Aasimar War Domain Cleric Build Guide

Levels 1-4

Start with Chain Mail and a heavy two-handed weapon like a Maul or Greatsword. Your starting stats (STR 14, WIS 15) mean you hit reasonably hard and cast effectively. At level 3, the War Domain dramatically shifts your power level. War Priest gives you a bonus action weapon attack that deals an extra 1d8 damage of the weapon's type. This is an insane early-game power spike. Use it to delete priority targets. You also get Guided Strike, allowing you to use your reaction to add your Wisdom modifier (currently +2) to a missed attack roll. At level 4, take the Heavy Armor Master feat. This bumps your Strength to 15, enabling you to wear Splint and Plate armor without a movement penalty, and reduces non-magical bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage by 3, making you incredibly tanky in Tier 1.

Levels 5-10

Level 5 brings third-level spells, fundamentally changing your combat loop. Cast Spirit Guardians and walk into the largest cluster of enemies. You can still use your War Priest attacks while concentrating. At level 6, you gain War God's Blessing. This is your ultimate support tool: expend a Channel Divinity to add your Wisdom modifier to an ally's missed attack roll as a reaction. Save this explicitly for your Rogue's Sneak Attack or your Paladin's Divine Smite. At level 8, take an Ability Score Improvement (ASI) to bump your Wisdom to 17, improving your spell save DC and increasing the bonus granted by your Guided Strike and War God's Blessing.

Levels 11-16

At level 11, your melee damage (3.58 DPR) begins to fall behind your spell damage (10.18 DPR). This is where you transition from a primary weapon-swinger to a frontline spellcaster who occasionally swings a weapon to finish off a wounded foe. Your Celestial Revelation is now adding significant flat damage, so when you do hit, it counts. At level 12, take the War Caster feat. You're constantly in melee range, and losing concentration on a high-level Spirit Guardians is a disaster. At level 16, use your ASI to max your Wisdom to 19 or take Resilient (Constitution) to bump your 13 CON to 14 and secure your concentration checks entirely.

Levels 17-20

At level 17, you unlock Avatar of Battle, granting you resistance to bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing damage. When combined with your Aasimar Celestial Resistance (radiant and necrotic), you resist five of the most common damage types in the late game. You are a walking fortress. Spend your highest-level slots on massive spells like Holy Aura, rely on your resistances to survive the onslaught, and use War God's Blessing to ensure your Fighter's Great Weapon Master attacks never miss.

Cantrips

Take Toll the Dead for your primary ranged damage option; it forces a Wisdom save and scales beautifully. Grab Guidance because it is the best cantrip in the game for out-of-combat utility. Round it out with Word of Radiance for an emergency area-of-effect option when you're surrounded and don't want to burn a spell slot.

Level 1-2 Spells

Your War Domain Spells ensure you always have domain spells prepared, freeing up your choices. Prepare Bless; it buffs your entire frontline's attack rolls and saving throws. Shield of Faith is great for bumping your AC when you are tanking a boss. Skip Spiritual Weapon—it competes directly with your War Priest bonus action attacks, making it redundant in this specific build.

Level 3-5 Spells

Spirit Guardians is non-negotiable. It is the defining Cleric spell and forces enemies to take damage just for standing near you. Prepare Revivify to bring allies back from the dead. At 4th level, Banishment targets Charisma saves, which are often weak on brute monsters. At 5th level, Greater Restoration is mandatory for clearing devastating late-game debuffs.

High-Level Spells

Heal is the best single-target healing spell in the game, completely bypassing the randomness of dice rolls. Holy Aura at 8th level is phenomenal, granting your whole party advantage on all saving throws and forcing enemies to attack with disadvantage, perfectly complementing your frontline playstyle.

Heavy Armor Master

Take this at level 4. Your starting Strength is 14, and you need 15 to wear Plate Armor without a 10-foot movement penalty. This feat gives you that +1 Strength while also reducing incoming non-magical physical damage by 3. In the early game, reducing a goblin's 5 damage hit to 2 damage is exceptionally powerful for a frontline striker.

