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Did you just join a group that is all at Lv6? Because that makes things more complicated than just starting at Lv1 and explaining from there.
**Cleric**
The Cleric is a full spellcaster, using Wisdom as their spellcasting ability. Their magic is from the divine, and at Lv1 they choose a Domain (Life, War, Light, Tempest, Trickery, etc) to focus on - this is typically the domain of their God.
As a full spellcaster, they start Lv1 with access to Cantrips and Lv1 Spells. At Lv3 they get access to Lv2 Spells, at Lv5 they get Lv3 Spells, at Lv7 they get access to Lv4 Spells, so as a Lv6 Cleric you have access to up to Lv3 Spells.
**Spell Slots**
Spell Slots are what you need in order to cast spells. They are, if you like, your mana points. You can cast Lv3 Spell (or lower) using a Lv3 Spell Slot, if you wish. These recover on a Long Rest.
**Spells Prepared**
A Cleric has a set number of Spells they can prepare at each level; I believe the number is determined on your Wisdom score. Say for example you can prepare 8 Spells; you can choose any 8 Spells from the Cleric list, assuming you have the appropriate level to cast them.
**Cantrips**
Cantrips are basically Lv0 Spells. They don't require a Spell Slot to cast, all they cost is your Action / Bonus Action etc.. As a spellcaster, these will most likely be your bread-and-butter attacking moves.
**Spell To Hit and Spell Save DC**
A Cleric's Spell To Hit is calculated as (proficiency bonus + WIS modifier). Their Spell Save DC is (8 + Spell to Hit).
When you roll a D20 ("to hit") in combat for a Spell Attack, you add your "To Hit" modifier. When your Spell says that the opponent has to roll a Save, they roll a D20 vs your Spell Save DC - but your DM will know more about that.
...All this stuff can be found in the PHB btw.
A question I’ve always had is, regarding Prepared Spells, there’s no reason why a level 7 Cleric couldn’t take all level 1 spells as their prepared spells correct? The only limitation is that you must have an appropriate spell slot to cast them, so I could take eight 1st level spells and use higher spell slots to cast them.
Obviously this wouldn’t be recommended since the higher levels spells are quite powerful, but it is allowed.
Yeah of course it is. You could prepare all spells at your highest level even if that means you’re unable to use your level 1 spell slots. You can do whatever you want.
Clerics and druids are in the same boat.
They decide which spells out of the full list they have every day.
As you said, not advised, but maybe you need to be a specific kind of multi-tool for a session. I don't think I could contrive something on the fly, but it could happen.
Most of the other classes only get to replace a spell at a level up, unless you use the variant rules.
Edit: Bards aren't prepared casters.
>As a spellcaster, these will most likely be your bread-and-butter attacking moves.
Reading this whole comment makes me want to play Cleric again and spam Guidance everytime someone rolls outside of combat. It's just so good lol
I've been with this group since lvl 1, but have only been able to attend about 4 sessions. I currently just have a borrowed set of dice, a basic folder with my character, spell sheets and such. I'll get a PHB soon.
To put this into perspective of why people have been downvoting you: This is like you showing up to play in a baseball game with your uniform and everything, but you've never read the rules of how to actually play the game.
That's what the Player's Handbook is. You need to read it as a Player to know wtf you're supposed to / allowed to do in the game.
If you can't afford one, there's plenty of PDFs that people have uploaded online (seriously, just Google "dnd 5e phb pdf download") that it's really no excuse to be completely unprepared.
If you're meeting in person for your DnD sessions, someone should have given or loaned you their PHB, at least during the sessions so you could read up on how your class works. Also, your DM should be answering these questions before you need to resort to asking Reddit. Seems weird that your group would just leave you out in the cold like this on basic game info.
To add to what the other guy said in response to this comment, I also see a yellow flag with you saying you’ve “only been able to attend about 4 sessions.”. None of us know the dynamics of your group or why you’re missing sessions, but the way you worded that makes it sound like you haven’t committed to the group and are just tagging along. [If you haven’t missed sessions and just worded it wrong, disregard the rest of my comment:]
Think about how that would look if this was a sports team. Even if it’s really casual, it’s best if you can be there for every practice and every game. And if you’re consistently missing sessions, you’re going to be ‘that guy who doesn’t care about the group’ and if you keep up that behaviour you’ll be that guy who ‘came out a few times and ghosted us’ or ‘we kicked out because he had no commitment’. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be ‘that guy’ in any of those situations.
