Hey pals! I've posted an updated version of this video for honor mode and later patches. You can find it here: ua-cam.com/video/8t8Tmo2IAQ4/v-deo.html Enjoy!
That call out on the Staff of Arcane Blessing is insane, haven't seen that anywhere else. Had that sitting in my inventory all Act 1 having no clue that it would double Bless' ability!
Sadly I learned after making this video that that's actually wrong, the tooltip is very misleading. It says it gives an *additional* 1d4 but it means it *replaces* the normal buff with 1d4/1d4/2d4. Still a nice boost for a warlock or wizard buddy with eldritch blasts and scorching rays, but not nearly as good as it says it is :/
@@af02271I know I’m late to the party, but Melf’s First Staff is an excellent early game pick. +1 to attack and save DC is SUPER strong. Almost makes Shadowbae’s Firebolt hit sometimes lol
There are 3 items in game that makes your bonus action incredibly useful using that aoe heal (the one that uses bonus actions) and they can be obtained in act 1. Whispering promise, a ring you can buy from Volo or at the goblin camp I believe, gives bless to anyone you heal. The other is hellrider's pride, gloves that gives anyone you heal a blade ward for 2 turns, you also get these in act 1 from completing Zevlors quest, or you can just pickpocket them. The last is in act 3 that you can buy from a merchant, I don't remember where but they're gloves that's basically just an upgrade of of hellrider's pride. They give you the revivify spell and gives them death ward when they're resurrected. Obviously there are better gloves out there if you're going for a damage build, but I think the ring is a must have for life clerics or heal/support focused characters. Give em high initiative so they always go first and you can give your party bless and blade ward before the fight even starts and still be able to use your action and concentration for something else on the same turn.
Great build! Interesting to see a damage oriented cleric. It's very cool they they can be built in so many ways in bg3. One thing i think you're underrating is the power of the low level control spells command and hold person. These spells are insane to upcast and can easily control a whole group of enemies for the entire fight. Stacking a bit of spell save dc modifiers (battlemage elixir, armor, staff, etc) you can easily get these to work 80-100% on even bosses. In particular i think these far outshine banishment, and fulfill a similar role. Command isn't even concentration, so it's a great thing up spam while concentrating on something else, and can't be broken
Thanks very much! You're absolutely right, I should have mentioned command more especially - it's an excellent spell! I'm personally not a huge fan of Hold Person in this game since they get two saves before it costs them a single turn (different from how it works in tabletop D&D, where they check *after* losing a turn). Banishment has the advantage of only needing one save for two full turns of disable, but all three spells definitely have their place!
I rate Light Cleric above Tempest. Yes, heavy armor is good, but I feel Light has a higher damage output and with 14 starting dex, your AC is about the same as with heavy armor. I always make sure to get Elemental Adept (Fire) and pick up the cantrips produce flame and sacred flame. Cleric 8 feature makes these cantrips better than a weapon, especially when damage dice increase again at level 11. And pick the elemental necklace in creche, so you deal 3d8+(wisX2) with produce flame. On top of that you have fireball, wall of flame and a lot of other amazing damage.
Tempest typically has higher damage output than light cleric thanks to the power of destructive wrath maximizing lightning spells, which you can also double with the wet condition. Light cleric is much better as a support cleric than tempest though, and as you say also does get great damage. Definitely the top two domains - look out for a light cleric build soon!
The Divine intervention weapon is one of the last weapons you want to use as a non-life Domain Cleric. It gives you +3 to hit (which you won't do because you have stuff to cast and your Str is low for an actual reasonable impact , yet the 1-10 heal per turn aura is again good - for ''Life Domain'' and even better with the spell buff that maximizes your healing rolls). In other hand - Blood of Lathander gives you a ''Cheat Death'' Buff which heals nearby allies if something goes wrong , the staff from Raphael's Treasury gives you ''Spell Restoration'' and you can bring a level 6 back if you wish. A literal Raindancer Staff from Act 1 Vendor is better for this Build than the Mace mentioned in the Clip.
for people doing this on early levels, i'd highly recommend at lvl 4 respeccing to storm sorc 1, cleric 3 and get the luminous armor. You can just cast spirit guardians and fly around with it, even better with the boots of storm clamor. Suddenly you just walk past enemies dealing damage and inflicting orbs and reverberation. Won't need any other movement boots anyway because of flying
@@Cephalopocalypse oh my bad, got mental fatigue applied to me irl, thanks for the correction i knew something wasn't adding up as that usually comes online around the creche. Early on channel divinity on light cleric is the mvp
You're probably 3rd-level before you get withers and can respect, but I definitely second this. Storm sorcerer at 1st-level you get con as a good save for the entire game which is better than warcaster at 12th. Ignore your charisma and take shield (makes you super-tanky in heavy armor and a shield) plus a ritual spell -- such as enhanced leap, or longstrider. Out of combat, just ritual cast and you get a free fly for exploration. In combat, the bonus action fly is amazing for closing/repositioning after say a create water or buffing an ally... or for spirit guardians and flying through enemies. The downside is you're a level behind on cleric spells known, although you still get higher level spells slots. IMO, this is a good trade off as as lots of cleric spells can (and typically are) upcast -- higher level heals, create water, spiritual weapon, spirt guardians, call lightning, etc.
Generally speaking, War Caster will end up providing the better benefit to your concentration saves. It is stronger on the easy saves (hits for 20 or less, with that base DC of 10), and pretty much equal in the mid range (and with a slight edge if you don't have an extra +1 to saves from a higher con, which, with your respec suggestion, you don't). Only in the high DC range does Resilient have a stronger edge, except at a DC of 20, when War Caster has the big edge. But that high end the odds are against you anyway, so it won't matter much. You're going to lose the spell far more than you keep it regardless. The benefit to Resilient is that it also helps out on other constitution saves, like for poison, plus a point of a stat. Though they are pretty close most of the time, so one or the other is about equal for general use. But if you get hit a lot for smaller hits, War Caster all the way. And if you only ever get hit for like 25+, then you can consider Resilient, but you'll probably want both a lot of bonuses to constitution saves and advantage on them (which gear can also provide, of course).
Great summary! I generally prefer Resilient here for the extra stats, but either choice is very good. And of course Resilient will gain in power if they ever add levels over 12, not that that's a real consideration right now
Great video man! Only one thing to note, Light Domain Clerics also gain the unique spell Destructive Wrath you mentioned, although the Heavy Armor proficiency tied to the Tempest Domain is still a very valid argument.
Oh, cool! That's good to know. I was going off the wiki as I hadn't leveled a light cleric to level 9 in game and I guess it's missing there. Destructive Wave is more a nice-to-have than a huge part of this build's power, but that's definitely another point in favour of the already awesome light cleric! Thanks :D
I have already 2 games, where I use War Domain Cleric 5 levels with 7 Bard levels. When you are dual Wielder with 2 Devotee's Maces(Take them from hirelings), with War Domain extra attacks, guided strike, and all extra attacks from Swords Bard... is absolutely nuts good. Only 14 wisdom and 16 charisma, 16 strength, and strength based Dual Wielder + War Caster works great. You have full spell list with 12 caster levels, and you can use Spirit Guardians in every battle. Some in highest level, doing 6d8 WHILE you nuke with dual devotees maces... For this build you want stack as much extra elemental weapon damages, like +1d4 necrotic or +1d4 fire etc. Before Devotee Maces you can use 2xMyrkulite Scourge as well, which are great flails. Because of high charisma, you can do this with main char as well.
