In Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition, the cleric class is a powerful and versatile character option that can harness divine powers. Clerics are devoted followers of a deity and they draw their magical abilities from their faith and connection to their divine patron. A cleric's divine power is manifested through their spellcasting abilities. They have access to a wide range of spells that allow them to heal wounds, protect allies, and vanquish foes. Clerics can also channel their divinity to turn undead creatures, forcing them to flee or be destroyed. Clerics can choose a domain that represents their particular area of focus and grants them additional powers.

DND 5th Edition

Whether sworn before a god's altar and the witness of a priest, in a sacred glade before nature spirits and fey beings, or in a moment of desperation and grief with the dead as the only witness, a paladin's oath is a powerful bond.

You must have a Charisma score and a Strength score of 13 or higher in order to multiclass in or out of this class.

Class Features

As a paladin, you gain the following class features.

Hit Points

Hit Dice: 1d10 per paladin level
Hit Points at 1st Level: 10 + your Constitution modifier
Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d10 (or 6) + your Constitution modifier per paladin level after 1st

Proficiencies

Armor: All armor, shields
Weapons: Simple weapons, martial weapons
Tools: None
Saving Throws: Wisdom, Charisma
Skills: Choose two from Athletics, Insight, Intimidation, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion

Equipment

You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:

• (a) a martial weapon and a shield or (b) two martial weapons
• (a) five javelins or (b) any simple melee weapon
• (a) a priest's pack or (b) an explorer's pack
• Chain mail and a holy symbol

Divine Sense

The presence of strong evil registers on your senses like a noxious odor, and powerful good rings like heavenly music in your ears. As an action, you can open your awareness to detect such forces. Until the end of your next turn, you know the location of any celestial, fiend, or undead within 60 feet of you that is not behind total cover. You know the type (celestial, fiend, or undead) of any being whose presence you sense, but not its identity (the vampire Count Strahd von Zarovich, for instance). Within the same radius, you also detect the presence of any place or object that has been consecrated or desecrated, as with the Hallow spell.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier. When you finish a long rest, you regain all expended uses.

Lay on Hands

Your blessed touch can heal wounds. You have a pool of healing power that replenishes when you take a long rest. With that pool, you can restore a total number of hit points equal to your paladin level x 5.

As an action, you can touch a creature and draw power from the pool to restore a number of hit points to that creature, up to the maximum amount remaining in your pool.

Alternatively, you can expend 5 hit points from your pool of healing to cure the target of one disease or neutralize one poison affecting it. You can cure multiple diseases and neutralize multiple poisons with a single use of Lay on Hands, expending hit points separately for each one.

This feature has no effect on undead and constructs.

Fighting Style

Starting at 2nd level, you adopt a particular style of fighting as your specialty. Choose one of the following options. You can't take a Fighting Style option more than once, even if you later get to choose again.

• Blessed Warrior. You learn two cantrips of your choice from the cleric spell list. They count as paladin spells for you, and Charisma is your spellcasting ability for them. Whenever you gain a level in this class, you can replace one of these cantrips with another cantrip from the cleric spell list.

• Blind Fighting. You have blindsight with a range of 10 feet. Within that range, you can effectively see anything that isn't behind total cover, even if you're blinded or in darkness. Moreover, you can see an invisible creature within that range, unless the creature successfully hides from you.

• Defense. While you are wearing armor, you gain a +1 bonus to AC.

• Dueling. When you are wielding a melee weapon in one hand and no other weapons, you gain a +2 bonus to damage rolls with that weapon.

• Great Weapon Fighting. When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.

• Interception. When a creature you can see hits a target, other than you, within 5 feet of you with an attack, you can use your reaction to reduce the damage the target takes by 1d10 + your proficiency bonus (to a minimum of 0 damage). You must be wielding a shield or a simple or martial weapon to use this reaction.

• Protection. When a creature you can see attacks a target other than you that is within 5 feet of you, you can use your reaction to impose disadvantage on the attack roll. You must be wielding a shield.

• Close Quarters Shooter (UA). When making a ranged attack while you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature, you do not have disadvantage on the attack roll. Your ranged attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover against targets within 30 feet of you. You have a +1 bonus to attack rolls on ranged attacks.

• Mariner (UA). As long as you are not wearing heavy armor or using a shield, you have a swimming speed and a climbing speed equal to your normal speed, and you gain a +1 bonus to armor class.

• Thrown Weapon Fighting (UA). You can draw a weapon that has the thrown property as part of the attack you make with the weapon.
  • In addition, when you hit with a ranged attack using a thrown weapon, you gain a +1 bonus to the damage roll.
  • Tunnel Fighter (UA). As a bonus action, you can enter a defensive stance that lasts until the start of your next turn. While in your defensive stance, you can make opportunity attacks without using your reaction, and you can use your reaction to make a melee attack against a creature that moves more than 5 feet while within your reach.
  • Unarmed Fighting (UA). Your unarmed strikes can deal bludgeoning damage equal to 1d6 + your Strength modifier. If you strike with two free hands, the d6 becomes a d8.
    • When you successfully start a grapple, you can deal 1d4 bludgeoning damage to the grappled creature. Until the grapple ends, you can also deal this damage to the creature whenever you hit it with a melee attack.

