DnD 2024 Cleric Class Guide

Introduction

DnD 5e Clerics are among the most diverse and interesting classes in 5e DnD. Because your choice of Divine Domain so greatly affects your capabilities, Clerics can fit a variety of roles and play styles. More generally, Clerics are the best healers in the game, and have among the best support, utility, and divination options in the game. However, they are by no means limited to healing and support roles.

In a party, the Cleric can serve effectively as a Healer, a Support caster, and can provide a little bit of Blaster, Scholar, and Striker, though they won’t match a Wizard in those roles. Different subclasses will offer different options which can expand your roles within the party, allowing Clerics to fill a variety of niches. Divine Order (Protector) adds heavy armor proficiency, but unfortunately that’s not enough to consider yourself a Defender.

This article is for the 2024 DnD rules. For the 2014 rules, see our 2014 DnD 5e Cleric Class Guide.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Cleric Class Features
• 2024 Cleric Changes from 2014 Rules
• Cleric Backgrounds
• Cleric Species
• Cleric Ability Scores
  • Divine Order (Protector)
  • Divine Order (Thaumaturge)
• Cleric Skills
• Cleric Feats
  • Origin Feats
  • General Feats
  • Epic Boons
• Cleric Weapons
• Cleric Armor
• Cleric Multiclassing

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks, which is simple to understand and easy to read at a glance.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

We will not include 3rd-party content, including content from DMs Guild, in handbooks for official content because we can’t assume that your game will allow 3rd-party content or homebrew. We also won’t cover Unearthed Arcana content because it’s not finalized, and we can’t guarantee that it will be available to you in your games.

The advice offered below is based on the current State of the Character Optimization Meta as of when the article was last updated. Keep in mind that the state of the meta periodically changes as new source materials are released, and the article will be updated accordingly as time allows.

Cleric Class Features

Hit Points: d8 hit points is good for a full caster, but it can be problematic since many Clerics fight on the front lines. Fortunately, Clerics have the best healing abilities in the game, so they can easily compensate for a small pool of hit points.

Saves: Wisdom and Charisma saves cover some of the most debilitating effects in the game.

Proficiencies: Medium armor and shields will give you a decent AC, especially if you’re not building for melee combat. Simple weapons will be fine, especially once your spells eclipse your damage output with weapons. Clerics don’t get any tools, and get two skills from a very short list of options.

1. Spellcasting: The Cleric is a Wisdom-based full caster. With the ability to prepare any Cleric spell at the beginning of the day, the Cleric’s spell list is even more open than the Wizard’s. Your choice of Divine Domain also grants up to 10 free prepared spells as you gain levels, allowing you to play to your domain’s theme without cutting into your normal prepared spells. Clerics have some of the best divination options in the game, all of the best healing options, many of the best buffs and debuffs, as well as iconic offensive options like Spirit Guardians.

1. Divine Order: Divine Order splits clerics between front-line clerics and back-line clerics, at least in concept. The reality is that Protector gets +1 AC, but Thaumaturge gets a cantrip and they’re actually good at Religion. A difference of 1 AC shouldn’t stop you from wading into melee.

• Protector: Heavy armor is very nice, but Martial weapons aren’t significantly better than Simple weapons since Clerics don’t get Weapon Mastery.
• Thaumaturge: Fantastic on any Cleric.

2. Channel Divinity: A flexible pool of resources used for various abilities. Divine Spark and Turn Undead are the default, but your subclass might offer more options, such as Life Domain’s Preserve Life. You get up to 4 uses per rest, and Channel Divinity recharges on a Short Rest, making it a deep resource pool to draw from.

Since Channel Divinity isn’t a spell, using it doesn’t run into the “1 leveled spell per turn” rule, which means that you can still use your Bonus Action for spells like Healing Word and Spiritual Weapon.

