What's your preferred Cleric Domain as a necromancer?

[Man_Over_Game]

I was contemplating what I'd play as a necromancer Cleric, and I realized how ironic it was that the Grave Cleric, archnemesis and bad neighbor to the Undead, actually is one of the most optimal necromancers I can think of.

Almost every feature the Grave cleric gets has some kind of thematic or mechanical benefit for being a necromancer:

Virtually every single one of their bonus spells.
Level 1 features include healing extra HP on dying targets, an enhanced Spare the Dying cantrip, Find Undead
Level 17 feature is a great way to heal a large army of undead by just pushing them towards easy kills.
Even the unrelated level 2 and 6 features can still activate on your undead.

Grave is probably a pretty strong choice, but how would you do it? Would you be a Tempest Cleric charging forward with Spirit Guardians while your bodyguards pin enemies down? Or would you play as a Knowledge Cleric and use your skeletons as scouts and pack mules?

[Wizard_Lizard]

Have you seen the Death Cleric in the DMG? Technically an npc class or whatever, but it has pretty heavy 'necromancer' flavour. Also doesn't have the whole 'anti-undead' vibe of grave cleric. Other horable mentions include twilight cleric or even perhaps knowledge cleric, just be sure to tailor your prepped spells with things like animate/create undead!

[RogueJK]

Death Domain get quasi-Twinned Necromancy cantrips, plus lets you pick up Chill Touch which isn't on the Cleric list. And it gives you additional ways to inflict Necrotic damage and access to additional non-Cleric Necromancy spells, which is pretty thematically on-point. Flavor-wise, it's the most appropriate for a Necromancer, but it doesn't have anything that specifically makes your undead minions better like a traditional Necromancer Wizard.

Knowledge Domain could be thematically appropriate for a Necromancer, from the "forbidden knowledge" angle. But there's nothing about their subclass that specifically makes you a better Necromancer.

Grave Domain gets access to most of the same non-Cleric Necromancy spells as Death Cleric, and at high levels get the ability to heal an undead minion when a nearby enemy dies, but the flavor of the subclass is very specifically anti-undead.

Twilight Cleric's Channel Divinity lets you buff nearby undead allies with Temp HP, and Peace Cleric's Emboldening Bond lets you buff undead minions with attack and save bonuses. As far as buffing undead minions like a Necromancer Wizard goes, those are likely the mechanically best options for a Cleric subclass. But there's nothing about these subclasses that's specifically necromantic.

[stoutstien]

Peace cleric oddly enough.balm of peace isn't limited to exclude undead and having a bunch of zombies jumping around eating attacks is a fun image.

[Foolwise]

Thematically you would be a Rest In Peace cleric...




I'll see myself out

[LudicSavant]

I was contemplating what I'd play as a necromancer Cleric, and I realized how ironic it was that the Grave Cleric, archnemesis and bad neighbor to the Undead, actually is one of the most optimal necromancers I can think of.

Peace Cleric is a better Necromancer than Grave.

"Eyes of the Grave" is simply not very useful... it only finds undead that are not behind cover, aren't protected from divinations, and are close to you. In other words, undead that could probably be detected without any aid whatsoever. As an action. That lasts just one turn. Which means you have to basically suspect something's there in the first place. This isn't even a good ribbon. It's so bad at finding undead that it makes Find Traps look good at finding traps.

Spare the Dying is just a free cantrip, and not a good one.

The maximized healing is not as good as some of the healing abilities of other Cleric subclasses, and isn't really necromancy-relevant anyways.

The spell list is pants.

The Channel Divinity is party composition dependent, but okay in the right parties.

Sentinel at Death's Door is decent, mostly because Clerics don't have much in the way of reactions to compete with, but doesn't really do much in terms of necromantic flavor.

Then you turn around and look at Peace Cleric and it has necromancy supercharger abilities oozing out of its ears. A generally strong Channel Divinity that synergizes with undead. Emboldening Bond is as strong as ever. And Protective Bond has very strong synergy with undead minions (even moreso in combination with the Channel Divinity).

[Man_Over_Game]

Then you turn around and look at Peace Cleric and it has necromancy supercharger abilities oozing out of its ears. A generally strong Channel Divinity that synergizes with undead. Emboldening Bond is as strong as ever. And Protective Bond has very strong synergy with undead minions (even moreso in combination with the Channel Divinity).

TIL Liliana Vess (MTG) is a Peace Cleric that decided to try out Necromancy.