War Caster

Take this at level 12. Because you are constantly in melee range utilizing your War Priest attacks, you will take hits. Losing concentration on Spirit Guardians or Banishment is unacceptable. War Caster gives you advantage on those Constitution saves and lets you cast a spell as an opportunity attack.

Resilient (Constitution)

Take this at level 16. Your starting Constitution is 13, which is dangerously low for a frontline character. Resilient bumps it to an even 14 (granting you more max HP retroactively) and adds your proficiency bonus to your Constitution saving throws, stacking wonderfully with War Caster.

Tier 1 (Levels 1-4)

Start with a two-handed martial weapon like a Greatsword or Maul to maximize the extra 1d8 damage from your War Priest bonus action attack. Stick with your starting Chain Mail until you can afford Splint Armor. Keep a few Potions of Healing handy because your Healing Hands racial trait is only a once-per-long-rest emergency heal.

Tier 2 (Levels 5-10)

Upgrade to Plate Armor as soon as you have the 15 Strength from Heavy Armor Master to wear it. Seek out a +1 Weapon to keep your melee attacks relevant, and try to acquire an Amulet of the Devout +1 to boost your spell save DC and give you an extra use of Channel Divinity for your War God's Blessing.

Tier 3 (Levels 11-16)

Look for Adamantine Plate Armor to negate critical hits—since your Dexterity is 8, you will get hit often, and preventing crits keeps you alive. A Belt of Dwarvenkind is an excellent pickup here, as it boosts your low Constitution by 2 and grants poison resistance, adding to your already impressive suite of resistances.

Tier 4 (Levels 17-20)

Hunt for an Amulet of the Devout +3. Maximize your AC with +2 or +3 Plate Armor. By this tier, your Avatar of Battle gives you resistance to physical damage, so focus on magical defense. A Cloak of Displacement forces disadvantage on attacks against you, making you nearly unkillable in melee.

As an Aasimar War Domain Cleric, your party role is a hybrid Striker and Frontline Support. You are meant to hold the line, dish out heavy burst damage early in a fight, and then transition into buffing and area control. You thrive in parties that have heavy hitters who occasionally struggle with accuracy.

You pair perfectly with a Great Weapon Master Fighter or a Sharpshooter Ranger. Because these martial classes take a -5 penalty to their attack rolls for +10 damage, they miss frequently. Your War God's Blessing allows you to turn their devastating misses into guaranteed hits using your reaction. This synergy alone justifies your place in the party.

You also work exceptionally well with a Rogue. Rogues only get one attack per turn usually, meaning a missed Sneak Attack is a wasted turn. Using Guided Strike (on yourself) or War God's Blessing (on them) ensures the party's burst damage lands exactly when it needs to.

Fighter 2

Taking two levels of Fighter gives you the Defense fighting style (+1 AC) and Action Surge. Action Surge is the most powerful feature in the game for spellcasters because it allows you to cast two leveled spells in a single turn. You can cast Spirit Guardians and still have your action to attack, triggering your War Priest bonus action.

Paladin 2

A two-level dip into Paladin gives you Divine Smite. Since you are a full spellcaster, you have plenty of spell slots to burn. Stacking a Divine Smite on top of your War Priest bonus action attack (which already adds 1d8 damage) creates absolutely monstrous critical hits, especially when you use Guided Strike to ensure the attack connects.

• Hoarding Guided Strike for yourself: While using your reaction to fix your own missed attack is nice, at level 6 you get War God's Blessing. It is almost always mathematically superior to use this on a Rogue's missed Sneak Attack or a Paladin's missed Divine Smite rather than your own basic weapon attack.
• Ignoring spellcasting after level 5: Your melee DPR at level 5 is 3.9, while your spell DPR is 7.8. Relying purely on your weapon attacks when you should be casting Spirit Guardians is a massive mistake. You are a spellcaster first; use your weapon as a supplement.
• Preparing Spiritual Weapon: Most Cleric guides tell you to prepare Spiritual Weapon. Do not do this. It requires a bonus action to use, which directly conflicts with your War Priest bonus action attacks. Save the spell slot.
• Wasting Celestial Revelation on grunts: Your Aasimar transformation is once per long rest. Do not pop it to kill two goblins. Save it for the boss fight where the flight mobility and extra flat damage will actually swing the encounter.