Shadow Domain Cleric/priest: D&D 2024 (5.5e) Subclass Optimisation Guide

Use shadow magic to fight evil and try not to be consumed by the darkness with this cleric/priest subclass from D&D: World of Warcraft.

At a glance

Shadow domain features

Devouring plague (Lv3) – 4/5

This is pretty decent as it doesn’t even require your reaction, you can just make it happen. That’s 2d10 healing/damage 3-5 times per long rest. A failed saving throw should happen a fair bit (it will need to be against an enemy) and if multiple targets fail a saving throw at the same time, you can affect all of them simultaneously.

The impact isn’t huge though, and it doesn’t really scale much (other than a couple of extra uses). But it’s a decent boost and kind of the equivalent of 3-5 extra level 1 spell castings that don’t require any kind of action to cast.

Shadow spells (Lv3) – 3/5

Level	Spell
3	Crown of madness, dissonant whispers, mind spike, shadow word pain
5	Summon undead, vampiric touch
7	Evard’s black tentacles, psychic horror
9	Dominate person, void eruption

Crown of madness, mind spike and vampiric touch are all poor spells in my opinion.

Of the new spells, shadow word pain is like inflict wounds with range but it’s kind of got a chance to deal more damage or less as it’s 1d10 damage each turn (as opposed to inflict wound’s 2d10 in one turn). I’m never keen on damage over time spells and this doesn’t do enough to justify it for me.

Psychic horror is a single target spell that causes frightened for a minute and stunned for a round with a little bit of damage. There’s no concentration which I think is the benefit, but at level 3, you have spells like hypnotic pattern and fear with an AoE to affect multiple enemies. This leaves me a little underwhelmed in comparison.

Void eruption is thankfully much better with a bonus action AoE that also lets you make ranged spell attacks with your bonus action and be invisible while in darkness or dim light.

Fortunately, some of the other spells, like summon undead and dissonant whispers are decent, but there are quite a few disappointments on this spell list.

Shadowform (Lv3) – 2/5

Hiding with a bonus action is quite good and slightly boosted spell damage is alright too. But there are a couple of problems here.

The first is that clerics aren’t known for being adept at hiding and you’ll have to pass a stealth check to manage this. This will mean building for high dexterity and grabbing stealth proficiency in your build and still hoping it works.

It’s also easy to end the invisible condition from hiding so you’ll likely need to repeat the hide action. It is possible to build around this though. If you can cast spells that don’t make attack rolls or use verbal components, you might be OK. Unfortunately, every cleric spell other than reweave fate at level 7 requires verbal components. However, you could take the enchantment adept feat. With this, you can cast dissonant whispers, bless, hold person and other enchantment spells without using verbal components.

Other than this exploit though, you’re going to be re-hiding each turn.

The other issue is you are limited by what spells you can cast to deal the extra damage. At lower levels, you’ve got inflict wounds and spirit guardians. Inflict wounds requires touch which is no good while hiding and spirit guardians requires moving around which will likely take you out of dim light.

Your shadow spells help a bit with dissonant whispers and mind spike. And while I don’t like mind spike, it doesn’t use verbal components so could work with your hiding and the extra psychic damage. Shadow word pain might also be an option here, but be aware it will only deal the extra damage once.

That’s kind of a lot to digest and consider. Ultimately, my issue with this is to make it any good, you really have to work your build around it a lot. Even then, you’re only adding an extra d6 to the damage of some spells (forcing you down the route of often lesser spells). Hide could be good, but you’ll need to invest a lot into making it work.

Dispersion (Lv6) – 2/5

This is a very unique feature allowing you to use a reaction to become a shadowy form and gain resistance to all damage for a round and being able to self heal with hit dice while flying for a turn. This all sounds great.

However, while in this form, you can’t take actions, bonus actions or reactions meaning you can only move. You could fly vertically to get out of reach of creatures, but will fall at the end of your turn.

So you basically end up with a round of doing nothing which I think is really boring.

The odd thing is this isn’t bad in a desperate moment, but if you’re that desperate, half damage may not save you anyway. The self healing might, but you will need to last a round. Problem is, you won’t want to use this unless you’re desperate because it nullifies you for a round.

Ultimately, I think this is just a poorly designed feature.

Vampiric embrace (Lv17) – 1/5

This is a terrible feature! An average of 3.5 healing at level 17 and only when you deal the extra damage from shadowform which won’t be always. This isn’t a good feature at low levels and it’s a terrible one for your capstone!

How good is the shadow domain subclass?

The shadow domain is a strange one. It feels a lot like the designers at Wizards of the Coast were told to be more adventurous with their design ideas and this has definitely been implemented in D&D: World of Warcraft. The problem with the shadow domain is that they kind of forgot some of the other principles of good design philosophy.

Features fail to work well enough together (though at least the spells give some needed synergy to shadowform). A hiding feature without the tools to hide well, a feature that makes you useless for a round and a capstone feature that is so weak it’s not worth bothering with are the worst offenders here.

Despite this, there are some nice ideas here. A bonus action hide cleric could be really fun, but give them stealth proficiency at least. Also, there’s a really good opportunity to remove verbal components from a few spells (like dissonant whispers) so you could remain hidden would have gone a long way to make this a much better subclass. At least devouring plague is good.

