Life Domain Cleric 5e: The Ultimate Guide for Clerics that keep their party alive

When you think of a Cleric, there are usually two things that come to mind. First is a religious hero who lives up to their god and protects those in need. Second, you think of a priest who heals their allies and uses their divine powers to preserve life in all its forms, no matter how big or small it is.

If you are eager to be the preserver of life and to be the power in the world that can make a difference when keeping your allies and everyone in need alive, then a Life Domain Cleric is your number one choice.

“Soothe the Hurts of the world”

Life Domain Clerics in Dungeons and Dragons 5e focus on positive energy coming from their divine power. Their ultimate goal is to help sustain all life in the multiverse. 

This Dungeons and Dragons subclass clerics are masters of healing, and almost all clerics of any religious tradition might choose this subclass. Particularly, clerics associated with agricultural deities, gods of healing or endurance, or those of home and endurance (i.e., Lathander) might choose this subclass. 

Especially religious orders of healing seek the magic of this domain. If you are planning to be the parties healer and therefore become the most valuable character, let us take a dive into this subclass and experience it perks and builds.

Life Domain Class Features

Like other cleric subclasses, like War Domain Clerics or Trickery Domain Clerics, they can choose this subclass as soon as they reach Level 3. So we dive into the different features by their Level.

Life Domain Spells - Level 3

As soon as you choose this subclass, you have the following spells always ready, depending on your subclass level.

Cleric Level	Prepared Spells
3	Aid, Bless, Cure Wounds, Lesser Restoration
5	Mass Healing Word, Revivify
7	Aura of Life, Death Ward
9	Greater Restoration, Mass Cure Wounds

Preserve Life - Level 3

Another feature you can use as soon as you choose the Life Domain subclass is the preserve life feature. For this magic action, you will need to present your Holy Symbol and expend one Channel Divinity. This allows you to restore a number of Hit Points equal to five times your Cleric level. 

Therefore, you need to choose a bloodied creatures within 30ft of you. This can include your character. After you have chosen your creatures, you can divide the Hit Points amongst them and heal them. You can not heal them more than the creature's maximum Hit Points. There are no temporary Hit Points created.

Especially at early levels, this feature can be crucial as it might be the crucial feat to decide between life and death of your allies. 

Blessed Healer - Level 6

Here is where this subclass really starts to take off. Generally said: When you heal someone, you get healed!

Therefore, you need to cast a healing spell with a spell slot, so no cantrips. You need to heal one or more creatures other than yourself. You will regain Hit Points equal to 2 plus the spell slot’s level.

As an example: Your Life Domain Cleric casts Healing Word at 3rd level with a spellcasting modifier of +4. With your 3 d4 dice, you roll the healing. You roll a total of 9. In total, you can heal one creature for 15 HP. With the Blessed Healer feature, you can heal yourself for 5 HP.

Supreme Healing - Level 17

We know that Dungeons and Dragons campaigns are very rare. But when they do, things start to escalate. Just think of Wizards and their insane spells as soon as they can cast 9th-level spells. 

Life Domain Clerics are no exception to this rule. These clerics start to ignore one of Dungeons and Dragons 5e core rules: rolling the dice. When you would normally roll one or more dice for healing, you instead use the highest possible number. For example, instead of restoring 2d6 Hit Points you immediately restore 12 Hit Points.

Ability Scores for Life Domain Clerics

Of course, everyone likes to play their characters differently. These values of life domain clerics are a general rule of thumb. If you do want to play a more charismatic cleric who charms their way out of any situation, then you should focus more on charisma than other abilities. Here is our list from most to least important.

Wisdom

Like other clerics, Wisdom is your most critical ability score. It is your primary ability and is used as your spellcasting ability. For any other clerics, this means: The more Wisdom, the more damage clerics will deal!

For Life Domain Clerics, this is the same. However, their main focus is usually not on dealing damage. They want to heal creatures. The higher your ability score in Wisdom, the more Hit Points you are guaranteed to heal when casting healing spells like Cure Wounds. As this should be your primary target, we highly recommend as many points as possible in this ability.

