I have a trick cleric. I love this character. I have set him up as a “Capitalist cleric/holy con man”. With the observant feat he is very perceptive and has enough charisma and persuasion/ deception proficiency. Thus his very persuasive in role playing. I just don’t put him in a fight.
Loved playing my Trickster Cleric, made a dex based character (obvs) and never saw a downside to the light armour rules. And no martial weapons? Well who cares! You’re a spell caster, have a shield in one hand and get the sacred flame or toll the dead rolling. Plus clerics are filled with amazing low level damaging spells, that go really well with mirror image (especially spirit guardians)
While poison is a nice flavor for trickery, it's awful for a cleric. Almost all undead are IMMUNE to poison, with a handful only resistant, and a handful others that poison will actually damage. Our level 8 "gift from our god" won't work against our greatest foes. Undead should fear us! Before unearthed arcana came out, my DM let me change it to psychic (which fit my trickster better anyway), but now we play with the variant class feature to use Blessed Strikes, which gets more use and uses radiant damage instead.
What better type of damage than poison for a trickster domain? Literally anything. Poison is the most common resistance and immunity in the game. Psychic or weapon damage type would have been equally as thematic without hamstringing an already lackluster ability. I do admire your positive outlook on the Trickster domain though. It’s frequently ranked at or near the bottom of many domain lists. The domain spell list alone is enough to put it at the front in my book. Dimension door is incredibly useful, and polymorph is commonly considered the best 4th level in the game. I would only use it offensively as a last resort though. As a single target save-or-suck spell, there’s a high risk of wasting it on an enemy when you could hold onto it to save an ally that is about to go down. I also wouldn’t consider crossbow expert for any cleric. The bonus action extra attack doesn’t stack up to be any better than spiritual weapon. If you’re going to make a martial trickster, you’re best off going melee and taking magic initiate to get access to booming blade. I would also never consider light armor for anything but rogue (and even then I would look for a way out of it on a rogue). Light armor is ok if Dex is your main stat and you intend to raise it asap, but being stuck at 14-16 Dex (you should never prioritize Dex over wisdom, your spells will always deal more damage than your weapons) will have you fall behind in armor class pretty quickly. Starting with leather, a shield, and 16 Dex, you’re looking at 16 ac versus 18 starting with scale and a shield. You won’t catch up to 18 ac until level 4 with studded leather and an ASI into Dex, and you won’t max out at 19 until at least lv 8, at which point you have the same ac as a cleric with the same starting stats who has picked up half plate and a shield, but they also have more feats and better wisdom. “Oh but David, you’ll have disadvantage on stealth!” Stick with a breastplate for a healthy ac of 18 and no disadvantage. Shop around for mithril half plate. If you have 16 Dex, take medium armor mastery to get an AC of 20 with a shield and ignore disadvantage from medium armor. The best way to keep concentration on your spells is to not get hit, and the best way to achieve that is with the best AC you can manage. Stealthing in combat has too much of an opportunity cost during combat, and you can shore up your stealth outside of combat with pass without trace. There is absolutely no reason a cleric should be caught wearing light armor.
I can agree that on this one there was quite a bit I didn't take into consideration. that happens after going through a million divine domains hahah! but thank you for sharing your insight and experience on this!
I'm planning on playing a goblin trickster cleric named Mordecai. Being a goblin his race gives him a plus 1 on Con. and a plus 2 on Dex. The group will be pissed having to cover for me and if I should die you might say my choice in race ended up being a "clerical error." 😉
Overall, I do like this subclass, a rogue like cleric is a really fun idea, the spells that this subclass gets are amazing and very flavorful, however there are obviously some design/abilities that need changing/improvement -this is opting for a dexterity/stealth style of gameplay, so perhaps giving the domain stealth proficiency at level 1 could help lean into that -in addition, perhaps giving this subclass martial weapons proficiency, or at the very least shortsword, scimitar, and rapier, could help this class compare to its strength based counterparts -Invoke duplicity is great, but perhaps the blessing of the trickster could be changed to last longer so it gets more use than a one time buff -poison damage is very flavorful but unfortunately it’s the worst damage type in the game, that accompanied with the fact that you’re best weapon option is a dagger/shortbow, makes me believe that the damage type could be changed to just more physical damage -In addition, breastplate armor is going to be your best friend for most of the game since it doesn’t give you stealth disadvantage. Yes, medium armor master could also work, but you’re also gonna need a high wisdom so there’s no need to make yourself anymore ASI strained
I have a trick cleric. I love this character. I have set him up as a “Capitalist cleric/holy con man”. With the observant feat he is very perceptive and has enough charisma and persuasion/ deception proficiency. Thus his very persuasive in role playing. I just don’t put him in a fight.
Capitalist Cleric, and Holy Con Man have a nice ring to them.
