Hi I am going to be part of a Call of the Netherdeep campaign once it is released. The DM has given the ok on any and all Critrole content and the party is going to be all clerics for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, but that's it's own thread.
I intend to play something of an edgy blasty boy with a stereotypical revenge plot and I am currently picking between the Blood, Death and Tempest domains. Important to note my race is Fallen Aasimar though that can also potentially be changed.
In addition if anyone has any advice on spells for a blasting cleric feel free to give it. I don't have numbers yet but I intend to order my stats as something like Wis, Dex/Con, Cha, Int/Str
If you want to be "blasty" with a cleric ther'e always the Light domain that grants a bunch of potent offensive spells. They're all fire based so you could be in trouble if enemies have resistance or immunity to it, but a fun fact is that being underwater doesn't actually impede fire damage from spells (unless your DM is one of those idiots that thinks real world physics and such should apply to literal magic in a fantasy game).
That being said, while Blood and Death domains definitely work for "edgy" (seriously it would be difficult to convincingly roleplay a character with one of those domains and not be somehow edgy), neither are really "blasty." Both are more focused on weakening, debuffing, gradually draining, and some "control" type magic and similar effects. Such abilities can definitely be effective but to make the most of them you'll have to think more tactically and act a bit more subtly than "I point there and do a bunch of damage." Of the three you've put in the poll, Tempest is definitely the most suited to dealing direct damage. In addition to some area of effect damage spells you also get proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor and your first level domain ability deals damage specifically in melee, so it's a great choice if you want to be a front line combatant and use your magic to augment that.
If you want to be "blasty" with a cleric ther'e always the Light domain that grants a bunch of potent offensive spells. They're all fire based so you could be in trouble if enemies have resistance or immunity to it, but a fun fact is that being underwater doesn't actually impede fire damage from spells (unless your DM is one of those idiots that thinks real world physics and such should apply to literal magic in a fantasy game).
The issue with light domain is that we already have a light domain cleric, we also have a war domain.
In your opinion would any kind of multiclassing help the blasting power of death or blood.
Multiclassing into Sorcerer and combining "blasting" spells with metamagic will let you blast things quite well, but if the blasting is your primary focus you'd be better off as just a single class Sorcerer. Like I said, Death and Blood domains just aren't "blasty" skillsets, at least as I would define "blasting" (targeted and area effect damage focused on removing large quantities of hit points). Blood domain's first level ability gives your spells a small damage boost against many enemies (one's with blood, at least) which will be most effective at low levels when any static bonus to anything grants more "weight" because you're dealing with smaller numbers to begin with, and Death's sixth level feature gets past necrotic resistance which is a niche benefit at best. Grave domain's Path to the Grave ability to effectively double damage of the next attack against a target is more "blasty" in many ways but that also is only usable a limited number of times as it's a Channel Divinity function.
Of your three selected domains, Tempest is easily the most suited to "blasting" because the others just don't have any spells that blast aside from what all clerics get (which is basically guiding bolt and flame strike; clerics can do a lot of damage but most of it isn't really what I'd call blasting). Tempest also makes you better at melee combat, so if you want to just do a lot of damage then wading in with heavy armor, a shield and d8 weapon, or a heavy weapon after weakening your foes with thunderwave and shatter is your best bet. But that Light cleric is still going to be objectively better at straight blasting because they have the spells for it and you don't.
If you want to do damage like fireball then you have to actually cast fireball.
You've a lot of good points, kind of shifting the goal post here I admit but which do you think is the better spellslinger, by spellslinger I mean someone who relies as little as possible on weapons.
Also I'll edit my post to add this in but I intend to order stat importance as Wis, Dex/Con, Cha, Int/Str. We already have two strength based clerics so heavy armor is not a draw for me.
For general spell slinging, which all clerics are quite capable of, I would personally go with Death over Blood under your criteria. Tempest still remains viable, but honestly if you're specifically seeking to eschew weapons then you just won't be using some big parts of the subclass so you might as well just skip it. One last note on Tempest is that with martial proficiency you could still use a rapier or other finesse weapon effectively while still dumping Dex and still benefitting from the defensive benefits of the armor and Wrath of the Storm is still good if enemies get close enough to hit you (although this would be more if a last resort if you're trying to avoid melee in general).
For a "spell slinging" approach I strongly recommend just taking some time to read over the Cleric spell list and actually read what those spells do. There may not be a lot of flashy blasting spells but there are quite a few potent damage dealers, particularly at low levels that scale up like inflict wounds, guiding bolt, spiritual weapon, and spirit guardians. Additionally there are a lot that can either assist your allies or hamper, weaken, and otherwise make your enemy's day unpleasant. Dispel magic is a big one; counterspell may be hyped up as the big hotness but if a defensive warding spell is already in effect good old dispel magic will mage it no longer be a problem more often than not, and it can also apply to debuffs on yourself and your allies. Bestow curse and remove curse should have self evident uses. Even though a lot of folks dislike the idea of "healbots" you pretty much have to be stupid to not have at least cure wounds or healing word prepared just in case you need some healing and they can be upcast to greater effect as needed. Lesser restoration is another low level spell that makes conditions go away, and protection from poison is specialized but definitely a recommended if you expect to fight poisonous enemies. There's a lot of great spells in there. Seriously, read them. Clerics are awesome and a lot of that is the enormous magical toolbox of a spell list that they have, and you can change out the ones you have available daily.
You should consider the War Caster feat. The no free hand part is superfluous for Clerics (re: Divine Focus) but casting inflict wounds as an attack of opportunity is a great way to make somebody regret running past you and a lot of powerful Cleric spells use concentration (like spirit guardians) so the advantage on concentration checks is a big deal. Also possibly worthy of consideration is Resilient for a slight boost to and proficiency with Constitution saves, again for those concentration checks.
