New Cleric Cantrips

[weaseldust]

There are two main goals here: to allow a Cleric to focus as much on damage reduction as on damage dealing, and to make the Potent Spellcasting ability more useful.


Enduring Ally

Abjuration cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: Touch
Components: Somatic, Verbal

You touch a creature that has taken damage since the end of its last turn, but was not reduced to 0HP and has not regained HP since. The damage it took from one attack or failed save is reduced by 2d4, to a minimum of 0. The amount you reduce the damage by increases by 2d4 when you reach levels 5, 11, and 17, and if you gain the Potent Spellcasting feature you may add your wisdom modifier to the amount reduced.


Illumination

Evocation cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Concentration (1 round)
Range: 120 feet
Components: Material (a parabolic mirror), Somatic, Verbal

Provided you are outdoors, a ray of light is directed from the sky to a point on the ground you can see within range. It sheds bright light within 10 feet of that point, and until the start of your next turn, when a creature takes damage in the illuminated region, you may use your reaction to decrease the damage by d6, to a minimum of 0. The damage you can reduce increases by d6 when you reach levels 5, 11, and 17. If you gain the Potent Spellcasting feature, you may add your wisdom modifier to the amount reduced. This cantrip is dispelled by any spell of 1st level or higher that creates magical darkness in the illuminated region, and it fails automatically when it targets a point already affected by such a spell.


Indomitable Ally

Enchantment cantrip
Casting time: 1 reaction, taken when a creature you can see within range is attacked
Duration: Concentration (1 round)
Range: 10 feet
Components: Somatic, Verbal

Before the attack is resolved, the creature that was attacked gains d4 temporary HP until the start of its next turn. The amount increases by d4 when you reach levels 5, 11, and 17, and if you gain the Potent Spellcasting feature you may add your wisdom modifier to the amount added.


Wingbeat

Conjuration cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Instantaneous
Range: 60 feet
Components: Material (a Pegasus feather), Somatic

You target a willing or unwilling creature you can see within range that is at most Large in size. A willing creature gains the ability fly up to 10 feet at the start of its next turn in addition to any other movement it has. An unwilling creature must succeed on a strength save or be pushed 10 feet in a direction of your choice.



The following are obviously based on the new SCAG cantrips, so that domains other than Arcana get some way to magically augment their attacks, especially domains that don’t get Divine Strike, but I made sure not to have them straightforwardly add damage as Clerics don’t lose anything by attacking only once.

They are still strictly better than just attacking (unless you dual wield or are in the area of effect of Silence), but I figure that a cantrip that you could use as a bonus action after an attack would be OK and could accomplish much the same thing, so you might as well just roll it into a slightly better attack. Besides, they do cost you your concentration, and there’s also an opportunity cost each turn in that the best target for these cantrips isn’t necessarily the best target for the Cleric to try to walk up to and attack.

Fury Abated

Enchantment cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Concentration (1 round)
Range: 5 feet
Components: Material (a patch from the garment of a martyr who did not resist their arrest and execution), Somatic, Verbal

As part of casting this spell, you make a melee weapon attack against a creature within 5 feet with a weapon you hold. If you hit and deal damage, the first time the target makes a melee weapon attack before the start of your next turn, the damage it deals is reduced by d4, to a minimum of 0. The damage reduced increases by d4 when you reach levels 5, 11, and 17. If you gain the Potent Spellcasting feature, you may add your wisdom modifier to the amount reduced. You may also choose to replace the damage from your attack with psychic damage equal to the amount you reduce the creature’s attack by.


Fury Aroused

Enchantment cantrip
Casting time: 1 action
Duration: Concentration (1 round)
Range: 5 feet
Components: Material (a pennant soaked in the blood of a martyr who died in battle), Somatic, Verbal

As part of casting this spell, you make a melee weapon attack against a creature within 5 feet with a weapon you hold. If you hit and deal damage, your allies experience a surge of righteous anger towards the target, and on their first turn before the start of your next turn they may use their bonus action to add d4 magical damage of the same type as their weapon to the damage from one melee weapon attack against it. The damage increases by d4 when you reach levels 5, 11, and 17, and if you gain the Potent Spellcasting feature you may add your wisdom modifier to the amount.