Nice! The one caveat I would make is to check the casting math on the Staff of Divine Blessing. I haven't checked it since the last two patches, but the last time I used it, it didn't double the bless. It did give you two bless buff icons on your character portrait, but if you checked the combat math in the roll tracker, it only applied the bless once. They may have fixed it, so it's worth looking into. If they have gotten it to work as intended, it is a VERY good cleric weapon.
So funny story, about five minutes after I posted this video someone pointed out in the comments of another build guide that I actually misread the (VERY badly-written) tooltip on the blessing staff. It says "bless gives an additional 1d4 etc" but MEANS "instead of its normal bonus, bless gives +1d4 attacks, +1d4 saves, and +2d4 spell attacks" so it only actually buffs spell attacks. Good for warlock allies and wizard cantrips still, but much less powerful than I thought. Glad to know I (and everyone I know) wasn't the only one to be confused by the bad tooltip though!
@@Cephalopocalypse That is INCREDIBLY poorly written! The way it's written in game absolutely means that it should double the bless bonus, and triple it for spell attacks!
One first level spell you never mentioned was 'INFLICT WOUNDS'. Not only is it a strong damage spell (uses an attack roll to hit) at 3d10 damage, but most importantly, it is a spell that can be used while in melee with no disadvantage, which is VERY useful if you are creating a class that intends to melee often, like this class. This spell also scales well, adding an extra d10 for every level it is upcast. It deals necrotic damage which means you have to pick and choose when to use it against undead. In all, an essential spell - don't leave home without it. You could add a single level of wizard to this class, mostly for the Chromatic Orb spell early on and then as you advance further in cleric levels have wizard spell slots free for higher level wizard spells as required (which you can learn from scrolls as you have a wizard level). You don't even need to bump intelligence at character creation, because you can get the Warped Headband of Intellect early in the game (certainly when at level 3), which sets your intelligence to 17 (as a side bonus, that item even helps your Firebolt cantrip finally hit more reliably (Firebolt is a bonus spell that high elves and high half-elves get and scales off of Intelligence). Finally, an early weapon you might find useful for a while is the Spellsparkler (a quarterstaff), that allows you to rack up lightning charges on yourself. I prefer the combination of the Shattered Flail (from the Flind and Gnolls fight) and the Periapt of Wound Closure (Lady Esther, near Rosymorn monastery). That comes with some risk but does heal you 6 HP every time you hit an enemy, making you rather tough to kill. Later in the game I'd look to get more from items that use attacks other than just lightning, like cold (encrusted with Frosty and create ice surfaces) in combo with boots that cannot slip (there are more than one pair that do this). Also later in the game, there are items that cause Reverbration and Radiant Orb, which are useful debuffs to explore.
Thanks for the detailed reply! Love these discussions. Inflict Wounds is a good call! It's only 2.5 more damage on average than guiding bolt, but there are some fights where melee range is better - definitely a good pick sometimes! I actually cover the build with Wizard in a different video ("The Real Best Wizard in Baldur's Gate 3"). Larian have confirmed that it's not intended to work the way it does though, so it's possible they will patch it out soon. Great call on the items! Radiating Orb is especially powerful since it stacks and does not allow a save, so it can be used to completely bypass boss fights that rely on hit rolls. Cheers!
Once you get to act 3, you don't really need bless anymore. You can get a daily bless buff at the Water Queens House freeing up concentration and a spell slot. Only problem is that bless doesn't stack and gets erased by another bless. But I cheese the crap out of act 3 by never long resting.
I reclassed Shart to Tempest in my first and third play throughs and Light in my second. I'm thinking of starting a fourth play through and sought out this video to see if any other domain would be recommended only to find more or less the same builds LOL.
Thanks mate for this cleric build. I used it in my 5th replay - so far I'm quite happy with most of your analysis and companion builds, but honestly this is the first time Im not satisfied with this Sadowheart cleric, bc with lvl 3,4 and 5 in act1 spell casting is in more than 60%-70% a miss. What am I doing worng?
What do you think about one level dipping into Evocation Wizard? This will give you freedom to cast powerful lightning spells without hurting your allies.
That would require a 2-level dip to get Evocation school subclass. Potentially worth it as 6th level Cleric spells are kinda meh, but Spirit Guardians upcast to 6th is pretty powerful.
A one level wizard dip is extremely powerful in this game thanks to an (arguable) exploit - check out tomorrow's build guide for more on that! For evocation though you would need two levels of wizard, and personally I prefer to just rely on good positioning and spell placement to avoid my allies, though of course if you're finding your allies often in the line of fire it can be helpful
Hey newbie here. Watched the video but still don’t understand why tempest cleric is so good. Spells like call lightning and create water are area spells that can harm your melee party members too, right? am I missing something here?
Can you please write down some basic combat scenario for usage of this wet+lightning combo? I feel like I'm missing something, you're spending a turn to apply wet, so it's already not really a x2 damage from the get go, plus it only lasts for 2 turns, so you'll need to reapply it afterwards, wasting a turn again, plus often this wet enemy gets killed before you even take advantage of those 2 wet turns and you'll need to apply it to somebody else, wasting the turn yet again and prematurely, thus getting from that sweet x2 damage even further. And all that is happening after you cast Bless, so basically you're starting to do damage on turn 3 at best.
I would like to add that if it isnt a solo run, Aid should be considered mandatory as well. Having the ability to add 15-20 hp PER companion is stupid strong. I usually have my 4 party members and 2-3 summons. That is 140hp bonus at the start of every day at a level 4 cast i believe
How is resilient better than warcaster?? With sorc as starting class you have con save proficiency, extra stat point can be patched with act 1 +1 or less STR - it's caster first, with some melee capability, use elixir if you want to bonk people
Staff of arcane blessing got nerfed in the EA but its tooltip was never updated. It does not give additional saving throw or attack buffs, only an additional 1d4 to spell attack rolls.
Thanks for the build guide! I've followed it up to Level 1 Wizard 6 Cleric (That's as high as I can progress atm and worth noting I killed Ethel before getting the +1 Int Stat boost, so can't hit the 20 Int and will be stuck at 18 Int, but figured it wouldn't make that much of a difference and at the end of Act 1 about to transition to Act 2) and as you noted I can access & equip my higher level Wizard spells via Learned Scrolls, but I am currently capped with only 4 Wizard Spell Slots likely due to only having the 1 level of Wizard. Is the 4 available Wizard spell slots the max I will get throughout the entire build and just need to switch to the 4 I need most for the situation at hand each time or did I do something wrong in the build steps and supposed to get more than 4 Wizard spell slots now or later in the level progression of the build? I did get all the applicable Cleric Spells :) I ask because this is my main character and I was a full Level 7 Wizard playing that caster role while leaving Gale at camp because it was redundant having 2 full Wizards. If I am capped at 4 Wizard Spell Slots with this Wizard/Cleric build, would it be better to get Gale back in my group and kick out one of the other companions to replace their slot so I can have a full Wizard with more Wizard Spell Slots, or respec my main Character again to the non-multi classed "Best Wizard build" as to not replace any of my current other companions? Currently, other than main main character, my companions are: Wyll "Palidin/Warlock build" , Shadowheart "Best Cleric" (non support version - do you recommend I respec to the "Best Support Cleric" version with this party composition?), Asterion - Rougue/Ranger "Best Archer build" all per your other build guides currently in my group. Thanks for the info and advice!
