War Domain Cleric: D&D 2024 Subclass Optimisation Guide

Worship through warcraft. Maximise your damage with this combat-focused subclass.

As a worshipper of war gods, war domain clerics are more battle-ready than most clerics.

Despite being worshippers of war gods, war clerics have highly differing views on war. Some are warmongers that seek to bring devotion to their god through acts of violence. Others are protectors, war being an instrument of defence against evil rather than inviting evil. Many war clerics will view the heroics inherent in war and the sacrifices often made as a noble pursuit.

If you choose to play a war cleric, you should expect enhanced combat skills and spells that can easily supplement your combat prowess.

And to help you, this guide will take you through tactics and ways to build an optimised war domain cleric for D&D 2024.

At a glance

Full caster with healing, buffing and damage dealing capabilities
Quite resilient for a full caster
Make extra attacks with their bonus action
Enhance their combat prowess with spells

4/5 – The war domain successfully merges increased attacking output with improved defence. It also manages to merge all of this between spellcasting and weapon attacks making a strong option for combat-focused clerics.

What’s changed in D&D 2024?

The war domain gets some big buffs in the 2024 iteration that just make it much more flexible and powerful. Those changes include:

Subclass starts at level 3 – All subclasses now kick in at level 3. For war clerics, this means moving the war domain spells, guided strike and war priest features to level 3.
No bonus proficiencies – This is now an option in the core cleric class.
Divine strike – Another option that’s now been rolled into the core cleric class.
Spell changes – You get some different spell options. You lose divine favour, stoneskin and flame strike and gain guiding bolt, fire shield and steel wind strike.
Guided strike – Now resembles the old war god’s blessing more closely which only activates on a miss instead of guessing if you’d have hit.
Improved war priest – The attack you make for your bonus action isn’t reliant on making an attack with the attack action. This means you can both cast a spell and make a bonus action attack making it far easier to gain the extra damage from this feature.
Avatar of battle – Avatar of battle now works against magical attacks as well as non-magical attacks.

Related articles

War domain features

Cleric in combat — Cleric: Wizards of the Coast

Guided strike – Lv3

How it works

Expend a use of your channel divinity and use a reaction to grant a missed attack +10 to hit.

Tactics

Enhancing a single attack roll for a use of your channel divinity is better than your typical uses for channel divinity, but much smaller in scope and duration than the options for other cleric subclasses like the trickster domain which has benefits that last an entire combat.
This means using it wisely for important attacks. A rogue’s flailing sneak attack is one option for this. I’d also be tempted to use it primarily for spell attacks which tend to be more powerful than single weapon attacks. An upcast guiding bolt might be a good option for this, or even better, a casting of chromatic orb to ensure the option of subsequent bounces of the spell.

War domain spells – Lv3

How it works

Gain the following as prepared spells at the relevant levels:

Cleric level	Prepared spells
3	Guiding bolt, magic weapon, shield of faith, spiritual weapon
5	Crusader’s mantle, spirit guardians
7	Fire shield, freedom of movement
9	Hold monster, steel wind strike

Tactics

There’s some great combat spells in here including strong defensive options like shield of faith and fire shield.
But you’ve mainly got some high damage options. Spiritual weapon isn’t that great until you hit level 6 (more on that in a bit), but guiding bolt is a solid ranged option. Magic weapon is good, especially as it doesn’t require concentration and can be cast ahead of combat.
Spirit guardians though is fantastic and as a combat-focused cleric, will be easily used by you. Steel wind strike is also a high damage option, great for dealing with a large number of enemies when martials are in the way of ordinary AoE spells.
Crusader’s mantle can be decent, but generally won’t outperform spirit guardians unless dealing with fewer or more spread out enemies. It’ll usually require a lot of attacks from allies to make it worthwhile though. It’s pretty handy if you’ve got a couple of monks and/or fighters in the party, but that won’t be common for most parties.

War priest – Lv3

How it works

Make an attack with your bonus action a number of times equal to your wisdom modifier each rest.

Tactics

Good if you want to go for more attacks damage and it’s not reliant on you using the attack action to use (so you can cast a spell and make an attack in the same turn). It’s not necessarily as economical as simply having an extra attack, but works nicely on a class that should often be using their action for spells.
While there are technically limits to the amount of times this can be used, you should be getting 3-5 uses per rest which is enough to use most turns in most combats (assuming a short rest between each combat). You’ll likely also be using bonus action spells like shield of faith or spiritual weapon on some turns too making this an appropriate number. I do feel like they might as well have placed no limits on the amount of times this could be used though.

War god’s blessing – Lv6

How it works

Cast shield of faith by expending a use of channel divinity and not needing to use concentration on the spell.

Tactics

Not needing concentration on these spells really opens up their usability allowing you to concentrate on more valuable spells (like spirit guardians).
Both spells only require a bonus action to cast and as casting in this way doesn’t require using a spell slot, means you can use your action to cast something like steel wind strike and in the same turn, throw up shield of faith.

