Cleric 5e - D&D Class Optimisation Guide

Invoke divinity with spells of harm and healing with this devout spellcasting class for D&D 5e

What are clerics in D&D 5e?

Clerics are wielders of divine powers and are devoted adherents of one of the many gods/religions of the planes from whom they receive their magical abilities. Clerics worship a wide range of deities with differing personalities, powers and desires. While many clerics may fit the priestly carer of the sick and injured, others follow a different path.

Some will seek to purge evil and enact retribution upon the wicked while others will seek to bring about the desires of conquest and murder for their god. cleric claim among their number, priestly adherents of knowledge, pain, nature and all manner of other things. In reality, a cleric is less defined by a desire to do good or heal and more by a devotion to a higher being that grants them god-given powers.

Clerics typically operate as healers and support casters, but are also capable of dealing large amounts of damage with their powerful spells. Wisdom is their primary ability as they use it for spellcasting, but abilities that will assist them in combat are also useful such as Strength, Dexterity and Constitution. Some clerics are capable of wading into combat, clad to the teeth in armor and weave deadly spells among their foes. In fact, clerics are often considered one of the more capable spellcasters for dealing large amounts of magical damage (alongside wizards and sorcerers).

At a glance

Choose a cleric if you want…

To play a full spellcaster
Want lots of healing and buffing spells
Want powerful damage dealing spells
Want to be devoted to a deity
Want to play one of the hardier spellcasting classes

A cleric might not be for you if…

You don’t want to cast spells
Don’t want to be tied to a deity
Don’t want to need to spend a lot of your time healing your allies

For a more detailed look at a cleric’s capabilities, I’ve put together the scoring matrix below. This rates clerics on different features and abilities to give you a clear idea of where their strengths and weaknesses lie. For a full comparison of all classes and their capabilities, check out our class guide:

Class ratings (out of 5)

Combat

Armor class: 4
Weapon damage: 2
Durability: 3
Mobility: 3
Combat abilities: 2

Spellcasting

Spells known: 5
Spell slots: 4
Spell damage: 4
Spell buffs: 5
Spell debuffs: 4
Spell healing: 5
Battlefield control spells: 3
Out of combat spells: 2

Out of combat

Face abilities: 3
Skills: 2
Out of combat abilities: 2

How have we worked out these scores?

We’ve reviewed and played all the officially released D&D 5e classes and looked at a typical build for these class types. Because subclasses offer a lot of variety, we’ve had to exclude these from our considerations.

There is an exception here as the artificer is shaped hugely by their subclass. When it comes to something like weapon damage, we’ve had to take into consideration the fact that most artificers are decent with weapons, but an alchemist would probably only score a 2, even if the other artificer subclasses would score a 3.

We’ve scored each attribute out of 5 with a score of 5 reserved for classes that are the very best at that attribute. There’s some judgement required here. For example, a druid is typically a 3 in mobility (average mobility), but with wildshape, they can fly and swim quicker (and just travel faster). This elevates their score in our minds, even if they don’t consistently have these levels of mobility.

It’s important to understand though, that these scores are not hard and fast. Obtaining feats and pumping more into certain ability scores can turn any class into a decent face, for example. Different subclasses will also make a class better at different things (like an eldritch knight gaining spellcasting) but we feel that these scores represent most typical versions of their class.

Cleric Strengths

Clerics are a broadly powerful class with a lot of strengths, these include:

Healers: Clerics are the most powerful healers in the game with a range of healing spells making them your go to option to keep martials in the fight for longer.
Bringing the Buffs: Not only that, but clerics are also great at enhancing allies with their spells. Bless will make you your party’s best friend while warding bond lets you share the damage while aid can increase maximum hit points while also healing if needed. There’s a bunch of other great buffs you can apply to your party too.
Spell damage: Clerics are not just devoted to benevolent gods (and even the benevolent ones need to exact some justice and protection every now and again), this means that clerics also have access to powerful damage dealing spells. The likes of spirit guardians can deal big damage to multiple enemies while spiritual weapon can be used to add some consistent extra damage on each of your turns without requiring concentration (allowing you to focus on other big spells).
Tough spellcasters: Most full spellcasters are fairly vulnerable with a distinct lack of armor proficiency and low hit dice. This is less of a problem for clerics who not only have access to shields, medium armor (and sometimes heavy armor) but also have d8 hit dice. While not overly remarkable, it’s superior to the d6 of wizards and sorcerers and the same as some other martial classes like rogues and monks.
Level 1 subclasses: Clerics get their subclass earlier than most classes making them an interesting multiclass option with certain features hitting earlier than for a lot of other classes.

