Clerics in get lots of spells and powers from prayer and devotion to a god, but sometimes it can be helpful to t💟ake a break from going to church and get powers from another source. Multiclassing can help spice up some clerics, but not all classes mesh as well as others. Here is a guide to th🗹e best options.
Artificer
If you want a cleric with artificer flair, taking the Forge Domain subclass is your best bet. If you really want a different subclass, you can take one or two levels, but clerics don’t get much of anything from the spellcasting or infusions, and miss out on some hig🅺her lev✅el abilities.
Barbarian
Since clerics generally wear medium armor or higher, they won’t benefit from unarmored defense. Rage and Reckless Attack can work with offensive cleric subclasses, especially the War Domain, but the 17th-level War Domain subclass ability makes the rage resistance re𓃲dundant, so it’s best when taking multiple multiclasses, such as two levels of barbarian and two levels of paladin – forgoing higher level cleric abilities in favor of cross-class abilities. One level can also help trickery domain clerics who want to maintain a high AC without clanking armor, but it’s a minor benefit.
Bard
Multiclassing into bard doesn’t necessarily synergize with clerics, but it does offer extra supportive abilities that work well for support clerics. Also, since both are full casters, multiclassing into bard doesn’t reduce spell levels, no matter how many levels you put into bard. Really, the number of bard levels is only limited by how many bard ab🐽ilities you want and how many cleric abilities you’re willing to give up.
Druid
Neither druids nor clerics learn spells, which means that if you take one level of druid you have access to the entire druid spell list as🐼 long as you have spell slots to cast them, which you will. Druids have a lot of unique spells, 𓃲so it’s worth looking into. Wild Shape doesn’t do much for clerics, so one level is all you need. Still, access to the entire druid spell list is a good investment.
Fighter
Since the more aggressive cleric subclasses get weapon and armor proficiencies, there’s no need to take it for the proficiencies. Various fighting styles can be useful for more martial clerics, but the self-healing you gain from Second Wind doesn’t scale (and isn’t as necessary when you have cleric healing). Sec𒆙ond Wind is generally good, but debatably not worth two levels. At a certain point, players trying to build a cleric/fighter would be better off making a pal✤adin.
Monk
This is only good for dipping one level to create a Dexterity-based Trickery Domain cleric. Honestl♚y, barbarian might be better for that, ironicaᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚlly.
Paladin
It’s much better to take two levels of paladin rather than fighter if you want a martial cleric. The level one abilities are surprisingly decent, if not incredibly powerful. Divine Sense synergizes well with Turn Undead, and the alternative use of Lay on Hands can save a spell slot to avoid casting Lesser Restoration. At 2nd level, a fighting style gives a bonus to combat ability and Divine Smite gives b▨onus damage that scales with spell slots, not paladin level.
Ranger
For martial clerics, ranger falls somewhere in between fighter and paladin. Favored Enemy works thematically well for clerics who hate fien𝕴ds or undead (which are the best choices for Favored Enemy anyway). Rangers get a fighting style at level two, along with spellcasting. Most importantly, this spellcasting gives access to the hunter’s mark spell, which gives a lot of bonus damage when cast with higher-leve🐽l cleric spell slots. However, since hunter’s mark is a concentration spell, the paladin’s Divine Smite synergizes better.
Rogue
This can be thematically fun if you want to play a Trickster Domain cleric, but none of the abilities particularly benefit a cleric, and the bonus damage for Sneak Attack doesn’t scale and limits the ༺weapons you can use. If you want the flavor, it’s probably better to just choose a Criminal background.
Sorcerer
Since sorcerers are full casters, you can take as many sorcerer levels as you want without missing out on any cleric spell options. It can be beneficial to take a one-level dip into sorcerer or to take enough levels to capitalize on metamagic. The Sorcerous Origins are mostly for flavor, they offer nice abilities that don’t necessarily mesh or conflict with cleric abilities (except for Divine Soul, which is somewhat redundant). Clerics can capitalize on metamagic; there are a few “save or suck” spells on the cleric spell list that can greatly benefit from Heightened Spell, Extended Spell, or Twi🅷nned Spell. The amount of levels depends on how many sorcery points you want and how many cleric abilities you’re comfortable giving up. However, sorcerer spells will be less effective due to the fact that sorcerers use Charisma to cast spells.
Warlock
Warlocks tend to get more from clerics than clerics do from warlocks, but warlock subclasses do offer interesting abilities with only a one-level dip. The Archfey, Great Old One, and Hexblade patrons work well for different types of clerics. A level of warlock also gives access to eldritch blast, which is one of the best damaging cantrips in the game, even without Eldritch Invocations, and scales with character level, not class level. Taking two levels isn’t worth it; no invocations do that much for a cleric, warlock spells are less effective because they use Charisma, and cleric🧔 spells will lag behind because Pact Magic works different from regular spellcasting. Really though, the strategic choice is to avoid this multiclass altogether.
Wizard
Wizards get a wider variety of spells, but that expanded spell list is the most useful at higher levels. Also, these spells will be less effective since they are based on Intelligence instead of Wisdom♔. You could take a few levels to gain low-level utility spells, ꦇbut it’s not worth it.