Yes! At the time the wiki hadn't been updated to include it and I hadn't levelled a light cleric to 9 in game yet, but that's one more point in favour of the already-awesome light cleric.
Nice vid, altho I would have appreciated if there was a longer section on which equipment is good to use as cleric aside from the staff of arcane blessing
Really appreciate this guide! Thank you! My question is what is the armor you’re using? I have the helm, but I don’t know where to find Plate armor +2, where can I get a set?
@@Cephalopocalypse for example, the timestamp for level 3 is where the video shows level 2. Though you did announce that there is a more up to date video you made, i figured its better to point out anywag
Ahhh yeah I see thanks! Sorry that's definitely confusing - those timestamps are referring to the spell level, not the character level (2nd level spell slots, which you get at character level 3). D&D's decision to call two different things by the same word gets us again!
@@Cephalopocalypse I think another suggestion would be to update the old build vids since information on whats meta nowadays is much more refined than when the game released but this is totally up to you of course you dont have to do anything if you dont want to
If you want to save your divine intervention you can always get the mage by having either a hireling cast it (basically buying the mage for 100 gold) or having Hope cast it once you free her in the House of Hope.
I believe you mis-spoke at around the 13:51 mark you said clerics get Chain lightning they get "Call Lightning" which is a level 3 spell and does 3-30 damage. "Chain Lightning is a 6th level Wizard spell and does 10-80 damage.
Yep, you're right, my bad - easy to mix the names of those two up! Obviously here we get Call Lightning, and want to concentrate on that in many fights.
i think it is better not use the last level for sorcerer because it use charisma to cast spell for scroll if you use illithid powers to get fly, you have 1 less reason for getting sorcerer. and only for the constitution proficiency.
Don't need Initiative on a support character, you kinda want them lower, or at least lower then ur own characters, on the move list because you want to be able to react to things that have happened. Say an enemy is one hp, and don't want to waste ur dps on the kill next turn, or heal before turn ends. Can't really do these things if ur going first. Going ahead of the group can let you debuff and buff ur team sure, but loosing first turn buff doesn't really hurt anything and reacting is just as important.
That's the beauty of initiative in BG3 - as long as you all go before the enemies, you get to choose the order your characters act! Going first is always better, because you can still react to what the enemies do - you just *also* get to do stuff before them. Remember on a winning combat you will always be taking the last turn (because the enemies will then be dead) so taking the first turn is just +1 turns you get to take.
How much creative is using sanctuary outside of combat on your main DD that has low dexterity to watch enemies skip their turn (because they can't do anything to him) and probably group around him, and then move away (no opportunity attacks) and just fry them in a single glorious round? (did that yesterday against a certain ... monster with a really good sight in act 1 xD ) All of this while the remaing members of the party are comfortly hiding somewhere so they can have free positioning, as long as don't walk in the red cones, and a free shot (like for example Fairy Fire, or create wather, that monster xD)! PS: Well ofcourse someone will say ... just use minor illusion bro! ... yes, well it's not always possible and this looks like a fine alternative to me
Yeah exactly! That's a perfect example - group enemies, block doorways, use it to cost enemies a turn of something useful - the possibilities are endless!
Thanks. This is ok, but definitely have to go with Fextra's Build for Shadowheart, turning her into a Cleric Rogue is a masterpiece. Haven't seen a better build yet for her. My problem is between the customized character I'm going to create as well as a starion I will already have two Rogue's already so having her as a Rogue, that means three in the party which is just ridiculous cause you don't need three of the same class. I'm sure I want Shadowheart, Lae'zel & Astarion in my party but I will already have two Rogue's, guess I can change Astarion to a Arcane Trickster but hear that class isn't better then Thief(everywhere I looked said so) so I might bench him & swap Lae'zel in once she can join back after the crash. When I do a Origin character playthrough, I want to do a playthrough of Lae'zel, Shadowheart & Astarion, then I can have two Rogue's instead of 3.
I don’t know when Resistance would be used in a dialogue? Can someone give an example? I think that Enhance Ability is useful for very difficult checks. (in addition to guidance.). But it requires concentration to cast and maintain. They must have “fixed” Destructive Wave because it definitely harms party members .. still good but limits when you can safely use it. at least thats the rule in Tactician. I think that’s what was intended by Larian from the start..
Sure! If someone is trying to for example detect or influence your thoughts (the mindflayer on the starting beach I believe makes you make a WIS save that you can use resistance to boost). Also when trying to read a certain spooky book! Odd! I just tested destructive wave and it's definitely not harming allies still in my game. The description *is* wrong though - it says "creatures" rather than "enemies" but it doesn't actually target allies.
Hey nice video, thank you I still need to explore a tempest cleric for me. So far I played Shadowheart as a Light Cleric Damage Dealer which is also really strong: I took you remaining level 12 dip to respecc into Fighter 1 -> Cleric 11 (Heavy armor plus CON saving throws makes her great with Spirit guardian (usually upcast with higher spell slots) + Fireball from Light domain. Add warding flare and you become a frontline tank in heavy armor that deals tons of damage
@@Cephalopocalypse Haha that's perfect, I'm looking forward to this one. TBH I did not want to overcomplicate things.... BUT since we're talking about this build anyway :) Upcast Spirit Guardian is the 2nd most damaging spell of Clerics of ANY spell level (only overtaken by Flamestrike but Strike dealls damage once and loses to Spirit Guardian as soon as the second turn starts). Thus you technically do not need any spells above level 3 ONLY the higher spell slots. And those are granted by leveling full caster, not necessarily cleric!! If you settle for upcasting Guaridans you can literally stop at cleric 5 and go into any other full caster! How about Fighter 1/Cleric 6 / Land druid 5 (2nd channel divinity + druid spells for cc). Go sorcerer for utilityy spells like misty step (or wizard... evo to blast fireball with ease or abjuration to get even tankier. And finally my favorite idea I'm going to try next time: Fighter 1/Light cleric 5/ Spore druid 6..... Full "holy warrior of light with ncrotic zombies" vibe
Sure! In fact, you're probably best off switching what you're wearing based on what the strongest armor sets you have available are - that goes for any character with both medium and heavy proficiency
Thanks! Glad you liked it :D The best weapon for most of the game will be the unique mace you find in the githyanki creche, but mostly the weapon won't matter since you're rarely attacking. Other than that, the highest AC armor and shield you can find, and anything that increases your Spell DC is super helpful. This build is pretty gear-agnostic though, so you won't need too many specific items!
I did look to see if someone had asked this but would it be worth respeccing at level 12 and choosing sorceror at level 1, to gain proficiency in Con saves?
