Knowledge Domain
The Knowledge Domain turns scholarship, memory, divination and the disciplined search for truth into sacred power. Its clerics uncover secrets, read signs, preserve learning and make information itself useful at the table.
At a Glance
| Divine Sphere | Knowledge, learning, memory, divination, records, secrets and understanding |
|---|---|
| Typical Role | Investigator, diviner, lore-keeper, ritual specialist and information support cleric |
| Core Strengths | Skills, languages, divination, telepathy, identifying weaknesses and uncovering hidden information |
| Primary Ability | Wisdom; Intelligence is especially useful for scholarly skills |
| Sacred Imagery | Open book, lamp, owl, eye, stylus, scroll or inscribed tablet |
| Typical Patrons | Apollo, Athena, Odin, Hecate, Ptah and Thoth |
| Best For | Players who want investigation and information to be as important as direct battlefield damage |
Knowledge Domain Mechanics
Knowledge is an official Cleric domain in all four supported rules traditions, but it changes significantly between them. The current 2024-rules version was published in Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn in 2025; it should not be treated as a homebrew conversion of the 2014 subclass.
Knowledge Domain — D&D 5.5e / 2024 Rules
Rules status: official subclass published for the 2024 Cleric in Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn (2025).
| Cleric Level | Knowledge Domain Feature |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Blessings of Knowledge, Knowledge Domain Spells, Mind Magic |
| 6th | Unfettered Mind |
| 17th | Divine Foreknowledge |
Blessings of Knowledge
At 3rd level, choose one type of Artisan’s Tools and two skills from Arcana, History, Nature and Religion. You gain proficiency with the tools and Expertise in the two chosen skills.
Knowledge Domain Spells
| Cleric Level | Always-Prepared Spells |
|---|---|
| 3rd | Command, Comprehend Languages, Detect Magic, Detect Thoughts, Identify, Mind Spike |
| 5th | Dispel Magic, Nondetection, Tongues |
| 7th | Arcane Eye, Banishment, Confusion |
| 9th | Legend Lore, Scrying, Synaptic Static |
Mind Magic
At 3rd level, you can use a Magic action and expend Channel Divinity to cast a prepared Divination spell from your Knowledge Domain list without expending a spell slot or needing its Material components.
Unfettered Mind
At 6th level, you gain telepathy out to 60 feet and can maintain that telepathic contact with a number of creatures at once equal to your Wisdom modifier, minimum one. You also gain proficiency in Intelligence saving throws; if you already have it, choose another saving throw proficiency you lack.
Divine Foreknowledge
At 17th level, as a Bonus Action, you open your awareness to possible futures for 1 hour, gaining Advantage on D20 Tests during that time. Once used, this normally returns after a Long Rest; the feature can also be restored by expending a spell slot of 6th level or higher.
Knowledge Domain — D&D 5e / 2014
Rules status: official 2014 Player’s Handbook domain. The 2014 version is more focused on flexible proficiencies, reading thoughts and receiving visions of the past than the later 2025 redesign.
2014 Domain Spells
| Cleric Level | Domain Spells |
|---|---|
| 1st | Command, Identify |
| 3rd | Augury, Suggestion |
| 5th | Nondetection, Speak with Dead |
| 7th | Arcane Eye, Confusion |
| 9th | Legend Lore, Scrying |
Blessings of Knowledge
At 1st level, you learn two languages and choose two skills from Arcana, History, Nature and Religion. You become proficient in those skills and double your proficiency bonus for ability checks that use them.
Channel Divinity: Knowledge of the Ages
Starting at 2nd level, you can use Channel Divinity to gain proficiency with one skill or tool of your choice for 10 minutes.
Channel Divinity: Read Thoughts
At 6th level, you can use Channel Divinity to probe the surface thoughts of a creature you can see within 60 feet if it fails a Wisdom saving throw. While the effect lasts, you can end it to impose a magically compelling Suggestion without spending a spell slot. A creature that successfully resists blocks that use of the feature.
Potent Spellcasting
At 8th level, add your Wisdom modifier to the damage you deal with a Cleric cantrip.
Visions of the Past
At 17th level, meditation allows you to receive shadowy impressions associated with an object you hold or the place immediately around you. The feature is intended to reveal previous ownership, important events and other clues from the recent past rather than provide perfect historical omniscience.
