ANNIHILATE BOSSES - BG3 Shadowheart / Cleric / Paladin Honour Build Guide

This build was born and bred for one thing and one thing only: to completely trivialize every boss in the game. They will cower helplessly before your radiant might!

This character uses War Domain Cleric and Oath of Vengeance Paladin to be the best anti-boss character in the game!

Full detailed level guide from 1-12, including stats, feats, items, and abilities!

0:00 Combat Example
1:40 Intro and Build Goals
3:11 Level 1
6:13 Level 2
7:46 Level 3
10:12 Level 4
11:06 Level 5
12:15 Level 6
14:42 Level 7 and Core Strategy
17:35 Level 8
18:56 Level 9
20:50 Level 10
22:20 Level 11
23:10 Level 12 and Final Build
26:24 Default Combat Strategy
27:20 Items and Gear

[ecbrown]

The correct opener for Shart is: Disguise self Gnome, Spirit Guardian, Karlach picks up mini Shart and throws her through a pack of enemies.

[annie_]

“Be a radiant warrior of justice surrounded by holy light, forcing enemies to stand and face the judgment of your blade in single combat with you” = PURE JOY! How can I resist doing this build now??

[Ulfhednir]

Build

Ability Score 16 con & wis, 14 dex, 12 cha (Str elixirs)
Vengeance Paladin 1

Vengeance Paladin 2
Fighting Style: Defense
Spells: Thunderous smites, Bless, Shield of faith / Protection from good and evil

War Cleric 1
Cantrips: Guidance, Bladeward, Produce flame/Thaumaturgy
Spells: Command, Healing word, Sanctuary, guiding bolt

War Cleric 2

War Cleric 3
Spells: Spiritual weapons, Aid, Silence (Drop guiding bolt)

War Cleric 4
Cantrip: Light
Feat: Sentinel

War Cleric 5
Spells: Spirit Guardians, Mass healing word, Beacon of hope / Daylight / Animate dead

Vengeance Paladin 3

Vengeance Paladin 4
Feat: Mage Slayer / Warcaster / Savage attacker / Alert (Best in slot)

Paladin 5
Spell: Magic weapon

Paladin 6
Respec 16 wisdom to charisma

War Cleric 6
Spell: Silence, Mass healing word / remove curse

Gear
Luminous gloves
Luminous armour
Calious glow ring
1h Radiant weapon
Elixirs of strength
Disintegrating night walkers
Sentinel shield
Killers sweetheart

[greatdragonofra]

ITEMS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Elixer of hill giant strength




ACT 1

the Underdark Selunite Outpost
The Luminous Armor can be acquired in the Underdark Selunite Outpost. From the waypoint, look your left and you should see a hidden upper level you can jump to (or stack crates to climb up to). The armor is in a trapped chest at the back of that room.

The Disintegrating Night Walkers
looted from True Soul Nere, the drow slavedriver in charge of Grymforge

SHADOW CURSED LANDS

Moonrise Towers
Sentinel Shield in Baldur's Gate 3. You can buy the Sentinel Shield from Lann Tarv in Moonrise Towers (X: -175 Y: -175) during Act 2

Calous glow ring
Gauntlet of Shar. The Treasure Room, at the following coordinates: X: -820, Y: -750. The main landmark will be Balthazar's office


Luminous Gloves Location
Found inside a DC14 Potter's Chest at the Ruined Battlefield of the Shadow-Cursed Lands (X: -51, Y: 11). Be warned, there will be Meazels in the area waiting to ambush the player.

Killer’s Sweetheart
available close to the end of Act 2 in shadow-cursed lands and is located in Gountylet of Shar’s ancient temple during Self-Same Trial


Devotee's Mace
can be obtained by having a cleric and casting a Divine Intervention (Arm Thy Servant variant) spell available as soon as your party reaches level 10

[kinggamereon]

Anything with radiating orb is peak comedy. I am currently trying tactician for the first time and somehow lvl 5 shadowheart with 19 ac, the armor that gives radiating orb and spirit guardians came so close to beating both nere's squad and elder brithvar's squad simultaniously. I tried to be clever and pushed the archer down from his high ground before talking to Nere which lead to everyone wanting to kill me at the same time for some reason. Everyone else in my party died in like 2-3 turns since the fight is generally easy and I didn't even have full hp and spell slots on them.

