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Feats are powerful customizations when coupled appropriately with class abilities. Clerics are unique because they already have a lot going for them: armor proficiencies, spellcasting, and unique strengths for each domain (subclass). Since Clerics are sturdy on their own, they aren’t dependent on feats to take care of business, freeing players up to choose feats that are fun for their playstyles. Even so, some feats are better than others, so I’m here to direct you to the feats that are worth your time. My feat recommendations come from officially published sources (PHB, TCoE, and XGtE, though Elemental Evil is also used for Svirfneblin Magic).
Many of my recommended feats for Clerics will be useful for any Cleric; I’ll explain if I make a recommendation that is specific to a particular Domain (subclass) or character race. On that note, if you’re trying to decide on a Cleric Domain, I have another article that rates each one.
Here are my top recommendations for Cleric feats that you should prayerfully consider! (Updated March 2022)
- Best Cleric Feats
- Niche Cleric Feats
- Domain-specific Cleric Feats
- Racial Cleric Feats
Best Cleric Feats
Alert: As the probable healer of the party, you don’t want to get assassinated. Alert will prevent you from being completely overwhelmed in a surprise attack. Additionally, a high initiative bonus will help you to get your spells up before the enemy can act.
Fey Touched: Any spellcaster can benefit from Fey Touched. Its stat boost and spells are fantastic. Misty Step is a useful escape spell, but teleportation can have multiple uses. Your chosen spell here could be Bless so you always have it ready, or you could pick something new like Gift of Alacrity or Tasha’s Hideous Laughter.
Lucky: If you want an ace up your sleeve for rerolls, Lucky suits any character. You’ll probably use Lucky rerolls for saving throws. I will point out that it’s important for Clerics to not lose concentration on their spells, so having a luck point can turn around a bad d20 roll.
Observant: I know a lot of players that choose this feat for their Clerics because they don’t like to miss details with their passive perception, plus they can increase their Wisdom. The boost to Passive Perception is the real win to detect hidden enemies without needing the Search action to roll higher than your Passive Perception.
Resilient: Savings throws are used often in D&D, so bolstering a stat while gaining a scaling proficiency bonus to that ability’s saving throw is pretty awesome. I recommend gaining proficiency with Constitution saving throws to aid you in your spell concentration saving throws.
Telekinetic: This feat can boost your Wisdom score while giving you amazing utility options as a bonus action. Clerics often act as babysitters for the rest of the party, so it’s incredibly useful to be able to pull and push allies out of dangerous situations. You can also use the telekinesis offensively.
War Caster: Clerics have strong concentration-dependent spells like Spirit Guardians. Gaining advantage on concentration saving throws resulting from damage is excellent for keeping a Cleric’s spells going. Since shields can be used as spellcasting focuses for Clerics, the War Caster bit about casting spells with your hands full is less important.
Large-Party Cleric Feats
Healer (for large parties): An excellent feat on its own, it makes sense for a Cleric to possess a healing tool that doesn’t require spell slots. This feat pairs well with Inspiring Leader to get free healing/pre-healing. I mark this as a niche feat because it’s a secondary feat in combat-heavy campaigns where you first need to bolster your in-combat powers and defenses. Since the healing can be done once per character each day, a large party will give you the most utility with Healer.
Inspiring Leader (for large parties): Clerics can typically invest a thirteen or higher in Charisma to take this feat, and it’s worth it. Damage prevention is the best healing; granting temporary hitpoints at the end of every short or long rest is an excellent way to bolster the survivability of your comrades.
Domain-Specific Cleric Feats
Actor (Trickery Domain): Use Disguise Self to greater sow discord and mischief and to hide your identity as you impersonate people.
Defensive Duelist (Domains using medium armor): This feat is useful to Clerics who invest a bit in Dexterity, so it’d probably be used by medium armor wearers. Clerics don’t utilize their reactions as frequently as other classes, freeing them up to use reactions defensively. Clerics also don’t rely on weapon damage too much either, so they can afford to strap on a shield while wielding a finesse weapon to react defensively with this feat. Several Cleric Domains can use martial weapons, but the majority of Domains must use a dagger as their finesse weapon of choice. I don’t recommend this for War Clerics, for example, since they can use martial weapons and have abilities to enhance their martial attacks.
Fighting Initiate (War Domain and other frontliners): Take the Interceptor option so you can defend your brothers and sisters in arms while you’re in the fray. This is especially useful for War Domain Clerics since they’ll probably be in the thick of each fight. Interceptor is an effective way to protect your allies from damage.
Great Weapon Master (War Domain): With the Guided Strike Channel Divinity, you’ll be able to mitigate the risk of taking -5 to your attack rolls to deal +10 damage. If you miss the attack, gain +10 to hit, and you’ll probably hit.
Heavy Armor Master (Domains with heavy armor): Clerics must stay alive so they can keep everyone else alive. Heavy Armor Master’s damage reduction feature is great for mitigating damage a bit.
