How default Shadowheart is supposed to be played?

[Bru]

[no spoilers please]

So its my first time in a Baldurs Gate game, using the D&D system and the Forgotten Realms setting.

When i first got Shadowheart, since she is a cleric, i promptly placed her in the "support" role, using healing, cleansing and casting debuffs as needed, besides being the occasional tank to the party.

But as i progress in her storyline, getting her skills and magics, and finished her cleric of Shar questline in ACT II, i see that Shadowheart is a character that values stealth and subtefurge. Her goddess has a rilvary with Selune, the light goddess, and seems to literally want to engulf the world in shadow.

To me, her elite warriors seems to be some kind of "support ninja" or an agressive support, being in the shadows preparing ambushes beforehand, provide healing if needed, assassination, and acting in secrecy for Shar objectives.

But how that translates mechanically in gameplay?
How to thematically use Shadowheart with that in mind?

[Ironwu]

She absolutely, positively needs to be respeced out of Trickery and into something else. Light would be great for a new player.

Her stats also need to be re-balanced as you don't want BOTH Strength and Dexterity to be equal. One or the other should be dominant (I recommend Dexterity). And, you don't want 'Odd' stat numbers; they round down to the 'even' value for buffs. Prioritize Wisdom 16 and Constitution 16, then 14 in Dexterity. 8 Charisma and 8 Intelligence. Rest into Strength.

That will give you a Shadowheart that is good for buffs and ranged damage with good survival.

P.S. Don't ever use Fire Bolt. It is worthless for damage. Good for setting oil or grease on fire, though.

Good Luck

[Bru]

Originally posted by Ironwu:

She absolutely, positively needs to be respeced out of Trickery and into something else. Light would be great for a new player.

Her stats also need to be re-balanced as you don't want BOTH Strength and Dexterity to be equal. One or the other should be dominant (I recommend Dexterity). And, you don't want 'Odd' stat numbers; they round down to the 'even' value for buffs. Prioritize Wisdom 16 and Constitution 16, then 14 in Dexterity. 8 Charisma and 8 Intelligence. Rest into Strength.

That will give you a Shadowheart that is good for buffs and ranged damage with good survival.

P.S. Don't ever use Fire Bolt. It is worthless for damage. Good for setting oil or grease on fire, though.

Good Luck

Hi, thanks for the reply.

But the point is that i do not want to respec, i want to play her as how she is supposed to be instead, a lore friendly gameplay.

[Hellsteeth30]

Ditch trickster immediately.

The rest is on how "lore friendly" you want to be, Larian decided it'd be great if a few domains weren't included though.

Light is good as the above poster said, you can go Tempest too.

[Ironwu]

Originally posted by Netmancer:

Originally posted by Ironwu:

She absolutely, positively needs to be respeced out of Trickery and into something else. Light would be great for a new player.

Her stats also need to be re-balanced as you don't want BOTH Strength and Dexterity to be equal. One or the other should be dominant (I recommend Dexterity). And, you don't want 'Odd' stat numbers; they round down to the 'even' value for buffs. Prioritize Wisdom 16 and Constitution 16, then 14 in Dexterity. 8 Charisma and 8 Intelligence. Rest into Strength.

That will give you a Shadowheart that is good for buffs and ranged damage with good survival.

P.S. Don't ever use Fire Bolt. It is worthless for damage. Good for setting oil or grease on fire, though.

Good Luck

Hi, thanks for the reply.

But the point is that i do not want to respec, i want to play her as how she is supposed to be instead, a lore friendly gameplay.

You cannot. She is a complete fail if left in her original form. Simply will NOT work. I think Larian put her in that way to nudge players to learn to respec. :)

[bcursor]

I respec her and go with rogue multi class. Light domain cleric would be great but it is against the lore.

I suggest Larian to add Death Domain (Shar's other domain) so we can respec her to into a more useful domain without going against the lore.

[jonnin]

Shadowheart is a poorly designed character and very difficult to play as provided. She basically cannot hit ANYTHING AT ALL until you get a new cantrip (the light and throw fire one). Her str prevents hitting with melee, her dex prevents hitting with a crossbow, her int prevents using her racial cantrip, and her poorly selected cleric cantrip always, always fails to land. Once you get the light/fire one, you can hit with wisdom regularly. If you manage to get the 17 int hat early, you can use that with firebolt as well.

As provided, your best use of her is to give her the dancing lights necklace (rescue arabella in the druid area) and give her armor and shield. Keep her concentrating on lights and standing around tanking, possibly to support a rogue by being in melee with stuff so the rogue can sneak attack. You can try sacred flame fails or you can try hitting with a weapon, none of it is going to work well until you respec or get to at least level 4.

