Grave Domain Cleric: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Subclass Optimisation Guide

Guide creatures towards and away from the grave with this revive-focused cleric subclass.

At a glance

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

The 2014 version of the grave domain wasn’t great and was a bit underpowered. This update attempts to rectify quite a bit of this and does make improvements, but in my opinion, doesn’t go far enough to make an interesting, revive-focused cleric (while the reanimator does a good job of tackling this theme in a fun way) or make it as powerful as other subclasses. It at least does just enough though to hit acceptable power levels, but it still feels weaker than it should be.

Below I’ve outlined all the changes coming for the 2024 grave domain cleric:

• Grave domain spells – Lost bane and antilife shell and gained detect evil and good and dispel evil and good.
• Circle of mortality – No longer gain extra range on spare the dying (though this spell now increases with range as you level up anyway). Also gain a small damage boost once per turn to spells and attacks.
• Eyes to the grave – Can no longer detect undead though so have the detect evil and good spell.
• Eyes to the grave – This feature has been removed so you can no longer detect undead though you have the detect evil and good spell anyway.
• Path to the grave – Instead of vulnerability to a single attack, this causes disadvantage on attack rolls and saving throws for a turn and can be ended early to deal extra damage on a hit with an attack roll. Note that you can use this more now as clerics have more channel divinity uses.
• Sentinel at death’s door – Also halves incoming damage from an attack and the range has been extended to 60ft.
• Potent spellcasting – This no longer exists in the subclass features and has instead been rolled into the core cleric class allowing an option of improved spellcasting or weapon attacks.
• Divine reaper/keeper of souls – Can now target a second creature with some spells and keeper of souls now heals equal to twice your cleric level rather than the dying creature’s number of hit dice (which is likely to be more healing) but only can be used again after a rest rather than each round. The range has been extended 30ft.

Grave domain features

Grave domain spells (Lv3) – 2/5

Level	Spell
3	Detect evil and good, false life, gentle repose, ray of enfeeblement, spare the dying
5	Revivify, vampiric touch
7	Blight, death ward
9	Dispel evil and good, raise dead

There are a couple of good spells on this list (revivify and raise dead) though these are cleric spellcasting staples anyway. There are a couple of other decent spells like death ward and false life which make handy protection without consuming concentration and can be cast ahead of combat.

Most of the rest of these spells are quite poor though. Vampiric touch just doesn’t do enough for its level and the danger you place yourself in. Gentle repose is highly situational while ray of enfeeblement just doesn’t justify the concentration it requires.

Not a great set of spells in my opinion.

Circle of mortality (Lv3) – 3/5

The damage boost is fine but not a lot. I did question whether an ongoing spell effect like spirit guardians might deal extra damage on each enemy turn the spell deals damage. However, the prerequisite here is not damage from a spell, but when you cast a spell and you don’t cast spirit guardians on the enemy’s turn. So the damage boost is small but it’s still a boost.

Spare the dying as a bonus action definitely reduces the action cost to access this cantrip. However, part of my beef with spare the dying is you’re generally just better off healing the 0HP character and healing word is one of the best ways to do that. Especially as level 1 spell slots are not that precious.

It’s actually made less impactful by the fact that healing spells on creatures at 0HP cause full healing so there’s even less incentive to use spare the dying unless you literally have no spell slots left. The healing boost is at least good, but only on downed allies.

Path to the grave (Lv3) – 4/5

The curse here is great in combination with allies. Blast the creature with saving throw spells to benefit from disadvantage and because your action remains free, you can get in on the fun too.

The damage from ending the curse scales quite nicely and is definitely worth using, but ideally once the creature has had a turn and most of the party have already harmed the creature.

Sentinel at death’s door (Lv6) – 4/5

Half damage from some attacks is nice for resilience. It’s especially strong against heavy hitting attacks like critical hits.

Divine reaper (Lv17) – 4/5

This starts to make spells like blight look strong. Death ward becomes twice as appealing too. It’s still a poor spell list to benefit from but double casting doubles your output and still only requires one spell slot. Fortunately, options like toll the dead will work with this too. Just make sure you grab some necromancy spells that can benefit from this.

