Divine Domain
At 1st level, a cleric gains the Divine Domain feature. This document presents a revision of one option found in the Player's Handbook: the Nature Domain.
Nature Domain
Gods of nature are as varied as the natural world itself, from inscrutable gods of the deep forests (such as Silvanus, Obad-Hai, Chislev, Balinor, and Pan) to friendly deities associated with particular springs and groves (such as Eldath). Druids revere nature as a whole and might serve one of their deities, practicing mysterious rites and reciting all-but-forgotten prayers in their own secret tongue. But many of these gods have clerics as well, champions who take a more active role in advancing their interests. These clerics might hunt the evil monstrosities that despoil the woodlands, bless the harvest of the faithful, or protect the seedlings of civilization from a chaotic, unforgiving wilderness.
Nature Domain Spells
| Cleric Level | Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | animal friendship, entangle |
| 3rd | spike growth, summon beast |
| 5th | conjure animals, plant growth |
| 7th | dominate beast, wall of fire |
| 9th | conjure elemental, wall of stone |
Acolyte of Nature
At 1st level, you learn the shillelagh and thorn whip cantrips. For you, these cantrips count as cleric cantrips, and they do not count against your Cantrips Known.
You also gain proficiency in one of the following skills of your choice: Animal Handling, Nature, or Survival.
Wilderness Ward
Starting at 1st level, you may ward your companions to help them better endure the rigors of the wilderness. As an action, you choose a number of willing creatures within 30 feet of you (this can include yourself) equal to your proficiency bonus. You place a ward upon them for 10 minutes or until you use this feature again. While a creature is warded, they gain a +1 bonus to their AC and their movement speed increases by 10 feet. These bonuses increase as you level.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.
Wilderness Ward
| Cleric Level | AC Bonus | Movement Speed Increase |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | +1 | 10 ft. |
| 9th | +2 | 15 ft. |
| 17th | +3 | 20 ft. |
Channel Divinity: Germination
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to exert nature's innate power to heal or harm. As an action, you channel the essence of life into the ground beneath you, causing large fungi to erupt from below and release targeted clouds of spores. Within 30 feet of you, creatures you designate regain hit points, and enemy creatures must make a Wisdom saving throw or take necrotic damage. Both amounts equal 2d6 + your cleric level.
Once you use this feature, you may spend 10 minutes while not in combat collecting these fungi to produce a number of rations equal to your Wisdom modifier.
Elemental Warding
Starting at 6th level, when a creature under the effect of your Wilderness Ward takes acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage, you can use your reaction to grant resistance to the creature against that instance of damage.
Additionally, a creature under the effect of your Wilderness Ward ignores difficult terrain and gains Darkvision to a range of 60 feet (if they do not already possess it).
Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder damage (your choice) to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.
Master of Nature
At 17th level, you gain the ability to better command the creatures of the wilderness. When you cast the animal friendship or dominate beast spells, they gain the following benefits:
- You may target a number of creatures up to your Wisdom modifier, rather than a single target
- Plant-type creatures* count as beasts** for the purposes of the spell
- Creatures with a CR of 3 or lower automatically fail the spells' saving throws
- A hostile creature does not gain advantage on saving throws against dominate beast.
*creatures with a creature type of 'plant'
**creatures with a creature type of 'beast'
On 1st level character creation
If using the Cleric's default starting equipment as described in the Player's Handbook, you may wish to ask your Dungeon Master to allow you to replace the Nature Cleric's starting mace with a club or quarterstaff, one of which is required to cast the shillelagh spell.