She can use her specialty buffs now and again, and she has some nasty offense spells if you don't mind losing out on healing. Cause wounds is potent, in melee range, for example, and invoke duplicity is excellent but only once per sleep for a long time.

If you just wait her out, once you get to level 3 spells she can start to more than pull her weight.

------------
I know you said you didn't want to, but my respects for her tend to fall around
-monk level 1, str 15 or 17, wis 16, tavern brawler feat puts str to +1 for the even bonus, and this lets her attack 2 - 3 times in melee.
- cleric as light, tempest, nature, or life domains. I like light the most, but the others have merits for variety if you chronically replay the game as I have been doing.

[Zebedee]

She's far better respecced as others rightly say. I've tried a dark justiciar type build around trickery but it leaned much more heavily on Darkness gimping enemies and other item effects, it's playable but there's objectively better options.

[JustSmile]

Ya'll exaggerating. With how trivial the game is there's no problems whatsoever with a trickster cleric even if it's weaker than a "meta" build.

[God Queen 158]

I haven't got a clue how to use her, but this is how I started using her when carrying her around in Act2:

I've found that keeping her with the mages means I under-utilize her. I've started putting her mid-range in a way where she's not targeted by the worst big bads but can go into melee range if I can get away with it.

She has a shield and spear which means she can sometimes take a few hits and maintain concentration.

Bless is great. Spirit Guardians is great. Healing spells have been hit or miss. I tend to prefer damage output. I'll let a companion die if it means I can eliminate a bigger threat. I am a Barbarian and have Lae'zel as a Fighter-Battlemaster so we do reliable damage.

The rest of the cleric spells I am still learning tbh. Team is at level 8 in my current run. Entering Act 3. Shadowheart is still Trickery Domain cleric with different hair. I don't find the sneaking spells useful at all.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by JustSmile:

Ya'll exaggerating. With how trivial the game is there's no problems whatsoever with a trickster cleric even if it's weaker than a "meta" build.

Its not her domain, its the worthless stat distribution that makes her poor in the first act (as provided).

[Dude]

Originally posted by JustSmile:

Ya'll exaggerating. With how trivial the game is there's no problems whatsoever with a trickster cleric even if it's weaker than a "meta" build.

I would say respecting is somewhat like legalized cheating. One could do it without consequences but one should not

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Wölki:

Originally posted by JustSmile:

Ya'll exaggerating. With how trivial the game is there's no problems whatsoever with a trickster cleric even if it's weaker than a "meta" build.

I would say respecting is somewhat like legalized cheating. One could do it without consequences but one should not

Depends. I tend to agree with this, but on the flipside, most of the provided characters have their stats in a mess and poor choices generally. If you are role playing 'these are the guys', then ok, that is a self inflicted rule that I respect. Respec one time to have the party you want, upon acquisition of each member, I don't consider that 'cheating' -- its provided by the game, and encouraged by the bad defaults.

Respec repeatedly as you gain gear (eg drop dex to 8 when you get dex gloves) or worse, respect to heal up and regain spells without sleeping, now that is where I draw my lines. I will not play this way. But everyone has to draw their own lines I guess, for some respec is a strategy, for others not allowed, .. I fall in to the middle.

[Pan Darius Cassandra]

Lore Bard-8/Illusionist-2

[Aerohank]

I suppose how you are meant to play her is to use stealth and tricks to get what you want without fighting at all. Using her special spells to get bonusses on stealth checks. When in combat, relying on darkness for defence as well as offence. A problem is that darkness also causes issues for your own party members.

I personally respec her into a war or tempest domain cleric. Both fit her god and personality. Making her a life or light cleric doesn't make sense to me for her personality or lore. It would be like making Gale a barbarian.

[jonnin]

Originally posted by Aerohank:

I suppose how you are meant to play her is to use stealth and tricks to get what you want without fighting at all. Using her special spells to get bonusses on stealth checks. When in combat, relying on darkness for defence as well as offence. A problem is that darkness also causes issues for your own party members.

I personally respec her into a war or tempest domain cleric. Both fit her god and personality. Making her a life or light cleric doesn't make sense to me for her personality or lore. It would be like making Gale a barbarian.

Life is just about healing. Even dark justicars need to be healed sometimes. Apparently, from all the dead ones we find, frequently may be more to the point.

Light, ok, that is the opposite of what her god stands for, which seems to be sneaking & darkness and generally being deceptive. What would be more deceptive, though, than a light domain shar cleric :) You can role play it, if you care to.

Her personality and lore... she was raised by an evil religion that she is not entirely behind (as you can see in game, she approves of most kind acts and disapproves of evil ones most of the time). Fitting to her god... that is the issue, isn't it?