Creatures dying nearby should happen a lot so you’ve got some free healing every short rest.

How good is the grave domain subclass?

It nearly ends up underpowered but ends up just a little uninspiring in the end. The spell list is weak and the damage boost just barely feels worth it. Spare the dying as a bonus action could have been great in theory (see how the reanimator handles this for a better approach) but it ends up just being for rare moments when you’ve run out of spell slots.

Fortunately, the channel divinity option is great and I like the healing boost on 0HP creatures. The resilience at level 6 is quite nice too and I like how it enhances the clerical protectiveness you really want from this class.

On the balance of things, the grave domain is just about passable as a subclass option, but it feels like it should have been better. And all of this is despite the fact that the grave domain has improved since it’s 2014 iteration.

3/5

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Building an optimised grave domain cleric

Grave domain clerics work much like other clerics, but with enhanced reviving and a few other tricks

Below I’ve gone through the various character options with advice on how to build an effective grave domain cleric.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Wisdom: This is primarily to enhance your spellcasting (which is a big deal for a cleric). It’ll also give you more uses of your sentinel at death’s door feature.
• Constitution: The higher this is, the longer you’ll last. This becomes a bit more important if you plan on getting up close and personal with your enemies (say if you plan to use something like spirit guardians). You’ll also want to get this high to help your concentration.
• Dexterity: You likely won’t be making many weapon attacks with a grave domain cleric, but you’ll still want this at 14 to make the most of your medium armor.

Options to avoid

• Strength: For a grave cleric, I’d probably recommend leaning towards spellcasting options rather than weapon and armor options which makes strength less useful.
• Intelligence: Of little use for a cleric.
• Charisma: Clerics aren’t built for face skills and you’ve got more important ability scores to focus on.

Ability score	Point Buy	Standard Array
Strength	8	8
Dexterity	14	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	10	12
Wisdom	15	15
Charisma	8	10

Skills

Recommended options

• Insight: Decent wisdom skill that can be handy in conversations.
• Religion: Decent knowledge skill. You can enhance this further by taking the thaumaturge option so you’re less reliant on intelligence here.

Species/race

I’d look for species with the following qualities:

• Toughen up: With just d8 hit dice, no matter your AC, you’re still a little light on hit points. This is especially the case if you plan on wading into the front lines. Extra HP, resistances and other durability traits will help out here.
• Damage dealing: A big part of your role will be dealing damage through your spells. Enhancing or supplementing this however you can will be useful.
• Innate spellcasting: More spells and spell castings will be useful for a full caster.

Recommended options

• Aasimar (2024): Two resistances for extra durability. You get some extra healing to reduce the strain on your spell slots. This will work with the boosted healing from your circle of mortality feature too. Celestial revelation will also give you options for flight or some close combat effects letting you mix up your approach.
• Dragonborn (2024): A damage resistance for durability and the breath weapon gives you a close range AoE option to go alongside radiance of the dawn. Temporary flight will let you mix up your approach for when you need to stay out of range or you can use it to reach high places.
• Elves (2024): Lots of extra spells to cast. High Elf will get you a cantrip like true strike which is one of the higher damage options for a cantrip. You’ll also get misty step for when you need to make a quick escape. Wood Elves are too stealthy for the cumbersome cleric so I wouldn’t bother with them.
• Human (2024): An extra skill is nice. With your high wisdom, you might want to consider perception. More heroic inspiration is useful for any class and an extra origin feat could help fill gaps in your repertoire. For example, you could grab magic initiate if you really want to have true strike for weapon attacks. You could also consider something like tough to up your HP. There’s also lucky and musician for rerolling dice.
• Tiefling (2024): Some innate spellcasting and a damage resistance is nice. You’ve got some of the most common damage types to choose from for your resistances here.
• Warforged (2024): If you want a bit more resilience, then a Warforged is a good route to go for improved AC and resistances.

Backgrounds

Backgrounds are much more important now with D&D 2024 with ability score increases, origin feats and skills all now linked to your background.

