Is this Shadowheart build any good?

[Kasceis]

Starting my first playthrough

MC is Pal7/Warlock5 oak of vengeance
Shadowheart-
https://youtu.be/f2shs49DRhQ?si=vGRKaTiZRkXtgKH6
Karlach- barb/fighter
Gale- wizard/?

Good for 1st playthrough?

[Shells]

Since the UI, inventory and party management features incl. the terrible rest mechanics suck big time in this game (and are full of bugs), any build/party that relies on expendable resources is inconvenient to play. Your main (warlock/pally) will have spend her spell slots in no time to achieve notable damage, and a wizard is in the same boat. If you want to have a halfway bearable experience, rely more on weapon users so you don't have to deal with the management mechanics too often. Maybe a ranged ranger/rogue, one melee fighter, one full cleric and finally a warlock? Hunger of hardar paired with silence and hold person are enough for crowd control. If you pick a light cleric, you even get fireball for the rare occasions it is needed. With this party you can clear whole maps without taking these horrible long rests at all.

[Seraphiel]

It probably is good if someone has made a ten minute video about it.

Honestly, you can just make Shadowheart a light, tempest or wafare cleric without doing anything complicated and it will be a good decision.

Personally, I went with Shadowheart (Light cleric), Astarian (for thieving), Karlach (bear heart barb) and Laezel (fighter) and so far nothing has really been a challenge.

[Shells]

Seraphiel a écrit :

Personally, I went with Shadowheart (Light cleric), Astarian (for thieving), Karlach (bear heart barb) and Laezel (fighter) and so far nothing has really been a challenge.

Excellent party without much need of ressources. And yes, light cleric is really powerfull and fun.

[Slava Ukraini]

Kasceis a écrit :

Starting my first playthrough

MC is Pal7/Warlock5 oak of vengeance
Shadowheart-
https://youtu.be/f2shs49DRhQ?si=vGRKaTiZRkXtgKH6
Karlach- barb/fighter
Gale- wizard/?

Good for 1st playthrough?

the game is easy what build you even have on hardest difficult

[FunkyMonkey]

Kasceis a écrit :

Starting my first playthrough

MC is Pal7/Warlock5 oak of vengeance
Shadowheart-
https://youtu.be/f2shs49DRhQ?si=vGRKaTiZRkXtgKH6
Karlach- barb/fighter
Gale- wizard/?

Good for 1st playthrough?

Seems good and the build is just fine. It's a lot similar what I like to do, which is Trickery cleric 4 / Arcane trickster 8.

[Chillearth]

Seraphiel a écrit :

It probably is good if someone has made a ten minute video about it.

Honestly, you can just make Shadowheart a light, tempest or wafare cleric without doing anything complicated and it will be a good decision.

Personally, I went with Shadowheart (Light cleric), Astarian (for thieving), Karlach (bear heart barb) and Laezel (fighter) and so far nothing has really been a challenge.

Much depends on how thematic you want to be. You would expect a Paladin to balk at becoming Warlock who is almost a puppet of another being (especially Fiend).

Also Shadowheart as a Light Cleric goes dead against what Shar teaches. Tempest or War cleric are less clashing choices.

Personally my current playthrough is:
MC. L4 Rogue (sub-cless Thief) then Monk (Way of the Open Hand). Dual wield Knife of the Undermountain King (actually a shortsword) and chair leg of Hill Giant strength in the off hand and you should sail through Act 2.

KARLACH Respec to L6 Battlemaster fighter, then continue with Barbarian levels. Take the Tavern Brawler feat at L6 and buy the returning pike (goblin trader at goblin camp), acquire the Kushigo Gloves (reward from Bonecloak in the mushroom colony) and any rings that add to damage. Pump strength, Throw that returning pike often.

GALE. You can do stuff with him if you want, like a couple of levels of fighter for med/heavy armour , extra HP and Action Surge, but he is fine as a simple wizard start to finish.

