Is Shillelagh good outside early level?

[Karina]

I had the intention of playing nature domain cleirc centered around this spell. Tanky caster with some frontline capabilities. You dont extra attacks, but you deal extra elemental damage with weapons at level 8.

However, a quick glance on the wiki made it plain that weapon variety to use with Shillelagh is lacking. There is 2 (maybe 3) good clubs in the game, and overwhelming majority of staves are caster focused, often not even having enchantments. The best i found is Mourning Frost.

[ULTRA]

Yeah as you say, clubs/staves bad. It's kinda like pact weapon from warlock but worse. Basically tides druids over until they get a decent wildshape, and nature clerics are just for lols mostly.

[Pat Fenis]

If you want to get stuck in there, use fighter / paladin / monk.

[A Disembodied Intelligence]

It's annoying because the Wood Nymph summon has an advanced form of it that scales better, but we can never learn it :(

[Karina]

Originally posted by A Disembodied Intelligence:

It's annoying because the Wood Nymph summon has an advanced form of it that scales better, but we can never learn it :(

Did not know she deals good damage in melee.

[jonnin]

lot of staves with d8 + d4 element but no + to hit/damage.
but.. act 1.. torch.. level 1 and d8+d4 already is amusing :)

[OnlyOffensive]

You can use it on magic staves/clubs too, so technically its usable on clubs.

[Mosey]

If you want to focus purely on wisdom it's pretty decent but also as you level your actual weapon attacks matter less and less for most types of Cleric. Without multi-attack it's just not that effective with or without this cantrip.

You can get some fun synergy going with certain magic items for Mourning Frost though. You'd want boots with no slip and the ring from Last Light Inn at the very least.

[A Disembodied Intelligence]

Originally posted by jonnin:

lot of staves with d8 + d4 element but no + to hit/damage.
but.. act 1.. torch.. level 1 and d8+d4 already is amusing :)

You've given me an idea.

Alright everyone here me out:
Shillelagh Salami that's also your Pact Weapon from Eldritch Knight, Duellist Fighting Style for +2 to make it d10 damage and you go 6 into Wildheart Barbarian so you can go Chimp Heart and blind anything that you throw Camp Supplies at (which Salami counts as).

Now you've got a d10 Salami with +2 damage when you're raging, that blinds when you throw it and always returns to your hand when thrown.

Am I cooking or am I crazy?
That sounds like a lot of fun to me.

[iamcorn]

It's unfortunate This came out before ONED&D did, the updates they made to Shillelagh are pretty worthwhile.

Though.. even with the scaling d8,10,12 FORCE damage you're still stuck with a staff that wasn't really made with melee in mind at best.

[Karina]

Maybe instead of going full cleric or 11/1 it would be better to do cleric 7/ranger 5 split? For extra attack and other stuff. I still will be a mostly full caster with 20 wisdom while having good melee capabilities. Best cleric spells are level 1-4 anyway.

I read up lore on the Mielikki (god i choose for my cleric, would have chosen Sylvanus but its not an option) - and apparently her clerics very commonly multiclass with either ranger or druid. After getting just one ranger level - my character felt more complete. And i now have proficiency in ALL int skills, which is nice for a gnome.

The only issue is kinda nonsensical stat spread for a ranger themed nature cleric - 8 str, 10 dex, 16 con, 16 wis, 14 int, 10 cha.

[A Disembodied Intelligence]

Originally posted by A Disembodied Intelligence:

Originally posted by jonnin:

lot of staves with d8 + d4 element but no + to hit/damage.
but.. act 1.. torch.. level 1 and d8+d4 already is amusing :)

You've given me an idea.

Alright everyone here me out:
Shillelagh Salami that's also your Pact Weapon from Eldritch Knight, Duellist Fighting Style for +2 to make it d10 damage and you go 6 into Wildheart Barbarian so you can go Chimp Heart and blind anything that you throw Camp Supplies at (which Salami counts as).

Now you've got a d10 Salami with +2 damage when you're raging, that blinds when you throw it and always returns to your hand when thrown.

Am I cooking or am I crazy?
That sounds like a lot of fun to me.

So I've just tested this with a level 12 hireling going 2 Spores Druid 6 Monkey Barbarian 4 Eldritch Knight and...

You can't throw a weapon empowered by Shillelagh.
However! You can make it all work if you follow this as your attack pattern:

For one target:
Action - Throw salami at target, blinds them (returns to your hand).
Bonus Action - Now use Shillelagh.
Extra Attack - Shillelagh Salami for 1d8+7 (at 20 Wis with Duellist) +1d6 Spores Necrotic dmg on the blinded target.
~ or ~
For multiple targets:
Action - Throw Salami at target, blinds them.
Extra Attack - Throw Salami at additional target, blinds them.
-Action Surge-
Extra Action - Throw Salami at additional target, blinds them.
Bonus Action - Now use Shillelagh.
Extra Attack - Shillelagh Salami for 1d8+7 (20wis&duellist) +1d6 Spores Necrotic dmg.

Or something similar to that.

If you're raging you obviously +2 damage to all of this, but an important thing to know is you do not need to be raging for your thrown Salami to inflict blind on targets.

So that's pretty cool. Though Salamis themselves don't have the "thrown" property so you're not doing tons of damage on the throw

Haven't tested any Dual Wielding capabilities, but things to know about that are:
Pact Weapons always return to your offhand regardless of which hand you threw them from when dual wielding.
Shillelagh doesn't care what hand your club is in, it will always empower it regardless (whereas it needs to be in your main hand at the time of first activating EK's bind weapon).

[Karina]

Originally posted by Esteban Failsmore:

Maybe instead of going full cleric or 11/1 it would be better to do cleric 7/ranger 5 split? For extra attack and other stuff. I still will be a mostly full caster with 20 wisdom while having good melee capabilities. Best cleric spells are level 1-4 anyway.

I read up lore on the Mielikki (god i choose for my cleric, would have chosen Sylvanus but its not an option) - and apparently her clerics very commonly multiclass with either ranger or druid. After getting just one ranger level - my character felt more complete. And i now have proficiency in ALL int skills, which is nice for a gnome.

The only issue is kinda nonsensical stat spread for a ranger themed nature cleric - 8 str, 10 dex, 16 con, 16 wis, 14 int, 10 cha.

How good beastmaster companions would be with just level 5 ranger? If feels thematically the most apropriate for a character im going for. Probably double ravens, flying around and pecking things in the eyes.

I dont like stealth (and this character cant stealth) so gloom stalkers is a no no, and hunter is kinda basic. Hunter will be better with cleric 9 / ranger 3 though, as its best feature is doing 1-8 extra damage once per turn which also synergies with clerics 1-8 extra elemental damage once per turn.

[Karina]

A thing i learned - this item https://bg3.wiki/wiki/Diadem_of_Arcane_Synergy will add spellcasting modifier to weapon attacks when you "inflict condition". Playing an instrument is a free action that inflicts condition "performing" on you. Permanent wisdom based modifier to weapon damage.

[Pat Fenis]

*oak father intensifies*