    Spellcasting

    By 2nd level, you have learned to draw on divine magic through meditation and prayer to cast spells as a cleric does.

    Preparing and Casting Spells

    The Paladin table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your paladin spells. To cast one of your paladin spells of 1st level or higher, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.

    You prepare the list of paladin spells that are available for you to cast, choosing from the paladin spell list. When you do so, choose a number of paladin spells equal to your Charisma modifier + half your paladin level, rounded down (minimum of one spell). The spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots.

    For example, if you are a 5th-level paladin, you have four 1st-level and two 2nd-level spell slots. With a Charisma of 14, your list of prepared spells can include four spells of 1st or 2nd level, in any combination. If you prepare the 1st-level spell Cure Wounds, you can cast it using a 1st-level or a 2nd-level slot. Casting the spell doesn't remove it from your list of prepared spells.

    You can change your list of prepared spells when you finish a long rest. Preparing a new list of paladin spells requires time spent in prayer and meditation: at least 1 minute per spell level for each spell on your list.

    Spellcasting Ability

    Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your paladin spells, since their power derives from the strength of your convictions. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a paladin spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.

    Spell save DC = 8 + your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

    Spell attack modifier = your proficiency bonus + your Charisma modifier

    Spellcasting Focus

    You can use a holy symbol as a spellcasting focus for your paladin spells.

    Divine Smite

    Starting at 2nd level, when you hit a creature with a melee weapon attack, you can expend one spell slot to deal radiant damage to the target, in addition to the weapon's damage. The extra damage is 2d8 for a 1st-level spell slot, plus 1d8 for each spell level higher than 1st, to a maximum of 5d8. The damage increases by 1d8 if the target is an undead or a fiend, to a maximum of 6d8.

    Divine Health

    By 3rd level, the divine magic flowing through you makes you immune to disease.

    Sacred Oath

    When you reach 3rd level, you swear the oath that binds you as a paladin forever. Up to this time you have been in a preparatory stage, committed to the path but not yet sworn to it. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 7th, 15th, and 20th level. Those features include oath spells and the Channel Divinity feature.

    Oath	Source
    Ancients	Player's Handbook
    Conquest	Xanathar's Guide to Everything
    Crown	Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide
    Devotion	Player's Handbook
    Glory	Mythic Odysseys of Theros Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
    Redemption	Xanathar's Guide to Everything
    Vengeance	Player's Handbook
    Watchers	Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
    Oathbreaker	Dungeon Master’s Guide
    Archived Unearthed Arcana
    Treachery	Unearthed Arcana 26 - Paladin
    Redemption	Unearthed Arcana 35 - A Trio of Subclasses
    Watchers	Unearthed Arcana 67 - Subclasses, Part 1
    Heroism	Unearthed Arcana 62 - Bard and Paladin

    Oath Spells

    Each oath has a list of associated spells. You gain access to these spells at the levels specified in the oath description. Once you gain access to an oath spell, you always have it prepared. Oath spells don't count against the number of spells you can prepare each day.

    If you gain an oath spell that doesn't appear on the paladin spell list, the spell is nonetheless a paladin spell for you.

    Channel Divinity

    Your oath allows you to channel divine energy to fuel magical effects. Each Channel Divinity option provided by your oath explains how to use it.

    When you use your Channel Divinity, you choose which option to use. You must then finish a short or long rest to use your Channel Divinity again.

    Some Channel Divinity effects require saving throws. When you use such an effect from this class, the DC equals your paladin spell save DC.

    Harness Divine Power (Optional)

    Also at 3rd level, you can expend a use of your Channel Divinity to fuel your spells. As a bonus action, you touch your holy symbol, utter a prayer, and regain one expended spell slot, the level of which can be no higher than half your proficiency bonus (rounded up). The number of times you can use this feature is based on the level you've reached in this class: 3rd level, once; 7th level, twice; and 15th level, thrice. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

    Ability Score Improvement

    When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.

    Martial Versatility (Optional)

    Whenever you reach a level in this class that grants the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can replace a fighting style you know with another fighting style available to paladins. This replacement represents a shift of focus in your martial practice.

    Extra Attack

    Beginning at 5th level, you can attack twice, instead of once, whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.

    Aura of Protection

    Starting at 6th level, whenever you or a friendly creature within 10 feet of you must make a saving throw, the creature gains a bonus to the saving throw equal to your Charisma modifier (with a minimum bonus of +1). You must be conscious to grant this bonus.

    At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

    Aura of Courage

    Starting at 10th level, you and friendly creatures within 10 feet of you can't be frightened while you are conscious.

    At 18th level, the range of this aura increases to 30 feet.

