Trickery Cleric 5E Guide | Rules, Tips, Builds, and More

The 5th Edition of D&D has one more ace up its sleeve with the Trickery domain. Worshipping gods of deception and thievery, Trickery clerics are Robin Hoods with spell slots. No matter the alignment or other motives, their goal is to coerce, convince, and connive against their enemies. This makes them rather fun allies to roleplay with, and frustrating to fight against. So let’s dive into our Trickery Cleric 5E Guide to see if this domain is good… Or merely an illusion.

Joke’s on You: Trickery Cleric 5E

The Trickery Cleric is a rather lopsided domain. On the one hand, it absolutely oozes flavor with its abilities, and the spell list is quite strong for a Cleric. On the other hand, the domain powers it gets are lackluster at best. It gets your standard array of illusions and abilities that are interesting, but rarely incredibly strong.

Trickery Domain Spells

As mentioned above, the spell list is the big reason why you might want to choose Trickery over another domain. Borrowing a lot of wizard spells, the Trickery Cleric is a really disruptive force on the battlefield.

These spells are super strong, so we can go into them almost individually. At level 1, you get options for primarily social situations. Neither of these have immense power, but Charm Person can make up for a flubbed Persuasion roll, which is nice. Disguise Self kicks off a lot of shenanigans in campaigns, so use it with some creativity. You never know what your GM will let you get away with!

Mirror Image is arguably the best defensive spell in the game, with such a high chance of flat-out missing. This doesn’t work against characters who can see through illusions, however, so keep that in mind! Speaking of missing, Blink gives you a hard 50% chance to be missed between turns. Usually this is a neutral effect, but you probably don’t have to worry about a party member missing you. You’re a Cleric, after all, so you have all the healing and buffs you’ll need.

Pass without Trace is essential for parties with loud, heavily armored characters who have never succeeded a Stealth check in their lives. You’ll be surprised at how effective this can make your party at getting Surprise Rounds. Dispel Magic and Polymorph are swiss-army-knife spells that can save party members, stop villains, and solve puzzles with ease. Solving puzzles also tends to be easier when you can teleport; Dimension Door handles that nicely.

Dominate Person can be a fight ender, and Modify Memory is situational but can be a nice way to negate a threat peacefully. This spell list is not only strong, but lets the Cleric creatively use out-of-class magic. A great start to the domain!

Blessing of the Trickster

The first ability of the domain is good, don’t get me wrong… But not great.

…at 1st level, you can use your action to touch a willing creature other than yourself to give it advantage on Dexterity (Stealth) checks. This blessing lasts for 1 hour or until you use this feature again

Giving someone advantage on anything is important, and Stealth is one of the most used skills. Not being able to use it on yourself is somewhat of a downer, but it’s a functionally permanent increase in the skill. It has no limit, lasts a long time, and gives such a big bonus. Pair this blessing with someone in heavy armor, or who benefits a lot from stealth, and they’ll be thankful. Otherwise… You’ll not find much use out of this blessing.

Channel Divinity: Invoke Duplicity

Channeling Divinity can often be a lifesaver for a few domains, giving them versatility or a burst of damage. At level 2, you can channel to summon a duplicate of yourself.

As an action, you create a perfect illusion of yourself that lasts for 1 minute, or until you lose your concentration (as if you were concentrating on a spell). The illusion appears in an unoccupied space that you can see within 30 feet of you. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move the illusion up to 30 feet to a space you can see, but it must remain within 120 feet of you.

Right off the bat, this isn’t an awful ability. It’s a restricted version of Minor Illusion that is easier to control. Unfortunate that it takes up your Concentration, but considering that it’s an illusion that makes scouting down hallways quite easy, checking for ambushes and such, it has utility.

But, that’s not even close to all it does.

For the duration, you can cast spells as though you were in the illusion’s space, but you must use your own senses. Additionally, when both you and your illusion are within 5 feet of a creature that can see the illusion, you have advantage on attack rolls against that creature, given how distracting the illusion is to the target.