• Divine Spark: Divine Spark is the default use for your Channel Divinity. It’s not as much healing as Cure Wounds when you first get this, but as you gain more Channel Divinity uses and as Divine Spark’s healing improves, the total amount that you can heal in a day grows exponentially.
• Turn Undead: Only situationally useful since it only affects one creature type, but it also mostly negates a common creature type as a threat. This upgrades at level 5 when you get Sear Undead to also deal damage, allowing you to easily clear out groups of low-CR undead.

  Turn Undead notably affects “undead of your choice” within range, which is a convenient way for you to include undead in your party without accidentally turning them.

3. Subclass: Cleric subclasses are briefly summarized below. See our Cleric Subclasses Breakdown for help selecting your subclass.

• Life Domain: The best healer in the game.
• Light Domain: Expand the Cleric’s already excellent spellcasting by adding Fireball and a few other neat features.
• Trickery Domain: The sneakiest Cleric you can get without multiclassing.
• War Domain: Support your and your allies’ ability to hit stuff with weapons and generally thrive in melee combat.

5. Sear Undead: Not a ton of damage, but this is here to kill low-CR enemies, not as a way to attack big undead enemies. 5d8 averages to 22.5, which is just enough to kill a standard Zombie with 22 hp.

7. Blessed Strikes: Your choice here also locks you into Improved Blessed Strikes at level 14.

• Divine Strike: Your cantrips will still deal more damage, and using a weapon effectively will require you to invest in Strength or Dexterity enough that you’re neglecting spellcasting. Even if you have a greataxe and 20 Strength, 1d12+1d8+5 damage (avg. 16), it barely beats Toll the Dead at this level (2d12, avg. 13), and cantrips improve earlier and faster than Divine Strike does. And that’s to say nothing of Potent Cantrips, which makes cantrips so much more effective that Divine Strike can’t hope to compete.

  War Domain may be the only viable use for Divine Strike. Since War Priest lets you attack as a Bonus Action, it gives you an opportunity to use this alongside other spells. If possible, get Shillelagh so that you can use Wisdom for attack and damage.

• Potent Cantrips: Consistently useful.

10. Divine Intervention: Absolutely amazing. Raise Dead as an Action with no gold cost. Hallow mid-combat. Prayer of Healing as an Action to take a Short Rest mid-combat. You don’t need to have the spells prepared, either, so most of the Cleric’s spell list is available.

14. Improved Blessed Strikes: Remember that your choice at level 7 locks you into your choice here, too.

• Divine Strike: More damage, but not nearly enough to make weapons viable for the Cleric. By now cantrips are dealing 3 dice of damage, which will easily outpace weapons even with Divine Strike.
• Potent Cantrips: Absolutely fantastic. By now you likely have 20 Wisdom, and 10 Temporary Hit Points is pretty great. They also don’t have an explicit duration, so they last until you finish a long rest. Grab your bag of rats and start killing rats to hand out THP to your party before every fight.

20. Greater Divine Intervention: Wish lets you cast any spell of level 8 or below, opening up a huge range of options. You can use Wish for other purposes, but there’s a risk that you’ll never get to cast Wish again, which would mean permanently losing your level 20 class feature.

2024 Cleric Changes from 2014 Rules

This section is from our 2024 DnD Rules Transition Guide.

• 1. Divine Order. New. Lets you choose between a martial cleric or a caster cleric at level 1 independent of your domain. Protector gets heavy armor and martial weapons. Thaumaturge gets an extra cantrip and +Wisdom modifier to their Arcana and Religion checks so that they can finally compete with wizards on religious knowledge.
• 1. Spellcasting. Now allows you to change a cantrip when you gain a Cleric level.
• 2. Channel Divinity. Uses per rest now scale up to 4 instead of 3. New “Divine Spark” option added alongside Turn Undead, allowing you to heal or damage a creature for 1d8+Wis which adds more dice as you gain levels. It’s effectively Cure Wounds at range as an Action.
• 5. Sear Undead. New. Now inflict Wisdom modifier d8 damage to undead that fail their save against Turn Undead. Much simpler and more useful than Destroy Undead, which this replaces.
• 7. Blessed Stikes. Moved to level 7 from level 8. Now lets you choose rather than being split by subclass. Divine Strike now adds +1d8 radiant or necrotic damage; no more scaling (in this feature; see Improved Blessed Strikes at level 14), and no more variation in damage types between subclasses. Potent Spellcasting is the same as it was.
• 10. Divine Intervention. Cast nearly any Cleric spell of 5th level or lower as an Action with no material components, such as Raise Dead or Hallow. Works once per long rest.
• 14. Improved Blessed Strikes. New (technically). Divine Strike damage adds a second d8, or you can grant temporary hp when you deal damage with a cantrip.
• 20. Greater Divine Intervention. You can now cast Wish instead of a 5th-level or lower Cleric spell, but it adds a 2d4 day cooldown if you do so.

