The 4 Best Magic Items for Clerics at Every Tier

Last Updated on January 22, 2023

In Dungeons and Dragons, there are hundreds of magic items from which to choose as a player or as a DM. It can be a bit daunting to look at the list and think you have to read every single one.

Don’t. We did that for you in this post because we are the deadliest, most knowledgeable, and best-looking nerds on the planet (except for you, of course).

This post is cleric-specific. We will give you a good and thorough rundown of the best magic items for clerics in the published rules of Dungeons and Dragons. 

There are three different types of clerics usually. The warrior cleric who mixes it up in the front lines, the support cleric who heals and buffs their allies, or the evil cleric that focuses on sapping the life force from their enemies.

Where you decide to be determines which magic items are good for you.

What Makes a Good Cleric Magic Item?

Clerics start out with proficiency in medium armor and shields. This is great! When it comes to magic items, you won’t have to spend all of your money trying to boost a low AC.

Clerics also start with proficiency in simple weapons, which at first seems limiting, but there is still a good variety of weapons available to you, all of which have magical versions you can use.

Furthermore, there are multiple cleric subclasses that grant you proficiency with heavy armor and martial weapons.

Cleric skill proficiencies are a bit limited and spread out across multiple ability scores, like Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.

This pretty much determines your role in the party as a researcher or socialite. You won’t be doing much sneaking or searching in the dungeon.

All of this is to say that when you are searching for a magic item for your cleric, you’ll have space in your inventory for the cooler, more obscure stuff that nobody else really knows how to use.

You won’t always be searching for the next awesome weapon to lay down the damage. You’ll be looking for the random wondrous item no one else knows about so that you can save the day with a stick of incense.

The 4 Best Low-Tier Magic Items for Clerics

At this tier, you are more worried about keeping everyone alive than about doing overly cool, center-of-the-stage action.

…As if keeping everyone else alive isn’t cool enough.

1. Imbued Wood Focus

Most of your damage-dealing spells will come in the form of radiant or necrotic damage. The Irian Rosewood and Mabaran Ebony Foci are your choice for this.

They are affordable and give an easy plus one to damage on your most-used combat spells.

2. Tankard of Sobriety

Do you ever hate sitting around with your party members after an adventure and they’re pressuring you to drink? Just pour that dwarven whisky into this tankard, and you can drink anyone under the table.

Just don’t let the rogue figure out what it is, lest they start taking bets and drinking everyone else dry before looting their snoring bodies.

3. Scrolls and Potions

You will never have enough spell slots. Never. Prepare for this, and pack spells and potions, typically healing spells and potions.

Better to use your spell slots for useful things than just being everyone’s Hit Point well and respawn point.

4. Spellwrought Tattoos

The difference between these tattoos and other consumables is that you can give away potions and scrolls to be used by other players. Tattoos are only usable by you, however.

This way you can squirrel away a healing spell for yourself every now and then, or keep a surprise guiding bolt literally in your sleeve.

The 4 Best Tier II Items for Clerics

At this tier, your expertise as a mythologist, a researcher, a priest, or a planar protector starts to show a bit more. You will probably be running into (or away from) more undead, and you may even see your first fiend or aberration.

These are great opportunities for you to show what clerics are good at beyond healing, and the following magic items can help you do that… as well as continue being the healer.

1. Helm of Comprehending Languages

Face it, you’re the one the players will turn to when the mystical stuff starts getting weird because you know things that even the wizard doesn’t.

The wizard isn’t likely to know languages from the outer planes, nor do they care enough about normal people to speak to the locals. You are a cleric, a minister, and in this life for the people.

Communication to locals as well as demons and devils are equally important.

2. Guardian Emblem

This item was made specifically for you. No, seriously, only clerics and paladins can attune it. This gives you three opportunities to turn a critical hit into a normal hit on whomever you give the amulet to.

That way, when they are complaining about being hurt, you can always say, “Shut up, you cry baby. It could have been worse.”

