This is my first time playing as a light domain Cleric and I'm having some trouble picking out which cantrips/spells will be best for my character. I'll be the primary healer of the party, so I'd really like something that will help out with that. Our party consists of:
Barbarian
Blood Hunter
Bard
Warlock
Light cleric (me!)
I think spare the dying and light will be useful (since my character doesn't have dark vision), but I'm not completely sure on what to pick.
Guidance. Always guidance. Also an attack cantrip, either sacred flame or toll the dead, but not both. light is good, but if the warlock or bard or some other caster has it, you really don’t need two party members with it, so double check. Make sure someone has it, but only one of you really needs it. If you don’t want to meta-game like that, it’s a good choice. I’m not a big fan of spare the dying. A healers kit can do the same thing, and it’s a lot easier to get a new healers kit than a new cantrip.
Thank you for replying! I didn't even think about asking my friends if they are going to be using the light cantrip, so I'll definitely ask them and see. And yeah, I definitely see what you're saying regarding the healers kit and spare the dying. I was pretty adamant on choosing spare the dying, but I'll definitely take using a healers kit into consideration before making the decision on which cantrips to pick.
Ohh okay. Thank you for letting me know about all of the attack ones in detail. I'll probably end up picking Toll of Dead..I read up on it a little and I feel like it would be pretty cool to use it. Thank you again!
No problem. clerics are super fun. I really can’t stress guidance enough. If your DM doesn’t get tired of hearing you say “ You have guidance on that” every time a party member does pretty much anything, you’re doing it wrong.
Definitely guidance, toll the dead and light. Spare the dying is rarely useful at all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
That is true, but only our bard has darkvision so I thought it would be important to choose light. But I’ll definitely take that into consideration next time I play as a cleric.
You are a building a light cleric, you get the Light cantrip for free. Guidance, Toll or Scared Flame, Thaumaturgy.
Personally its also about flavor. The 'Light' cleric is a patron of flame and radiance, Toll (in my opinion) doing 'dark' narcotic damage does not fit that cleric.
Other Spells to keep around,...
1st - Bless / Healing Word / Command
2nd - Aid / Blindness/Deafness / Silence / Spiritual Weapon - depending on campaign Hold Person
3rd - Dispel Magic / Spirit Guardians / Revivify / Mass Healing Word
4th - Banishment / Death Ward
5th - Holy Weapon (with your party's melee) / Mass Cure Wounds / Summon Celestial (the Temp HP is 'broken good' as an off tank for a barbie)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
I am the Patron of Light, not its Patron Saint. ***Casts Flame Strike ***
She's a light domain cleric, so she gets light for free regardless. Sounds like she's already picked a non-darkvision race (the bard has it and nobody else...which I assume means her too)
She's not going to want to melee often; I personally agree about wood elves, but picking something else and using a dagger as your melee weapon is not /significantly/ worse. Frankly, using a cross bow is her best option at low levels. Given she gets light for free, the cantrips I'd personally take are guidance, toll the dead, and thaumaturgy.
My must-have leveled spells through level 5 are:
1. Bless - Healing Word - Cure Wounds
2. Spiritual Weapon
3. Spirit Guardians.
Everything else is gravy.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
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.
You get light for free, as has been mentioned. Sacred flame seems thematic with light, as does guidance.
So, that leaves you with one selection. Mending is ridiculously useful in many ways. Thaumaturgy is nice for RP reasons, but read the spell closely and you can do quite a few things with it. For example, you can cause doors to fly open from range. It’s very wrath of god - booming voice, fiery eyes, the far off call of a raven. Actually, you can use it to create many different sounds:
”You create an Instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as a rumble of thunder, the cry of a raven, or ominous whispers.”
“Such as” means you can work out even more sounds that would be appropriate with your dm. The point is, it marks you as a being who wields divine power.
As for spells, I have to recommend bless. You will help your party take less damage by helping them hit more, kill faster, and avoid debilitating effects. Maybe pick a ritual you can use to save on slots like detect magic. Guiding bolt since your light cleric will probably want to be a ranged combatant. Remember you can swap them every long rest so mix it up.
Wood Elf is best Cleric. Shortsword proficiency and darkvision means you can do a full dex build and don't have to worry (too much) about the dark.
For other domains, Wood Elf is a fantastic choice. But for Light Cleric that gets Potent Spellcasting and automatically knows the Light cantrip, I would go in a different direction.
