Not a bad list, but I definitely have my own substitutions I would make for my list. IMO a “best spells” list should consist of the best spells I think every cleric should have prepared for a standard day of exploring or adventuring regardless of domain or build. Before I get into that, I do have a couple things I want to point out from your description of resurrection. First, the caster is only weakened if you raise a creature that has been dead for a year or more. No effect on the caster if it has been dead less than a year. Second, I think there’s a clear order that resurrection spells should be used in based on the age of the corpse and it’s condition. Revivify is far and away my first choice for resurrecting dead characters. One action cast time, 3rd level spell, and cheapest material cost. If you can get to a creature within one minute and it’s not missing any vital organs or body parts, revivify is my first choice no matter what. If you can’t get to the creature in time, then raise dead is my next choice. The only time I would use resurrection or true resurrection is if the body is too old or is missing body parts. I would also only ever keep revivify prepared on a standard adventuring day. If you had a character die and can’t revivify, you’re going to be finding a place to take a long rest soon anyway. Carry the body to safety, prepare raise dead, then resurrect your ally. Free up those precious higher level slots for something else! Cantrip: Guidance. You hit this one right on the nose. This cantrip is an optimizer’s wet dream. 1st level: Bless. Guiding bolt is probably the best single target blast spell at levels 1-3, but at those levels you don’t have the spare spell slots to be wasting on single target blasts, and it simply doesn’t scale well to higher levels. That glitter bomb feels really satisfying until your fighter drops to a runaway crit and you don’t have a slot to pick him back up. Bless gives you much more mileage out of a single spell. Drop this on your martial classes and watch the hits rack up! With an average bonus of 2.5 to attack rolls AND saving throws, this is my first pick for big fights from levels 1-4. 2nd level: Spiritual Weapon. Lesser restoration is one of those spells that you absolutely love to have when you need it, but wastes precious space when you don’t. I usually drop it from my preparations once I hit level 5. Spiritual weapon is always useful and helps fill out your action economy nicely. So nicely that I often drop healing word from my preparation list once I get it, because my bonus action becomes largely spoken for. SW deals more damage than your weapon, unless you luck out with a 16 Dex/Str, at which point it’s an even wash until you raise your wisdom or run into weapon resistant creatures. (I’m sorry martial clerics. Unless you MC into a martial class, wisdom should still be your primary stat. Your spells will always do better than your weapons.) With a decent AC, you can stand to keep toward the front line and deliver cure wounds to fallen allies, deliver more healing, and still get an attack off with spiritual weapon. 3rd level: Spirit Guardians. Okay, there’s a lot to unpack on this one... Glyph of Warding is way too situational. So much so that, as I started writing this section I had forgotten what your 3rd level spell pick was, and as I was scrolling through the cleric spell list to refresh my memory, warding glyph didn’t even pop out at me. I had to re-watch that part of the video to hear it again. I do have to at least give you props for not falling into the “I can make glyph of warding scrolls!” trap. Which, sadly, is all this spell is really good for: setting up stationary traps. Great for defending a home base or setting up an ambush, but let’s face it, how often do players get to do either of those? There are some spells (and damage types) that I consider to be best used by NPCs. This is one of them. The fact that this spell was chosen over what is quite possibly the best 3rd level area of effect spell in the game wounds me deeply, good sir! (yes, I’m looking at all of you fireball fan-boys!) Spirit guardians deals amazing damage for a persistent aoe spell, and scales incredibly well. It’s radiant damage, so very few creatures will be resistant. It has absolutely no friendly fire! (Still looking at you FBFBs...) And to top it all off, it creates difficult terrain. Being centered on you means you simply need to put yourself in the action and let your medium or heavy armor take care of the rest. This spell, in combination with spiritual weapon and your weapon attack/cantrip gives you three opportunities to deal damage per turn. When you need to stop and sling out a healing spell, you’re STILL dealing damage! 