If you want to be an Uber healer, go life cleric. Put your highest score in wisdom, then str or con. Cha can be nice, Other abilities are dump stats for you. People will want you to heal them during a fight, usually this is not the best choice, tactically, for math reasons. You’re better off hurting bad guys on your turn than healing party members. The exception is if someone drops to 0, then you heal them. Take guidance and spare the dying as cantrips. Also pick up either sacred flame or toll the dead for damage (one or the other, you don’t need both) Always have healing word and cure wounds prepared (if you go life cleric, you’ll always have cure wounds anyway as a domain spell). Wear the heaviest armor you can (life clerics can wear heavy armor, but not everyone can. If you can, you’ll want a 15 or better in str) Carry a shield and weapon (proficiency will change based on which domain you choose, but a mace is usually a solid choice) Take the warcaster feat as soon as possible.
You have a very limited number of spell slots (as does every caster), so focus on doing damage most of the time. You should mostly only be healing people when they're down with 0 health. Healer isn't really a role in D&D 5e, everyone gets to be damage dealers. You can be a damage dealer with some healing abilities, but your primary responsibility will be to deal damage, not to be healing.
When you choose a Domain, look at their level 8 ability. If it is potent spellcasting, you should probably use a cantrip as your main method of dealing damage. If it is Divine Strike, you should probably use a weapon as your main method of dealing damage. Also, look at their armor proficiencies. If they have Heavy Armor proficiency, you can choose between using Strength or Dexterity as one of your top 3 stats (along with Wisdom and Constitution). If they don't have Heavy Armor proficiency, you should choose Dexterity for one of your top 3 stats.
Edit: I later found out that you don't need the war caster feat if you have your holy symbol on your shield. You can perform the somatic components of a spell with your hand that is holding the shield. So I've removed my paragraph advocating the war caster feat, although it's still a nice feat, but it's not actually necessary like I thought when I first made this post.
Bless is one of the best buffs in the game, it's a great use of your concentration. A few levels later, Spirit Guardians is also one of the best spells in the game (although only if you're a melee Cleric), and it's also a great use of your concentration. You can also use the extremely powerful spell Spiritual Weapon while you're concentrating on another spell. Make sure that you have Cure Wounds or Healing Word prepared, but save them for when they're actually needed, and don't use them just to top people up.
The short version is, use bless at low levels and do damage on your turn with cantrip or weapon. Use healing word to get people back up. Don't try to keep people on their feet with heals, try to get them back on their feet with heals. When you get level 2 spells, use spiritual weapon. That eats up your bonus action, so use cure wounds for healing at this point. With third level spells, you want to use spirit guardians and get close to enemies, if not in actual melee range. Bonus actions are still for spiritual weapon, use toll the dead on your action (usually better than weapon attacks).
Those are the very basics of cleric 101. There's more cool and interesting things going on, but the above is your primer. Do the above and you're going to be useful and effective more than not.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I would suggest a Grave Domain cleric if you are going to use the "get them back up" strategy. The Circle of Mortality ability gained at 1st level makes healing a party member at 0 HP more beneficial than casting before they drop to 0. Having spare the dying as a 30 ft ranged cantrip is very helpful as well. Grave Domain means you loose the heavy armor, but it also means that you don't have to wade into combat and can stand back and throw damage spells, stabilize your friends and max heal them to get them back into combat. Having the war caster feat is also very helpful.
Circle of Mortality
At 1st level, you gain the ability to manipulate the line between life and death. When you would normally roll one or more dice to restore hit points with a spell to a creature at 0 hit points, you instead use the highest number possible for each die.
In addition, you learn the spare the dying cantrip, which doesn’t count against the number of cleric cantrips you know. For you, it has a range of 30 feet, and you can cast it as a bonus action.
There was a discussion in another thread about grave v life for getting people back up. Life wins (IMO, at least). Life cleric minimum hp from a healing word is the same as that grave cleric maximum, assuming they have the same wisdom. (Grave gets 4+, say 3 for wis so 7. Life’s worst is roll a 1+3 wis+3 for subclass ability, so 7. And 75% of the time, they’ll do better) And life cleric’s channel divinity can get multiple characters up, and help still others, with one action.