Also it doesn't fit as well thematically taking Wood Elf as a Light Cleric. Wood Elf is definitely the best Nature Cleric, as it fits both thematically and mechanically. But for Light Cleric, it doesn't really fit thematically or mechanically nearly as well.
You automatically get Light, so you can learn Guidance, Toll the Dead, and one more cantrip at level 1. And at level 4 you'll get another cantrip. Mending and Thaumaturgy are the two best choices for your other cantrip at level 1 and your cantrip at level 4. Which one you take at level 1 and which one you take at level 4 is up to you, I don't think it will make a big difference. I don't think it's a good idea to take a second attack cantrip at level 1 or level 4, and Spare the Dying is a poor choice given how strong Healer's Kits are, unfortunately.
Forget Toll the Dead. Seems like a dumb cantrip. Trying to decipher if an enemy is injured, is left to the DM. This slows the flow of combat. Go by what you know. Necrotic damage is useless to undead, constructs, and a few others. You are the dude who is supposed to get rid of these things. It should be listed for necromancers or evil clerics. Sacred Flame is better.
Forget Toll the Dead. Seems like a dumb cantrip. Trying to decipher if an enemy is injured, is left to the DM. This slows the flow of combat. Go by what you know. Necrotic damage is useless to undead, constructs, and a few others. You are the dude who is supposed to get rid of these things. It should be listed for necromancers or evil clerics. Sacred Flame is better.
What are you talking about? Before combat begins, the enemy is not injured. After any of the players hit him, EVERYONE KNOWS he is wounded. This does not slow the game at all. Not once in any of the three games I have played in.
As for not working on constructs, wrong, try again (Look a the Golems). Yeah, most high level undead are immune/resistant (not all, the weak undead such as zombies, skeletons it works on). But that issue applies to almost all damage types - few affect all. Your reasoning is poor. Yeah, you need to have more than 1 damaging spell, but Toll the Dead, especially at low levels is really good.
After a few sessions with my Light Domain Cleric, I found that Guidance, Sacred Flame, and Mending were the most flexible and advantageous cantrips. It's a shame I started with Thaumaturgy, but getting to Level 4 allowed me to add Mending in.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
This is my first time playing as a light domain Cleric and I'm having some trouble picking out which cantrips/spells will be best for my character. I'll be the primary healer of the party, so I'd really like something that will help out with that. Our party consists of:
I think spare the dying and light will be useful (since my character doesn't have dark vision), but I'm not completely sure on what to pick.
Thanks for helping me out!
Guidance. Always guidance.
Also an attack cantrip, either sacred flame or toll the dead, but not both.
light is good, but if the warlock or bard or some other caster has it, you really don’t need two party members with it, so double check. Make sure someone has it, but only one of you really needs it. If you don’t want to meta-game like that, it’s a good choice.
I’m not a big fan of spare the dying. A healers kit can do the same thing, and it’s a lot easier to get a new healers kit than a new cantrip.
Thank you for replying! I didn't even think about asking my friends if they are going to be using the light cantrip, so I'll definitely ask them and see. And yeah, I definitely see what you're saying regarding the healers kit and spare the dying. I was pretty adamant on choosing spare the dying, but I'll definitely take using a healers kit into consideration before making the decision on which cantrips to pick.
Thank you again!
Spare the dying is a bad cantrip. It is only really useful for an army medic type situation where you are going to be trying to save 7+ people.
The attack cantrips are
Thaumaturgy is a good distraction and lets you open doors without touching them.
Ohh okay. Thank you for letting me know about all of the attack ones in detail. I'll probably end up picking Toll of Dead..I read up on it a little and I feel like it would be pretty cool to use it. Thank you again!
No problem. clerics are super fun. I really can’t stress guidance enough. If your DM doesn’t get tired of hearing you say “ You have guidance on that” every time a party member does pretty much anything, you’re doing it wrong.
Hahaha I'll definitely pick guidance then. Thank you!!
Definitely guidance, toll the dead and light. Spare the dying is rarely useful at all.
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
Yeah those are the three I ended up going with haha
One other consideration: If most of your party has darkvision, Light is not as much of a big deal.
That is true, but only our bard has darkvision so I thought it would be important to choose light. But I’ll definitely take that into consideration next time I play as a cleric.
You are a building a light cleric, you get the Light cantrip for free. Guidance, Toll or Scared Flame, Thaumaturgy.