Cleric Backgrounds

An increase to Wisdom is too crucial to forgo, so any Background which doesn’t include Wisdom is immediately out. Constitution is also good, especially if you’re planning to fight in melee. Wisdom-based skills are ideal, especially if you can get Perception. Also look for proficiency in Arcana if you’re taking Divine Order (Thaumaturge)

For information and advice regarding Origin Feats, including those granted by your Background, see the Cleric Feats section, below.

• Acolyte ^(PHB) : Better skills than Sage, but Sage’s ability scores are better, and you already get Cleric spellcasting.
• Farmer ^(PHB) : Excellent ability scores for the Cleric, and more hit points never hurt, but the skills aren’t great.
• Guard ^(PHB) : Excellent for front-line builds intending to use weapons.
• Guide ^(PHB) : Excellent for melee clerics. You can increase Constitution and Wisdom and grab Shillelagh from the Druid’s spell list. The skills aren’t fantastic unless you’re going for Trickery Domain to use Stealth, but the other benefits may be enough to make up for it.
• Hermit ^(PHB) : Decent ability scores, but the skills are middling, and there’s little reason for Healer when you can cast Healing Word.
• Sage ^(PHB) : Great ability scores, decent skills despite being Intelligence-based, and Magic Initiate (Wizard). If you’re building to fight at range, you might enjoy some of the Wizard’s spells like True Strike and Find Familiar or Shield.
• Sailor ^(PHB) : Decent ability scores for a melee build, plus one good skill, but you’re absolutely not going to use Tavern Brawler.
• Scribe ^(PHB) : A good choice for Trickery Domain. Be sure to pick up proficiency in Thieves’ Tools with Skilled.
• Wayfarer ^(PHB) : A good choice for Trickery Domain.

Cleric Species

Because Clerics are so diverse, what you want from your Species scan vary quite a bit. Front-line clerics will want durability. Trickery Clerics may want additional skills so that they can replace a Rogue more easily. Cast clerics might enjoy Innate Spellcasting.

