So if I'm going to wear Medium Armor I might as well go full DEX?

[Guard Dog of Hell]

Since I made Shart a light cleric in this run, she's limited to medium armor, but I was hoping to go for max STR for the Lathandier whacking.

[アンジェル]

Originally posted by Guard Dog of Hell:

So if I'm going to wear Medium Armor I might as well go full DEX?
Since I made Shart a light cleric in this run, she's limited to medium armor, but I was hoping to go for max STR for the Lathandier whacking.

Either works. You could also use a different cleric subclass, use a feat for heavy armour or multiclass. You habe plenty of options.

[Detective Costeau]

You'd mostly want 14 dex rather than 'full dex' with medium armor, since you don't get more than a 2 dex bonus in it. (there's two sets that have unlimited dex bonus later in the game, though.)
And honestly, past level 5 or so, melee weapons for a cleric are basically stat sticks in my experience, using your turn on a melee weapon attack is rarely going to be your best option. Do what you want of course, the game doesn't require you to play optimally or anything.

[Darkbeat]

Well most medium armor has a cap on dex bonus to AC of +2. So If you're looking to optimize for that you don't need to stack dex too heavily. It takes 14 dex to get there.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

In the beginning, the Dex contribution to AC is limited to +2 from medium armor, but later on their are armors that can extend it. This means in the early game, your AC won't benefit from any more than 14 in Dex.

But Dex does other things besides increase your AC, like give you higher initiative, or better Dex saving throws (these tend to be vs. AoE attacks, which there are a lot of).

It's also the attack modifier for finesse weapons (unless Str is higher) and all ranged weapons (except thrown weapons). So if you plan to use a dagger, short sword, scimitar or bow, you might want more Dex.

So it's up to you whether you want those additional benefits or not. You can always respec later too.

[Mike Garrison]

Best thing about the Blood of L is that it blinds some enemies and it can cast a 6th level sunbeam. Clerics do their damage with Spirit Guardians and other spells more than by actually crushing skulls with their weapons.

[Pimpin Pippin]

Dexterity in Bg3 is really crazy strong, gives initiative and ArmorClass and DMG+Attack Roll for Ranged weapons (bow/crossbow).
Since clerics & druids have bad offense cantrips this is extremely useful.
Dex also protects you from Push/Shove and gives Dex saves.

Maxing strength on a cleric generally does more harm than good because cleric wants max Wisdom for better & more spells, and they often (not always) want to stay out of melee to preserve their concentration spells.
If you max strength then you sacrifice either dex (ac+initiative+ranged) or wisdom (spell power & slots) or constitution (hp+concentration).

To top it all off there are Medium armors with unique passives which allow FULL dexterity bonus to AC to apply, meaning you can even go 16 dex at start (for max initiative+ranged+AC) and gain even more benefit from such a medium armor.

[Guard Dog of Hell]

Oh I know about the limit of medium armor being +4, it's why I thought DEX would eventually be better than STR but the weapons cleric has tends to be limited. I guess Light cleric is more of a caster than a fighter like a War cleric.

[Starwight/ttv]

Originally posted by Pimpin Pippin:

Dexterity in Bg3 is really crazy strong, gives initiative and ArmorClass and DMG+Attack Roll for Ranged weapons (bow/crossbow).
Since clerics & druids have bad offense cantrips this is extremely useful.
Dex also protects you from Push/Shove and gives Dex saves.

Maxing strength on a cleric generally does more harm than good because cleric wants max Wisdom for better & more spells, and they often (not always) want to stay out of melee to preserve their concentration spells.
If you max strength then you sacrifice either dex (ac+initiative+ranged) or wisdom (spell power & slots) or constitution (hp+concentration).

To top it all off there are Medium armors with unique passives which allow FULL dexterity bonus to AC to apply, meaning you can even go 16 dex at start (for max initiative+ranged+AC) and gain even more benefit from such a medium armor.

That's not BG3, that's DnD.