Magic Initiate (Life): Goodberry is a powerful combination with the Life Domain’s ‘Disciple of Life’ feature, buffing the healing of each Goodberry. This buffed Goodberry healing can enable 40 points of healing from a single first-level spell. There are other choices that make sense (Shield, Absorb Elements, etc.), but the Goodberry combination is synergistically exceptional. The cantrips can be whatever you want. I caution you on this one because your DM might call foul on this combination. Additionally, the synergy between Disciple of Life and Goodberry is technically only valid when using a spell slot, which Magic Initiate does not use. Talk to your DM before using this combination to make sure you’re not disappointed with how it turns out. This is a fringe combination that should be cleared with your DM, even if WotC has okayed it.
Shadow Touched (Trickery Domain): This feat is excellent for expanding your spells while boosting your Wisdom. Invisibility can be fun for characters who are not wearing noisy heavy armor.
Shield Master (Domains using heavy armor on the frontlines and using the Attack action): Clerics tend to use shields, so they might as well use them well. Fortify your Dexterity saving throws when you’re targeted, and use your bonus action after attacking to knock a foe prone. Any Cleric can use this feat well, but War Clerics will especially like Shield Master since they’ll likely be in the thick of a fight. They’ll be in a position to shove creatures down as a bonus action.
Racial Cleric Feats
Bountiful Luck (Halfling only, for large parties): Share your fortune with the rest of the party. They’ll love you for allowing them to reroll when they roll ones on their attacks, saves, and skill checks. This feat doesn’t have a cap on how much you can use it per rest; it’s only limited to once per round as your reaction.
Drow High Magic (Drow only): Casting Detect Magic at will is a premium support skill that will frustrate any DM. The instances of Levitate and Dispel Magic are also nice to have, preserving your spell slots while still casting useful spells.
Dwarven Fortitude (Dwarf only): Gotta keep the healer healthy. Many people neglect the Dodge action because they feel like it’s a waste of their action, but it’s viable in sticky situations where you just need to stay alive while your allies are free to take care of business. This feat allows you to heal yourself with Hit Dice to make the Dodge action twice as useful.
Infernal Constitution (Tiefling only): Gaining two new resistances while boosting your Constitution is passively useful. If you find your Tiefling Cleric has an odd Constitution ability score, even it out with Infernal Constitution.
Prodigy (Half-elf, Half-orc, and Human only; Knowledge Domain): Gain proficiencies and double your proficiency bonus for a skill. It’s intuitive that the Knowledge Domain would want more knowledge, so bonus proficiencies with Expertise are sweet. Sure, it’s only slightly better than the lame Skilled feat, but you could take both feats to learn a lot of skills if you’re into that.
Second Chance (Halfling only): This ability will allow you to support your allies in one roll per combat encounter. You can multiply the value of advantage or disadvantage because you’ll turn the two rolls into four rolls.
Spell Sniper / Elemental Adept (Light Domain): I’m told that players of the Light Cleric enjoy leaning further into the fire-blasting theme. They can gain a spell as Fire Bolt for attacks and overcome fire resistance for Fireball.
Wood Elf Magic (Wood Elf only; Nature and Trickery Domains): This feat will add to the flavor of the respective Domains. You can learn additional cantrips and spells that lend to your theme. Pass without Trace is a strong spell since it can enable your party to surprise foes.
Conclusion
Clerics are fairly versatile with feats since they’re already strong without them. What do you think of my selections?
Cast Message below if you agree or disagree with my recommendations. I’m eager to hear differing perspectives so I can increase my personal wisdom score.
May your adventures be full of holy might and tales worthy of scripture!
What about an “Inspirational Revival” feat where after delivering a moving sermon/testimonial, anyone within audience range is more “persuade-able” for the next hour-WITHOUT the consequence of them knowing afterwards…they are actually just more convinced! Maybe +3 on a persuasion check, or they have disadvantage… Televangilist stuff.
Nice! I’d probably call it “Soap Boxer” haha. This thematically reminds me of the Glamour Bard’s abilities. Great way to convert people.
What about fey touched or shadow touched?
Hi Larry! You’re right, I added those feats to the list. Your comment actually prompted me to update the entire article since I think my understanding of feats has improved and my ability to organize my thoughts has certainly improved. Cheers!
Under Domain Specific Feats you forgot Spell Sniper (or magic Initiate). For a blaster Light Cleric this is great to double spell range, ignore cover and gain the all important Firebolt spell, which has great synergy with all your other fire-based spells.
For Light, you also forgot Elemental Adept: Fire. Seeing as their domain spells contain most of the best Arcane fire spells, not being able to resist them is very key for this offensive style cleric.
I have played a Light Cleric, and once you gain these two feats you are slightly less than a warlock blaster, but they can’t resist you scorching ray and fireball, and you can heal/cure/bless as well (with armor and shield)
Thanks for the suggestion! I added a bit about the Light Domain.
Artificer Initiate is also very good, you can add absorb elements to your list of spells, and get thorn whip, a great cantrip for any spirit guardian caster
That’s true! Those are good spells to add to your Cleric arsenal. Absorb Elements is always a good grab for that unexpected dragon breath.
Metamagic Adept Feat for Light Cleric specifically. Can take Extended Spell and Transmuted Spell metamagic options to cast “Aid” for 16 hours right before taking a long rest and to cast “Fire” spells as cold or acid…to overcome resistances and immunities.
Those are fun ways to use Metamagic Adept for the Light Cleric!