Best Feats for War Cleric 5e
by Prince Phantom
The War Domain is a strange case. It promotes weapon use above all else, but doesn’t really give all of the tools necessary for that playstyle. Our War Priest ability doesn’t even work with Booming Blade, as it requires the actual attack action. This leaves us with a cleric that seems to struggle at the one thing it tries to excel at, but that’s where you’d be wrong.
There’s a hidden ability of this domain, tucked away in the expanded spell list: Crusader’s Mantle. This spell is typically paladin exclusive, and since they are half-casters they don’t get it until 9th level and don’t have the best spell to combo with it: Animate Dead. This means the War Cleric serves as an amazing commander-style leader of the troupes, those troupes being the undead! We’ll take feats that empower this playstyle and also make us ourselves good at melee combat, allowing us to lead our army from the frontlines.
Best Feats for War Cleric 5e
War Caster (ASAP): I believe most clerics can afford to wait until level 4 to take their first feat, but not this one. Pick a race that gives you a feat at level 1 and start with this feat as we will be in the thick of things while concentrating on Crusader’s Mantle. I personally plan on holding a two-handed weapon, but if you opt for a one-handed weapon and a shield then you really can’t live without this.
Great Weapon Master (Lv 4): Obviously only take this is you want to be in the thick of things and holding a heavy weapon. We won’t be making weapon attacks all the time, but when we do we can leave a crater where the enemy once stood, and make a bonus action attack from War Priest. We don’t even really have to worry about missing our attack thanks to our channel divinity.
Inspiring Leader (Lv 8): This is more a request for a Charisma-based party member to take this rather than ourself, but if we have to select this then it will still be effective. Giving our skeleton army a big pile of temporary HP at the start of each day will massively increase their durability, and removes the one advantage that zombies have over skeletons. Seriously, always pick skeletons. They have a better chance to hit, deal more damage, can wield weapons including ranged ones, can wear armor, and can even hold and use the odd magic item that you don’t have spare attunement slot for.
Fey Touched (Lv 8): This doesn’t directly improve the army leader style of play, but Misty Step can get us into a better position to keep our army inside the area of Crusader’s Mantle. Silvery Barbs is also great as always, as even if we aren’t very reliant on our enemies failing saves, someone in our party probably is.
Magic Initiate (Lv 8): If you find that Guided Strike isn’t enough to make sure our weapon attacks land, then the advantage provided by a familiar should definitely be enough. I feel like a Bat familiar would be particularly fitting for this character. Booming Blade is also good to have since we can cast it as an opportunity attack with War Caster, and it will deal more damage than a normal attack if we’ve run out of War Priest uses.
Resilient Constitution (Lv 12): There’s no better way to ensure your concentration on Crusader’s Mantle than this plus War Caster. Make sure to set your constitution to an odd number so this rounds you up to a new modifier.
Thank you for visiting!
If you’d like to support this ongoing project, you can do so by buying my books, getting some sweet C&C merch, or joining my Patreon.
The text on this page is Open Game Content, and is licensed for public use under the terms of the Open Game License v1.0a.
‘d20 System’ and the ‘d20 System’ logo are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast, Inc.
and are used according to the terms of the d20 System License version 6.0.
A copy of this License can be found at www.wizards.com/d20.
