What's the point of Clerics?

I'm playing in a new 5e campaign. In the past, I've always avoided Cleric. I've thought about running Clerics before, but I always end up feeling like Clerics in 5e seem to be mediocre hybrids of other classes.

Most of the "Divine Domains" in the PHB seems to be themed around one of the other classes:

Light/Tempest - Wannabe Sorcerer/Wizard
Nature - Wannabe Druid
War - Wannabe Fighter/Barbarian
Trickery - Wannabe Rogue/Bard
Life - Wannabe Paladin
Knowledge - Wannabe Wizards

So what am I really gaining by running a cleric of these domains vs. the other classes they closely resemble? It seems like I'm trading other class advantages for heavy armor and the ability to cast "Bless" and "Cure Wounds"

I dunno, maybe some people like a 'jack of trades' class?

>>full caster fighter
>>sorcerer with full plate
>Druid with heavy armor


Yeah why would you want to play something like that

I'd say an auxiliary front line fighter with full spellcasting for buffs, control, utility, or healing. Our group has a melee cleric that partners up with the Fighter near constantly and they are quite effective at holding the line. Bonus points for him going out of his way to position himself for flanking, which the fighter and I (the Rogue) are always thankful for.

Also Bless is an awesome spell. Shit saves lives

Why are there bus drivers? They don't get as many people around as fast as airline pilots, they can't go as far as Astronauts, and they take up more space than a car.

>Cleric is wannabe paladin
>not the other way around
Do you even know what hybrid classes are?

Roleplaying is hard. I know a lot of fatguys only look at mechanics, but if you're playing a cleric, maybe you should be playing a character, and not a stack of numbers?

>Life
>wannabe paladin

Paladins wished their heals were that good.

The default of one class per character was a mistake.
You pick a class for one thing you want to do, but end up with a package of other abilities that may not fit your concept, so the first splatbook is always alternate options within an existing class anyway. For example, picking Monk because you want to fight with your fists, but you don't necessarily want all the eastern spiritual abilities that are literally Wizard spells.
A better system would make you pick two half-classes. Yes, it would be more complex, but read my post again. D&D already does the same thing in a less accessible way.

So if our campaign has a Fighter, Barbarian, Warlock, Div. Wizard, and Rogue. I'm thinking Life or Nature Cleric. Life seems to have a better Channel Divinity, but Nature seems easier to RP

I don't know much about 5e but historically Clerics are one of the strongest classes in the game. Especially in 3.5/PF.

They're one of the only classes with dedicated healing spells which they can cast fairly liberally. They're also beefy melee fighters because even though they don't have the same feat count or BAB scaling as Fighters/Paladins their buffs give them a huge legup. There's also the whole "favored weapon" bit where they can use weapons they don't have default access to provided their god is a /k/ommando for that specific weapon. IIRC they also get a flat bonus to it, but don't quote me on that.

There are some classes which really don't shine because other classes do what they do better. Clerics are not one of those.

>Life
They're awesome at healing, plus all the other things clerics are supposed to be good at.

>Paladins wished their heals were that good.
This. Twice per short rest, a life cleric is healing as much as a paladin's full lay on hands pool, at range, to multiple people at once. It can't bring people over 1/2 maximum health, but it's wonderful when your party is low. Follow it up with a mass healing word and you can snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

You can play a "cleric" with any class, as it is not necessary for members of the clergy to gain power directly from their god. You can pray, speak in parables and proverbs, and be all-around religious as a Fighter, a Wizard, or a Rogue just fine.

Cleric is still one of the broadest and most versatile classes from an RP perspective. The fact that you have always avoided them speaks volumes for your approach to gaming.

I found the guy who enjoys staying dead for the rest of the campaign

>One of the most versalite classes
>Game-breakingly powerful without min-maxing
>"Who would want to play as that?"
Dunno, everyone with two brain cells to rub together?

>Clerics are one of the strongest classes
It's true to all editions, 5e is no exception.

I wonder - who is going to save your ass if not cleric?

Let's see
>Party can skip martial if they have cleric
>Party can skip caster if they have cleric
Please tell me any other class that is this fucking good.

Yup

They make Clerics more of a caster-y class than they were in 3.5 and are more of a secondary fighter like they were in AD&D before op FR shit it up with specialty Clerics

I think OP is inexperienced and is assuming since clerics are a "hybrid class" they are by design weaker in any role than a class built around that specific role.

It's standard vidya logic corroborated by trends you'll find in WoW. But it doesn't really apply to D&D

>You can play a "cleric" with any class,
You mean priests basically. As far as DnD is concernet Clerics are a special order of religious warriors, but it all boils down to "Paladin that's less martial and more spellcastery and also can be of any alignment."

Whoa, whoa, whoa there, son. If anything, the paladin is a wannabe Life cleric. Did you notice those Channel Divinity features? Those recharge every short rest, and you get multiples per short rest as you gain levels. Compare that to the paladin's level x 5 hit points total.

So play a cleric if you want to be the best healer in the game, and also hand out beatings.

Agreed. I fail to understand how he could have played ttrpg games and not seen clerics are one of the strongest classes. If I recall, storm domain cleric is supposed to be ridiculously powerful in 5e.

It is, he calls a cleric with access to martial weapons and full plate a wannabe wizard. Meanwhile I'll enjoy my weapons swinging with thunderous might and flying around without casting a spell.

It's the most versatile class in the game with the best spell selection. Also Bless is god tier.

Cleric is best class and most fun class. In every version of D&d my first character is always a cleric. They're fun to play as, they're fun to make, and they're fun to role play as. Their personalities write themselves and they have instant hooks for stories and quests and personal development. As none of this comes at the cost of being great in combat and fairly regularly useful outside of combat in a number of ways, even if you don't go full space optimization mode.

Best class.

Eh I enjoy clerics but it took me a while before I started playing them. You really need some experience under your belt before you play a spellcaster class in D&D. Even now I still find managing spell lists a pain in the ass.

Yeah, managing spell lists is and has always been (in my experience, 2e on) a total pain in the ass. That's absolutely true.

Nigga, clerics are literally head and shoulders above every other single motherfucking class and that's without even bothering with optimalisation of build.
So fuck off with your bullshit

Clerics are the easiest and most intuitive of all classes to rople-play. You have instant agenda from the get-go, you have constant reasons for interaction and easy to organise personal goals. And there is no situation toward which your cleric wouldn't end up with specific stance, so you will always get engaged.

So not only mechanics are great, but role-playing is fun. Get rekt.

So we have established OP is an idiotquite nicely. Next step.

3.PF CLERIC VS WIZARD
WHO WINS?

Cleric. Access to all divine spells every day instantly, more spell slots, and if it comes down to it, worst case scenario, beat up the wizard with a hammer.

They're still both tier 1, but it's not called WoDzilla.

I agree fuck clerics

Patches is the most annoying meme in all of the souls series