Little bit of misinformation I constantly see about Blade Ward. It can't be cast on others, the cantrip only targets the caster. There are equipment however that gives Blade Ward to others when you heal them.
Wow you are absolutely right! I have a distinct memory of using it to allow the spiders to kill all the goblins in the goblin camp, but I must have mandela effect-ed myself because of the blade ward on heal item. Thanks for pointing that out!
@@Cephalopocalypse No problem. I hope more people learn about this because they could be making their build's while being misinformed on what their cantrips can or can't do. It's still a great cantrip though when your spellcaster is in a jam. Halving basically all types of melee damage (bludgeoning, piercing and slashing) for 2 turns is perfect to gain some distance while taking minimal damage.
Sure! And remember you can change your prepared spells any time out of combat, so you aren't locked to just what you choose. Definitely experiment and see what feels best! I also have a more support-oriented cleric build coming up soon so keep an eye out :D
Never got the staff of Arcane blessing. Done everything in act 1 but never got it. I guess it must be a bug. So many things are still bugged in this game. The combat is especially clunky and badly bugged. Sometimes one of my characters does not get the chance to do anything in combat so I have no choice but to end the turn. Many others have also experienced this. The low die hits for you and your team also is a bug that needs to be properly sorted. But the worst by far is the amount of times you miss on a very high percentage [say 80% or more]. Just ludicrous. It needs sorting. The game is good but the clunky combat system lets it down.
I'm not sure exactly which bonus stats you mean - if you mean the +2 / +1 in character creation, you can just move them to any stat - in tabletop D&D those bonuses have historically been based on your race selection but in BG3 all races can just place the boosts anywhere. If there's a different bonus you're talking about let me know and I'll try to answer!
When are you going to do a Lore friendly shadow heart build? I can't just go light or tempest domains when she has shadow in her name and serves the goddess of Darkness. So far, about all I've come up with is to give her some thief levels so that she can play as a stealthy cleric from the shadows. You can use cunning action to dash around with spirit guardians, which is kind of funny. Or just use your actions for bless and Phalar aluve, then hide in the shadows. There is equipment in the game supporting a dex/wis medium armor cleric too, which is nice. Also, I don't really think invoke duplicity is as bad as you make it out to be, if your party has good initiative then you're not just giving one person advantage, you'll give 3 advantage. That being said, it still feels a bit underwhelming, at least in the early game, if you dilute cleric levels at all. So I'm still looking around for different shadowheart builds, in hopes of finding one that really feels good.
Lore friendly builds for every companion are on the way! Part of my problem with invoke duplicity is just that it's one of my favorite abilities in tabletop and they got rid of the thing that makes it fun (the ability to cast spells from its location). I realize that's probably for coding reasons, but it's so cool and versatile the ability just feels extremely underwhelming without it. With that big a nerf they could at least have made it a bonus action or something.
@@Cephalopocalypse Turns out that the consequences for a "Shadow" heart build were a lot higher than I was expecting, lol. Was going for a shadow monk Cleric and it was pretty good, but since I couldn't get the last piece of equipment I ended up using the light domain cleric build instead, sort of a redeemed Shadowheart I guess.
Guiding Bolts is an attack roll, not a dex check. Did you mean Sacred Flame? If so, it's good to have both that and a bow so you can choose whichever is more likely to hit.
This build is pretty gear-agnostic, but you want the best heavy armor and shield you can find, and anything that increases Spell DC is premium. The best weapon for most of the game will be the legendary mace you get from the Githyanki Creche
Sadly it's not as good as I thought it was (or as it looks). The tooltip is very badly-written, so it actually *replaces* the normal bless bonus rather than adding to it (as the word "additional" seems to pretty clearly indicate). It's still nice for warlock party members with the 2d4 to spell attacks, but not as broken as I thought. I hope they fix that though, it's super misleading!
As I say in the video, the game will ask you to make saves during dialogue checks, and resistance can be used to boost those. Also, you will have better results when you have a question if you try asking it politely!
This. It's a common problem with a lot of BG3 gameplay vids, and it's annoying as hell -- we don't want or need to be lectured at, and you don't need 1/2 hour to go over a build. Keep your vids under 15 min, *please*. It's basic communications/media production 101: Keep It Short & Simple (KISS).
Bro but thats exactly why i love his videos. He explains everything even about tabletop… Lol its just 27 min bro! Its not even that big! We are so consumed by reels and tiktok media (30 sec videos) that we cant wait 27 mins for something that is worthwhile? Reading a book? I get it. You want more summarized. But those are the videos he does. Dont criticize the man for doing great content.
YT rewards channels based on total minutes watched. I think a video gets monetized after 3000 minutes (eg. 100 full views of a 30 minute video). So some channels do stupidly long videos so that fewer views can still hit the goal (eg. 25 full views of a 2 hour video). I'm far more likely to watch a 15 to 20 minute video unless it's a deep dive on a topic I'm researching.
Hey pals! I've posted an updated version of this video for honor mode and later patches. You can find it here: ua-cam.com/video/8t8Tmo2IAQ4/v-deo.html
Enjoy!
No fancy stuff, just clear logical reasons for why you take this or that. I am bookmarking your build videos, for refernce.
That call out on the Staff of Arcane Blessing is insane, haven't seen that anywhere else. Had that sitting in my inventory all Act 1 having no clue that it would double Bless' ability!
Sadly I learned after making this video that that's actually wrong, the tooltip is very misleading. It says it gives an *additional* 1d4 but it means it *replaces* the normal buff with 1d4/1d4/2d4. Still a nice boost for a warlock or wizard buddy with eldritch blasts and scorching rays, but not nearly as good as it says it is :/
Bummer, feels like they need to either patch it to match that wording or rewrite the effect@@Cephalopocalypse
@@af02271I know I’m late to the party, but Melf’s First Staff is an excellent early game pick. +1 to attack and save DC is SUPER strong. Almost makes Shadowbae’s Firebolt hit sometimes lol
4:04,8:00, 9:50,11:25,12:03,13:11,13:30,14:15
There are 3 items in game that makes your bonus action incredibly useful using that aoe heal (the one that uses bonus actions) and they can be obtained in act 1. Whispering promise, a ring you can buy from Volo or at the goblin camp I believe, gives bless to anyone you heal. The other is hellrider's pride, gloves that gives anyone you heal a blade ward for 2 turns, you also get these in act 1 from completing Zevlors quest, or you can just pickpocket them. The last is in act 3 that you can buy from a merchant, I don't remember where but they're gloves that's basically just an upgrade of of hellrider's pride. They give you the revivify spell and gives them death ward when they're resurrected.
Obviously there are better gloves out there if you're going for a damage build, but I think the ring is a must have for life clerics or heal/support focused characters. Give em high initiative so they always go first and you can give your party bless and blade ward before the fight even starts and still be able to use your action and concentration for something else on the same turn.
Fully agree with all this. Great items, and mass healing word is the best way to apply them for sure.
Vanilla Shadowheart perfectly encapsulates that type of player that has no idea on how to build a character sheet. Every table has one.