Sadly, what we have is a disappointing attempt at doing something interesting. It’s a shame as subclasses like the warrior of mystic brews and demon hunter have really nailed this. I just wish the shadow domain would have spent a little more time being refined.

2/5

---

Building an optimised shadow cleric/priest

While the Shadow domain works a lot like other cleric subclasses when it comes to optimisation, it does have a few differences. The biggest is that they rely on hiding. This means that a dexterity build and stealth proficiency are practically necessities.

The other thing to consider is more to do with spells. Radiant damage will end your hiding and necrotic and psychic damage spells are enhanced meaning you’ll want less of the former and more of the latter.

While the Shadow domain has been created specifically for the World of Warcraft setting, there’s no reason why it can’t be used in other settings or that character options from other books can’t be used with it. As such, in my build advice below, I’ve considered character options from all 5.5e books. I’ll also add character options from D&D: World of Warcraft once they become widely available.

Ability scores

Recommended options

• Wisdom: This is primarily to enhance your spellcasting (which is a big deal for a cleric). It will also give you more uses of devouring plague.
• Constitution: The higher this is, the longer you’ll last. You’ll also want to get this high to help your concentration.
• Dexterity: For the shadow domain, you’ll want to be competent at hiding, that means building for dexterity. It’ll also help your AC out.

Options to avoid

• Strength: You’ll need to be dextrous for your hiding which means building for dexterity and dumping strength which you won’t need.
• 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	15	14
Constitution	15	13
Intelligence	8	10
Wisdom	15	15
Charisma	8	12

Skills

Recommended options

• Arcana: You don’t want the heavy armor from the protector divine order so go thaumaturge instead and get enhanced arcana
• 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.
• Stealth: This isn’t on the cleric list but it’s so important for hiding that it’s worth mentioning. You need to grab this through a species, background or feat.

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.
• 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.
• Get stealthy: Anything that can help you hide will be useful too. One thing to note is that while Halflings have improved hiding, it doesn’t interact with shadowform so won’t help here.

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.
• Elves (2024): Lots of extra spells to cast. Wood Elves are a great option because they get some stealthy spells including pass without trace.
• Human (2024): An extra skill is nice. You can grab stealth with this. More heroic inspiration is useful for any class and an extra origin feat could help fill gaps in your repertoire. You could 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 the shadow domain, I’d prioritise wisdom and then constitution or dexterity for your ability score increase.

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Genie touched (HoF)	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 (HoF)	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’ too

Feats

Origin feats

I’d say the below are your best origin feats for the shadow domain:

• Familiar friend (AU) – Get an enhanced familiar which is useful for all sorts of utility.
• Lucky – Grant advantage or disadvantage on important d20 tests.
• Magic initiate – Grab some spells from another spell list.
• Musician – Give everyone in the party a regular supply of heroic inspiration.
• Tough – Great way to grab some extra hit points, especially if you want to dive into the front lines.
• Transmuted anatomy (AU) – More speed and better constitution saving throws will help your concentration.

General feats

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

• Abjuration adept (AU) – Clerics/priests cast a lot of abjuration spells. This will give you more of these known and add some temporary hit points when you cast them.
• Divination adept (AU) – Gain some information gathering spells and grant advantage or disadvantage on some d20 tests.
• Enchantment adept (AU) – A great one for maintaining your hiding as you can cast enchantment spells without verbal components, therefore retaining your invisible condition. Plus you learn some enchantment spells.
• 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.
• Illusion adept (AU) – Cast illusion spells without verbal components so you can stay hidden. Something like phantasmal force (which you get with this feat) will work with shadowform and devouring plague too.
• 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.
• Magic connoisseur (AU) – Grab a couple more spells known and a couple of free castings. Great on a spellcaster.
• Medium armor master – Improved AC while wearing medium armor if you’ve not maxed out dexterity but want a bit more AC.
• 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.
• Shadow-touched – 2 free castings of spells expands your spell uses nicely and invisibility is a great option.
• Skill expert – Expertise in stealth could be really useful for all the hiding you might be doing with shadowform.
• Skulker – Really great if you’ll be using shadowform a lot to hide. Advantage to hide will be very useful. Blindsight is really useful too and if your attacks roll misses, your hiding spot won’t be revealed.
• Speedy – If you plan on using spirit guardians a lot, having a bit of extra movement is a pretty good idea.
• Spell resistant (AU) – A damage resistance and spell resilience is good for your durability.
• Spell subterfuge (AU) – If you hide and are behind cover, you can cast spells with verbal components without ending the invisible condition. This interacts with hiding from shadowform too for some great hiding.
• War caster – This will help you maintain concentration and juggle spellcasting and shields.
• Warlike familiar (AU) – Battle familiar is really good for extra damage output and a bit of a meat shield and this gives you an even better battle familiar.

Weapons

Shadow domain clerics should mostly be focused on casting spells. This probably means very little in the way of weapon attacks.

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

You’ll likely be taking a dexterity build which means you might start with medium armor, potentially moving on to light armor if your dexterity gets high enough.

So you can stay stealthy, a breastplate is your best option here as it will get you 16AC and you can retain your stealthiness. Once you get 18-20 dexterity, you can use studded leather for the same or better AC.

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, but will help your defence.

More from D&D: World of warcraft