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Clerics are the messengers of the divine in Dungeons & Dragons or, if you so choose, the malevolent. Clerics are a healing and support class, granted powers by deities and charged with spreading their word on the Prime Material Plane. They can grant buffs to their allies and debuffs to their foes.

Related: Dungeons & Dragons: Backstory Ideas For A Cleric

They can also be stout combatants, generally wielding shields and martial weapons such as maces and long swords. They can wear heavier forms of armor and survive to protect and heal their teammates. If you want to make the best cleric possible, here are ways to craft one that is certainly overpowered.

Updated on April 23, 2023, by Jerel Levy: With new source material available and more options than ever before, building an overpowered Cleric in Dungeons & Dragons can be done with even more options. If you want to try that broken cleric build like an Aaracokcra cleric or a grave domain cleric, this guide will help steer you in the right direction. From the perfect species to choose, the right feats to consider, and the subclass to get the job done, we go through how to build an overpowered cleric with even more details and options than ever before.

Best Species For An Overpowered Cleric

A collage showing three different races in D&D.

With Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, choosing which species you want to play is now easier than ever.

Instead of worrying about forced ability score improvements and languages, all species receive a flat increase of three scores increasing by one or one score increasing by two and another by one.

This means when building a powerful cleric, you aren't beholden to a specific species for improvements to skills.

You can easily increase your Wisdom and then Strength or Constitution, followed by whatever dump stat you choose afterward. However, there are still species with abilities that are useful for a cleric.

Species

Bonus

Aarakocra

If you're using old rules, you'll increase both your Dexterity and Wisdom; as the cleric's spellcasting ability, the Wisdom bonus is nice, and the Dexterity will help with your armor class and turn order. The primary appeal to playing an Aarakocra is their inherent access to flight.


By playing an Aarakocra cleric, you can easily maneuver around a battlefield and support any of your allies while staying out of harm's way.

Aasimar

Aasimar are another incredible race that is perfect for playing a cleric. As clerics are often a party’s designated healer, it’s easy for a cleric to quickly burn through their spell slots using the likes of Cure Wounds and Healing Word in addition to their damaging and utility spells.


Thanks to Aasimar’s Healing Hands ability, a cleric gains access to the ability to heal an ally once per long rest without expending any spell slots. You'll also receive a celestial revelation giving you additional radiant damage and flight depending on your revelation choice.

Elf

You can choose whichever subspecies of elf you want; what you're going for is the Trance ability. Gaining the benefits of a long rest in four hours means getting access to your cleric spells by recovering spell slots quicker on what would be considered a short rest for other species.

Orc

Adrenaline Rush allows you to dash as a bonus action and grants temporary hit points equal to your proficiency bonus. Relentless Endurance lets you drop to one hit point when you are reduced to zero but not killed outright.


This type of survivability will allow you to get in and out of whatever situation you need to while boosting yourself with temporary hitpoints and an ability to heal yourself should you get caught or find your health points low. If you get knocked out, but your friends can't get to you, come back with one hit point and heal yourself on your turn, then use your bonus action for dashing out of harm's way and getting extra temporary hit points in the process.

Hobgoblin

While the advantage on saving throws to end or avoid charm on yourself is nice, the hobgoblin has Fey Gift, allowing them to use Help as a bonus action instead of an action. It can be used multiple times, and you gain additional options when using it.


Hospitality allows you and the creature you help to gain temporary hit points equal to 1d6 plus your proficiency bonus. Free temporary hit points multiple times, with an added bonus of your proficiency, can help out in a pinch. Another feature allows you to gain a bonus roll on attack rolls, ability checks, or saving throws if you fail. This is great for keeping you from danger of being charmed or controlled and helping the party by hitting more often.

If you're going to be an Elf, the Shadar-Kai from Monsters of the Multiverse are the best, as they'll grant you Trance but also the ability to teleport up to 30 feet away, and you'll gain resistance to all damage types when you teleport.