Additionally, it should go without saying that you have a shield. Seriously, that +2 AC is the best possible use of a hand that you aren't using for anything else anyways (clerics don't even need a free hand to cast because of how a Divine Focus works). Shields save lives. Mostly yours.
So let's compare Death and Blood domains.
Leven One
They both get martial weapon proficiency, but no heavy armor. Probably not going to be much of an issue since you specifically want to focus away from weapons but with your priority on Dex you might as well pick up a rapier so you have a good pokey stick that you can use effectively should you absolutely need to.
Death gets a free necromancy cantrip from another spell list, and cantrips are great for fallback options in combat that don't use weapons. The two attractive choices here are chill touch and toll the dead. Toll the dead does extra damage (d12 instead of d8) if your target isn't at full health, which is nice, and also works with a Wisdom save instead of an attack roll which makes it better against most high AC targets. I would go with chill touch, though, because it has twice the range (120 feet over 60) and on a hit the target can't gain hit points until your next turn (no save to negate), which prevents it from being healed during that time in any way and that can be potentially more harmful than the actual damage. Toll the dead is also normally available to Clerics so you can still pick it up by normal means if you really want it. Additionally your necromancy cantrips can also hit an extra target if they're right next to each other (within 5 feet); normally this only effects your choice of the previous two but spare the dying is also necromancy and this could potentially be useful if multiple allies go down at once like from an AoE attack (not likely to come up often but worth keeping in mind if the crap really hits the fan).
Blood gives you an extra necrotic damage equal to 2 + spell level when you hit a target with a levelled spell (so no cantrips) against any target that has blood. That may not seem like much but it can add up, especially at low levels when most effects don't deal much damage to begin with so even an extra 3 points of damage isn't bad. That being said it doesn't work with cantrips and the "creatures with blood" restriction means it doesn't work against things like constructs, elementals, most undead, plant monsters, and potentially a number of others depending on DM interpretation (insects, for example, technically don't have blood). So limited advantages.
Personally, I'm thinking Death has the advantage here. Chill touch makes a great standby combat option (particularly if your enemies can heal) is very nice and the possible extra target is just icing on the cake.
Level Two
Each class gets a different Channel Divinity ability in addition to the Turn Undead that all Clerics can do. You can use CD once per short rest from second level on, twice at sixth and three times at eighteenth.
Death gets the ability to do extra necrotic damage equal to 5 plus twice your cleric level (so nine at second level, which is pretty hefty at that point - statistically speaking this is the average result you get from rolling 2d8) to a melee attack that you hit with. You're looking to avoid weapons, but this does provide some extra emergency power to add to that rapier if you really need it and melee spell attacks do count as melee attacks (I double checked, there's a Sage advice specifically addressing this) so that works with things like inflict wounds and even spiritual weapon which is one of the best spells ever and doesn't have to be anywhere particularly near you to make use of this ability.
Blood gets the ability to target a creature with blood (so again the same limitations apply) within 60 feet and if they fail a Constitution save you can make them move half their speed and make a weapon attack against a valid target of your choice. The wording specifically says dead or unconscious creatures automatically fail the save but a strict interpretation of RAW means that "half movement" is exactly what it takes to stand up so a target would have to be right next to it in that case. Depending on the creature in question that could be a good bit of damage but this takes an action so for it to actually be useful it should do more damage than you could do otherwise with a spell or other ability. Another situational use would be having the target jump off a ledge or such if they're positioned conveniently and fail the save.
Again, my opinion is that the Death option gives the better advantage, providing an option for consistent extra spike damage (especially with since it can be used with spiritual weapon).
Level Six
Death gets to ignore resistance to necrotic damage against your spells. Honestly this isn't likely to come up a lot and even if/when it does you should have other options for hurting things that deal different damage types. Classic Cleric go to combat spells like guiding bolt and spiritual weapon deal radiant and force damage, spirit guardians only deals necrotic if your alignment is evil, and I would recommend considering having sacred flame as a cantrip to deal radiant even with chill touch in your arsenal just because having a reliable source of easy, spell slot free radiant damage is nice (particular against undead like zombies that radiant prevents from popping back up again).
Blood gets an alternate use of Channel Divinity that basically lets you track a target within ten miles (a very long distance compared to the mere thousand feet you get from locate creature which is also a fourth level spell) but the big catch here is that you need at least two ounces of said creature's blood and that blood has to have been spilled within the past week. It only lasts for an hour but you regain it on a short rest and it could potentially be extremely useful...if you can somehow get that recently acquired two ounce blood sample in the first place. To further speed up tracking the target and even spying on them, you can try perceiving through their senses at the risk of taking 2d6 damage if they pass the Constitution save to resist it.
Honestly I call this one a wash. Both abilities are very niche and either unlikely to come up or very difficult to arrange in order to become viable options. If I had to go with one I guess Blood could be a big deal on the off chance you actually get a chance to use it.
Level Eight
Death adds a d8 of necrotic damage to weapon attacks once per turn (and you only get one attack each turn as a cleric, excluding attacks of opportunity) and it scales up to 2d8 at level fourteen. Considering you're not planning to fight with a weapon much, this isn't a very attractive thing for you.
Blood gets to recover spell slots once per long rest at the cost of hurting yourself. You get back spell slots of combined levels equal to half your Cleric level (rounded up) and then take 1d6 damage per spell slot level regained. Worth noting is that this damage is necrotic and you said you're going to be an Aasimar so your Celestial Resistance will apply to that, thus halving any such damage. You can potentially do this right before a short rest and recover the lost HP with hit dice; worst case is later you can use those recovered spell slots to cast a cure wounds on yourself and that healt at a full d8 per spell level instead of the half a d6 damage you're taking to get them.
