Introduction
The Cleric sits at the top of the tier list alongside Wizards and Druids.
They can fill nearly any role with fairly little effort, and because they
don’t need to expend resources to learn spells, they are more versatile than
Wizards in many ways. Cleric archetypes alter the Cleric to focus on certain
aspects of the class, and combined with your choice of domains your Cleric can
embrace any number of Roles. When selecting your Archetype, be sure to also
consider what Domains you plan to use, and what roles you need to fill in your
party.
No Cleric archetypes combine with other archetypes.
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RPGBOT uses the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.
- : Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
- : OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
- : Good options. Useful often.
- : Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.
Archetypes
Cloistered Cleric
The Cloistered Cleric gives up a lot of what a normal Cleric does for better
knowledge skills. If your party desperately needs a Librarian, but you want to
play a Cleric, this is an option. Despite typically low intelligence on
Clerics, Breadth of Knowledge will let you keep pace with Wizards and
Bards.
You give up medium armor, shields, nearly all of your weapon proficiencies, a
cleric domain, and a spell per spell level. Expanded access to knowledge
skills is really nice, but with only two extra skill ranks per level, the cost
far exceeds the benefit. If you desperately need access to knowledge skills,
consider traits which give you knowledge skills as class skills.
: This limitation can be easily overcome with a feat or two, but it still hurts. Heavy Mace is going to be your best martial weapon unless you put a feat into weapon proficiency, and using a sling as your only ranged weapons is just depressing. Being reduced to light armor and no shield really limits your options in combat when your limited spells run out.
: The additional skills really add a lot of utility to the Cleric, especially the Knowledge skills. Because you won’t have Wizard intelligence, your knowledge skills will depend on Breadth of Knowledge, but be sure to put one rank in every knowledge skill for the class skill bonus.
: 2 extra skill ranks per level really goes a long way for a Cleric.
: Giving up a domain hurts a little bit, but giving up a spell per spell level is devastating.
: This turns the Cleric into a Librarian on par with the Bard. This bonus stacks with your normal skill bonus, so you can become truly fantastic at your knowledge skills.
(Ex): Very situational, and not a particularly large bonus.
(Ex): Very situational. There aren’t a lot of situations where you can’t just stand next to your allies to help them, and there are even fewer situations where you need to assist multiple allies simultaneously.
(Su): Scribe Scroll is an excellent feat, and getting it for free is really nice. Use it to prepare scrolls of situational spells which you can’t justify preparing on a given day. This also helps to compensate for your limited spells per day.
Replaced Features: Weapon and Armor Proficiency, Class Skills, Skill Ranks
per Level, Domains, Spells
Compatible Archetypes: None
Crusader
An attempt to find more of middle ground between the Cleric and the Paladin,
the Crusader gives up some spellcasting ability to get a few extra feats. You
still get full spell casting, albeit at reduced spells per day. The feats are
nice, but your options are severely limited, and you only get 5 feats over
your career, and none of the feats will significantly improve your character.
Overall, the cost far exceeds the benefit.
: Giving up a domain hurts a little bit, but giving up a spell per spell level is devastating.
: You get several bonus feats, similar to a fighter, which can add to your effectiveness in combat. The feats lend themselves to being a sword-and-board fighter, and many of the feats add to your AC. You don’t need to meet the prerequisites of the feats, which really opens up your options. Unfortunately, most of the feats just aren’t very good. The best you can hope for is a +1 to your attack rolls or AC.
- 5th
- Heavy Armor Proficiency
- Improved Shield Bash
- Martial Weapon Proficiency
- Saving Shield
- Shield Focus
- Tower Shield Proficiency
- Weapon Focus*
- 10th
- Exotic Weapon Proficiency
- Greater Shield Focus
- Greater Weapon Focus
- Improved Critical
- Shield Slam
- Shield Specialization
- Weapon Specialization
- 20th
- Greater Shield Specialization
- Greater Weapon Specialization
(Su): Spending an extra spell slot three levels higher is rarely more effective than just casting that higher level spell. Many “Mass” spells are three levels higher than their single-target equivalent, incluyding Heal.