There are plenty more viable options, including fairy for flight, firbolg for invisibility, and a number of other species with unique abilities that can benefit you. Feel free to experiment; however, the suggested species will give you the biggest boon.

Best Feats For An Overpowered Cleric

A Halfling, a Kobold, a Kenku and a Half-Elf, all playable species in Dungeons & Dragons

When it comes to feats, a few enhance your cleric abilities and survivability, leaving flexible options for getting out of harm's way or enhancing your abilities.

Feat

Description

Fey Touched

From Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Fey Touched allows a character to cast the Misty Step spell once per long rest without using a spell slot. Misty Step is a stellar and flexible teleportation spell that can be cast as a bonus action.


It can also allow you to easily escape restraints or simply get in some additional movement on your turn. As most clerics are normally incapable of learning this spell, this feat can help make an already strong Cleric all the more useful.

Metamagic Adept

Another feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Metamagic Adept, allows non-sorcerer characters to gain access to sorcery points and meta magic. This feat is any cleric’s dream, as this opens up the option of using the Distant Spell metamagic, doubling the range of one’s spells.


This allows a more fragile Cleric to safely keep one’s allies alive and well from afar. Quickened Spell also turns an action into a bonus action, getting that extra heal off as necessary. If you need to heal more than one friend in a pinch, Twinned Spell will be your best friend, using Cure Wounds on two creatures at once.

Elven Accuracy

If you choose an elf as your species, you can take the racial feat Elven Accuracy found in Xanathar’s Guide to Everything. This feat allows you to add one point to either your Dexterity, Wisdom, Intelligence, or Charisma.


For this build, you’ll want to pick Wisdom. In addition to the welcome stat boost, whenever you can get an advantage on a saving throw in any of the mentioned categories, you can re-roll one of the dice for the chance of getting a higher roll. If you use the old rules, choosing a half-elf to get this feat, and being a cleric, you will automatically get an advantage on Wisdom and Charisma throws.

Healer Feat

Another feat you’ll want to take when you get the chance is the Healer feat. This feat allows you to use a healer’s kit to stabilize a downed ally and get them back on their feet with a single hit point.


Or, if your ally is already up but in need of healing, this feat allows you to use the kit to restore their hit points by a bit. This is a key feat to get as a cleric because while you have healing spells, you only have a limited number of spell slots. If you’re saving your slots or running out, having a healer’s kit and this feat gives you a backup plan for emergencies.

Best Subclasses For An Overpowered Cleric

Cleric casting a light spell via Wizards of the Coast, Dragonborn Cleric of Order by Nikki Dawes, Cleric of the Grave via Wizards of the Coast Human Cleric of Twilight by Shawn Wood
Cleric casting a light spell via Wizards of the Coast, Dragonborn Cleric of Order by Nikki Dawes, Cleric of the Grave via Wizards of the Coast Human Cleric of Twilight by Shawn Wood

While there are a good variety of subclasses for the cleric class now, some of them do well for creating an overpowered cleric. While we have ranked all the cleric subclasses, here are the best ones to try for your overpowered build below.

Subclass

Description

Grave Domain Subclass

When you create a cleric, you get to choose a domain of power. Your role in the party is to keep your teammates alive with healing and buffs. The Grave Domain is hands down the best subclass for an overpowered cleric. The Grave Domain gives you many necrotic-based spells as you level up.


From level one, you can heal people with zero hit points for the maximum amount the healing spell allows. You can single out an enemy, so the next time they take damage, it's doubled. Furthermore, you can cancel critical hits on yourself and your allies, and at level 17, you can heal yourself and your team when an enemy dies.

Peace Domain Subclass

With Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, Clerics have access to one of the most deceptively broken subclasses in all of D&D: the Peace Domain. While this subclass gains access to an additional healing ability in the form of its Balm of Peace, upon reaching level 6, these clerics allow a party to trivialize combat through their Embolding Bond and Protective Bond abilities.