Knowledge Domain — Pathfinder 1e
Rules status: published Pathfinder 1e Core Rulebook domain. All Knowledge skills become class skills for you.
Lore Keeper
With a successful touch attack against a creature, you can learn about its abilities and weaknesses as though you had made the appropriate Knowledge check with a result equal to 15 + your Cleric level + your Wisdom modifier.
Remote Viewing
Starting at 6th level, you can use Clairaudience/Clairvoyance as a spell-like ability with your Cleric level as caster level. You can maintain this power for a total number of rounds per day equal to your Cleric level, and the rounds need not be consecutive.
Pathfinder 1e Knowledge Domain Spells
| 1st | Comprehend Languages |
|---|---|
| 2nd | Detect Thoughts |
| 3rd | Speak with Dead |
| 4th | Divination |
| 5th | True Seeing |
| 6th | Find the Path |
| 7th | Legend Lore |
| 8th | Discern Location |
| 9th | Foresight |
Knowledge Domain — D&D 3.5e
Rules status: published 3.5e SRD domain.
Granted Power
All Knowledge skills are Cleric class skills for you, and you cast Divination spells at +1 caster level.
D&D 3.5e Knowledge Domain Spells
| 1st | Detect Secret Doors |
|---|---|
| 2nd | Detect Thoughts |
| 3rd | Clairaudience/Clairvoyance |
| 4th | Divination |
| 5th | True Seeing |
| 6th | Find the Path |
| 7th | Legend Lore |
| 8th | Discern Location |
| 9th | Foresight |
How the Knowledge Domain Plays
Knowledge clerics win encounters before initiative as often as during it. Their best tools identify what the party is facing, reveal routes and motives, uncover hidden information, and turn uncertain choices into informed ones.
In Combat
- Investigate weaknesses. Creature knowledge and divination should change tactics, not merely add flavour.
- Stay behind the front line. Most Knowledge builds gain more from preserving concentration and information tools than from trading weapon attacks.
- Use domain spells to create decisions. Detection, telepathy, scrying and banishment are strongest when they solve a specific problem the party has identified.
Outside Combat
This is one of the strongest cleric domains for mysteries, ruins, diplomacy, archives and travel. A Knowledge priest may be a temple librarian, legal archivist, translator, omen-reader, court scholar, keeper of genealogies or field investigator sent to recover dangerous texts before rivals do.
Who Grants the Knowledge Domain?
Established site patrons include Apollo, Athena, Odin, Hecate, Ptah and Thoth. Their clergy should not all behave alike: prophecy, craft knowledge, writing, magical secrets and hard-won wisdom create different priestly cultures.
Priests, Temples and Rites
Knowledge temples often function as archives, schools, observatories, scriptoria, libraries, workshops or guarded repositories. Their rites include copying important texts, testing apprentices, preserving testimony, interpreting omens, reciting genealogies and deciding which secrets may be taught openly.
What Are Knowledge Priests Doing Now?
Knowledge clergy are cataloguing discoveries from ruins and newly reopened routes, comparing contradictory chronicles, translating recovered inscriptions, investigating magical anomalies and competing over who controls dangerous information. A priest can therefore enter an adventure as patron, witness, rival scholar, reluctant keeper of a secret or the only person able to interpret what the party has found.
Historical and Mythological Context
Knowledge in divine traditions can mean prophecy, memory, writing, technical craft, state records, sacred law or esoteric revelation. Keeping those distinctions visible makes a temple of Thoth feel different from a cult of Odin or an oracle of Apollo even when all grant the same domain mechanically.
Related Domains and Character Options
Rules Sources and Licensing
- D&D 5.5e / 2024: official Knowledge Domain from Forgotten Realms: Heroes of Faerûn (2025); mechanics here are concise table-use summaries, not a replacement for the source book.
- D&D 5e / 2014: official Player’s Handbook Knowledge Domain; see the D&D Beyond Knowledge Domain overview.
- Pathfinder 1e: powers and spell list follow the Pathfinder Core Rulebook reference.
- D&D 3.5e: granted power and spell list follow the 3.5 SRD.
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