Replaced Features: Domains, Spells
Compatible Archetypes: None
Divine Strategist
Divine Strategist gives up Channel Energy and a Domain for a couple of weird
abilities. The bonus to initiative is pretty great, but Caster Support will
probably never get used, and Tactical Expertise makes you reliant on
intelligence.
: Giving up a domain limits your spell options, but it’s not crippling.
(Ex): Channel Energy can be a decent ability with a little bit of investment, but Master Tactician is good by itself. Initiative bonuses are fantastic, and being guranteed an action in the surprise round is huge.
(Su): Caster level checks are generally only important for bypassing spell resistance, and you will rarely find a situation where helping someone else is better than casting another spell.
(Ex): This could be nice if it didn’t require you to have high intelligence. However, without Channel Energy, you no longer need to invest in Charisma, which could free up resources to put into intelligence.
Replaced Features: Domains
Compatible Archetypes: None
Ecclesitheurge
The Ecclesitheurge is a strict-caster Cleric. If you already planned to
forego melee combat, this archetype is fantastic. However, be sure that your
party has someone to serve as a secondary tank before you give up your
armor.
: There are Wizards who are better with weapons than the Ecclesithurge.
: No armor for you.
(Su): I frequently advocate for applying the Guidance cantrip to every check in which you have the time to cast it because it’s a constant +1 to basically anything that requires a d20 roll. This is essentially the same, but it’s twice as much bonus, you don’t need to prepare a cantrip, and it’s an exceptionally rare sacred/profane bonus. You can spend channel energy charges to extend the duration for a few rounds, but that’s probably not your go-to option in a lot of fights. At low levels you won’t enough channel energy dice to justify spending charges, and at high levels you’ll hopefully have better buffs. Still, when one of your allies is doing a lot of the heavy lifting in combat, +2 that stacks with nearly everything on nearly every roll can go a very long way.
: Allowing you to prepare domain spells in non-domain slots is a huge benefit, and being able to swap out your secondary domain’s spell list is amazing. You can pick a secondary domain with cool powers an a terrible spell list, then trade the spell list for a domain with a good spell list and terrible powers.
(Su): The ability to cast any Cleric spell once per day without preparation has a ton of excellent applications. I’m not 100% sure what items can be used as a holy symbol since holy symbols are typically their own thing, but the text implies that it can be a necklace at the very least. If you can get a holy symbol ring, that might be a better option. Check with your GM.
Replaced Features: Weapon and Armor Proficiency, Domains, Channel Energy
Damage (Increase at 3rd level)
Compatible Archetypes: Separatist
Evangelist
The Evangelist brings the Bard’s Bardic Music ability to the Cleric. This
gives you additional support options beyond your spells, but won’t match the
capabilities of a a real Bard. Evangelists give up a spell domain, medium
armor, and shields, so they give up the Cleric’s ability to serve as a
defender in order to focus entirely on support. Despite the vocal nature of
the archetype, Evangelists are no better as a Face than any other Cleric.
: Giving up a domain limits your spell options, but it’s not crippling by itself. Giving up access to Medium Armor and Shields makes you almost entirely dependent on your magic and special abilities, so sacrificing a domain is a much bigger problem.
: Very situational. Perform matters for Sermonic Performance, but you will never be as good as a Bard.
: Bardic music is pretty fantastic, but Clerics get a huge number of spells which provide morale bonuses that don’t stack with Bardic Music.
: Evangelists can spontaneously cast a list of enchantment spells which can be fairly useful, but aren’t going to win you any fights.
Replaced Features: Domains, Armor Proficiency
Compatible Archetypes: None
Merciful Healer
Sometimes you just want to roll a Healbot. In that case, Merciful Healer is a
solid option. You give up a spell domain and some utility with Channel Energy,
but you reduce the need for situational restorative spells, and vastly improve
the healing capabilities of Channel Energy.
: The Healing domain is bad, and its subdomains are worse.
