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The Trickery Domain is one of the more unusual subclassesDungeons & Dragonshas to offer. Much like the deities that inspire the class, a trickery cleric doesn’t have to be just one thing, and the options for building one reflect this. There are multiple ways to build a trickery cleric, and some may contradict each other.
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Some choices lean more towards a charismatic trickster, while others will work better on a holy assassin. The niche of Trickery Clerics is that they can juggle these multiple roles better than a specialised healer or rogue, but won’t surpass either in their natural habitat.
Best Species And Background For A Trickery Cleric
A high-elf is a reliable option,providing a +2 dexterity alongside a wizard cantrip(although some sourcebooks allow you to customise the ability score increase). Minor illusion is a powerful tool for a creative player, allowing the trickery cleric todisguise themselves as a shrub or conceal a trap on the floor.
People who recognise an illusion as false, such as your party members who see you place it, will be able to see through the illusion. This can be used for creating one-way windows.
A character with fey heritage is well suited to becoming a trickery cleric. Thefairy and harengonboth have the fey creature type thatmakes them immune to spell effects that target humanoidsand can choose to play as small size creatures, allowing them tosneak and hide in ways other characters cannot.
You can also tie these fey ancestries into the character’s backstory for their affinity for trickery and deception.
A background that gives access to thieves' tools is useful if your party does not have a rogue. It can help to coordinate with your party members during character creation to ensure you do not step on each other’s toes.
Best Ability Scores And Skills For A Trickery Cleric
Certain sourcebooks for Fifth Edition D&D offer the option tochange the ability score modifiers offered by species. If your DM allows these books, you cantake any ancestry and still optimise the ability scoresoffered for building your character.
Background options can be similarly modified to giveany two skill proficiencies and a tool proficiencythat suit the character.
Wisdom
Wisdom isa priority for your spell casting abilities, and trickery clerics areclerics first and tricksters second. As a cleric it’s your sacred duty to roll well on wisdom saving throws against mass mind control and slap sense back into anyone who failed withProtection from Evil and Good.
Wisdom will alsoboost your perception, helping you evade ambushes. Insight is a similarly useful wisdom skill forknowing when you are being deceived:It’d be embarrassing for the trickster cleric to be out-conned.
Dexterity
Dexterity is your next highest priority. You’ll want as much dexterity as can fit on your character sheet, especially if you’re wearing light armour. A high AC and dexterity saving throws will help you avoid damage and focus on other roles than healing.
The skills offered by dexterity don’t appeal to typical clerics but are important if you want to play your cleric as closer to a rogue.Sleight of hand and stealth are keyto this.
While the trickery domain does have features thatincentivise them to make melee attacks in combat,this is rarely worth the risk. Your spells will be able to inflict more damage than attacking, andstrategic enemies are liable to prioritise you as a target.
Constitution
Constitution is always good to have more of but it is also one that you can always cut if you’re desperate for other stats.You have medium armourif you want it, and yourinvoke duplicityfeature means that you don’t have to be on the front lines if you don’t want to be.
Charisma
Charisma doesn’t play into your class features directly, but the nature of atrickery cleric incentivises you not to neglect charisma. A con is only as convincing as the con artist, which means a decent charisma score andproficiency in deception.
Strength
Strength is rather conditional. If you’re leaning more into the base cleric skill set and picking up heavier armour through feats,you’ll need enough strength to move unimpeded.Otherwise, it doesn’t offer much.
Intelligence
Intelligence is required forlore-related skills such as history and religionbut has nothing else to offer you.Investigationis helpful for certain criminal acts likecasing a joint or identifying hidden compartments and passages,but a single skill doesn’t justify investing in this ability score.
A low intelligence will slightly increase your chance of dying instantly to an intellect devourer, which is yet another reason tokeep Protection From Evil and Good on your spell list. Speaking of…
Spell Selections For A Trickery Cleric
Your domain spells give you ready access to many spells that a cleric cannot normally enjoy.Mirror Image provides a way of protecting yourself without relying on a high AC or hitpoints, anddoesn’t require concentration.
Disguise Self can create disposable identities for committing uncivil acts, andBlink allows you to avoid damagewhile still keeping close to the center of the action.
The additional spells you prepare can be used to cover a wider range of skills,filling the gaps in your domain spells with more traditional cleric abilities.
Some of these details will be more or less effective depending on the group you play with and how your game is run. If your group rarely does reconnaissance, then you’ll benefit less from Pass Without Trace, but a game heavy on political intrigue will see greater use from Detect Poison And Disease and its partner Purify Food And Drink.
Multiclassing For Trickery Clerics
The way that trickery clerics occupy multiple niches means that they benefit well from multiclasses that allow them to commit more strongly to one of those areas.
The drawbacks aredelaying your spell slot advancementandspreading your already thin ability scores even further.
You’ll want toplan your multiclassing well ahead of time, so you can be sure you meet the conditions for the class you want.
Rogue
13 dexterity
Rogue offers sneak attack as a powerful damage boost as well as theexpertise feature to buff up your skill proficienciesto new heights.
Bard
13 charisma
Bard offers the same expertise bonuses as rogueand continues to provide spell slots on level-up but requires charisma for its spellcasting features. The College of Whispersleans into deception as a thematic complement to trickery.
Fighter
13 strength or dexterity
Fighter gives a fighting style to improve your weapon attacks butdoesn’t offer heavy armour when taken through multiclassing.The Echo Knight can double down on the trickery cleric’s ability tosummon copies, and allows you to swap places with the duplicates.
Warlock
Warlock invocationsoffer some fun tools for a creative player.Unlimited uses of disguise self can save some of your first-level spell slots, and the ability tosee through magical darknesscan aid you greatly in stealth. A pact of the chain warlock cansummon an invisible sprite familiar, a powerful reconnaissance aide that can alsoinflict the poisoned conditionwith its ranged attack.
Druid
13 wisdom
Handing out a fistful ofGoodberries to your party membersbefore a fight can save you the time needed to heal people during combat but won’t replace proper healing spells. Druid is anotherfull spell caster that uses wisdom, reducing the friction between the two halves of your character.
Wild Shape can complement your stealth abilities, making use of animal forms that are inconspicuous such as spiders and rats.
How To Roleplay A Trickery Cleric
There are many options for roleplaying a cleric of trickery, and no shortage of variations on each.
You could roleplay them as being a servant to a different deity andhide their allegiance to a trickster god. The cultural and political influence of being a member of clergy can open doors that would need lock-picking for an ordinary rogue.
You candraw helpful inspiration for this archetype from mythologies such as Odin and Loki, both of whom would often hide their identities and wield deception in their stories. You’ll want to have askill proficiency in religion to help follow through on this bluff.
A trickster cleric could fit right at homein a party of criminals or outlaws. This could allow you to lean into your clerical side to stand out from rogues and rangers, perhaps channeling the energy ofFriar Tuck from Robin Hood’s Merry Men.
Trickery magic could be a necessary tool for your line of work or a creative flair from somebody who loves their job.
The cleric could represent a morecovert branch of a mainstream church. Instead of a trickster god, they canrevere the cunning stratagems of a martial deity,for example.
The cleric might not be a trickster themselves but a markswindled by a trickster deity.
This may lean closer to the flavour of a warlock, and you shouldconsult your GM to see whether this is suitable for the setting.
