The new Hunt Domain subclass for Clerics makes them feel a lot more like Rangers than you might otherwise expect.
The subclasses of Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting: Part 2 bring a lot to the table. They are dripping with flavor (pun intended, looking at you, College of Cuisine), but they also help make the mechanics tie in to the theme of the book. Which, if you’re unfamiliar, is an expansion for D&D 5E inspired by primarily the Monster Hunter series of video games, with a splash of Dragon’s Dogma and similar titles mixed in for extra color.
The result is an expansion with big, beefy monsters that have devastating attacks you need to learn and predict, comboed with powerful new subclasses, rules for making magic items and magical meals, and a dozen other tools to tackle these titanic terrors.
Adventurers in Heliana’s Guide are all about hunting monsters – and perhaps the most on-theme one of these is the Hunt Domain for Clerics. It gives Clerics a shape and a purpose on par with the way a Life Domain Cleric is all about healing.
Hunt Domain Cleric
And as the Hunt Domain subclass text points out, this is an aspect of Clerics evident in mythology too. Artemis, Skadi, there are plenty of gods of the hunt in human history – nevermind what you’d find and make in a fantasy world. Gods that relish the hunt have Clerics who become adept at finding prey, and then making sure that the hunt is honored.
They get a list of Hunt Domain Spells that help reflect this, starting with Entangle and Longstrider, two spells classic for snaring someone running away while also making sure that you can pursue them even if they escape. There’s a lot around that – spells like Pass Without Trace and Haste are joined by locate creature and conjure animals.
And in keeping with the theme of hunting and nature, you can gain proficiency in Animal Handling, Nature, or Survival, as well as two martial weapons of your choice. Presumably a melee weapon and a ranged weapon.
But where the subclass really comes into its own is with Mark Prey. This single feature makes you much better at Rangering than a Ranger is. With a few caveats. Obviously there’s more to being a Ranger than casting Hunter’s Mark, even if WotC doesn’t seem to think so. But this feature lets you just mark a creature within 90 feet as a Bonus Action. Then, you get an extra 1d6 whenever you hit with a weapon attack, and have advantage on Perception and Survival.
It’s Hunter’s Mark without having to cast Hunter’s Mark. No spell slot. And crucially, no Concentration. Honestly if you’re playing a Ranger in 5E, it might be worth the single level dip for this. But it’s also just a good subclass in general.
Because there’s also your Channel Divinity: Honed Instincts, which lets you gain “preternatural insights” into a single creature within 120 feet. You basically use your Channel Divinity and then decide whether you want to learn what saves and skills the creature is proficient with, or its damage resistances, immunities, and vulnerabilities.
Not bad, not bad. But wait, there’s more. You also automatically deal maximum damage the next time you hit the creature with a weapon attack within the next minute. Which can be absurd if you have a way of enhancing your Crit chances.
Leading The Pack
One thing I really love about the subclass is that as you grow, it feels like you aren’t just about being a lone wolf. You’re the leader of a pack of hunters. Which is kind of the fiction of the class – Clerics are healers and warriors, sure, but they play a role in the communities they find themselves in.
This gets embodied in the 6th-level feature, Pack Hunter, which makes you a battlefield leader in a way. You gain a couple of new Reaction abilities. For one, you can use your Reaction to deal your Mark Prey damage to a creature when someone other than you hits your target. For two, you can use your Reaction to allow an ally to retreat from a target you have Marked, potentially causing them to miss an attack. Sure, you only get your Wisdom modifier times per day, but as a Cleric? You’ll be just fine.
Later, Unflinching Mark upgrades the damage of your Mark Prey, taking it from 1d6 to 2d6 and then eventually 3d6, which is even more of an upgrade than WotC gives Rangers (who get to cast a spell and do 1d10 instead of 1d6).
The subclass caps off with Rite of the Hunt, which lets you use your Bonus Action to make a creature you have previously Marked with Mark Prey suffer one of two very debilitating effects. You can either make them Chase you, in which case they can’t move more than 30 feet away from you and has disadvantage on all attack rolls that aren’t against you. Or you can make them Avoid you, in which case they can’t willingly move closer than 30 feet. Not bad, but a little lackluster compared to the other features.
Still, all in all, this is a potent subclass, and worth considering if you’re looking to make a party of monster hunters.
Check out the Hunt Domain Cleric and more in Heliana’s Guide to Monster Hunting: Part 2!
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