Shadowheart however, took a grand total of 11 damage in 10 rounds of combat, never lost concentration and only reason I lost was not having another spell slot left to cast spirit guardians again. All that was left when they finally managed to kill Shadowheart was 2 duergar both below 10 hp and Nere at like 25.

[mboh]

I find this great for a paladin of selune build. There is actually a hidden paladin of selune tag, which occasionally shows up in dialogues instead of cleric of selune. You have to take your first level in cleric and I guess the last overall level up has to be in paladin. So for each lvl up where I choose a cleric lvl when I already have paladin, I respec, so that my most recent lvl up is paladin. You also get the tag paladin of selune next to cleric of selune.
I heard that these dialogue options only appear in act one and that larian first planned to include deities for paladins but then scrapped the idea. Dunno if this also works for other deities, but I like this particular build for a good selunite playthrough, especially when you romance shadowheart, or maybe as a respec for her in a good playthrough when she vows to save her parents and wants to have vengeance for Shars misguidance

[jameskelsea]

great build and video as always. I am running a slight variation of this on Shart with 6 Lore Bard, 5 Paladin, 1 war cleric. Taking warden of vitality and spirit guardians from magical secrets. Planning for Sentinel & Polearm Master with Unseen Menace. Going to try and use compelled duel to proc the PAM opportunity attacks & spirit guardians. Plan to use the RO gear and buff on heal items. May change to 10 Lore Bard, 2 Paladin later for level six spells like Banishing Smite. Plan to run her and my OH Monk Lazel together - roleplaying that they are taking out their despise for each other on the enemy. Lazel will wear Bhaalist armor to increase Shart's & Astarion's damage. They should be a deadly combination. Other two party members will be Fire Sorlock halfling TAV and ranged Swords Bard Astarion. The ranged DPS-Controllers will take care of ranged/caster enemies & set up a lot of critical hits for Shart/Lazel with Hold person/monster. My TAV wil concentrate on twin haste for Astarion and Lazel. Guessing this will be a really overpowered team.

[JohnSmith-ezpw]

I did a similar 5 Vengeance Paladin / 7 Light Cleric build. Imp Warding Flare, Spirit Guardians, Radiance of Dawn, Vow of Emnity, Smites, Extra Attack, massive radiant orb and reverberation debuffs, great out of combat cantrips (guidance, Thaumaturgy, light/produce flame), fireball/firewall. So many tools in the toolbox.

Went traditional 6 paladin for early game survival then swapped to 5 light cleric / 2 Vengeance paladin. Then 5 / 5 then 7 / 5.

15 str (+1 Ethel, +2 potion for 18 or dump elsewhere and use strength potions)
8 Dex (Gloves of Dex for 18)
17 Con (Resilient Feat for 18 and proficiency on saving throws so you never break concentration)
8 Int
16 Wis (asi feat to 18)
8 Cha (Minthara, Shadowheart or Laezel smiling and being nice? Nope, not my ladies)

All the important gear is in Act 1 / early Act 2 so you will be fully online around level 7. Blood of Lathander is excellent for all the undead in Act 2. Blinds them automatically.

