Cleric Deep Dive

 The Cleric is one of the most powerful classes in D&D, and is basically unparalleled as a healer (though I maintain a Druid can totally also play the role of main healer). It's a fairly popular class, and a powerful one, so it didn't need any big boost to its power.

Still, we're going to be seeing a number of pretty significant changes. Some of these are basically there to divorce some of the pushes toward being more of a melee character versus being a spellcaster from subclasses, introducing independent choices that will grant you some of the generic bonuses previously attached to subclasses.

Like all classes, your subclass now comes at level 3, so you'll just be a "Cleric" at levels 1 and 2.

However, you'll start off with a choice in the feature called Divine Order. Here, you can choose between Protector or Thaumaturge. This is very similar to the Druid's Primal Order.

Protectors gain training in Heavy Armor and proficiency with martial weapons. Thaumaturges gain an additional cantrip and also gain the ability to add your Wisdom modifier to Intelligence (Arcana) and (Religion) checks.

Frankly, I think the decision here is a little more lopsided than it is for the Druid - at least in terms of AC, it's far easier to get nearly as good of an armor class with medium armor as with plate, while Light armor requires a heavy investment in Dexterity to get the most out of it. Attaching martial weapons to this might tip the scales a little more, though again, I think a Cleric with a Mace versus a Cleric with Warhammer isn't going to ultimately feel all too different, and I personally love the notion of letting Clerics finally actually be good at Religion checks. (Also, as a sidenote: as a DM, I really try to ensure that skills like Religion and Nature get their due - officially, questions regarding planar outsiders like fiends or celestials, as well as undead, fall under the Religion skill, while Arcana is more for things like Aberrations, Constructs, and Monstrosities).

Similarly, the old "Divine Strike" and "Potent Spellcasting" option is now no longer based on your subclass, but is a separate choice you make as you level up in the class (not unlike Druids' Primal Strikes and Potent Spellcasting - they're not being shy about showing how the two main Wisdom spellcasters are related).

In addition to a changed Turn Undead (see below) all Clerics also get a second Channel Divinity option at level 2, which is Divine Spark, which allows you to heal a friend or harm a foe with some radiant damage.

This is nice largely because it means that regardless of the situation you find yourself in, you'll basically always have something to use your Channel Divinity on. It also reinforces the Cleric's capacity to act as healer by letting you do some healing regardless of what spells you have prepared.

Turn Undead is now, thankfully, less of a nightmare for DMs. An undead creature that fails its save will now simply get the Frightened and Incapacitated conditions. So, the feature now plays the proper role of shutting down undead that you encounter, but won't force the DM to figure out how far off the battle map those zombies can get if they're dashing every turn for 8 rounds.

Destroy Undead is now Sear Undead, and upgrades Turn Undead but in a manner that is more universal: when an undead creature fails its save against Turn Undead, it'll also take a burst of radiant damage (which goes up as you level up). This damage doesn't end the turned status, and will supposedly get big enough that you'll still potentially be able to insta-kill low-CR undead simply because they don't have enough HP.

I think this is good - it'll make it a more useful ability against high-CR undead foes (though immunity to fear could be a bit of an issue - luckily basically nothing is immune to being incapacitated).

Now, let's talk Divine Intervention.

This is a big controversy, and I think there are definitely some cases in which this could be overpowered. Divine Intervention no longer involves a percentile roll - instead, at level 10, you can use your Divine Intervention to cast any Cleric spell of 5th level or lower with a casting time that is not a reaction for free (no spell slot, no material components) as an action once per long rest.

The ideal case here is getting a free Revivify or Raise Dead without having to burn through a valuable diamond (as Todd Kenreck comments, the diamond economy just took a massive hit). But I've seen some people talking about how this could become crazy with spells that normally take a long time to cast, like Hallow, suddenly shifting the battlefield into a state that is utterly untenable for the monsters.

