Order Domain Cleric 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Do you have the desire to have a strictly organized closet by color, shape, and purpose? Have your friends called you a “rules lawyer” before? Want perfect control over events in your life? Order Domain may be just right for you. It adds an extra layer of power to buff effects that otherwise can feel lackluster to use in combat which makes this option feel excellent to play with.

Order Domain is the “lawful-est” of all the domains with the strict goal of maintaining structure and purpose. Mechanically, this shines through by presenting you as a vocal, charismatic leader who takes command of the environment and demands specific actions be taken. It’s a controller cleric domain that sets you up to function to flourish in the front lines of combat leading your troops into battle while turning the enemy troops on each other.

1st Level: Domain Spells, Bonus Proficiencies, Voice of Authority

Command and Heroism start off the domain spells. Both thematically match the leader-type role the archetype is aiming to present; Heroism is a nifty tool against low-tier frightening effects while padding out a few hit points on an ally. It isn’t revolutionary, nor something I want in most encounters, but a fine domain option. Command is a blast to play with, but definitely varies in utility by table, caster, and interpretation. The base commands are all fine at least, and it is cheap enough that you can rely on it being a decent utility option for an inexpensive cost in the mid to upper tiers.
Bonus Proficiencies open up heavy armor and a charisma skill to you. These line Order Domain clerics to take the frontline out the gate, and ask them to care at least a bit about Charisma. If you want to be the full face of the party you’ll probably want at least a 14 in Charisma, which is a tall order when Wisdom and Constitution are both massively important skills with Strength being also critical for getting a higher AC, but with some concessions, you can go in a variety of directions thanks to these bonus proficiencies. A lower AC backline leader leveraging Charisma works, as does a less Charismatic front line bulwark mainly leaning on their Con, Wis, and Str.
Voice of Authority defines this archetype as the “leader”. On every spell of 1st level or higher, you cast that targets an ally, you can grant an ally a free reaction attack, which has a ton of interesting potential and applications that make otherwise lackluster effects like Heroism a LOT better, and cheap bonus action effects like Healing Word also double as free attack actions for your allies. Shield of Faith fits the bill as well; a bonus action for +2 AC is fine. Adding onto that a free attack makes it hyper-action efficient alongside a cantrip cast or weapon attack of your own in the early game.
This feature is begging to be multi-classed with characters with Extra Attack; getting two attacks of your own on top of giving an ally a free attack every round stacks up damage fast, and will bring the supportive fighter character to life.
You’ll even have windows where a 1st level bonus action spell cast for a free attack is just worth it. Action-based effects that are a buff or heal can pair beautifully with Spiritual Weapon in the early tiers; you give your paladin or rogue an extra attack and strike with your bonus action, all while also giving some hit points or protection to an ally. Normally, that buff isn’t good enough to justify the cost; when it comes with a free attack, especially early in the game, its gas.

2nd Level: Order’s Demand

Order’s Demand acts as an area of effect selective disarm and charm for a full turn. That may not sound like a long time, but when it’s paired with a disarm and is selective, once again, this is really efficient. With heavy armor proficiencies and a desire to be close to the frontline to have more flexibility in getting off Voice of Authority attacks, you’ll often find yourself surrounded by threatening enemies. Turning off most of their attacks for an entire round is great, especially given you can start scooping up their weapons to make a lot of them far less threatening. It isn’t going to be great in every encounter, but in some, it’ll save your life.

3rd Level: 2nd Level Domain Spells

Hold Person and Zone of Truth are the 2nd level Domain Spells you get.

I adore Zone of Truth as an information gathering tool and an incredibly fun roleplay opportunity, even though it isn’t all that productive.
Hold Person, on the other hand, is a fantastic low-tier save or die that can debilitate a humanoid and pairs beautifully with Voice of Authority. Paralyzing a target for more than a round usually results in its death anyway, but just in case you need an extra attack, toss out a healing word for one more free crit from your rouge the round after casting alongside your attack!