• Aasimar ^(PHB): Two damage resistances, Darkvision, a once per day heal, and a once per day combat transformation. You’re mostly here for the transformation, which could be appealing for melee builds. You can do more with spells, but there’s nothing stopping you from using Celestial Revelation and Spirit Guardians at the same time.
• Dragonborn ^(PHB): Darkvision, a damage resistance, and once per day flight are great, but you will likely never use the breath weapon beyond very low levels.
• Dwarf ^(PHB): Darkvision, resistance to the most common non-weapon damage type, and more hit points. Tremorsense is neat, but you have spells to handle invisible or hidden enemies. The durability is great for melee builds, but less appealing for ranged builds.
• Elf ^(PHB): Darkvision and an extra skill are both great, plus you can get access to some spells from outside of the Cleric’s spell list. The Drow’s Faerie Fire gives you a great offensive support option, the High Elf’s cantrip can get you a great offensive cantrips from the Wizard’s spell list, and the Wood Elf’s access to Pass Without Trace simplifies stealth for the whole party.
• Gnome ^(PHB): Darkvision and Gnomish Cunning are both great, and the added cantrips from Gnomish Lineage offer some interesting utility options. Paired with good Wisdom and proficiency in Wisdom saves, failing those saves will be exceptionally rare.
• Goliath ^(PHB): Giant Heritage offers some great options. Cloud Jaunt offers teleportation, which normally isn’t an option for the Cleric. Stone’s Endurance offers some excellent damage mitigation. Other options mostly offer damage, which will only be useful if you’re building to use weapons, and very few clerics can do that effectively. Large Form is neat, but probably only useful to make Spirit Guardians 5 feet wider.
• Halfling ^(PHB): Lucky is the only part of the Halfling’s traits which will be consistently useful. Brave is great, but you already have fantastic Wisdom saves. Halfling Nimbleness is rarely useful; if you need to heal at range you have Healing Word, and if you get dragged into melee, something has volunteered to be hit with Spirit Guardians. Naturally Stealthy is functionally useless in combat without Cunning Action.
• Human ^(PHB): An additional skill and origin feat are an easy choice on any build.
• Orc ^(PHB): Adrenaline Rush is an excellent option for getting out of dangerous positions quickly without a spell, and the Temporary Hit Points are great. If you’re running Spirit Guardians, Adrenaline Rush might help you hit more targets, too. If that doesn’t keep you alive, Relentless Endurance provides some insurance, which is great since you’re probably your party’s healer.
• Tiefling ^(PHB): Darkvision, a damage resistance, and some innate spellcasting almost entirely from outside of the Cleric’s spell list. The spell choices aren’t crazy, but there are some consistently useful options here.

Cleric Ability Scores

The Cleric’s features all center around Wisdom, but beyond that your needs vary depending on your choice of Divine Order.

Divine Order (Protector)

Heavy armor requires 15 Strength to avoid the speed penalty from wearing it. If you’re planning to be in melee, you’ll also want more Constitution than Thaumaturge Clerics in order to expand your hit points and to help with Concentration.

Unfortunately, the 2024 rules have yet to make using weapons an appealing choice. Unless you can get True Strike as a Wisdom-based spell (Magic Initiate is literally the only way at the moment), cantrips like Sacred Flame and Toll the Dead will still be consistently more effective. You might still use weapons for Opportunity Attacks unless you also take War Caster, but otherwise the only good reason to use weapons is War Domain’s War Priest feature. Even then, you probably want Shillelagh so that you don’t need to invest in Strength.

Str: 15 for heavy armor. You’ll probably use this for weapons, if you use weapons at all. Don’t expect to increase your Strength beyond 15.

Dex: Dump.

Con: Hit points and saving throws, including Concentration.

Int: A few useful skills, but you’ll be fine if you dump this.

Wis: Your primary ability score.

Cha: Dump.

Divine Order (Thaumaturge)

With less need to focus on defense, you have more flexibility in your ability scores than Protector Clerics. Leaving your Dexterity and Constitution at 14 leaves room to invest in Intelligence and/or Charisma, depending on what skills you plan to take.

The PHB recommended ability scores for the Standard Array assume that you’re going for Protector, which is absolutely going to be a problem for new players. If you have a new player in your party, referring them to this section for help is a kindness even if they’re not ready to dig further into character optimization.

Str: Dump.

Dex: 14 to max out medium armor.

Con: Hit points and saving throws, including Concentration.

Int: A few useful skills.

Wis: Your primary ability score.

Cha: Persuasion is on the Cleric’s skill list, so you could technically play your party’s Face.

Cleric Skills

• History (Int): A useful knowledge skill, but skip it if anyone else in the party takes it.
• Insight (Wis): Helpful for a Face, and you have the Wisdom to back it up. Since many Faces tend to have low Wisdom, it’s a very good idea for you to pick this up even if you’re not your party’s Face.
• Medicine (Wis): This skill is useless. Medicine is best done magically.
• Persuasion (Cha): Crucial for a Face, but you can skip it if someone in the party has more Charisma than you.
• Religion (Int): The Cleric’s best Knowledge skill, and important to the theme of the class. Thaumaturge Clerics also get to add their Wisdom modifier to Intelligence (Religion) checks, making this an easy choice.