(Su): Limits the utility of an already limited special ability. If you planned to use it exclusively for healing already, you won’t notice the difference.
(Ex): Or you can cast Stabilize or literally any healing spell. As a Cleric, you know a few.
(Su): Merciful Healing adds aspects of the Paladin’s Mercy ability to your Channel Energy. This removes to need to prepare a lot of condition removal spells such as Remove Fear/Disease/Curse/Etc. The added ability to affect up to 2 creatures at level 6 can really help save resources.
- 3rd Level
- : Rare, and almost no one will care about the penalty.
- : Surprisingly large penalties, and fairly common.
- : Not as common as Shaken, and the effects aren’t as harsh.
- 6th Level
- : Losing a turn sucks.
- : Wait until tomorrow and cast Remove Disease.
- : Usually only lasts a round.
- 9th Level
- : Curses aren’t particularly rare, and you can usually wait to cast Remove Curse.
- : Very rare, not very impactful.
- : Remove Fear is a first level spell. Bring a scroll.
- : Uncommon, but debilitating.
- : Poison isn’t particularly scary.
- 12th Level
- : Common at high levels, and really hurts most characters.
- : Fairly uncommon, and many characters won’t really care.
- : Lethal, and common at higher levels.
- : Debilitating, and it becomes common at higher levels.
(Su): If you don’t need the condition removal, you get to heal an average of .5 more per die. It’s not a ton, but it feels nice.
Replaced Features: Domains, Channel Energy
Compatible Archetypes: None
Separatist
The Seperatist trades in some very, very modest stuff for the
ability to choose their second domain from outside of their deity’s domain
list. If you really want to choose an abnormal combination of domains,
Seperatist is the way to go.
: Martial weapons really aren’t that much better than simple weapons. Your Heavy Mace will do just fine.
: This really opens up your domain options. You get the second domain with some small penalties, but the added utility definitely outweights such a small penalty.
Replaced Features: Weapon and Armor Proficiency, Domains
Compatible Archetypes: Ecclesitheurge
Theologian
The Theologian gives up their second domain for the ability to prepare their
domain spells in their regular spell slots. Domain Secret adds additional
utility by permanently applying metamagic feats to some of your domain spells
at no cost. I would consider Focused Domain enough to justify this archetype,
especially if you pick a decent domain to focus on.
: The extra two effective levels for your abilities is nice, but the real draw is the ability to cast your domain spells more than once per day. Many domains grant spells from outside the Cleric spell list, so this really opens up your access to those spells. Giving up your second domain is annoying, but overall this is still an improvement.
(Ex): This is a hugely useful ability. Depending on your domain, the benefits of the metamagic feats can change dramatically.
Replaced Features: Domains
Compatible Archetypes: None
Undead Lord
As a general rule, I would never allow a player to take this archetype in my
campaigns. An army of skeletons is rarely conducive to the normal function of
an adventuring party, and draws the spotlight away from the other players more
than I like as a GM. That said, the abilities are good, and the archetype
would make for a wonderful BBEG.
: If you want to be an Undead
Lord, the Undead domain is basically a given. Giving up your other domain is
annoying, but you won’t miss it.
(Su): Basically an undead
Cohort. You will probably want to replace your companion every level to get a
bigger, better version, unless your GM decides to let you advance your
companion as you level. If I were a GM, I would want my player to get attached
to their Corpse Companion.
: Command Undead allows you to
control additional undead, especially at low levels before you get the Control
Undead spell. The additional feat at level 10 is nice, but most of the options
are mediocre.
- : You probably don’t want to
damage the undead that you’re trying to control. - : More charges never
hurts. - : Control undead more
easily. - : Channeling as a move
action is pretty great, but spending two charges to do it is
questionable. - : You can only summon a
skeletal version of a creature once per day, which is a horrible
limitation. - : You probably took this
already, but if you haven’t you can get it for free.
(Su): Basically Empower and
Maximize your Inflict spells for undead. This will save you a lot of resources
when healing your minions.
Replaced Features: Domain
Compatible Archetypes: None
