Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Cleric Guide | New 5E Cleric Options

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything adapts the Cleric ever so slightly… And by that, we mean a ton! Cleric is one of the more touched-upon classes in this already incredibly versatile book. Clerics had a few class features that weren’t too useful, and those were fixed. So, just in case you didn’t think Clerics were one of the best classes in the game, this Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Cleric guide will show you the light!

Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Cleric Guide

Clerics gain 4 optional class features and 2 subclasses in this rules supplement to 5E. That’s about on par with Warlocks, another winner of this book! While every class got some options, these guys are something else now!

Optional Cleric Class Features

Optional class features are added to your list of features whenever you reach that level. Your DM must allow an optional class feature before you can add it to your character. You can add one, two, three, four, or zero features.

New Spells

The expanded spell list for clerics is quite limited, but not strictly bad in any way. A lot of the Cleric list adds things from Paladin and divine-focused spells from arcane lists.

• Aura of Vitality
• Spirit Shroud
• Aura of Life
• Aura of Purity
• Summon Celestial
• Sunbeam
• Sunburst
• Power Word Heal

A lot of this is just nice quality of life things, especially for the primary healer. Having Sunbeam and Sunburst is actually good late-game damage options for the Cleric, so that’s actually good. It’ll be cool to see how some of this works with the Healing domain, amongst other things.

Harness Divine Power

At level 2, you can expend a Channel Divinity to restore a spell slot, with a level no higher than half proficiency bonus (rounded up). You can do this a number of times per day equal to your total number of Channel Divinities; once at level 2, twice at level 6, and thrice at level 18. This can not be used when you use a short rest to gain Channel Divinities; Channel Divinity and Harness Divine power are different.

This is fine. You have good buffs at level 1, 2, and 3. Being able to grab spell slots again will be useful, though not as useful as it possibly can be. The hard cap on your level allowance is limiting, but it makes sense. Either get your buffs back or get Healing Word back, for an emergency heal.

Cantrip Versatility

Whenever you gain an Ability Score Improvement, you can also trade one of your Cantrips Known. This is something that all casters gain access to, and most DMs should allow this. Sometimes, players make a mistake or want to change their character’s faith or something. This just makes it written in the rules.

Blessed Strikes

The final ability is at level 8, and is one of the few Variant Classes that strictly replaces a class feature. Instead of Divine Strike or Potent Spellcasting, you can instead deal 1d8 radiant damage to a creature that takes damage from any weapon or cantrip you use. 

This is just a middle-ground for you. Divine Strike deals more damage if you use weapons, Potent Spellcasting is more consistent if you just use Cantrips. You’ll probably only want to do this if you want to have the ability to swap easily between weapons and cantrips at a moment’s notice. Otherwise, sticking to your domain’s ability tends to be better… Although you can argue that this is always better than Potent Spellcasting, until you get 20 Wisdom.

New Subclasses

There are two domains that are brand new and came out with this book, and both are pretty cool! You can learn about all of the new options with our Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Subclasses Guide.

Peace Domain

See Our Peace Cleric Guide

The Peace domain is hilarious; it’s all about fighting! As a support-oriented cantrip, you forge a bond with a number of characters equal to your Proficiency bonus, and that bond is a major source of buffs. This has a permanent guidance effect, can be useful for teleporting tanks in the way of damage, and gives resistance to damage. If that wasn’t enough, you can use Channel Divinity to move freely, and potentially heal your party for 2d6 + Wisdom. That’s not bad! Check it out if you like interesting healers.

Twilight Domain

See Our Twilight Cleric Guide

The Twilight domain is an aggressive Cleric with huge utility as a support. In a dark environment, you are king; you can see perfectly fine in dark and can share the darkness with others. There’s some free temporary hitpoints, easy access to flight while in darkness, and even gain some AC whenever you burn a Channel Divinity. Frankly, not horribly impressive, but a decent utility option for when you want to dungeon crawl.

Wrapping Up Our Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything Cleric Guide

Cleric got a ton of cool stuff, especially to equalize some of their more niche options. Being able to spend Channel Divinity on something as generic as restoring spells neutralizes the situational channel divinities, like Nature. If you’ve been holding out for getting a rules supplement, there is no greater time to do it than for Tasha’s.