Cleric Weaknesses

Clerics are generally a pretty strong class, but they do come with the odd weakness or 2:

Healing all day: As the designated healer, it’s your job to keep everyone alive. Hardly the most exciting job in the party. The medic doesn’t get the glory of the war hero, and the cleric often misses out on landing devastating criticals. That’s not to say clerics can’t pack a punch, because they can; but often you’ll find yourself healing the barbarian again because he couldn’t resist thumping the sleeping dragon right on the nose.
Concentration consternation: Sadly, the best cleric spells are often concentration spells meaning that knowing what to maintain focus on can be a large part of the challenge. Sure, bless is a great 1st level spell, but what happens when you want to whip out those spirit guardians. To buff or to blast? This is the conundrum of the cleric! And of course, those frontline clerics may find themselves losing concentration quickly and wasting spell slots, especially if you’re a fan of spirit guardians.

Getting the most out of the cleric’s features

War domain DnD 2024 — War domain cleric: Wizards of the Coast

Party Role	Support Caster, Healer, Damage Dealer
Main Ability	Wisdom
Saving Throws	Wisdom, Charisma
Hit Dice	1d8 + Consitution modifier per level
HP at 1st Level	8 + Constitution Modifier
Spell Casting Ability	Wisdom
Armour Proficiency	Light armour, medium armour, shields
Weapon Proficiency	Simple weapons

Clerics don’t have a lot of features outside of their spellcasting but what little they have, I’ve given some guidance on below:

Spellcasting – Level 1

Clerics have a load of spells to choose from. The important thing is to ensure you have a spread to maintain your action economy. Don’t go for too many concentration spells while making sure you have some spells to occupy your bonus action too (which tends to go unused otherwise for a cleric).

Below I’ve recommended some really good options in case you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the options available.

Cantrips

Guidance – Just chuck out guidance for buffed skill checks all over the place.
Sacred flame – Great against low dexterity enemies and for overcoming the perks of cover.
Toll the dead – The highest damage cantrip for single targets. Especially helpful when you need to do ranged damage.
Word of radiance – Great for wading into the middle of lots of enemies and causing damage to several at once.

Level 1

Shield of faith – Great for some extra toughness, plus it only takes a bonus action.
Guiding bolt – Solid damage with the bonus of advantage on the next attack against the enemy. Particularly good in combination with a rogue’s sneak attack.
Healing word – A bonus action for a bit of healing is good, but this is best saved for reviving someone from being knocked to 0HP.
Bless – A great party buff, just be aware that it demands your concentration.
Sanctuary – A good defensive spell that can cause your enemies to waste actions trying to strike your ally.

Level 2

Enhance ability – Very versatile buff that can help with social encounters, grappling tactics, endurance and a bunch of other things too.
Aid – Increase your allies’ hit points for a total of 15 (or more if cast with higher spell slots). A great healing/buff option for multiple targets.
Silence – Great for disabling enemy spellcasters.
Spiritual weapon – Solid additional damage output that can continue throughout an encounter without having to maintain concentration.

Level 3

Bestow curse – Great for nullifying melee enemies with a low wisdom.
Dispel magic – Crucial for any party.
Revivify – Revive someone that’s died. A super important healing spell to have in every party.
Spirit guardians – A hugely powerful AoE spell. But you’ll need to get close to your enemies so make sure you’re wearing loads of armor.

Level 4

Banishment – An excellent save or suck spell that can completely remove an enemy from the mix for an entire encounter.
Aura of purity – Great protective spell for yourself and allies to help avoid nasty conditions. You can even cast it before charging into battle.
Stone shape – Stone is everywhere! So being able to shape it to pass through walls, block enemies etc can be hugely useful.

Level 5

Commune – Great spell for finding out information from your deity.
Greater restoration – Good to be ready with this spell to tackle nasty effects that might incapacitate your party.
Holy weapon – Great way to make a weapon magical and add to its damage. Your best option is to cast it on a high attack ally like a fighter to maximise its use.

