The Devout and the Dead: a guide to Clerics

[Yorrin]

I think you may be undervaluing aura of vitality.

In combat, it's solid, but fairly situational healing, useful when a party member is reliably getting dropped to zero every turn, but otherwise it demands constant use of your bonus action, which you'd probably rather spend on something else, like spiritual weapon.

Out of combat, however, it's ten charges of 2d6 healing, for a total of 20d6, that you can distribute among your party as you see fit. For a third level slot, this is great. For Life clerics (and druids, paladins, and lore bards dipping into Life cleric) it's outright amazing, as every charge heals for 2d6+5 instead.

A reasonable line of thinking, but Prayer of Healing accomplishes more total healing with a a smaller slot. It's not a bad spell by any means, as for out of combat single target healing it does accomplish quite a bit, but I think it's still overall just a decent spell.

[MrStabby]

Oh? The best guide on the forum is back?

For what its worth I kind of agree with your assessment of the races... mostly. This is one of those things where I could see them being rated higher, but its close enough. Fly on the fairy is a huge, huge ability but I think Cleric gets a little less out of it than other classes. It doen't need it to close with flying enemies like say, a barbarian. It won't have the decent AC of a rogue or monk or other dex focussed class (or not without quite some expensive investment). Still great, but not as stand out as for other classes.

I think Haregnon is similar power. That big jump will be useful for emergency aid to allies or deploying spirit guardians in just the right position. The bonus to initiative is nice - get that bless down before everyone elses turn and there are other great domain abilities that benefi from going first.


On the Aura of Vitality thing? I think its pretty good. On spot healing in combat that you can split optimally between characters is nice. Being able to keep using the same spell after combat to top off the party is good also. It isn't just the total amount of healing, but how it is deployed (prayer of healing is good, but if the party is unevenly injured it can be less effective). I see it being nice when an encounter kind of gets away from you in the middle - a spiritual weapon might only get a round or two's use before everything is dead but the aura can heal in combat and carry on after.

One advantage of the spell is a bit moot though - a spell that double as both an in and out of combat spell takes pressure off the number of prepared spells, but clerics are less pressured on that front anyway.

[sambojin]

I tend to think Conjure Celestial is underrated. I know it's a lvl7 spell slot, but....

It's essentially Summon Couatl. Ie: Creative use of Limited Wish.

It not only comes with amazing stats and abilities (your healing is taken care of, so is your scrying), true sight, 120' telepathy, 90' flying, it's not bad in combat either with high AC/Shield, medium size, non-magic BPS immunity, and good/great riders on its attacks (that are magical).

And then you get to the Shapechange bit. Need some low level wizard spells? Hobgoblin Devastator (VGM version). Need some other low level spells? Find a creature, there's a tonne. Need damn near anything at any time? Find a beast or humanoid that does that. Become a blaster caster, or a controller, or a stealth master, or a face, or whatever your party needs for 1hr, for no cost to you at all, for that one slot and your concentration. You didn't have to prepare or build for it, you just asked your flying snake buddy from heaven, and it was done.

It's a spell battery in its basic form, and a good one. But the fact that it inherits other form's casting and abilities makes it a nearly unlimited one. It's like trading 1 lvl7 slot for masses of lvl1-4 spell slots, of spells you don't know and can't cast. Or just another set of concentration to replace the one you're using on the Couatl.

It's a level 7 spell slot, but.... A Couatl actually does have the sorts of abilities and stats that can make it seem worth that sort of cost. 1/day 1hr-long Limited Wish at lvl13 ain't bad at all. Definitely blue or maybe even light blue in rating.

[No brains]

Be aware that a Couatl would not get the class-based abilities of the Devastator, such as its spellcasting.

That said, there are plenty of creatures will good innate spellcasting abilities. Githyanki Warrior has innate Nondetection 3/day for 8 hours. Any Couatl that knows what Githyanki are essentially gains permanent Nondetection. That particular trick also works with Svirfneblin. Duergar, especially those in MToF, have plenty of miraculous non-class abilities. A Couatl shapeshifted into a Nurtured One of Yurtus can willingly and instantly reduce itself to 0 hit points in cast that's ever useful.

[sambojin]

Either way, still a blue/light blue spell. The basic Couatl is just that stat-tastic and abilityriffic that even without Shapechange +slots, it's worth preparing on many days of each week. Hunting for Innate Spellcasting for different forms is more annoying, but not undoable.

