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

The most powerful class in the game is here! Clerics can do anything, and this cleric can do EVERYTHING. Perfect for Shadowheart or a main character to solo tactician mode or step up to the plate for their party!

This character uses Tempest Cleric and Storm Sorcerer to get powerful spells, strong attacks, unrivaled defenses, and overwhelming versatility and optionality.

0:00 Intro and Build Goals
0:50 Race Pick
1:55 Level 1 Build
5:08 Domain Selection
9:44 Spell Selection
11:48 Level 2 Spells
13:26 Feat Selection
13:43 Level 3 Spells
16:10 Level 4 Spells
16:57 Feat Selection
18:00 Level 5 Spells
19:55 Level 6 Spells
20:57 To Dip or Not to Dip?
24:35 Default Complete Spell List
26:51 Default Combat Turn

[Jules_Diplopia]

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

[af]

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!

[danthem]

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

[rovers]

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.

[doloresabernathy]

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

[dianabialaskahansen]

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.

[joshwhite]

Unloke some folks in the comments i very much enjoy your style. Thanks for all your great videos.

[guilhermeokada]

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.

[shinkamui]

for people doing this on early levels, i'd highly recommend at lvl 4 respeccing to storm sorc 1, cleric 3 and get the luminous armor. You can just cast spirit guardians and fly around with it, even better with the boots of storm clamor. Suddenly you just walk past enemies dealing damage and inflicting orbs and reverberation. Won't need any other movement boots anyway because of flying

[jeffreytebbe]

Great build. This helped save my honor run while fighting the harpies in the grove.

[CentipedeGiraffe]

The Divine intervention weapon is one of the last weapons you want to use as a non-life Domain Cleric.
It gives you +3 to hit (which you won't do because you have stuff to cast and your Str is low for an actual reasonable impact, yet the 1-10 heal per turn aura is again good - for ''Life Domain'' and even better with the spell buff that maximizes your healing rolls).
In other hand - Blood of Lathander gives you a ''Cheat Death'' Buff which heals nearby allies if something goes wrong, the staff from Raphael's Treasury gives you ''Spell Restoration'' and you can bring a level 6 back if you wish.
A literal Raindancer Staff from Act 1 Vendor is better for this Build than the Mace mentioned in the Clip.

[RunsLikeBadger]

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.

[Swizz]

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.

[KenlieroGames]

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.

[Axterix]

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).

[SlowxParentsCrossing]

I reclassed Shart to Tempest in my first and third play throughs and Light in my second. I'm thinking of starting a fourth play through and sought out this video to see if any other domain would be recommended only to find more or less the same builds LOL.

[oval]

4:04, 8:00, 9:50, 11:25, 12:03, 13:11, 13:30, 14:15

[TheSolidSnakeOil]

Once you get to act 3, you don't really need bless anymore. You can get a daily bless buff at the Water Queens House freeing up concentration and a spell slot. Only problem is that bless doesn't stack and gets erased by another bless. But I cheese the crap out of act 3 by never long resting.

[marconihimself]

Vanilla Shadowheart perfectly encapsulates that type of player that has no idea on how to build a character sheet. Every table has one.

[Bman]

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