Revised Life Domain

Subclass Analysis

Class Overview

There are several problems with the Life cleric, which this revision will aim to fix. The first and most notable is that dedicated healing is not a viable strategy; this isn’t inherently a problem, there are subclasses that take non-viable strategies and make them viable. For instance, a dedicated blaster isn’t viable, but an Evoker wizard will make that strategy viable. Likewise, using Wildshape in combat isn’t viable, unless one is a Moon druid. However, the features that the Life cleric gets enhance their healing, but don’t make dedicated healing a viable strategy. Means that, the majority of the time, the Life cleric can’t do the very think that the subclass is designed around. This is obviously an issue, and is what this revision will fix.

1st Level: Domain Spells

There are two problems with the Life cleric domain spells. First, Life clerics only get spells that are already on the cleric spell list; they are the only domain that is like this. It's kind of boring that all the other clerics get unique spells that other clerics don’t get access to, and Life clerics are is left with the same thing as everyone else. Second, these clerics are dedicated to healing people and preserving life. So why do they get one of the best damaging spells in the game, spiritual weapon? (And also guardian of faith.) So those spells were swapped out for healing spells, healing spirit and aura of life. Likewise, although bless is a great buff, but doesn’t fit with the Life cleric’s theme, so it has been swapped it out for goodberry; a subclass shouldn’t have to multiclass or take a feat to use one of its features to its full extent. Imagine if the Paladin that relied on the frightened condition didn’t get fear-causing spells or abilities, or if the thunder and lightning focused cleric didn’t get many thunder and lightning spells. That would be silly. Also swapped out was beacon of hope for aura of vitality because it’s now redundant with aura of life. Also note that healing spirit and aura of vitality are very similar spells; useless or redundant spell are not uncommon on domain spell lists. This is true in both cases, but aura of vitality and healing spirit are less redundant with each other.

1st Level: Bonus Proficiency

This is a perfectly fine and adequate feature, no need to change it.

1st Level: Disciple of Life

At low levels, this feature is pretty good, and will increase your healing by a fairly substantial amount. However, as levels increase, this feature becomes less and less effective. It does scale with spell level, but this is an issue, since high level spell slots are not very plentiful compared to low level slots, and constitute a small fraction of the spells cast (even at level 20, only 6 of 22 spells cast are of 6th level or higher). The remedy this, the +2 was changed to proficiency. This is the same at low levels, but slowly increases. This increase scales much slower than hit points; by the time the +2 becomes +3, hit points have increased by about fivefold. Still, this increase combined with the spell level scaling, allows this feature to remain consistently useful.

This graph shows the scaling of the normal feature compared to this feature, assuming all spell slots are spent on healing.

While the original Disciple of Life’s scaling is slow, this feature’s is... still slow, but less slow, about 2.5 faster than the original. Combined with the fact that higher level healing spells tend to target more creatures or heal multiple times (except goodberry, which does this at 1st level), this feature will remain useful at higher levels.

2nd Level: Preserve Life

Preserve Life isn’t very useful, especially compared to other Channel Divinity options, like Radiance of Dawn, Dreadful Aspect, or the insanity that is Twilight Sanctuary. While the amount of healing is adequate (but not incredible), the half hit point limitation is very restrictive; it requires the recipient of the hit points to be at very low health. Even if a character has very few hit points, they likely won’t be able to gain the full effect of the healing; this feature is only useful be able to be properly used when you have multiple allies at low hit points. In addition, the line between a character being at half health and being dead is slim, and sometimes a character will go from above half health to 0 HP in the span of a round. A smaller problem, is that it can be time consuming to try to heal several characters, and have to calculate the half hit points, and the difference between that and current hit points, and then distribute the hit points accordingly.

Even removing the half hit point limitation is removed, the Life Cleric still has a systemic problem; the subclass is designed to be a dedicated healer, but dedicated healing isn’t really a good strategy for D&D 5th edition. Usually, healing is only useful in very specific scenarios, such as healing word when an ally is at 0 hit points. If the Life cleric is going to focus on healing, it should be able to heal effectively. This feature allows it to be a dedicated healer, the same way an Evocation wizard can be a dedicated blaster, despite dedicated blasting not being a viable strategy for most wizards. This new feature is similar to Lay on Hands, or the Abjurer’s Arcane Ward.