    Improved Divine Smite

    By 11th level, you are so suffused with righteous might that all your melee weapon strikes carry divine power with them. Whenever you hit a creature with a melee weapon, the creature takes an extra 1d8 radiant damage.

    Cleansing Touch

    Beginning at 14th level, you can use your action to end one spell on yourself or on one willing creature that you touch.

    You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Charisma modifier (a minimum of once). You regain expended uses when you finish a long rest.

    Thread: Most 1st level spell "slots"

    I had a thought, I was wondering what the most "1st level spell slots" a character can get is.

    2 levels in a full caster gives the maximum of 4.
    2 in Warlock gives 2 per short rest.
    2 in Artificer gives the spellwrought tattoo infusion, which is like 1 slot.
    Sorcerer 2 can convert sorcery points into spell slots.

    Magic initiate, strixhaven initiate, artificer initiate, fey touched, shadow touched, aberrant dragonmark, all let you pick a first level spell that you can cast once per rest.

    Other feats, racial traits, and class features are similar, such as Gift of the Dragonborn, which is Cure wounds once per short rest.

    So what are the most first level spells a character can cast?
    Edit: 1: What is the most first level spells,
    2: What is the most first level spells and still be good?
    I could see 2 warlock/2Artificer/16 Sorcerer being. not the worst.
    I guess Artificer 10/11 for the Spellstoring Item gives something like 10 spell slots of one spell.

    Edit: Artificer can take Replicate magic item spellwrought tattoo for every invocation, so they can make up to 6 extra "1st level spells" if they take 6 infusions as spellwrought tattoos.

    Last edited by Khrysaes; 2022-01-08 at 09:43 PM .

    Spoiler: I am the Show

    Spoilers

    Ogre in the Playground Join Date Aug 2016

    Clerics can choose a domain that represents their particular area of focus and grants them additional powers. This can include domains such as Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, and War, among others. Each domain grants the cleric a unique set of abilities that enhance their spellcasting and combat prowess.

    Re: Most 1st level spell "slots"

    With Coffeelock the answer is infinite. Hard to beat that really.

    Spoilers

    Ogre in the Playground Join Date Sep 2015 Location where South is East

    Beyond spellcasting, clerics have the ability to use their Channel Divinity feature. This feature allows them to tap into the divine energy within them to perform supernatural feats. For example, they can use Turn Undead as a Channel Divinity option, or they can use their Channel Divinity to charm or compel creatures. As they level up, clerics also gain the ability to channel their divine power into their weapons, making them more potent in combat. This feature, known as Divine Strike, allows clerics to add additional damage to their weapon attacks, making them formidable warriors on the battlefield. Clerics can also use their divine power to protect themselves and their allies. They have access to spells that can create protective barriers, heal wounds, or even bring characters back from the brink of death. These abilities make clerics valuable members of any adventuring party, as they can keep their fellow party members alive and well. In summary, clerics in Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition have the ability to harness divine power through their faith and connection to their deity. They are versatile spellcasters who can heal, protect, and vanquish enemies with their magical abilities. With their access to powerful domain features and Channel Divinity, clerics are a force to be reckoned with in the world of D&D..

    Reviews for "Divine Guidance: Using Spells to Aid Your Party as a 5e Cleric"

    1. John Doe - 2/5:

    I was really excited to try out the "Harness Divine Power 5e Cleric" supplement, but I found it to be quite underwhelming. The descriptions of the new abilities were lacking in detail, making it difficult to understand how they were meant to be used in the game. Additionally, the mechanics felt unbalanced and overpowered, which took away from the overall gameplay experience. Overall, I was disappointed with this supplement and would not recommend it to others.

    2. Jane Smith - 1/5:

    I had high hopes for the "Harness Divine Power 5e Cleric," but unfortunately, it fell short of my expectations. The content felt rushed and poorly thought out, and it didn't integrate well with the existing rules of the game. The new abilities seemed arbitrary and didn't add anything substantial to the cleric class. I was left feeling frustrated and let down by this supplement, and I would not suggest wasting your time or money on it.

    3. Chris Johnson - 2/5:

    As an avid player of Dungeons and Dragons, I was eager to try out the "Harness Divine Power 5e Cleric" supplement. However, I found it to be quite disappointing. The new abilities introduced were convoluted and poorly explained, making it difficult to understand their purpose or how to properly utilize them in the game. Additionally, the supplement lacked balance and felt overpowered, creating an imbalanced gameplay experience. Overall, I would not recommend this supplement to fellow players as it fails to add anything meaningful to the cleric class.

    4. Emily Thompson - 1/5:

    I was extremely dissatisfied with the "Harness Divine Power 5e Cleric" supplement. The new abilities introduced did not feel cohesive or well thought out and seemed to detract from the overall gameplay experience. The mechanics were confusing and convoluted, making it difficult to properly implement them in the game. I was left feeling frustrated and disappointed, and I would not recommend this supplement to anyone looking to enhance their cleric class gameplay.

    Divine Inspiration: Tips for Roleplaying Your 5e Cleric's Divine Connection