Personally its also about flavor. The 'Light' cleric is a patron of flame and radiance, Toll (in my opinion) doing 'dark' narcotic damage does not fit that cleric.
Other Spells to keep around,...
1st - Bless / Healing Word / Command
2nd - Aid / Blindness/Deafness / Silence / Spiritual Weapon - depending on campaign Hold Person
3rd - Dispel Magic / Spirit Guardians / Revivify / Mass Healing Word
4th - Banishment / Death Ward
5th - Holy Weapon (with your party's melee) / Mass Cure Wounds / Summon Celestial (the Temp HP is 'broken good' as an off tank for a barbie)
I am the Patron of Light, not its Patron Saint. ***Casts Flame Strike ***
Wood Elf is best Cleric. Shortsword proficiency and darkvision means you can do a full dex build and don't have to worry (too much) about the dark.
She's a light domain cleric, so she gets light for free regardless. Sounds like she's already picked a non-darkvision race (the bard has it and nobody else...which I assume means her too)
She's not going to want to melee often; I personally agree about wood elves, but picking something else and using a dagger as your melee weapon is not /significantly/ worse. Frankly, using a cross bow is her best option at low levels. Given she gets light for free, the cantrips I'd personally take are guidance, toll the dead, and thaumaturgy.
My must-have leveled spells through level 5 are:
1. Bless - Healing Word - Cure Wounds
2. Spiritual Weapon
3. Spirit Guardians.
Everything else is gravy.
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
You get light for free, as has been mentioned. Sacred flame seems thematic with light, as does guidance.
So, that leaves you with one selection. Mending is ridiculously useful in many ways. Thaumaturgy is nice for RP reasons, but read the spell closely and you can do quite a few things with it. For example, you can cause doors to fly open from range. It’s very wrath of god - booming voice, fiery eyes, the far off call of a raven. Actually, you can use it to create many different sounds:
”You create an Instantaneous sound that originates from a point of your choice within range, such as a rumble of thunder, the cry of a raven, or ominous whispers.”
“Such as” means you can work out even more sounds that would be appropriate with your dm. The point is, it marks you as a being who wields divine power.
As for spells, I have to recommend bless. You will help your party take less damage by helping them hit more, kill faster, and avoid debilitating effects. Maybe pick a ritual you can use to save on slots like detect magic. Guiding bolt since your light cleric will probably want to be a ranged combatant. Remember you can swap them every long rest so mix it up.
For other domains, Wood Elf is a fantastic choice. But for Light Cleric that gets Potent Spellcasting and automatically knows the Light cantrip, I would go in a different direction.
Also it doesn't fit as well thematically taking Wood Elf as a Light Cleric. Wood Elf is definitely the best Nature Cleric, as it fits both thematically and mechanically. But for Light Cleric, it doesn't really fit thematically or mechanically nearly as well.
You automatically get Light, so you can learn Guidance, Toll the Dead, and one more cantrip at level 1. And at level 4 you'll get another cantrip. Mending and Thaumaturgy are the two best choices for your other cantrip at level 1 and your cantrip at level 4. Which one you take at level 1 and which one you take at level 4 is up to you, I don't think it will make a big difference. I don't think it's a good idea to take a second attack cantrip at level 1 or level 4, and Spare the Dying is a poor choice given how strong Healer's Kits are, unfortunately.
Forget Toll the Dead. Seems like a dumb cantrip. Trying to decipher if an enemy is injured, is left to the DM. This slows the flow of combat. Go by what you know. Necrotic damage is useless to undead, constructs, and a few others. You are the dude who is supposed to get rid of these things. It should be listed for necromancers or evil clerics. Sacred Flame is better.
What are you talking about? Before combat begins, the enemy is not injured. After any of the players hit him, EVERYONE KNOWS he is wounded. This does not slow the game at all. Not once in any of the three games I have played in.
As for not working on constructs, wrong, try again (Look a the Golems). Yeah, most high level undead are immune/resistant (not all, the weak undead such as zombies, skeletons it works on). But that issue applies to almost all damage types - few affect all. Your reasoning is poor. Yeah, you need to have more than 1 damaging spell, but Toll the Dead, especially at low levels is really good.
After a few sessions with my Light Domain Cleric, I found that Guidance, Sacred Flame, and Mending were the most flexible and advantageous cantrips. It's a shame I started with Thaumaturgy, but getting to Level 4 allowed me to add Mending in.