We independently assess all our recommendations. Purchases through our links may earn us a commission.
Clerics have access to some of the most beneficial spells in the game. From healing to planar transportation to straight damage, clerics definitely have a versatile kit. With so many options though, it can be hard to choose which spells to take at each level. Here’s a quick guide on the most useful spells at each level for clerics in D&D 5e.
While this isn’t an exhaustive list, and you may find other spells to be more useful, depending on your campaign, it’s still a decent starting point for both new and veteran players. Without further ado, here are the best cleric spells in D&D 5e that you need to be running in your next campaign or short adventure.
The Best Cleric Cantrips
Guidance & Resistance
Guidance and Resistance are separate and opposite spells, but are some of the handiest spells in D&D. Guidance allows a creature you touch to add 1d4 to an ability check. Likewise, Resistance allows a creature you touch to add 1d4 to a saving throw. You can choose to use the 1d4 before or after you make the ability check, which can make for some tide-turning rolls.
Word of Radiance
Word of Radiance is a great way to deal damage to every creature in sight instantaneously. Utter the magic words, and every creature in sight is forced to succeed on a Constitution saving throw or take 1d6 damage, scaling with levels.
The Best 1st-Level Cleric Spells
Cure Wounds
A staple of any cleric, Cure Wounds is one of the first spells spellcasters can use to heal themselves or their party members. Cure Wounds heals 1d8 plus your spellcasting modifier. At early levels, 1d8 is often enough to heal most damage and bring a Wizard from the brink of death to full health.
Inflict Wounds
While you should probably save your spell slots for healing rather than damage, sometimes you have to dish out 3d10 necrotic damage in addition to your weapon’s damage. This spell can miss if you miss, so it is a sort of all-or-nothing, but if it hits, it can pack a punch.
Protection from Good and Evil
A lot of people ignore Protection from Good and Evil because it isn’t as flashy as some of the other spells in a cleric’s pocket, but it can change the tide of battle in a snap. The spell itself offers one creature you touch protection from aberrations, celestials, elementals, fey, fiends, and undead.
Protection in this sense means any of these creature types have disadvantage against the target and that the target can’t be charmed, frightened, or possessed by them. If the creature with protection is under the effects of one of those, it has advantage on any savings throws.
The Best 2nd-Level Cleric Spells
Aid
Also, one of the best Ranger spells, Aid, is a great all-around option for any cleric. Being able to increase up to three creatures’ max hit points and current hit points by 5 is great. The fact that it lasts 8 hours and can be cast while in combat means you can even heal unconscious party members so they can get back in the action.
Augury
This one is more of a fun one, but it can also be extremely useful. Augury basically lets you ask the DM, “Is this plan going to work, or are we facing certain death?” Obviously, it’s a little trickier than that since the game relies on RNG, but it can come in handy if you’re planning an elaborate plan or are deciding which path to take.
Silence
If you’re having trouble with a spellcaster or thunder damage for some odd reason, being able to make a 20-foot sphere with no sound is one solution. Creatures inside are immune to thunder damage, are deafened, and can’t cast spells with verbal components. Your characters are unable to talk to each other in it, too, so make sure you take that into account. Cast Silence and start grappling that wizard to keep him inside.
Spiritual Weapon
If Spiritual Weapon required concentration, it would probably be a bad spell, but since it doesn’t, it’s a great way to boost your damage as a cleric. You summon the weapon within 60 feet of yourself, and it can attack anyone within 5 feet for 1d8 plus your spellcasting modifier force damage. As a bonus action, you can move the weapon up to 20 feet and make another attack.
The Best 3rd-Level Cleric Spells
Clairvoyance
Imagine being able to hear or see anything going on in a place you have been or an obvious place you haven’t yet seen (behind a door/around a corner). Well, with Clairvoyance, a cleric can do just that. This spell is great for getting information or watching over an area for a short duration. It’s a great non-damaging non-healing tool to have in your pocket throughout your campaign.
Dispel Magic
Someone in your party should always be able to dispel magic. Dispel Magic easily lets you end any magical effect of 3rd-level or lower. Higher levels of magic can still be beaten but require an ability check first (DC 10 + Spell Level). Dispel Magic is instantaneous and can be cast up to 120 feet away, making it a great way to deal with a magical effect from afar.