Holy Lance Helm, Cloak of Protection, Luminous Armor, Gloves of Dex, Boots of Stormy Clamour, Periapt of Wound Closure, Callous Glow Ring, Coruscation Ring, Bow of Awareness/Hellrider Longbow, Adamantine Shield (for reeling debuff and crit immunity) or Sentienal Shield (for initiative), choice of weapon that fits your party (blood of lathander, sacred star, deva mace, Phalar Aluve, Shar Spear, etc)

You start the fights casting spiritual guardians and run into the enemy pack hitting as many as possible. 2nd turn hit them with SG again and when enough are in range cast radiance of dawn to mass AoE them without having to use your smite spell slots. Your other party members focus down archers/ranged while you decimate the melee. Any attack that hits you or misses you triggers more radiant orbs, reverberation and/or reeling. Enemy melee basically disable/kill themselves trying to hit you. For high priority targets you can max level smite twice via 2nd attack from paladin. Otherwise you can keep hitting with SG and use fireball or wall of fire if enemies position favorably for it.

If you ever get hurt use a healing potion via your bonus action. The wound closure neck ensures you get the max healing amount. Thats 60 HP healed as a bonus action with a supreme healing potion...your trapped here with me!

[devonsharkey]

Sadly, Shadow Heart is hard coded to miss.

[thomasrosendahl]

This is the Nightsong/Moonmaiden build. Dame Aylin also uses radiating orb, smites and Spirit Guardian.

[meekrab]

If you already took Alert, the Adamantine Shield is a great choice for this character since enemies are going to miss you a lot and therefore get sent Reeling which is equivalent to even more Radiating Orb, but it *also* prevents Critical Hits which are the only way you're going to take any damage once the Orbs take hold.

[paulbalcom]

This build was a game changer! Had Shadowheart face Myrkul and have my warlock cast hungar of hadar. Tactician mode felt more like explorer mode.

[MrJhoeHill]

I wish every guide didn't involve the hill giant strength.

[afoniex]

Wow this build looks so fun and paladin cleric is such a flavourful choice specially for Shadowheart.
Also I wonder if Duelist's Prerogative with the extra reaction would be a good fit. You would have to forego the shield but since enemies have such a hard time hitting us anyway it might be worth it.
Maybe have the hellrider longbow for initiative or some of the headwear.

[shinkamui]

recently did a variation on this build using the 5r spell list mod that gives cleric warden of vitality at 5. It was Cleric 5 > rogue 3 to have a core of warden + bonus action, then picked sentinel and used 2 swords. Was actually rather fun, doing the whole trap enemy in guardians, but also having the option to heal in combat, sneak attacks. Kept going cleric for divine strike since this healer also strikes so much. Less damage than 2 pally but more longevity. Was fun, many options in combat

[takirakirakira]

THIS BUILD IS EXACTLY WHAT I 🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌 thank you thank you so much 😭🫶🫶🫶

[Reikyel]

Hi Ceph ! Love your build videos ❤

An other item that could have a good synergie with this build is Minthara's boots (Boots of Striding).

Keep up the good work !

[gwenhyfarbeati]

there's also a mace from act 3 that does 1d4 radiant damage and gives radiating orb on a hit. it's called the sacred star and you buy it from vicar humbletoes in the stormshore tabernacle. with that mace, the gloves, chest, and ring, you'll be doing 7 turns of radiant damage instead of 6 per hit, or you give yourself a little wiggle room to trade out the gloves for something else you might want while still inflicting 5 turns per hit (so two hits to max out, or spirit guardians and one hit, or a dodge if you've got the holy lance helm and spirit guardians or a hit, etc etc you get it).

you could then dip into reverberation for some fun nerfing enemies' dex/str/con saves, or use the gloves of the growling underdog to give yourself free advantage when up against more than one enemy, or craterfish gloves to add even more damage to crits, or use the dark justiciar or flawed helldusk gloves for an additional 1d4 necrotic or fire damage respectively, or gauntlets of hill giant strength so you can use an elixer of bloodlust instead and get a free ACTION which you can then use to attack another two times.

[rodolfokatz]

I’m running something similar on my Shadowheart. Fun build! I like using the boots of stormy clamour since it props from the radiant orbs. With them, you’ll also be stacking reverberation on your enemies.

[alessandrogarofalo]

2:01
"Just about?"
"Just about"