Level 6

Blade barrier – Strong AoE spell that also grants you cover.
Heal – Top healing spell for the top healer in the game.
Heroes’ feast – Great all day buffs to enhance your whole party all day.
True seeing – if you don’t have a way to handle invisibility as a party, then you need one, plus this gives you some extra goodies like recognising illusions, seeing through magical darkness and seeing where secret doors are.

Level 7

Etherealness – A fantastic spell for spying and scouting.
Divine word – Great for disabling swarms of weaker foes. It’s even better at tackling creatures native to other planes like fiends and celestials.
Plane shift – Travel to another plane with the casting of a spell.

Level 8

Antimagic field – Stop spells from working in a limited area can really tackle those pesky Spellcasters.
Holy aura – Big buffs for the whole (or most of) the party.
Sunburst – Giant AoE damage spell that can blind your opponents too making their impact severely reduced.

Level 9

Mass heal – There’s no better way to provide massive healing to your while party.
Power word heal – Less healing than mass heal, but you do get to recover from a bunch of conditions.

Channel Divinity – Level 2

You can use this to either turn undead or use a domain specific version. Turn undead is great if you’re up against lots of undead, but generally is highly situational. The domain specific powers tend to be great though.

Destroy Undead – Level 5

Another highly situational ability that only affects enemies that would be easy to kill anyway. It’s fine as an additional to turn undead, but will benefit you little beyond quickly eradicating a low level hoard.

Divine Intervention – Level 10

A fantastic feature if you have a generous DM, a poor feature if you have a miserly DM. This allows your deity to intervene at a given moment. Of course this highly depends on how creative your DM is willing to be but could create some very exciting moments. Of course, just because your deity intervenes, doesn’t mean they’ll do something useful (or as useful as you wanted). Unfortunately, you can only implore your deity for something once a week which is a long recharge!

How to play as a cleric

Goliath cleric — Cleric: Wizards of the Coast

Clerics are healing specialists and this can often be their primary function. But clerics are much more than simply field medics. Many clerics are capable of high damage spells, doling out generous buffs, or even wading in as a tank in profuse amounts of armor and wielding a hefty mace to dole out hefty levels of retribution. In reality, you can kit your cleric out in a manner that suits how you want to play.

Below are some builds you could go for depending on the role you want to fulfil in your party:

Healer

Good for: Healing. It’s highly practical and your allies will love you.

Creating a healer: Wisdom is the most important ability score for a healer. Mainly this build comes down to the spells you take. Ensure you pick up some healing spells like healing word and aid. You’ll also want spells that can tackle conditions too. You can be proactive about this with something like aura of purity or reactive with things like lesser restoration (or both if you can). Don’t just go for healing/buff spells though. Allies don’t always need healing and you may find the best way to protect your buddies is to take out a few enemies. In fact, with something like healing word, you can cast it as a bonus action and blast cantrips like toll the dead with your action.

How it works: Healers sacrifice doing the fun stuff for the really important, practical stuff. You’re there to keep your allies in combat to keep them effectively dealing out damage. The main challenge with this build is knowing when to use and when to preserve spell slots for more crucial moments. The most crucial being an ally falling to 0HP. Always make sure you have a few healing spells like healing word available to recover allies before they die. And remember that sometimes the best protection you can give is to kill your enemies quickly, so don’t leave all the fun to your allies.

Emissary of destruction

Good for: Dealing lots of damage.

Creating an emissary of destruction: High wisdom for maximum damage and then take some damage dealing spells. If you plan on getting into the thick of action, word of radiance and spirit guardians are great options. At a distance, guiding bolt and spiritual weapon work well. You may want something like the war caster feat to maintain concentration, especially if you’re opting for damage in the middle of the melee.

How it works: Take out your opponents as quickly as possible. AoE spells are great for this, as are concentration spells if you want to preserve spell slots with long lasting effects. Take out the most problematic enemies first, especially Spellcasters or tackle hoards of enemies with your AoE spells.

Tank

Good for: Soaking up damage, dealing melee damage, protecting your martials.

Creating a tank: make sure you max out on AC with heavy armor if your subclass allows it, or a bit of dexterity and medium armor. Grab a shield for some extra durability. You can get more durable with something like shield of faith to keep you in the battle longer (but may sacrifice some damage output by using up your concentration) or you can go for protecting your allies with an aura spell. Alternatively, use spirit guardians or word of radiance to take out your enemies but perhaps be a bit more vulnerable. You’ll likely want some healing spells available to keep you going as long as possible too.