Okay, now we’re getting somewhere. A lot of Cleric spells require touch attacks, so this illusion can do the dirty work of walking to an ally for you. That does take up a bonus action, but saving Move Actions is important. You can also angle spells around corners much easier, as long as you have a way of seeing your targets, like small holes or divination spells. You can also do crazy creative things, like giving the illusion Mirror Images and moving them close to you. That means you can almost get an additional mirror image that less intelligent enemies might not workaround.

The advantage benefit is somewhat fringe. It requires you to be with your illusion in melee, while you’re using Concentration, and Clerics only have a few attack roll spells that really hit hard. Obviously, any way to get attack roll increases is worthy of consideration, and you can still get benefits with Finesse Weapons that keep your AC high without heavy armor. Consider a melee build to get some benefits out of this ability.

All in all, a really solid support ability that finally allows a Cleric to be in two places at once.

Channel Divinity: Cloak of Shadows

Any level 6 ability that starts with “Channel Divinity” normally isn’t a huge benefit for the Cleric, since it means that they don’t get as many permanent buffs. This is no exception.

Starting at 6th level, you can use your Channel Divinity to vanish. As an action, you become invisible until the end of your next turn. You become visible if you attack or cast a spell.

Straight, simple, and to the point. Also not great. Going invisible is a strong status with very few countermoves. This is a rather potent defensive ability that lets you move into a more favorable position without being seen.

However, there are two problems. One, it lasts basically two rounds. That’s not very long. Even the spell Invisibility lasts up to an hour, or until the person attacks. This is less powerful than a level 2 spell in duration, and can’t realistically be used outside of combat because of it. This is little more than a quick jaunt. 

Two, you cannot attack or cast without revealing yourself. That means that your short, two-turn duration is super easily interrupted with any spell. This further limits what you’re allowed to do with this ability. No effective sneak attacks, no really impressive bombs. If you want advantage on attack rolls, then Invoke Duplicity gives you that for a minute. I would only consider using this ability in emergencies. Invoke Duplicity is more powerful, more useful in combat, and also much more fun.

Divine Strike

Like many domains, Trickery gets a damage boost at level 8 involving using weapons. The Trickery domain actually has one of the worst versions of Divine Strike.

At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with poison—a gift from your deity. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 poison damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

This is dripping with flavor, quite literally. But it kinda stinks.

In the default Monster Manual, poison damage is by far the most resisted of all damage types. And no creatures are weak to it. So the Trickster’s Divine Strike becomes somewhat negligible in some later combats, where creatures are more likely to resist it.

Still, thanks to buffs to stealth, easy ways to get advantage with Invoke Duplicity, and a likelihood of high Dexterity, the Trickery Cleric can make great use of this. While the damage may be resisted, it is still a boost to weapon damage, making weapons outscale cantrips. You’ll want to stab or shoot enemies as much as possible. Make use of the advantage from stealth and Invoke Duplicity, and Divine Strike becomes consistent and threatening to Humanoids and other non-resistant creatures.

As a side-note, this is one of the few Divine Strikes with differing flavor; your deity gifts you poison, rather than you just infusing your strikes with divine energy. That’s really cool! Too bad creatures in 5e aren’t weak to deadly substances.

See Also: Flanking 5E Guide

Improved Duplicity

The final ability of the Trickery Domain focuses on Channel Divinity. Normally I’d be a little bit upset that the Trickery Domain gets so few permanent buffs, or better spell efficiency, but this… This is special.

At 17th level, you can create up to four duplicates of yourself, instead of one, when you use Invoke Duplicity. As a bonus action on your turn, you can move any number of them up to 30 feet, to a maximum range of 120 feet.

There’s now five of you.

This is rather niche, but potent. Four is a lot. It usually means every party member, yourself included, can have a cleric nearby. Or you can give the Advantage bonus to yourself and leave three copies to confuse other enemies. Some GMs will be interested in your creativity, potentially letting you have advantage with your clones against multiple enemies. This’d only be good for touch spells, of course, but it would be cool.

Strictly speaking, the only listed upside is that you now can have spells originate from four other points. This is still quite important, since it’s easier to have clerics within 120 ft to cast touch spells, instead of having to use Move Actions to move an impossible 120 ft. That’s really solid, but not quite powerful enough. Really use these illusions to bamboozle your foes, and see if your GM agrees with giving them the advantage bonus if there are two nearby. I’d say your enemy would be distracted enough!