Shadowheart. I run her a s a Tempest cleric. She is fine a as a straight cleric, though you can add 3 levels of Sorcerer for a one-round burst damage combo of quicken spell, create water, then call lightning on wet enemies that round and for the next couple of turns (call lightning only consumes one spell slot when used over several rounds, much like how Witchbolt works). Once per long rest you can do max Lightning damage on a spell (using Destructive Wrath) so max Lightning damage + wet + crit if you are lucky is a ton of damage in one shot.

[Apex Artist]

Fextralife built that Shadowheart path staying true to her RP core, as he sees it, with the intent of replacing a Rogue in the party makup.
I happen to run a similar build for her for that very reason, and it's been a good one. My approach is a little different that the video, but it's close.

Almost any class is OK multi-classing with fighter, to get Action Surge, but the Wizard can certainly be just as strong running as a straight Wizard class.

[chefcook90]

I prefer Knowledge Domain + Rogue for the extra skill expertise personally.

Trickster Domain + Rogue is kinda redundant.

[Mike Garrison]

Early on I tried adding some rogue to Shadowheart, but later I figured out there really is no need to have a rogue in your active party at all.

Some people really like the stealth-based assassination-type rogues in this game, but I like just bashing all my troubles with a big sword backed up by flashy mage magic.

And any cleric's most powerful role in probably 90% of the battles in this game is to just throw up spirit guardians and then run into the middle of the fight.

When I bother to optimize Shadowheart, I rebalance her ability scores and just switch her to a better domain (almost anything but trickery would be better). Many times, though, I just let her play as her default.

[Giganx]

It works (most things will technically work), but Shadowheart is much better as a life cleric with all of the items that add buffs through healing. Only reason to keep Shadowheart as trickery in any capacity is for thematic/character reasons, which is the point of that build/video.

If you don't care about sticking to her "cleric of shar" theme to the letter then you should respec her and dump Trickery altogether; trickery sucks hard.

[Apex Artist]

My role for Shadowheart is to pick up most of the out of combat stuff(except the conversations), and why I went with build much like what's detailed in the video. Traps, locks, Enhance Ability, Guidance, group buffs, etc. A Rogue multi works well with her Trickster base, even if you don't use Sneak Attack very often, but it's a strong role if used. In combat she can simply use Guiding Bolt or hand crossbows from distance or SG in melee range.

This allows me to run my Sorcerer(2)/Bard(10) (player character) for mostly in combat, except for conversations, and the other two characters mostly in combat focused.

Of course, re-classing and adjusting is extremely easy in this game, thanks to Withers.

[Supply Slut]

Cleric gets some powerful stuff so even the worst domains are solid party members. You get bless, you get spirit guardians, you get healing word and mass healing word, pick up spiritual weapon so you have a bonus action level 2 option and you’re golden. Guiding bolt is a solid lvl 1 damage spell but I find I don’t need it outside early game.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Ya sure, ya betcha!

[Chillearth]

Mike Garrison a écrit :

Early on I tried adding some rogue to Shadowheart, but later I figured out there really is no need to have a rogue in your active party at all.

Some people really like the stealth-based assassination-type rogues in this game, but I like just bashing all my troubles with a big sword backed up by flashy mage magic.

And any cleric's most powerful role in probably 90% of the battles in this game is to just throw up spirit guardians and then run into the middle of the fight.

When I bother to optimize Shadowheart, I rebalance her ability scores and just switch her to a better domain (almost anything but trickery would be better). Many times, though, I just let her play as her default.

Shadowheart is ok doing Rogue stuff early on, not so good later. Better to take a Rogue (4) Monk (6), or bring Astarion along (he makes a good Rogue L4, Ranger Lx). As part of his spec, Astarion can also be very effective as a ranged bowman.

If you like big smashy damage, spec Karlach as a fighter (Battlemaster 6), Barbarian. take ability increase (Strength) as your L4 feat and Tavern Brawler with the L6 feat.

With the Gloves of Uninhibited Kushico, + Ring of Flinging + another ring that adds damage, + Tavern Brawler feat + the returning pike (from goblin trader in goblin camp) she can prod buttock both ranged and up close. If she wears the disintegrating Nightwalker boots as well, she will be hard to stop and able to get where she needs to be, to do damage one way or another.

[DragonSoundxSG]

Shadowheart as a Warlock is criminal.