Spirit Guardians
Spirit Guardians easily lets you control a room by summoning spirits to slow anyone within a 15-foot radius and deal 3d8 damage if they enter or start their turn in the space. The damage is halved on a successful Wisdom saving throw and is either necrotic or radiant, depending on your alignment. The spell lasts 10 minutes under concentration, so you can easily run through a few rooms with this effect going.
Tongues
Have you ever spent five minutes trying to decide the best extra language to take when making your character? Well, Tongues immediately makes any known language useless. Tongues lets a target creature understand and be understood by anyone. It only lasts an hour, but that’s often more than enough time to discuss whatever needs to be discussed.
The Best 4th-Level Cleric Spells
Banishment
Banish works differently depending on what plane you’re on and what plane the target is from, but either way, it’s a great way to deal with an enemy. If your target is from the same plane that you’re on, Banishment will essentially just send them away for 10 rounds, only to return in the same spot. This lets you deal with any existing threats and then focus on the banished target.
If the target is from another plane than the one you are currently on, banishing will send them home. If you manage to concentrate for the full duration of the spell, the target remains in their home plane; otherwise, they return.
Death Ward
For 8 hours, your target cannot die. Well, they can, but the first time they would drop below 0 hit points, they instead drop to 1, and the spell’s protection ends. The ward also protects against Power Word Death, but just once. Slap this bad boy on your squishy mage or whoever you think is most likely to die in the next 8 hours.
Stone Shape
Ever wanted to just will a door into existence? With Stone Shape, you can. Stone Shape lets you manipulate stone, which is everywhere in dungeons and caves. Easily make a doorway, seal a doorway, create a statue, or negate a trap. Stone Shape is a very versatile spell and allows clerics to directly manipulate their environment in ways not typically possible.
The Best 5th-Level Cleric Spells
Commune
Real-life priests wish they could do this. Imagine if you could call up an (almost) omniscient being and ask three yes or no questions and get answers. Commune allows you to garner information that would almost certainly not be available to you otherwise in your campaign or is hard to get. Just be sure to write down your questions beforehand because you only have a minute
Scrying
In a similar vein as Commune and Clairvoyance, Scrying is an amazingly versatile spell. You can either pick a creature or place and spy on them if they fail a saving throw which is influenced by things like how well you know them and if you have any personal items of theirs.
No one will be aware that you are scrying unless they can see invisible objects, in which case they will simply see a floating orb. The orb follows the creature wherever it may go for the duration of the spell.
The Best 6th-Level Cleric Spells
True Sight
True Sight gives a creature the ability to see things as they really are. They can see invisible creatures and objects, the true form of shapeshifters, visual illusions, and see into the ethereal plane. All of that will definitely come in handy at one point or another during your campaign.
Word of Recall
Monopoly has a Get Out of Jail Free card, and D&D has Word of Recall. After taking this spell, visit a temple or similar construction of your deity and declare it your sanctuary. The next time you’re in trouble, you can cast Word of Recall and instantly teleport yourself and up to 5 creatures within 5 feet back to your safe space. Hopefully, the 5 includes any pets in your party; otherwise, there’s going to be some explaining to do.
The Best 7th-Level Cleric Spells
Plane Shift
Plane Shift lets you and up to eight willing creatures travel to another plane of existence. This is a great spell for higher-level parties that find themselves traveling to different planes. It can also be used to banish a creature to another plane. On a successful melee hit, the creature must make a Charisma saving throw. If they fail, they are sent to a plane of your choice and must find their own way home.
The Best 8th-Level Cleric Spells
Holy Aura
Holy Aura is easily the best 8th-level Cleric spell. For 10 rounds (if you keep concentration), divine light emanates out of you in a 30-foot radius. Your party, and any other creature you choose, have advantage on all saving throws, and any other creatures have disadvantage on attack rolls against them.
Any fiend or undead that hits a member of your party has to succeed in a Constitiution saving throw or be blinded until the spell ends. This is a great way to turn the tide of a fight if you’re in a tough spot and need an extra boost.
The Best 9th-Level Cleric Spells
Mass Heal
Mass Heal is almost certainly the strongest healing spell in the game. Heal up to 700 hit points among any number of creatures you can see within 60 feet. They are also cured of any diseases and blind/deafening effects. 700 hit points is almost certainly enough to heal your party to full unless everyone was at 0.
