just me or is shadowheart useless?

[goobyplz]

seeing as how wizards and warlocks can apparently learn healing spells, is there a point to shadowheart? i find her to constantly be the most useless. i keep her spell slots for heals just in case i need them, as it seems pointless to use spells that have a reasonably high percentage chance to miss, but then shes stuck using the sacred flame cantrip or whatever, which does little damage and has no side effect, or going into melee, doing little damage and not being able to take much. i mean i am mostly cheesing my way through the game by stealth bowing everything and blowing up the rest with barrels, and every time im down to one or two npcs to deal with i find shadowheart just struggling like a magikarp

[Jossiwales]

Guiding bolt does asstons of damage and grants advantage on the next attack (from anyone) against that target. Plus using healing spells on your wizard is a waste. You want them charming or blasting ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. No matter how many times I replay the first act, Shadowheart will always be in my party. Not having to use my rogue/ranger/two-weapon fighter's bonus action to drink a potion is ideal.

[The Seraph of Tomorrow]

A healer with medium armor, melee, and guiding bolt, if not for the trash hit rate it'd be a great combo.

[Enigmatory]

She not useless... ruined - yes. But she only possible cleric option aside of player character. Clerics are strong class even with ruined stats.

[kenithehated]

you have to commit to a build, instead of trying to be an "all rounder"

either heavy spell caster cleric, or tanky buffing caster cleric :p

[GL - MB]

Originally posted by money printer go brrr:

seeing as how wizards and warlocks can apparently learn healing spells, is there a point to shadowheart? i find her to constantly be the most useless. i keep her spell slots for heals just in case i need them, as it seems pointless to use spells that have a reasonably high percentage chance to miss, but then shes stuck using the sacred flame cantrip or whatever, which does little damage and has no side effect, or going into melee, doing little damage and not being able to take much. i mean i am mostly cheesing my way through the game by stealth bowing everything and blowing up the rest with barrels, and every time im down to one or two npcs to deal with i find shadowheart just struggling like a magikarp

She's useless. She rarely ever hits anything. Her armor insures it takes about one or two hits to kill her. The upside is the enemies tend to fixate on a hero. If she gets killed, your other heroes can run right up to her, "help" her up, and she will just continue to get hit and killed. Rinse/repeat.

In fact, pretty much all the heroes are useless, except in this way, and in a few abilities. Unless your main hero is targeted, all the npc's are stunted, next-to-worthless, meat-shields.

[BirdDinosaur]

She has Bane and her Trickster Duplication which makes your odds of hitting things higher. This is the main reason why people complain about missing 80% of the time. They keep disregarding spells like these. She also has Guiding Bolt which if it hits does a lot of damage for a 1st level spell and if the enemy is still alive it guarantees a higher chance for the next attack made on that creature by giving that attack advantage (make two rolls and pick the highest roll).

She also has Halt and Hold Person. One is a concentration and the other is not but both serve a similar purpose: To Crowd Control oh lets say goblin hordes.

She has Resistance which makes successful saving throws easier especially if you use a lot of concentration spells. Tip: Death Saves are also saving throws.

She also has Charm, although it currently doesn't work as intended but that spell will help you avoid a lot of fights once its working.

It really depends on how you use her. She came in real handy during the Spider boss in the whispering depths where I had to sneak around and kill the spiderling eggs and prevent them from hatching. She was also vital during the duergar fight with her Turn Undead spell and Protection from Good and Evil. Sounds like you just lack experience... or the creativity...

[connelld1965]

Of all the companions she is the most useless. The only reason I am using her right now is the warrior died on the ship and I did not care to raise her because of her snotty mouth. And, the warlock died to gobos at the druid fort so there is only 3 companions left. Horrible healer, bad DPS... she just sits in the back mostly doing nothing.

