Shadowheart can't heal.

[The Gut]

Potions and short rests are better, maybe just take healing out of the game if you don't want to have a dedicated healing classes. What's the point of making healing so useless that you shouldn't even try to use it?

Is that supposed be a fun thing, to force players to have to play the game a certain way to win, vs playing and molding the characters the way you want?

I'd like either to know, if the intention was to have some useless fake healing moves be there like the pinky toe, a useless toe or healing move, that's there still because other games have healing in them, but not make it a viable thing in the game, and players will just have to focus on damage and avoiding being hit more than armor and healing.

Anyone care to share their perspective on how to effectively have a healer in the game that doesn't involve being rich, and buying weak potions, and throwing to heal and rez your team?

[Aerohank]

It takes more than just being a cleric to be a good healer.

Find items that give bonusses on heal. There are items which give blade ward on heal for 2 turns. Items that give bonus HP on heal. Items that bless on heal for 2 turns. Items that improve healing amounts. Etc.

Use mass healing word. Now suddenly your whole party gets healed, gets bonus HP, gets blessed and gets blade ward for at the cost of a bonus action.

Certainly not useless. You just have to build around it - just like with most things in this game.

[Carnasid]

Originally posted by Cartesian Duelist:

This is also a good point. Larian doesn't really understand how to design proper D&D encounters.

To be fair, neither does WoTC, judging by their official modules.

[OddJob]

Let me be clear!

Main healing is absolutely viable in BG3 - you might just be doing it wrong. Here's some free tips:

Heal spells in BG3 are not heal spells in the way you think of them in World of warcraft (That is to say spells that move HP bars from 50% to 100%.)

Healing abilities are abilities that do one of two things:

1. Pick up a downed teammate
2. Give a buff that is associated with that healing spell - such as blade ward via Hellrider gloves.


Healing (moving an HP bar from 50% to 100) is done through potions - or just by not taking damage at all.

[AokiYakumo]

Originally posted by The Gut:

Originally posted by Sir_Baldur:

Respec Shadowheart to life cleric or light, put amulet of restoration on her, cast aide at level 6, use another amulet to replace the spell slot, cast beacon of hope.

No class was meant to be a pure healer in DnD, but you can certainly spec to provide the most healing you can.

I'll try that build and see if I can have fun with Shadowheart finally. I see so many videos online about Paladins being the best class in the game. Maybe the game is going to open up at some point with the builds after act 1, but I'm yet to get to act 2 so who knows. Don't spoil anything. I'll play a bit more and see what I can do. I'm level 7 or 8 I think.

You can also dial this to 11 long before Act II starts.

Starting in the Druid's Grove, talk to Volo and buy the Whispering Promise from him before he leaves for the goblin camp. This buts a Bless rider onto your heals for 2 turns, which is +1d4 to attacks and saves.

Along the way, get Hellrider's Pride from Zevlor. You can pickpocket this from him, or you can solve the Shadow Druid fiasco at the grove before talking to him, in which he will give you Hellrider's Pride as a quest reward. If you plan on destroying the grove, he drops it as loot. These gloves put a Blade Ward rider on your heals, halving physical damage for 2 turns.

At the goblin camp, the merchant there sells the Boots of Aid and Comfort, which gives 3 THP to targets you heal (basically a +3 healing bonus).

After dealing with the grove v. camp situation, you can get the Ring of Salving and Amulet of Restoration from NPCs in the Myconid Colony. Ring of Salving adds 2 points to healing effects, while Amulet of Restoration gives a free cast of both Healing Word variants.

Wapira's Crown is optional, but worth getting if you don't plan on destroying the grove. It gives your Cleric a free 1d6 heal each time they heal others (it's basically a weaker version of Blessed Healer), which will trigger the other rider effects like the Bless, Blade Ward, and THP riders.

Once it's stacked up, a 20 WIS Life Cleric can cast Healing Word at 1st level for 1d4+13 hit points, plus Bless, plus Blade Ward, with 1d4+1 per upcast, and 1d6+6 for the caster plus Bless & Blade Ward. Still not quite enough for "Dedicated Healer" gameplay loops, but MUCH better than simply having Healing Word at 1d4+5.

[Maraxus]

Mass healing word + that item that gives resistance to physical damage to characters you heal is simply op. xD

[Crimson Bort]

I find Shart is ONLY useful for healing. After you respec her to life domain of course. Trickery Domain is the worst class in the entire game if you ask me. Whats the point of stealth on something that can't hit anything in the first place? Once you get some equipment that buffs the healing, She can almost heal my entire party back up from nothing in one turn. Early game all she does is cast beacon of hope, then sanctuary and just heal/buff every turn. She eventually gets some effective offensive spells too, but only in certain situations. If you're talking outside of battle, yeah just short rest. You'll find more camp supplies than you're ever gonna need. Could long rest after every fight if you really wanted too.