Best Race for Trickery Clerics

The Trickery Domain has actually no reliance on Wisdom through class features. You are a caster, obviously, so it’s smart to build with Wisdom in mind. However, Trickery Clerics should really consider boosting their Dexterity – or Strength, though that’s less potent – to utilize Divine Strike. We also suggest using a background to get Stealth or Thievery, for flavor’s sake.

Ghostwise Halfling

Halflings have always been decent casters, but were missing some oomph in their original release. Introduced in the Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, the Ghostwise Halfling gets boons to Dexterity and Wisdom. If that wasn’t enough, they also get telepathy, which is useful for parties in stealth or invisible. Since this subclass supports dexterity builds, there’s no fearing the “heavy” weapon quality. Use Finesse weapons or a lighter ranged option to deliver Divine Strike, and use that Stealth wisely. Besides, halflings are the traditional trickster!

Wood Elf

Want something a little more traditional? The Wood variant of elves get access to Shortswords, which gives the Cleric a better Finesse option. The movement speed isn’t super important, thanks to Invoke Duplicity, but walking faster will never be bad. Mask of the Wild gives another boon for hiding and sneaking, great for the flavor of trickery.

Race Notes: Everyone’s a Clown

This is easily one of the most flexible domains available for clerics. With no real focus on Wisdom, the only thing the Trickery cleric needs to worry about are saves. Focus on Wisdom, of course, but feel free to really experiment with races. No race currently gives negatives to Wisdom, so… Explore. Bugbear Tricksters using Invoke Duplicity could be seen as really intimidating; Warforged Tricksters can almost be the start of a robot army.

Trickery Domain Cleric Gods

Trickster gods can be found in every single pantheon. They can range from good at heart to vicious and cruel. Trickery Clerics should always follow a Chaotic god, of some kind. Their focus should be on gods who use underhanded tactics and strange ideas to impose their will on the world.

The following are examples of some gods that follow this general trend. These are not gods that you need to follow if you are in these campaign settings, but are pretty safe choices! Hopefully, these will give you inspiration on what gods your cleric should select.

Beshaba (Forgotten Realms)

A man stubs his toe on the way to his date. A black cat, crawling under a ladder, causes an accident that hospitalizes a worker. A soldier trips during a fight and loses his life. An orphanage collapses as a single nail falls out of place. This is likely the cause of one deity in this world. The Maid of Misfortune. Lady Doom. Beshaba, Goddess of Misfortune.

Beshaba is the goddess of misfortune and random luck. She calls for worshippers to defend the world from complete and utter misery and bad luck. She is a maiden of curses, and will often force those who cross her to suffer from the worst luck imaginable. Her hand is felt every day, and many will acknowledge her presence when a horrible accident occurs.

Worshippers of Beshaba are rarely chosen. They often fall into horrific luck and turn to worshiping this Chaotic Evil deity in order to fight the bad luck off. Beshaba hoards her power, and thus there are only a select few Clerics and Paladins that work under her horrifying influence. Nonetheless, those who do worship her will not necessarily experience good luck, but will instead watch as their enemies essentially defeat themselves.

Trickery Clerics of Beshaba use their talents in an exceptionally greedy manner. Their magic can cause accidents and misfortunes upon those who believe their lives are perfect. Against those who get in their way, they tend to find underhanded options to completely eliminate them. They are masters of escaping justice.

While Trickery is not necessarily an evil archetype, Beshaba is a perfect example of the chaotic, mischief-focused background that Trickery asks for. Consider this type of deity if you can work with Chaotic Evil.

Garl Glittergold (Forgotten Realms)

The Glitterbrights march in an unstoppable column. They march for the Father of All Gnomes. The Sparkling Wit watches over them as they defend those who are less fortunate, protect those who can’t protect themselves. The Priceless Gem is the epitome of what every single gnome should look up to. And that includes the curiosity and mischief that every gnome should appreciate.

