Best Cleric Race? (5e)

[BardGonnaBard]

So I've looked high and low and can't specifically find the question "what the best race for cleric is in fifth edition" discussed anywhere. (I hope I'm wrong lol)

Anyways in a future potential campaign with my friends I'm interested in playing the cleric role. We're all beginners (except one of the two DMs) and I understand there's enough depth to DND for everything to be viable but I'd still like to see what players with experience think.

Specifically in domain for clerics I'm looking at chaotic, death, destruction, evil, trickery or travel as they fit my current idea of my character's personality. What most benefits any of these? As a side note any tips or anything on playing cleric would be nice.:smallsmile:

[PhoenixPhyre]

So I've looked high and low and can't specifically find the question "what the best race for cleric is in fifth edition" discussed anywhere. (I hope I'm wrong lol)

Anyways in a future potential campaign with my friends I'm interested in playing the cleric role. We're all beginners (except one of the two DMs) and I understand there's enough depth to DND for everything to be viable but I'd still like to see what players with experience think.

Specifically in domain for clerics I'm looking at chaotic, death, destruction, evil, trickery or travel as they fit my current idea of my character's personality. What most benefits any of these? As a side note any tips or anything on playing cleric would be nice.:smallsmile:

Races--the "classic" choice is Hill Dwarf. But many many others work--there isn't a "best" race as cleric builds are pretty varied.

As to the domain--those are old domains (3e, not 5e). 5e only has a restricted set:

Arcana (Sword-coast Adventurer's Guide) -- a little bit of arcane casting
Death (DMG, evil) -- necromancy
Forge (Xanthar's) -- fire resistance and cheap temporary magic items
Grave (Xanthar's) -- death prevention
Knowledge -- skills
Life -- HEALING!
Light -- burn them with fire
Nature -- quasi druid, but cleric
Tempest -- Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightning
Trickery -- Pseudo rogue/rogue support
War -- I smash with my hammer!

[Blood of Gaea]

As a general rule, the "optimal" choice would be Hill Dwarf or Variant Human.

[BardGonnaBard]

Races--the "classic" choice is Hill Dwarf. But many many others work--there isn't a "best" race as cleric builds are pretty varied.

As to the domain--those are old domains (3e, not 5e). 5e only has a restricted set:

Arcana (Sword-coast Adventurer's Guide) -- a little bit of arcane casting
Death (DMG, evil) -- necromancy
Forge (Xanthar's) -- fire resistance and cheap temporary magic items
Grave (Xanthar's) -- death prevention
Knowledge -- skills
Life -- HEALING!
Light -- burn them with fire
Nature -- quasi druid, but cleric
Tempest -- Thunderbolts and lightning, very very frightning
Trickery -- Pseudo rogue/rogue support
War -- I smash with my hammer!

Thank you so much for the correction!

[MxKit]

Hill Dwarf is right up there as one of the best for all possible builds, where they're going primarily Wis, Str & Wis, or Dex & Wis. If you're going Dex & Wis specifically, Wood Elves, Aarakocra, and Ghostwise Halflings are also some of your best choices. And Variant Human is also pretty high up there, if you feel like you'll be hungry for feats/if there's a feat you know you want right out the gate.

The Death domain works equally well as primarily Wis, or Dex & Wis, so any of the above listed races should work wonderfully. Trickery seems to want to be Dex & Wis, but needs a little extra help with it, so I'd advise probably Wood Elf for the weapon proficiencies if you don't want to dip into another class.

[FelineArchmage]

If you're going to go a spellcasting route, you can also always go Firbolg (Volo's Guide to Monsters). It gives a +2 to WIS, but I don't think it will fit thematically with what you're thinking since they're usually seen as hippie nature race. But hey, its D&D and 5e has less restrictions and such, so who says you can't have a death-obsessed, mischievous firbolg?

[strangebloke]

Goliath.

Not because they're particularly good for cleric, or because they're good in general, but because they're fracking cool.

[Feuerphoenix]

Aasimar anyone?

[Aett_Thorn]

Lizardfolk are also pretty good Clerics. And would make for a pretty interesting Trickery Cleric.

[Lombra]

Firbolg gets racial +2 to wisdom, on top of other goodies.

[NecroDancer]

Firbolg gives a bonus to constitution and wisdom as well as a smattering of magical abilities.

[Theodoxus]

Pretty sure Firbolg give str and wis...

But in general, it depends on what you want to do with your cleric.

Sounds like mostly you're looking for a domain that provides medium armor - so Dex over Str. Destruction can be supported by Arcane, Light, Tempest or War most easily. So, if you're wanting to wade into melee and smash faces with maces, Tempest or War with heavy armor and martial weapon proficiencies are best, and I'd go with Firbolg for the intimidation factor (they're taller than humans, still Medium sized, but impressive).

OTOH, if you're looking for more sneaky Tricksey type, the Trickery domain is right up your ally (and emulates most of the other domains you listed). In that case, wood elf, possibly stout halfling (if ghostwise isn't available) would be better suited.

Hill Dwarf was the defacto cleric race due to the con and wis bonuses, no need for strength to wear heavy armor (so Nature, with Shillelagh is the pure build), darkvision, etc. But having played high elven and human clerics, race is less important. Clerics are very well rounded, and extremely capable.

Oh, one of my first clerics was a half-elf Knowledge Cleric who worshipped Fharlanghn and multiclassed into rogue for extra movement and skills. Definitely had the feel of a Travel Domain cleric.

