature during this action, you can restore hit points equal to 2d6 + your Wisdom modifier to them. (You can only heal each creature once per use of this action.) Depending on how bunched up your allies are, this can actually mean a pretty substantial group heal, which is pretty nice.

At 6th level, you get Protective Bond. If a creature affected by your Emboldening Bond is about to take damage, a second bonded creature within 30 feet of them can use their reaction to teleport to an unoccupied space within 5 feet of the first creature and takes the damage instead. This really encourages the whole party to act selflessly, giving a bit of mobility but also making it a lot easier to protect a vulnerable ally. (I'm imagining each party member coming and absorbing hits made against an unconscious ally.)

At level 8, you get Potent Spellcasting.

At 17, you get Expansive Bond. Your Emboldening Bond and Protective Bond features now work when the creatures are within 60 feet of each other. And if a creature uses Protective Bond to take someone else's damage, they get resistance to that damage. This actually makes it very advantageous for everyone to soak one another's damage (and could be really confusing for the monsters.) This basically rewards the party for going all "I'm Spartacus" and covering each other, potentially adding up to a significant reduction in damage taken.

Man, Peace domain is interesting - it really makes the party participants in the subclass' benefits, but they can be very potent if everyone plays along.

Twilight Domain:

The last of the very many Cleric subclasses, Twilight Domain could almost be seen as a foil to Light domain, though in truth, this is about the interplay between light and shadow. I think you could have a very cool aesthetic going with this one.

Your domain spells are Faerie Fire, Sleep, Moonbeam, See Invisibility, Aura of Vitality, Leomund's Tiny Hut, Aura of Life, Greater Invisibility, Circle of Power, and Mislead. There seems to be two themes here: playing with perception and also creating beneficial auras.

You also gain proficiency in heavy armor and martial weapons.

At 1st level, you get Eyes of Night. You have darkvision out to a range of 300 feet. You read that right. 300. You can see very far in the dark. Additionally, as an action, you can share this huge-range darkvision to willing creatures equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1) you can see within 10 feet of you for 1 hour. You can do this once free per long rest, or you can spend a spell slot of any level to do it again.

Also at 1 you get Vigilant Blessing. As an action, you can touch a creature (including yourself, potentially) and give them advantage on their next initiative roll. The benefit ends after the roll or if you use this again. Giving, say, the Assassination Rogue (or the Wizard who likes to start fights off with a Slow spell) advantage on initiative can be really useful.

At 2nd level, you get Channel Divinity: Twilight Sanctuary. As an action, you present your holy symbol and a sphere of twilight emanates from you - a 30-ft radius of dim light, which moves with you and lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated or die. When a creature including you ends its turn in the sphere, you can grant them one of the following benefits: they get temporary hit points equal to 1d6 + your Cleric level, or you end one effect on it causing it to be charmed or frightened. Remember that you have darkvision, so dim light is as good as bright light for you, but it will also make it harder for foes to make perception checks to find you if you're hidden. Also, these bonuses are pretty fantastic - you don't use your reaction, so each of your allies is getting those refreshing temp HP. And buckle up, because it gets even better with the next feature:

At 6th level, you get Steps of Night. As a bonus action while you're in dim light or darkness, you magically give yourself a flying speed equal to your walking speed for 1 minute. You can use this a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus each long rest. You only need to start in dim light or darkness, and if you're in an insanely bright room without shadows, you can use Twilight Sanctuary to turn the lights down. The limit on how many times you can do this means you won't just be flying around all day, but it could be a nice clutch ability.

At level 8, you get Divine Strike, dealing radiant damage.

Finally, at 17, you get Twilight Shroud. You and your allies have half cover while within the sphere created by Twilight Sanctuary.  A +2 to AC for all your allies is nothing to sneeze at, and you'll want to use this channel divinity option on any major fight.

Overall, I really like the concept of this subclass. It is very reliant on your Channel Divinity, though I'm used to playing a Paladin, who only ever gets one use per short rest, whereas a Cleric gets a second use at only level 6, and a 3rd at level 18, meaning that they can actually reasonably use this pretty frequently.

Clerics have an absolute ton of choices for subclass, and it all needs to be made at character creation (or the moment you multiclass into it. Actually, a single level of Cleric is the easiest way to quickly get Heavy Armor proficiency if you choose Forge, Life, Nature, Order, Tempest, Twilight, or War domains, because, bizarrely, Fighter and Paladin don't grant it unless it's your initial class.) I do think that Life and Grave are probably the most straightforward choices if you really want to lean into the healer archetype. Forge, Order, and Peace domains are pretty strong support classes that aren't strictly focused on healing. If you want to be a damage-dealing cleric, I think Death, Light, and Tempest are pretty good options. And there's a lot of versatility for Trickery, Twilight, and Arcana. Honestly, the only subclass that really felt underwhelming was Nature domain. Knowledge has the potential to be extremely useful in the right kind of campaign (a mystery-based one,) though its dungeon-crawling, combat abilities are perhaps a little more lacking.

In my attempt to alternate between pure casters and... not that, I'm going to make the next series on the Barbarian, which I believe will only leave the Bard and the Artificer. What a long, strange, somewhat obsessive trip it's been!