I officially HATE Shadowheart (But not for the reasons you may think) SPOILERS

[prosthetic soul]

Blah, blah, blah, cuckoldry, blah blah, bear sex, I don't give a ♥♥♥♥ about any of that at the moment. I'm talking about her class, sublcass, trying to build her right, her starting stats, etc.

Maybe this is a rant against Clerics in general, I don't know. But I do know that every time I start a new play-through, Shadowheart fills me with this singular dread that no other party member does. She is wholly and abjectly a massive pain in the ass to level up and to respec.

If it was merely her default subclass sucking arse, that would be one thing, but I can't even figure out how spread out her ability points! Wisdom and Constitution are important, that much is true. But she also needs Dexterity for Medium Armor. But wait, all of her unique weaponry is designed for strength builds. Can't forget shields! She looks best in the Dark Justiciar armor. But going full strength build would be better for ability allocation so she isn't spread too thin across the stat board. ARGH, why does it feel like there were too many cooks in the kitchen who designed this broad?

Kind of wish they had made spears finesse weapons. Either that or Shar had gifted her a divine crossbow along with a set of Dark Justiciar heavy armor or something.

[Popsicles]

I've brought her on every run. Personally, I like having a cleric in the party. I pump up her dex. I use her sleight of hand along with the gloves of thievery for all my rogue needs. I mainly use her to buff and cast Invoke Duplicity. Invoke duplicty is so powerful because I'm rocking a Pally, Karlach and Laez. I've not had much issue with honor mode. I miss having a Wizard, and this is my first run without one. I'll see how it goes at higher levels. The party is at 5 currently.

She is a cleric so pump wisdom. Dex is more important that con in my opinion. You want the jump on initiative. I give her alert feat and she goes first 95% of the time.

[Steffan]

Hmm... I always prioritise her wisdom and dex. She is a caster first, tank second and a melee fighter as a distant third. I find her original point buy fine. Depending on my choices I respec her in act 3 but I keep the ability point spread

I once gave her the toughness feat at level 4 and that saved me in a certain devil fight at level 6 (I think it was at level 6). It was a very close thing.

These days she spends more time in camp but I always take her after sleep to cast aid and hero's feast at later levels.

[Recjawjind]

max wis, 14-16 dex, rest in con.
Not that difficult. Early on pick light cleric, radiant orb armor, gear with more radiant orb, reverb on status item, it's not that hard. Build comes online very early and is very powerful.

[Goblin King Jareth]

Goth Secrets Shadowheart? Disregard Trickery, Acquire Knowledge
Goth Warrior Shadowheart? Disregard Trickery, Acquire War Cleric
Argent Goth Shadowheart? Disregard Trickery, Acquire Light (or War)

[prosthetic soul]

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

max wis, 14-16 dex, rest in con.
Not that difficult. Early on pick light cleric, radiant orb armor, gear with more radiant orb, reverb on status item, it's not that hard. Build comes online very early and is very powerful.

I want her to use spears though. She is max aesthetic with that spear.

[Recjawjind]

Originally posted by 影沼:

Originally posted by Recjawjind:

max wis, 14-16 dex, rest in con.
Not that difficult. Early on pick light cleric, radiant orb armor, gear with more radiant orb, reverb on status item, it's not that hard. Build comes online very early and is very powerful.

I want her to use spears though. She is max aesthetic with that spear.

Aesthetic vs actually being strong is a tradeoff you can make I suppose.

[Riitoken]

So make a Withers speed-run save game:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1086940/discussions/0/4034727918502973078/

And then start all your new runs from that save, and just respec SH as you will regardless of her story.

[Chaosolous]

Shart sucks. I never liked her.

[Jondar Korric]

if she's your primary frontline, give her Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength and the Amulet of Greater Health (so you can drop Strength and Constitution to 8) then put all her points into Wisdom and Dexterity

[LordNibbler]

Then respec her / give her another class / etc., she can be whatever...

[ThreeLeggedCow]

Trickery domain is indeed pretty mediocre in BG3, its really great in tabletop though but impossible to balance for crpgs. Make her a light or tempest cleric and she will one shot entire groups of mobbs.

[Zsrai]

Why are you even having her in melee after like level 4? Clerics are casters, put her in medium armor in the back line.

[Poptartpotato]

Just give her a different subclass. You're making this more complicated than it needs to be. I usually run her as light and she's a beast. War is the way to go if you want to run her as melee.

[lefty1117]

She's fantastic to have in the party, between the various heals and some AOEs like spirit guardians, must have character in the group. I wish she weren't so integral to the story so I could replace her with a custom cleric.

[Lyion]

It's honestly her stats and subclass. Cleric itself is fine and are one of the strongest classes in 5e. I'd recommend swapping her to Life, Tempest, Light or War domains. Depending on what you want with her. Life, Tempest and War can equip heavy armor.

As for stats, I'd personally go Wisdom first, Strength or Dex second (depending on if your subclass allows heavy armor) and Con 3rd. At base, her stats are pretty mediocre apart from Wisdom.