Use an illusory double to sow confusion and misdirection among your foes.
Some gods invoke and inspire acts of mischief, trickery and subterfuge. These may be gods of thieves and scoundrels, but also gods of liberty and freedom. Trickery domain clerics embody these traits. They could operate on behalf of a thieves guild, but they might also use subtle means to overthrow regimes or disrupt the balance of society (for good or ill).
Unusually for a cleric, this grants the trickery domain a level of stealth and illusion not normally seen in this typically heavily-armoured class. From abilities and spells that literally enhance stealth to an illusory double from which you can cast your spells and distract, the trickery domain is fairly unique among clerics.
To help you work through the sometimes conflicting approach to playing a trickery domain cleric, I’ve put together this guide. This is focused on the updated 2024 version of the subclass.
At a glance
- Full caster with healing, buffing and damage dealing capabilities
- Quite resilient for a full caster
- Use stealth abilities to help the party sneak around
- Create an illusory double to support you in and out of combat.
4/5 – The trickery domain is surprisingly effective at things that aren’t typically strengths for a cleric. The use of an illusory double to cast spells from and teleport with makes it a surprisingly strong safety feature while making some of your most deadly spells even easier to use.
What’s changed in D&D 2024?
The trickery domain gets a big upgrade in the 2024 revision with invoke duplicity becoming much more useful. Specifically, you can expect the following changes:
- Subclass starts at level 3 – All subclasses now kick in at level 3. For trickery clerics, this means moving the trickery domain spells, invoke duplicity and blessing of the trickster features to level 3.
- No divine strike – A version of this is now baked into the core cleric class as an option for all clerics.
- Spell changes – The spells you get have changed a little. You lose mirror image, blink, dispel magic and polymorph and gain invisibility, hypnotic pattern, nondetection and confusion. The big loss here is gaining confusion in place of polymorph (polymorph being a far superior spell). Hypnotic pattern makes loads of sense though, even if it replaces the already good dispel magic. I also think invisibility over mirror image is a great swap.
- Invoke duplicity – This has received a big upgrade. It now only requires a bonus action to activate (instead of an action) and doesn’t require concentration. This is a huge improvement on before allowing you to activate your illusion and cast a spell all in the same turn. This simply wasn’t possible before.
- No more cloak of shadows – You now get to swap places with your illusion instead. And because you have the invisibility spell, which is superior to a single turn of invisibility (which was at the expense of a use of channel divinity), you only really gain in this trade off.
- Improved duplicity – This no longer creates 4 illusory copies. Instead, it enhances the one illusory copy you have. It can now help allies gain advantage and provide healing when the illusion ends.
Trickery domain features
Blessing of the trickster – Lv3
How it works
Grant someone advantage on stealth checks.
Tactics
- This is a feature that can be always on and has no limits in usage.
- You can either grant it to the member of the party that will be doing the stealthing, or if you’re all being stealthy, give it to a paladin or another clumsy class to help them sneak better.
- Note that you yourself don’t have to be the stealthy one for this to be useful so you don’t necessarily have to build around stealth, but you can with a bit of effort.
Trickery domain spells – Lv3
How it works
Gain the following as prepared spells at the relevant levels:
| Cleric level | Prepared spells |
|---|---|
| 3 | Charm person, disguise self, invisibility, pass without trace |
| 5 | Hypnotic pattern, nondetection |
| 7 | Confusion, dimension door |
| 9 | Dominate person, modify memory |
Tactics
- The likes of invisibility and pass without trace are great for stealth and enable you to aid others in sneaking around.
- Disguise self is a good spell on a more charismatic character, but falls short on someone like a cleric. Charm person is theoretically decent, but difficult to make work in practice.
- Hypnotic pattern is an excellent combat spell for nullifying lots of enemies. Confusion on the other hand, is a weaker version of hypnotic pattern that requires a higher spell slot making it a bit redundant.
Invoke duplicity – Lv3
How it works
Create an illusory double that lasts for 1 minute. You can cast spells from the illusory double’s space, gain advantage on attack rolls when both you and your illusion are within 5ft of the target and move it using your bonus action.
Tactics
- With just a 1 minute period, this is primarily a combat feature.
- The main benefit here is getting some extra distance on spells or casting it round things like cover. Because you must use your own senses, you can’t necessarily send your illusion round a corner and start casting spells as you usually still need to see what you’re aiming at.
- Alternatively, you can go in for some melee attacks and easily gain advantage on those attacks by keeping your illusory double close. I think this will tend to be stronger when fighting single or spread out enemies but I might still be tempted to simply make the spell attack through the illusion for the greater safety it provides (or launch a ranged spell attack).
- Out of combat, you could easily use this illusion as a distraction while you sneak somewhere you shouldn’t be and could even use a spell like thaumaturgy or minor illusion to create a sound from your illusion. You could even launch damage dealing spells from your illusion (to really distract those guards), just try and do so without verbal components or you’ll give your true position away. Just be aware that it’ll only last a minute so the distraction won’t last long.
Trickster’s transportation – Lv6
How it works
You can swap places with your illusion when using a bonus action to move it.
Tactics
- This is essentially a free and further reaching misty step.
- You can use this if you really need to get out of a tight spot.
- I also wonder if you could use this to scale difficult heights up to 120ft high. Send your illusion up there (presumably illusions can just move where they like, it doesn’t have to be on the ground or reliant on a floor) and then teleport when it gets to the top.
Improved duplicity – Lv17
How it works
Your illusion can now help allies gain advantage on attack rolls when both it and the ally are within 5ft of the target. It will also heal someone by an amount equal to your cleric level when the illusion ends.
Tactics
- Helping allies get advantage on attacks is useful and just means positioning is even more important for your illusion. It also makes it easier to both use spells through your illusion and grant advantage to allies.