Garl Glittergold is unique among Trickery Deities in that he is Lawful Good. His trickery should be used almost exclusively as a method of bringing smiles or searching for new solutions. One of his more famous stories is how his jokes made him enemies of almost all creatures in the Underdark. Because of this, Gnomes are naturally jovial and kind.

Worshipers of Garl are typically gnomes. However, even non-gnomes can appreciate his tendencies to defend the innocent and keep everyone safe. The important part of Garl is that his worshipers should be happy and healthy at all times. Protecting other is all well-and-good, but a worshiper suffering from depression or health conditions will bring down the mood of others.

Trickery Clerics of Garl use their trickery magic to make others happy. Invoke Duplicity can help an old lady cross the street while the Cleric themself makes a funny face for a kid. A good illusion can distract a man who is bleeding from the leg. These little tricks and traps make the Trickery domain unique among clerics; few others can bring as much joy as a Trickery cleric can.

Gods that spread joy and happiness make for fantastic Trickery domain deities. They are also a great excuse to be Lawful Good, instead of the Chaotic nature that most Trickery deities would have.

Loki (Norse)

Few are they who do not know the name of Loki. The adopted son of Odin seems to live in a constant state of disappointing his father, and his power is nearly unmatched in the entire pantheon. His eccentric and exceptional personality has led him to being jailed a large number of times. But, his escape is all but guaranteed every time. For how can one lock away a creature with infinite faces? Infinite influence?

Loki is the Norse God of tricksters, and has historically gotten into many difficult situations. His wit and guile has allowed him to escape from all of them, but his intelligence cannot be understated. He is able to transform into many different objects, and uses that to enter places where he never should be. He aids the other gods, but only when it works in his favor.

Worshipers of Loki understand his cunning guile and look up to it. They often trick others under the guise of levity, but will always find a way to get money or power. Their fingers are often on the pulse of communities, and their influence can be felt across every corner of the planet. Loki accepts any magic, even things like Animate Dead which would be unthinkable for most other gods.

As a Trickery Domain Cleric of Loki, your goals should be augmenting your own intelligence with magic. You always have a plan, and use the Trickery Domain to further it. Clerics who work with Loki under this flag are crucial to his plans, as they have the ability to be in many places at once. This can work well for escape plans and distractions alike. Gods of wit and intelligence like Loki make excellent patrons for the Trickery Domain. Just ensure that your party will be able to deal with your antics.

Olidammara (Greyhawk)

The ring of music, the clinking of mugs, a gorgeous song. The temples of Olidammara can often be mistaken for a pub. But this is all a guise to the true reason these temples are so popular; they’re fun. Olidammara’s blessing grants his followers the ability to enjoy life, enjoy worship, and live without a care in the world. He torments those who take themselves too seriously, for the fun of making a joke.

Olidammara is a being of pure chaos. He adores art and music, and encourages his followers to find what they like and stick to it. While he loves those who worship him to find their artistry, he prefers joy over careers. He is worshiped by thieves with good hearts, even though the god himself only likes the challenge of stomping on the boots of the wealthy or orderly.

Worshipers of Olidammara are revelers and partiers. They relish his wisdom for life, and will do what they can to see themselves – and their community, to a lesser extent – happy. Their other duty is to ensure that chaos is remembered in all communities. His clerics are not organized, but where they are, they bring a bit of levity to otherwise serious lives.

Trickery clerics of Oldiammara are his soldiers on the frontlines against Law. They are responsible for ensuring that everyone knows his name. They bring an insatiable appetite for parties and mischief into any group that they join. And they should never keep an agreement, as long as they can find profit or happiness from switching sides. Olidammara is not malicious in his chaos. He’s just chaotic! He’s a perfect god for a Chaotic Neutral Trickery Cleric, and a god like him is a great choice.

The Traveler (Eberron)

What is there to say about the Sovereign of Chaos and Change? The being is like the ocean; never still, never the same from one look to another. It presides over change and differences, purely interested in altering events. Pinning down what it is would be like trying to pin down a river. For that is the whim of the Traveler, the being of many faces.

