How to best play a Cleric of the Life Domain

[caoshunter22]

I'm new to D&D and only know how to be a healer in video games. I understand that playing a Cleric it's better to negate damage rather than reactive healing but I don't know the best spell to have prepared for a low-level cleric.

[Galithar]

I'm new to D&D and only know how to be a healer in video games. I understand that playing a Cleric it's better to negate damage rather than reactive healing but I don't know the best spell to have prepared for a low-level cleric.

Healing word and bless.
Healing in combat is not efficient unless the character is down. Healing word can pick them up from a distance.
1d4 from bless can help a lot also.

Look at dipping druid if you want maximum healing potential. Goodberry and Healing Spirit are very strong in the hands of a life cleric, as is any other ability that heals a relatively small amount multiple times as your +2+spell level to healing spells is compounded many times by them.

[Willie the Duck]

Well, a life cleric will have Bless and Cure Wounds automatically. Cure Wounds is not something to use in combat (or really save your spell slots for in general, it's simply not very efficient and as you say, a better use of your slots would be to use the spell to prevent the damage in the first place). Bless is a great spell -- it makes your allies (or yourself and some allies, if you want to go into combat yourself) a lot better at fighting (and thus winning before you get hurt). Healing Word is a great choice for another spell to prepare (so much so that people used to previous editions or wanting 5e to be harder than it is often point to it as a problem spell). Taking a character who has been downed by losing all their hit points and putting them back into the fight (while also negating the efforts the party would need to take to both defend and stabilize their downed ally)? Now that is a great use of a spell slot. Other than that, it depends on what you want to do. Guiding Bolt is a good attack spell at low levels (although it does not scale well as you level). Sanctuary and Shield of Faith are good defensive spells (as is Protection from Good and Evil, although that one gets better as you run into more creatures whom it effects). Utility spells like Detect Magic and Purify Food and Drink are situational, but when you run into those situations, you are glad to have them.


Of course, party composition will play a part. What does the rest of the group look like?

[Grimmnist]

Healing word and bless.
Healing in combat is not efficient unless the character is down. Healing word can pick them up from a distance.
1d4 from bless can help a lot also.

For this reason my favorite healing Cleric is the Grave domain from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. When they heal someone who is unconscious, the dice rolls are counted as max (e.g. when casting healing word on an unconscious ally, the 1d4 is counted as a 4). Life domain has better healing overall, but Grave also has some offensive and support abilities.


Look at dipping druid if you want maximum healing potential. Goodberry and Healing Spirit are very strong in the hands of a life cleric, as is any other ability that heals a relatively small amount multiple times as your +2+spell level to healing spells is compounded many times by them.

If you are a new player, I would recommend against multi-classing despite the powerful combos. I would echo what Galithar said about Bless and Healing Word generally being the best 1st level cleric spells. Other good spells to have prepared for combat are: Command, Guiding Bolt, Protection from Good/Evil (depending on what type of enemies are in your campaign), Sanctuary and Shield of Faith. Once you hit level 3 you get 2nd level spells and cleric has some great one like Spiritual Weapon, Aid and Hold Person. Having a few out of combat spells or rituals like Detect Magic can be useful as well, so don't think you have to take all the ones listed here.

[Angelalex242]

And when you heal people, do your best televangelist impression.

"Be HEALED! PRAISE DA LAWD!"

[KorvinStarmast]

I'm new to D&D and only know how to be a healer in video games. I understand that playing a Cleric it's better to negate damage rather than reactive healing but I don't know the best spell to have prepared for a low-level cleric. I'll answer you tomorrow. I am now on my fourth Life Cleric. But at the moment, a bit under siege.

[ImproperJustice]

I would strongly suggest you have an open conversation with your allies that you will mostly be using your spells to support and to EMERGENCY heal.

A Cleric cannot keep everyone “topped off” efficiently in 5e.
Some new players (and old ones too), have a video game mentality that Clerics can keep then at full power at all times.

Instead, you are there if things go terribly, terribly wrong and you can get downed and disabled allies back into the fight. Otherwise, you will be buffing and blasting (yes blasting via Spirit Guardians and Spiritual Weapon), alongside your allies.