[cmwinchell]

Originally posted by money printer go brrr:

seeing as how wizards and warlocks can apparently learn healing spells, is there a point to shadowheart? i find her to constantly be the most useless. i keep her spell slots for heals just in case i need them, as it seems pointless to use spells that have a reasonably high percentage chance to miss, but then shes stuck using the sacred flame cantrip or whatever, which does little damage and has no side effect, or going into melee, doing little damage and not being able to take much. i mean i am mostly cheesing my way through the game by stealth bowing everything and blowing up the rest with barrels, and every time im down to one or two npcs to deal with i find shadowheart just struggling like a magikarp

But remember, magikarps become gyrados...which I typically have at least one in my roster at the end of a Pokemon game. I don't find her useless at all. Her create water spell is super useful in combat encounters where your characters end up in fire, her heals are decent (not spectacular because she's Trickery Domain). And when you get the Invoke Duplicity ability at level 2 she gets hit a lot less. Granted it requires a use of channel divinity which only recharges after long rests, but I've found it very useful.

Plus I'm trying to romance her...

[Bard]

Originally posted by Pochusaurus:

She has Bane and her Trickster Duplication which makes your odds of hitting things higher.

I've used Bane twice, and it missed all enemies both times.

Invoke Duplicity is a sad implementation. It can't move and you can't cast spells from it. It even has limitations on where you can summon it. Its one of the most interesting features in tabletop, and probably the most pathetic feature adaptation that I've seen in the game so far.

[Jonkenden]

Use bless and your hit rates are better, she gets mirror image later wich makes her a solid tank. And she has heals that work from range as a cantrip. You need magic iniate on your wizard to replicate that

Edit

Correction healing word is lvl 1 spell, still clerics can learn their spells by just leveling and picking them. Wizards need to find the cleric scroll to learn it, so easier access to cleric spells is worth something

[cmwinchell]

Originally posted by Bard:

Originally posted by Pochusaurus:

She has Bane and her Trickster Duplication which makes your odds of hitting things higher.

I've used Bane twice, and it missed all enemies both times.

Invoke Duplicity is a sad implementation. It can't move and you can't cast spells from it. It even has limitations on where you can summon it. Its one of the most interesting features in tabletop, and probably the most pathetic feature adaptation that I've seen in the game so far.

It Invoke Duplicity still works to lessen the change that Shadowheart will be hit in combat. I won't argue with the other problems with it though.

[k_o]

AFAIK wizards being able to learn cleric spells is not working as intended and will be changed before release.

[BirdDinosaur]

Originally posted by k_o:

AFAIK wizards being able to learn cleric spells is not working as intended and will be changed before release.

what do you mean? aren't you just supposed to study the scroll, pay the studying fee and that's it?

Originally posted by Bard:

Originally posted by Pochusaurus:

She has Bane and her Trickster Duplication which makes your odds of hitting things higher.

I've used Bane twice, and it missed all enemies both times.

Invoke Duplicity is a sad implementation. It can't move and you can't cast spells from it. It even has limitations on where you can summon it. Its one of the most interesting features in tabletop, and probably the most pathetic feature adaptation that I've seen in the game so far.

there is always Bless if Bane isn't working for you, besides, you can see the success chance before you do anything.

p+p d&d folks will know that these are real things that happen in a normal d&d game. We're used to it so I suggest get used to it too or get smart about it and find a work around or you could...you know, just not play?

[Enubis]

Shadowheart is suboptimal with how they used invoke duplicity. She is not useless though. The fact she can be a decent damage soak when paired with a fighter is great. I will admit having wizards being able to heal does devalue her a little but not much. Because every turn you spend as a wizard to heal is one turn less potential dpr and a used spellslot. I always have heals on my wizard but only use them on clench moments.

[Bard]

Originally posted by cmwinchell:

Originally posted by Bard:

I've used Bane twice, and it missed all enemies both times.

Invoke Duplicity is a sad implementation. It can't move and you can't cast spells from it. It even has limitations on where you can summon it. Its one of the most interesting features in tabletop, and probably the most pathetic feature adaptation that I've seen in the game so far.

It Invoke Duplicity still works to lessen the change that Shadowheart will be hit in combat. I won't argue with the other problems with it though.

How does it lessen the chance to be hit in combat? The only thing it does is give you advantage on melee attacks if you are standing on top of it.