[AokiYakumo]

Originally posted by Crimson Bort:

I find Shart is ONLY useful for healing. After you respec her to life domain of course. Trickery Domain is the worst class in the entire game if you ask me. Whats the point of stealth on something that can't hit anything in the first place? Once you get some equipment that buffs the healing, She can almost heal my entire party back up from nothing in one turn. Early game all she does is cast beacon of hope, then sanctuary and just heal/buff every turn. She eventually gets some effective offensive spells too, but only in certain situations. If you're talking outside of battle, yeah just short rest. You'll find more camp supplies than you're ever gonna need. Could long rest after every fight if you really wanted too.

No hate, but . . .

laughs in Radiant Orb Cleric

[Carynara]

Originally posted by The Gut:

Anyone care to share their perspective on how to effectively have a healer in the game that doesn't involve being rich, and buying weak potions, and throwing to heal and rez your team?

What level are you at? Healing seems useless at the beginning but gets stronger as you progress. I'm lvl 7 now and I use her group heal spell the most, the direct heals less often. I have her as War cleric but as others above pointed out you can go for Life and get other boosts to raw healing power if that's the road you'd like to take. I played a paladin as well and absolutely loved Lay on Hands and the other direct heal they have. Those were very potent IIRC.

Generally speaking, if you find yourself relying on healing too much, you might want to revise your strategy. Trying to outheal incoming dmg is usually not effective in combat.

[Mithrandir]

Life cleric plus some magic items and some buff spells are absolutely viable main healers. I rarely use potions. A real tank helps too, not some high dps melee thinking they're actually tanking...

[AokiYakumo]

Originally posted by Mithrandir:

Life cleric plus some magic items and some buff spells are absolutely viable main healers. I rarely use potions. A real tank helps too, not some high dps melee thinking they're actually tanking...

Although to be fair to the DPS, you can't take damage if the threat's dead af, so a good burst-down DPS can make things easier for everyone.

[Crimson Bort]

Originally posted by AokiYakumo:

Originally posted by Crimson Bort:

I find Shart is ONLY useful for healing. After you respec her to life domain of course. Trickery Domain is the worst class in the entire game if you ask me. Whats the point of stealth on something that can't hit anything in the first place? Once you get some equipment that buffs the healing, She can almost heal my entire party back up from nothing in one turn. Early game all she does is cast beacon of hope, then sanctuary and just heal/buff every turn. She eventually gets some effective offensive spells too, but only in certain situations. If you're talking outside of battle, yeah just short rest. You'll find more camp supplies than you're ever gonna need. Could long rest after every fight if you really wanted too.

No hate, but . . .

laughs in Radiant Orb Cleric

ha ha!
I'll admit I haven't experimented with All the cleric classes much. Gimme a break I only have 360 hours! Barely scratched the surface

[ahsanford]

Originally posted by The Gut:

Anyone care to share their perspective on how to effectively have a healer in the game that doesn't involve being rich, and buying weak potions, and throwing to heal and rez your team?

Healing is super fun to play, I do it with my L1 Life Cleric / L11 Bard routinely.

But in 5e, you just need to keep people up, not keep people near full health. So a RTWP (or even a realtime MMO) you tend to think the healer needs to 'keep up' with the damage your party is sustaining. In 5e, it's much more about a basic healing word casts to bring up downed characters, or possibly removing a nasty crowd control (stun, hold person, fear, etc.) from them.

So don't play healers in BG3 to say 'yeah, I just dropped a sweet 45 HP heal and now you're as good as new' -- you play healers to keep everyone in the party at >1 HP and capable of moving/attacking without limitations. It's a different mindset than healing in other games.

- A

[Tijger]

Originally posted by Metallicus:

My perspective is that you should kill your enemies before they can damage you for best results in BG3. If you can’t kill the enemy fast enough then healing will never keep up with damage taken nor was it designed to keep up.

Thats how I play it, I always respec Shadowheart to Tempest Cleric which gives her decent heals and decent offense and support powers.
Kill stuff faster is a much better strategy than trying to outheal damage done imho.

[ahsanford]

...but if you want to heal a lot. Respec Shad to Life Cleric and start acquiring items that trigger side-benefits from healing. All of that adds up.

By end of the game, each heal my main was dropping:

1) Puts Blade Ward on the recipient (huge buff for the party when doing even a small AOE heal)
2) Boosts the heal amount
3) Grants temporary HP in addition to the heal

Allllll that stuff adds up.

- A

[Pyromaiden]

skill issue