EDITS: Removed damage-dealing from Illumination and Wingbeat. Reduced the range of Indomitable Ally and added a concentration requirement. Added a material component to Fury Abated.

[Kane0]

Enduring Ally: A bit of an if condition there, but works. Pretty powerful since so long as nobody else heals the target and he isnt dropped to 0 this is essentially cantrip healing, and it scales to boot. It still takes an action and a touch, but be careful regardless.

Illumination: Great idea, I like the pillar of light that reduces or increases damage taken. I'd personally go with one or the other, no both in the one cantrip.

Indomitable Ally: Free temp HP to an ally that is attacked with your reaction, this will be used often by a supporting type. You'd have to run the numbers, but this would be very useful, since its always buffering your allies and cutting down healing you'd have to do later.

Wingbeat: grant 10' fly, nice. Again, I'd keep it to one thing per cantrip and split them if necessary (look at spare the dying, resistance, guidance, etc).

Fury Abated: I like this one more than Fury aroused, it reduces the enemy counter attack nicely and is simple enough.

Fury Aroused: Odd that it uses a bonus action rather than a reaction, but useful in some circumstances. Handy to have.

Side note: Always good to clean up wording and make things as simple as possible.

[Bucky]

Enduring Ally is perhaps too free as the first action after combat ends.

[weaseldust]

Thanks for the comments.


Enduring Ally: A bit of an if condition there, but works. Pretty powerful since so long as nobody else heals the target and he isnt dropped to 0 this is essentially cantrip healing, and it scales to boot. It still takes an action and a touch, but be careful regardless.

I think the most important limitations are that you can only heal one creature per turn and that you can only heal damage taken recently. The intention is that you can keep the Fighter on her feet longer, if you're brave enough to stand in the thick of the fighting, or you can mitigate the damage that bear trap just did to the Wizard, but the party as a whole still gets worn down by every encounter. Hopefully, it will enable playing as someone who prefers to heal than deal damage without making the party immortal.

(To be honest, I've been looking for a way to make cantrip healing possible and balanced for a while in order to allow for that kind of play style.)


Illumination: Great idea, I like the pillar of light that reduces or increases damage taken. I'd personally go with one or the other, no both in the one cantrip.

Wingbeat: grant 10' fly, nice. Again, I'd keep it to one thing per cantrip and split them if necessary (look at spare the dying, resistance, guidance, etc).

I kind of like versatility in cantrips, but existing examples like Prestidigitation, Dancing Lights, and Gust don't do damage. On reflection, it's a bad idea to remove the need to choose between damage-dealing cantrips and utility cantrips. For that reason, I removed the damage from both of these. I increased the range of Wingbeat to compensate, and kept the willing/unwilling dichotomy because I think the shared theme of blowing people around keeps it sufficiently focused. It's not relevant for Potent Cantrip any more, but there are enough other op.


Indomitable Ally: Free temp HP to an ally that is attacked with your reaction, this will be used often by a supporting type. You'd have to run the numbers, but this would be very useful, since its always buffering your allies and cutting down healing you'd have to do later.

I think the small amount and duration are enough to keep it balanced, but I'll have to find a way to test it in play. I will reduce the range significantly, though, so it requires more self-endangerment from the Cleric to be in a position to use it.


Fury Abated: I like this one more than Fury aroused, it reduces the enemy counter attack nicely and is simple enough.

Fury Aroused: Odd that it uses a bonus action rather than a reaction, but useful in some circumstances. Handy to have.

It's a bonus action because that's a greater cost and means the cantrip isn't always tactically optimal for allies.


Side note: Always good to clean up wording and make things as simple as possible.

Do you have any specific complaints about wording? I know I do tend to be more stiff and long-winded than the PHB spells.


Bucky,


Enduring Ally is perhaps too free as the first action after combat ends.

I agree that that will always be the obvious choice, as long as the Cleric is close enough and doesn't want to use a spell slot, and someone took damage since the end of their last turn. I'm not sure it's really a problem, though, if it's not a problem during combat itself.

I will alter that cantrip a bit, however, because I want it to counter only one source of damage. That way, the improved healing at high levels is balanced by the prevalence of multi-attacking monsters.