3. Immovable Rod

These things are awesome! Everyone should have one. You can use it as a lock, a bar, a ladder, a trap, or anything.

As a Cleric, you can use this to hold someone in place as a more peaceful alternative to knocking them out or killing them.

4. Keoghton’s Ointment

This stuff is so much better than a healing potion and will save you the spell slots. It is 2 to 5 doses of 2d8 + 2 healing that cures poison and disease. You simply can’t beat it.

The 4 Best Tier III Magic Items for Clerics

At tier III, everyone knows you are potentially the most powerful character in the game, even if you’re nice about it.

You can fight; you can take a hit; you can banish, heal, curse, or bless; and you have an entire institution of your religious order at your back.

For these adventures, you’ll be more interested in how to keep the unholy (or holy, if that’s your bag) things out of your world and back in their own plane.

This list is mostly Rare magic items. Check our post on those here. 

1. Amulet of the Devout

This is another item made just for you since only you can attune it. It increases your spell power and grants you an extra channel divinity per long rest.

As a Cleric, that is literally over half of what you do. This helps you do it better and more often.

2. Armor of Resistance

By now, you should know what you’re fighting and what they can do. As the healer and support caster, you will be a prime target.

Take care of yourself by gaining a resistance to their prime mode of attack.

3. Cube of Force

As a support caster, this item will allow you to manipulate the environment in such a way that you can create a safe space for yourself and your allies. You’re a cleric, after all. Safe space is kind of your thing.

4. Mace of Disruption

This is a must for you, holy warrior.

You are granted an additional 2d6 radiant damage on an attack against fiends and undead, and you shed light like some holy, radiant… night light. Like, a beacon against the dark that makes little scared people feel safe!

The 4 Best Tier IV Magic Items for Clerics

Here you are, finally, after years of serving your god, temple, and people, and you are at the height of your career.

You are the best of the best, and if you aren’t careful, your god may decide to knock you down a bit for being too good and getting a little too proud about it.

In previous tiers, you were worried about denizens of the dark invading your plane and snatching innocents.

These days, you’ve decided to end the problem at its source. You’re going to hell, and they better either run away or roll out the red carpet.

1. Amulet of the Planes

You are the most well read in several planes of existence and the most likely member of the party to get everyone there. It only makes sense you should have the keys to the astral-van.

Furthermore, you can boot any fiend back to where they belong.

2. Candle of Invocation

This is your thing! It is a ritual candle designed for summoning or censuring extraplanar entities and reinforcing your god’s energy in a space. You should have at least five of these.

3. Cauldron of Rebirth

Your friends have died so many times by now. You’ve also probably seen the charred remains of entire villages. This cauldron can help to undo all of that without using your spell slots, and it fits nicely in a bag of holding.

4. Staff of Healing

To be honest, you are still a healer at this level, and a staff such as this will let you free up those spell slots that could be better used raising (or animating) folks from the dead or smiting fiends with heavenly fire.

The Best Legendary Item or Artifacts for Clerics – A Final Note for DMs

These items are a bit different than simply the highest-tier, most powerful items in the game. These items are plot hooks in and of themselves. They can be powerful MacGuffins suitable for staging an entire campaign.

These are the world-enders and the world-creators. As the DM, you should have a blanket rule that there are 0 artifacts in your world unless you explicitly say so.

If you want to include such a powerful story tool in your game and give it to your cleric, consider these two.

Mirror of Life Trapping: This is a tool that a cleric can use as an alternative to killing someone or something. That seems simple enough.

But what if you stocked this mirror with 1d12 souls that the cleric is now responsible for? Perhaps one or more of those souls are former cult leaders or powerful political figures whose followers are now chasing down the party.

What if one of those souls figured out a way to talk to your cleric? To charm them? What then?

Crook of Rao: The item description alone contains an entire campaign overview in and of itself. In addition, it already does what your cleric does, just better.

I don’t even need to give you a whole lot of exposition on how to use this item in this way. Just read the description!