Given that the Death option is weapon based and you won't be using it often, the spell slot recovery gives Blood the edge here. Your racial resistance to the necrotic damage just makes it extra attractive.
Level Seventeen
Death gets the ability to have any and all necromancy spells you cast up to fifth level with a single target also affect a second target if it's right next to the first one (within 5 feet). There are enough necromancy spells on the Cleric list that this can be of significant use with some modicum of regularity and by this level you'll have quite a few spell slots to make use of it with. Spells you're looking at for this are inflict wounds, blindness/deafness (casting it at the base second level rather than upcasting with a third level slot), bestow curse, and contagion. Note that the ability specifies that the spell effects an extra target, so it's still technically only one spell for purposes of concentration. Inflict wounds is a low level, scalable spell that hits like a truck and the others can really mess with your enemies in various ways to sway the tide of a battle.
Blood gets a 30 foot radius one minute (so probably one combat under most cases) effect that deals 2d6 damage per round to enemies and causes them to only get half healing during that time. Under the right circumstances this can provide a pretty big swing but it's only usable once per long rest.
Both of these are very nice abilities. The Blood one is more powerful at a glance and under ideal circumstances but a "spell slinger" is going to have a lot of opportunities to make use of the Death ability which potentially applies to every time you cast a necromancy spell.
I think I'm pretty much convinced to take Death over Blood, and maybe Tempest over Death though I will lose out on that extra edge. Though I will tell you your using the old Blood domain, I'll share the new one with you below. Also if you don't mind I'd like your opinion on how Death domains Channel Divinity stacks up against Blood domains Bloodletting focus.
I'd also like your opinion on how domain spells would affect this.
Domain Spells You gain domain spells at the cleric levels listed in the Blood Domain Spells table. Blood Domain Spells Cleric Level Spells 1st false life, sleep 3rd hold person, ray of enfeeblement 5th haste, slow 7th blight, stoneskin 9th dominate person, hold monster
Reborn Bonus Proficiencies When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Bloodletting Focus Starting at 1st level, your divine magic draws the blood from magically inflicted wounds, worsening the agony of your foes. When you cast a damage-dealing spell of 1st level or higher whose duration is instantaneous, any creature with blood that takes damage from the spell takes extra necrotic damage equal to 2 + the spell’s level. z
Channel Divinity: Crimson Bond Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to form a supernatural bond with a creature you can see, or with a creature for which you possess a blood sample. This bond lasts for 1 hour or until your concentration is broken (as if concentrating on a spell). While the bond is in effect, you can use an action to learn the target’s approximate distance and direction from you, as well as its current hit points and any conditions affecting it, as long as the target is within 10 miles of you. Alternatively, you can use your action to attempt to connect with the target’s senses. You take 2d6 necrotic damage and the target makes a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a successful save, the bond ends. On a failure, you can choose to either see or hear through the target’s senses for a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 minute). During this time, you are blinded or deafened (respectively) with regard to your own senses. When the connection ends, the bond is lost. Regardless of the outcome, the target feels a wave of unease pass over it when it makes this save.
Channel Divinity: Blood Puppet Starting at 6th level, you can use your Channel Divinity to briefly control a creature’s actions— whether that creature is living or dead. As an action, you target a Large or smaller creature or corpse within 60 feet of you that has blood. A creature you target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or become charmed by you. An unconscious creature automatically fails its saving throw, and isn’t incapacitated while you control its actions. A corpse targeted by this effect gains a semblance of life that you control. On the affected creature or animated corpse’s turn, you can command it (no action required) to move up to half its speed and use its action to do one of the following: • Interact with an object • Make a single attack • Do nothing An animated corpse or an unconscious creature takes its turn immediately after yours, but can’t move or take actions unless you command it to do so. Its statistics are the same as when it was alive or conscious. An affected living creature makes a new saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. For any target, your control lasts for 1 minute or until your concentration is broken (as if concentrating on a spell). At 17th level, you can use this feature to target a Huge or smaller creature or corpse.
Sanguine Recall At 6th level, you can sacrifice a portion of your own vitality to recover expended spell slots as an action. The spell slots can have a combined level equal to or less than half your cleric level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. You take 1d8 necrotic damage for each spell slot level recovered, which can’t be reduced in any way. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest. For example, if you’re an 8th-level cleric, you can recover up to four levels of spell slots—a single 4th-level slot, two 2nd-level slots, a 3rd-level slot and a 1st-level slot, or four 1st-level slots. You then take 4d8 necrotic damage.
Divine Strike At 8th level, you gain the ability to cause the physical wounds you deal out to bleed profusely. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 necrotic damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Vascular Corruption Aura At 17th level, you can use your action to emit a deathly aura of necrotic energy that causes the veins of nearby foes to burst and bleed. For 1 minute, any hostile creature with blood that moves within 30 feet of you for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there takes 3d6 necrotic damage. If a hostile creature with blood regains hit points while in the aura, it regains only half as many hit points as expected. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Ah. I don't have any of the Critical Role material myself so I was consulting a wiki, which must have the older version. Looks like the update mainly switched the second and sixth level abilities and tweaked Blood puppet a bit, then they bumped up the final ability's damage by an extra die.
Domain spells are where you get a lot of your "flavor" that goes with your domain as a Cleric. Some of those are already Cleric spells and you just automatically have them as extras in addition to ones you prepare, and some are also not even normally available to Clerics to begin with. Both Death and Blood have some that aren't normally from the Cleric list but they do have some overlap there in specific spells and general usage. You don't have to actually use those domain spellsif you don't want to (you have plenty of options otherwise) but you should always remember they're there to use if you want them. Both Death and Blood domains have a lot of spells that either don't deal direct damage or aren't as good at doing so as other spells but they influence how effectively you, your allies, and/or your enemies do a bunch of other stuff. Blasting is easy and simple but these other spells can often make a bigger difference in a fight, often by making it easier for you and your allies to use other spells or abilities to better effect.