The level 20 upgrade to this grants Clerics the ability to cast Wish once per long rest, which of course can be used to duplicate any spell of 8th level or lower from any class. Note here that as far as I can tell, this doesn't cost your 9th level spell slot to do, which is insane.

So, if you had any worries about Clerics not being powerful enough... um, yeah. I think they're going to be fine. And a nightmare for DMs, potentially. But also probably fun as hell, and isn't that why we're here?

Let's talk domains.

Clerics, along with Wizards, are among the only classes to get fewer subclasses in the 2024 PHB than they had in 2014. You should still be able to use the old subclasses (with some stipulations like not doubling up on Divine Strike) but these four have gotten revamped and reworked.

Life Domain, as far as I can tell, looks pretty similar. The big boost that all healers are getting is that classic healing spells like Cure Wounds, Healing Word, and the like, are getting just straight-up buffed. Cure Wounds' base healing will be 2d8+Wis (or Int if you're an Artificer, etc.) and each upcast level adds 2d8, not quite doubling its power but for sure buffing it.

Another note that makes me really wish they could go back and edit the Gothic Lineages in Van Richten's is that many features and spell, including Life Domain's Preserve Life, now work on Undead and Constructs. Evidently, specific undead (likely incorporeal ones) that are sort of made out of negative energy will now have traits on their stat blocks that allow them to be damaged by casting healing spells on them, rather than baking this idea into the spells themselves.

Ok, now, first of all: the Light Domain still has Fireball. Is there anything else we need to worry about here? I mean, that means the subclass is fine, right?

Fine, other changes: Warding Flare will now be usable on allies immediately, and the level 6 upgrade to this adds temporary hit points and refreshes your uses of the feature on a short or long rest. Corona of Light will also now benefit your Radiance of the Dawn.

The Trickery Domain is getting some really great upgrades: first off, Invoke Duplicity is now a bonus action, and on top of that, it no longer requires concentration.

Blessing of the Trickster can now be used on the Cleric themselves, and it also now lasts until the end of your next long rest, which is a big quality-of-life improvement.

The later improvement of Invoke Duplicity no longer conjures multiple duplicates, but arguably becomes more powerful because you can now swap places with your duplicate when you summon it - which I could see being very powerful in both combat and also social encounters ("oh yes officer, I understand that I'm not allowed into that building. I will just stand right here"). Your duplicate will now also bestow the advantage it gives to you when it's nearby to any allies. Also, the illusion now heals nearby allies (or you) if it vanishes.

The War Domain sees, somewhat like that improvement to Warding Flare, an improvement to Guided Strike, where you'll now be able to use it on allies as well as yourself from the moment you get the feature. War Clerics will also be able to make an Unarmed Strike as part of their bonus action attack with War Priest, which, one should remember, should also include the option to shove or to grapple. War Priest also refreshes its charges on a Short Rest as well as a Long Rest now.

War God's Blessing is totally redesigned, allowing War Clerics to cast Shield of Faith or Spiritual Weapon using Channel Divinity, and if they do, the spell doesn't require concentration. (This implies that Spiritual Weapon will now require concentration by default - I believe its upcasting damage scaling is better now, though I don't know if it's still limited by that 20-foot movement speed, which honestly I think is its biggest weakness now).

Avatar of Battle has also been simplified, and now just grants resistance to all bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage, not just nonmagical damage. I'll note here that more recent monster design has seen a lot of powerful magical beings now doing Force damage with their weapons, but enough monsters - whether they're lower-CR rank-and-file monsters or simply nonmagical bosses like a dragon, for instance - do these kinds of damage that it should be very useful.

As a final note, the domain spells for all of these subclasses have been revisited. The only new addition I recall is that War Clerics now get Steel Wind Strike, a pretty powerful 5th-level bomb.

Overall, I think the class looks like it's still very good. We'll see how much of a terror the new Divine Intervention is, but I feel pretty confident that anyone who liked the old Cleric will have fun with the new one. And remember, weird off-label uses of Divine Intervention and Wish are always available if the DM thinks it's cool!