Divine Domain
At 1st level, a Cleric gains the Divine Domain feature.
The following Death Domain (Revised) option is
available to a Cleric, in addition to those in the
Player's Handbook and other official options.
Death Domain (Revised)
The Death domain is concerned with the forces that
cause death, as well as the negative energy that destroys life
force. Deities such as Chemosh, Myrkul, and Wee Jas are patrons of necromancers, death knights, liches, mummy lords, and vampires. Gods of the Death domain also embody murder (Anubis, Bhaal, and Pyremius), pain (Iuz or Loviatar), disease or poison (Incabulos, Talona, or Morgion), and the underworld (Hades and Hel).
| Cleric Level | Feature |
|---|---|
| 1st | Domain Spell, Reaper, Mark of the Dead |
| 2nd | Channel Divinity: Death's Call |
| 6th | Inescapable End |
| 8th | Potent Spellcasting |
| 17th | Death’s Embrace |
Domain Spell
1st level Death Domain Feature
You gain domain spells at the cleric levels listed in the Death Domain Spells table. Once you gain a domain spell, you always have it prepared, and it doesn’t count against the number of spells you can prepare each day. If you have a domain spell that doesn’t appear on the cleric spell list, the spell is nonetheless a cleric spell for you.
Death Domain Spell
| Cleric Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | inflict wounds, cause fear |
| 3rd | blindness/deafness, ray of enfeeblement |
| 5th | animate dead, vampiric touch |
| 7th | blight, shadow of moil |
| 9th | enervation, negative energy flood |
Reaper
1st level Death Domain Feature
When you choose this domain at 1st level, you learn one necromancy cantrip of your choice from any spell list. The cantrip counts as cleric spells for you and it doesn’t count against the number of cleric cantrips you know.
Addtionally, when you cast a necromancy cantrip that normally targets only one creature, the spell can instead target two creatures within range and within 5 feet of each other.
At 10th level, the range within the two creatures that you can target is increased to 10 feet.
Mark of the Dead
1st level Death Domain Feature
At 1st level, as the disciple of death, you ensure that the dead remain dead. As an action, you can touch a corpse, a dead creature, or other remains to grant them the effect of Mark of the Dead that lasts until dispelled. A creature under the effect of Mark of the Dead can’t be brought back from the dead using spells or magic such as raise dead, revivify, resurrection, true resurrection, reincarnate, or any similar magic. Attempting to bring the creature back from the dead using spells aforementioned automatically fails and the material component is wasted. This feature can be dispelled by casting remove curse on the creature and must succeed an ability check using the caster spellcasting ability against your spell save DC.
The number of times that you can use this feature is equal to your proficiency bonus. You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Channel Divinity: Death's Call
2nd level Death Domain Feature
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to destroy another creature's life force when you deal necrotic damage.
When you deal necrotic damage by your cleric spells to a creature, you can use your Channel Divinity to deal extra necrotic damage to the creature equal to 1d8 plus your cleric level and the creature can't regain hit points until the start of your next turn.
Inescapable End
6th level Death Domain Feature
Starting at 6th level, your ability to channel deathly energy becomes more potent. Necrotic damage dealt by your cleric spells and Channel Divinity options ignores resistance to necrotic damage.
Additionally, whenever you roll a 1 on a damage die for necrotic damage dealt by your cleric spells or your Channel Divinity options, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1.
Potent Spellcastting
8th level Death Domain Feature
Starting at 8th level, you add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with any cleric cantrip.
Death’s Embrace
17th level Death Domain Feature
Starting at 17th level, the deaths around you empower your unholy magic. When a creature that you can see and within 60 feet of you reduces to 0 hit points, you can use your reaction to absorb their life force and you gain the effect of Death’s Embrace that lasts until the end of your next turn. While under the effect of Death’s Embrace, whenever you roll for necrotic damage, you deal maximum damage instead of rolling.
Cleric Subclass
Death Domain
(Revised)
A revision of WOTC Death Domain Cleric from 5e Dungeon Master's Guide.
