Mind Domain Cleric: D&D 2024 Subclass Optimisation Guide

Gain psychic powers with the mind domain cleric from Exploring Eberron, revised for D&D 2024.

Clerics of the mind domain not only celebrate the capabilities of the mortal mind, but through their faith, are able to enhance their mental capacity. This goes beyond meer intellect with mind clerics able to use psychic energy to read minds, communicate telepathically and perform psychic attacks.

The mind domain can be a dangerous path. So much so that some priests are driven mad by the secrets revealed to them through their psychic capabilities.

The mind domain is most commonly associated with the Path of Light and the Riedran Path of Inspiration, but followers of the Daelkyr can also adhere to this domain.

Keith Baker, the legendary creator of the Eberron setting, has released a revised version of his 3rd party book, Exploring Eberron. It’s been updated for D&D 2024 and adds extra lore and character options for the Eberron setting and is available on D&D Beyond now. In this article, I’ll take you through the updated mind domain cleric subclass from this book including tactics, optimisations, how good the subclass is and what’s changed.

At a glance

Full caster with healing, buffing and damage dealing capabilities
Quite resilient for a full caster
Excels at protecting from saving throw effects
As well as inflicting effects on enemies

5/5 – The mind domain has a decent arsenal of spells made much better due to how much harder it can be to resist their spell effects. They also possess strong protective capabilities that can be shared throughout the party and make decent damage dealers with a bit of charisma to boot. With all of this, they are a top tier, cleric subclass.

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

The mind domain gets a few practical changes based on 2024 design philosophy with a couple of minor nerfs and a couple of fairly significant buffs.

Changed spells – Some subclass spells have changed including phantasmal force, enemies abound and dominate person all being removed with mind spike, clairvoyance and synaptic static replacing them.
Flash of insight has been removed: This feature is completely gone, but this may be because psychic force is more potent now.
Psychic force is more powerful – You now add your charisma modifier to a damage roll for spells that cause psychic damage.
Psychic feedback – The reaction is now made if the creature would have made a successful saving throw. There’s also no damage boost if the saving throw isn’t inflicted by the mind cleric.
Potent spellcasting is now rolled into the class features – As with all cleric subclasses, potent spellcasting is now an optional feature in the core cleric class now.

Mind domain features

Cleric in combat — Cleric: Wizards of the Coast

Mind domain spells (Lv3) – 3/5

The spells here are OK. Detect thoughts can be useful and synaptic static is a really good fireball equivalent. Fear is good for crowd control too.

You’ve got a few psychic damage dealers here which can benefit from enhanced psychic spells damage. Only synaptic static is a really top option from these, but the others are decent enough.

Mind spike is tricky to make useful and clairvoyance is quite situational. I’d also prefer fear over confusion despite it being a lower level spell. Overall, an average suite of spells I think.

Psychic feedback (Lv3) – 5/5

Disadvantage on succeeded wisdom saving throws is quite good. This might feel a tad limiting, but wisdom is the most common saving throw and most of your mind domain spells require a wisdom saving throw (with the exception of synaptic static).

If you build your spell list around wisdom saving throws to some extent, you should be able to get plenty of use out of this. Making save or suck spells more likely to land can be really powerful too.

Psychic force (Lv3) – 4/5

The implication here is now you can have enhanced damage psychic and radiant spells. Dissonant whispers, phantasmal killer and synaptic static all cause psychic damage. Clerics naturally also have a bunch of radiant damage spells available so build into this with your prepared spells.

The challenge here is that it’s your charisma modifier that enhances the damage of your spells, not wisdom. Clerics aren’t known for their charisma, but you can build into this. Wisdom should remain your focus, but with 14 dexterity and medium armor, a high wisdom and a sacrifice in constitution, you can go heavier on charisma for more damage and less defence. You probably want to be a backline caster anyway so this can work, but does take sacrifices.

Gestalt anchor (Lv6) – 5/5

Enhanced saving throws for the 3 mental ability scores is really good, but that 10ft emanation isn’t huge. You’ll probably only be able to keep one or 2 allies close for that, but you will benefit too.

