has the thought of a winter domain for clerics ever come up? The tempest cleric doesn’t really scratch the itch for me. I think that fits better for druid, but i have thought about tinkering with tempest to make it more broadly useful
— Mike Mearls (@mikemearls) June 24, 2018
Respectfully, Mike, the point is to give people options that suit the various gods they might choose to serve as clerics.
I admit, there aren’t a lot of deities that are devoted to cold, ice, and winter. But I can think of at least two – Auril and Thrym.
They may be rarely worshipped among PC clerics, but what’s the harm in providing for those players who might be interested? I know that I was ecstatic to see the Grave domain included in 5E, as it allowed me to build a cleric of Kelemvor, who is not at all a god who is commonly worshipped.
Sometimes you just want to tell a different kind of story, and serve a different kind of god. Not every Paladin or Clerics needs to pledge themselves to big names like Lathander, Torm, Tyr, et cetera.