Furthermore, the higher your Wisdom modifier, the higher your spellcasting DC. This means that it will get harder for enemies to dodge or avoid the effects of your spells that you cast on them. As you want them to fail those saves, this ability score must be as high as possible.

As the main healer of your party, you want a high Medicine modifier. As this is a Wisdom-based ability check, you are also making sure that you can back your healing with skill checks in this ability.

We do recommend prioritizing this ability and starting with a minimum of 15 points in this ability.

Constitution

Let me ask you something: What is a healer worth, who is the first to drop in a fight? That’s right, not much. So you will have to make sure that you survive as long as possible to be able to heal your allies.

To stay alive in a fight, the most important factor you will have to work on is: How often can I be hit? In Dungeons and Dragons 5e, this means you need to boost your Armor Class and your Hit Points. To boost your Hit Points, you can increase your Constitution modifier. The higher your ability score in Constitution, the more Hit Points you have.

Another huge advantage of having this ability score as high as possible is your constitution saving throws. A lot of your healing spells and buffs rely on concentration. So if you want to make sure that your chances are as high as possible to maintain this concentration, it is worth putting in as many points as possible into this ability.

Generally, we would recommend setting this ability around 15 when you use Point Buy or 13 in the standard array.

Strength

I mean, when is it not good to be the strong one in the group? Carry the heavy stuff, move away any object in your way, or be the go-to guy when something does not work like you want it to. Also, a lot of characters take a lot of pride in being the strong one in the group. Life Domain Clerics are no exception to this rule.

Strength is crucial for wearing heavy armor without reduced movement. As the frontline fighter of the group, having heavy armor can be a decisive factor in any encounter. 

Wearing heavy armor like Splint gives you an instant 16 AC while requiring a minimum of 15 in Strength. This is already a huge Armor Class at early levels, allowing you to be a true frontline tank in any encounter.

Furthermore, putting points into your Strength ability boosts your weapon attacks if you choose to go melee (what you absolutely should). 

15 (Point Buy) or 14 (Standard Array) are recommended for this ability.

Charisma

As said in the introduction, if you are playing a charismatic life domain cleric, you should prioritize this ability for your play style to actually work.

However, there is generally no upside to investing in this ability other than social interactions in your campaign. This ability might help you with persuading someone. Otherwise, we would not recommend putting too much effort into this ability.

Generally, we would stay at 8 - 10 for this ability. It is generally always good to be somewhat charismatic and be able to talk to NPCs and your campaign.

Dexterity

Now we are entering the realm of more or less unimportant ability scores. If you are already wearing heavy armor, you will have disadvantage on any stealth check, which is one of the most important dexterity-based checks.

Dexterity helps with Initiative and dexterity-based skills. Although it is nice to be the first one to take your turn in a round there are other classes and situations (see Sneak Attack) where this is way more crucial. 

If you do have any points left, you can always go for this ability. Otherwise, we would recommend leaving this at their standard 8.

Intelligence

Although it may sound counterintuitive, Intelligence is the least useful ability for any life domain cleric. You might think a cleric who spends most of their life in a library studying books should be highly intelligent. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. The ability they trained was their wisdom, as they didn’t read books about science and the theories of magic. Their magical ability comes from their faith and not from knowledge.

That is why we would recommend leaving this ability at 8. This is, of course, only true if you only want to play a life domain cleric who isn’t hyperintelligent at the same time. Otherwise, there is no real benefit in putting points into this ability.

In summary, this is what your point table could look like:

Ability	Priority	Typical Start (Point Buy)	Why It Matters
Wisdom	Very High	15	Core casters; healing, spells, saves, skills
Constitution	High	15	HP and concentration resilience
Strength	Moderate	15	Heavy armour & optional melee prowess
Dexterity	Low	8	Initiative & saves, usually sacrificed for STR/CON
Charisma	Low	8	Minor social utility
Intelligence	Very Low	8	Not typically impactful for clerics

Backgrounds for Life Domain Clerics

Just like the ability score, backgrounds are highly dependent on your play style. If you are playing a life domain cleric who was born and raised in a small fishing village by the ocean, it would only make sense to choose Fisher as your background. However, if you haven’t decided on your backstory yet, here is a list of our top 8 backgrounds to choose from for life domain clerics in Dungeons and Dragons.

