Grim Hollow Cleric Subclass Guide (D&D 2024) | Eldritch, Inquisition & Purification Domains

Deep diving into the the eldritch, inquisition and purification domains.

The clerics of Grim Hollow tend to be more vindictive than most. While some simply worship the gods of chaos and oblivion, others are crusaders that seek to root out what they view as the evils of the world (though this is a very subjective interpretation of the word “evil”).

The 2024 version of the Grim Hollow Player’s Handbook has 3 cleric subclasses. They are:

Eldritch domain – Worship gods of chaos and oblivion and gain access to random debuffs to hurl at enemies.
Inquisition domain – Seek out and destroy the threats to divine magic, namely those that seek too great a mastery of the arcane.
Purification domain – Wield fire to purify the unclean. These clerics view physical maladies as signs of spiritual maladies that must be purged without mercy.

In this article, I’ll dive into each subclass to provide advice as well as analyse how strong they are and which is the most powerful.

Eldritch domain

What are they?

Clerics of the eldritch domain worship unknown forces, entities and dead gods. Often, they represent the forces of chaos and oblivion.

Key abilities

Eldritch domain spells (lv3)

Lots of useful spells with a smattering of poorer options. I’ve always seen confusion as a worse and higher level form of hypnotic pattern or fear and tongues I think is a high level spell for something that shouldn’t be a major stumbling block.

Detect thoughts and contact other plane are really good information gathering spells while dream can be a situationally good option here. Sleep and hideous laughter are great, low level, save or suck spells while see invisibility is an important option for tackling invisibility.

So mostly a good spell list with some strong utility, but little in the way of damage.

Eldritch contagion (lv3)

Theres some really nasty debuffs in here which can be attempted every time you cast a spell with an action that targets an enemy. They are random effects though, so while preventing verbal spellcasting (for instance) is nasty, it’s only nasty on spellcasters, but you can’t choose which effect takes place. Still, the effects are nasty enough that you’ll also want to be trying to have a creature with one of these effects on them at any given time.

Prophecy of doom (lv3)

You get the effects of eldritch contagion, but as a separate action that causes an AoE. This is a really strong use of your channel divinity. The same issues as with eldritch contagion persist here (the random effect) but if you can get a good bunch of enemies in one place, this is usually quite nasty.

Otherworldly calm (lv6)

Some decent resilience here from psychic damage, charmed and frightened. Telepathy and thought reading aren’t too common on PCs, but it’s a decent enough option alongside the other benefits here.

Sing the song that ends the world (Lv17)

This is some nasty damage and it’s not instead of the eldritch contagion effect, but alongside it making this really nasty. I think the intention may have been that this was an option instead of these other effects, but it’s not written this way, though I might rule it this way as that’s some big damage and effects there! It also affects all creatures affected by this, not just one.

What are they good at?

Debuffs and information gathering for the most part.

How effective are they?

Really effective! The random effects will usually have a good outcome, if an unpredictable one. This makes them pretty good, especially as those extra effects are either free with spellcasting, or can affect multiple creatures. Add in a decent set of known spells and this is a top tier cleric subclass.

Score: 5/5

Inquisition domain

What are they?

Inquisition clerics work to keep in check the powers of arcane spellcasters to ensure that they do not become a threat to divine entities. This often means exacting judgement on those that grasp at powers inquisition clerics deem unsuitable for such individuals.

Key abilities

Inquisition domain spells (lv3)

A bit of a mix of spells. Arcane eye is great for information gathering, see invisibility is important for tackling invisible creatures while silence and dispel magic are great debuffs.

Remove curse is a bit situational (though less so in a Grim Hollow campaign). Locate creature I feel is generally a bit unnecessary and creation is possibly useful, but most more long term creations tend to be easy just to acquire. Hallow is another situational one unless you cast it using your divine intervention feature, in which case, it can be really good.

Witch hunter’s strike (lv3)

This keeps your melee attacks stronger than your cantrips at most levels, even without the bonus damage against a concentrating enemy. It essentially means you’re more harmful in melee using weapon attacks, and even better against spellcasters.

Its not clear if the limited uses relate to the extra damage, temporary hit points or both. As the extra damage and temporary hit points aren’t triggered in the same way, I think the intention is that it only affects the temporary hit points. One thing to consider is this feature both relies on your strength/dexterity and your wisdom, making both a priority.

Spell shield (lv3)

Temporary hit points and resilience against spells are both really nice. Obviously, this means your best use case here is against spellcasters and you may want to save it for these kinds of encounters.

Rebuke invoker (lv6)

Use a reaction to cause damage to enemies when they cast a spell. This is limited to a few uses per long rest so on longer adventuring days, you may want to preserve this for high spell level spells for maximum damage.

