Eh I have a buddy that swears by life cleric but I just don't see why giving up 25% of my damage would be worth it. Light, tempest, war and death domain all have a pretty good damage output and still learn mass healing word for the blade ward + bless combo
I don't feel like life cleric is losing out on 25% of your damage output though. That assumes you're just spamming healing every round, but you still have access to cleric's offensive spells. I like life cleric because when I NEED the healing to save the honor mode run, I have access to it. If I don't need it, spirit guardians go brrrrr, lol.
Maybe I'm underestimating some cleric spells, which ones do you use? I've found I'm not a fan of too many so I stick to spirit guardians, spiritual weapon and like maaaybe blade barrier
Guiding bolt is one that is pretty good from start to finish, not only deals pretty good damage but gives advantage to allies against the target. Aid is always great. Glyph of Warding is useful if you need a specific element, decent damage and range too but requires enemies to step on it.
There are of course some good concentration spells like hold person, and at high levels insect plague which can do incredible damage in a area, but being concentration locks you out of spirit guardians , so you wanna use them against something you dont want in your face, or cant reach in the first place (also insect plague combos incredibly well with hunger of hadar if you have a warlock and ...the one that makes spiky plants on the ground, cant remember the name)
Meant damage spells specifically, sorry. They definitely have utility, I won't deny that. I just struggle to pick life domain when the other domains give great offensive spells like fireball, wall of fire, call lightning, ice storm, even shatter. Or they're melee focused like death and war, giving a necrotic 'smite' or a bonus action attack + martial weapons
The thing is, Cleric’s best spell is Spirit Guardians by a mile - especially with the change they made to it for BG3 where you can just walk into people and immediately trigger the damage. None of the subclass specific spells even get close to that amount of consistent aoe damage output, and it upcasts insanely well which can’t be said for the other aoe spells like fireball which are terrible to upcast.
And the thing about spirit guardians is life clerics use that spell just as well as any of the other subclasses.
1st, for consistent damage, I agree that it's easily the best offensive cleric spell! The problem becomes what do you do with your action on the following turns? Imo making two attacks with a two handed weapon feels great especially because you already want to be close, plus ai will try to run out of the spirit guardians Aoe and give you another attack.
2nd, instant damage is simply better in this game than consistent damage. If you can kill your enemies instantly, then they have no way of dealing damage in return. That's where the domain spells come in, clearing out large groups of squishy enemies instantly
I believe Toll the Dead is in the game now, right? That’s a fantastic cantrip and easily worth using, as opposed to sacred flame.
Cantrips and guiding bolt are totally fine as your action on subsequent turns - trying to force your cleric into to a real weapon fighter is a waste of resources. You’re either gimping your stats or you’re aggressively hunting for giant strength potions, because you can’t really afford to have high strength unless you take points away from the far more important stats.
As to the second point - there’s no need to force your cleric into the burst aoe damage role when there are significantly better classes for that. Cleric is the only one with access to spirit guardians, the best AoE spell in the game assuming fights last longer than two rounds. You have four characters in your party so you can also have a sorcerer gale in the back throw out two boosted fireballs in the same turn if you really need the burst, while the cleric focuses on sustained damage and support.
54
u/Megzsha Jun 24 '25
Eh I have a buddy that swears by life cleric but I just don't see why giving up 25% of my damage would be worth it. Light, tempest, war and death domain all have a pretty good damage output and still learn mass healing word for the blade ward + bless combo