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The Trickery Domain is one of the more unusual subclasses 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Dungeons & Dragons has to offer. Much like the deities that inspire the class, a trickery cleric doesn't have to be just one thing, and the options for building one reflect this. There are multiple ways to build a trickery cleric, and some may contradict each other.
Some choices lean more towards a charismatic trickster, while others will work better on a holy assassin. The niche of Trickery Clerics is that they can juggle these multiple roles better than a specialised healer or rogue, but won't surpass either in their natural habitat.
Best Species And Background For A Trickery Cleric
A high-elf is a reliable option, providing a +2 dexterity alongside a wizard cantrip (although some sourcebooks allow you to customise the ability score increase). Minor illusion is a powerful tool for a creative player, allowing the trickery cleric to disguise themselves as a shrub or conceal a trap on the floor.
People who recognise an illusion as false, such 🍃as your party members who see you place it, will be able to see through the illusionꩵ. This can be used for creating one-way windows.
A character with fey heritage is well suited to becoming a trickery cleric. The fairy and harengon both have the fey creature type that makes them immune to spell effects that target humanoids and can choose to play as small size creatures, allowing them to sneak and hide in ways other characters cannot.
You can also tie these fey ancestries into the character's backstory for their affinity for trickery and deception.
A background that gives access to thieves' tools is useful if your party does not have a rogue. It can help to coordinate with your party members during character creation to ensure you do not step on each other's toes.
Best Ability Scores And Skills For A Trickery Cleric
Certain sourcebooks for Fifth Edition D&D offer the option to change the ability score modifiers offered by species. If your DM allows these books, you can take any ancestry and still optimise the ability scores offered for building your character.
Background options can be similarly modified to give any two skill proficiencies and a tool proficiency that suit the character.
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Wisdom |
Wisdom is a priority for your spell casting abilities, and trickery clerics are clerics first and tricksters second. As a cleric it's your sacred duty to roll well on wisdom saving throws against mass mind control and slap sense back into anyone who failed with Protection from Evil and Good. Wisdom will also boost your perception, helping you evade ambushes. Insight is a similarly useful wisdom skill for knowing when you are being deceived: It'd be embarrassing for the trickster cleric to be out-conned. |
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Dexterity |
Dexterity is your next highest priority. You'll want as much dexterity as can fit on your character sheet, especially if you're wearing light armour. A high AC and dexterity saving throws will help you avoid damage and focus on other roles than healing. The skills offered by dexterity don't appeal to typical clerics but are important if you want to play your cleric as closer to a rogue. Sleight of hand and stealth are key to this. While the trickery domain does have features that incentivise them to make melee attacks in combat, this is rarely worth the risk. Your spells will be able to inflict more damage than attacking, and strategic enemies are liable to prioritise you as a target. |
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Constitution |
Constitution is always good to have more of but it is also one that you can always cut if you're desperate for other stats. You have medium armour if you want it, and your invoke duplicity feature means that you don't have to be on the front lines if you don't want to be. |
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Charisma |
Charisma doesn't play into your class features directly, but the nature of a trickery cleric incentivises you not to neglect charisma. A con is only as convincing as the con artist, which means a decent charisma score and proficiency in deception. |
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Strength |
Strength is rather conditional. If you're leaning more into the base cleric skill set and picking up heavier armour through feats, you'll need enough strength to move unimpeded. Otherwise, it doesn't offer much. |
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Intelligence |
Intelligence is required for lore-related skills such as history and religion but has nothing else to offer you. Investigation is helpful for certain criminal acts like casing a joint or identifying hidden compartments and passages, but a single skill doesn't justify investing in this ability score. A low intelligence will slightly increase your chance of dying instantly to an intellect devourer, which is yet another reason to keep Protection From Evil and Good on your spell list. Speaking of... |
Spell Selections For A Trickery Cleric
Your domain spells give you ready access to many spells that a cleric cannot normally enjoy. Mirror Image provides a way of protecting yourself without relying on a high AC or hitpoints, and doesn't require concentration.
Disguise Self can create disposable identities for committing uncivil acts, and Blink allows you to avoid damage while stillജ keeping close to the center of the action.
The additional spells you prepare can be used to cover a wider range of skills, filling the gaps in your domain spells with more traditional cleric abilities.