Supernal safeguard (Lv17)

Up to 5 targets of spell shield makes this hugely protective against magic and if you’ve invested in wisdom (which you should), enough protection for the whole party. A very good use of your channel divinity, even if you don’t end up facing spellcasters. But considerably better when you do.

At this point, PCs may want to save their best spells until martials have dealt enough damage to get rid of these temporary hit points on some of the party.

What are they good at?

Dealing with spellcasters. Buffing themselves and allies. Melee attacks (at least better than an average cleric).

How effective are they?

Inquisitors are at their best against spellcasters. At these times, they’re really good at disrupting and protecting against spellcasters. Fortunately, most features combine aspects that are universally useful, with aspects that are specific to spellcasters. Witch hunter’s strike damages everyone more, but spellcasters even more, spell shield’s temporary hit points protect against all damage, they just protect further against spells and so on.

Still, it means that the inquisition domain is only situationally very good and in many other instances, just decent. Spellcasters aren’t rare though, meaning you should get decent use out of your features.

Score: 4/5

Purification domain

What are they?

The purification domain is a vindictive one. They see physical maladies as indications of spiritual maladies and see the cure as one of severity. To burn it out. There is little mercy for the afflicted from the domain of purification.

Key abilities

Cleanse with fire (lv3)

Because this recharges on a short or long rest, and you get uses equal to your wisdom modifier plus your proficiency bonus, so long as your wisdom is decent (which it should be), then you should be able to use this most times you make a weapon or cantrip attack. You should at least sometimes be casting spells so won’t be using this every turn. It will help not casting levelled spells feel more impactful, which will help a lot on longer adventuring days when you need to cast cautiously.

Purification domain spells (lv3)

Flame blade is alright in the hands of a cleric, but there are much better level 2 spells, and it consumes your concentration for not that big a damage boost. Detect poison and diseases is hugely situational and rarely of use. Fear is a really good crowd control spell while wall of fire is a really good option for battlefield control. Sadly, flash fever is a bit of a slow burn and not as potent as many 3rd level spells in my opinion.

Aura of purity makes great protection against a lot of conditions while hold monster can be a nasty save or suck spell. Sadly, while flame strike is decent and tall, it’s kind of like a smaller fireball upcast to level 5. It’s still good, just not as good.

Unclean brand (lv3)

You still have to hit with an attack to make this work, but it sets up the creature to be hurt more by your spells. It does mean extra fire damage from your spells and attacks making things like flame blade or flash fever more worthwhile. Saving throws against your spells are more likely to be failed too.

Be careful with this though. It takes a turn to setup and only affects your spells and attacks, not those of your allies. That lost turn for setup means you need to know that this creature is going to last a few more turns to make the extra damage and poorer saving throws worthwhile.

Ward against corruption (lv6)

Advantage on saving throws against diseases and form altering effects is fine, but these are both quite rare. Using a magic action to grant this to another is fine too and you can just keep applying this every hour, but it will damage your allies so maybe only worth it when the need arises. I think this is too situational to be needed much at all and maybe too situational to bother applying to an ally.

Sear imperfection (lv17)

Free castings of lesser restoration and greater restoration is good, but at this level, this should already be available in the party without causing damage. True, free castings is nice, but the trade off is causing damage, and at this level, expending 2nd and 4th level spells here and there isn’t hugely taxing on your spell slots. Personally, I think this is a bit weak for a capstone subclass feature.

What are they good at?

Dealing fire damage and focusing on a single, high power target.

How effective are they?

I think the purification domain lands a bit flat if I’m honest. Extra fire damage on attacks and cantrips is good, but then, what should be the best feature (unclean brand) requires a setup turn to come into effect, making it a bit situational to certain kinds of enemies to make it worth it’s use (I’d have preferred a separate bonus action to use this).

The level 6 and 17 features feel kind of weak to me and also damage allies to grant their benefits.

It’s not that this is a useless subclass, it can have its place. But it lacks punch and ends up too situational for me.

Score: 2/5

Which cleric subclass is best?

As a general rule, I’ve found the Grim Hollow subclasses to veer on the side of being overpowered rather than underpowered, but the purification domain cleric is one of the few that manages to feel a bit underpowered.

Fortunately, both the inquisition domain and the eldritch domain don’t feel this way. The inquisition domain is really good against spellcasters, but only decent against non-spellcasters, making it good, but not very good overall.

This leaves us with the eldritch domain cleric which, in particular, can basically enhance its spells with some big debuffs or affect multiple creatures with these debuffs. And while they’re random, they’re nearly universally useful so the eldritch domain is just adding in great effects to its normal combat activity. This makes them the best cleric subclass in the Grim Hollow Player’s Handbook in my opinion.

What do you think of Grim Hollow’s cleric subclasses? Let me know in the comments below.