Death domain spells
False life is basically a proactive healing spell and a great pre-battle prep spell when you expect to take damage. You can use it mid battle as long as you're above zero HP, but it's best used beforehand so you don't have to spend an action that could be used to do something else during the fight. At first level it's basically the equivalent of healing word and if you upcast it the extra is slightly more effective, on average, than doing so with cure wounds and it's bigger die (1d8 averages at 4.5 and you get a flat 5 per level). While it is still useful in combat you should have at least one actual healing spell still prepared for allies in bad shape (or down) because false life only works on yourself.
Ray of sickness is mediocre at best. Guiding bolt is a much more effective damage spell at the same level that you should have prepared to use if you want to just blast something. RoS has the chance of inflicting poison which is great because it means disadvantage on attacks, which is one of those big deals that can change a lot, but it gives a chance to save out of it and it only lasts for one turn. I would only recommend using it against targets you expect to almost certainly fail that save, otherwise use a different spell to debuff or just blast with guiding bolt for more damage.
Blindness/deafness can impose that disadvantage on attacks much longer than RoS. It's concentration and they can retry their saves each round so you want to pick targets likely to fail those saves, but if it sticks around for just a few rounds it can mean a lot less damage coming in at your party, especially with enemies that have multiattack because more attacks means more chances to miss because of disadvantage. Ray of Enfeeblement works much the same except instead of greater chances of missing it makes that enemy's attacks do less damage.
Animate dead makes a disposable minion. It's not a particularly good minion, but it can be a distraction or if you make multiples you can use a single casting to maintain more of them later so it can be front loaded by burning unused spell slots at the end of a day to make a bunch then a single casting to maintain them later (if they even last through the next day). Give them a simple command ("kill that guy" or "stand over there and attack anything that comes in reach") and let them eat up enemy actions. Honestly, the value provided in comparison to what other third level spells offer is dubious at best.
Vampiric touch is a mediocre damage spell that is also a mediocre healing spell and when those two functions are combined it can actually be pretty good. It's something to use during an extended fight after you've taken some damage but aren't in immediate danger of going down to consistently do decent damage while also healing roughly equal to a first level healing word each round if you hit. Concentration and melee so you want War Caster if you plan on actually using this and even then it would probably work better with a more melee friendly build with heavy armor so you make less concentration checks.
Blight is a powerful direct damage spell. It's single target but averages greater damage than fireball even with the latter upcast to fourth level and you don't worry about collateral damage so it can situationally be better. Use this against big nasty scary things. Even better, use it against hostile casters and speed/Dex focused foes that are likely to be weak against a Con save.
Death ward is a proactive revival spell and it lasts for eight hours without concentration. Cast it on yourself or an ally before going into a bunch of combat where you fully expect to need it. If you have the extra slots to spare you can cast it on multiple targets because there isn't a limit, but you're probably better just putting it on one or two allies who serve as the group's primary healers because they can bring somebody back at more than one HP with an actual healing spell.
Antilife Shell is basically "personal space: the spell" and works great against melee enemies so they do not melee you. No save, they just can't get to you. Does nothing against ranged attacks though, so make sure it's going to be worth the fifth level slot.
Cloudkill, aka "f--- everything over there and keep f---ing 'em all for a while." Used against massed enemies this spell will rack up huge total damage numbers. Just be careful you and your allies don't want to be in that general area for a while.
Blood domain spells
False life, see above. Sleep is a great way to knock out weak enemies; it's not much use against powerful ones but still quite potent if used judiciously.
Ray of Enfeeplement see above. Hold person is a great way to neutralize enemies with low Wis saves, such as many of the type that would be unpleasant to have in melee range with you. Preferably neutralizing them before they get to melee range. Don't be afraid to upcast it to effect multiple targets if appropriate. They get to save each turn but each turn they fail is another turn for you and your allies to take free shots at them or otherwise do something they'd be inconvenient to if they were mobile. Edit/addition: You know what paralyzed enemies don't do? Pass Dex saves. Remind your Light domain buddy of this fact after landing this spell.
Haste and slow. Doing more things is always better, doing fewer things is always worse. Both are most effective on melee types. One is for friends and the other is for not-friends.
Blight see above. Stoneskin should be cast on somebody that's going to get hit by a lot of nonmagical things and isn't a Barbarian because it gives them the same resistances as a Barbarian's rage. It also shouldn't be cast on yourself unless for emergencies because even reduced damage incurs concentration checks that can break the spell. Make sure you think it's going to be worth the fourth level spell slot and occupying your concentration, but that being said it can be very effective when put onto a brawler who will serve to keep the attention of things that would otherwise be attacking you.
Dominate person is self evident and can make a huge swing in the tide of a fight. Hold monster isn't as good for total effect but can be used against just about everything; as with all such spells try using it on things you think are unlikely to save against it for long enough for you and your friends to wail on it a good bit.
If you want to be "blasty" with a cleric ther'e always the Light domain that grants a bunch of potent offensive spells. They're all fire based so you could be in trouble if enemies have resistance or immunity to it, but a fun fact is that being underwater doesn't actually impede fire damage from spells (unless your DM is one of those idiots that thinks real world physics and such should apply to literal magic in a fantasy game).
This is not really true, I really that being underwater impedes fire damage from spells, not because of real world physics but because the )HBse tion on underwater combat states "creatures immersed in water are resistant to fire damage" . A DM can homebrew that it does not apply to spells but that is homebred.