4th level: Banishment. I agree that this is probably your best pick for a 4th level spell, though if I’m going to be honest, it’s still not great. Being a single target save-or-suck is a huge downside to any spell. I’m probably going to be blowing most of my 4th level slots upcasting Spirit Guardians... I will say that Charisma is probably the second best ability score to target, after Intelligence. If you’re not facing dragons or devils, you’re probably fine. 5th level: Contagion. Dawn looks nice, but isn’t as good as it looks. First, it targets Constitution, which is the absolute worst ability to target. Second, it deals as much damage as Spirit Guardians upcast to 5th level (which is where most of my 5th slots are going too...), which should never be the case for a higher level spell. Third, it deals friendly-fire damage, which is terrible for a large persistent aoe. Fourth, it deals damage to a creature that *ends* its turn in the area. Unless a creature is grappled or otherwise immobilized, very few creatures are stupid enough to stay where they are being damaged. I can only see this spell being useful against vampires and other creatures with the sunlight hyper-sensitivity. Contagion, on the other hand, is a BBEG’s worst nightmare. I may be contradicting myself a bit as this also targets Con saves and is a hit-or-suck spell, but on a successful melee spell attack, the creature is subjected to at least 3 rounds of vulnerability to all damage (the only real option, let’s be honest) before shaking the spell, and there are ways to set up advantage on the spell attack. Icing on the cake, it requires no concentration. Edit: OK, I have to correct myself here. With the Errata to Contagion, it no longer applies the disease immediately on a hit, and rather inflicts the poisoned condition on a hit for a minimum of three rounds. Quite the nerf. In its stead, I would suggest Holy Weapon as the best 5th level cleric spell. In a single target big boss fight where AOE doesn’t come into play, this is going to give you the most mileage. Slap it on your party’s fighter, Paladin, ranger, or monk, and watch the radiant damage stack up. With a 1 hour duration, it is good for multiple fights too. Just remember that it only affects one weapon, so effectiveness on dual wielding characters is limited. Also, RAW unarmed strikes are not weapons, so monks have to use a weapon to benefit from this, and it will not be applied to their bonus action attacks or flurry of blows. 6th level: Heal. Speaking of passing over the best class spell at its level for an NPC spell... Harm does deal a lot of damage, or at least looks like it should. It averages out 49 damage (compare to an average of 75 damage with disintegrate and 61 damage with finger of death). Unfortunately, Harm targets Constitution, so chances are pretty good it will deal an average of 24 damage as often as 49, which does not stack up to expectations for a 6th level spell. Heal, on the other hand, is a reliable single-target healing spell that can bring a downed character back up to fighting strength without fail, every time. It is the best combat healing spell in the game short of Mass Heal. Since you only get one 6th level slot until level 18, I would want to make sure its use is effective as possible. 7th level: Etherealness. I’ve said most of my thoughts on resurrection above. I prefer other spells that are faster and less cost-restrictive whenever possible, though it has its place. The spell I would rather have regularly prepared in its place is Etherealness. Still situationally useful (I’m afraid high level cleric spells are a little lacking at 7 and 8), but worth having around. Need to infiltrate that impenetrable fortress and open it from the inside? Bamf! Need to escape through a cave-in and completely bypass your DM’s attempted railroading? Bamf! Party heading toward a TPK at an alarming rate and need to GTFO before they do? Bamf! You could even upcast it to take some of them with you! 8th: Anti-magic field. I have to admit that the cleric spell list doesn’t have many options at this level, and none of them are amazing. Earthquake is unique and can level structures, but the fissures depend on the DM’s placement and don’t deal very much damage to creatures for its level. I prefer anti-magic field which helps circumvent magical obstacles and, when combined with some teamwork, can make fights with high-magic BBEGs trivial. That lich that has been terrorizing the countryside with his undead army? Pop anti-magic field while standing next to him and have the barbarian grapple him. Now all he can do is attempt to escape the grapple at a +3 bonus, since even his paralyzing touch attack is useless, as it is considered magical. 9th level: Mass Heal. It’s hard not to pick this one, it’s like hitting the reset button for your side of the combat!
