Repose Domain
The Repose Domain treats death as a final rest rather than a source of power to exploit. Its clerics guard graves, oppose undeath, protect souls from violation and preserve the boundary between the living and the properly dead.
At a Glance
| Divine Sphere | Rest, funerary protection, proper death, souls, graves and resistance to undeath |
|---|---|
| Typical Role | Anti-undead support cleric, funerary guardian and protector against death effects |
| Published Rules | Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e |
| Modern D&D Status | No official same-named Repose Domain in 2014 or 2024 D&D. The 2014 Grave Domain is the closest modern published theme and remains usable with the 2024 Cleric through backwards compatibility. |
| Important Distinction | Repose protects death’s proper course; it is not a licence for necromancy or the creation of undead. |
| Possible Patrons | Anubis, Osiris, and other powers whose established portfolios protect the dead or the passage of souls |
Edition Applicability
Pathfinder 1e and D&D 3.5e both publish a Repose Domain, but they are not mechanically identical. D&D 5e/2014 and the 2024 rules do not publish a same-named Repose Domain, so this page does not create modern tabs merely to fill the edition row.
Repose Domain — Pathfinder 1e
Rules status: published Pathfinder 1e Core Rulebook domain.
Gentle Rest
As a melee touch attack, you can stagger a living creature for 1 round. Touching a living creature that is already staggered instead puts it to sleep for 1 round. An undead creature you touch is staggered for a number of rounds equal to your Wisdom modifier. Uses per day equal 3 + your Wisdom modifier.
Ward Against Death
At 8th level, you can emit a 30-foot aura for a total number of rounds per day equal to your Cleric level. Living creatures in the aura are immune to death effects, energy drain and effects that impose negative levels. Existing negative levels remain but have no effect while the creature stays inside the aura.
Pathfinder 1e Repose Domain Spells
| 1st | Deathwatch |
|---|---|
| 2nd | Gentle Repose |
| 3rd | Speak with Dead |
| 4th | Death Ward |
| 5th | Slay Living |
| 6th | Undeath to Death |
| 7th | Destruction |
| 8th | Waves of Exhaustion |
| 9th | Wail of the Banshee |
Repose Domain — D&D 3.5e
Rules status: published 3.5e SRD additional domain.
Granted Power: Death Touch
Once per day, make a melee touch attack against a living creature. Roll 1d6 per Cleric level. If the total equals or exceeds the creature’s current hit points, it dies. In this ruleset Repose deliberately shares a death-touch style power with Death while changing the surrounding divine theme and spell list.
D&D 3.5e Repose Domain Spells
| 1st | Deathwatch |
|---|---|
| 2nd | Gentle Repose |
| 3rd | Speak with Dead |
| 4th | Death Ward |
| 5th | Slay Living |
| 6th | Undeath to Death |
| 7th | Destruction |
| 8th | Surelife |
| 9th | Wail of the Banshee |
How the Repose Domain Plays
Pathfinder makes Repose a dedicated defence against undeath and hostile death magic: Gentle Rest controls living or undead targets at close range, while Ward Against Death can protect a whole group from some of the most punishing effects in the game. D&D 3.5e is mechanically simpler and more lethal, but the domain’s spell list still emphasises proper death and the destruction of undeath.
Repose Is Not the Death Domain
The two domains overlap because both deal with mortality, but their theology is different. Death can represent killing power, negative energy and necromantic force. Repose is about keeping death final, preventing violation of corpses and souls, and opposing creatures that refuse or corrupt the proper passage into death.
Priests, Temples and Rites
Repose clergy keep burial grounds, record the dead, recover bodies, prevent corpse theft, destroy uncontrolled undead and investigate places where spirits cannot pass on. Their sanctuaries are often quiet, practical places attached to cemeteries, ancestral halls or mortuary compounds rather than centres of death worship.
What Are Repose Priests Doing Now?
They are tracing grave robberies, protecting funeral roads, containing outbreaks of undeath, determining why a dead person cannot rest and recovering relics taken from tombs before those objects awaken something that should have remained quiet.
Related Domains and Character Options
Rules Sources and Licensing
- Pathfinder 1e: Gentle Rest, Ward Against Death and the spell list follow the Pathfinder Core Rulebook Repose Domain.
- D&D 3.5e: the granted power and spell list follow the SRD additional Repose Domain.
- Modern D&D: there is no official same-named Repose Domain; Grave Domain is the closest published 2014 option and is supported for backwards-compatible 2024 play.