Noble

Noble is one of the most commonly used backgrounds in Dungeons and Dragons 5e. It can also be used when playing a life domain cleric.

The Ability Scores for this background are Strength, Intelligence, or Charisma. As discussed before, Intelligence and Charisma should not be prioritized. However, Strength can be highly beneficial for clerics in general. In addition to this, you will gain the skilled feat, which will grant proficiency in any combination of three skills or tools of your choice. You should skip History and Persuasion as you will gain proficiency in those through this background.

Life Domain Clerics who choose this background will also gain proficiency in one kind of Gaming Set and extra equipment.

Although this background isn’t the greatest for those clerics, it is, in general, a valuable background that you can always keep in mind.

Scribe

Although we are not quite there yet, scribe as a background brings a big step to what we are expecting a life domain cleric to be. 

As a scribe, you spent years in a monastery dedicated to the preservation of knowledge. This is usually what clerics do. They spent their whole lives in a library studying their gods and deities. This background is used for Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom-based characters. Although Life Domain Clerics only really rely on Wisdom, this background might still be worth considering.

Scribe is a background that naturally complements the identity of many Life Domain Clerics. If your character spent years within the quiet walls of a scriptorium, monastery, or clerical archive, this background reflects a life devoted to preserving sacred texts, copying divine doctrine, and recording the rituals of healing. You gain boosts to Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom, though only Wisdom is vital for Life Clerics. Still, the background’s strengths lie in the careful, deliberate mindset it represents.

With the Skilled feat, you gain three additional proficiencies, giving you flexibility in shaping your cleric’s toolkit. The Investigation and Perception skills enhance your ability to observe and assess situations with clarity—an ideal fit for a healer who needs to notice injuries quickly or identify danger before it spreads. 

Proficiency with Calligrapher’s Tools adds a flavorful touch, allowing your cleric to pen beautiful scripture, compose divine scrolls, or even document the miracles they’ve witnessed. Whether you see your character as a temple scribe who discovered divine magic through study or as a traveling healer who documents every wound and remedy, this background provides both mechanical benefit and thematic depth. 

The equipment choices—either a detailed scribe’s kit or a gold-heavy start—allow for roleplaying flexibility, whether you imagine your cleric as still humble and cloistered or as someone who has taken their skill into the world. Overall, the Scribe background fits perfectly with the ethos of the Life Domain: meticulous, reverent, and utterly devoted to preserving and nurturing life in every form.

Hermit

Hermit is a background that aligns deeply with the quiet strength and spiritual focus of a Life Domain Cleric. If your character spent years in isolation—meditating in the wilderness, studying divine mysteries in a mountain shrine, or living in silence within the walls of a remote temple—this background adds powerful depth to your story. A Life Cleric shaped by solitude often emerges with a clear sense of purpose, a connection to the divine, uninterrupted by worldly noise, and a commitment to healing not just bodies, but souls.

Your time in seclusion may have strengthened more than just your faith. The life of a hermit often fosters resilience and endurance, reflected in your natural affinity for Constitution. Long days of silent reflection sharpen your Wisdom, deepening your insight into both people and the spiritual world. And though often overlooked, Charisma may quietly blossom through internal dialogue and philosophical contemplation, preparing you to guide others with calm conviction once you reenter society. You can choose to gain +2 to one of these abilities and +1 to another, or distribute +1 to all three—offering flexibility that pairs well with a healing-focused build.

This path of isolation also provides practical value. During your solitude, you developed strong skills in Medicine and Religion, learning to tend wounds, understand anatomy, and interpret divine signs. These proficiencies make you not only a capable healer but also a spiritual authority. Your hands are trained not just in magic, but in the natural remedies and salves of the world, thanks to your proficiency with the Herbalism Kit. This unique toolset allows your cleric to craft potions, poultices, and antidotes—deepening your role as a guardian of health and well-being.