Great build! Interesting to see a damage oriented cleric. It's very cool they they can be built in so many ways in bg3. One thing i think you're underrating is the power of the low level control spells command and hold person. These spells are insane to upcast and can easily control a whole group of enemies for the entire fight. Stacking a bit of spell save dc modifiers (battlemage elixir, armor, staff, etc) you can easily get these to work 80-100% on even bosses. In particular i think these far outshine banishment, and fulfill a similar role. Command isn't even concentration, so it's a great thing up spam while concentrating on something else, and can't be broken
Thanks very much! You're absolutely right, I should have mentioned command more especially - it's an excellent spell! I'm personally not a huge fan of Hold Person in this game since they get two saves before it costs them a single turn (different from how it works in tabletop D&D, where they check *after* losing a turn). Banishment has the advantage of only needing one save for two full turns of disable, but all three spells definitely have their place!
Unloke some folks in the comments i very much enjoy your style. Thanks for all your great videos.
5:04 on this topic, since honor mode (and tact) buff saves for enemies produce flame is also fine for ranged cantrip, even if limited to 30ft
I rate Light Cleric above Tempest. Yes, heavy armor is good, but I feel Light has a higher damage output and with 14 starting dex, your AC is about the same as with heavy armor.
I always make sure to get Elemental Adept (Fire) and pick up the cantrips produce flame and sacred flame. Cleric 8 feature makes these cantrips better than a weapon, especially when damage dice increase again at level 11. And pick the elemental necklace in creche, so you deal 3d8+(wisX2) with produce flame. On top of that you have fireball, wall of flame and a lot of other amazing damage.
Tempest typically has higher damage output than light cleric thanks to the power of destructive wrath maximizing lightning spells, which you can also double with the wet condition. Light cleric is much better as a support cleric than tempest though, and as you say also does get great damage. Definitely the top two domains - look out for a light cleric build soon!
Certain magical medium armor makes Light Clerics survivable if you have decent dexterity.
The Divine intervention weapon is one of the last weapons you want to use as a non-life Domain Cleric.
It gives you +3 to hit (which you won't do because you have stuff to cast and your Str is low for an actual reasonable impact , yet the 1-10 heal per turn aura is again good - for ''Life Domain'' and even better with the spell buff that maximizes your healing rolls).
In other hand - Blood of Lathander gives you a ''Cheat Death'' Buff which heals nearby allies if something goes wrong , the staff from Raphael's Treasury gives you ''Spell Restoration'' and you can bring a level 6 back if you wish.
A literal Raindancer Staff from Act 1 Vendor is better for this Build than the Mace mentioned in the Clip.
for people doing this on early levels, i'd highly recommend at lvl 4 respeccing to storm sorc 1, cleric 3 and get the luminous armor. You can just cast spirit guardians and fly around with it, even better with the boots of storm clamor. Suddenly you just walk past enemies dealing damage and inflicting orbs and reverberation. Won't need any other movement boots anyway because of flying
Definitely a great option! One quick note though, you need to be min level 5 (6 with a sorc level) to get spirit guardians as it's a 3rd level spell
@@Cephalopocalypse oh my bad, got mental fatigue applied to me irl, thanks for the correction
i knew something wasn't adding up as that usually comes online around the creche. Early on channel divinity on light cleric is the mvp
You're probably 3rd-level before you get withers and can respect, but I definitely second this.
Storm sorcerer at 1st-level you get con as a good save for the entire game which is better than warcaster at 12th. Ignore your charisma and take shield (makes you super-tanky in heavy armor and a shield) plus a ritual spell -- such as enhanced leap, or longstrider. Out of combat, just ritual cast and you get a free fly for exploration. In combat, the bonus action fly is amazing for closing/repositioning after say a create water or buffing an ally... or for spirit guardians and flying through enemies.
The downside is you're a level behind on cleric spells known, although you still get higher level spells slots. IMO, this is a good trade off as as lots of cleric spells can (and typically are) upcast -- higher level heals, create water, spiritual weapon, spirt guardians, call lightning, etc.
Great build. This helped save my honor run while fighting the harpies in the grove.
Generally speaking, War Caster will end up providing the better benefit to your concentration saves. It is stronger on the easy saves (hits for 20 or less, with that base DC of 10), and pretty much equal in the mid range (and with a slight edge if you don't have an extra +1 to saves from a higher con, which, with your respec suggestion, you don't). Only in the high DC range does Resilient have a stronger edge, except at a DC of 20, when War Caster has the big edge. But that high end the odds are against you anyway, so it won't matter much. You're going to lose the spell far more than you keep it regardless.
The benefit to Resilient is that it also helps out on other constitution saves, like for poison, plus a point of a stat. Though they are pretty close most of the time, so one or the other is about equal for general use. But if you get hit a lot for smaller hits, War Caster all the way. And if you only ever get hit for like 25+, then you can consider Resilient, but you'll probably want both a lot of bonuses to constitution saves and advantage on them (which gear can also provide, of course).
Great summary! I generally prefer Resilient here for the extra stats, but either choice is very good. And of course Resilient will gain in power if they ever add levels over 12, not that that's a real consideration right now
Great video man! Only one thing to note, Light Domain Clerics also gain the unique spell Destructive Wrath you mentioned, although the Heavy Armor proficiency tied to the Tempest Domain is still a very valid argument.
Oh, cool! That's good to know. I was going off the wiki as I hadn't leveled a light cleric to level 9 in game and I guess it's missing there. Destructive Wave is more a nice-to-have than a huge part of this build's power, but that's definitely another point in favour of the already awesome light cleric! Thanks :D
Destructive Whath is Tempest skill, Destructive Wave is Light and Tempest skill
I have already 2 games, where I use War Domain Cleric 5 levels with 7 Bard levels. When you are dual Wielder with 2 Devotee's Maces(Take them from hirelings), with War Domain extra attacks, guided strike, and all extra attacks from Swords Bard... is absolutely nuts good. Only 14 wisdom and 16 charisma, 16 strength, and strength based Dual Wielder + War Caster works great. You have full spell list with 12 caster levels, and you can use Spirit Guardians in every battle. Some in highest level, doing 6d8 WHILE you nuke with dual devotees maces... For this build you want stack as much extra elemental weapon damages, like +1d4 necrotic or +1d4 fire etc. Before Devotee Maces you can use 2xMyrkulite Scourge as well, which are great flails. Because of high charisma, you can do this with main char as well.
Also a great build! I'll have a sword bard coming up soon so keep an eye out :D
What’s the point of dual wielding if war cleric lets you use bonus actions for main hand attack?
Thank you for this video! I’ve learned so much!
Thanks so much! I'm glad it helped :D
Nice! The one caveat I would make is to check the casting math on the Staff of Divine Blessing. I haven't checked it since the last two patches, but the last time I used it, it didn't double the bless. It did give you two bless buff icons on your character portrait, but if you checked the combat math in the roll tracker, it only applied the bless once. They may have fixed it, so it's worth looking into. If they have gotten it to work as intended, it is a VERY good cleric weapon.
