Divine Domain
Comments from the Knuckle: I don’t know about everyone else, but the War Domain has always felt lackluster to me. Mechanically and mathematically, I’m sure it’s sound, but thematically it just never felt like the priest who stands on the front lines with the fighter and the barbarian; for that role, I look to the Tempest Domain.
This rewrite of the War Domain is something I’ve been mulling over for quite some time, but I wasn’t sure how to do it until recently. I knew for a fact that I was going to upgrade their capstone, because how lame is resistance to nonmagical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage after you’ve invested 17 levels of your adventuring career into serving a god of war? I also wanted to make the abilities flow together a little more.
The core War Domain gets War Priest at 1st level, and don’t get me wrong, this is a cool ability, but it never gets better. And it feels like it should, over time. Guided Strike seems wasted since you only have the one attack and you don’t get Sneak Attack or Divine Smite – who cares if you hit, one hit from a War Cleric is not going to change the course of the fight. Yes, you get the upgrade to use it on your allies at 6th level, but even so: you have to survive 4 more levels to apply it to the people who could really use it when they need it.
And on top of that: personally, I don’t like handing out +x’s via class features, so this one went right out in my rewrite, and was replaced by Fury of Battle, which builds on War Priest, as I mentioned earlier. When Guided Strike went, I knew I had to scrap the 6th level feature as well, so I worked with the Finger and one of the DMs from my home games to come up with a feature that encourages you to be on the front lines. No puss-out Archer Clerics here, thanks!
I’m eagerly awaiting your thoughts, feedback, and general criticism. Do you feel like the War Domain is lackluster? Which Domain would you change if you were on the writing team for 5e?
War Domain (Variant)
In every conflict there have been priests who stand on the front lines alongside their lay brethren. They display courage and valor just as much as the next man, and none can doubt their ability to contribute to the fight. War Clerics are often figures that soldiers will turn to for guidance on the tumultuous field of the fray. Offering up their prayers to their deity, begging for protection, they bless their brothers in arms and prepare for the onslaught of the enemy. War deities can include champions of honor and valor (such as Athena or Odin) or gods of senseless violence (such as Ares and Surtur). Still others champion not the virtues of war, but the warriors themselves (such as Bast, Nike, and Tyr).
War Domain Spells
1st divine favor, shield of faith
3rd magic weapon, spiritual weapon
5th crusader’s mantle, haste
7th freedom of movement, stoneskin
9th flamestrike, hold monster
Bonus Proficiencies
At 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor.
War Priest
From 1st level, your god delivers bolts of inspiration to you while you are engaged in battle. When you use the Attack action, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Channel Divinity: Prayer of the Warrior
Starting at 2nd level, you can expend a use of your Channel Divinity feature to spend 1 minute praying to your god, beseeching them to bless your weapon in battle. At the end of your prayers, you gain the benefits of one of the following fighting styles. You retain this fighting style until you complete a long rest.
- Archery. You gain a +2 bonus to attack rolls you make with ranged weapons.
- 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 a 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 result, even if the new result is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
- Two-Weapon Fighting. When you engage in two-weapon fighting, you can add your ability modifier to the damage of the second attack.
Sacramental Retribution
Starting at 6th level, when an ally within 5 feet of you is attacked by a hostile creature that you can see, you can use your reaction to make a single weapon attack against that creature.
Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. 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 of the type dealt by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Avatar of War
Starting at 17th level, you gain resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage.
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Changelog: 7/12/17: Holy Shield was replaced with Ardent Assault.
Fury of Battle was replaced with Prayer of the Warrior.
Ardent Assault was replaced with Extra Attack.
Extra Attack was replaced with Sacramental Retribution.
