Best Feats for Arcana Cleric 5e
by Prince Phantom
The Arcana domain has the honor of owning the single greatest capstone feature of any subclass in all of 5e. Learning the best spells of 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th level makes up for the lacking selections of the Cleric spell list by leaps and bounds. If you are playing a level 20 one shot or something similar, I cannot recommend this subclass enough. However, this begs the question, how does the subclass perform in a normal campaign?
I’m happy to report that it does quite well actually! We get to borrow some cool stuff from the Wizard, we get a very useful (in most campaigns) channel divinity, an ability that actually makes upcasting Healing Word worth it sometimes, and the usual cantrip buff at level 8. There are a lot of different directions you can go with this domain, from a back line spell slinger to a close combat Booming Blade and Spirit Guardians wielder, so feat selection is pretty fluid with this one, but as with all clerics there are a few standouts that should work with about any build.
Best Feats for Arcana Cleric 5e
War Caster (Lv 4): No matter what direction you go, concentration protection will always be a good idea. Clerics also frequently have their hands full with a shield and a weapon, so this feat becomes basically necessary for those build to cast many of their spells. If you happen to be running a melee Booming Blade build, you can also take advantage of the opportunity attack clause that lets us replace it with a spell, letting you cast Booming Blade and immediately get the secondary damage as your target had to move to trigger the opportunity attack in the first place.
Fey Touched (Lv 4): If you’d like to go for a more spellcasting focused approach, borrowing more from the Wizard list is a great place to start. Misty Step fills the short range teleportation hole in the Cleric list and Silvery Barbs is a great reaction spell for any caster.
Magic Initiate (Lv 4): Your other obvious choice for expanding your spellcasting lacks the raw power of Fey Touched but instead provides great utility with Find Familiar and whatever wizard utility cantrips you had to skip out on when you got some from your subclass. Both options are very good, and you might even want to take both!
Telekinetic (Lv 4): All clerics love this feat because of the ability to pull creatures into Spirit Guardians, dealing the damage twice in one round to an enemy. This combo plus all the other great benefits make Telekinetic an easy choice.
Poisoner (Lv 8): If you’re going for the Booming Blade build, your DM has assured you that not literally every enemy will be immune to poison damage, and your DM has agreed to work with you on brewing your own poisons or harvesting them, this could be a good pick to boost your damage. Yes that is a lot of ifs, but that’s the lot you get with poison damage.
Ritual Caster (Lv 8): Picking Wizard gives you access to basically every ritual in the game when combined with the rituals you already get as a cleric. The only ones you miss out on are Druidic spells like Speak with Animals, so you’re definitely not missing much. Work with your DM to find rituals as you play, and this will become a rewarding mini game for you to work on throughout the campaign.
Resilient Constitution (Lv 12): This plus War Caster will ensure our concentration saves for the rest of the campaign. Try to start out the game with an odd constitution score so this rounds it up to a new modifier.
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