How it works: Tanks are there to soak up damage to allow weaker party members to deal damage while staying safe. Clerics aren’t the best option for this, but can fill the role when needed and bring some of their own tricks to boot.

Which subclass should I choose?

Undead attack a cleric — Cleric: Wizards of the Coast

Clerics belong to a fairly exclusive club of classes that gain their subclass at level 1 alongside sorcerers and warlocks. This can be very handy if you’re considering multiclassing as a cleric.

Cleric subclasses are known as divine domains, having the most subclass options in D&D 5e due to the variety of the D&D pantheons.

Rather than picking a god you worship with your divine domain, you choose a domain you focus on. Obviously a cleric can choose which god they worship, but this gives clerics the flexibility to worship gods from any setting or even pick a domain that suits them despite worship of a specific god. For example, a worshipper of Mystra might be part of the knowledge or arcana domains.

Cleric Subclass	Source Book	Description
Knowledge Domain	Player’s Handbook	Knowledge is power and its understanding must be preserved. Great for clerics that want to gather information to aid their quest.
Life Domain	Player’s Handbook	Consider life to be a wonderful thing to be preserved. The best cleric for handing out major healing support.
Light Domain	Player’s Handbook	These clerics serve the light in order to fight back the shadows. Great for spell damage and battlefield control, wielding some great fire spells.
Nature Domain	Player’s Handbook	These clerics serve nature and take their power from the natural domain. Great for clerics that want a bit of druid in their repertoire.
Tempest Domain	Player’s Handbook	See the power in nature and the elements. Great at dealing damage while remaining durable.
Trickery Domain	Player’s Handbook	See the power of trickery and deception to keep the world moving in whatever direction they see fit. Great for clerics that want to moonlight as a rogue.
War Domain	Player’s Handbook	Follow the ideology of war, whether that’s to conquer or protect. A martial-focused cleric subclass.
Death Domain	Dungeon Master’s Guide	Gatekeepers of death, understanding that all things must come to an end eventually. Great for more offensive-focused clerics.
Arcana Domain	Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide	Adherents of the magical arts. Great for clerics that want to borrow from the wizard a bit with great utility and damage dealing spell options.
Forge Domain	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything	Honour the powers of creation, using it to enhance. Great for frontline tanks and protectors with lots of utility options.
Grave Domain	Xanathar’s Guide to Everything	Servants of life and death seeking balance between each aspect. Great for a cleric that wants to balance out damage with healing.
Order Domain	Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything	Seek order through law and justice. Great for clerics that want to provide support on the front lines of combat.
Peace Domain	Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything	Seekers of peace that avoid violence at all costs. Great at protecting the entire party.
Twilight Domain	Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything	Work to stop those that would disrupt balance in the world. Great at buffing and protecting those on the frontlines of combat.

How to optimise a cleric

So you’ve decided to play as a cleric? Brilliant! But how do you make an effective cleric? Not to worry, I’ve got you covered. I’ll take you through some of the more advantageous options for creating a cleric. Of course, D&D 5e is hugely flexible and there are many great ways to create a cleric so you don’t need to stick to my advice, but you won’t go far wrong with the advice below.

Ability scores

Wisdom: Clerics use wisdom as their spellcasting ability so you’ll want to make sure this is maximised.
Constitution: Constitution is important for giving you the extra durability you’ll need, especially if you’re on the frontlines.
Dexterity: If you’re opting for light or medium armor, then you’ll want at least 14 dexterity (more if you’re going with light armor if you can). You may want it for the odd attack too, but your spells will be more powerful than your weapons for the most part.
Strength: If you’ve opted for heavy armor (some subclasses and feats will allow that), then you may want to spend a little on strength for your attacks, otherwise, this can be dumped.
Charisma: You’ve got little need for this unless you’re needed to be the face of the party. Your only charisma skill is persuasion though so you’ll need a background with charisma skills to compensate if you do go this route.
Intelligence: This can be dumped, you don’t need it.