I am thinking a Satyr Trickery Cleric would be awesome!
Some rare quality dnd content right here
Thank you so much!
Loved playing my Trickster Cleric, made a dex based character (obvs) and never saw a downside to the light armour rules. And no martial weapons? Well who cares! You’re a spell caster, have a shield in one hand and get the sacred flame or toll the dead rolling. Plus clerics are filled with amazing low level damaging spells, that go really well with mirror image (especially spirit guardians)
The Dickery domain as I like to call it
7:04 what better damage? Anything else, how about psychic for the migrains your chaotic rules give others?
Im trying to make a gnome trickery cleric barbarian way of the beast.
Which would be better for a sun wukong class trickery domain cleric or rouge
While poison is a nice flavor for trickery, it's awful for a cleric. Almost all undead are IMMUNE to poison, with a handful only resistant, and a handful others that poison will actually damage. Our level 8 "gift from our god" won't work against our greatest foes. Undead should fear us! Before unearthed arcana came out, my DM let me change it to psychic (which fit my trickster better anyway), but now we play with the variant class feature to use Blessed Strikes, which gets more use and uses radiant damage instead.
What better type of damage than poison for a trickster domain? Literally anything. Poison is the most common resistance and immunity in the game. Psychic or weapon damage type would have been equally as thematic without hamstringing an already lackluster ability.
I do admire your positive outlook on the Trickster domain though. It’s frequently ranked at or near the bottom of many domain lists. The domain spell list alone is enough to put it at the front in my book. Dimension door is incredibly useful, and polymorph is commonly considered the best 4th level in the game. I would only use it offensively as a last resort though. As a single target save-or-suck spell, there’s a high risk of wasting it on an enemy when you could hold onto it to save an ally that is about to go down.
I also wouldn’t consider crossbow expert for any cleric. The bonus action extra attack doesn’t stack up to be any better than spiritual weapon. If you’re going to make a martial trickster, you’re best off going melee and taking magic initiate to get access to booming blade.
I would also never consider light armor for anything but rogue (and even then I would look for a way out of it on a rogue). Light armor is ok if Dex is your main stat and you intend to raise it asap, but being stuck at 14-16 Dex (you should never prioritize Dex over wisdom, your spells will always deal more damage than your weapons) will have you fall behind in armor class pretty quickly. Starting with leather, a shield, and 16 Dex, you’re looking at 16 ac versus 18 starting with scale and a shield. You won’t catch up to 18 ac until level 4 with studded leather and an ASI into Dex, and you won’t max out at 19 until at least lv 8, at which point you have the same ac as a cleric with the same starting stats who has picked up half plate and a shield, but they also have more feats and better wisdom. “Oh but David, you’ll have disadvantage on stealth!” Stick with a breastplate for a healthy ac of 18 and no disadvantage. Shop around for mithril half plate. If you have 16 Dex, take medium armor mastery to get an AC of 20 with a shield and ignore disadvantage from medium armor. The best way to keep concentration on your spells is to not get hit, and the best way to achieve that is with the best AC you can manage. Stealthing in combat has too much of an opportunity cost during combat, and you can shore up your stealth outside of combat with pass without trace. There is absolutely no reason a cleric should be caught wearing light armor.
I can agree that on this one there was quite a bit I didn't take into consideration. that happens after going through a million divine domains hahah! but thank you for sharing your insight and experience on this!
I'm planning on playing a goblin trickster cleric named Mordecai. Being a goblin his race gives him a plus 1 on Con. and a plus 2 on Dex.
The group will be pissed having to cover for me and if I should die you might say my choice in race ended up being a "clerical error." 😉
I was on board until the dad joke hahaha! Mordecai is a great name!
@@TheRPGDaily lol Critical Role taught me how to think of characters in pun forms. ;)
Overall, I do like this subclass, a rogue like cleric is a really fun idea, the spells that this subclass gets are amazing and very flavorful, however there are obviously some design/abilities that need changing/improvement
-this is opting for a dexterity/stealth style of gameplay, so perhaps giving the domain stealth proficiency at level 1 could help lean into that
-in addition, perhaps giving this subclass martial weapons proficiency, or at the very least shortsword, scimitar, and rapier, could help this class compare to its strength based counterparts
-Invoke duplicity is great, but perhaps the blessing of the trickster could be changed to last longer so it gets more use than a one time buff
-poison damage is very flavorful but unfortunately it’s the worst damage type in the game, that accompanied with the fact that you’re best weapon option is a dagger/shortbow, makes me believe that the damage type could be changed to just more physical damage
-In addition, breastplate armor is going to be your best friend for most of the game since it doesn’t give you stealth disadvantage. Yes, medium armor master could also work, but you’re also gonna need a high wisdom so there’s no need to make yourself anymore ASI strained
Make the luck domain!
You've got it man!