Cleric Feats

This section does not address every published feat, as doing so would result in an ever-growing list of options which don’t cater to the class. Instead, this section will cover feats which we think work especially well for the class or which might be tempting but poor choices.

Origin Feats

These feats typically come from your Background, but you can also select an Origin Feat any time that you could select a General Feat, and you may get more from sources like the Human’s species traits.

• Alert ^(PHB): Great for starting big area control spells like Spirit Guardians or Blade Barrier or for dropping big area damage spells before allies get in the way or enemies get into melee range.
• Crafter ^(PHB): Neat, but not especially impactful. Crafting mundane gear stops being impactful early in the game as players quickly accumulate enough to afford nearly anything in the Player’s Handbook. This notably omits the Herbalist Kit as a choice, so you can’t even use this to craft Potions of Healing.
• Healer ^(PHB): Rerolling dice on healing spells is nice, but not especially impactful. The vast majority of hit point restoration is either Healing word to rescue dying allies or hit dice during a Short Rest. Sources of healing intended to bring creatures up to a significant portion of their hit points usually use a static number rather than dice (ex: Heal).
• Lucky ^(PHB): An easy choice on any character. It won’t directly impact your build, but it’s a great default if you don’t need anything else.
• Magic Initiate ^(PHB): Druid spells to get Shillelagh for melee builds or Wizard spells to get options like Fire Bolt and Shield can both have a huge impact.
• Musician ^(PHB): A great way to contribute to any party.
• Savage Attacker ^(PHB): Not impactful enough even if you’re building to use weapons.
• Skilled ^(PHB): Decent, but you can probably get all of the skills you want between your Background and your class skills unless you’re trying to fill in for a Rogue, which is a possibility or Trickery Domain.
• Tough ^(PHB): Helpful for keeping your party’s healer alive.

General Feats

• Crusher ^(PHB): A simple and easy way to control enemies’ positions in combat if you plan to use weapons.
• Dual Wielder ^(PHB): Clerics don’t get the sort of damage boost which makes two-weapon fighting worthwhile.
• Durable ^(PHB): Cast Healing Word.
• Elemental Adept ^(PHB): Most Clerics don’t rely enough on elemental damage for this to have any impact. Light Domain is a notable exception since so much of their damage is fire.
• Fey Touched ^(PHB): Two more prepared spells and access to some 1st-level spells from outside of your spell list. Misty Step is great on any spellcaster.
• Heavily Armored ^(PHB): If you’re going for heavy armor, either choose Divine Order (Protector) or take a level of Fighter.
• Heavy Armor Master ^(PHB): If you’re in heavy armor, this is a huge amount of damage reduction. The reduced damage will also reduce the DC for Concentration saves since you’re taking less damage. Since this can’t increase Wisdom, you shouldn’t rush to take this at low levels, but it’s a good option once you’ve hit 20 Wisdom.
• Inspiring Leader ^(PHB): A massive amount of temporary hit points.
• Lightly Armored ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
• Mage Slayer ^(PHB): Clerics are already proficient in two mental saves, and they’re really good at Wisdom saves, which is the important one, so the benefits here are minimal.
• Martial Weapon Training ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
• Medium Armor Master ^(PHB): Borderline worthless. Put +2 into Dexterity and wear light armor.
• Moderately Armored ^(PHB): A 1-level class dip into Fighter is almost always a better idea unless you’re expecting to reach 20th level.
• Observant ^(PHB): This is only helpful if your DM likes to use stealthy enemies and/or likes to include traps in combat encounters.
• Piercer ^(PHB): You should not be using weapons enough to justify using this.
• Resilient ^(PHB): high Constitution saves are crucial for maintaining Concentration. War Caster may be better if you’re building for the front lines so that you can use Reactive Spell, but, if you only care about Concentration, Resilient is better.
• Ritual Caster ^(PHB): There are some great level 1 Ritual spells like Comprehend Languages and Find Familiar, but the fact that this only lets you get level 1 spells significantly limits its usefulness. Getting rituals from outside of your own spell list is nice, but unless there are specific Rituals that you want, this isn’t worth a feat.
• Sentinel ^(PHB): Even if you’re built to fight in close quarters, War Caster is a better choice.
• Shadow-Touched ^(PHB): Two more prepared spells are always nice, and Invisibility is a staple spell, but Shadow Magic’s options for 1st-level spells simply aren’t as good as those available via Fey Touched.
• Skill Expert ^(PHB): There are some great Wisdom-based skills that might be worth Expertise.
• Slasher ^(PHB): You should not be using weapons enough to justify using this.
• Speedy ^(PHB): Potentially helpful for reaching allies quickly, or for running Spirit Guardians through crowds of enemies.
• Spell Sniper ^(PHB): Very few cleric spells involve ranged spell attacks.
• Telekinetic ^(PHB): An easy choice on any spellcaster. Telekinetic Shove will compete for your Bonus Action with options like Healing Word and Spiritual Weapon, but you won’t be able to use it effectively every turn, so it’s not really an issue. Remember that creatures can willingly fail saving throws, allowing you to use this on allies in order to move them out of dangerous positions, break grapples, or otherwise help them.
• Telepathic ^(PHB): Very cool, but usually talking works fine.
• War Caster ^(PHB): Great for Clerics built for the front lines. If you only care about Concentration, Resilient (Constitution) provides a bigger bonus, but War Caster can improve your mental ability scores, so it’s often easier to fit into a build.