So you are not a license for poor decisions. If the fighter is down 50% of his hit points, it’s time for him/her to second wind and take a short rest. The Monks and Warlocks will be grateful.
Short rest healing is the best healing in the game outside of Healing Spirit Shenanigans.

If you and the rest of the party come to this understanding everyone will have a better time.

I have a level 11 Forge Cleric, and recently had this discussiom with our party after we nearly got wiped by a pack of 15 Ogres and their 4 Ogre Magi bretheren who managed to sneak behind us.
Our Fighters were down almost 200 hit points combined and I demonstrated my inability to fast heal by casting Prayer of Healing and restored exactly 15hp each to them. Hooray.
Now arguably, that fight happened at level 10, before the Heal spell, but even still. It’s not enough and a poor use of your slots to spam Cure Wounds.
Even for a Life Cleric.

[caoshunter22]

For this reason my favorite healing Cleric is the Grave domain from Xanathar's Guide to Everything. When they heal someone who is unconscious, the dice rolls are counted as max (e.g. when casting healing word on an unconscious ally, the 1d4 is counted as a 4). Life domain has better healing overall, but Grave also has some offensive and support abilities.



If you are a new player, I would recommend against multi-classing despite the powerful combos. I would echo what Galithar said about Bless and Healing Word generally being the best 1st level cleric spells. Other good spells to have prepared for combat are: Command, Guiding Bolt, Protection from Good/Evil (depending on what type of enemies are in your campaign), Sanctuary and Shield of Faith. Once you hit level 3 you get 2nd level spells and cleric has some great one like Spiritual Weapon, Aid and Hold Person. Having a few out of combat spells or rituals like Detect Magic can be useful as well, so don't think you have to take all the ones listed here.

Thank you for the info. Later on in the campaign undead will be a large bulk of the enemies the group will be facing so is the life domain still a good option to protect the party against undead?

Also, I don't understand what CR 1/2 means in the description for destroy undead? Does it mean that if I'm level 5 it would only destroy undead creature up to level 7?

[Grimmnist]

Thank you for the info. Later on in the campaign undead will be a large bulk of the enemies the group will be facing so is the life domain still a good option to protect the party against undead?

Also, I don't understand what CR 1/2 means in the description for destroy undead? Does it mean that if I'm level 5 it would only destroy undead creature up to level 7?

I don't really think any of them is significantly better against undead than another, as all are great in that facet.

CR stands for Challenge Rating, it is a number that represents roughly how difficult an enemy is. If you look at the stats for a skeleton (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Skeleton#content) you will see that it has Challenge of 1/4 where as a Ghoul (https://roll20.net/compendium/dnd5e/Ghoul#content) has Challenge of 1. The number is mostly a tool for the DM, they can estimate the difficulty of an encounter by adding up the CR of all monsters in it. So the Turn Undead of a level 5 Cleric would destroy the Skeleton if it fails, but not the Ghoul.

[caoshunter22]

I don't really think any of them is significantly better against undead than another, as all are great in that facet.

CR stands for Challenge Rating, it is a number that represents roughly how difficult an enemy is. If you look at the stats for a ] you will see that it has Challenge of 1/4 where as a has Challenge of 1. The number is mostly a tool for the DM, they can estimate the difficulty of an encounter by adding up the CR of all monsters in it. So the Turn Undead of a level 5 Cleric would destroy the Skeleton if it fails, but not the Ghoul.

So just to clarify what your saying destroy undead isn't a spell I use? I just use turn undead and if undead creature's CR is 1/2 or lower it's destroyed if it fails it's saving throw but if it's higher then 1/2 it's forced to move 30 feet away from my character on a failed saving throw?

[Grimmnist]

So just to clarify what your saying destroy undead isn't a spell I use? I just use turn undead and if undead creature's CR is 1/2 or lower it's destroyed if it fails it's saving throw but if it's higher then 1/2 it's forced to move 30 feet away from my character on a failed saving throw?

Yeah, that's exactly it!