The Traveler is the Giver of Gifts. It is the most mysterious of all gods, but seems most invested in those intelligent enough to fend for themselves. It occasionally gives gifts to those that it meets, but the gifts always come at a price, and are seen as a curse. It is not known how much the Traveler has done for the world. It could have created everything, for all its Clerics know.

Worshipers must always be prepared for change. They are constantly ensuring that change is in their favor, and that they are always one-upping their opponents. Their true selves should always be mired in darkness, always disguised and manipulated to the situation. Chaos is needed for the world to exist. And they should always have their eye on their own future.

Trickery Clerics of the Traveler are seen as its own personal messengers. They are never truthful about who they are, and appear and disappear as easily as the wind. They are always ready for things to change, and are quick-witted to think of new solutions to an issue. They are big planners, though, and will always know what tools they have access to and how they can apply to a new problem. Gods of mystery and deceit are perfect for the Trickery domain. See if the pantheon of choice has gods like the Traveler.

Tymora (Forgotten Realms)

As the gambler sits down across the table, a holy symbol falls in front of his chest. The rest of the table mutters, eying the face-up coin across his chest. “Oy,” says the head of the table, “Cleric of Lady Luck, are ya?” The gambler simply nods and gestures to get a hand. The rest of the table groans, as they know it is not going to be a profitable night. This man was chosen by Tymora, goddess of fortune. And he will play to win.

Tymora is the goddess of risk, victory, and even skill. She is a patron saint of gambling and game playing, but with the understanding that the victor will always be worthy. Fortune favors the bold, and thus those who follow the goddess are willing to take a chance with any situation.

Worshipers of Tymora are adventurers who require a bit of luck to make the distance. Her clerics believe in boldness and luck as a force of good. They have insane self-confidence and will often take risks in order to make the world a better place. They aid those who help themselves, as daring people are exactly who Tymora watches over. Ventures of merchants and artisans often are blessed by Tymora’s whim, and Tymoran temples are often exceptionally rich.

Trickery Clerics of Tymora use their magic to take risks. They adventure to aid the daring and to prove themselves in the church. Also, they use their skills to take command of situations and ensure victory for their allies. They often seek wealth where adventure would bring them. These clerics should be skilled, but also ready to defend themselves. Tymora is a goddess of luck and skill, which is another good option for the Trickery domain.

Best Feats for Trickery Clerics

Trickery Clerics should focus on using a ranged or melee weapon in combat. They can use their tricks to trick enemies into moving away or towards themselves. This makes them pretty versatile, and your choice of feat matters quite a bit.

That being said, feats are sometimes not worth losing your Ability Score Improvement. Try to get your Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, or Wisdom to 20, so you have a good baseline for your dice rolls.

Fey Touched

Fey Touched is an incredibly powerful feat for Clerics. To start, you gain +1 Wisdom. That’s good! That means you’re basically only losing half of your Ability Score Improvement.

The secondary benefits are stellar. Misty Step is added to your spell list, and you can cast it once per day for free. Cleric’s second level spells are fine, but Misty Step is on a whole ‘nother level! A 30 foot teleport as a bonus action can clear you out of danger, or put you right on the front lines. You can use it to solve puzzles by teleporting through metal bars, or use it to escape a socially awkward situation. 

The other benefit is a bit less impactful. You get a 1st level divination or enchantment spell. Your options are far from terrible; Command, Compelled Duel, and Silvery Barbs come to mind. We suggest taking Silvery Barbs, as you will often be able to use it to disrupt attacks. A great option to always have ready!

Gift of the Chromatic Dragon

This feat is a fun one from Fizban’s Treasury of Dragons. As a bonus action, you can buff a weapon with 1d4 damage of any elemental type. 1d4 isn’t too much, but it can come in handy, and it’s basically free! The buff lasts a minute, too. As you level up, your Fighter or Monk can make more and more use of this. And you won’t be too bad with it, either! One attack per turn buffed is still solid!

The other benefit is great, as well! As a reaction, you can get resistance to elemental damage. This is a bit more situational, but being able to block half of a Fireball’s damage as a reaction can easily save your life. Unfortunately, you can’t give this buff to other people… But, you staying alive is very important! Use this to keep afloat and then heal your party.