  The text of the Opportunity Attack rules allow you to make an Opportunity Attack whenever a creature leaves your reach. War Caster’s Reactive Spell feature allows you to replace that attack with a single-target spell. This is intended to be used on enemies, but RAW this also allows you to cast buffs or healing spells on your allies when they leave your reach.

• Weapon Master ^(PHB): You should not be using weapons enough to justify using this unless you’re going for War Domain, and even then it’s not a fantastic choice. Take a level of Fighter.

Epic Boons

• Boon of Combat Prowess ^(PHB): Nice for War Domain, but otherwise skip it.
• Boon of Dimensional Travel ^(PHB): Basically free Misty Step every time that you cast a spell as an Action. Unfortunately, Bonus Action and Reaction spells don’t qualify. According to the Rules Glossary: “When you take the Magic action, you cast a spell that has a casting time of an action or use a feature or magic item that requires a Magic action to be activated.”

  Outside of combat, you can still use this to get around obstacles. Cast a harmless spell like Thaumaturgy and you can teleport without making a mess.

• Boon of Energy Resistance ^(PHB): A powerful defense on any character.
• Boon of Fate ^(PHB): 2d4 averages to 5. Adding +5/-5 to a saving throw can rescue you or an ally, or it can cause an enemy to fail a save. On a d20 scale, 5 means that there’s a 25% chance on any given roll that this will have an impact. Granted, it is still a dice roll, so the smaller the gap, the safer this is to use. On a full caster where save-or-suck spells are such a huge part of your arsenal, this is devastatingly effective. The fact that you can use it once per encounter is amazing.
• Boon of Fortitude ^(PHB): You will benefit more from Resilient (Constitution).
• Boon of Irresistible Offense ^(PHB): You should not be using weapons enough to justify this.
• Boon of Recovery ^(PHB): The Last Stand feature is great insurance, but definitely not enough to justify your first Epic Boon. Try to get someone to cast Death Ward on you.
• Boon of Skill ^(PHB): Potentially useful in a small party with poor skill coverage.
• Boon of Speed ^(PHB): Take Boon of Dimensional Travel instead.
• Boon of Spell Recall ^(PHB): This gives you a 25% chance to retain your spell slot when casting spells of up to level 4. You get 4 level 1 spell slots and 3 of each of levels 2, 3, and 4. On average, you get 1 extra level 1 spell slot, and slightly less than 1 for levels 2, 3, and 4. This is fine, but definitely don’t make it your first boon.
• Boon of the Night Spirit ^(PHB): Be invisible at all times outside of combat. Take advantage of invisibility at the start of combat, then look for ways to become invisible as frequently as possible. Even if you’re not making attack rolls (and you almost certainly aren’t doing so often), the defensive benefits of invisibility are massive. However, remember that a lot of things are an Action, so it’s very easy to break this invisibility. Notable examples that people easily overlook include Hide, Search, and Study.
• Boon of Truesight ^(PHB): You have magic options to handle invisible enemies.