Note that this still isn’t an incredible amount of hit points. For comparison, the following table shows the healing pool of the Channel Divinity compared to the average damage per round of monsters of the same CR of the characters, as described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide (note that this is an approximation, both because actual monsters deal more damage than described in the Dungeon Master’s Guide, and because encounters will likely be more difficult than a single monster of a CR equal to character level.). It also shows the amount of hit points that can be re-added to the pool if the three highest available spell slots are expended.

As can be seen, the Channel Divinity (barely) won’t be able to heal a single round’s worth of damage. Expending your three highest level spell slots while the Channel Divinity is active (a significant use of resources), you can refill the pool about halfway. Thus, using this Channel Divinity and all your spell slots makes you able to undo under one and a half turns worth of damage (in addition to the hit points normally healed by the spells; these are hit points you would be able to get without this feature), as shown in the table below.

Even with all the improvements to this feature, it still isn’t all that strong. It is decent, however, unlike the original.

6th Level: Blessed Healer

Blessed Healer isn’t a good feature. At all. You are the only one that can receive the hit points. You likely aren’t going to be missing very much health; this would be much better if you were a tank, but you probably aren’t unless you multiclassed or have made some very specific race/feat selections (having heavy armor proficiency isn’t enough to make you a tank on its own). Even if you are in a situation where you have low health, 2 + the spell’s level isn’t enough hit points to bring you out of danger, so if you really need to heal yourself, you’ll probably do it with a spell or your Channel Divinity, and in either case you won’t be able to use this feature. This new feature allows you to heal yourself, of you so choose, but also some allies of your choice. This feature now essentially a weaker version of one the features Shepherd druids get 2nd level, but one that can be used it more often. Still, it’s actually useful, unlike the normal Blessed Healer.

The following graph shows the number of rounds healed by this subclass, using all three of the features it received. This assumes that all spell slots are spend on healing spells, which target one creature, and benefit one additional creature when Blessed Healer is active, and the three highest level spell slots are spent while Channel Divinity: Preserve Life is in effect.

After gaining this feature, the Life cleric can heal a little less than two rounds worth of damage, an approximate 0.5 rounds more than without this feature.

The following graph shows an example fight of a level 9 Life cleric (the level at which it has the highest rounds healed) against a young red dragon. The player characters were assumed to have an AC of 18, and a Dexterity saving throw of +4. Both the dragon’s Fire Breath and the cleric’s spells were assumed to affect two creatures. In addition, it was assumed that the dragon’s damage was distributed evenly between two player characters; note that this is an assumption that is very unlikely to occur in actual combat.

The graph shows that the Life cleric is able to maintain the player character’s hit points around maximum for several rounds, although it begins to falter when it runs out of high level spell slots. However, this was against a relatively easy encounter, and the cleric used all their 3rd, 4th, and 5th level spell slots, in addition to your Channel Divinity. That being said, with these resources expended, the effect is definitely potent, essentially negating the dragon’s offensive capabilities for that time. (Such, the same thing could be done to multiple enemies with a fear spell and a single 3rd level slot, but still potent.)

8th Level: Blessed Strikes

There is no reason to change the damage type, or to change this to cantrips. It remains essentially useless, but so does every other cleric’s 8th level feature.

17th Level: Overheal

Supreme Healing is mostly useless by the time you get it. Most of the spells that roll dice to restore hit points are low level spells, and won’t be very impactful at these levels, even if the dice are maximized. The spells you are going to be relying on the most now (e.g. heal, mass heal) heal a set amount of hit points. This new ability allows these spells to shine. It doesn’t increase the amount that they can heal, for the most part, but does allow them to do the healing preemptively. The 100 hit point limit is there so they can’t give someone 700 hit points with mass heal or regenerate. Note that this feature doesn’t work with the Channel Divinity: Preserve Life or Blessed Healer features, but does work with Disciple of Life.

Recommended Builds:

This class is quite versatile in terms of what builds can be accommodated, even more than other clerics, as the Wisdom requirement is not nearly as stringent, as healing spells are affected much less by spellcasting ability than many other cleric spells. The standard Life cleric dip of druid is made redundant by the goodberry, but this cleric as a dip is druid is stronger than ever. Shepherd druid may synergize with this subclass, but not to any considerable degree. A more interesting dip is Pact of the Chain warlock to gain Gift of the Ever-Living Ones, but this is also probably not worth it. However, a wizard or sorcerer dip for shield is advisable as always. There are no standout feats for this subclass specifically. In terms of items, any item that allows for the casting of healing spells (such as a staff of healing or rod of resurrection) are useful, as well as an Amulet of the Devout, as it allows for an additional Channel Divinity, of which this subclass possesses a decent one.

Any feedback on this subclass is welcome!