It's possible I may be thinking of a different edition or something on that one...still think a fireball spell has as much in common with a wooden match as a supersonic jet does with a drunk clown on a unicycle.
Hi I am going to be part of a Call of the Netherdeep campaign once it is released. The DM has given the ok on any and all Critrole content and the party is going to be all clerics for reasons I'm not entirely sure of, but that's it's own thread.
I intend to play something of an edgy blasty boy with a stereotypical revenge plot and I am currently picking between the Blood, Death and Tempest domains. Important to note my race is Fallen Aasimar though that can also potentially be changed.
In addition if anyone has any advice on spells for a blasting cleric feel free to give it.
I don't have numbers yet but I intend to order my stats as something like Wis, Dex/Con, Cha, Int/Str
If you want to be "blasty" with a cleric ther'e always the Light domain that grants a bunch of potent offensive spells. They're all fire based so you could be in trouble if enemies have resistance or immunity to it, but a fun fact is that being underwater doesn't actually impede fire damage from spells (unless your DM is one of those idiots that thinks real world physics and such should apply to literal magic in a fantasy game).
That being said, while Blood and Death domains definitely work for "edgy" (seriously it would be difficult to convincingly roleplay a character with one of those domains and not be somehow edgy), neither are really "blasty." Both are more focused on weakening, debuffing, gradually draining, and some "control" type magic and similar effects. Such abilities can definitely be effective but to make the most of them you'll have to think more tactically and act a bit more subtly than "I point there and do a bunch of damage." Of the three you've put in the poll, Tempest is definitely the most suited to dealing direct damage. In addition to some area of effect damage spells you also get proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor and your first level domain ability deals damage specifically in melee, so it's a great choice if you want to be a front line combatant and use your magic to augment that.
The issue with light domain is that we already have a light domain cleric, we also have a war domain.
In your opinion would any kind of multiclassing help the blasting power of death or blood.
Multiclassing into Sorcerer and combining "blasting" spells with metamagic will let you blast things quite well, but if the blasting is your primary focus you'd be better off as just a single class Sorcerer. Like I said, Death and Blood domains just aren't "blasty" skillsets, at least as I would define "blasting" (targeted and area effect damage focused on removing large quantities of hit points). Blood domain's first level ability gives your spells a small damage boost against many enemies (one's with blood, at least) which will be most effective at low levels when any static bonus to anything grants more "weight" because you're dealing with smaller numbers to begin with, and Death's sixth level feature gets past necrotic resistance which is a niche benefit at best. Grave domain's Path to the Grave ability to effectively double damage of the next attack against a target is more "blasty" in many ways but that also is only usable a limited number of times as it's a Channel Divinity function.
Of your three selected domains, Tempest is easily the most suited to "blasting" because the others just don't have any spells that blast aside from what all clerics get (which is basically guiding bolt and flame strike; clerics can do a lot of damage but most of it isn't really what I'd call blasting). Tempest also makes you better at melee combat, so if you want to just do a lot of damage then wading in with heavy armor, a shield and d8 weapon, or a heavy weapon after weakening your foes with thunderwave and shatter is your best bet. But that Light cleric is still going to be objectively better at straight blasting because they have the spells for it and you don't.
If you want to do damage like fireball then you have to actually cast fireball.
You've a lot of good points, kind of shifting the goal post here I admit but which do you think is the better spellslinger, by spellslinger I mean someone who relies as little as possible on weapons.
Also I'll edit my post to add this in but I intend to order stat importance as Wis, Dex/Con, Cha, Int/Str. We already have two strength based clerics so heavy armor is not a draw for me.
For general spell slinging, which all clerics are quite capable of, I would personally go with Death over Blood under your criteria. Tempest still remains viable, but honestly if you're specifically seeking to eschew weapons then you just won't be using some big parts of the subclass so you might as well just skip it. One last note on Tempest is that with martial proficiency you could still use a rapier or other finesse weapon effectively while still dumping Dex and still benefitting from the defensive benefits of the armor and Wrath of the Storm is still good if enemies get close enough to hit you (although this would be more if a last resort if you're trying to avoid melee in general).
For a "spell slinging" approach I strongly recommend just taking some time to read over the Cleric spell list and actually read what those spells do. There may not be a lot of flashy blasting spells but there are quite a few potent damage dealers, particularly at low levels that scale up like inflict wounds, guiding bolt, spiritual weapon, and spirit guardians. Additionally there are a lot that can either assist your allies or hamper, weaken, and otherwise make your enemy's day unpleasant. Dispel magic is a big one; counterspell may be hyped up as the big hotness but if a defensive warding spell is already in effect good old dispel magic will mage it no longer be a problem more often than not, and it can also apply to debuffs on yourself and your allies. Bestow curse and remove curse should have self evident uses. Even though a lot of folks dislike the idea of "healbots" you pretty much have to be stupid to not have at least cure wounds or healing word prepared just in case you need some healing and they can be upcast to greater effect as needed. Lesser restoration is another low level spell that makes conditions go away, and protection from poison is specialized but definitely a recommended if you expect to fight poisonous enemies. There's a lot of great spells in there. Seriously, read them. Clerics are awesome and a lot of that is the enormous magical toolbox of a spell list that they have, and you can change out the ones you have available daily.
You should consider the War Caster feat. The no free hand part is superfluous for Clerics (re: Divine Focus) but casting inflict wounds as an attack of opportunity is a great way to make somebody regret running past you and a lot of powerful Cleric spells use concentration (like spirit guardians) so the advantage on concentration checks is a big deal. Also possibly worthy of consideration is Resilient for a slight boost to and proficiency with Constitution saves, again for those concentration checks.