You emerge from your solitude carrying the simple tools of that life: perhaps a quarterstaff, both walking stick and symbol of your path; a philosophical tome filled with your reflections; a bedroll, traveler’s clothes, a lamp with oil, and your cherished Herbalism Kit. These items speak to a life of simplicity and introspection. Alternatively, you may begin with 50 gold pieces instead, allowing you to customize your gear and reflect a unique story of your re-emergence.

What truly sets this background apart is the Healer feat. With it, you can use a Healer’s Kit to restore Hit Points even without magic—ensuring your allies stay alive when spell slots are scarce. Additionally, you may reroll any 1s when rolling healing dice, making your restorative magic more reliable and efficient. It’s a powerful boost that transforms you into an anchor of survival in even the most dangerous scenarios.

Choosing Hermit for your Life Domain Cleric creates a character of profound discipline, spiritual insight, and healing mastery. You didn’t just learn to heal—you discovered why life is sacred. Now, with steady hands and a quiet heart, you walk back into the world not only to cure—but to live out the divine truths revealed to you in silence.

Sage

Sage is a background that enhances the thoughtful, educated, and spell-focused nature of many Life Domain Clerics. If your character’s devotion to preserving life began with the study of arcane texts, theological tomes, or ancient histories, this background provides both mechanical benefits and rich story potential. A Sage Life Cleric is one who sees healing not just as a calling, but as a craft—learned through knowledge, refined through practice, and guided by divine purpose.

Your background as a sage grants a flexible boost to your core stats. You may choose +2 to one of the following abilities and +1 to another, or +1 to each of Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom. For a Life Domain Cleric, the Wisdom and Constitution bonuses naturally support healing and survivability. While Intelligence isn’t typically central to your spellcasting, it perfectly fits a cleric whose journey began in dusty libraries and candlelit archives, giving you an edge in knowledge-based checks and expanding your narrative depth.

Where this background truly stands out is in the Magic Initiate (Wizard) feat. This powerful feature allows you to learn two cantrips and one 1st-level spell from the Wizard spell list, opening up creative new options beyond your divine repertoire. Whether you choose utility-focused spells like Mage Hand, Prestidigitation, or Shield, or lean into subtle control with Find Familiar or Disguise Self, this background gives your cleric a rare touch of arcane versatility that complements their divine power beautifully.

In addition to this magical benefit, your scholarly past has trained you in Arcana and History, two skills that emphasize your deep knowledge of the world, the gods, and the magical forces that bind them. While these skills don’t directly impact healing, they make your cleric more useful outside of combat and give you a strong role in uncovering ancient lore, understanding curses, or recognizing magical threats.

Your time as a sage also left you with a practiced hand and a precise eye, shown through your proficiency with Calligrapher’s Supplies. Whether you use them to transcribe sacred texts, compose healing rituals, or pen letters for your party, this tool subtly reinforces your cleric’s connection to order, clarity, and preservation.

You carry the modest yet meaningful possessions of a scholar: a quarterstaff, calligrapher’s kit, parchment, a book of historical lore, and a simple robe. These items speak of quiet study and intellectual discipline rather than wealth or prestige. Alternatively, you may begin with 50 gold pieces and build a set of gear that better reflects your personal history and campaign needs.

Choosing Sage for your Life Domain Cleric creates a character who is not only a guardian of life but a student of its mysteries. Your healing is guided by knowledge, your divine magic is expanded by arcane insight, and your mission is informed by a deep understanding of the past. You are a scholar of life in every sense—committed to both its survival and its meaning.

Acolyte

Acolyte is, without a doubt, the most natural and effective background choice for a Life Domain Cleric. If your character has spent their life in service to a temple, studying sacred doctrine, performing daily rituals, and offering spiritual guidance, then this background perfectly reflects your path. Everything about the Acolyte background reinforces the Life Cleric’s identity: a guardian of the faithful, a healer of the suffering, and a direct conduit of divine power.

You begin with a flexible choice in ability boosts—+2 to one of Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma, and +1 to another, or +1 to all three. Most Life Domain Clerics will favor Wisdom, their primary spellcasting stat, but the extra support for Charisma or Intelligence allows you to roleplay a well-rounded spiritual leader with both social presence and deep theological understanding.