[SirGraystone]

I would go for Hill Dwarf too:`

+2 Con & +1 hp by level (for a total of at least +2 hp)
+1 Wis
resistance to poison, advantage on save vs poison
able to use battleaxe and warhammer even if the class doesn't give you proficiency
don't need high strength for heavy armor
darkvision
awesome beard

What more do you need :smalltongue:

[pdegan2814]

As with most questions like this, the answer is basically "it depends", but my snapshot answer would be Wood Elf and Hill Dwarf. Hill Dwarf is going to be a little tankier with the HP and Con boost, and not needing Str for heavy armor. Wood Elf is probably better suited for Clerics who want to stay at range with the extra movement and Dex boost, plus free proficiency in Perception is always a good thing.

[Naanomi]

Hill Dwarf and Variant Human primarily; with Whisper Halfling, Kenku, and Woodelf all good options for more ‘tricky’ DEX clerics. Tortle and Firbolg are also reasonable

[jaappleton]

I love Clerics. For my money, they're the best designed class in the game. I adore them, I wish we had 30 more Domains because there just can't be enough Cleric options.

As a side note, for unofficial stuff, check out Plane Shift: Amonkhet for additional Cleric Domains. I'm a big fan of the Ambition Domain. https://media.wizards.com/2017/downloads/magic/plane-shift_amonkhet.pdf

I like Hill Dwarves a lot, for obvious reasons. Many Domains get Heavy Armor, which (aside from a select few Races) need 15 Strength to take advantage of. In that sense, Firbolg is extremely good, though their Lore doesn't match up well with some Domains.

Githzerai are also fairly good Clerics. They're confirmed to be in the next book, thanks to the cat gif related efforts of myself and DracoKnight. https://www.sageadvice.eu/2018/03/08/gith-characters-revealed/

I personally love the thought of Warforged Clerics. They don't get a Wisdom bonus, instead getting +1 Str and +1 Con, which is great for most Domains, and a flat +1 bonus to AC on top of it. They're Unearthed Arcana material and are thus unofficial, but they're still great.

[poolio]

I've played a ton of clerics so my opinion would have to come to what specific domain you go with, like halfling make good trickery, human for tempest, so you don't have to waste a stat bump later to get booming blade, which i find both thematic and useful for a guy who gets boosts to his melee attacks but still only gets one attack,

But my general choices for "best race" would be ether hill dwarf (pluses to both stats you want as well as being harder to kill) or half-orc, the once per day ability to not get knocked unconscious is super helpful when the party has just taken a big aoe hit and everyone but you goes down, leaving you to cast something like aid or use a life clerics channel devinity to bring you buddys back up.

[Chugger]

Any race that boosts Wisdom and Con. To be optimized (to be "best" you need to be optimized at least to some extent) you need a 16 wis - and it really helps to have a 16 con. Con is not just for the hit points - it's a con ST to see of you keep concentrating on a conc. spell when you are damaged in combat. And there are other con st's to make and keep you from being hurt.

Va Human is quite strong if you have a feat you can make work. Lucky is a pretty good one. Alert can be useful, maybe not so much for a cleric - and frankly there are many you can make work. Some players take Magic Initiate and do almost nothing with it. Others take it and are utterly amazing - like using their familiar owl to assist a party meleer every turn of combat (giving advantage) - and finding amazing uses for message and mend or minor illusion and friends or w/e cantrips they pick. Many feats are good but only shine if you use them well.

Hill Dw is good of course.

Tortle is a fence-sitter (wis is +1 but they get +2 str, not con) - so w/ a max 14 or 15 starting con, they got that against them - but they got 17 ac naturally, which is a good thing.

Anyway, if you role play pick a race that's fun. Even a non optimized race can make a very good cleric. Far more important that you pick useful spells that you understand how to use (and your other stuff you get).

[DnDegenerates]

What they said.

Vuman, H. Dwarf, Firbolg.

Anything with a wisdom boost really.

My absolute favorite is Goliath. Tempest domain Goliath cleric of Tempus. I play him like a barbarian who summons spectral winged Goliath battle maidens to assist him as he bashes things with thunder damage or blasts them with lightning.

[FelineArchmage]

Anyway, if you role play pick a race that's fun. Even a non optimized race can make a very good cleric. Far more important that you pick useful spells that you understand how to use (and your other stuff you get).

Honestly, Cleric is SUCH a good class in 5e, and I completely agree with Chugger. My vote is go for flavor and just have fun.

[strangebloke]

My absolute favorite is Goliath. Tempest domain Goliath cleric of Tempus. I play him like a barbarian who summons spectral winged Goliath battle maidens to assist him as he bashes things with thunder damage or blasts them with lightning.

I love goliaths so much. Some times (all the time) you just wanna be a hyper competitive wild man without all that orc baggage.

[DnDegenerates]

I love goliaths so much. Some times (all the time) you just wanna be a hyper competitive wild man without all that orc baggage.

Exactly! There's never a reason not to play a Goliath.

[Beechgnome]

So many good choices you can afford to match theme with domain. Some others haven't mentioned:

Water Genasi (+2 con, swimming) works well with Tempest

UA Minotaur with Tempest, War

Fierna Tiefling (UA, likely in Mordenkainen's) good for Trickery

Protector Aasimar good with Light, Life

As others have said, hard to go wrong with Cleric, and choices have really expanded for Wisdom races.

[Merudo]

Hill Dwarf or something that gives some sort of martial proficiency is huge for Forge Cleric, as they are one of the domains that definitely wants to take part in melee yet they don't get martial proficiency.