Skills

Clerics get 2 skills out of a small pool of options. As a general rule though, clerics are not going to be your skill masters (rogues and bards do this better). I’d generally prioritise them in the following order of importance for a cleric, but this may change depending on your role in the party (for instance, you may want to prioritise persuasion if you’re going to be the face of a party):

Insight: Excellent wisdom based skill and you’ll likely be the best at this in the party
Religion: Useful in quite a few situations and as the resident religious expert, you’re likely to know this best.
Persuasion: Important if you’re going to be the face of the party.
History: Situational and doesn’t come up overly often.
Medicine: Pointless as magic does this much better.

Best cleric races

There are several things to consider when picking a race for your cleric:

Ability score: Wisdom is always the most important ability score for a cleric with constitution coming second. Dexterity is also often a good option too and strength can be useful if you plan on actually using your weapon. As such, you’ll want to prioritise races with the right ability score improvements (though many recent race releases let you choose anyway).
Innate spellcasting: Clerics have plenty of spell slots and are great at casting spells so innate spellcasting gives you a chance to grab some spells from other class lists that you can repeat use effectively.
Armor restrictions: You’re likely going to want to wear at least medium armor so just be careful of flying races with armor restrictions on flight. You can still go for a lightly armored cleric, you’ll just need to go bigger on your dexterity.

With these considerations in mind, I’d recommend the following races as great options for a cleric:

Aasimar: Resistance to necrotic and radiant damage for extra durability, some extra healing and extra damage or temporary flight with celestial revelation are all really helpful for clerics that get close to the action.
Autognome: Lots of extra durability from armored casing and mechanical nature and built for success is great at making you more likely to succeed on important rolls.
Hill Dwarf: Front line clerics will gain a lot from the Hill Dwarf’s durability with extra HP and resistances.
High Elf: The main draw here is you can take booming blade which, if you’re insistent on having a weapon wielding cleric, makes the high elf your best option. Plus you get proficiency with a longsword for greater weapon damage. Perception proficiency is pretty good on a high wisdom character too.
Goblin: Fury of the small works with your spells so you can make your spells a little more powerful against most creatures. Disengage and hide as bonus actions are pretty good for a class that will be close to the action, but isn’t hugely durable.
Goliath: Reduce the damage you take and resistance to cold damage work great at making your cleric more durable.
Kobold: Draconic cry is great for a spellcaster on the frontlines and will allow you to maintain use of a spell for the turn. Kobold legacy can give you access to booming blade too if you really want to do some weapon fighting.
Shadar-Kai: Teleportation as a bonus action without having to use spell slots is excellent plus a turn of damage resistance. Resistance to necrotic damage makes you more durable and proficiency in perception and advantage against charmed are both great extras.
Warforged: +1 AC that stacks with your armor makes you more durable. Poison resistance, advantage against the poisoned condition and disease immunity are all great durability options too.
Yuan-Ti: Lots of great durability options for a frontline cleric. Magic resistance is excellent and poison damage comes up often enough that resistance to it and advantage against the poisoned condition are great options.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are normally good for providing a few extra skills though these tend to be less important for clerics so there aren’t a lot of really good options here. Your best options probably include the following:

Name	Feature	Skill Proficiencies	Tool Proficiencies	Languages	Equipment	Type	Source Book
Acolyte	Shelter of the Faithful	Insight, Religion	None	Two of your choice	Holy symbol, prayer book or wheel, 5 sticks of incense, vestements, common clothes, 15gp	Social, Religious	Player’s Handbook
Astral Drifter	Divine Contact	Insight, Religion	None	Two of your choice (celestial or gith recommended)	Traveler’s clothes, diary, ink pen, bottle of ink, 10gp	Social, Exploration	Spelljammer: Adventures in Space
Courtier	Court Functionary	Insight, Persuasion	None	Two of your choice	Fine clothes, 5gp	Social	Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
Guild Artisan/Merchant	Guild Membership	Insight, Persuasion	One type of artisan’s tools	One of your choice	A set of artisan’s tools, letter of introduction from your guild, traveler’s clothes, 15gp	Social, Utility	Player’s Handbook
Faction Agent	Safe Haven	Insight and one other intelligence, wisdom or charisma based skill	None	Two of your choice	Badge or emblem of your faction, seminal faction text, common clothes and 15gp	Social, Utility	Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
Far Traveler	All eyes on you	Insight, Perception	Musical instrument or gaming set	Any one of your choice	Traveler’s clothes, musical instrument or gaming set, poorly wrought maps from your homeland, small piece of jewellery worth 10gp and 5gp	Social	Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide
Hermit	Discovery	Medicine, Religion	Herbalism Kit	One of your choice	A scroll case stuffed full of notes from your studies or prayers, winter blanket, common clothes, herbalism kit and 5gp	Healing, Social, Utility	Player’s Handbook
Investigator	Official Enquiry	Two from Investigation, Insight and Perception	Disguise Kit, Thieves’ Tools	None	Magnifying glass, evidence from a past case, common clothes, 10gp	Social, Exploration	Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft

Feats

Recommended options: Fey touched, gift of the chromatic dragon, gift of the gem dragon, gift of the metallic dragon, lucky, metamagic adept, observant, resilient, shadow touched and war caster.

Options to avoid: Athlete, charger, crossbow expert, dual wielder, dungeon delver, great weapon master, healer, keen mind, martial adept, polearm master, sharpshooter and tavern brawler.

Considerations: You likely want to be weapon and melee based feats like crossbow expert and great weapon master as this isn’t where your strengths lie. Instead, enhancing your spellcasting or endurance is the route to go (as the kind of spellcaster that gets stuck into the frontlines a lot).

Metamagic adept is great for enhanced spells, warcaster will help you maintain concentration on your spirit guardians while fey and shadow touched will keep you safer with misty step/invisibility.

Weapons

Light crossbow – For a dexterity build, at low levels can do more damage than cantrips. It’s also handy for when you can’t cast cantrips for some reason.
Javelin – Your ranged alternative for a strength build. Just remember, cantrips will do similar damage until they start scaling in damage, then they’ll do more so really, should be your go to standard damage dealer.
Handaxe/mace/quarterstaff/spear – These represent your best options for a melee weapon though if you can get close to more than 1 enemy, a cantrip like word of radiance may be a better option.

Armor

Half plate is best if you can afford it, otherwise, scale mail is your next best option. If you’ve got 18+ dexterity, studded leather becomes your best and cheapest option but does require investment in dexterity. Some cleric subclasses get access to heavy armor proficiency, in which case, you can forego dexterity entirely and go for plate mail, but it is pricey! I’d also suggest always having a shield. Two-weapon fighting will never be a better option for a cleric and you can put your holy symbol on your shield for casting purposes.

Multiclassing

Recommended options: Fighter and monk

Options to avoid: Barbarian

Considerations: Barbarians are a terrible multiclass option for any spellcasting class as the reason you’re there is for rage and you can’t use rage and spellcasting at the same time.

A monk is a solid option as you can combine on the same skills and a cleric can work for unarmored defense with high wisdom and decent dexterity. Imagine enabling something nasty like spirit guardians, then running into the fray and flurry of blows-ing your enemies into submission.

Fighter is perhaps an even better option for a melee cleric as you’ll get a fighting style, some free healing in second wind and action surge will allow you to occasionally cast 2 spells in a single turn for an explosive turn. Like the monk, simply switch on spirit guardians and/or a spiritual weapon while you strike with your sword.

Roleplaying a cleric

As I’ve gone over above, not all clerics are the benevolent healer types, many are vengeful devotees of gods with much more varied interests than simply healing their devotees. Below are some ideas to inspire you can use when creating your character and determining how to roleplay them:

The benevolent priest: You’re a kindly soul, taking pity on the weak and downtrodden. You seek to help and give aid wherever you can. Often without payment, much to the annoyance of your less altruistic allies.

Judge, jury and executioner: You feel you have a mandate from your god to purge those that do not align with their ideals. Your judgement is strict and your punishment harsh. You deal with such things swiftly, viewing yourself above the law on such matters (after all, your god is above the law).

When playing such a character, choose some rigid rules that must never be crossed and a rough set of consequences for crimes of various magnitudes. Just be careful that such rigidness won’t be too at odds with your party or it could make for some frustrating interactions.

Conflict of faith: You’ve been a cleric for your domain for many years now; a trusted devotee. But recently, something just hasn’t sat right with you. Perhaps it’s a wrongdoing of a senior member of the order, unjust rules or your own god’s choices or negligence that make you doubt your devotion.

Such a cleric does not need to forsake their powers. You may come to understand your god better, choose a different god to worship or strike out on a more true path of devotion to your god, away from the issues of your order.