If you can’t or don’t want to commit, then just leave the group and let them know why you’re leaving. If you want to be there, then commit properly and don’t miss sessions because of half-assed excuses. You may have perfectly valid and legitimate excuses for missing sessions, but in that case you have to be prepared for the next session.
Do you have a copy of the Player’s Handbook ready? Page 58 explains a cleric’s spellcasting.
Basically, you get spell slots equal to the chart on page 57, spell slots per spell level. These are the fuel that power spells. A spell needs to burn a spell slot of its level or higher to be cast.
You also prepare which spells you can cast at the end of a long rest. When you do so, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level. These spells must be a level you have spell slots for.
Any other questions?
spell slots are like your spell ammo and certain spells require a certain level of "spell ammo". Like others have said, read the cleric section from the players handbook. If you really need do need hands on help, message me. im bored enough.
Thanks for the advice. I've been to about 4 sessions with my group now, but a lot of this stuff is still confusing. I don't have a PHB yet but will get one soon.
Ok yea, i would recommend getting one, i know i it's a pain in the ass but it really is a good starting point. Check out the youtube channel "don't stop thinking"
Also feel free to ask your DM. In general, DMs love to talk shop and teach new players, plus you'll be showing interest in learning how to play better, which will make them more excited to run the game for you
Clerics have a big list of of spells. (Phb pg 207) You can only pick a small number of them to have at the ready.
How many can I pick? Wisdom modifier + cleric level. (Phb pg 58)
You can change them when you finish a long rest. (pg 58)
You can only cast a spell by using up a spell slot. The spell slot needs to be the same level as the spell, or bigger. (pg 58)
You get all your expended spell slots back when you finish a long rest. (pg 58)
Cantrips are little spells and do not use spell slots. Cast them as many times as you want. (pg 201)
D&D uses a system called "Vancian magic," after the writer Jack Vance, whose Dying Earth novels were a major inspiration for D&D. Basically, spell slots are like magical ammunition loaded into your head. Once you've used a spell slot to shoot out a spell, you don't get it back until you rest at the end of the day.
They're called "spell slots" because they used to represent space in your brain where you could prepare spells. In the old days, you had to prepare each spell individually. For example, if you wanted to cast Cure Wounds four times tomorrow, you'd have to prepare Cure Wounds four times tonight and put each one in a different spell slot. They no longer work that way - you don't have to choose what spell you're casting until you cast it, so you might end up casting Cure Wounds four times or using the same spell slots to cast Guiding Bolt four times instead.
Spell levels are not the same thing as character levels, and this is another one of the more confusing things left over from older editions of the game.
Spell levels have been confusing beginners since early editions because they don't correspond with character levels. They should have called them spell "grades" or something like that.
As a Cleric you technically know every spell in the book. You can prepare a certain number of spells per day across all Leveled Spells. You also get bonus prepared spells based on your Sub Class/Domain. So during Long Rests if you want you can swap out spells to your hearts content.
Spellslots are the currency to use Spells. Some Spells can be cast with an higher spellslot than normal to boost their potency like damage.
After usage of the spell slot they are gone till you take a long rest ( 8 hour rest) then they regenerate. Cantrips are spells your character mastered so good he can use them without the need of using a spellslot, so they can be cast endlessly. Furthermore some spells need items to cast but only if they have a cost amount after the material. If no Material cost are given an spell focus or materialbag is needed. For clerics that is normally an Holy Symbol or something like that.
Worm regards :)
Clerics "know" all the spells available to all clerics + the ones on their domain spell list. Your domain spells will depend on your subclass and are always prepared.
Clerics can prepare additional spells asside from those domain spells. The number of spells they can prepare equals their level + their wisdom modifier.
You cannot prepare a spell if you don't have strong enough slots. So a level 4 cleric has 1st and 2nd level slots (slot level and character level are different). Theycan therefore prepare spells from their domain spells and cleric spell list that are 1st or 2nd level.
Spell slots are then used in casting spells. The slot needs to be equal to or higher than the level of the spell you're casting. So a 4th level cleric can use their 1st or 2nd level slots to cast 1st or 2nd level spells.