Might make a list of them all one day.

(I did try and look for some examples of where Spellcasting isn't obviously class based, but so far I've got none. There might not be a "Devastator" class, but it's essentially an Evoker Wizard. So Innate Spellcasting only 😢. Strangely enough, the MPMM version of a Hobgoblin Devastator *does* have Innate Spellcasting. Except, now it's a Fey, not a humanoid..... Bleh!

It's even weirder that *Bard*, Tortle *Druid*, Illusionist *Wizard*, and *Warlock* of the Archfey, are now perfectly acceptable forms for a Couatl to turn into, and gain innate spells from, with MPMM statblocks).

I think it just becomes a DM question of "Does my Couatl get the spells from the form it changes into?". I'd probably give them, innate or not, because it's only for one hour, the Cleric has to maintain concentration on the summon anyway, and they're all low level spells (at lvl13+ in a campaign), and it's a Lawful Good summon so probably won't do really bad stuff (regardless of it supposedly following orders, it is smarter and faster than you, and does have a celestial edict of "being good"). I mean, it doesn't need it to be a good summon (blue rated), but wizards don't need Simulacrum, yet still fight and bitch if anyone dares mention that it's a busted spell. At least Conjure Celestial/ Summon Couatl isn't that bad.

(It's probably not great to use another really busted lvl7 spell as a metric for "is this ok?". But you do have a 13% chance each day of your god intervening (hopefully on your behalf, he/she/it/they could just flamestrike you) at this level, so a bit of celestial assistance seems fine. It's not like Wizards/ Druids/ Bards/ Sorcs/ Warlocks can't crank out plenty of decent summons by this point, you just get one really good one at lvl13, even if it can be a bit fiddly to murder-hobo well with. At least it's really good (in its basic form). Plus, there's only one of them, so it probably won't slow down play heaps)

[Yorrin]

The real issue is that PHB conjure spells have the target chosen by the DM, so you're not guaranteed the Couatl even before all the rulings questions. When it works it's cool, but it doesn't always work, thus only a mid rating.

[sambojin]

Yeah, but in things that Conjure *one thing*, it tends to be player choice.

When you ask for a flying heaven snake for your lvl7 slot, and you get a horse or a lion or a bit of bulls*, it tends to shake your faith in the DM. Regardless of Shapechange rulings (it's still a really good ability without spell slots included).

(I mean, even a Sorcerer gets 4hrs of "I have a summoned Dragon, that we could ride around on because it's perfectly tame, and is of the colour of my choosing" time each day at this level if they want it. Or can Animate Object a murder-swarm of ball-bearings for 4mins/ encounters each day. Maybe more, depending on the Font and metamagics they're using that day. And they don't do summons usually, as a class, compared to most. Why take the worst ruling for a spell on a Cleric? For a lvl7 slot? A class that doesn't have that many fun options for spell slot use at higher levels anyway?)

((When the literal, figurative, and actual god of your faith, on average, grants you and your party assistance every 2-3weeks or so, I reckon a 1hr emissary from that god on a daily basis isn't exactly out of line. By lvl13, you are pretty damn good, as far as Clerics go. I mean, you've been able to "Summon Celestial" for 4 lvls now, and it's obvious that they're just Fighter/Archer mooks from heaven to help you out. Time to show them the real power of your god! Flying motherf'ing heaven snake buddies!!!

If anything, the spell should just say "you summon a Couatl. If you upcast this spell, it gets +1CR for forms it can shapechange into, +2 to-hit, and +20HP, for each slot level above 7th, whether it is shapechanged or not. When summoned, choose the form of a beast of CR4 or less. This is that Couatl's normal form visually, but it is always of medium size. It can still fly, no matter what its normal form looks like, when it is not shapechanged into another form".
Bestial Spirits, Wildfire Spirits, and probably a host of other things, can look like whatever. A Couatl needing to be a flying snake is a bit off for a lot of pantheons, but it's the only CR4 celestial worth a damn for a lvl7 slot))

[Yorrin]

If that were indeed the case the spell would be a lot better. Sadly there are two valid targets in the MM and two more added in Theros, of which the Couatl is by far the best. And relying on the goodwill of DMs is not something one can assume when objectively rating spells.

[sambojin]

Fair enough.