The Cleric: Everyone’s Favorite Tank Who Also Heals
The cleric is one of those classes that only makes sense once you stop thinking about it through a modern lens. Healers in most games are fragile and stay at the back. The cleric ignores that entirely, and it’s because D&D was invented before anyone had words like “DPS” or “tank.” The result is something genuinely unusual: a full spellcaster who can take a hit.
They run on a d8 hit die, which sits on the lower-average end, but medium armor, shields, and a Wisdom-based spell list more than compensate. The only real gap in the fantasy of a divine warrior is that base clerics don’t get heavy armor proficiency. The Life Domain fills that hole, which explains why so much official art shows clerics in full plate despite the base rules not supporting it.
Preparing Spells
This is where the cleric earns its keep. Instead of learning spells like a wizard or knowing a fixed list like a sorcerer, a cleric prepares a fresh list every long rest from the entire cleric spell list. The number of spells is Wisdom modifier plus cleric level, minimum 1. That flexibility is genuinely powerful. If you know you’re heading into a dungeon full of traps, swap in utility spells. Undead-heavy session? Load up on smite options. It rewards players who pay attention to what’s coming.
Domain spells layer on top of this. Whatever divine domain you choose hands you a set of spells that are always prepared and never count against your limit. Free real estate, effectively.
Channel Divinity and the Undead Problem
Channel Divinity is the cleric’s signature mechanic, comparable to a barbarian’s Rage or a bard’s Bardic Inspiration. Every cleric gets Turn Undead automatically, and a second option from their chosen domain. Turn Undead forces undead within 30 feet to make a Wisdom saving throw or spend a full minute running from you and doing nothing but dashing. At level 5, Destroy Undead upgrades this so that undead below a certain Challenge Rating are simply destroyed outright on a failed save.
Here is the honest caveat: if your campaign has no undead, half of your Channel Divinity feature does nothing. The fix is easy from a DM’s side. A few low-CR zombies scattered into ordinary encounters costs almost nothing to prep and gives the cleric a satisfying outlet. It is genuinely fun to watch someone pop undead like bubble wrap.
Divine Intervention
Available at level 10, Divine Intervention lets you call on your deity for help. You roll percentile dice; if you roll equal to or under your cleric level, your god shows up. The form that takes is entirely up to the DM, with domain-appropriate spells as the rough benchmark. The 7-day cooldown makes it feel weighty in a way that long-rest abilities don’t. At level 20, the roll is dropped entirely and intervention becomes automatic, though by that point you are already casting 9th-level spells freely, so the ceiling is more narrative than mechanical.
The class is straightforward on paper. Its real personality lives in the domain system, which gives it more subclass variety in the Player’s Handbook alone than most classes see including expansions. Pick a domain that fits your character concept, and the cleric framework will hold it up.
For additional reference, see the Player’s Handbook: Chapter 3, pg. 56-63.