The BEST CLERIC in Baldur's Gate 3 - Shadowheart Build Guide

Really appreciate this guide! Thank you! My question is what is the armor you’re using? I have the helm, but I don’t know where to find Plate armor +2, where can I get a set?

I would really like to know what is the gear your using

in the stats i cant get 2 16s even with everything else at 8

What armor and rings should I use for this build

Certain magical medium armor makes Light Clerics survivable if you have decent dexterity.

No fancy stuff, just clear logical reasons for why you take this or that. I am bookmarking your build videos, for refernce.

Bladeward is self cast no? Confusing this with another spell?

I don’t know when Resistance would be used in a dialogue? Can someone give an example? I think that Enhance Ability is useful for very difficult checks. (in addition to guidance.). But it requires concentration to cast and maintain.

They must have “fixed” Destructive Wave because it definitely harms party members .. still good but limits when you can safely use it. at least thats the rule in Tactician.
I think that’s what was intended by Larian from the start..

If you want to save your divine intervention you can always get the mage by having either a hireling cast it (basically buying the mage for 100 gold) or having Hope cast it once you free her in the House of Hope.

How is resilient better than warcaster?? With sorc as starting class you have con save proficiency, extra stat point can be patched with act 1 +1 or less STR - it's caster first, with some melee capability, use elixir if you want to bonk people

Why skip over the new level 3 spells when you get to level 5. Did that with Druid aswell

I would like to add that if it isnt a solo run, Aid should be considered mandatory as well. Having the ability to add 15-20 hp PER companion is stupid strong. I usually have my 4 party members and 2-3 summons. That is 140hp bonus at the start of every day at a level 4 cast i believe

Staff of arcane blessing got nerfed in the EA but its tooltip was never updated.

It does not give additional saving throw or attack buffs, only an additional 1d4 to spell attack rolls.

I did look to see if someone had asked this but would it be worth respeccing at level 12 and choosing sorceror at level 1, to gain proficiency in Con saves?

Destruction wave appears at the light domain spells too.

There are 3 items in game that makes your bonus action incredibly useful using that aoe heal (the one that uses bonus actions) and they can be obtained in act 1. Whispering promise, a ring you can buy from Volo or at the goblin camp I believe, gives bless to anyone you heal. The other is hellrider's pride, gloves that gives anyone you heal a blade ward for 2 turns, you also get these in act 1 from completing Zevlors quest, or you can just pickpocket them. The last is in act 3 that you can buy from a merchant, I don't remember where but they're gloves that's basically just an upgrade of of hellrider's pride. They give you the revivify spell and gives them death ward when they're resurrected.

Obviously there are better gloves out there if you're going for a damage build, but I think the ring is a must have for life clerics or heal/support focused characters. Give em high initiative so they always go first and you can give your party bless and blade ward before the fight even starts and still be able to use your action and concentration for something else on the same turn.

Thanks for the video. This is gr8 build. Any advice on specific armor and weapons? I don't have Staff of Arcane Blessing.

Thank you for this video! I’ve learned so much!

When are you going to do a Lore friendly shadow heart build? I can't just go light or tempest domains when she has shadow in her name and serves the goddess of Darkness. So far, about all I've come up with is to give her some thief levels so that she can play as a stealthy cleric from the shadows. You can use cunning action to dash around with spirit guardians, which is kind of funny. Or just use your actions for bless and Phalar aluve, then hide in the shadows. There is equipment in the game supporting a dex/wis medium armor cleric too, which is nice. Also, I don't really think invoke duplicity is as bad as you make it out to be, if your party has good initiative then you're not just giving one person advantage, you'll give 3 advantage.

That being said, it still feels a bit underwhelming, at least in the early game, if you dilute cleric levels at all. So I'm still looking around for different shadowheart builds, in hopes of finding one that really feels good.

Don't need Initiative on a support character, you kinda want them lower, or at least lower then ur own characters, on the move list because you want to be able to react to things that have happened.

Say an enemy is one hp, and don't want to waste ur dps on the kill next turn, or heal before turn ends. Can't really do these things if ur going first.

Going ahead of the group can let you debuff and buff ur team sure, but loosing first turn buff doesn't really hurt anything and reacting is just as important.

One first level spell you never mentioned was 'INFLICT WOUNDS'. Not only is it a strong damage spell (uses an attack roll to hit) at 3d10 damage, but most importantly, it is a spell that can be used while in melee with no disadvantage, which is VERY useful if you are creating a class that intends to melee often, like this class. This spell also scales well, adding an extra d10 for every level it is upcast. It deals necrotic damage which means you have to pick and choose when to use it against undead. In all, an essential spell - don't leave home without it.

You could add a single level of wizard to this class, mostly for the Chromatic Orb spell early on and then as you advance further in cleric levels have wizard spell slots free for higher level wizard spells as required (which you can learn from scrolls as you have a wizard level). You don't even need to bump intelligence at character creation, because you can get the Warped Headband of Intellect early in the game (certainly when at level 3), which sets your intelligence to 17 (as a side bonus, that item even helps your Firebolt cantrip finally hit more reliably (Firebolt is a bonus spell that high elves and high half-elves get and scales off of Intelligence).

Finally, an early weapon you might find useful for a while is the Spellsparkler (a quarterstaff), that allows you to rack up lightning charges on yourself. I prefer the combination of the Shattered Flail (from the Flind and Gnolls fight) and the Periapt of Wound Closure (Lady Esther, near Rosymorn monastery). That comes with some risk but does heal you 6 HP every time you hit an enemy, making you rather tough to kill.