I love this list, I know I put myself in a tough spot by excluding any spells that were already on a domain list. So I'm going to pin your comment for sharing.
Nice, thanks for the info man, I recently started playig d&d and the spells list are a litlle overwhelming, in the sense that I'm having a hard time telling wich spells are usefull and wich not. Your example with guiding happend to me, The first time I went straight for it, and after killing 1 or 2 monster, I was out of spells, hahaha. A nice learning experience.
youtube doesn't feed me the replies to my replies, so I'm sorry I didn't see this before I made my ranking video, Maybe i can find a way to filter my comments better
Hey Richard, I believe that you should have, at least, given some honorable mention spells to consider per level. Examples include Toll The Dead, Bless(staple), Aid, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, Greater Restoration, Holy Weapon, Heal, Heroes Feast, Regenerate, Power Word: Heal among others!!
Glyph of Warding as a self-buff work even better. Cast a concentration spell on a book and open the book to have a free spell effect on yourself without needing to concentrate.
I don't know, man...for 1st level, I think I'd have to go with Ceremony. Hands down, one of the best spells you could possibly... Nope. Can't do it. Can't say it without cracking up. Good list, actually, and I kind of agree with almost all of it.
Not a bad list, but I definitely have my own substitutions I would make for my list. IMO a “best spells” list should consist of the best spells I think every cleric should have prepared for a standard day of exploring or adventuring regardless of domain or build.
Before I get into that, I do have a couple things I want to point out from your description of resurrection. First, the caster is only weakened if you raise a creature that has been dead for a year or more. No effect on the caster if it has been dead less than a year. Second, I think there’s a clear order that resurrection spells should be used in based on the age of the corpse and it’s condition. Revivify is far and away my first choice for resurrecting dead characters. One action cast time, 3rd level spell, and cheapest material cost. If you can get to a creature within one minute and it’s not missing any vital organs or body parts, revivify is my first choice no matter what. If you can’t get to the creature in time, then raise dead is my next choice. The only time I would use resurrection or true resurrection is if the body is too old or is missing body parts. I would also only ever keep revivify prepared on a standard adventuring day. If you had a character die and can’t revivify, you’re going to be finding a place to take a long rest soon anyway. Carry the body to safety, prepare raise dead, then resurrect your ally. Free up those precious higher level slots for something else!
Cantrip: Guidance. You hit this one right on the nose. This cantrip is an optimizer’s wet dream.
1st level: Bless. Guiding bolt is probably the best single target blast spell at levels 1-3, but at those levels you don’t have the spare spell slots to be wasting on single target blasts, and it simply doesn’t scale well to higher levels. That glitter bomb feels really satisfying until your fighter drops to a runaway crit and you don’t have a slot to pick him back up. Bless gives you much more mileage out of a single spell. Drop this on your martial classes and watch the hits rack up! With an average bonus of 2.5 to attack rolls AND saving throws, this is my first pick for big fights from levels 1-4.
2nd level: Spiritual Weapon. Lesser restoration is one of those spells that you absolutely love to have when you need it, but wastes precious space when you don’t. I usually drop it from my preparations once I hit level 5. Spiritual weapon is always useful and helps fill out your action economy nicely. So nicely that I often drop healing word from my preparation list once I get it, because my bonus action becomes largely spoken for. SW deals more damage than your weapon, unless you luck out with a 16 Dex/Str, at which point it’s an even wash until you raise your wisdom or run into weapon resistant creatures. (I’m sorry martial clerics. Unless you MC into a martial class, wisdom should still be your primary stat. Your spells will always do better than your weapons.) With a decent AC, you can stand to keep toward the front line and deliver cure wounds to fallen allies, deliver more healing, and still get an attack off with spiritual weapon.