- Staple cleric spells such as Healing Word, Spiritual Weapon, and Spirit Guardians will all see regular use.
- Revivify and Gentle Repose are both useless until they suddenly become vital: you'll want one but not both.
- Your domain spell Pass Without Trace allows your entire party to scout ahead and gather information to plan a group strategy. Protection from Energy and Protection from Evil and Good are powerful defensive spells that any cleric will benefit from, but that you may not know to prepare without scouting.
- Spells like Detect Poison And Disease will see situational use for a normal cleric, but one dabbling in criminal activities will have extra reasons to check their food is safe.
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Your Channel Divinity power Invoke Duplicity allows you to cast short-range spells from a greater distance without endangering yourself. This lets you substitute weaker ranged spells for stronger melee variants, as long as you're willing to forfeit the ability to concentrate on a powerful cleric buff spell.
- Your illusory copy can close to melee and cast Inflict Wounds on an enemy or back up a tank by buffing them with Protection From Energy (although this will mean losing concentration on the illusion).
Some of these details will be more or less effective depending on the group you play with and how your game is run. If your group rarely does reconnaissance, then you'll benefit less from Pass Without Trace, but a game heavy on political intrigue will see greater use from Detect Poison And Disease and its partner Purify Food And Drink.
Multiclassing For Trickery Clerics
The way that trickery clerics꧃ occupy multiple niches means that they benefit well from multiclasses that allow them to commit more strongly to one of those areas.
The drawbacks are delaying your spell slot advancement and spreading your already thin ability scores even further.
You'll want to plan your multiclassing well ahead of time, s🦹o you can be sure ⛦you meet the conditions for the class you want.
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Class |
Requirement |
Application |
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Rogue |
13 dexterity |
Rogue offers sneak attack as a powerful damage boost as well as the expertise feature to buff up your skill proficiencies to new heights. |
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Bard |
13 charisma |
Bard offers the same expertise bonuses as rogue and continues to provide spell slots on level-up but requires charisma for its spellcasting features. The College of Whispers leans into deception as a thematic complement to trickery. |
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Fighter |
13 strength or dexterity |
Fighter gives a fighting style to improve your weapon attacks but doesn't offer heavy armour when taken through multiclassing. The Echo Knight can double down on the trickery cleric's ability to summon copies, and allows you to swap places with the duplicates. |
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Warlock |
13 charisma |
Warlock invocations offer some fun tools for a creative player. Unlimited uses of disguise self can save some of your first-level spell slots, and the ability to see through magical darkness can aid you greatly in stealth. A pact of the chain warlock can summon an invisible sprite familiar, a powerful reconnaissance aide that can also inflict the poisoned condition with its ranged attack. |
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Druid |
13 wisdom |
Handing out a fistful of Goodberries to your party members before a fight can save you the time needed to heal people during combat but won't replace proper healing spells. Druid is another full spell caster that uses wisdom, reducing the fr🌟iction between the two halves of your character. Wild Shape can complement your stealth abilities, makꦑing use of animal forms that are inconspicuous such as spiders and rats. |
How To Roleplay A Trickery Cleric
There are many options for roleplaying a cleric of trickery, and n💞o shortage of v꧅ariations on each.
You could roleplay them as being a servant to a different deity and hide their allegiance to a trickster god. The cultura🎐l and political influence of being a member of clergy can open doors that wouဣld need lock-picking for an ordinary rogue.
You can draw helpful inspiration for this archetype from mythologies such as Odin and Loki, both of whom would often hide their identities and wield deception in their stories. You'll want to have a skill proficiency in religion to help follow through on this bluff.
A trickster cleric could fit right at home in a party of criminals or outlaws. This could allow you to lean into your clerical side to stand out from rogues and rangers, perhaps channeling the energy of Friar Tuck from Robin Hood's Merry Men.
Tri✨ckery magic could be a necessary tool for your line of work or a creative flair from somebody who loves their j⭕ob.
The cleric could represent a more covert branch of a mainstream church. Instead of a trickster god, they can revere the cunning stratagems of a martial deity, for example.
The cleric might not be a trickster themselves but a mark swindled by a trickster deity.
This may lean closer to the flavour of a warlock, and you should consult your GM to see whether this is suitable for the setting.