[Silavor]

Somatic and Material components do not mesh well with cantrips that also require a weapon. A cleric with a one-handed weapon and a shield cannot use Somatic components without the Warcaster feat, as they have no free hand. Notice that Greenflame Blade only requires the weapon being used in the attack as a Material component, and the SCAG cantrips have no Somatic components at all.

[Dalebert]

Somatic and Material components do not mesh well with cantrips that also require a weapon.

If a holy symbol can be substituted for the material, then all you need is your holy symbol on your shield and your shield hand can also do the somatic component. Since no gp value was listed for any of the components, they can all be replaced with a holy symbol.

[weaseldust]

If a holy symbol can be substituted for the material, then all you need is your holy symbol on your shield and your shield hand can also do the somatic component. Since no gp value was listed for any of the components, they can all be replaced with a holy symbol.

I believe this is correct, but it still leaves Fury Abated in a bad place because it has no material component. I'll have to add one.

I had thought that the weapon attack constituted the somatic component of the SCAG cantrips, which turns out not to be the case. I think that's how it should have been made to work, though perhaps the decision is related to encouraging Bladesingers to wield a weapon in one hand only.

(It also turns out the Cleric feature that add your wisdom mod to cantrip damage is Potent Spellcasting, not Potent Cantrip, so I've been referring to that wrong the whole time too.)

[corjest]

I think you have some good starts here but need to clear up some misconceptions before you get too far. A Life cleric will never get Potent Spellcasting (Unless we are talking about a feat that grants similar). Potent Spellcasting is only given to the offensive-focused domains, so if these cantrips get a bonus based on Potent Spellcasting then the offensive domains would be better at using these cantrips than the healing focused domains.

Out of all of them, Indomitable Ally is perhaps too strong. Once per round off-turn temporary hit point granting cantrip at level 1 is going to blow every other cantrip, cleric or otherwise, out of the water. It also gives them to the ally even on miss. I think you might do better in combining Indomitable Ally with Enduring Ally. Maybe block the damage of a single attack equal to the cleric's Wisdom modifier? That way they could still benefit from existing temporary hit points, but you'd still have a way to block some damage. (But I'd still be wary about any reaction cantrip).

[weaseldust]

A Life cleric will never get Potent Spellcasting (Unless we are talking about a feat that grants similar).

Well, clearly I don't know what I'm talking about. I must have been confusing them with Light Clerics. I can't really be trusted to tell apart any two things that start with the same letter, let alone the same syllable. Anyway, I cut that reference.


Potent Spellcasting is only given to the offensive-focused domains, so if these cantrips get a bonus based on Potent Spellcasting then the offensive domains would be better at using these cantrips than the healing focused domains.

I'm not sure about this way of characterising it, because Knowledge Clerics get Potent Spellcasting and aren't focused on offense. I'm guessing Life Clerics don't get it because they're expected to have to be near or in melee to heal the party Fighter. (I'd probably give a Life Cleric Potent Spellcasting instead of Divine Strike if it was up to me, but it isn't.)


Out of all of them, Indomitable Ally is perhaps too strong. Once per round off-turn temporary hit point granting cantrip at level 1 is going to blow every other cantrip, cleric or otherwise, out of the water. It also gives them to the ally even on miss. I think you might do better in combining Indomitable Ally with Enduring Ally. Maybe block the damage of a single attack equal to the cleric's Wisdom modifier? That way they could still benefit from existing temporary hit points, but you'd still have a way to block some damage. (But I'd still be wary about any reaction cantrip).

The 'even on a miss' part of Indomitable Ally is actually a balancing feature, in that you might waste the cantrip on an ally who doesn't get hit. I agree that it's the most problematic cantrip, though. What if I cut the range right down to 10 feet and added a concentration requirement? The former means you won't always have a target and the latter means you might forgo casting the cantrip so you don't interrupt Bless, or whatever.

I don't want to combine Indomitable Ally and Enduring Ally because they're two alternative experimental approaches to the same idea. I wouldn't introduce both to the same game, for instance. My only motive for making a reaction cantrip in the first place was to experiment in balancing one.