[GreyBlack]

While some may advocate that you play a cleric, I would not advise it. Clerics in my experience tend to be... substandard. Life cleric is certainly the best of the bunch; heavy armor means you'll be able to smack someone with a mace and then cure them after the battle, but otherwise I would advise you play something else. Healing is not the best way to play in 5e.

[OldTrees1]

Here are some good spells:
Bless, Heroism, Cure Wounds, Healing Word, Shield of Faith

Bless protects a vulnerable area and helps end the combat quicker.
Heroism can be lots of Damage Mitigation but can also be 0. Choose someone that will take damage every round and stay conscious.
Shield of Faith is useful when you are using Armor Class as damage mitigation. If the enemies keep focusing on the hard to hit PC, then make that PC harder to hit.

You want to use Cure Wounds to heal but sometimes don't have the time/mobility. Healing Word is for those times.

As you gain levels your priorities will shift. While a Paladin might still consider Heroism at 8th level, you would have some nice 3rd and 4th level spells that would also require concentration. That would make Heroism not as valuable in your eyes but maybe still worth it?

[Galithar]

While some may advocate that you play a cleric, I would not advise it. Clerics in my experience tend to be... substandard. Life cleric is certainly the best of the bunch; heavy armor means you'll be able to smack someone with a mace and then cure them after the battle, but otherwise I would advise you play something else. Healing is not the best way to play in 5e.

This is a fairly biased opinion. Clerics are in no way substandard and Life is arguably one of the weaker (not actually weak, as if used properly they're all good) domains. Tempest and Light Clerics can be quite powerful. Healing is essential in any campaign that your DM isn't creating situations where the PCs victory is guaranteed. It just isn't what you want to be spending lots of resources in combat on. You're much better off going Druid if you want to be a heal bot though (preferably with a one level life cleric dip). The cleric should be putting out just as much, or more, damage then anyone else in the party.

[Nhorianscum]

At first level?

Use bless in big fights and get creative with command. Past that prep rituals (and prot evil/good if outsiders are a thing). Sanctuary and healing word eventually become very good spells.

Carry a healers kit or two for in-combat rescue healing. Healing word/cure wounds both eat up one of your precious spell slots and we have none to spare before level 4 (at the earliest) so they'll need to save a life and swing a fight to be worth it before that point. As is a kit just trades your action for the downed allies action which is acceptable at low level.

[ImproperJustice]

While some may advocate that you play a cleric, I would not advise it. Clerics in my experience tend to be... substandard. Life cleric is certainly the best of the bunch; heavy armor means you'll be able to smack someone with a mace and then cure them after the battle, but otherwise I would advise you play something else. Healing is not the best way to play in 5e.

Going to gently disagree as well.

The class is very fun once you get past the “healer” expectation.

With my Forge Cleric I am a mighty tank. I can hold the line, bless my allies, remove crippling afflictions including death, summon great walls of fire or animate an army of objects, have vital and direct conversations with the GM about crucial plot elements via commune, and some of the higher end spells can really shape encounters, especially against certain enemies.
And it’s hard times for anyone in metal armor or sporting some powerful magic weapon with a metal hilt.

And Divine Intervention while somewhat unreliable is an awesome tool to have in your back pocket.


A Life Cleric has the benefit of having some of the best Clerical spells “pre-loaded” via domain spells freeing your precious preperation slots for rituals and fun stuff.

[LudicSavant]

I'm new to D&D and only know how to be a healer in video games. I understand that playing a Cleric it's better to negate damage rather than reactive healing but I don't know the best spell to have prepared for a low-level cleric.

What level are you, right now? Can give you some sample lists and tactics to use as a starting point.

[djreynolds]

Warding bond. Costs initially 100gp, but you keep the 2 platinum rings.

You basically split the damage received, but at 6th level just casting healing word as a bonus action on anybody gives 3hp back.

And channel divinity is short rest recharge, at 6th level... 30hp

Great archetype

[CTurbo]

Clerics in 5e are GREAT, but you can't play them effectively as a heal first character. Also, don't pick the Life Domain.

If you want a be a Cleric, there are better domains, and when I say better, I mean more fun.