3rd level: Spirit Guardians. Okay, there’s a lot to unpack on this one... Glyph of Warding is way too situational. So much so that, as I started writing this section I had forgotten what your 3rd level spell pick was, and as I was scrolling through the cleric spell list to refresh my memory, warding glyph didn’t even pop out at me. I had to re-watch that part of the video to hear it again. I do have to at least give you props for not falling into the “I can make glyph of warding scrolls!” trap. Which, sadly, is all this spell is really good for: setting up stationary traps. Great for defending a home base or setting up an ambush, but let’s face it, how often do players get to do either of those? There are some spells (and damage types) that I consider to be best used by NPCs. This is one of them. The fact that this spell was chosen over what is quite possibly the best 3rd level area of effect spell in the game wounds me deeply, good sir! (yes, I’m looking at all of you fireball fan-boys!) Spirit guardians deals amazing damage for a persistent aoe spell, and scales incredibly well. It’s radiant damage, so very few creatures will be resistant. It has absolutely no friendly fire! (Still looking at you FBFBs...) And to top it all off, it creates difficult terrain. Being centered on you means you simply need to put yourself in the action and let your medium or heavy armor take care of the rest. This spell, in combination with spiritual weapon and your weapon attack/cantrip gives you three opportunities to deal damage per turn. When you need to stop and sling out a healing spell, you’re STILL dealing damage!
4th level: Banishment. I agree that this is probably your best pick for a 4th level spell, though if I’m going to be honest, it’s still not great. Being a single target save-or-suck is a huge downside to any spell. I’m probably going to be blowing most of my 4th level slots upcasting Spirit Guardians... I will say that Charisma is probably the second best ability score to target, after Intelligence. If you’re not facing dragons or devils, you’re probably fine.
5th level: Contagion. Dawn looks nice, but isn’t as good as it looks. First, it targets Constitution, which is the absolute worst ability to target. Second, it deals as much damage as Spirit Guardians upcast to 5th level (which is where most of my 5th slots are going too...), which should never be the case for a higher level spell. Third, it deals friendly-fire damage, which is terrible for a large persistent aoe. Fourth, it deals damage to a creature that *ends* its turn in the area. Unless a creature is grappled or otherwise immobilized, very few creatures are stupid enough to stay where they are being damaged. I can only see this spell being useful against vampires and other creatures with the sunlight hyper-sensitivity. Contagion, on the other hand, is a BBEG’s worst nightmare. I may be contradicting myself a bit as this also targets Con saves and is a hit-or-suck spell, but on a successful melee spell attack, the creature is subjected to at least 3 rounds of vulnerability to all damage (the only real option, let’s be honest) before shaking the spell, and there are ways to set up advantage on the spell attack. Icing on the cake, it requires no concentration.
Edit: OK, I have to correct myself here. With the Errata to Contagion, it no longer applies the disease immediately on a hit, and rather inflicts the poisoned condition on a hit for a minimum of three rounds. Quite the nerf. In its stead, I would suggest Holy Weapon as the best 5th level cleric spell. In a single target big boss fight where AOE doesn’t come into play, this is going to give you the most mileage. Slap it on your party’s fighter, Paladin, ranger, or monk, and watch the radiant damage stack up. With a 1 hour duration, it is good for multiple fights too. Just remember that it only affects one weapon, so effectiveness on dual wielding characters is limited. Also, RAW unarmed strikes are not weapons, so monks have to use a weapon to benefit from this, and it will not be applied to their bonus action attacks or flurry of blows.