Later in the game I'd look to get more from items that use attacks other than just lightning, like cold (encrusted with Frosty and create ice surfaces) in combo with boots that cannot slip (there are more than one pair that do this). Also later in the game, there are items that cause Reverbration and Radiant Orb, which are useful debuffs to explore.

How much creative is using sanctuary outside of combat on your main DD that has low dexterity to watch enemies skip their turn (because they can't do anything to him) and probably group around him, and then move away (no opportunity attacks) and just fry them in a single glorious round? (did that yesterday against a certain ... monster with a really good sight in act 1 xD )

All of this while the remaing members of the party are comfortly hiding somewhere so they can have free positioning, as long as don't walk in the red cones, and a free shot (like for example Fairy Fire, or create wather, that monster xD)!

PS: Well ofcourse someone will say ... just use minor illusion bro! ... yes, well it's not always possible and this looks like a fine alternative to me

whats the rest of the gear you're using?

That call out on the Staff of Arcane Blessing is insane, haven't seen that anywhere else. Had that sitting in my inventory all Act 1 having no clue that it would double Bless' ability!

I cant change the ability bonus points (+2 bonus & +1 bonus)

How were you able to change the bonus stats?

Little bit of misinformation I constantly see about Blade Ward. It can't be cast on others, the cantrip only targets the caster. There are equipment however that gives Blade Ward to others when you heal them.

what about changing command with sanctuary for the support build purposes?

I'm a newbie and this was very helpful. Subscribed

Hey nice video, thank you I still need to explore a tempest cleric for me. So far I played Shadowheart as a Light Cleric Damage Dealer which is also really strong: I took you remaining level 12 dip to respecc into Fighter 1 -> Cleric 11 (Heavy armor plus CON saving throws makes her great with Spirit guardian (usually upcast with higher spell slots) + Fireball from Light domain. Add warding flare and you become a frontline tank in heavy armor that deals tons of damage

never got that staff!

Generally speaking, War Caster will end up providing the better benefit to your concentration saves. It is stronger on the easy saves (hits for 20 or less, with that base DC of 10), and pretty much equal in the mid range (and with a slight edge if you don't have an extra +1 to saves from a higher con, which, with your respec suggestion, you don't). Only in the high DC range does Resilient have a stronger edge, except at a DC of 20, when War Caster has the big edge. But that high end the odds are against you anyway, so it won't matter much. You're going to lose the spell far more than you keep it regardless.

The benefit to Resilient is that it also helps out on other constitution saves, like for poison, plus a point of a stat. Though they are pretty close most of the time, so one or the other is about equal for general use. But if you get hit a lot for smaller hits, War Caster all the way. And if you only ever get hit for like 25+, then you can consider Resilient, but you'll probably want both a lot of bonuses to constitution saves and advantage on them (which gear can also provide, of course).

I have already 2 games, where I use War Domain Cleric 5 levels with 7 Bard levels. When you are dual Wielder with 2 Devotee's Maces(Take them from hirelings), with War Domain extra attacks, guided strike, and all extra attacks from Swords Bard... is absolutely nuts good. Only 14 wisdom and 16 charisma, 16 strength, and strength based Dual Wielder + War Caster works great. You have full spell list with 12 caster levels, and you can use Spirit Guardians in every battle. Some in highest level, doing 6d8 WHILE you nuke with dual devotees maces... For this build you want stack as much extra elemental weapon damages, like +1d4 necrotic or +1d4 fire etc. Before Devotee Maces you can use 2xMyrkulite Scourge as well, which are great flails. Because of high charisma, you can do this with main char as well.

What do you think about one level dipping into Evocation Wizard? This will give you freedom to cast powerful lightning spells without hurting your allies.

I rate Light Cleric above Tempest. Yes, heavy armor is good, but I feel Light has a higher damage output and with 14 starting dex, your AC is about the same as with heavy armor.

I always make sure to get Elemental Adept (Fire) and pick up the cantrips produce flame and sacred flame. Cleric 8 feature makes these cantrips better than a weapon, especially when damage dice increase again at level 11. And pick the elemental necklace in creche, so you deal 3d8+(wisX2) with produce flame. On top of that you have fireball, wall of flame and a lot of other amazing damage.

The destructive wave is on the light cleric sub class as well

Nice! The one caveat I would make is to check the casting math on the Staff of Divine Blessing. I haven't checked it since the last two patches, but the last time I used it, it didn't double the bless. It did give you two bless buff icons on your character portrait, but if you checked the combat math in the roll tracker, it only applied the bless once. They may have fixed it, so it's worth looking into. If they have gotten it to work as intended, it is a VERY good cleric weapon.

Resistance for dialog check wth ?

thats a cleric build not a shadowheart build

Great video man! Only one thing to note, Light Domain Clerics also gain the unique spell Destructive Wrath you mentioned, although the Heavy Armor proficiency tied to the Tempest Domain is still a very valid argument.

Great build! Interesting to see a damage oriented cleric. It's very cool they they can be built in so many ways in bg3. One thing i think you're underrating is the power of the low level control spells command and hold person. These spells are insane to upcast and can easily control a whole group of enemies for the entire fight. Stacking a bit of spell save dc modifiers (battlemage elixir, armor, staff, etc) you can easily get these to work 80-100% on even bosses. In particular i think these far outshine banishment, and fulfill a similar role. Command isn't even concentration, so it's a great thing up spam while concentrating on something else, and can't be broken