So funny story, about five minutes after I posted this video someone pointed out in the comments of another build guide that I actually misread the (VERY badly-written) tooltip on the blessing staff. It says "bless gives an additional 1d4 etc" but MEANS "instead of its normal bonus, bless gives +1d4 attacks, +1d4 saves, and +2d4 spell attacks" so it only actually buffs spell attacks. Good for warlock allies and wizard cantrips still, but much less powerful than I thought.
Glad to know I (and everyone I know) wasn't the only one to be confused by the bad tooltip though!
@@Cephalopocalypse That is INCREDIBLY poorly written! The way it's written in game absolutely means that it should double the bless bonus, and triple it for spell attacks!
@@RunsLikeBadger aww man, I hung onto that thing for so long haha
One first level spell you never mentioned was 'INFLICT WOUNDS'. Not only is it a strong damage spell (uses an attack roll to hit) at 3d10 damage, but most importantly, it is a spell that can be used while in melee with no disadvantage, which is VERY useful if you are creating a class that intends to melee often, like this class. This spell also scales well, adding an extra d10 for every level it is upcast. It deals necrotic damage which means you have to pick and choose when to use it against undead. In all, an essential spell - don't leave home without it.
You could add a single level of wizard to this class, mostly for the Chromatic Orb spell early on and then as you advance further in cleric levels have wizard spell slots free for higher level wizard spells as required (which you can learn from scrolls as you have a wizard level). You don't even need to bump intelligence at character creation, because you can get the Warped Headband of Intellect early in the game (certainly when at level 3), which sets your intelligence to 17 (as a side bonus, that item even helps your Firebolt cantrip finally hit more reliably (Firebolt is a bonus spell that high elves and high half-elves get and scales off of Intelligence).
Finally, an early weapon you might find useful for a while is the Spellsparkler (a quarterstaff), that allows you to rack up lightning charges on yourself. I prefer the combination of the Shattered Flail (from the Flind and Gnolls fight) and the Periapt of Wound Closure (Lady Esther, near Rosymorn monastery). That comes with some risk but does heal you 6 HP every time you hit an enemy, making you rather tough to kill.
Later in the game I'd look to get more from items that use attacks other than just lightning, like cold (encrusted with Frosty and create ice surfaces) in combo with boots that cannot slip (there are more than one pair that do this). Also later in the game, there are items that cause Reverbration and Radiant Orb, which are useful debuffs to explore.
Thanks for the detailed reply! Love these discussions.
Inflict Wounds is a good call! It's only 2.5 more damage on average than guiding bolt, but there are some fights where melee range is better - definitely a good pick sometimes!
I actually cover the build with Wizard in a different video ("The Real Best Wizard in Baldur's Gate 3"). Larian have confirmed that it's not intended to work the way it does though, so it's possible they will patch it out soon.
Great call on the items! Radiating Orb is especially powerful since it stacks and does not allow a save, so it can be used to completely bypass boss fights that rely on hit rolls.
Cheers!
Once you get to act 3, you don't really need bless anymore. You can get a daily bless buff at the Water Queens House freeing up concentration and a spell slot. Only problem is that bless doesn't stack and gets erased by another bless. But I cheese the crap out of act 3 by never long resting.
I reclassed Shart to Tempest in my first and third play throughs and Light in my second. I'm thinking of starting a fourth play through and sought out this video to see if any other domain would be recommended only to find more or less the same builds LOL.
Thanks mate for this cleric build. I used it in my 5th replay - so far I'm quite happy with most of your analysis and companion builds, but honestly this is the first time Im not satisfied with this Sadowheart cleric, bc with lvl 3,4 and 5 in act1 spell casting is in more than 60%-70% a miss. What am I doing worng?
What do you think about one level dipping into Evocation Wizard? This will give you freedom to cast powerful lightning spells without hurting your allies.
That would require a 2-level dip to get Evocation school subclass. Potentially worth it as 6th level Cleric spells are kinda meh, but Spirit Guardians upcast to 6th is pretty powerful.
A one level wizard dip is extremely powerful in this game thanks to an (arguable) exploit - check out tomorrow's build guide for more on that! For evocation though you would need two levels of wizard, and personally I prefer to just rely on good positioning and spell placement to avoid my allies, though of course if you're finding your allies often in the line of fire it can be helpful
@@Cephalopocalypsewasnt that fixed?
Destrcutive Wave is soooo good on a fight like Cazador or anything that has Numerous mobs, so good. (esp with all the radiant orbs it can apply too)
18:20 time at least 1 wrong thing said is that destructive wave is only tempest spell which is wrong for example light domain cleric also get it.
Hey newbie here. Watched the video but still don’t understand why tempest cleric is so good. Spells like call lightning and create water are area spells that can harm your melee party members too, right? am I missing something here?
Can you please write down some basic combat scenario for usage of this wet+lightning combo? I feel like I'm missing something, you're spending a turn to apply wet, so it's already not really a x2 damage from the get go, plus it only lasts for 2 turns, so you'll need to reapply it afterwards, wasting a turn again, plus often this wet enemy gets killed before you even take advantage of those 2 wet turns and you'll need to apply it to somebody else, wasting the turn yet again and prematurely, thus getting from that sweet x2 damage even further. And all that is happening after you cast Bless, so basically you're starting to do damage on turn 3 at best.
What do you think about dumping strength and either using the staff of arcane blessing or Phalar Aluve as a finesse weapon?
Bladeward is self cast no? Confusing this with another spell?
I would like to add that if it isnt a solo run, Aid should be considered mandatory as well. Having the ability to add 15-20 hp PER companion is stupid strong. I usually have my 4 party members and 2-3 summons. That is 140hp bonus at the start of every day at a level 4 cast i believe
How is resilient better than warcaster?? With sorc as starting class you have con save proficiency, extra stat point can be patched with act 1 +1 or less STR - it's caster first, with some melee capability, use elixir if you want to bonk people
Staff of arcane blessing got nerfed in the EA but its tooltip was never updated.
It does not give additional saving throw or attack buffs, only an additional 1d4 to spell attack rolls.
Thanks for the build guide! I've followed it up to Level 1 Wizard 6 Cleric (That's as high as I can progress atm and worth noting I killed Ethel before getting the +1 Int Stat boost, so can't hit the 20 Int and will be stuck at 18 Int, but figured it wouldn't make that much of a difference and at the end of Act 1 about to transition to Act 2) and as you noted I can access & equip my higher level Wizard spells via Learned Scrolls, but I am currently capped with only 4 Wizard Spell Slots likely due to only having the 1 level of Wizard. Is the 4 available Wizard spell slots the max I will get throughout the entire build and just need to switch to the 4 I need most for the situation at hand each time or did I do something wrong in the build steps and supposed to get more than 4 Wizard spell slots now or later in the level progression of the build? I did get all the applicable Cleric Spells :)
I ask because this is my main character and I was a full Level 7 Wizard playing that caster role while leaving Gale at camp because it was redundant having 2 full Wizards. If I am capped at 4 Wizard Spell Slots with this Wizard/Cleric build, would it be better to get Gale back in my group and kick out one of the other companions to replace their slot so I can have a full Wizard with more Wizard Spell Slots, or respec my main Character again to the non-multi classed "Best Wizard build" as to not replace any of my current other companions? Currently, other than main main character, my companions are: Wyll "Palidin/Warlock build" , Shadowheart "Best Cleric" (non support version - do you recommend I respec to the "Best Support Cleric" version with this party composition?), Asterion - Rougue/Ranger "Best Archer build" all per your other build guides currently in my group. Thanks for the info and advice!
