Confessions of a 5E D&D Twilight Domain Cleric

Every Saturday morning I play in a fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons game with a bunch of my internet friends. It started off as a Wildemount game where we ran through the Frozen Sick adventure included in the book. I wasn’t sure how long this campaign was going to last so I wanted to play a character who started off at 1st level with their subclass right away. In 5E D&D this means cleric, sorcerer or warlock. I hadn’t really played a 5E D&D cleric for more than a one shot at this point so I decided to play one for this campaign. At the time Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything hadn’t come out yet and the Twilight Domain was still Unearthed Arcana but I wanted to playtest it. So Tunk Girgunkil, variant human Twilight Domain cleric with an urchin background was born.

Playing a 5E D&D Twilight Domain cleric

What’s a 5E D&D cleric without their deity? Tunk had a bit of a different upbringing than most. He was adopted. It wasn’t so bad though. A loving family took him in and cared for him. He ended up with tons of brothers and sisters and even more cousins. You see, Tunk’s adoptive family was a tribe of goblins. They called him Tunk Girgunkil. (Girgunkil is goblin for too tall.) Tunk’s status in the tribe changed when he received the blessing of Maglubiyet. It was the proudest day of his goblin mom’s life and the ultimate disappointment for his goblin dad. His dad was just waiting for him to get enough meat on his bones to make a decent meal. Soon after Tunk took up adventuring and found himself in Eiselcross.

From Wildemount to Curse of Strahd

One of the players mentioned always wanting to play Curse of Strahd so at the end of Frozen Sick the Mists arose. One of the players took over as Dungeon Master and our party was transported to Ravenloft. I got to play Tunk the Twilight Domain cleric from 1st to 6th level. Sadly Tunk never got to see 7th level. He met his end at the hands of Baba Lysaga but not before hit her with a 2nd level inflict wounds while she was paralyzed. Alas, she shook it off and nailed poor Tunk with the finger of death spell and that is all she wrote for him.

All in all the Twilight Domain cleric was both fun and effective to use.

Twilight Domain cleric by the numbers

Domain Spells. I love the domain spells for the Twilight Domain. They are faerie fire, sleep, moonbeam, see invisibility, aura of vitality, Leomund’s tiny hut, aura of life, greater invisibility, circle of power and mislead. The spells for 2nd level were different in the Unearthed Arcana and I kept using those. They were darkness and invisibility. I didn’t know they changed until writing this post. The initial spell list for the Twilight Domain was so strong. Faerie fire, sleep, invisibility and Leomund’s tiny hut would get used regularly by Tunk.

Bonus Proficiencies. With access to martial weapons and heavy armor Tunk was pretty tanky but true to his goblin upbringing he knew the bravest and best goblins lead from the back. He was more likely to use his crossbow or spells from the rear than wade into the melee with his short sword.

Eyes of Night. This comes in handy for a human character to have darkvision out to 300 feet. Also the ability to share this with your allies came in handy.

Vigilant Blessing. Basically having advantage on initiative whenever you want is great plus you can give it to someone else. Tunk always gave this ability to the character he regarded as his boss.

Channel Divinity — Twilight Sanctuary. This ability lets you create a 30 foot bubble granting your allies 1d6 plus your level in temporary hit points or end a charmed or frightened condition each round. I only used this one a couple of times but it is a great feature.

Steps of Night. This ability allows you to fly in dim light or darkness as a bonus action. You can use this ability a number times equal to your proficiency bonus. This one greatly changed from the Unearthed Arcana. Originally the limitations on using it were practically nonexistent.

Divine Strike. Sadly Tunk didn’t get live long enough to gain this feature or the Twilight Domain capstone but like so many other Divine Domains this grants an extra d8 of radiant damage when you hit with a weapon attack.

Twilight Shroud. Buffs your Channel Divinity to give your allies half cover which is super sweet.

*Featured image — A human cleric of Twilight as seen in the fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons Tasha’s Cauldon of Everything. [Image courtesy Wizards of the Coast]