Grave Domain is actually the Cleric subclass that I have the most familiarity with, running a 5-and-going campaign with one as well as having one as our healer in Curse of Strahd, as well as of course watching Caduceus in Critical Role's second campaign. It's a very solid subclass that has always been great for bringing allies back from the brink. Let's see how the UA alters it - naturally, we'll be seeing the removal of its enhanced cantrip as that's now a baseline class choice.
My sense on my first reading of it was that it actually incorporates some ideas from the 2014 DMG's Death Domain, but let's look closely:
Domain Spells:
Cantrip: Chill Touch
1st: Bane, Detect Evil and Good
2nd: Gentle Repose, Ray of Enfeeblement
3rd: Revivify, Vampiric Touch
4th: Blight, Dispel Evil and Good
5th: Hold Monster, Raise Dead
Here are the changes: You don't automatically get Spare the Dying, and you lose False Life, Death Ward, and Antilife Shell, getting instead Chill Touch, Detect Evil and Good, Dispel Evil and Good, and Hold Monster.
Chill Touch of course is now a touch spell, making it harder to use than before. Spare the Dying's old benefits from this subclass are less important now that it's a ranged cantrip anyway (though having it as a bonus action was really nice). Blight, again, is not very good, but it's not a change. I suspect that Detect Evil and Good is there to replace Eyes of the Grave. Dispel Evil and Good is actually pretty strong (and kind of a misleading name, as the dispelling is kind of a secondary use of the spell).
Level 3:
Circle of Mortality has two sub-features:
Pull of Death lets you, once per turn, when you cast a spell or hit with an attack roll and deal damage to a Bloodied creature, they take an extra 1d4 Necrotic damage.
Not a ton, and if you're fighting little dudes you might not need the extra damage when they're already bloodied. When the enemy is beefier, though, I don't know if 1d4 is going to make an enormous difference. Still, fun.
Return to Life works like the old feature, letting you maximize healing on a target that is at 0 HP with your spells and Channel Divinity healing.
Path to the Grave lets you use a bonus action and a channel divinity charge to curse a target within 30 feet, giving them disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws until the start of your next turn. When you or an ally hit the target with an attack roll, you can end the curse early (no action required) to make the attack deal your choice of Necrotic or Radiant damage equal to 1d8 + your Cleric level.
Ok, so there's a lot to unpack here. The old version would make the target vulnerable to the damage of the next attack that hit it, and also cost an action. So, this could be considered a nerf in some ways, but also a buff. If you lined up to ensure that the next thing to hit it was a Paladin who burned their highest level divine smite, you could land an absolutely devastating hit. Now, the damage is not strictly speaking flat, but it's much more regular. When you get this at 3rd level, you're adding 1d8+3, which is actually not too far off from doubling an attacks' damage anyway. By level 10, it's 1d8+10, or 14.5 average damage. A Barbarian hitting with a Greatsword and Great Weapon Master who has 20 Strength by this point would be doing an average of 19 damage here. So, the damage is a little lower, but let's consider the positives:
First, you have the curse elements - if you have a scary boss monster, cursing it to havd disadvantage on all attack rolls and saving throws for a round (and as a bonus action) is quite strong. You're also not beholden as much to the initiative order - if you really want to use this on the Paladin's really big hit rather than the Monk's many smaller hits, you can wait to set it off. But actually, given that it isn't scaling with the power of the hit anyway, you don't need to worry about that.
I'm tempted to say this is a qualified buff.
And yes, Eyes of the Grave is missing, so you'll need to use Detect Evil and Good, which to be fair, is more versatile.
Level 6:
Sentinel at Death's Door has gotten an interesting change: first off, it only protects creatures who are Bloodied, which is obviously a nerf. However, rather than canceling critical hits, you now instead use your reaction to halve the damage of an attack.
Mathematically, this is actually better against crits, unless it's a spell attack that adds no modifiers (which very few monsters do, I think). After all, an attack that does 3d12+7 on a hit has an average damage of 26.5, and a crit with that does 6d12+7, or 46 on average. Halving that crit will make it do 24 damage on average instead, which is lower than if it were only changing it to a normal hit.
I think the challenge here will be deciding when to use it on a non-crit. It's the same number of limited uses. The restriction to Bloodied targets will also limit how much you can use it, but you'll be using it on people who really need that damage reduction.
Level 17:
Divine Reaper has two sub-features:
Enhanced Necromancy says that, when you cast a spell of 5th level or lower from the Necromancy school, or one from the Grave Domain Spells table, and when that spell targets one creature, you can duplicate the spell targeting a second creature within range, similar to the DMG's Death Domain Reaper feature. You still have to provide costly or consumed material components if the spell has them.
Notably, with the shuffle of spell schools for certain spells, we need to consider what we can actually use this on. The list is not super-long, but outside of the domain spells, we are looking at Toll the Dead, Spare the Dying, Inflict Wounds, Bestow Curse, Feign Death, Life Transference, Speak with Dead (there's a trip - hopefully you can alternate which you ask with each question), and Contagion.
Keeper of Souls is somewhat different, but thematically similar: Once per short or long rest, when an enemy dies within 60 feet of you, you can cause yourself or another creature you can see within 60 feet to regain HP equal to three times your Cleric level, as long as you're not incapacitated.
The old version of this could be used once a round (neither version takes any action on your part, which is cool) but the healing was the number of hit dice the slain creature had, meaning that the healing was rarely very much.
Now, of course, it's far more limited in use, but the heal is far more substantial - starting off at 51, and hitting 60 when you're level 20. Depending on how many short rests you get, that might out-heal the old version, but I do think there's something kind of comforting about being unable to run out of this. I might increase its uses (maybe Wisdom modifier per long rest) while nerfing the heal (perhaps to just your Cleric level.
Overall, I'm on the fence about this subclass revamp. There's a lot that's similar but different. I suspect that players who already like Grave Domain might bristle at the changes here, but I also think if this subclass were presented to me and I had never seen the old version, I'd think it was pretty decent.
Next, we'll talk about the other brand-new subclass in this UA, the Hollow Warden Ranger!
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