Additionally, it should go without saying that you have a shield. Seriously, that +2 AC is the best possible use of a hand that you aren't using for anything else anyways (clerics don't even need a free hand to cast because of how a Divine Focus works). Shields save lives. Mostly yours.
So let's compare Death and Blood domains.
Leven One
They both get martial weapon proficiency, but no heavy armor. Probably not going to be much of an issue since you specifically want to focus away from weapons but with your priority on Dex you might as well pick up a rapier so you have a good pokey stick that you can use effectively should you absolutely need to.
Death gets a free necromancy cantrip from another spell list, and cantrips are great for fallback options in combat that don't use weapons. The two attractive choices here are chill touch and toll the dead. Toll the dead does extra damage (d12 instead of d8) if your target isn't at full health, which is nice, and also works with a Wisdom save instead of an attack roll which makes it better against most high AC targets. I would go with chill touch, though, because it has twice the range (120 feet over 60) and on a hit the target can't gain hit points until your next turn (no save to negate), which prevents it from being healed during that time in any way and that can be potentially more harmful than the actual damage. Toll the dead is also normally available to Clerics so you can still pick it up by normal means if you really want it. Additionally your necromancy cantrips can also hit an extra target if they're right next to each other (within 5 feet); normally this only effects your choice of the previous two but spare the dying is also necromancy and this could potentially be useful if multiple allies go down at once like from an AoE attack (not likely to come up often but worth keeping in mind if the crap really hits the fan).
Blood gives you an extra necrotic damage equal to 2 + spell level when you hit a target with a levelled spell (so no cantrips) against any target that has blood. That may not seem like much but it can add up, especially at low levels when most effects don't deal much damage to begin with so even an extra 3 points of damage isn't bad. That being said it doesn't work with cantrips and the "creatures with blood" restriction means it doesn't work against things like constructs, elementals, most undead, plant monsters, and potentially a number of others depending on DM interpretation (insects, for example, technically don't have blood). So limited advantages.
Personally, I'm thinking Death has the advantage here. Chill touch makes a great standby combat option (particularly if your enemies can heal) is very nice and the possible extra target is just icing on the cake.
Level Two
Each class gets a different Channel Divinity ability in addition to the Turn Undead that all Clerics can do. You can use CD once per short rest from second level on, twice at sixth and three times at eighteenth.
Death gets the ability to do extra necrotic damage equal to 5 plus twice your cleric level (so nine at second level, which is pretty hefty at that point - statistically speaking this is the average result you get from rolling 2d8) to a melee attack that you hit with. You're looking to avoid weapons, but this does provide some extra emergency power to add to that rapier if you really need it and melee spell attacks do count as melee attacks (I double checked, there's a Sage advice specifically addressing this) so that works with things like inflict wounds and even spiritual weapon which is one of the best spells ever and doesn't have to be anywhere particularly near you to make use of this ability.
Blood gets the ability to target a creature with blood (so again the same limitations apply) within 60 feet and if they fail a Constitution save you can make them move half their speed and make a weapon attack against a valid target of your choice. The wording specifically says dead or unconscious creatures automatically fail the save but a strict interpretation of RAW means that "half movement" is exactly what it takes to stand up so a target would have to be right next to it in that case. Depending on the creature in question that could be a good bit of damage but this takes an action so for it to actually be useful it should do more damage than you could do otherwise with a spell or other ability. Another situational use would be having the target jump off a ledge or such if they're positioned conveniently and fail the save.
Again, my opinion is that the Death option gives the better advantage, providing an option for consistent extra spike damage (especially with since it can be used with spiritual weapon).
Level Six
Death gets to ignore resistance to necrotic damage against your spells. Honestly this isn't likely to come up a lot and even if/when it does you should have other options for hurting things that deal different damage types. Classic Cleric go to combat spells like guiding bolt and spiritual weapon deal radiant and force damage, spirit guardians only deals necrotic if your alignment is evil, and I would recommend considering having sacred flame as a cantrip to deal radiant even with chill touch in your arsenal just because having a reliable source of easy, spell slot free radiant damage is nice (particular against undead like zombies that radiant prevents from popping back up again).
Blood gets an alternate use of Channel Divinity that basically lets you track a target within ten miles (a very long distance compared to the mere thousand feet you get from locate creature which is also a fourth level spell) but the big catch here is that you need at least two ounces of said creature's blood and that blood has to have been spilled within the past week. It only lasts for an hour but you regain it on a short rest and it could potentially be extremely useful...if you can somehow get that recently acquired two ounce blood sample in the first place. To further speed up tracking the target and even spying on them, you can try perceiving through their senses at the risk of taking 2d6 damage if they pass the Constitution save to resist it.
Honestly I call this one a wash. Both abilities are very niche and either unlikely to come up or very difficult to arrange in order to become viable options. If I had to go with one I guess Blood could be a big deal on the off chance you actually get a chance to use it.
Level Eight
Death adds a d8 of necrotic damage to weapon attacks once per turn (and you only get one attack each turn as a cleric, excluding attacks of opportunity) and it scales up to 2d8 at level fourteen. Considering you're not planning to fight with a weapon much, this isn't a very attractive thing for you.
Blood gets to recover spell slots once per long rest at the cost of hurting yourself. You get back spell slots of combined levels equal to half your Cleric level (rounded up) and then take 1d6 damage per spell slot level regained. Worth noting is that this damage is necrotic and you said you're going to be an Aasimar so your Celestial Resistance will apply to that, thus halving any such damage. You can potentially do this right before a short rest and recover the lost HP with hit dice; worst case is later you can use those recovered spell slots to cast a cure wounds on yourself and that healt at a full d8 per spell level instead of the half a d6 damage you're taking to get them.