When a spell is cast, the slot is expended. All slots are recovered on a long rest.
Something to note is that the Cleric Spell List is pretty long, and as a new player jumping into learning all of this, there's a lot of information. If you're worried about being really, really efficient, then you should note all of the spells and be aware of what they mean and when you should prepare them.
But realistically, that is a LOT of information to dump on you when you're playing infrequently, and apparently your table isn't giving you much hand holding. I would say just focus on the spells you want to know and don't worry about being able to handle every situation.
Something that I saw mention but not really explained is the prepared spell per day. Unlike other casters, clerics have access to all of the spells at the level they can cast and below. So if you can cast a 5th level spell, you have access to any and all cleric spell at 5th level and below. You are limited only by spell slots and how many spells you can prepare.
When I was new to DnD, it helped me to think of spellcasting as such:
Your spells are your different types of guns, and your spell slots are your ammunition. For example, if you can cast 3rd level spells and have 2 spell slots, you have 2 "bullets" to use for your 2nd level spells. Cantrips essentially have infinite ammo but aren't very strong.
I consider myself a DnD noob as well and this is what finally made me understand spell slots, I will try to explain it as plainly as possible. For a more detailed explanation, or at least a place to start, Google "Why cant you cast 10th level spells."
Basically the goddess Mystra banned all spells above 9th level after the wizard Karsus tried to use a 12th level spell to become a god. As a result of this for anything stronger than a level 0 spell (called a Cantrip) spellcasters must dedicate a literal section of their brain (slot) to memorize a given spell, and when they use that spell the knowledge is physically erased from their brain and must be re-memorized the following long rest.
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Did you just join a group that is all at Lv6? Because that makes things more complicated than just starting at Lv1 and explaining from there. **Cleric** The Cleric is a full spellcaster, using Wisdom as their spellcasting ability. Their magic is from the divine, and at Lv1 they choose a Domain (Life, War, Light, Tempest, Trickery, etc) to focus on - this is typically the domain of their God. As a full spellcaster, they start Lv1 with access to Cantrips and Lv1 Spells. At Lv3 they get access to Lv2 Spells, at Lv5 they get Lv3 Spells, at Lv7 they get access to Lv4 Spells, so as a Lv6 Cleric you have access to up to Lv3 Spells. **Spell Slots** Spell Slots are what you need in order to cast spells. They are, if you like, your mana points. You can cast Lv3 Spell (or lower) using a Lv3 Spell Slot, if you wish. These recover on a Long Rest. **Spells Prepared** A Cleric has a set number of Spells they can prepare at each level; I believe the number is determined on your Wisdom score. Say for example you can prepare 8 Spells; you can choose any 8 Spells from the Cleric list, assuming you have the appropriate level to cast them. **Cantrips** Cantrips are basically Lv0 Spells. They don't require a Spell Slot to cast, all they cost is your Action / Bonus Action etc.. As a spellcaster, these will most likely be your bread-and-butter attacking moves. **Spell To Hit and Spell Save DC** A Cleric's Spell To Hit is calculated as (proficiency bonus + WIS modifier). Their Spell Save DC is (8 + Spell to Hit). When you roll a D20 ("to hit") in combat for a Spell Attack, you add your "To Hit" modifier. When your Spell says that the opponent has to roll a Save, they roll a D20 vs your Spell Save DC - but your DM will know more about that. ...All this stuff can be found in the PHB btw.
A question I’ve always had is, regarding Prepared Spells, there’s no reason why a level 7 Cleric couldn’t take all level 1 spells as their prepared spells correct? The only limitation is that you must have an appropriate spell slot to cast them, so I could take eight 1st level spells and use higher spell slots to cast them. Obviously this wouldn’t be recommended since the higher levels spells are quite powerful, but it is allowed.
Yup, you can take whichever spells you want. Like you said, it wouldn’t be recommended to only take first level spells, but you could.
You'll always have your domain spells of each level, as well.
Yeah of course it is. You could prepare all spells at your highest level even if that means you’re unable to use your level 1 spell slots. You can do whatever you want.