The real strength of the Acolyte background lies in the Magic Initiate (Cleric) feat. This feat allows you to learn one additional cleric cantrip and one 1st-level cleric spell, which you can cast once per long rest without using a spell slot. This is incredibly powerful for Life Domain Clerics, as it gives you extra healing, utility, or combat support on top of your already generous spell list. Whether you pick up Spare the Dying for clutch stabilizations, Sanctuary for emergency defense, or an extra use of Cure Wounds, this feat further strengthens your role as the party’s protector and lifeline.

Your training in the temple has also gifted you with valuable skills. You gain proficiency in Insight, which allows you to read others’ emotions and intentions—a vital ability for any cleric navigating moral dilemmas or spiritual conflict. In addition, your knowledge of Religion makes you a trusted source of divine lore, a role model to the faithful, and a voice of reason when dealing with supernatural forces.

To support your scholarly and spiritual training, you are proficient with Calligrapher’s Supplies. This reinforces your connection to sacred texts, allowing you to transcribe prayers, divine laws, and theological writings with elegance and precision. Your cleric may even use their calligraphy to create healing scrolls, write rituals, or record the lives they’ve saved.

Your starting gear is rich in symbolic weight: a set of Calligrapher’s Tools, a book of prayers, a holy symbol to channel divine magic, and a robe signifying your station. Whether you begin with this sacred kit or choose 50 gold pieces to build your own, your equipment reflects a life of devotion, service, and unwavering faith.

Choosing Acolyte is more than a mechanical choice—it is a declaration of purpose. This background is tailor-made for Life Domain Clerics, providing them with mechanical synergy, narrative depth, and a strong thematic foundation. Your character is not just a healer—they are a vessel of the divine, shaped by tradition, bound by sacred duty, and ready to preserve life wherever it flickers. If you want to embody everything the Life Domain represents, Acolyte is the definitive background to choose.

Lineages for Life Domain Clerics

While backgrounds shape your cleric’s history, your lineage defines their body and origin, and in many cases, provides mechanical advantages that pair beautifully with the Life Domain’s focus on healing, defense, and divine resilience. Certain lineages offer a natural synergy with this subclass, either through movement, durability, spellcasting enhancement, or thematic flavor. Let’s begin with one of the most unique and often overlooked options: the Centaur.

Centaur (Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse)

Centaurs bring a rare blend of speed, power, and natural intuition, making them a surprisingly effective choice for Life Domain Clerics. Born of the Feywild, centaurs walk between the civilized world and the wilds of nature, just like a Life Cleric balances divine tradition with hands-on, battlefield healing.

At a glance, their most striking feature is their 40-foot walking speed, which sets them apart from most other lineages. While wearing heavy armor reduces this speed by 10 feet, this still brings them to a respectable 30 feet, equal to the standard movement of most humanoid characters. In other words, you retain full mobility even in your frontline armor, making you one of the few clerics who can hold the front line in plate and still reach fallen allies in time.

Centaurs also enjoy a flexible ability score increase, allowing you to choose between +2/+1 distribution or +1 to three separate abilities, making it easy to boost both Wisdom and Strength or Constitution depending on your preferred style. If you want to be the cleric who confidently strides into the thick of danger while healing allies and tanking hits, this lineage gives you all the right tools.

The Charge feature adds even more versatility, enabling you to make an extra hoof attack as a bonus action after a 30-foot dash and melee hit. While Life Clerics aren't typically optimized for dealing damage, this gives you a way to contribute meaningfully in combat, especially when you’ve already used your action to heal. It keeps your bonus action from going to waste in rounds where your spell slots are in conservation mode.

With Equine Build, you gain enhanced carrying and dragging capacity, and while climbing becomes more difficult due to your centaur form, this drawback is rarely an issue for a cleric focused on frontline support. Most encounters don’t require advanced climbing maneuvers—especially when you’re wearing plate and surrounded by party members who rely on you to stay grounded and keep them alive.

