Tempest Domain Cleric 5e

Review by Sam West, Twitter: @CrierKobold

Whereas other clerics worship vague concepts like “life”, “death”, or “peace”, Tempest Domain clerics worship specifically vengeful storms that destroy. Not generally nature, not a vague ideal like “order”. They worship gods who create literally storms. Love that.

Mechanically, Tempest Domain offers clerics the opportunity to do a lightning-themed martial/caster hybrid with ample opportunity to blast their enemies to pieces with the wrath of Zeus. The domain is pretty frontloaded, making it an excellent option to consider multiclassing with.

1st Level: Domain Spells, Bonus Proficiencies, Wrath of the Storm

Fog Cloud and Thunderwave are both rich, thematic, and useful Domain Spells for a frontline caster to get access to at will. Neither being cleric spells makes me even more excited, as this sets Tempest Domain clerics apart from the classes out of the gate before even considering what extra features they get.
Bonus Proficiencies give Tempest Domain clerics martial weapons and heavy armor… just because? This makes a high Strength feel great with a giant weapon you wield in two hands when attacking, and one when casting spells. Spicy!
Wrath of the Storm takes this phenomenal foundation and builds upon it with a damage-based reaction that scales with your Wisdom modifier. This rewards you for being in the front of a fight smashing things with a maul or cutting things down with a greatsword- three to five free 2d8 per long rest is a ton of damage at level one. It doesn’t scale great but will make your early game feel stupidly strong.

2nd Level: Destructive Wrath

Destructive Wrath is kept in check by Tempest Domain not getting Lightning Bolt or other massive lightning or thunder damage effects. Dealing max damage will feel close to doubling the damage an effect does; when used “fairly” on your Thunderwaves, Shatters, and Call Lightnings, it’s superb. When dipping into Storm Sorcerer for 8d6 max damage Lightning Bolts, it's yucky good.

3rd Level: 2nd Level Domain Spells

Shatter and Gust of Wind pair directly with both the theme and mechanics Tempest Domain is looking to play with.

Shatter works great with Destructive Wrath at 3rd level, giving you an early game option for a 10 ft. radius sphere of 24 thunder damage with no other build considerations, making this mediocre damage spell much better.
Gust of Wind has a bit less synergy but can surprise you with its utility in a variety of complex battle maps while pairing great with damaging area effects like Wall of Fire and Spike Growth your other caster allies can bring to the table.

5th Level: 3rd Level Domain Spells

Call Lightning and Sleet Storm each aren’t my favorite 3rd level spells but do bring some power to your character sheet.

I like Call Lightning a LOT in addition to a Spiritual Weapon, giving you two “attacks” a round with a 3d10 5 ft. blast as an action and a 2d8 radiant weapon attack with your bonus action. Concentration is a bit of a bummer, as you want to be taking damage for Wrath of the Storm, but you can still do some powerful stuff, especially when you can decide to max out 3d10 to 30 damage after two or three creatures fail one of the Call Lightning strikes.
Sleet Storm locks an area down with difficult terrain that drops stuff prone and a mass of heavy obscurity, making it a great tool for getting a lead on pursuing enemies or keeping a group of enemies temporarily off your back.

6th Level: Thunderous Strike

Up to this point, Gust of Wind was the only big “knockback” effect Tempest Domain offered. Thunderous Strike gives every instance of lightning damage you deal a 10 ft. push away from you, opening up Tempest Domain as an excellent option for weaponizing Blade Barrier and other damaging effects. Pairing your own Blade Barrier with your Wrath of the Storm can keep blasting enemies back into a swirling mass of death. There aren’t other lightning-based damage effects built into cleric, though, so if you want to push this further, you’ll probably want levels in other classes with cheap lightning damage effects or ways to switch one damage type to another like sorcerer’s Transmuted Spell metamagic.
Crucially, for some reason, Tempest’s Divine Strike doesn’t deal lightning damage, meaning it doesn’t work with this, making it something you kind of have to bend over backward to empower, which is super dumb.

7th Level: 4th Level Domain Spells

Neither Control Water nor Ice Storm play particularly well with the other features you’ve gotten up to this point with Ice Storm being far too little damage and far too weak a condition for its cost, and Control Water having rare utility in specific wet environments. I like Control Water as a Domain Spell, at least, as it can inspire some off-the-wall solutions you’d never prepare Control Water for, but neither are particularly powerful additions to the option.

8th Level: Divine Strike

Divine Strike empowers your martial weapons with a 1d8 thunder damage. You don’t get the option to deal lightning damage, making it not work with Thunderous Strike which was a baffling design decision. By this stage, with no other major weapon improvements, you’ll probably have better things to do with your action, but a 2d6 + 1d8 +2 or 3 greatsword is still a fine way to spend an action if you’re running out of juice at some of the grinder tables.

9th Level: 5th Level Domain Spells

Destructive Wave is otherwise a paladin exclusive 5th level spell, which they normally get at 17th level. You get it at 9th; neat! Its effect is great this early on melee casters, which Tempest Domain fits the bill for, and it can be a great place to put your Destructive Wraths should you lack access to other big damage lightning or thunder effects. It notably deals thunder damage, though, so it also doesn’t naturally work with Thunderous Strike.
Insect Plague was a choice they made when making this subclass I truly do not understand. Tempest Domain feels so far removed from a generic “wrathful god”; it has a specific niche. If a storm god wants to ruin a civilization, a tidal wave or hurricane will do the job just fine, not a random swarm of locusts. Mechanically the spell is a big damaging area to pair with your limited Thunderous Strike knockback at least, so that’s something.

17th Level: Stormborn

Stormborn gives you a fly speed while outside and above ground. At this stage in the game, flight has been available for, like, the entire game up to this point, so this is going to feel pretty passively worthless. If this was a ribbon alongside a powerful capstone, I’d be all for it. As is, it’s deeply underwhelming, and the last major reason you should consider multiclassing instead of seeing this option through for the full 20 levels.

All Together

Tempest Domain is crazy frontloaded. Their proficiencies, Wrath of the Storm, and Destructive Wrath play incredibly on their own, with massive potential to break other high-level effects in half. If you want to command storms in the upper levels, a multiclass route to explore definitely would benefit you, especially with levels considered in Sorcerer to maximize the potential of Destructive Wrath. You can build around Thunderous Strike with better access to lightning damage, build around the frontline fantasy with some Extra Attack classes like paladin, fighter, or ranger, or just stick with the main cleric fantasy with a taste of lightning with your subclass, leaning heavier on cleric’s full-caster power in the upper tiers. This option has a ton of potential but does ask you to work a bit to get the exact fantasy you want out of it because it's design isn’t particularly cohesive past 2nd level.

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