As wizards continues to work on One D&D, the new update to dungeons and dragons official rule set, they have released a new play test recently that includes updates to the Cleric class and species options. The latest Unearthed Arcana gives us a better idea of the direction they seem to be going for the Cleric, which has been added to the Priest class group.
Divine Options
The most notable improvement for the cleric has been to its channel divinity abilities. The first change has been to how many uses you can use between long rests. The cleric now can use its ability a number of times equal to its proficiency bonus, which gives a core ability a much needed boost. Divine spark is a new option that allows the cleric to either heal an nearby ally or hurt a potential enemy. With divine spark, the cleric now has a healing ability that sets it apart from other healing classes.
At 7th level, the cleric gains the blessed strike ability which allows them to add radiant damage to one attack on your turn. This damage only gets added if the attack is a weapon attack or from cantrip damage, but this can add up when the cleric doesn’t need to be in the support role.
Spell Casting
There have been several divine spells that have been nerfed in the new test, the most often used of which is spiritual weapon. In the new system, spiritual weapon is now a concentration spell making it much less useful in a support role.
While the changes made here seem to be designed to balance the cleric out a bit, they are only play test changes and could be different when One D&D officially comes out. personally, I do like the direction they are going in, seemingly to make the cleric feel more relevant in the healer class that it should be. In the current 5e system a druid can be a much more powerful healer when setup properly. Hopefully the Cleric will come out on top of that list in the edition.
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