Peace Domain Cleric 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

I’m pretty down on Life Domain; it's a healing-specific option in a game where healing magic just isn’t that effective, often resulting in wasted turns and spells. Peace takes the purely supportive cleric concept and makes it more about damage and conflict mitigation rather than reactive empowered mending. That shift in philosophy makes this an actual effective support option for clerics who want to be the most helpful little cleric there ever was who will keep everyone alive, even if it kills them.

A quick note, though: Peace Domain doesn’t necessarily equate with pacifism. D&D is a tabletop RPG with a huge emphasis on combat. If you want to play a literal pacifist in a group breaking into dungeons, braving the dangers of the world, and toppling evil empires, a pacifist isn’t typically going to be a great fit. You can be conflict averse, but I’d highly recommend going in with the expectation of needing to participate in a large number of fights. Nothing about Dungeons, nor Dragons, implies peace is a particularly practical approach.

1st Level: Domain Spells, Implement of Peace, and Emboldening Bond

Heroism and Sanctuary give a clear picture of what this subclass is supposed to be doing; defending. I don’t love either of these effects, though, with Sanctuary in particular being often to the detriment of the team, as it asks people to take actions that don’t push the team towards victory.
Implement of Peace offers a bonus skill from Insight, Performance, or Persuasion, which tells a nice story about your kind of Peace Domain cleric. You can build towards being the face of a group with a decent Charisma score and this proficiency, and without heavy armor or a lot of other reasons to be tanking damage in the front lines, you have a bit more flexibility in your ability score distribution, making this domain excel comparatively at out of combat Charisma stuff.
Emboldening Bond defines the core goal of Peace Domain: team support. You get a bunch of 10-minute, concentration-free Bless effects that stack with Bless. This basic combination will set your team up with +2d4 to hit stuff, which is a huge leap in to hit in a game where the numbers are majorly capped compared to editions of old. This buff is limited, though; you can only buff two creatures to start, and those creatures need to stay within 30 feet of each other, making this option ask some fun questions about positioning. Different characters will get boons in different encounters, offering you the tools to help everyone shine brightly from encounter to encounter. Your proficiency bonus uses will regularly feel like all of the encounters between rests at a lot of tables, making this almost function like a passive boon. I’m a big fan.

2nd Level: Balm of Peace

Balm of Peace functions similarly to Life Domain's area of effect heal, but gives you a free dash and disengage with it. 2d6 + Wis mod at 2nd level is a big chunk, and like Emboldening Bond, encourages allies to stay close to each other. This is a great early-game replacement for Mass Healing Word, and can easily both keep allies off zero and pad out the rest of the team's hit points to take an extra hit or two before going down. It doesn’t scale that great, as in the upper tiers the movement is a major limiting factor, the healing is comparatively less effective against the damage monsters are dealing, and you’re going to have a lot better ways to spend your action, but early, this is a great supportive heal option to have.

3rd Level: 2nd Level Domain Spells

Aid and Warding Bond both are fascinating spells to me, as neither is particularly clear on how good it is on an average character. Context matters a ton when determining these effects' practicality.

You can build a character with Warding Bond in mind to support a front-line ally but basically stacking your hit points on top of them, but a lot of the time they’re not going to need those hit points. The extra AC is nice, though, and it does work in tandem with Emboldening Bond to define you as a defensive support.
Aid, meanwhile, is an easy place to stick excess spell slots in the mid to upper tiers when going into single or paired encounters per long rest where you weren’t going to use all your slots anyway. Those hit points cost you no actions in combat, and can be the difference in an ally staying up an extra round for some more actions to change the tide in a fight. I like these a lot as Domain offerings for Peace.

5th Level: 3rd Level Domain Spells

Beacon of Hope never has been good, nor will it likely ever be good because it’s just outrageously action inefficient. To get any healing out of it you’ll need to commit at least two actions which could have just been spent casting two healing spells. You’re never going to want to be in a spot where the best thing you can contribute to a fight is casting healing spells three consecutive rounds in a row, which this spell requires of you to justify its cast. In fights where Wis saves are going to be abundant and backbreaking, fine. It can justify its cast. But that’s not going to be the vast majority of encounters.
Sending is a cute utility tool I’d want to prepare after a long rest when I know I need it. Getting it always prepared is worthless. You’re not regularly going to need sending, nor are going to stumble into events where you’ll suddenly find value in having this niche effect prepared. It's an awful Domain Spell.

6th Level: Protective Bond

Protective Bond can present some of the coolest moments in the game that showcase teamwork. Everyone that’s bonded now has an opportunity to teleport to each whenever damaged; that damage commonly will be enemy attackers, which then other allies can mitigate, making the entire group functionally share a hit point pool. Beyond this excellent application as a baseline, while within 30 feet of each other, a dagger prick can enable allies to teleport at the cost of just 1 hit point. Teleportation both in and out of combat has a ton of utility, and Protective Bond offers a clean execution for a deeply interesting and uniquely limited near-at-will teleportation.

7th Level: 4th Level Domain Spells

Aura of Purity and Resilient Sphere are the two 4th-level Domain Spells.

Aura of Purity takes concentration and provides immunity to diseases, resistance to poison damage, and advantage on condition-based saves. In an encounter where paralysis is happening a lot, or poison damage is flowing heavily, it can be fine, making it a Domain Spell that once in a campaign you’ll go “Oh! I have a thing for this!” Most of the time, though, the defenses it offers are way too niche or just not worth its cost.
Resilient Sphere offers a beautiful save-or-die effect for the Peace Domain archetype, as you put something in a bubble of safety they can’t escape from. I love this inclusion; it can easily enable less aggressive clerics to still provide big, meaningful impacts on fights by disabling major threats in a force bubble.

8th Level: Potent Spellcasting

Potent Spellcasting is given out to the cleric domains that aren’t supposed to be in the frontline making weapon attacks. Adding your Wisdom modifier to your Toll the Dead or Sacred Flame you’re hardly ever casting anymore isn’t great. This isn’t really a meaningful improvement to the option and more of a relic of old cleric domain design that I wish they’d rethink.

9th Level: 5th Level Domain Spells

Greater Restoration and Telepathic Bond both aren’t great.

Greater Restoration at least will occasionally pop up in niche encounters where you’ll need to break a curse in a pinch or remove petrification, but that’s like a once-in-a-campaign kind of cast.
Telepathic Bond, like Scrying, is an effect you want to prepare prior to an adventure you intend to use it on. You’re rarely going to run into a situation and go “Oh, thank goodness, I have Telepathic Bond prepared!”

17th Level: Expansive Bond

Expansive Bond rounds out this domain by giving it a range double and providing resistance to damage dealt, which are two massive improvements. Now, with six creatures bonded, the entire party can spend reactions to keep halving the damage of incoming threatening effects. This kind of option rewards everyone for paying attention to the battle on everyone else's turns, gives players more flexibility in where they can move while still getting payoffs from your features, and makes the whole group feel like a cohesive unit. This is a support feature at its finest.

All Together

If you’re dedicated to playing as supportive a character as you can, Peace Domain is a superb option to go with. Emboldening, Protective, and Expansive Bond all create a team dynamic centered around you that rewards playing together and coordination. The Domain Spells aren’t great, nor is Potent Spellcasting at most tables, but there are some great opportunities here to make your team resilient and flexible. If you want to keep your teammates from dying, Peace Domain will absolutely deliver on that fantasy while simultaneously helping them actually end encounters.

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