Life clerics are definitely the best for big heals, I really like the grave domain for the ranged spare the dying and the ability to cancel crits later. I recommend grave over life if you are looking to keep your party members popping back up and dealing with big heals out of combat. If you want a healbot, then life is they way to go for sure, but grave allows you to keep your party alive from a distance and their path to the grave in combo with a rogue can be devastating. It depends on what type of cleric you want to be really. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just have a preference is all :)
Healing is inefficient and that is healthy for the game. Toss out things like Bless and Aid or other interesting buffs that will make it so that your team has advantages during combat and won't need to be healed as much. Obviously you will still need healing words and things for those situations that just get out of hand, but being strictly a healer as a support class isn't always going to cut it if you have any sort of difficulty in your encounters.
That said, Life Cleric get's awesome bonuses for a healing playstyle but you could also consider multiclassing to get some more diversity in your supportive capacity.
Spare the dying is...not a good spell imo. Very edge case. I've played a few clerics and divine sorcs and never taken spare the dying. I've never regretted not having it, either. Using spare the dying means that your teammate doesn't get to have fun while he lays there on the ground. Imo, using spare the dying to keep your teammate alive so you can use the spellslot to cast something else is very, very selfish.
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Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
I'm playing a Draconic Sorcerer 1 Tempest Cleric 4 right now, and because I got 3 attack cantrips + Prestidigitation from Sorcerer, I took Spare the Dying as one of my Cleric cantrips. I don't need any attack cantrips or Thaumaturgy from the Cleric list, so I figured I could afford to take Spare the Dying, but even in my situation with so many cantrips known, I don't know if it was the right decision to learn it. If you're not multiclassing with another spellcasting class, there's no way I would recommend learning Spare the Dying.
I would talk to your DM, and if he's got experience in D&D, he might agree to make a house rule that Spare the Dying is a Cleric class feature and doesn't count as one of their cantrips known. That's really how the game should have been designed.
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need advice on how to play cleric
If you want to be an Uber healer, go life cleric.
Put your highest score in wisdom, then str or con. Cha can be nice, Other abilities are dump stats for you.
People will want you to heal them during a fight, usually this is not the best choice, tactically, for math reasons.
You’re better off hurting bad guys on your turn than healing party members. The exception is if someone drops to 0, then you heal them.
Take guidance and spare the dying as cantrips. Also pick up either sacred flame or toll the dead for damage (one or the other, you don’t need both)
Always have healing word and cure wounds prepared (if you go life cleric, you’ll always have cure wounds anyway as a domain spell).
Wear the heaviest armor you can (life clerics can wear heavy armor, but not everyone can. If you can, you’ll want a 15 or better in str) Carry a shield and weapon (proficiency will change based on which domain you choose, but a mace is usually a solid choice) Take the warcaster feat as soon as possible.
You have a very limited number of spell slots (as does every caster), so focus on doing damage most of the time. You should mostly only be healing people when they're down with 0 health. Healer isn't really a role in D&D 5e, everyone gets to be damage dealers. You can be a damage dealer with some healing abilities, but your primary responsibility will be to deal damage, not to be healing.
When you choose a Domain, look at their level 8 ability. If it is potent spellcasting, you should probably use a cantrip as your main method of dealing damage. If it is Divine Strike, you should probably use a weapon as your main method of dealing damage. Also, look at their armor proficiencies. If they have Heavy Armor proficiency, you can choose between using Strength or Dexterity as one of your top 3 stats (along with Wisdom and Constitution). If they don't have Heavy Armor proficiency, you should choose Dexterity for one of your top 3 stats.
Edit: I later found out that you don't need the war caster feat if you have your holy symbol on your shield. You can perform the somatic components of a spell with your hand that is holding the shield. So I've removed my paragraph advocating the war caster feat, although it's still a nice feat, but it's not actually necessary like I thought when I first made this post.
Bless is one of the best buffs in the game, it's a great use of your concentration. A few levels later, Spirit Guardians is also one of the best spells in the game (although only if you're a melee Cleric), and it's also a great use of your concentration. You can also use the extremely powerful spell Spiritual Weapon while you're concentrating on another spell. Make sure that you have Cure Wounds or Healing Word prepared, but save them for when they're actually needed, and don't use them just to top people up.