5th Level: 3rd Level Domain Spells

Mass Healing Word I often will advocate for being the main, and only, mid-tier healing spell you take. Getting it auto-prepared is nice. It also happens to work great with Voice of Authority, making that much better on Order Domain clerics specifically.
Slow is a spell I’m a lot less excited for; it can be a reasonable disabling effect, but doesn’t compare well against a lot of your other options. It can be fine, but its opportunities to do little to nothing, even on a successful cast, turn me off to it.

6th Level: Embodiment of the Law

Embodiment of the Law follows the trend Voice of Authority set by really wanting you to have Extra Attack. To take advantage of giving your enchantment spells a bonus action cast time you want some regularly accessible action at your disposal- Extra Attack would give you that. Without it, it’s surprisingly just fine at this tier.
There are some pretty outrageous potential moments, namely with Hold Person, as you can bonus action Hold Person and immediately attack for a crit with Divine Strike coming two levels later. That’s a great floor to start with, but there aren’t a ton of other really exciting options. Bonus action Bless does give the team a buff alongside a Voice of Authority hit, which is fine, and bonus action Commands are going to feel a lot cheaper to use in the upper tiers, but given you still can’t cast two spells of 1st level or higher if one is cast using a bonus action, heavily gating the potential here if you aren’t getting more attacks or other powerful non-spell action options. It’ll honestly feel a bit more like a bonus action weapon attack most of the time, which isn’t revolutionary, but still solid.

7th Level: 4th Level Domain Spells

Well, all the Domain Spells can’t be winners I guess.

Compulsion definitely is castable, especially as a bonus action and with the neat bonus use case of including an ally to trigger Voice of Authority. It also can provide a bunch of Attacks of Opportunity on top of the Voice of Authority attack for a ranged ally within the spell’s area, which is really cute.
Locate Creature has, and always will be, hot trash. Its range for what it’s supposed to do is laughable, a light trickling stream stops it from working, and you basically already need to know where the creature you’re trying to locate is for this spell to work at all. Nearly uncastable trash.

8th Level: Divine Strike

Normally, I don’t love Divine Strike, but with how bonus action centric Order Domain is, it shines quite brightly. With your core play pattern being based on giving out extra attacks to your allies, you’re pretty fine making one empowered attack on your turn in addition to the spell cast and an allied attack. Again, I’d much rather get Extra Attack over this with a multiclass paladin, fighter, or ranger, but if you’re sticking with just Order Domain, this is a great quality-of-life upgrade to the action you’re taking round after round. Martial weapon proficiency of some kind would not go amiss to empower this further; Mountain Dwarves jump to mind as a great option.

9th Level: 5th Level Domain Spells

Dominate Person can break an encounter in half, and you get to cast it as a bonus action. Gross!
Commune is the kind of Domain Spell you really don’t ever want to see, as it's the kind of effect you prepare in downtime to beseech a deity for help, not something you’re regularly going to cast in a random dungeon, nor a niche effect that you’ll be happy you had auto-prepared from time to time. I wish WotC would stop making these kinds of spells that so clearly are “downtime spells” on Domain and expanded spell lists.

17th Level: Order’s Wrath

Order’s Wrath basically empowers your Divine Strike to 4d8 damage so long as an ally hits the thing you hit, which is a bit underwhelming for a capstone. Yeah, that is a lot of extra damage to get every round, and it plays well alongside the other Order Domain features, but for a big splashy capstone, I typically hope for something with a bit more pizazz. If you’re down with just better average damage, this gives you that round after round.

All Together

Order Domain is one of the most cohesive subclasses ever designed. Everything from its domain spells to its stock cleric 8th level feature to its features overlap beautifully and paint a clear, unique play pattern that empowers some lesser valued effects in interesting and fun ways. It helps the entire table shine, provides meaningful and powerful effects to the table, and will have moments itself to shine brightly with exceptional spell effects. The bonus action juggling it asks you to do can be tricky, and this option isn’t super easy to play well, but at tables with any amount of tactical thought, it can be a massive boon and a delight to play. I’d highly recommend it.

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