Shadowheart (full cleric), how to improve combat

[Kamuizin]

From all my characters, SH feel the most weak, i’m probably using her wrong, but it’s always firebolt cantrip or 2 dmg with a staff.

Any tips for a better improvement without changing her (attribute, class or subclass)?

I don’t know cleric well, so i don’t know what sync better for multiclass, thus i left her as full cleric.

[Hobocop]

Grab a level of Druid or the Magic Initiate Feat for Shillelagh so she can use a club or quarterstaff with her Wisdom. Thorn Whip is also a handy little cantrip for pulling enemies out of position or off ledges.

Spell Sniper is also an option since all of the cantrips you can pick from that list will use your best casting modifier, and Eldritch Blast is a decent go-to option.

[Zsrai]

First off, don't use Firebolt, it scales off INT. Sacred Flame sucks, but at least it uses WIS.

What level are you? Her default Domain is garbage, and her default stat spread is pretty weak too; it can be worth it to respec her even if you keep her as a full cleric just for better stats and a better domain. What are you trying to use her as? DPS, support? That kind of determines what stats/domain (and spells) she should be using.

Edit: Oh, without changing her stats and class? Just leave her as is and use her for support. Use Gale, Wyll, or your MC as the spell DPS. What level are you though, since that will matter for what spells she has available and the awkward space around level 3-5 that clerics can struggle (bad at melee but spells aren't taking off yet).

[Boss]

About the most correct way to use her in most situations is "Cast a buff and run to the other side of the map until the fight blows over".

Firebolt is useless because it uses INT, and she's an idiot. The only way to utilize that is the environment (explosive barrels and such). Her ability scores are pretty terribly unfocused, so you won't get much out of her without respeccing, and she's the worst cleric domain, too.

She has some decent spells as a cleric, but only those other clerics get as well. But of course, limited spell slots (which isn't a problem with how much supplies you get, but I still hate resting, so I make my own difficulty by going as long as possible without those. Still, it falls into theory when it comes to DnD). Stuff like Disguise Self isn't too useful as a companion, because people (naturally) wanna lead with their main avatar, and Pass Without Trait is only useful in some places if you wanna sneak the entire party past sentries

I guess load her up with items that buff healing, like the ring from Volo that adds a Bless when you heal a creature, or another item that also purges some debuffs when you heal both work with potions, too), and focus on buffing. If you have the luxury of prep or game knowledge, she has some situationally good spells, like Silence, Calm Emotions and Daylight. Also use Warding Bond and make the the meat shield she deserves to be, but then don't expect to keep any concentration spell going

Or just do the sensible thing and make her Light or War domain, and give her better ability scores. I mean I get it, it kinda ruins the immersion as is exploit-y even more than regular rebuilds, but BY TEMPUS, is she worthless

[supergtp]

She is pretty terrible in combat. I used only for support.

[Kaisha]

Get the adamantine shield. Then pop on all the Radiant Orb gear, and maybe a bit of Reverb gear. Then cast spirit guardians and run her all around. You can then laugh as nothing can hit her and everything gets debuffed like crazy.

[yuzhonglu]

Make her full healer, give her spirit guardian, and use scrolls.

She damages enemies by walking near them. If no one needs healing, cast a fireball from scroll.

[Kamuizin]

Originally posted by Hobocop:

Grab a level of Druid or the Magic Initiate Feat for Shillelagh so she can use a club or quarterstaff with her Wisdom. Thorn Whip is also a handy little cantrip for pulling enemies out of position or off ledges.

Spell Sniper is also an option since all of the cantrips you can pick from that list will use your best casting modifier, and Eldritch Blast is a decent go-to option.

Thx for the tips, spell sniper for Shillelagh then may improve things.

Originally posted by Zsrai:

First off, don't use Firebolt, it scales off INT. Sacred Flame sucks, but at least it uses WIS.

What level are you? Her default Domain is garbage, and her default stat spread is pretty weak too; it can be worth it to respec her even if you keep her as a full cleric just for better stats and a better domain. What are you trying to use her as? DPS, support? That kind of determines what stats/domain (and spells) she should be using.

Edit: Oh, without changing her stats and class? Just leave her as is and use her for support. Use Gale, Wyll, or your MC as the spell DPS. What level are you though, since that will matter for what spells she has available and the awkward space around level 3-5 that clerics can struggle (bad at melee but spells aren't taking off yet).

Lvl 6

Hmmm, thank you all for the comments. Gonna see what to do with her.

[Doom_Cookies]

Spirit Guardians is the go-to amazing spell for Clerics in BG3. You basically want to use it all the time and just run her through enemies so they get ticked by the persistent, point-blank AoE. So long as it's up, I tend to just spam support spells or Glyph of Warding (do not underestimate the Glyph!) until combat is over.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Spirit Guardians + Spiritual Weapon is a common combination. Sacred Flame is decent, but Radiant damage is riskier than in tabletop (where relatively few creatures resist it... and I'm not aware of any WOTC-official monsters which literally punish you for radiant damage by damaging you for twice as much... there's at least one encounter where even a high-level cleric can one-shot herself if using a poorly timed "Radiance of the Dawn" channel divinity).

Something that BG3 changed re: Spirit Guardians: Larian made it do damage when the cleric moves so that something is now in the AoE. This contradicts tabletop rules, but you're playing BG3, not a RAW tabletop game, so take advantage of that if you like.

Ultimately she'd be more powerful if you at least swapped her domain, but for narrative reasons she really should stay a Trickery cleric for... well, some time. The only other domain associated with Shar is the death domain, which isn't in unmodded BG3. If you don't mind narrative dissonance and are open to changing her domain, Light cleric is quite strong offensively.

Something else of note is that Sanctuary is much stronger than it is in tabletop, because in BG3 it always works, whereas in tabletop the enemy can still attack if he makes a Wisdom save. In BG3, it just flat-out prevents the targeting.


FWIW, if you really do want to land those fire bolts, it's possible fairly early w/n Act I to get a piece of headwear that increases intelligence to 17. That'll help, since her fire bolt does scale off that rather than wisdom, and it'll probably help her more than anybody else unless you made somebody into an eldritch knight or arcane trickster and want them to be spell-reliant.

[Keeptrucking]

Light cleric.
Ability score feats
+spell attack/spell dc items and what ever synergises with your party.
Have fun.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

She's support - use spells.

Or, respec her so her stats match what you want to do with her.

[IRMcG]

Tend to use her more as tank/healer with the Forge armour when I can get it and run into a group and drop Spirit Guardians on them. Potion of Hill Giant Strength is another option if you want to use her more conventionally, plenty of them around and you can craft them.

[Kamuizin]

Is monk Martial Arts: Dextrous Attacks still bugged (at least i think it’s a bug), where it will override Shillelagh even when wis > dex?

A 1 lvl dip on monk sounds good without compromising the lvl 6 spell slot. 2 would be ideal, but not everything in life can be ideal.

[War Maiden]

Originally posted by Kamuizin:

From all my characters, SH feel the most weak, i’m probably using her wrong, but it’s always firebolt cantrip or 2 dmg with a staff.

Any tips for a better improvement without changing her (attribute, class or subclass)?

I don’t know cleric well, so i don’t know what sync better for multiclass, thus i left her as full cleric.

Take her to Withers, change her Class to Paladin of Shar.
She will be at least - 100% better in everything.

[Aerohank]

I respec her to a full war domain cleric. It makes her much better at combat if that is what you are looking for and it fits her personality.