Best Feats for Life Cleric 5e
by Prince Phantom
The most cleric-y cleric to ever cleric, the life domain doubles down on the assumed stereotype of “the cleric is the healer”, and does so to its detriment. Healing is bad in 5e, and no party needs a dedicated healer. The most any party should ever need is a couple of people with Healing Word, if even that. The buffs to healing spells that this domain provides do not change this fact in the slightest.
Yes, there is synergy with one level of this domain and the Goodberry spell, but this list is assuming you go 20 levels of life cleric, where that synergy isn’t really available outside of Magic Initiate, and even then we can only cast it once. The only healing ability worth talking about that we get is our channel divinity, and that’s because it expends its own resource, recharges on a short rest, and can potentially provide a ton of healing. Hate that “only up to half max HP” clause though. Feat selection will look pretty similar to a base Cleric, as there aren’t any feats that really synergize with healing, and that’s the only thing this subclass is bringing to the table.
Best Feats for Life Cleric 5e
War Caster (Lv 4): Heavy armor proficiency means that this cleric doesn’t mind being up close and personal, which works nicely with the cleric list’s best spell, Spirit Guardians. This feat is, as always, a must have for any cleric, especially those who want to employ that spell, as concentration protection is the cornerstone of optimized casting. We’re probably not interesting in holding a weapon, but we might find a magic item to hold alongside our shield, making this feat necessary to cast most spells.
Telekinetic (Lv 8): An easy way to increase your damage every round is to pull creatures into your Spirit Guardians with this feat every turn, potentially dealing the spell’s damage to them twice in one round. Mage Hand and a bump to our wisdom is also great.
Ritual Caster (Lv 8): By now you’ve probably noticed that just focusing on healing and modest damage dealing gets old fast, so gaining ritual spells from the wizard list is a great way to have someone else to actually do during the session. Just make sure to work with your DM about gaining more rituals as the campaign progresses.
Resilient Constitution (Lv 12): Just like all clerics, we need to protect our concentration. This plus War Caster will keep that safe, and hopefully you’ll be sure to set yourself with an odd constitution score at character creation so this rolls you over to a new modifier.
Magic Initiate (Lv 12): Again borrowing from the Wizard is a good idea, and the best option is clearly Find Familiar and a few neat utility cantrips. A familiar also gives us more cool things to do outside of combat, which will make you enjoy 5e a lot more than you would if you spent the whole campaign healing your party needlessly.
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