Saving throws can lead to notoriously nasty effects so enhancing these is a strong option, even if only you benefit.

Bend reality (Lv17) – 5/5

Change a saving throw roll to a 20 once per short rest for one member of the party. This is really good and basically a shared legendary resistance.

How good is the mind domain subclass?

The mind domain is really good at handling saving throws. This is the case both for protecting against their effects and dealing out effects that require saving throws. Add to that some extra damage and you have a strong spellcasting subclass.

Perhaps the only downside is that the spells aren’t always the best, but they’re decent enough and alongside some of their other features, do actually end up with quite nicely enhanced spellcasting.

If you’re looking for both a defensive and offensive clerical spellcaster, then the mind domain is a strong option.

5/5

Building an optimised mind domain cleric

Undead attack a cleric — Cleric: Wizards of the Coast

Mind domain clerics are of the more spell-focused variety, but they also have an unusual need to invest in charisma. Depending on how hard you want to lean into this, you can make a backup party face if no one in the party has taken a charismatic class. You’ll need to build a bit into this though if that’s the route you take.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Wisdom: This is primarily to enhance your spellcasting. It’ll give you better wisdom saving throws which are quite common too.
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 a lot).
Dexterity: You likely won’t be making many weapon attacks with a mind domain cleric, but you’ll still want this at 14 to make the most of your medium armor.
Charisma: If you want to enhance the damage of your psychic spells, then you’ll need to up your charisma, perhaps at the expense of some constitution.

Options to avoid

Strength: For a mind cleric, I’d probably recommend leaning towards spellcasting options rather than weapon and armor options which makes strength less useful. If you do opt for heavy armor though, you’ll need to trade dexterity for strength.
Intelligence: You’ve no need for this, it can be dumped.

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

Skills

Recommended options

Insight: You should have the rare honour of a high wisdom and decent charisma making insight a great option for you in social encounters.
Persuasion: The most important face skill and since you’ll likely be investing in charisma, a decent option.

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. Celestial revelation will also give you options for flight or some close combat effects letting you mix up your approach.
Changeling (2024): If you lean hard into those face skills this will help you gain more proficiencies, gain advantage on face skills and be able to impersonate others.
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 or mind sliver. Both will work with psychic force and are top tier cantrips. 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, especially if you want to invest in face skills. 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 or mind sliver. You could also consider something like tough to up your HP. There’s also lucky and musician for rerolling dice or skilled for more face skills.
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.

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 mind domain cleric, I’d prioritise wisdom and then constitution, dexterity or charisma.

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Changeling traveller (Exploring Eberron)	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Focused personas	Deception, sleight of hand	Thieves’ tools
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Guide	Dexterity, constitution, wisdom	Magic initiate (druid)	Stealth, survival	Cartographer’s tools
Hermit	Constitution, wisdom, charisma	Healer	Medicine, religion	Herbalism kit
Sage	Constitution, intelligence, wisdom	Magic initiate (wizard)	Arcana, history	Calligrapher’s tools
Wayfarer	Dexterity, wisdom, charisma	Lucky	Insight, stealth	Thieves’ tools

Wayfarer is your best option for more of a charisma leaning, but sage will get you some useful spells through magic initiate.

Feats

Origin feats

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

Focused personas (Exploring Eberron) – Essentially a tool proficiency that’s better and expertise in a skill. This will help get your face skill capabilities up.
Lucky – Grant advantage or disadvantage on important d20 tests.
Magic initiate – Grab some spells from another spell list. True strike and mind sliver are great options to go with psychic force.
Musician – Give everyone in the party a regular supply of heroic inspiration.
Skilled – Use this if you need more skills, like if you’re going to be a party face.
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 knowledge 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 strikes you.
Inspiring leader – Go for the wisdom increase (though charisma could be an option for you) 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.

Weapons

Mind 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. If you want a little more ranged damage from your spells, you could go for a light crossbow instead.

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 mind 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 mind 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, a shield can be a good option. You shouldn’t be making many weapon attacks so this shouldn’t inhibit your damage much, but will help your defence.