Using Shadowheart in combat

[slquoue]

How do you use her - particularly early on in the game?

[RhiTheWitch]

I user her primarily with guiding bolt, sanctuary, inflict wounds, hold person is good, she can heal downed players(with her healing spells). Just don't rely on her to hit well with a weapon early on.

[Ravenus]

give her crossbow? She have ok dex

[ReoHays]

Switch her to a better Cleric. Even if you go the dark path her trickster sub class is the weakest of all of them. If you have Asty then her spells boost his skills. So yes she does have some skills if you plan on being an Assassin with your whole party. Look at her spells and you will see what I mean.

[Eminem]

inflict wounds takes chunks of health off reds

[Zsrai]

Bless bot early on, since her base stats and domain are pretty terrible. Respec if you want, but if you leave her as is she's better as a back line support caster; buffing allies and debuffing/CCing enemies with some spot heals thrown in, basically.

[DeMasked]

Respec her and other companions so they don't have odd stats or too spread out stats.

If you want her to use more magic as a Cleric give her like 16 Wisdom, 14 Con and probably 16 Dex and give her a Crossbow and Finesse Weapon (Short sword, rapier, dagger, etc...) and Shield. Less magic maybe got 14 Wisdom, 16 Con and 16 Dex to be a bit more tanky.

If going for a Strength weapon give her something like a Longsword + Shield and for ranged use throwing items like Javalins and whatnot - 16 Str and look for heavy armour otherwise use good medium armour + shield though you won't be as tanky.

Shadowheart and Astarion have Firebolt as a Cantrip which uses Intelligence so keep that in mind when using it.

edit: The Radiant damage cantrip is kinda meh due to saving throw negating it rather easily.

edit 2: Also respec to Warrior Priest so you can attack more if you want - or Tempest for retaliation reactions if you plan on getting hit. Trickery Domain isn't that good imo.

[ReoHays]

IN the under dark one of the 1st things you come across is the Singing Sword stuck in a rock, get it for her. It is a Long Sword that uses Dex or Str. I think it is the only Long Sword in the game that does that. Plus you activate it and then sanctuary and no one can touch you.

[Morgian]

I respecced her into Storm. I give her a melee weapon with special abilities (like the broken spear after doing the owlbear) and a fitting ranged one. I got her the Sharpshooter feat and later she got the adamantine shield from the forge. And she has her combat spells - spiritual weapon, guardian spirits and ice storm in the mid levels are the main ones.
She isn't going to outdo any of the melees damage-wise, but she is useful.

[DeMasked]

Originally posted by Morgian:

I got her the Sharpshooter feat

Interesting choice. Usually with Sharpshooter you want to have access to Ranged Fighting Style for the +2 to attack rolls in order to offset the -5 + the ability to attack multiple times depending on the class or using dual wielding xbows. I mean 10 extra damage as a possibility is nice.

[Brian_the_Brute]

With Shart, change her spells at the very start (before combat) to include command so you can tell the Cambion to DROP the flaming sword and then run away with it. Command HALT also saved my bacon in honor mode against the Owlbears, just spammed that every turn and low INT means they fail every time.

Change her to Light domain to get Radiance of the Dawn (and later Scorching Ray too) or Life domain to get extra heals for your low HP party early on as it's pretty easy to die by RNG at level 1/2. The trickery domain she gets by default is close to useless if you have a thief in the party.

Stay away from Sacred Flame, it sucks. Guiding bolt is pretty good (success is higher than the % it shows) and she gets unlimited free flame bolts as well. Use Calm emotions for the harpy encounter.

[The Yeen Queen]

Originally posted by slquoue:

How do you use her - particularly early on in the game?

Heal, buff, shoot crossbow. She's support, not DPS. ;)

Oh, and the instant you have Withers, go respec her to Life, Light, or Storm domain. Trickery sucks.

( Or War if you REALLY want her to be melee DPS. Change her stats, though, they're not good for melee )

[Eminem]

Originally posted by Morgian:

I respecced her into Storm. I give her a melee weapon with special abilities (like the broken spear after doing the owlbear) and a fitting ranged one. I got her the Sharpshooter feat and later she got the adamantine shield from the forge. And she has her combat spells - spiritual weapon, guardian spirits and ice storm in the mid levels are the main ones.
She isn't going to outdo any of the melees damage-wise, but she is useful.

nice. so much replayability in this game with the builds, etc.

Larian continues to get rewarded for their hard work
https://store.steampowered.com/charts/

[jonnin]

early game, you have a few choices:
1: take 1 level of monk after cleric level 1, and respec to str based. Armor and shield keep her safe, weapon and punches do some damage.
2: take a cleric class like tempest and use dual xbows with a dex based build. Late game pick up rogue 3 and she will be more of a trickster cleric than she was ever going to be default.

after level 5:
3: change her cantrip to produce flame, it uses wisdom and is OK on hit/miss/damage
4: give her headband of int and use her fire bolt

at any time:
5: total do-over, make her a paladin or bard or something as fighting-support

[Mike Garrison]

Originally posted by slquoue:

How do you use her - particularly early on in the game?

Leaving aside the respec options, her main sources of damage potential are her lvl 1 guiding bolt spell that can do pretty hefty damage if it hits (and also make it easier for the next attacker to hit also), and her lvl 2 spiritual weapon spell. She can also try to "hold person", which if it hits is very powerful.

Her cantrips are weak, her melee is weak, she's so-so with a crossbow. Buffs and heals are her main role.

Once she gets spirit guardians that all changes. Then you want her to run right into melee. The damage she might or might not do with her weapon is not the point -- the point is the guaranteed damage that spirit guardians do to all nearby enemies.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Mike Garrison:

Originally posted by slquoue:

How do you use her - particularly early on in the game?

Leaving aside the respec options, her main sources of damage potential are her lvl 1 guiding bolt spell that can do pretty hefty damage if it hits (and also make it easier for the next attacker to hit also), and her lvl 2 spiritual weapon spell. She can also try to "hold person", which if it hits is very powerful.

Her cantrips are weak, her melee is weak, she's so-so with a crossbow. Buffs and heals are her main role.

Once she gets spirit guardians that all changes. Then you want her to run right into melee. The damage she might or might not do with her weapon is not the point -- the point is the guaranteed damage that spirit guardians do to all nearby enemies.

you should not have to burn out your spells on trash fights. I know you can in BG3 due to the broken sleep all you want mechanic, but its not real D&D-- everyone is supposed to be able to fight off weak stuff without burning up their powers. Clerics, lacking an extra attack a 5-6 level, fall way off their role in this edition, doubled down on by their weak cantrips. Produce flame isnt terrible, but its not great either. They need a functional cantrip that hits reasonably well based off wisdom and does reasonable damage (2d6 or d10 ish) at level 1 ... on par with a generic unmodded longsword in the hand of a fighter (the d10 or 2d6 makes up for the fighter's +3 str damage as the spell would not get +wis bonus). Exactly like wizards have. I don't like that answer, so I would still say that a 2nd attack at level 6 is the better design for a cleric. They wear armor and shields for a reason: they are meant to mix it up in melee.