Centaurs also receive a 1d6 unarmed hoof attack, useful in emergencies or for creative melee options when disarmed. More importantly, their Natural Affinity grants proficiency in one skill of your choice from Animal Handling, Medicine, Nature, or Survival. For Life Clerics, Medicine is an excellent thematic and mechanical choice, reinforcing your role as the healer even in non-magical scenarios.

Lastly, centaurs are classified as Fey, not humanoid, which can offer some niche advantages, such as avoiding certain spells that only target humanoid creatures.

Choosing Centaur for your Life Domain Cleric builds a character who is strong, swift, and deeply attuned to the natural and divine. You are a healer who can keep up with the battle, a protector who doesn’t lag behind in plate, and a walking reminder that the power of life isn’t just found in spells, but in every hoofbeat toward the wounded.

Aasimar (2024 Player’s Handbook)

If there is any lineage destined to walk the path of a Life Domain Cleric, it’s the Aasimar. Born with the spark of the Upper Planes in their soul, Aasimar are natural vessels for divine power, blending healing, radiant magic, and celestial resilience into a perfect package for those who seek to preserve life. Whether your character is the child of an angel, marked by celestial influence, or simply chosen for a higher purpose, this lineage offers both mechanical strength and powerful roleplay potential for a cleric.

You begin with a 30-foot walking speed and can choose to be Medium or Small, giving you size flexibility without sacrificing movement. More importantly, you gain resistance to both Radiant and Necrotic damage—two of the most commonly encountered magical damage types in the game. As a frontline healer who often finds yourself in the blast radius of divine or unholy magic, this resistance gives you durability where it matters most.

Aasimar also possesses Darkvision (60 feet), giving you clear sight in dim and dark environments, a reliable advantage in temples, tombs, or any dungeon where healing is most urgent.

Your divine potential shows most clearly in Healing Hands, a once-per-long-rest ability that lets you heal a creature for a number of d4s equal to your Proficiency Bonus, no spell slot required. This is an extra layer of healing that scales naturally with your level and makes sure you always have something to give when the magic runs dry.

You also automatically know the Light cantrip, fitting thematically with the radiant aura of the Life Domain and giving you a non-magical utility spell for visibility, signaling, or flavor.

But the true hallmark of the Aasimar is their Celestial Revelation, unlocked at level 3. As a bonus action, you can transform into a radiant or shadowy form once per long rest, choosing one of the following powerful effects each time you transform:

• Heavenly Wings gives you a fly speed equal to your walking speed, ideal for battlefield mobility, reaching wounded allies, or keeping yourself safe from melee threats.

• Inner Radiance causes you to emit radiant light and deal radiant damage at the end of your turns to nearby enemies—perfect for turning your healing presence into a shield of divine fire.

• Necrotic Shroud inflicts fear on enemies within 10 feet and empowers your damage with necrotic energy, useful when you need to turn the tide with offense.

  
  

No matter which option you choose, you also gain the ability to deal bonus damage equal to your Proficiency Bonus once per turn when you hit with an attack or spell, adding a burst of divine power to your otherwise healing-focused build.

Choosing Aasimar as your lineage doesn’t just make mechanical sense; it perfectly embodies the Life Domain’s divine purpose. You are a shining beacon of celestial grace, walking the world not just to heal the wounded, but to remind others that life itself is sacred, and your magic is a gift from something greater. Whether winged with radiant glory or glowing with inner fire, an Aasimar Life Cleric is the ideal union of faith, power, and purpose.

Dwarf (2024 Player’s Handbook)

When it comes to playing a Life Domain Cleric, no lineage feels more naturally suited—both mechanically and thematically—than the Dwarf. Forged in the heart of the earth by divine hands and built to withstand the trials of the world, dwarves embody everything a Life Cleric strives to be: resilient, enduring, and unshakably grounded in purpose. Whether your dwarf walks the halls of a mountain stronghold or serves in a sacred stone-hewn temple, this lineage gives you the perfect foundation for a divine healer.

All dwarves begin with a 30-foot walking speed, Darkvision up to 120 feet, and the Humanoid creature type. While these are useful baseline traits, the real strength of this lineage lies in its durability and defensive utility—the exact qualities a frontline support character needs to stay alive and keep others standing.

