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Subclass Cleric Knowledge Domain
The Knowledge Domain is a Cleric subclass built around the divine gift of understanding — the ability to read minds, unravel secrets, and turn information into power. Where other Domains give Clerics weapons of destruction or shields of protection, the Knowledge Domain gives you something more dangerous: clarity.
You gain Expertise in two skills at Level 3, access to psychic spells, and at Level 6, a feature that changes how your spells interact with enemy minds.
This is a full progression subclass with features at Levels 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9, and a spell list that includes two spells — Mind Spike and Synaptic Static — that no other Cleric Domain can access.
| LEVEL | FEATURE |
|---|---|
| 1 | Blessings of Knowledge |
| 3 | Knowledge Domain Spells, Mind Magic, Skills Expertise |
| 5 | Knowledge Domain Spells (expanded) |
| 6 | Unfettered Mind |
| 7 | Knowledge Domain Spells (expanded) |
| 9 | Knowledge Domain Spells (expanded) |
At Level 1, before you even choose spells, you gain proficiency in two languages and proficiency in two of the following skills: Arcana, History, Nature, Religion.
More importantly, you gain Expertise in those same two skills — doubling your proficiency bonus on those checks.
From Level 1, you are the party's authority on arcane, historical, natural, and religious knowledge. Not just competent — expert. Before combat even starts, you've already provided value.
Your Domain grants an expanding spell list that is always prepared and doesn't count against your limit:
| CLERIC LEVEL | SPELLS ADDED |
|---|---|
| 3 | Calm Emotions, Detect Thoughts, Mind Spike, Command, Sleep |
| 5 | Counterspell, Blink, Speak with Dead |
| 7 | Banishment, Confusion |
| 9 | Dominate Person, Synaptic Static |
12 spells total — and two of them, Mind Spike and Synaptic Static, are exclusive to this Domain. No other Cleric subclass gets access to them as Domain spells.
Mind Spike (Level 2) deals psychic damage and reveals the target's location — it cuts through invisibility and hiding. Synaptic Static (Level 5) is a psychic explosion that impairs concentration and forces a penalty die on all subsequent ability checks. These are among the best psychic spells in the game, and the Knowledge Domain Cleric is the only Cleric who has them always prepared.
A passive gained at Level 3 that enhances your psychic and enchantment spells. Mind Magic gives your mind-affecting spells additional potency — targets that fail their saves against your psychic effects suffer compounded consequences beyond the initial effect.
At Level 3, in addition to the skills from Blessings of Knowledge, you choose 2 additional skills from any list and gain Expertise in them as well.
By Level 3, a Knowledge Domain Cleric can have Expertise in 4 skills. That is more skill mastery than most dedicated skill classes achieve at this level.
Knowledge_6_UnfetteredMind — the defining Level 6 feature of the Domain.
Unfettered Mind enhances your Channel Divinity and psychic spells with a persistent mind-reading aura. When you use Read Thoughts (your Channel Divinity option), you can now:
- Probe the surface thoughts of a creature within 60 feet
- Force a Wisdom saving throw — on a failure, the creature is Charmed by you for 1 minute
- While Charmed, you can ask questions and the creature must answer them honestly
- If the creature passes the save, you can't use this feature on them again for 24 hours
Unfettered Mind turns information gathering into battlefield control. A Charmed creature doesn't attack you. It answers your questions. In the right encounter, this feature ends a fight without a single spell slot spent.
The Knowledge Domain is a psychic controller and skill powerhouse that rewards preparation, positioning, and reading the encounter before it starts.
Your combat identity:
- Out-of-combat — your Expertise makes you the party's authority on information. You know what the enemy is, what it's immune to, and what its weaknesses are before combat starts
- Opening turns — Detect Thoughts or Command to disrupt enemy action economy; Sleep against low-HP clusters; Calm Emotions to neutralize casters
- Mid-combat — Mind Spike to track invisible or hiding targets; Synaptic Static at Level 9 to impair an entire cluster's concentration and action quality
- Channel Divinity — Unfettered Mind to charm a priority target and extract information or remove them from the fight entirely
- Late game — Dominate Person as an always-prepared option makes any humanoid a potential asset rather than a threat