Want to be tanking and on the frontlines with heavy armor?
Tempest are awesome. Great control spells, and the ability to maximize thunder or lightning damage makes it a beast at blasting. My personal fav.
Forge is great both flavor wise and also in effectiveness. Not as strong as Tempest but gets awesome at high levels.
Grave Clerics are best at picking up fallen buddies in combat, and has more flavor than Life IMO.

Want to be good at all the Cleric things, but also stand back and blast away too?
Light Clerics are great. Not as tough as the top three mentioned, but still very good. This a a Sorcerer Cleric.
Arcana Clerics are a lot of fun. Although not quite as tough as the top three, it's still actually really strong in melee with Booming Blade and Green Flame Blade. This is a Wizard Cleric.

[Dark Schneider]

Instead listing spells or things like that, as these are more related to the situation than the character or domain themselves, I would say:

- For typical combat: at second line, behind the front line.
- For hard combat: cast your support spells over front line and go back at distance.

On of each case:
- Typical: usually you will not be knocked out easily (heavy armor at 2nd line) and can maximize your healing (using the touch heal spell). Can also assist in other ways with other touch or short range spells.
- Hard: imagine against a dragon that could use breath and you are knocked down. You cast your bless, protection from, or any other support spell/s, and go back, you can heal with less risk for yourself using your healing word, because the domain will add extra healing to work like the touch healing for other domains, and also allows you to attack with your sacred flame with your action, as healing word is used as bonus action.

[chando]

I recently introduced my companion to the game, and she's playing a old grumpy Orc (half-orc rules reflufded) Cleric (Life Domain) of the goddess Iyone , the woman who runs free in the desert. She walks by the arid land and colects bones and animates them, in hopes she one day can animate the woman who runs free in the desert. She plays a large bambu "Pífano", a kind of wind instrument. She also blesses the party, she used command very well, and spirit guardians with bones moving around by spirits making shapes as they come together and move away, and just plain Intimidate checks to make things go her way.

Theres no best way to play, make a character, have fun. You can play or fluff your life cleric in many ways, think about from witch culture do you came, do you just appreciate life in all of its forms and in all existence and love meeting people and creatures? Do you became a healer in a attemp to keep loved ones around for longer? Do you just go around believing life is good, and life is actually good to you and those around you? You believe and good things happen.

[GreyBlack]

This is a fairly biased opinion. Clerics are in no way substandard and Life is arguably one of the weaker (not actually weak, as if used properly they're all good) domains. Tempest and Light Clerics can be quite powerful. Healing is essential in any campaign that your DM isn't creating situations where the PCs victory is guaranteed. It just isn't what you want to be spending lots of resources in combat on. You're much better off going Druid if you want to be a heal bot though (preferably with a one level life cleric dip). The cleric should be putting out just as much, or more, damage then anyone else in the party.

It is. I've made my bones about Cleric pretty well known. That said, I do feel that the "advantages" of playing a Cleric are fairly overblown.

As to healing being "essential"... it isn't. Short rest healing surges, baseline availability of healing potions, etc. make a party without any healer at all viable; this is both a good thing and a bad thing because it leaves Cleric in this weird limbo where their old niche doesn't exist but they still try to fill it.

Tl;dr: Clerics are in a weird existential situation that make them inessential to the party, and there are significantly better options for any given build.


Going to gently disagree as well.

The class is very fun once you get past the “healer” expectation.

With my Forge Cleric I am a mighty tank. I can hold the line, bless my allies, remove crippling afflictions including death, summon great walls of fire or animate an army of objects, have vital and direct conversations with the GM about crucial plot elements via commune, and some of the higher end spells can really shape encounters, especially against certain enemies.
And it’s hard times for anyone in metal armor or sporting some powerful magic weapon with a metal hilt.

And Divine Intervention while somewhat unreliable is an awesome tool to have in your back pocket.


A Life Cleric has the benefit of having some of the best Clerical spells “pre-loaded” via domain spells freeing your precious preperation slots for rituals and fun stuff.

Ehhhh kinda? Clerics are decent generalists in a game that incentivizes specialist builds. The niches they can specialize in are either suboptimal or outmoded by game mechanics.