This is because these abilities allow you to create a bond between the various party members, allowing any party members to spend their reaction to teleport to any of their other bonded allies and take a hit for them. This allows a party to always be able to choose which of their party members is taking damage and when. On top of your already incredible utility and support, this combination of abilities can get out of hand quite quickly.

If you aren't feeling the Grave Domain subclass, this overpowered option will surely provide an absurd amount of value for a party.

With more options for adding to your attack damage, gaining resistance to damage at higher levels, and movement without provoking opportunity attacks, the Peace Domain is one of your best options.

Best Items For An Overpowered Cleric

Split image of boots of speed, mace of disruption and dagger of venom magic items in D&D

If you're able to choose items for yourself, make sure you grab those that will benefit you the most. The following items will grant you boons helping with survivability and playing your role in the party, while making your build stronger.

Items

Description

Ioun Stones Of Fortitude And Insight

Ioun Stones are magical gems that float around your head and give you various benefits as long as they are in your possession. They vary in rarity from rare to legendary. The two gems that will benefit your cleric the most are the Stone of Fortitude and the Stone of Insight.


First, the Stone of Fortitude. This pink rhomboid will give you a two-point boost to your Constitution. The Stone of Insight is a blue sphere that will give you two extra points to your Wisdom stat.

Restorative Ointment

This item is a good thing for a cleric to carry around. It not only heals a few hit points but also removes diseases and poisoning. The spell's lesser restoration and greater restoration, as well as a few others, have the power to cure disease and nullify poisons, but that requires preparing them for the day and using a spell slot to cast them.


As a cleric, you are the pillar of your party. Any way that you can conserve slots and spells is vital. The best part is this item is not uncommon, so it won’t be outlandishly expensive and should be simple to find.

Talisman Of Pure Good

As long as you are good, you’ll get a bonus +2 to your spell attacks, and when you target an evil creature, a large fissure opens beneath them. If they cannot get out of the way, they fall in and are instantly killed.


Evil creatures take 8d6 radiant damage if they touch it, so figuring out ways to get their hands on it and having a portal of instant death is always great for your back pocket.

Ring Of Regeneration

This ring will regenerate your health every ten minutes, and if you lose a limb, it will regrow over a few days. Remember, if you go down, the party has little to no healing, so it's important for you to stay alive.

The Ring of Regeneration and all of the other magic items on this list are useful to you, but they all require you to attune to them.

You can only attune to three items at once, but considering that the Talisman of Pure Good is legendary, it’ll be a bit before you get it. So this ring, while very rare, is more obtainable.

Extra Options For Building An Overpowered Cleric

D&D Cleric artwork
Official Cleric art via Wizards of the Coast, Players Handbook

These additional background and multiclass options can help top off your Cleric to become the ultimate Cleric master.

Fighter Multiclass

Fighter Posing With Sword Over Shoulders And Lance With Spear In Off-Hand
Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook by Wizards of the Coast

Surprisingly, one of the most useful multiclass options a Cleric can dip into is the fighter. Not only does this allow you to improve your AC by gaining the Defense fighting style, but upon taking a second level of fighter, you gain access to the action surge ability.

With access to action surge, you can cast two spells on your turn, opening up significant potential for support and damage output.

Background Option: Golgari Swarm or the Orzhov Syndicate

A woman wearing a bunch of steampunk mechanical gadgets, surrounded by lightning.
via Wizards of the Coast

If you're playing a campaign set in the world of Ravnica; you gain access to guild-specific backgrounds. Your Grave Domain cleric will gain the most perks from being a part of either the Golgari Swarm or the Orzhov Syndicate.

Being a part of the Golgari will give you more necromantic spells, but you will end up doubling down on a few. On the other hand, the Orzhov will give you more spells to help you maintain control over the battlefield.

Next: Dungeons & Dragons: Things You Should Avoid When Playing A Cleric