[asdf]

Originally posted by Pimpin Pippin:

Dexterity in Bg3 is really crazy strong, gives initiative and ArmorClass and DMG+Attack Roll for Ranged weapons (bow/crossbow).
Since clerics & druids have bad offense cantrips this is extremely useful.
Dex also protects you from Push/Shove and gives Dex saves.

Maxing strength on a cleric generally does more harm than good because cleric wants max Wisdom for better & more spells, and they often (not always) want to stay out of melee to preserve their concentration spells.
If you max strength then you sacrifice either dex (ac+initiative+ranged) or wisdom (spell power & slots) or constitution (hp+concentration).

To top it all off there are Medium armors with unique passives which allow FULL dexterity bonus to AC to apply, meaning you can even go 16 dex at start (for max initiative+ranged+AC) and gain even more benefit from such a medium armor.

Honestly,e I think that even if dexterity *only* gave initiative and nothing else that it should still be a very highly valued stat in BG3. Even if I were using heavy armor and wasn't using ranged weapons, I'd still want high dexterity for the extra initiative. Unlike D&D, initiative rolls in BG3 are just a 1d4 (instead of 1d20 like it is in D&D), which means a character with +3 dexterity is nearly guaranteed to go first before someone with +0 dexterity (if you roll a 1 and they roll a 4 then it's a tie, if we assume ties are random then that would be a 31/32 chance of going first), and going first vs. going last is like getting an entire extra turn (which is huge when most fights end in 2-3 turns)

[Sentient_Toaster]

Originally posted by Guard Dog of Hell:

Oh I know about the limit of medium armor being +4, it's why I thought DEX would eventually be better than STR but the weapons cleric has tends to be limited. I guess Light cleric is more of a caster than a fighter like a War cleric.

Generally +2 rather than +4. That's why folks are recommending stopping at 14 Dex, rather than 18. 14 Dex + Alert will be more useful than taking an ASI for 16 Dex, because +5 to initiative is just that good when the standard initiative die in BG3 is 1d4... never mind the immunity to surprise, which occasionally will matter.

Focus on Wisdom, so you can get those save DCs up and have more spells prepared.

[Metallicus]

Take a fighter dip and get all weapons and heavy armor.

[Yextiny]

With clerics, since they don't get extra attack, it's really best to focus on spellcasting/initiative/durability instead of trying to make them melee fighters. If you deck out Shart in reverberation and radiant orb gear and turn on the Spirit Guardians spell (radiant), all you need to do is run around the enemies and they fall prone and take a huge hit to their rolls and health. Hitting them with the blood of lathander isn't as useful as using the action to sprint.

If you want a spellcaster who makes a good melee fighter & can wear heavy armor, respec her to Paladin. Also, if you just want heavy armor, you can respec her to tempest domain to get heavy armor and still keep her as a cleric.

[Razorblade]

Originally posted by Darkbeat:

Well most medium armor has a cap on dex bonus to AC of +2. So If you're looking to optimize for that you don't need to stack dex too heavily. It takes 14 dex to get there.

That's bad advice for BG3. There are multiple Medium Armors that have no Dex cap, and allow you to achieve the highest possible AC in the game, if you invest in Dex.

Plus, Dex is important for Initiative, and it can be used as the damage stat for many weapons.

[Guard Dog of Hell]

Originally posted by Yextiny:

With clerics, since they don't get extra attack, it's really best to focus on spellcasting/initiative/durability instead of trying to make them melee fighters. If you deck out Shart in reverberation and radiant orb gear and turn on the Spirit Guardians spell (radiant), all you need to do is run around the enemies and they fall prone and take a huge hit to their rolls and health. Hitting them with the blood of lathander isn't as useful as using the action to sprint.

If you want a spellcaster who makes a good melee fighter & can wear heavy armor, respec her to Paladin. Also, if you just want heavy armor, you can respec her to tempest domain to get heavy armor and still keep her as a cleric.

Oh right, I forgot about the extra attack. There's also blade warlock I suppose for a double attack caster.