If you enjoy it, great, but I do prefer to put this opinion out there so players can know their options.

[Willie the Duck]

As to healing being "essential"... it isn't. Short rest healing surges, baseline availability of healing potions, etc. make a party without any healer at all viable; this is both a good thing and a bad thing because it leaves Cleric in this weird limbo where their old niche doesn't exist but they still try to fill it.

This is decidedly true. They finally cut the apron strings that kept every party tied to their hit point battery, yet paladins and rangers have long since taken over the vampire and demon-hunter roles, so clerics don't have a defining need to exist,
OTOH...


Tl;dr: Clerics are in a weird existential situation that make them inessential to the party, and there are significantly better options for any given build.

I disagree with this. As formulaic as it is, the bless/spiritual weapon/Spirit Guardians battlefield controller who can also throw out healing words and occasionally fix curses or diseases or whatever is a perfectly fine build, with enough variation between the archetypes to stay interesting. The cleric isn't necessary, but they still are a fine thing to play.

[caoshunter22]

What level are you, right now? Can give you some sample lists and tactics to use as a starting point.

I'm a level 1 cleric. I should have been level 2 but my DM is a jack ass and as a form of hazing I suppose he killed off my first character by friendly fire from a friendly NPC. So not a great start to my first game of D&D.

[GreyBlack]

This is decidedly true. They finally cut the apron strings that kept every party tied to their hit point battery, yet paladins and rangers have long since taken over the vampire and demon-hunter roles, so clerics don't have a defining need to exist,
OTOH...



I disagree with this. As formulaic as it is, the bless/spiritual weapon/Spirit Guardians battlefield controller who can also throw out healing words and occasionally fix curses or diseases or whatever is a perfectly fine build, with enough variation between the archetypes to stay interesting. The cleric isn't necessary, but they still are a fine thing to play.

I don't disagree that they're fine to play. If that's your cup of tea, enjoy it. That said... they are very much generalists in a specialist's world; for anything a Cleric can do, someone else does it better. That said, a cleric has other things they can do in addition to that one thing they're attempting to specialize in.

Clerics are in 5e what the bard was in 3e. Able to do many things, but not as well as someone who specializes in that one thing.

[Grimmnist]

I don't disagree that they're fine to play. If that's your cup of tea, enjoy it. That said... they are very much generalists in a specialist's world; for anything a Cleric can do, someone else does it better. That said, a cleric has other things they can do in addition to that one thing they're attempting to specialize in.

Clerics are in 5e what the bard was in 3e. Able to do many things, but not as well as someone who specializes in that one thing.

You're right about Clerics being weakish in the optimal case, where all your party members play well with highly min/maxed builds. I'm sure parties like that exist but I don't think that is most groups. When members of your party routinely run into bad positioning the cleric is there to support them, I think the generalist approach is actually a strength in most groups.

---

All this cleric talk has me wanting to roll another one! Think I'm going to try Light domain this time (mostly because I want my character to spam saying "The Light shall burn you!"). I really like the feel of playing a Cleric since most turns you have several good options to choose between rather than one obvious choice.

[Galadhrim]

I'm a level 1 cleric. I should have been level 2 but my DM is a jack ass and as a form of hazing I suppose he killed off my first character by friendly fire from a friendly NPC. So not a great start to my first game of D&D.

As a form of hazing, your DM killed your character with a "friendly" NPC and now you are experience points and levels behind the rest of the group? Dear Lord. That is the worst bad DM story I've heard in a while.

[caoshunter22]

As a form of hazing, your DM killed your character with a "friendly" NPC and now you are experience points and levels behind the rest of the group? Dear Lord. That is the worst bad DM story I've heard in a while.

Things could change at the next game and he could just make my character level 2 or have a grinding mechanic so I can level up quickly. I'm just trying to stay positive about the situation.

[Galithar]

Things could change at the next game and he could just make my character level 2 or have a grinding mechanic so I can level up quickly. I'm just trying to stay positive about the situation.

Luckily low levels go quick and you won't be behind much by the time the party gets to level 5. At that level your experience deficit should only be about one, maybe two, encounters worth.

That is a pretty dickish move by the DM though.