With Dwarven Resilience, you gain resistance to poison damage and advantage on saving throws to resist or end the Poisoned condition. This is especially valuable in low-level dungeons and high-level boss fights alike, where poison effects are frequent and deadly. As a Life Cleric who often stands at the heart of the fight, this resistance can be life-saving, letting you remain upright when others fall.

Where dwarves truly begin to shine is with Dwarven Toughness. This feature increases your Hit Point maximum by 1 at first level, and then by +1 each time you level up. The result is one of the tankiest cleric builds possible, allowing you to stay in combat longer, concentrate on healing spells more reliably, and avoid getting overwhelmed in high-pressure situations. It’s the kind of survivability that amplifies your healing potential, because the best healer is the one who’s still standing.

The lineage also offers Stonecunning, a flavorful and surprisingly useful feature that lets you activate Tremorsense (60 feet) for 10 minutes as a bonus action while touching a stone surface. This can be used a number of times equal to your Proficiency Bonus per long rest, making it a powerful tool in underground campaigns, temple ruins, or stone-floored dungeons, allowing you to detect movement and creatures with supernatural awareness.

And while all dwarves benefit from this incredible toughness, Hill Dwarves, in particular, take the Life Cleric to the next level. In many campaign settings, Hill Dwarves are known for their wisdom, patience, and connection to traditional values that mirror the Life Domain’s ideals. Mechanically, Hill Dwarves grant a +1 bonus to Wisdom, the single most important ability score for Life Clerics. Wisdom directly impacts your spellcasting, healing effectiveness, and saving throw DCs, making this bonus incredibly valuable from level one onward.

The combination of bonus HP, damage resistance, Darkvision, and a Wisdom boost makes Hill Dwarves arguably the best possible lineage for a Life Domain Cleric who plans to wear heavy armor, hold the front line, and sustain the party in every battle.

Choosing Dwarf—and especially Hill Dwarf—for your Life Domain Cleric gives you more than just stats. It gives you the story of a healer born of stone and spirit, built to endure the darkness so others may see the light. You are the shield and the sanctuary, a living bulwark whose divine magic flows from faith, fortitude, and the unbreakable strength of the mountain itself.

Summary: Life Domain Clerics in Dungeons and Dragons 5e

The Life Domain Cleric is the definitive healer in Dungeons and Dragons 5e. With features like Disciple of Life, Preserve Life, Blessed Healer, and Supreme Healing, this subclass turns every healing spell into a powerful tool for keeping allies alive. These abilities scale well throughout your entire adventuring career, making you indispensable from early levels to epic play.

When it comes to ability scores, Wisdom stands as the most important stat—governing your spellcasting, healing output, and spell save DCs. Constitution is essential for concentration and survival, while Strength enables the use of heavy armor and melee capability. Dexterity, Charisma, and Intelligence are of lesser importance unless your build or roleplay goals specifically call for them.

In terms of backgrounds, several strong options are presented. Acolyte is the top recommendation, offering divine flavor and mechanical synergy through the Magic Initiate (Cleric) feat and relevant proficiencies. Hermit provides the Healer feat and a strong thematic connection to spiritual retreat and reflection. Scribe, Sage, and Noble offer alternative flavors and support-focused toolkits, each with benefits depending on your playstyle and narrative direction.

For lineages, three choices stand out. Hill Dwarves are ideal for Life Clerics thanks to their Wisdom bonus, additional hit points per level, and resistance to poison. Aasimar offer radiant and necrotic resistance, additional healing with Healing Hands, and transformative celestial abilities through Celestial Revelation—perfect for a divine protector. Centaurs add speed, melee options, and skill flexibility, allowing you to move quickly across the battlefield while wearing heavy armor.

Altogether, the Life Domain Cleric is a master of preservation, resilient, wise, and unwavering in purpose. Whether you are stabilizing fallen allies, channeling divine power to mend wounds, or simply standing as the last light in the darkness, this subclass ensures you are always at the heart of the battle, sustaining life with every action you take.