Destruction wave appears at the light domain spells too.
Yes! At the time the wiki hadn't been updated to include it and I hadn't levelled a light cleric to 9 in game yet, but that's one more point in favour of the already-awesome light cleric.
Nice vid, altho I would have appreciated if there was a longer section on which equipment is good to use as cleric aside from the staff of arcane blessing
holy shit she one shots everything now wtf
Really appreciate this guide! Thank you! My question is what is the armor you’re using? I have the helm, but I don’t know where to find Plate armor +2, where can I get a set?
I would really like to know what is the gear your using
Did you ever mention what equipment would be good for this build?
What armor and rings should I use for this build
the video is time stamped incorrectly
In what way?
@@Cephalopocalypse for example, the timestamp for level 3 is where the video shows level 2. Though you did announce that there is a more up to date video you made, i figured its better to point out anywag
Ahhh yeah I see thanks! Sorry that's definitely confusing - those timestamps are referring to the spell level, not the character level (2nd level spell slots, which you get at character level 3). D&D's decision to call two different things by the same word gets us again!
@@Cephalopocalypse I think another suggestion would be to update the old build vids since information on whats meta nowadays is much more refined than when the game released but this is totally up to you of course you dont have to do anything if you dont want to
what do you think about Shadow heart with 9 war cleric and 3 ranger gloom stalker?
How does your Shadowheart have one more base attribute than mine? It won’t let me get past 15 constitution?
If you want to save your divine intervention you can always get the mage by having either a hireling cast it (basically buying the mage for 100 gold) or having Hope cast it once you free her in the House of Hope.
I believe you mis-spoke at around the 13:51 mark you said clerics get Chain lightning they get "Call Lightning" which is a level 3 spell and does 3-30 damage. "Chain Lightning is a 6th level Wizard spell and does 10-80 damage.
Yep, you're right, my bad - easy to mix the names of those two up! Obviously here we get Call Lightning, and want to concentrate on that in many fights.
I'm a newbie and this was very helpful. Subscribed
Awesome, glad you liked it! Welcome :D
i think it is better not use the last level for sorcerer because it use charisma to cast spell for scroll
if you use illithid powers to get fly, you have 1 less reason for getting sorcerer. and only for the constitution proficiency.
The destructive wave is on the light cleric sub class as well
Thanks for the tip! The wiki is missing it but that's another point for the already excellent light cleric!
Don't need Initiative on a support character, you kinda want them lower, or at least lower then ur own characters, on the move list because you want to be able to react to things that have happened.
Say an enemy is one hp, and don't want to waste ur dps on the kill next turn, or heal before turn ends. Can't really do these things if ur going first.
Going ahead of the group can let you debuff and buff ur team sure, but loosing first turn buff doesn't really hurt anything and reacting is just as important.
That's the beauty of initiative in BG3 - as long as you all go before the enemies, you get to choose the order your characters act!
Going first is always better, because you can still react to what the enemies do - you just *also* get to do stuff before them. Remember on a winning combat you will always be taking the last turn (because the enemies will then be dead) so taking the first turn is just +1 turns you get to take.
How much creative is using sanctuary outside of combat on your main DD that has low dexterity to watch enemies skip their turn (because they can't do anything to him) and probably group around him, and then move away (no opportunity attacks) and just fry them in a single glorious round? (did that yesterday against a certain ... monster with a really good sight in act 1 xD )
All of this while the remaing members of the party are comfortly hiding somewhere so they can have free positioning, as long as don't walk in the red cones, and a free shot (like for example Fairy Fire, or create wather, that monster xD)!
PS: Well ofcourse someone will say ... just use minor illusion bro! ... yes, well it's not always possible and this looks like a fine alternative to me
Yeah exactly! That's a perfect example - group enemies, block doorways, use it to cost enemies a turn of something useful - the possibilities are endless!
How would you build this as a party face? I love tempest cleric, but the 8 charisma would kill my Tav. 😬😅
Love your videos btw! Helped me out a lot as a newbie. ♥️
Thanks. This is ok, but definitely have to go with Fextra's Build for Shadowheart, turning her into a Cleric Rogue is a masterpiece. Haven't seen a better build yet for her. My problem is between the customized character I'm going to create as well as a starion I will already have two Rogue's already so having her as a Rogue, that means three in the party which is just ridiculous cause you don't need three of the same class. I'm sure I want Shadowheart, Lae'zel & Astarion in my party but I will already have two Rogue's, guess I can change Astarion to a Arcane Trickster but hear that class isn't better then Thief(everywhere I looked said so) so I might bench him & swap Lae'zel in once she can join back after the crash. When I do a Origin character playthrough, I want to do a playthrough of Lae'zel, Shadowheart & Astarion, then I can have two Rogue's instead of 3.
I don’t know when Resistance would be used in a dialogue? Can someone give an example? I think that Enhance Ability is useful for very difficult checks. (in addition to guidance.). But it requires concentration to cast and maintain.
They must have “fixed” Destructive Wave because it definitely harms party members .. still good but limits when you can safely use it. at least thats the rule in Tactician.
I think that’s what was intended by Larian from the start..
Sure! If someone is trying to for example detect or influence your thoughts (the mindflayer on the starting beach I believe makes you make a WIS save that you can use resistance to boost). Also when trying to read a certain spooky book!
Odd! I just tested destructive wave and it's definitely not harming allies still in my game. The description *is* wrong though - it says "creatures" rather than "enemies" but it doesn't actually target allies.
Hey nice video, thank you I still need to explore a tempest cleric for me. So far I played Shadowheart as a Light Cleric Damage Dealer which is also really strong: I took you remaining level 12 dip to respecc into Fighter 1 -> Cleric 11 (Heavy armor plus CON saving throws makes her great with Spirit guardian (usually upcast with higher spell slots) + Fireball from Light domain. Add warding flare and you become a frontline tank in heavy armor that deals tons of damage
Definitely a great build - in fact, it's so great that that's almost exactly one of the ones I have coming in a video soon :D
@@Cephalopocalypse Haha that's perfect, I'm looking forward to this one. TBH I did not want to overcomplicate things.... BUT since we're talking about this build anyway :)
Upcast Spirit Guardian is the 2nd most damaging spell of Clerics of ANY spell level (only overtaken by Flamestrike but Strike dealls damage once and loses to Spirit Guardian as soon as the second turn starts). Thus you technically do not need any spells above level 3 ONLY the higher spell slots. And those are granted by leveling full caster, not necessarily cleric!!
If you settle for upcasting Guaridans you can literally stop at cleric 5 and go into any other full caster! How about Fighter 1/Cleric 6 / Land druid 5 (2nd channel divinity + druid spells for cc). Go sorcerer for utilityy spells like misty step (or wizard... evo to blast fireball with ease or abjuration to get even tankier.