Death Domain Cleric (Revised) Created by Fancy Alpaca, u/mikodyingnoodle
Artist Credits:
Front Cover Page : Priestess of the Spider by Nerval 1 .
Page 1 : Margot by Km Yama, Artwork by Artem Demura.
Page 2 : The Sorrow by Artem Demura.
Back Cover Page: The Snake-eyed Witch by Shafi Adam.
Design Notes
Here are some of my thought process while designing this revision of death domain cleric.
(sorry for the bad english, english is not my first language)
Death Domain Cleric (Revised)
I had an idea of making a character that is all about making the dead, stay dead and I want to find a subclass that can itch that niche. So I look at death cleric and most of it features kinda lackluster and does not fulfill the flavor of a evil high priest of death. I decided to change this subclass from a melee/caster hybrid into a full caster class.
So I decided to make it a caster class instead and I want it to focus on dealing necrotic damage. I want it to be different from necromancy wizard so I decided that this subclass should focus on blasting necrotic damage instead of summoning minions so the flavor does not overlap and both niches could exist.
Spell list (1st level)
Reaper (1st level)
I removed martial weapon proficiency because this iteration does not benefit from martial weapons and I know that one of the reasons this feature is on death cleric is because it allows the cleric to wield a scythe (reflavor of halberd), sorry. I replaced it with Reaper sorta like ‘bonus cantrip’ and added Mark of the dead. I added scaling on this feature, which is the range within the creature increases to 10 ft from 5ft. I added this to compensate for the removal of Improved Reaper.
Mark of the Dead (1st level)
This feature is purely for rp and flavour. It's odd that a death cleric who despises life doesn't have an anti-life gimmick, especially since it's such a thematic feature for a death cleric. I know this feature has the potential to break the game because certain major plot points could be handled entirely by this feature. The main purpose of this feature is to prevent the corpse/body from being revived by any form of life magic (wish spells can bypass this). However, it could be dispelled simply by casting remove curse and making an ability check against the cleric spell save DC. I decided to leave it open-ended as what happens to the creature soul when they are under this effect, perhaps their spirit has gone away but only the body can't be revived, and also because the whole soul travel, planar, plane thingy is complicated and I'll leave it up to DM interpretation.
Channel Divinity: Death's Call (2nd level)
I changed the prerequisite to proc this feature from melee weapon attack to necrotic damage to fit in the spellcaster nature of this class and lower the damage from double your cleric level into only your cleric level since you can now cast it with spells. Also I change 5 to 1d8 (avg dmg is 5) because I like to roll dice and it complements the 6th level feature. Also I added the chill touch effect where the creature can’t gain hit points for 1 turn because it fits and enhances the thematic of this subclass. I changed the name of this feature from Touch of Death to Death's Call because it doesn't require 'touch' anymore and I prefer Death's Call better because it sounds more spooky.
Inescapable End (6th level)
I added the effect of rerolling any 1 you get when rolls for necrotic damage because it is kinda rare to find monsters that are resistant towards necrotic damage so you dont really get the most of it. I made sure that you can only reroll using cleric spells or features because I don't want this feature to be abused by multiclass. I changed the name from Inescapable Destruction to Inescapable End because personally when I think of death I don't think of destruction, it's more like an ending that you can't escape.
Potent Spellcastting (8th level)
since its a spellcasting focus class, its much better to change divine strike to potent spellcasting to fit the thematic
Death's Embrace (17th level)
The original capstone of this subclass which is ‘Improved Reaper’ is very boring and underwhelming in my opinion. You spend years becoming the herald of death and the power you get from that is you can now target 2 people when casting necromancy spells, that's boring. I removed ‘Improved Reaper’ and added Death’s Embrace. A feature where someone died and the you gained power from it really does fit the thematic of this subclass. I'm not sure whether it is balanced or not so I would really love to hear more thoughts on it. I was thinking of making it once per long rest but that sounds very restrictive because it has a very niche activation where someone needs to die near you.( yes you can upcast inflict wounds up to lvl 9 spell for it to deal 110 dmg, no you can't kill a bug before combat to get it because it only last for a couple of seconds)