Given that the Death option is weapon based and you won't be using it often, the spell slot recovery gives Blood the edge here. Your racial resistance to the necrotic damage just makes it extra attractive.
Level Seventeen
Death gets the ability to have any and all necromancy spells you cast up to fifth level with a single target also affect a second target if it's right next to the first one (within 5 feet). There are enough necromancy spells on the Cleric list that this can be of significant use with some modicum of regularity and by this level you'll have quite a few spell slots to make use of it with. Spells you're looking at for this are inflict wounds, blindness/deafness (casting it at the base second level rather than upcasting with a third level slot), bestow curse, and contagion. Note that the ability specifies that the spell effects an extra target, so it's still technically only one spell for purposes of concentration. Inflict wounds is a low level, scalable spell that hits like a truck and the others can really mess with your enemies in various ways to sway the tide of a battle.
Blood gets a 30 foot radius one minute (so probably one combat under most cases) effect that deals 2d6 damage per round to enemies and causes them to only get half healing during that time. Under the right circumstances this can provide a pretty big swing but it's only usable once per long rest.
Both of these are very nice abilities. The Blood one is more powerful at a glance and under ideal circumstances but a "spell slinger" is going to have a lot of opportunities to make use of the Death ability which potentially applies to every time you cast a necromancy spell.
I think I'm pretty much convinced to take Death over Blood, and maybe Tempest over Death though I will lose out on that extra edge. Though I will tell you your using the old Blood domain, I'll share the new one with you below. Also if you don't mind I'd like your opinion on how Death domains Channel Divinity stacks up against Blood domains Bloodletting focus.
I'd also like your opinion on how domain spells would affect this.
Domain Spells You gain domain spells at the cleric levels listed in the Blood Domain Spells table.
Blood Domain Spells Cleric Level Spells
1st false life, sleep
3rd hold person, ray of enfeeblement
5th haste, slow
7th blight, stoneskin
9th dominate person, hold monster
Reborn Bonus Proficiencies When you choose this domain at 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons.
Bloodletting Focus Starting at 1st level, your divine magic draws the blood from magically inflicted wounds, worsening the agony of your foes. When you cast a damage-dealing spell of 1st level or higher whose duration is instantaneous, any creature with blood that takes damage from the spell takes extra necrotic damage equal to 2 + the spell’s level. z
Channel Divinity: Crimson Bond Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to form a supernatural bond with a creature you can see, or with a creature for which you possess a blood sample. This bond lasts for 1 hour or until your concentration is broken (as if concentrating on a spell). While the bond is in effect, you can use an action to learn the target’s approximate distance and direction from you, as well as its current hit points and any conditions affecting it, as long as the target is within 10 miles of you. Alternatively, you can use your action to attempt to connect with the target’s senses. You take 2d6 necrotic damage and the target makes a Constitution saving throw against your spell save DC. On a successful save, the bond ends. On a failure, you can choose to either see or hear through the target’s senses for a number of minutes equal to your Wisdom modifier (minimum 1 minute). During this time, you are blinded or deafened (respectively) with regard to your own senses. When the connection ends, the bond is lost. Regardless of the outcome, the target feels a wave of unease pass over it when it makes this save.
Channel Divinity: Blood Puppet Starting at 6th level, you can use your Channel Divinity to briefly control a creature’s actions— whether that creature is living or dead. As an action, you target a Large or smaller creature or corpse within 60 feet of you that has blood. A creature you target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw against your spell save DC or become charmed by you. An unconscious creature automatically fails its saving throw, and isn’t incapacitated while you control its actions. A corpse targeted by this effect gains a semblance of life that you control. On the affected creature or animated corpse’s turn, you can command it (no action required) to move up to half its speed and use its action to do one of the following: • Interact with an object • Make a single attack • Do nothing
An animated corpse or an unconscious creature takes its turn immediately after yours, but can’t move or take actions unless you command it to do so. Its statistics are the same as when it was alive or conscious. An affected living creature makes a new saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on itself on a success. For any target, your control lasts for 1 minute or until your concentration is broken (as if concentrating on a spell). At 17th level, you can use this feature to target a Huge or smaller creature or corpse.
Sanguine Recall At 6th level, you can sacrifice a portion of your own vitality to recover expended spell slots as an action. The spell slots can have a combined level equal to or less than half your cleric level (rounded up), and none of the slots can be 6th level or higher. You take 1d8 necrotic damage for each spell slot level recovered, which can’t be reduced in any way. You can’t use this feature again until you finish a long rest. For example, if you’re an 8th-level cleric, you can recover up to four levels of spell slots—a single 4th-level slot, two 2nd-level slots, a 3rd-level slot and a 1st-level slot, or four 1st-level slots. You then take 4d8 necrotic damage.
Divine Strike At 8th level, you gain the ability to cause the physical wounds you deal out to bleed profusely. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 necrotic damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Vascular Corruption Aura At 17th level, you can use your action to emit a deathly aura of necrotic energy that causes the veins of nearby foes to burst and bleed. For 1 minute, any hostile creature with blood that moves within 30 feet of you for the first time on a turn or starts its turn there takes 3d6 necrotic damage. If a hostile creature with blood regains hit points while in the aura, it regains only half as many hit points as expected. Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.
Ah. I don't have any of the Critical Role material myself so I was consulting a wiki, which must have the older version. Looks like the update mainly switched the second and sixth level abilities and tweaked Blood puppet a bit, then they bumped up the final ability's damage by an extra die.