6th level: Heal. Speaking of passing over the best class spell at its level for an NPC spell... Harm does deal a lot of damage, or at least looks like it should. It averages out 49 damage (compare to an average of 75 damage with disintegrate and 61 damage with finger of death). Unfortunately, Harm targets Constitution, so chances are pretty good it will deal an average of 24 damage as often as 49, which does not stack up to expectations for a 6th level spell. Heal, on the other hand, is a reliable single-target healing spell that can bring a downed character back up to fighting strength without fail, every time. It is the best combat healing spell in the game short of Mass Heal. Since you only get one 6th level slot until level 18, I would want to make sure its use is effective as possible.
7th level: Etherealness. I’ve said most of my thoughts on resurrection above. I prefer other spells that are faster and less cost-restrictive whenever possible, though it has its place. The spell I would rather have regularly prepared in its place is Etherealness. Still situationally useful (I’m afraid high level cleric spells are a little lacking at 7 and 8), but worth having around. Need to infiltrate that impenetrable fortress and open it from the inside? Bamf! Need to escape through a cave-in and completely bypass your DM’s attempted railroading? Bamf! Party heading toward a TPK at an alarming rate and need to GTFO before they do? Bamf! You could even upcast it to take some of them with you!
8th: Anti-magic field. I have to admit that the cleric spell list doesn’t have many options at this level, and none of them are amazing. Earthquake is unique and can level structures, but the fissures depend on the DM’s placement and don’t deal very much damage to creatures for its level. I prefer anti-magic field which helps circumvent magical obstacles and, when combined with some teamwork, can make fights with high-magic BBEGs trivial. That lich that has been terrorizing the countryside with his undead army? Pop anti-magic field while standing next to him and have the barbarian grapple him. Now all he can do is attempt to escape the grapple at a +3 bonus, since even his paralyzing touch attack is useless, as it is considered magical.
9th level: Mass Heal. It’s hard not to pick this one, it’s like hitting the reset button for your side of the combat!
I love this list, I know I put myself in a tough spot by excluding any spells that were already on a domain list. So I'm going to pin your comment for sharing.
Nice, thanks for the info man, I recently started playig d&d and the spells list are a litlle overwhelming, in the sense that I'm having a hard time telling wich spells are usefull and wich not.
Your example with guiding happend to me, The first time I went straight for it, and after killing 1 or 2 monster, I was out of spells, hahaha. A nice learning experience.
awesome list! thank you.
Recently found your channel while getting into D&D, really enjoy your explanations and the variety of them!
Hey! I'm glad its helpful, I know my March videos might not be the best for new players but I'll be back to the explainers more in April!
My personal favouritespell from the cleric spelllist is Aid. Or as I call it : healing in advance
That one is a great choice! It almost made my list!
RPG Daily what is your favourite domain if you were to make a cleric today?
youtube doesn't feed me the replies to my replies, so I'm sorry I didn't see this before I made my ranking video, Maybe i can find a way to filter my comments better
RPG Daily no worries, I got the answer the day after in your new video.
Hey Richard, I believe that you should have, at least, given some honorable mention spells to consider per level. Examples include Toll The Dead, Bless(staple), Aid, Spiritual Weapon, Spirit Guardians, Greater Restoration, Holy Weapon, Heal, Heroes Feast, Regenerate, Power Word: Heal among others!!
Glyph of Warding as a self-buff work even better. Cast a concentration spell on a book and open the book to have a free spell effect on yourself without needing to concentrate.
I need ya to flash a pic of the spell itself and I can pause it than look for it
I don't know, man...for 1st level, I think I'd have to go with Ceremony. Hands down, one of the best spells you could possibly...
Nope. Can't do it. Can't say it without cracking up.
Good list, actually, and I kind of agree with almost all of it.
Sometimes you got to be able to marry some characters!!!
@@TheRPGDaily Exactly! (What do you call a man who marries another man? A Cleric!)
Thanks for the vid, really useful to a new guy like me :)
Glad to hear it!
no Inflict Wounds?
Kant trips? What did you do to your video? The text underneath does not match at all. wouldn't you even bother to edit it?
i didnt find this video very useful
Spirit guardians.