I use this often with my Stars druid, divine soul sorcerer, and Strixhaven Wizard. Other cleric spells: I use guidance (cantrip) even more often. The healing spells (light wounds, healing word) are useful too. Revivify helped us out a few times too. I'm sure there are better higher level spells but I'm at level 7 on the druid and lower on the others.
I once critted a certain radiant vulnerable big boss with it. So many dice. So much damage.
It does quite a bit of damage and as a 1st level spell it maintains relevancy through tier 1 and 2. In tier 3 play the cantrips start to catch up and it gets ignored. But a first level spell still relavant in tier 2 is pretty good.
It is a good sel particularly at low levels but I wouldn't say the best. While it is difficult to compare a damage dealing spell with a healing spell or a buff spell or a utility spell there are plenty of ways of dealing damage if you need to heal someone the options are much more limited.
Guiding bolt is more useful against a single eney or mor espread out enemies. The advantage on the next attack is a nice kicker but fairy fire can affect multiple enemies for muiltiple rounds, though it does require concentration.
I think the best cleric spells by level are:
Cantrip: Guidance as others have mentioned it is very powerful but becomes so automatic for any skill check I don't find it enjoyable
1st Level : Healing word, If a character is unconcious they only need 1 HP to cvome back up healing word being a bonus action and range outdoes the extra healing of healing word in combat
2nd Level: Spiritual Weapon, concentration free extra attack every round yes please
3rd Level Spirit Guardians DeEcent damage every round to anyone that comes reasonably close to you.
I love it, especially for my current character, a cleric of light. I meant to use the spell on a tough enemy to give advantage to my fellow adventurers... but rolled so well on the damage I vaporized the target, so no advantage was really needed.
My Stars Druid can cast guiding bolt proficiency bonus times a day without using a spell slot so it gets used quite a lot. Guiding bolt is actually more useful on a druid than a cleric because have much better damage dealing cantrips. For example a 5th level cleric is likely to be to do 2d12 with toll the dead which is almost the same as a guiding bolt (though without the kicker) where a 5th level druid is limited to thorn whip or frostbite for 2d6 damage.
I think Spirit Guardians is the best Cleric spell for my money, but Bless is equally popular
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You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I use this often with my Stars druid, divine soul sorcerer, and Strixhaven Wizard. Other cleric spells: I use guidance (cantrip) even more often. The healing spells (light wounds, healing word) are useful too. Revivify helped us out a few times too. I'm sure there are better higher level spells but I'm at level 7 on the druid and lower on the others.
It's almost unfair how broken this spell is when used with a Stars druid :)
I use this often with my Stars druid, divine soul sorcerer, and Strixhaven Wizard. Other cleric spells: I use guidance (cantrip) even more often. The healing spells (light wounds, healing word) are useful too. Revivify helped us out a few times too. I'm sure there are better higher level spells but I'm at level 7 on the druid and lower on the others.
It's almost unfair how broken this spell is when used with a Stars druid :)
Can you elaborate on “broken” in the hands of a Stars druid? I don’t see where the spell behaves differently, they just get a small handful of free castings.
I would add that in Tier 3 those extra castings per day are doing 4d6 (14 damage) and the wizard's firebolt is doing 3d10 (16.5) let alone what the Warlock is doing with his Eldritch Blast. So they are nice, but in Tier 3 they are functionally meaningless.
Guiding Bolt is probably not the best Cleric spell, but it is probably the best damage spell for them. 4d6 at level 1 is strong as a typical damage spell, and especially with the feature that the creature hit will then have the next attack made against them. It's an amazing spell, probably top 10 in their spell list, but not the best.
I use this often with my Stars druid, divine soul sorcerer, and Strixhaven Wizard. Other cleric spells: I use guidance (cantrip) even more often. The healing spells (light wounds, healing word) are useful too. Revivify helped us out a few times too. I'm sure there are better higher level spells but I'm at level 7 on the druid and lower on the others.
It's almost unfair how broken this spell is when used with a Stars druid :)
Can you elaborate on “broken” in the hands of a Stars druid? I don’t see where the spell behaves differently, they just get a small handful of free castings.
In my opinion, it's a combination of learning the spell and being able to cast it for free a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. The vast majority of feats, racial, or subclass features either let you learn a spell, or at most allow you to cast that spell once per long rest for free. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other feature in the game that works this way (I could be wrong on that, however.)
By tying it to your proficiency bonus, it means you always have the maximum benefit of that feature even if you only take a 2 level dip into Druid.
I personally feel it would be more balanced if you only learned the spell (like other always prepared subclass spells), the amount of free castings was tied to your druid level the way hours you can spend in wildshape is, or if you gained free castings as a later subclass feature when your Starry Form gets an upgrade.
This is coming from someone who's played one for a few months.
