How (un)wise are two clerics in one party?

[DieEnte]

Hey everyone,

I am planning on embarking onto my first save with a lot of emphasis on the role playing aspect – so, create a character I used to play in Pen & Paper games and then making the choices he would make regardless of whether they are the “best” ones to make. Not necessarily intended to be a “completionist” game. There, I stumbled onto a question. This character would most likely be a cleric of the light domain, yet at the same time I feel that “he” would choose Shadowheart as a companion – also in cleric class as I do not want to disrupt the origin characters. Now my question – is having two clerics “incredibly stupid” from a gameplay perspective or just “not that efficient”? I would be fine with the latter, but I don’t want to find out mid-game that that was a terrible choice. Any advice would be highly appreciated 😊

My idea would be to have Gale and Lae’zel complete the gang btw.

[.Master Jiren, The Strongest]

my next playthrough will likely be me and shadowheart both as clerics. I dont think its silly at all. Clerics can use weapons that deal 1d6 and they can wear shields and medium armor, so having an AC of 20 isnt bad (Though for a tank in this game you really need AC 25 imo)

Two clerics means two healing words and two mass healing words, which are bonus actions that bring your party back up from 0 hp. This is very important because the AI will focus down one specific party member, usually Gale, and kill him off before he gets a turn, so i often use gale as a meat shield and force the AI to keep killing him every turn as I bring him up every turn. Make sure to get the gloves that give someone Death Ward for free when brought back to life just to make the AI waste yet another attack trying to kill gale. By using this strategy the AI gets locked into a cycle of constantly wasting its turn killing gale while you use a mere bonus action to bring your meat puppet back to life, then the rest of the party is free to use actions to deal damage.

[The Rabid Otter]

Would your original character have considered multi-classing if they had gained even more levels?

[meleander]

Originally posted by DieEnte:

Hey everyone,

I am planning on embarking onto my first save with a lot of emphasis on the role playing aspect – so, create a character I used to play in Pen & Paper games and then making the choices he would make regardless of whether they are the “best” ones to make. Not necessarily intended to be a “completionist” game. There, I stumbled onto a question. This character would most likely be a cleric of the light domain, yet at the same time I feel that “he” would choose Shadowheart as a companion – also in cleric class as I do not want to disrupt the origin characters. Now my question – is having two clerics “incredibly stupid” from a gameplay perspective or just “not that efficient”? I would be fine with the latter, but I don’t want to find out mid-game that that was a terrible choice. Any advice would be highly appreciated 😊

My idea would be to have Gale and Lae’zel complete the gang btw.

Clerics according to some people have OP spells and I tend to agree if you remember those spells are situational and need a setup. For example you can hold enemies, or cast a spell forcing enemy to drop their weapons or not do anything.

So clerics clearly allows you to win any fight with only 1 enemy without any retaliation.

They have also massive AOE - cast guardians and just run around the battlefield...

They can also have "normal" damage spells like fireballs, so... yeah. Clerics are very powerful spell casters with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of armor.

[DieEnte]

Originally posted by The Rabid Otter:

Would your original character have considered multi-classing if they had gained even more levels?

I am open to it, but as a complete newbie I have no idea. But the thought occured to me. Which class would be useful as 2nd class?

[Weylen]

Originally posted by DieEnte:

Originally posted by The Rabid Otter:

Would your original character have considered multi-classing if they had gained even more levels?

I am open to it, but as a complete newbie I have no idea. But the thought occured to me. Which class would be useful as 2nd class?

Imma be honest chief, this is definitely late, but for light cleric specifically, they deal a lot in the damage with spell department side. There's nothing wrong with having you as a light cleric and having Shadowheart stay as a trickery cleric for some pseudo tank buffing or as a life cleric just for the support purposes, clerics are flexible that way. For multiclassing, you can probably delve into druid since they use the same stats (wisdom), or do the simple trick of investing 1 level into wizard and have the remaining 11 in light cleric. The wizard level would be used so you can learn spells from scrolls, broadening your spell list for any and all situations. Dip your toes a bit, get to know the game and the other classes. It becomes quite fun once you find something that resonates with you.

One more thing though, if you do go light cleric, I don't recommend having Gale there since you'll have two offensive casters. Your character would be great for offensive spellcasting with aoe's, lae'zel is great for tank and frontline, shadowheart is great for support spellcasting and psuedo-tanking. Maybe have a rogue for high single-target damage? Take Astarion perhaps? To reiterate, at the end of day, do what feels right and fun for you.

[Aouregan]

Having more than one cleric is absolutely not unwise. A life domain cleric, paired with a war domain or tempest cleric (who are borh pretty tanky and can use any armor or weapon you throw at them) can absolutely kick butt.
Sadly, Shadowheart's original domain (trickery) is the most useless one of them all.
Clerics can be one of the strongest classes in game.

My current main is a War Priestess of Kelemvor, which basically makes her an undead hunter & destroyer. Kelemvor doesn't really agree with the dead walking around. Also a nice canonical reason to utilize speak with the dead.
The death clergy, as they were known, had many duties; most involved tending to the last wishes of the dying and providing burial services to those who died alone. They also set out to cure diseases and defend people from monsters so that folk did not die before their time. Their final and arguably most important task was the destruction of undeath in all its various forms as it was an affront to Kelemvor. Elite priests of Kelemvor were known as Doomguides. Servants of Kelemvor were usually clad in somber gray vestments and brandished hand-and-a-half swords, or bastard swords.

"Death is but part of life: fear it not, evade it not, and view it not as evil. To fear death delivers you into the hands of those who can bring death down upon you. Die with dignity, neither raging nor seeking to embrace undeath. Do honor to the dead, for their strivings in life brought Faerun to where it is now, and to forget them is to forget also where we are now—and why."
- Kelemvor

Clerics can be different to each other like night and day, giving them endless possibilities, starting with what deity they worship. Depending on your chosen deity in this game, it might even (rp-wise) alter your course with Shadowheart, but you will see for yourself.

[! cockle]

ran a 4 cleric party. cheesed the entire game.

[765]

Ideally "18-20 wise".

[Edstyles]

Its very wise cause you have 2 wise characters :) with that said. Yeah 2 is totally fine if even actually kinda good. Kinda similar to how 2 bards is actually better than one.

Have Shadowheart as support and you as main spec yourself for damage.