Heavily Armored

The Trickery Domain does not start with Heavy Armor proficiency. That’s no good! You can solve this issue with this feat!

To start, it will boost your Strength or Constitution by +1. Depending on your build, you might want Strength. But, Constitution is always going to be critical. You’ll never have to worry about missing the Ability Score improvement here!

The best part of this ability, though, is getting Heavy Armor access. No matter what your build is, Full Plate is king of AC. 18 AC is very hard to get to without magic. And Clerics can benefit quite a bit from Full Plate. This is a must-get if you plan on going for a Strength build!

Lucky

This feat is generally good, but it’s good and thematic on a Trickery Cleric! The Lucky Feat gives you a pool of dice. 3, specifically. 3 times per day, you may reroll one of your attack rolls, saving throws, or skill checks. Alternatively, you can reroll an enemy’s attack roll.

This feat is powerful. It is specifically not advantage or disadvantage. If you rolled a 2 and a 4 on an advantage attack roll, you can still use Lucky to go for a reasonable roll. Or, getting decked by a rogue? This’ll give you another chance to avoid getting the sneak attack.

This feat isn’t necessarily optimal. Make sure you get some good attack roll spells. Otherwise… This is a perfectly reasonable defensive feat. Keep the cleric alive!

Resilient

You may choose 1 Attribute. It improves by 1, and you become proficient in the saving throw. Simple!

This feat replaces 1 ability score improvement with Saving throw proficiency. This is good with specifically Constitution, as Clerics do not get Constitution saving throws natively. This will improve your Concentration saves, and saves against dangerous poisons. You’re basically trading off a little bit of health for the strongest save in the game! That’s a pretty worthwhile decision.

Shadow Touched

Shadow Touched is like a slightly worse Fey Touched. You get the +1 Wisdom, which is always good. Improving your casting stat is essential.

But, what about the other +1 to an ability score?

You instead learn Invisibility, and gain 1 free cast of it. Hilariously, Trickery Clerics never learn the spell Invisibility. This will let you use a slightly more flexible version of Cloak of Shadows. Invisibility is a great offensive and defensive option. Use it often, but remember to use it when attacks can wait.

The other 1st level spell that you learn has to be in the Necromancy or Illusion schools. These are… not great, admittedly. You can get spells like False Life or Silent Image, which are fine. They’re all fairly situational, but you can get some extra utility for your Cleric. That’s always worthwhile.

We like Fey Touched a little more, but Shadow Touched is great if you need a party scout or just want that edge in the first round of combat.

War Caster

War Caster is a pretty great feat! It starts with advantage on Concentration saving throws. Being able to roll twice when you get punched in the face is great. Clerics have a ton of good buff spells, so making sure you can keep them up will always be handy. We don’t put much stock into the weapon and shield portion, but it’s undoubtedly handy if your DM forces you to drop your weapon to cast spells.

Finally, you may make opportunity attacks with a spell. This is hilarious. Have you ever had an enemy leave your threaten square, and you just smack them in the back for 1d6+4? Now, you can banish them. This is a great way to make sure enemies don’t actually get away from you, as well as cheat out an extra spell every turn… Provided enemies want to escape from you.

Multiclassing for Trickery Clerics

Trickery Clerics benefit a bit from getting additional weapon training. Martial classes tend to be alright choices for Clerics in general. These are our three choices.

Fighter

Get Fighter to level 2. At level 1, Fighters give you a Fighting Style – which can either improve your weapon’s damage or keep you alive – and Second Wind, which can save you in a pinch. At level 2, you get Action Surge. Action Surge lets you get an extra spell or attack in a turn. This is an insane option for Clerics! Being able to cast 2 spells is nuts! You could keep going, but there’s no real reason to. If you get to level 3, getting levels in Battle Master or Eldritch Knight can continue to improve your utility.

Ranger

We recommend taking the Optional Class Features for Ranger. These features make them more useful in combat. The Ranger is a fairly “whatever” option for a ranged Cleric. At level 2, the Ranger gives you some additional damage on specific targets (with the optional rule), some extra utility, and a Fighting Style. The Fighting Style should be Archery, since that gives a massive +2 to your attack rolls. Alternatively, Two-Weapon Fighting isn’t abysmal, but isn’t fantastic either.