- The healing requires ending your illusion which feels like only something you should do under desperate circumstances. If you’re involved in longer adventuring days, some healing after a combat will be welcome.
How good is the trickery domain subclass?
The trickery domain is unique among cleric subclasses. It takes something a cleric isn’t very good at (stealth and deception) and shoehorns it into the class.
I originally assumed this would be problematic, but I actually think it works reasonably well. Through backgrounds, feats and your species, you can build into stealth to an extent, and even if you don’t, the trickery domain is quite good at enhancing the stealth of others, not just yourself.
I also happen to think that the invoke duplicity feature is a great way to maximise safety in combat and do a few clever things like cast spells around cover.
Overall, I think the trickery domain is a surprisingly decent cleric subclass, despite leaning into abnormal areas for the cleric class.
3/5
Building an optimised trickery domain cleric
Trickery clerics remain a spell-focused subclass, especially with the utility casting through your illusion can give. However, they’re at their best building into the stealth aspects of the subclass. That doesn’t mean a strength build isn’t possible, but you lose something by not building into more of a dexterity focus. This is why in my advice below, I’ll focus on a dexterity and stealth-centric build.
Ability scores
Recommended options
- Wisdom: Your most important ability score with your spellcasting reliant on this as well as saving throws and some skills.
- Dexterity: Your next most important ability score. Use this for the improved AC it grants. It’ll also help with your stealth.
- Constitution: The higher this is, the longer you’ll last. While still a good investment for a trickery cleric, you should find you need this less than other clerics due to your slippery and hard to pin down nature.
Options to avoid
- Strength: You can still manage a decent strength build for the trickery domain, but you’ll end up enhancing the stealth of others rather than being stealthy yourself which definitely diminishes your value out of combat.
- Intelligence: You don’t need intelligence.
- 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 | 12 |
| Wisdom | 15 | 15 |
| Charisma | 8 | 10 |
Skills
Recommended options
- History: Solid knowledge skill.
- Religion: Decent knowledge skill. You can enhance this further by taking the thaumaturge option.
Options to avoid
- Insight: Important face skill, but there will be better options for face skills in the party.
- Persuasion: Great face skills, but there are probably better options in the party for focusing on face skills.
- Medicine: Just use healing word.
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. Spells that enhance stealth or that might be useful to cast through your illusory double are a good idea 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 which you can easily apply and then teleport away from danger through your illusory double.
- Dragonborn (2024): A damage resistance for durability and the breath weapon gives you a close range AoE option. 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.
- Dwarves (2024): More HP and some damage resistance works great on a frontline cleric.
- Elves (2024): Lots of extra spells to cast. I’d lean towards a Drow here as faerie fire and darkness are both good options. High Elf gets a cantrip of your choice which is good, but misty step is a little wasted on you once you hit level 6. Wood Elves feel like they should be a natural fit, but their best spell (pass without trace) is one you already have.
- Human (2024): An extra skill is handy, especially if you plan on replacing a rogue, you might need to grab stealth, sleight of hand or perception, none of which comes with your class. More heroic inspiration is useful for any class and an extra origin feat could help fill gaps in your repertoire. Skilled could be a good idea to help you fill skill gaps but magic initiate could be a good option too.
- 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. Infernal legacy is probably your best option, especially if you want to be launching off hellish rebuke with spare spell slots.
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 trickery domain cleric, I’d prioritise wisdom and then dexterity or constitution.
| Name | Ability scores | Origin feat | Skill proficiencies | Tool proficiency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Both wayfarer and guide will give you wisdom and dexterity increases as well as stealth proficiency. Lucky and magic initiate are both good options for a trickery cleric too.
Feats
Origin feats
I’d say the below are your best origin feats for a trickery cleric:
- 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.
- Skilled – Grab some stealthy skills like stealth, sleight of hand and perception.
- 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 trickery cleric:
- Defensive duelist – Grab a finesse weapon with your shield and get enhanced AC with your reaction for extra protection.
- 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 aid as well which increases hit points maximum rather than temporary hit points.
- Mage slayer – Get better at dealing with mages plus a form of legendary resistance.
- Medium armor master – If you plan on getting your dexterity up to 16 but not beyond, this will up your AC a little in medium armor.
- 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.
- Speedy – if you plan on using spirit guardians a lot, having a bit of extra movement is a pretty good idea.
Weapons
Although you have the option for easy advantage on attacks rolls in tandem with your illusory double, spellcasting remains your best option. And this advantage will work with spell attacks too.
Because of this, I wouldn’t build with weapons in mind. Instead, I’d build for defence which means a sword and shield style for the rare occasions you might need to make a weapon attack.
Armor
If you want to be decent at stealth, you can discount heavy armor entirely. While your dexterity is below 18, medium armor will be your best option. Grab a breastplate if you can afford it to avoid disadvantage on stealth checks and for the best protection.
Once you hit 18 dexterity, you can grab studded leather instead. I’d also grab a shield for maximum protection.
Other class guides
Not sure a trickery domain cleric is for you. Not to worry. Why not check out one of our other D&D 2024 class and subclass guides.
You can’t put Spirit Guardians on your duplicate for multiple reasons. 1. Its an emanation. The glossary for 2024 states the effect of an emanation comes from a creature or object. An illusion is neither.
2. Spirit Guardians has a range of “self” and the spell also states it emanates around “you” the caster. The duplicate is not you and doesn’t continue to be you during the duration of the spell.
This has been discussed by Treantmonk, Dungeon Dudes and other youtubers. But even with that, its still pretty obvious it doesn’t work that way. The duplicate is still an illusion and not you.
Appreciate the feedback. Have checked out Treantmonk’s explanation and updated the article.