Cleric Weapons

The Cleric is proficient in simple weapons, but Divine Order (Protector) can add proficiency in Martial weapons. Clerics don’t get Weapon Mastery, so the differences between simple and martial weapons generally amounts to a minor upgrade in damage.

• Crossbow, Light: This may do more damage than your Cantrips at low levels because weapons add your ability bonus to damage. If you have good Dexterity, consider a crossbow until your cantrips scale at 5th level.
• Javelin: Same logic as the Light Crossbow, but Strength-based.
• Mace: The iconic Cleric weapon. It’s not great, but it gets the job done. Carry one for when you need to wade into melee.

Cleric Armor

The Cleric is proficient in light armor, medium armor, and shields. Divine Order (Protector) can add proficiency in heavy armor.

• Leather: If you have 18 Dexterity, this will match Scale Mail. Otherwise Scale Mail is strictly better starting armor.
• Scale Mail: Starting gear for most Clerics.
• Chain Mail: Starting armor for Clerics who get heavy armor proficiency from their domain.
• Half plate: Most Clerics will max out at Half plate.
• Shield: You can put your holy symbol on your shield, so there is almost no reason not to have one.
• Full Plate: Clerics with proficiency in heavy armor should absolutely upgrade to Full Plate as soon as they can afford it.

Cleric Multiclassing

This section briefly details some obvious and enticing multiclass options, but doesn’t fully explore the broad range of multiclassing combinations. For more on multiclassing, see our Practical Guide to Multiclassing.

• Artificer: Starting at level 1 as an Artificer gets you proficiency in Constitution saves without slowing your spellcasting progression, but the multiclassing ability score requirements are hard for the Cleric.
• Barbarian: Rage and Reckless Attack won’t be particularly useful since Clerics don’t get Extra Attack, and Unarmored Defense requires you to have too many high ability scores.
• Druid: The Cleric and the Druid share Wisdom-based spellcasting, so a few levels to get low-level class features and some low-level spell options like Shillelagh and Faerie Fire can be very effective. However, Magic Initiate will typically suffice if you just want spellcasting.
• Fighter: Starting with 1 level in Fighter gets you Constitution saves, heavy armor, shields, martial weapons, Fighting Style, Weapon Mastery, and Second Wind. All of that makes you immediately better than Divine Order (Protector). Two levels gets you Action Surge, but you can’t use Action Surge to cast spells, so it’s not especially appealing.
• Monk: The Monk’s Unarmored Defense works well for Clerics since they need so much Wisdom. 14 Dexterity and 20 Wisdom with Unarmored Defense will match Half plate, but remember that Unarmored Defense doesn’t work with shields, so you’ll need 18 Dexterity to match the AC of a normal Cleric with a shield. Martial Arts is a great way to use your Bonus Action offensively without cutting into your spells.
• Ranger: Whatever you want from the Ranger, you can get it from the Druid, the Fighter, or the Rogue.
• Rogue: One level for Expertise or two for Cunning Action can be very powerful on a Trickery Domain Cleric.
• Sorcerer: Two levels for Font of Magic can be very powerful, but the multiclassing ability score requirements are hard for the Cleric
• Wizard: Clerics and Wizards have access to some of the best spells in the game, but the multiclassing ability score requirements are hard for the Cleric.