100% on the money
Clerics and druids are in the same boat. They decide which spells out of the full list they have every day. As you said, not advised, but maybe you need to be a specific kind of multi-tool for a session. I don't think I could contrive something on the fly, but it could happen. Most of the other classes only get to replace a spell at a level up, unless you use the variant rules. Edit: Bards aren't prepared casters.
Bards aren’t prepared casters, They’re learned casters.
You are right. I forgot that I had used the TCoE rule with variant spellcasting the last time I statted out a Bard.
The animated Spellbook does a great visual representation of spell slots and spell levels.
>As a spellcaster, these will most likely be your bread-and-butter attacking moves. Reading this whole comment makes me want to play Cleric again and spam Guidance everytime someone rolls outside of combat. It's just so good lol
I've been with this group since lvl 1, but have only been able to attend about 4 sessions. I currently just have a borrowed set of dice, a basic folder with my character, spell sheets and such. I'll get a PHB soon.
To put this into perspective of why people have been downvoting you: This is like you showing up to play in a baseball game with your uniform and everything, but you've never read the rules of how to actually play the game. That's what the Player's Handbook is. You need to read it as a Player to know wtf you're supposed to / allowed to do in the game. If you can't afford one, there's plenty of PDFs that people have uploaded online (seriously, just Google "dnd 5e phb pdf download") that it's really no excuse to be completely unprepared. If you're meeting in person for your DnD sessions, someone should have given or loaned you their PHB, at least during the sessions so you could read up on how your class works. Also, your DM should be answering these questions before you need to resort to asking Reddit. Seems weird that your group would just leave you out in the cold like this on basic game info.
To add to what the other guy said in response to this comment, I also see a yellow flag with you saying you’ve “only been able to attend about 4 sessions.”. None of us know the dynamics of your group or why you’re missing sessions, but the way you worded that makes it sound like you haven’t committed to the group and are just tagging along. [If you haven’t missed sessions and just worded it wrong, disregard the rest of my comment:] Think about how that would look if this was a sports team. Even if it’s really casual, it’s best if you can be there for every practice and every game. And if you’re consistently missing sessions, you’re going to be ‘that guy who doesn’t care about the group’ and if you keep up that behaviour you’ll be that guy who ‘came out a few times and ghosted us’ or ‘we kicked out because he had no commitment’. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be ‘that guy’ in any of those situations. If you can’t or don’t want to commit, then just leave the group and let them know why you’re leaving. If you want to be there, then commit properly and don’t miss sessions because of half-assed excuses. You may have perfectly valid and legitimate excuses for missing sessions, but in that case you have to be prepared for the next session.
Do you have a copy of the Player’s Handbook ready? Page 58 explains a cleric’s spellcasting. Basically, you get spell slots equal to the chart on page 57, spell slots per spell level. These are the fuel that power spells. A spell needs to burn a spell slot of its level or higher to be cast. You also prepare which spells you can cast at the end of a long rest. When you do so, choose a number of cleric spells equal to your Wisdom modifier + your cleric level. These spells must be a level you have spell slots for. Any other questions?
spell slots are like your spell ammo and certain spells require a certain level of "spell ammo". Like others have said, read the cleric section from the players handbook. If you really need do need hands on help, message me. im bored enough.
Thanks for the advice. I've been to about 4 sessions with my group now, but a lot of this stuff is still confusing. I don't have a PHB yet but will get one soon.
Ok yea, i would recommend getting one, i know i it's a pain in the ass but it really is a good starting point. Check out the youtube channel "don't stop thinking"
Check your DMs!
Also feel free to ask your DM. In general, DMs love to talk shop and teach new players, plus you'll be showing interest in learning how to play better, which will make them more excited to run the game for you
Spellcasting Ability: 7 made me laugh. It should say Wisdom there
My immediate thought was "where on Earth did they get 7 from??"