Domain spells are where you get a lot of your "flavor" that goes with your domain as a Cleric. Some of those are already Cleric spells and you just automatically have them as extras in addition to ones you prepare, and some are also not even normally available to Clerics to begin with. Both Death and Blood have some that aren't normally from the Cleric list but they do have some overlap there in specific spells and general usage. You don't have to actually use those domain spells if you don't want to (you have plenty of options otherwise) but you should always remember they're there to use if you want them. Both Death and Blood domains have a lot of spells that either don't deal direct damage or aren't as good at doing so as other spells but they influence how effectively you, your allies, and/or your enemies do a bunch of other stuff. Blasting is easy and simple but these other spells can often make a bigger difference in a fight, often by making it easier for you and your allies to use other spells or abilities to better effect.
Death domain spells
False life is basically a proactive healing spell and a great pre-battle prep spell when you expect to take damage. You can use it mid battle as long as you're above zero HP, but it's best used beforehand so you don't have to spend an action that could be used to do something else during the fight. At first level it's basically the equivalent of healing word and if you upcast it the extra is slightly more effective, on average, than doing so with cure wounds and it's bigger die (1d8 averages at 4.5 and you get a flat 5 per level). While it is still useful in combat you should have at least one actual healing spell still prepared for allies in bad shape (or down) because false life only works on yourself.
Ray of sickness is mediocre at best. Guiding bolt is a much more effective damage spell at the same level that you should have prepared to use if you want to just blast something. RoS has the chance of inflicting poison which is great because it means disadvantage on attacks, which is one of those big deals that can change a lot, but it gives a chance to save out of it and it only lasts for one turn. I would only recommend using it against targets you expect to almost certainly fail that save, otherwise use a different spell to debuff or just blast with guiding bolt for more damage.
Blindness/deafness can impose that disadvantage on attacks much longer than RoS. It's concentration and they can retry their saves each round so you want to pick targets likely to fail those saves, but if it sticks around for just a few rounds it can mean a lot less damage coming in at your party, especially with enemies that have multiattack because more attacks means more chances to miss because of disadvantage. Ray of Enfeeblement works much the same except instead of greater chances of missing it makes that enemy's attacks do less damage.
Animate dead makes a disposable minion. It's not a particularly good minion, but it can be a distraction or if you make multiples you can use a single casting to maintain more of them later so it can be front loaded by burning unused spell slots at the end of a day to make a bunch then a single casting to maintain them later (if they even last through the next day). Give them a simple command ("kill that guy" or "stand over there and attack anything that comes in reach") and let them eat up enemy actions. Honestly, the value provided in comparison to what other third level spells offer is dubious at best.
Vampiric touch is a mediocre damage spell that is also a mediocre healing spell and when those two functions are combined it can actually be pretty good. It's something to use during an extended fight after you've taken some damage but aren't in immediate danger of going down to consistently do decent damage while also healing roughly equal to a first level healing word each round if you hit. Concentration and melee so you want War Caster if you plan on actually using this and even then it would probably work better with a more melee friendly build with heavy armor so you make less concentration checks.
Blight is a powerful direct damage spell. It's single target but averages greater damage than fireball even with the latter upcast to fourth level and you don't worry about collateral damage so it can situationally be better. Use this against big nasty scary things. Even better, use it against hostile casters and speed/Dex focused foes that are likely to be weak against a Con save.
Death ward is a proactive revival spell and it lasts for eight hours without concentration. Cast it on yourself or an ally before going into a bunch of combat where you fully expect to need it. If you have the extra slots to spare you can cast it on multiple targets because there isn't a limit, but you're probably better just putting it on one or two allies who serve as the group's primary healers because they can bring somebody back at more than one HP with an actual healing spell.
Antilife Shell is basically "personal space: the spell" and works great against melee enemies so they do not melee you. No save, they just can't get to you. Does nothing against ranged attacks though, so make sure it's going to be worth the fifth level slot.
Cloudkill, aka "f--- everything over there and keep f---ing 'em all for a while." Used against massed enemies this spell will rack up huge total damage numbers. Just be careful you and your allies don't want to be in that general area for a while.
Blood domain spells
False life, see above. Sleep is a great way to knock out weak enemies; it's not much use against powerful ones but still quite potent if used judiciously.
Ray of Enfeeplement see above. Hold person is a great way to neutralize enemies with low Wis saves, such as many of the type that would be unpleasant to have in melee range with you. Preferably neutralizing them before they get to melee range. Don't be afraid to upcast it to effect multiple targets if appropriate. They get to save each turn but each turn they fail is another turn for you and your allies to take free shots at them or otherwise do something they'd be inconvenient to if they were mobile. Edit/addition: You know what paralyzed enemies don't do? Pass Dex saves. Remind your Light domain buddy of this fact after landing this spell.
Haste and slow. Doing more things is always better, doing fewer things is always worse. Both are most effective on melee types. One is for friends and the other is for not-friends.
Blight see above. Stoneskin should be cast on somebody that's going to get hit by a lot of nonmagical things and isn't a Barbarian because it gives them the same resistances as a Barbarian's rage. It also shouldn't be cast on yourself unless for emergencies because even reduced damage incurs concentration checks that can break the spell. Make sure you think it's going to be worth the fourth level spell slot and occupying your concentration, but that being said it can be very effective when put onto a brawler who will serve to keep the attention of things that would otherwise be attacking you.
Dominate person is self evident and can make a huge swing in the tide of a fight. Hold monster isn't as good for total effect but can be used against just about everything; as with all such spells try using it on things you think are unlikely to save against it for long enough for you and your friends to wail on it a good bit.
This is not really true, I really that being underwater impedes fire damage from spells, not because of real world physics but because the )HBse tion on underwater combat states "creatures immersed in water are resistant to fire damage" . A DM can homebrew that it does not apply to spells but that is homebred.
It's possible I may be thinking of a different edition or something on that one...still think a fireball spell has as much in common with a wooden match as a supersonic jet does with a drunk clown on a unicycle.
Thank you so much, you've been super helpful.