The Ranger’s spell list makes it a viable option compared to Fighter. There are some good lockdown spells on this list, though they require the Cleric to land weapon attacks to make good use of them. Action Surge is probably still better, but don’t count the Ranger out! Getting beyond level 2 is not recommended. The Ranger’s archetypes do not have any major upsides compared to more Cleric levels.

Rogue

Rogue is a very funny choice. They don’t offer too much for the Trickery Cleric from a combat point of view… But they do from a flavor perspective. Sneak Attack is fine for a Cleric, boosting your once-per-round weapon attacks by a bit. Expertise will make you significantly better outside of combat. Cunning Action at level 2 is acceptable, as a bonus action Dash will often come in handy.

At level 3, the Rogue can get some spell slots back with the Arcane Trickster archetype, allowing you to cast Wizard Spells from your Invoke Duplicity. That’s fun, but more important is the 2d6 Sneak Attack. Funny, but probably not worth it compared to Fighter.

How to Play a Trickery Cleric

The Trickery cleric is a very, very weird class to handle. Here are some tips to help you put your head straight.

Out of Combat

• Remember your domain spells. Charm Person, Disguise Self, Pass Without Trace, Dispel Magic, Dimension Door, Polymorph, Dominate Person, Modify Memory. These spells have mixed uses inside of a fight… But they are so useful outside of them! Try to find times to use these weird but potent domain spells while exploring.
• Always use Blessing of the Trickster outside of fights. Blessing of the Trickster lasts for an hour. And it spends no resources. Make sure this buff stays on an ally! Rogues and Familiars benefit quite a lot from this. Use this to keep your scouts safe.
• Invoke Duplicity can work outside of fights. Invoke Duplicity can work as a problem solving mechanic. You can send a version of yourself to distract a guard while your party sneaks away. Or, you can send a version of yourself that you can see from. These illusions are completely expendable, making them handy for checking on rooms. Get creative with this thing, and it’ll be a potent ally.

In Combat

• Invoke Duplicity in fights. In fights, the advantage on attack rolls cannot be understated. Using Invoke Duplicity basically to get advantage is a viable strategy. As is using it to deliver high damage touch spells to dangerous targets. This is a great tool for safety and aggression.
• Cloak of Shadows is very strong. Being able to blink out of existence for a turn is potent. However, it has to share a resource with Invoke Duplicity. Duplicity is another way to get advantage on attacks, but Cloak of Shadows can keep you safe. Ration out your Channel Divinity charges wisely!

Divine Strike should be a focus of your build. Your cantrips will not do as much damage as your weapon attacks once you get Divine Strike. Try to keep either your Strength or Dexterity high enough to land these attack rolls. Invoke Duplicity and Cloak of Shadows can help out here!

Trickery Cleric FAQ

This section offers you all of the answers to your Trickery Cleric questions.

Can a Trickery Domain Cleric Heal?

LIke any cleric, The Trickery Domain is a strong healer. This is due to the full range of healing spells available through the cleric spell list. While it is a capable healer, it does not have the same subclass benefits related to healing that you get with the Peace Cleric.

How Often Can I Use Blessing of the Trickster?

As a Trickery Cleric, you have unlimited use of Blessing of the Trickster. However, you can only give this blessing to one character at a time. It lasts for one hour, or until you give Blessing of the Trickster again. In that way, Blessing of the Trickster is unlimited.

Conclusion – Our Take on the Trickery Domain

The Trickery domain is one of the most interesting and unique ones that clerics have. With a god-tier spell list, some potent defensive abilities, and a creative mind, you could spin this into a flexible combative spirit with out-of-combat utility. However, creativity is required. Read as written, this domain has quite lackluster abilities, some situational spells, and a lot of reliance on Channel Divinity for little reward. This subclass has quite a lot of potential, but only for those with japes in their hearts. Give it a try, because it’s a lot of fun. Want to see your other Cleric options or how to optimize your character in general? Check out our Comprehensive Cleric 5E Guide!