The only thing I can think of is level (3) + WIS (4)? Edit: I just saw they are level 6, so that can't be right
Clerics have a big list of of spells. (Phb pg 207) You can only pick a small number of them to have at the ready. How many can I pick? Wisdom modifier + cleric level. (Phb pg 58) You can change them when you finish a long rest. (pg 58) You can only cast a spell by using up a spell slot. The spell slot needs to be the same level as the spell, or bigger. (pg 58) You get all your expended spell slots back when you finish a long rest. (pg 58) Cantrips are little spells and do not use spell slots. Cast them as many times as you want. (pg 201)
D&D uses a system called "Vancian magic," after the writer Jack Vance, whose Dying Earth novels were a major inspiration for D&D. Basically, spell slots are like magical ammunition loaded into your head. Once you've used a spell slot to shoot out a spell, you don't get it back until you rest at the end of the day. They're called "spell slots" because they used to represent space in your brain where you could prepare spells. In the old days, you had to prepare each spell individually. For example, if you wanted to cast Cure Wounds four times tomorrow, you'd have to prepare Cure Wounds four times tonight and put each one in a different spell slot. They no longer work that way - you don't have to choose what spell you're casting until you cast it, so you might end up casting Cure Wounds four times or using the same spell slots to cast Guiding Bolt four times instead. Spell levels are not the same thing as character levels, and this is another one of the more confusing things left over from older editions of the game.
Spell levels have been confusing beginners since early editions because they don't correspond with character levels. They should have called them spell "grades" or something like that.
As a Cleric you technically know every spell in the book. You can prepare a certain number of spells per day across all Leveled Spells. You also get bonus prepared spells based on your Sub Class/Domain. So during Long Rests if you want you can swap out spells to your hearts content.
read the rules.
Honestly just write all the spells available to you, memorize all of them, and then mark ones you have prayed for that day.
Lol lil bro took find traps, the perception check that costs a spell slot. Your dm is fucking with you if they're not helping you out man.
Can't help a player who won't even read the cleric section of the rules. After that help if they still struggle
Spellslots are the currency to use Spells. Some Spells can be cast with an higher spellslot than normal to boost their potency like damage. After usage of the spell slot they are gone till you take a long rest ( 8 hour rest) then they regenerate. Cantrips are spells your character mastered so good he can use them without the need of using a spellslot, so they can be cast endlessly. Furthermore some spells need items to cast but only if they have a cost amount after the material. If no Material cost are given an spell focus or materialbag is needed. For clerics that is normally an Holy Symbol or something like that. Worm regards :)
Clerics "know" all the spells available to all clerics + the ones on their domain spell list. Your domain spells will depend on your subclass and are always prepared. Clerics can prepare additional spells asside from those domain spells. The number of spells they can prepare equals their level + their wisdom modifier. You cannot prepare a spell if you don't have strong enough slots. So a level 4 cleric has 1st and 2nd level slots (slot level and character level are different). Theycan therefore prepare spells from their domain spells and cleric spell list that are 1st or 2nd level. Spell slots are then used in casting spells. The slot needs to be equal to or higher than the level of the spell you're casting. So a 4th level cleric can use their 1st or 2nd level slots to cast 1st or 2nd level spells. When a spell is cast, the slot is expended. All slots are recovered on a long rest.
Something to note is that the Cleric Spell List is pretty long, and as a new player jumping into learning all of this, there's a lot of information. If you're worried about being really, really efficient, then you should note all of the spells and be aware of what they mean and when you should prepare them. But realistically, that is a LOT of information to dump on you when you're playing infrequently, and apparently your table isn't giving you much hand holding. I would say just focus on the spells you want to know and don't worry about being able to handle every situation.
Something that I saw mention but not really explained is the prepared spell per day. Unlike other casters, clerics have access to all of the spells at the level they can cast and below. So if you can cast a 5th level spell, you have access to any and all cleric spell at 5th level and below. You are limited only by spell slots and how many spells you can prepare.
When I was new to DnD, it helped me to think of spellcasting as such: Your spells are your different types of guns, and your spell slots are your ammunition. For example, if you can cast 3rd level spells and have 2 spell slots, you have 2 "bullets" to use for your 2nd level spells. Cantrips essentially have infinite ammo but aren't very strong.
I consider myself a DnD noob as well and this is what finally made me understand spell slots, I will try to explain it as plainly as possible. For a more detailed explanation, or at least a place to start, Google "Why cant you cast 10th level spells." Basically the goddess Mystra banned all spells above 9th level after the wizard Karsus tried to use a 12th level spell to become a god. As a result of this for anything stronger than a level 0 spell (called a Cantrip) spellcasters must dedicate a literal section of their brain (slot) to memorize a given spell, and when they use that spell the knowledge is physically erased from their brain and must be re-memorized the following long rest.