I use this often with my Stars druid, divine soul sorcerer, and Strixhaven Wizard. Other cleric spells: I use guidance (cantrip) even more often. The healing spells (light wounds, healing word) are useful too. Revivify helped us out a few times too. I'm sure there are better higher level spells but I'm at level 7 on the druid and lower on the others.
It's almost unfair how broken this spell is when used with a Stars druid :)
Can you elaborate on “broken” in the hands of a Stars druid? I don’t see where the spell behaves differently, they just get a small handful of free castings.
In my opinion, it's a combination of learning the spell and being able to cast it for free a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. The vast majority of feats, racial, or subclass features either let you learn a spell, or at most allow you to cast that spell once per long rest for free. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other feature in the game that works this way (I could be wrong on that, however.)
By tying it to your proficiency bonus, it means you always have the maximum benefit of that feature even if you only take a 2 level dip into Druid.
I personally feel it would be more balanced if you only learned the spell (like other always prepared subclass spells), the amount of free castings was tied to your druid level the way hours you can spend in wildshape is, or if you gained free castings as a later subclass feature when your Starry Form gets an upgrade.
This is coming from someone who's played one for a few months.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
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Is that the best cleric spell? I use that all the time when I dm. Anything better?
I use this often with my Stars druid, divine soul sorcerer, and Strixhaven Wizard. Other cleric spells: I use guidance (cantrip) even more often. The healing spells (light wounds, healing word) are useful too. Revivify helped us out a few times too. I'm sure there are better higher level spells but I'm at level 7 on the druid and lower on the others.
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I have the worst luck with this spell. I almost always fail my attack roll, and end up spending a so lol slot for nothing.
And the best cleric spell is guidance. Hands down.
I once critted a certain radiant vulnerable big boss with it. So many dice. So much damage.
It does quite a bit of damage and as a 1st level spell it maintains relevancy through tier 1 and 2. In tier 3 play the cantrips start to catch up and it gets ignored. But a first level spell still relavant in tier 2 is pretty good.
It is a good sel particularly at low levels but I wouldn't say the best. While it is difficult to compare a damage dealing spell with a healing spell or a buff spell or a utility spell there are plenty of ways of dealing damage if you need to heal someone the options are much more limited.
Guiding bolt is more useful against a single eney or mor espread out enemies. The advantage on the next attack is a nice kicker but fairy fire can affect multiple enemies for muiltiple rounds, though it does require concentration.
I think the best cleric spells by level are:
I love it, especially for my current character, a cleric of light. I meant to use the spell on a tough enemy to give advantage to my fellow adventurers... but rolled so well on the damage I vaporized the target, so no advantage was really needed.
My Stars Druid can cast guiding bolt proficiency bonus times a day without using a spell slot so it gets used quite a lot. Guiding bolt is actually more useful on a druid than a cleric because have much better damage dealing cantrips. For example a 5th level cleric is likely to be to do 2d12 with toll the dead which is almost the same as a guiding bolt (though without the kicker) where a 5th level druid is limited to thorn whip or frostbite for 2d6 damage.
For my money I think Bless is a better use of a spell slot, but Guiding Bolt is good if you're concentrating (such as on Bless, lol).
I think Spirit Guardians is the best Cleric spell for my money, but Bless is equally popular
You don't know what fear is until you've witnessed a drunk bird divebombing you while carrying a screaming Kobold throwing fire anywhere and everywhere.
I always spam guiding bolt when I play cleric. Spells like spirit guardians are fun too. The healing spells are nice but kinda boring imo
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It's almost unfair how broken this spell is when used with a Stars druid :)
Can you elaborate on “broken” in the hands of a Stars druid? I don’t see where the spell behaves differently, they just get a small handful of free castings.
I would add that in Tier 3 those extra castings per day are doing 4d6 (14 damage) and the wizard's firebolt is doing 3d10 (16.5) let alone what the Warlock is doing with his Eldritch Blast. So they are nice, but in Tier 3 they are functionally meaningless.
Guiding Bolt is probably not the best Cleric spell, but it is probably the best damage spell for them. 4d6 at level 1 is strong as a typical damage spell, and especially with the feature that the creature hit will then have the next attack made against them. It's an amazing spell, probably top 10 in their spell list, but not the best.
In my opinion, it's a combination of learning the spell and being able to cast it for free a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus. The vast majority of feats, racial, or subclass features either let you learn a spell, or at most allow you to cast that spell once per long rest for free. Off the top of my head I can't think of any other feature in the game that works this way (I could be wrong on that, however.)
By tying it to your proficiency bonus, it means you always have the maximum benefit of that feature even if you only take a 2 level dip into Druid.
I personally feel it would be more balanced if you only learned the spell (like other always prepared subclass spells), the amount of free castings was tied to your druid level the way hours you can spend in wildshape is, or if you gained free castings as a later subclass feature when your Starry Form gets an upgrade.
This is coming from someone who's played one for a few months.
Thanks for taking the time to respond.