Avatar of battle – Lv17

How it works

Gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing and slashing damage.

Tactics

You’re now a decent bit more durable and can take a bit more of a beating.
Just be aware that at this level, many creatures already have other damage types at their fingertips as well.

How good is the war domain subclass?

The war domain is great for clerics that want to supplement spells with attacks for a higher damage cleric. They also happen to be more defensively minded than most clerics with easy access to a non-concentration version of shield of faith and hefty late game resistances.

Between extra bonus action attacks, some strong paladin spells and a couple of extra spells that can be triggered alongside other concentration spells, this is a solid subclass. This is especially the case for a character that wants to be heavily involved in combat.

Overall, I’d say that the war domain accomplishes a nice balance of attack and defensive features making it a strong option for combat and damage focused clerics.

4/5

Building an optimised war domain cleric

Path of glory paladin DnD 2024 — Cleric: Wizards of the Coast

War domain clerics merge spellcasting with weapon attacks to enhance their damage output. This means building for both sets of capabilities. You’ll likely also want to build around defence and durability too as this will help you survive in the midst of combat and maintain your concentration.

Below I’ve explained how you can manage to build a well optimised war cleric.

Ability scores

Recommended options

Wisdom: Spellcasting remains your most important aspect. This means wisdom should be your first priority. It’ll also help you make more bonus action attacks.
Strength: To make the most of those bonus action attacks, you’ll likely want to build into strength. This will also help you manage heavy armor. Take the protector option to get access to martial weapons and heavy armor.
Constitution: You’ll need this for the durability it offers and to maintain spell concentration.
Dexterity: You could also opt for a dexterity build, especially if you intend on making ranged attacks rather than melee attacks.

Options to avoid

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	15	14
Dexterity	8	8
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 if you take 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 and attacks. Enhancing or supplementing this however you can will be useful.
Innate spellcasting: More spells and spell castings will be useful.

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, which war clerics might need to.
Dragonborn (2024): A damage resistance for durability and the breath weapon gives you a close range AoE option to use alongside your bonus action attacks. 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. High Elf will get you a cantrip like true strike which will often be one of the more potent cantrips you can cast, especially combined with divine strike. You’ll also get misty step for when you need to make a quick escape. Wood Elves are too stealthy for the cumbersome cleric but Drow also makes a decent option.
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 want to have true strike for weapon attacks. You’d also get access to something like chromatic orb which combines nicely with guided strike for more likely bounces. 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. 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 war domain cleric, I’d prioritise wisdom and then strength or constitution (though depending on your build, you might opt to build into dexterity instead of strength).

Name	Ability scores	Origin feat	Skill proficiencies	Tool proficiency
Farmer	Strength, constitution, wisdom	Tough	Animal handling, nature	Carpenter’s tools
Guard	Strength, intelligence, wisdom	Alert	Athletics, perception	One kind of gaming set
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

I think your best options are sage and farmer. Sage 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 war 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. Chromatic orb is good too for its combination with guided strike.
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.

General feats

At level 4, you can start picking up general feats. These are some of the better options for a war 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 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.
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.
War caster – Maintain your concentration better, even when fighting on the front lines. Plus spells for opportunity attacks is nice for a melee spellcaster.
Weapon master – Grab a weapon mastery option to enhance those bonus action attacks (and action attacks too).

Weapons

You should be expecting to knock off bonus action attacks on more than half of your turns. Plus you may want to make attacks with your action sometimes, especially with true strike in place. This means you have a few ways you could approach your build.

Sword and shield – Generally I’d recommended building for durability. You’re still a spellcaster after all so weapon damage is more supplementary to your magic, even if this means slightly lower damage per attack.
Ranged – You can still use the likes of true strike and divine strike with ranged weapon attacks. If you’d rather stick to ranged attacks, you could grab a longbow. I’d say this probably isn’t optimal for this more resilient cleric subclass. A javelin with a shield is probably better for a strength build and means you can make a ranged attack while you close in on your opponent.
Two-handed weapon – If you want to go with maximum damage, then a two-handed weapon is your best bet. It means no shield though so you’ll be a bit more vulnerable.

While dual wielding is an option, I wouldn’t recommend it for a war cleric. Many of your attacks will be made with your bonus action and when they’re not, you already have a bonus action attack without grabbing a second weapon. This is improved slightly if you can pick up nick through the weapon master feat, but even then, you’ll likely be using your action for spells often enough that this is a bit wasted. You’ll also have to forego the benefits of a shield.

Armor

For the war cleric, I’d generally recommend the protector option which will give you heavy armor training. A strength build will be able to handle full plate armor once you can afford it.

If you do go for a dexterity build, then medium armor with half plate armor is your best option assuming you won’t be reaching 20 dexterity.

I’d generally recommend a shield for the extra protection it grants no matter your armor.