For a grave domain cleric, I’d prioritise wisdom and then constitution or dexterity (though depending on your build, you might opt to build into strength instead of dexterity).

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Genie touched	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Magic initiate (wizard)	Perception, persuasion	Glassblower’s tools
Guide	Dexterity, constitution, wisdom	Magic initiate (druid)	Stealth, survival	Cartographer’s tools
Hermit	Constitution, wisdom, charisma	Healer	Medicine, religion	Herbalism kit
Moonwell pilgrim	Constitution, wisdom, charisma	Magic initiate (druid)	Nature, performance	Painter’s supplies
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
Wayfarer	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Lucky	Insight, stealth	Thieves’ tools

I think your best options are sage, genie touched and farmer. Sage and genie touched will get you some wizard spells while farmer will get you tough if you’d like to beef up your cleric a bit.

Feats

Origin feats

I’d say the below are your best origin feats for a knowledge cleric:

• Lucky – Grant advantage or disadvantage on important d20 tests.
• Magic initiate – Grab some spells from another spell list. True strike is a good option for a weapon-wielding cleric.
• Musician – Give everyone in the party a regular supply of heroic inspiration.
• Purple dragon rook – I’d say musician is better as that regenerates your heroic inspiration every short rest, not just on a long rest like this. This is still pretty good though.
• Spellfire spark – Reduce spell and magical damage a bit each turn and a bonus action spell attack is pretty good for a bit of extra damage.
• Tough – Great way to grab some extra hit points, especially if you want to dive into the front lines.

General feats

At level 4, you can start picking up general feats. These are some of the better options for a grave cleric:

• Fey-touched – 2 more spells prepared and 2 free castings expands your repertoire nicely. Misty step works well for moving where you need to be. For more ways to optimise for this feat, check out my fey-touched guide.
• Heavy armor master – If you’re going to be wearing heavy armor, you can reduce the damage of all bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage that strike you.
• Inspiring leader – Go for the wisdom increase and bestow temporary hit points on the party each rest. A good idea to have someone in your party with this. This combines nicely with something like aid as well which increases hit point maximum rather than temporary hit points.
• Mage slayer – Get better at dealing with mages plus a form of legendary resistance.
• Ritual caster – Can really expand your spell repertoire for some utility spells, plus they don’t require spell slots when cast as rituals. Good if no one else in the party can get things like detect magic. Read more about how to use this in my ritual spells guide.
• Shadow-touched – 2 free castings of spells expands your spell uses nicely and invisible is a great option.
• Speedy – if you plan on using spirit guardians a lot, having a bit of extra movement is a pretty good idea.
• Spellfire adept – This will work best on AoE spells as the extra damage will magnify for each creature affected by the spell. The likes of flame strike and sunbeam both fit the bill here.
• War caster – Clerics often get close to the front lines and the grave cleric is no different. This will help you maintain concentration and juggle spellcasting and shields.

Weapons

Grave domain clerics should mostly be focused on casting spells. This probably means very little in the way of weapon attacks unless you plan on using true strike.

With this in mind, I think it doesn’t make sense to build around high damage weapon attacks. You’ve got cantrips and spells as standard for when you do want to deal damage. Instead it makes sense to build around defence which means grabbing a shield and a one handed weapon for the odd occasion you might need one. A quarterstaff is a good option.

Armor

If you’ve taken the protector option, you’ll likely want to be using heavy armor. The best option is full plate armor. Grab this once you can afford it (and make sure you get up to 15 strength).

For a grave cleric though, I’d probably lean towards sticking with medium armor and the extra spell options that come from that (though both builds can work). If this is the case, you’ll want to grab half plate when you can afford it and get your dexterity up to 14 for the +2 AC boost.

Light armor won’t be better for a knowledge cleric as you’re not built for stealth and you’d have to invest heavily in dexterity to make it work which wouldn’t be worthwhile.

No matter your armor, you should also grab a shield. You shouldn’t be making many weapon attacks so this shouldn’t inhibit your damage much, but will help your defence.

Other class guides

Not sure a grave domain cleric is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other D&D 2024 class and subclass guides.