The short version is, use bless at low levels and do damage on your turn with cantrip or weapon. Use healing word to get people back up. Don't try to keep people on their feet with heals, try to get them back on their feet with heals. When you get level 2 spells, use spiritual weapon. That eats up your bonus action, so use cure wounds for healing at this point. With third level spells, you want to use spirit guardians and get close to enemies, if not in actual melee range. Bonus actions are still for spiritual weapon, use toll the dead on your action (usually better than weapon attacks).
Those are the very basics of cleric 101. There's more cool and interesting things going on, but the above is your primer. Do the above and you're going to be useful and effective more than not.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I would suggest a Grave Domain cleric if you are going to use the "get them back up" strategy. The Circle of Mortality ability gained at 1st level makes healing a party member at 0 HP more beneficial than casting before they drop to 0. Having spare the dying as a 30 ft ranged cantrip is very helpful as well. Grave Domain means you loose the heavy armor, but it also means that you don't have to wade into combat and can stand back and throw damage spells, stabilize your friends and max heal them to get them back into combat. Having the war caster feat is also very helpful.
Circle of Mortality
At 1st level, you gain the ability to manipulate the line between life and death. When you would normally roll one or more dice to restore hit points with a spell to a creature at 0 hit points, you instead use the highest number possible for each die.
In addition, you learn the spare the dying cantrip, which doesn’t count against the number of cleric cantrips you know. For you, it has a range of 30 feet, and you can cast it as a bonus action.
There was a discussion in another thread about grave v life for getting people back up. Life wins (IMO, at least). Life cleric minimum hp from a healing word is the same as that grave cleric maximum, assuming they have the same wisdom. (Grave gets 4+, say 3 for wis so 7. Life’s worst is roll a 1+3 wis+3 for subclass ability, so 7. And 75% of the time, they’ll do better) And life cleric’s channel divinity can get multiple characters up, and help still others, with one action.
Life clerics are definitely the best for big heals, I really like the grave domain for the ranged spare the dying and the ability to cancel crits later. I recommend grave over life if you are looking to keep your party members popping back up and dealing with big heals out of combat. If you want a healbot, then life is they way to go for sure, but grave allows you to keep your party alive from a distance and their path to the grave in combo with a rogue can be devastating. It depends on what type of cleric you want to be really. I'm not saying one is better than the other, I just have a preference is all :)
Remember that buffs are better than healing.
Healing is inefficient and that is healthy for the game. Toss out things like Bless and Aid or other interesting buffs that will make it so that your team has advantages during combat and won't need to be healed as much. Obviously you will still need healing words and things for those situations that just get out of hand, but being strictly a healer as a support class isn't always going to cut it if you have any sort of difficulty in your encounters.
That said, Life Cleric get's awesome bonuses for a healing playstyle but you could also consider multiclassing to get some more diversity in your supportive capacity.
Spare the dying is...not a good spell imo. Very edge case. I've played a few clerics and divine sorcs and never taken spare the dying. I've never regretted not having it, either. Using spare the dying means that your teammate doesn't get to have fun while he lays there on the ground. Imo, using spare the dying to keep your teammate alive so you can use the spellslot to cast something else is very, very selfish.
Any time an unfathomably powerful entity sweeps in and offers godlike rewards in return for just a few teensy favors, it’s a scam. Unless it’s me. I’d never lie to you, reader dearest.
Tasha
I'm playing a Draconic Sorcerer 1 Tempest Cleric 4 right now, and because I got 3 attack cantrips + Prestidigitation from Sorcerer, I took Spare the Dying as one of my Cleric cantrips. I don't need any attack cantrips or Thaumaturgy from the Cleric list, so I figured I could afford to take Spare the Dying, but even in my situation with so many cantrips known, I don't know if it was the right decision to learn it. If you're not multiclassing with another spellcasting class, there's no way I would recommend learning Spare the Dying.
I would talk to your DM, and if he's got experience in D&D, he might agree to make a house rule that Spare the Dying is a Cleric class feature and doesn't count as one of their cantrips known. That's really how the game should have been designed.