And finally my favorite idea I'm going to try next time: Fighter 1/Light cleric 5/ Spore druid 6..... Full "holy warrior of light with ncrotic zombies" vibe
Can you use this build skipping out on heavy armor? For example, sticking to medium armor
Sure! In fact, you're probably best off switching what you're wearing based on what the strongest armor sets you have available are - that goes for any character with both medium and heavy proficiency
Thanks for the video. This is gr8 build. Any advice on specific armor and weapons? I don't have Staff of Arcane Blessing.
Thanks! Glad you liked it :D
The best weapon for most of the game will be the unique mace you find in the githyanki creche, but mostly the weapon won't matter since you're rarely attacking. Other than that, the highest AC armor and shield you can find, and anything that increases your Spell DC is super helpful. This build is pretty gear-agnostic though, so you won't need too many specific items!
@@Cephalopocalypse I've been using that Mace ever since I got it. I chose the armor exactly as you said. Thanks for the answer bro. You're the best
I did look to see if someone had asked this but would it be worth respeccing at level 12 and choosing sorceror at level 1, to gain proficiency in Con saves?
Yes! That's a great optimization that's definitely worth doing if you're respeccing.
Why not 2 levels cleric the rest sorcerer?
2 levels would let you get your channel divinity for tempest
Little bit of misinformation I constantly see about Blade Ward. It can't be cast on others, the cantrip only targets the caster. There are equipment however that gives Blade Ward to others when you heal them.
Wow you are absolutely right! I have a distinct memory of using it to allow the spiders to kill all the goblins in the goblin camp, but I must have mandela effect-ed myself because of the blade ward on heal item. Thanks for pointing that out!
@@Cephalopocalypse No problem. I hope more people learn about this because they could be making their build's while being misinformed on what their cantrips can or can't do. It's still a great cantrip though when your spellcaster is in a jam. Halving basically all types of melee damage (bludgeoning, piercing and slashing) for 2 turns is perfect to gain some distance while taking minimal damage.
what about changing command with sanctuary for the support build purposes?
Sure! And remember you can change your prepared spells any time out of combat, so you aren't locked to just what you choose. Definitely experiment and see what feels best! I also have a more support-oriented cleric build coming up soon so keep an eye out :D
Why skip over the new level 3 spells when you get to level 5. Did that with Druid aswell
Be great if there was a spreadsheet for the build. Otherwise, nice job.
How about gear, what do you say?
Never got the staff of Arcane blessing. Done everything in act 1 but never got it. I guess it must be a bug. So many things are still bugged in this game. The combat is especially clunky and badly bugged. Sometimes one of my characters does not get the chance to do anything in combat so I have no choice but to end the turn. Many others have also experienced this. The low die hits for you and your team also is a bug that needs to be properly sorted. But the worst by far is the amount of times you miss on a very high percentage [say 80% or more]. Just ludicrous. It needs sorting. The game is good but the clunky combat system lets it down.
How were you able to change the bonus stats?
I'm not sure exactly which bonus stats you mean - if you mean the +2 / +1 in character creation, you can just move them to any stat - in tabletop D&D those bonuses have historically been based on your race selection but in BG3 all races can just place the boosts anywhere. If there's a different bonus you're talking about let me know and I'll try to answer!
When are you going to do a Lore friendly shadow heart build? I can't just go light or tempest domains when she has shadow in her name and serves the goddess of Darkness. So far, about all I've come up with is to give her some thief levels so that she can play as a stealthy cleric from the shadows. You can use cunning action to dash around with spirit guardians, which is kind of funny. Or just use your actions for bless and Phalar aluve, then hide in the shadows. There is equipment in the game supporting a dex/wis medium armor cleric too, which is nice. Also, I don't really think invoke duplicity is as bad as you make it out to be, if your party has good initiative then you're not just giving one person advantage, you'll give 3 advantage.
That being said, it still feels a bit underwhelming, at least in the early game, if you dilute cleric levels at all. So I'm still looking around for different shadowheart builds, in hopes of finding one that really feels good.
Lore friendly builds for every companion are on the way!
Part of my problem with invoke duplicity is just that it's one of my favorite abilities in tabletop and they got rid of the thing that makes it fun (the ability to cast spells from its location). I realize that's probably for coding reasons, but it's so cool and versatile the ability just feels extremely underwhelming without it. With that big a nerf they could at least have made it a bonus action or something.
@@Cephalopocalypse Turns out that the consequences for a "Shadow" heart build were a lot higher than I was expecting, lol. Was going for a shadow monk Cleric and it was pretty good, but since I couldn't get the last piece of equipment I ended up using the light domain cleric build instead, sort of a redeemed Shadowheart I guess.
@@climhazzard115 Oh nice! Also, great timing - lore-friendly shadowheart build just went up this morning :D
But Shadowheart isn't her real name :/
Guiding bolt sucks. Most enemies will succeed the dex check that is requires so it’s better to attack with a ranged weapon or throw if you’re strong
Guiding Bolts is an attack roll, not a dex check. Did you mean Sacred Flame? If so, it's good to have both that and a bow so you can choose whichever is more likely to hit.
in the stats i cant get 2 16s even with everything else at 8
whats the rest of the gear you're using?
This build is pretty gear-agnostic, but you want the best heavy armor and shield you can find, and anything that increases Spell DC is premium. The best weapon for most of the game will be the legendary mace you get from the Githyanki Creche
@@Cephalopocalypse thanks!
I cant change the ability bonus points (+2 bonus & +1 bonus)
You have to click on the existing one to deselect it before you can move it somewhere else, it's a bad interface. Hope that helps!
18:54
What armor is she wearing?
In this video it's just the +2 plate, I just like how it looks!
From what I’ve read, having a cleric with high strength is unnecessary. Focusing on dex is more useful
Best Cleric build is to respec and choose paladin
on lvl 5 u get chain lightning. sadly thats just call lightning.
Yep, easy to mix those two up
never got that staff!
Sadly it's not as good as I thought it was (or as it looks). The tooltip is very badly-written, so it actually *replaces* the normal bless bonus rather than adding to it (as the word "additional" seems to pretty clearly indicate). It's still nice for warlock party members with the 2d4 to spell attacks, but not as broken as I thought. I hope they fix that though, it's super misleading!
@@Cephalopocalypse between the wording and the two bless icons I was positive I was getting double blessing for an entire playthrough. R.I.P.
Resistance for dialog check wth ?
As I say in the video, the game will ask you to make saves during dialogue checks, and resistance can be used to boost those. Also, you will have better results when you have a question if you try asking it politely!
Man no offense, but you could do with revising the scripts for your videos and making them more concise. I felt like this went on and on.
This. It's a common problem with a lot of BG3 gameplay vids, and it's annoying as hell -- we don't want or need to be lectured at, and you don't need 1/2 hour to go over a build. Keep your vids under 15 min, *please*. It's basic communications/media production 101: Keep It Short & Simple (KISS).
Tbh another thing to do would be to run through the build quick as an overview and then come back afterwards for a detailed description
You'd love ItalianSparticus. He starts every video with a tldw segment before going in detail.
Bro but thats exactly why i love his videos. He explains everything even about tabletop…
Lol its just 27 min bro! Its not even that big! We are so consumed by reels and tiktok media (30 sec videos) that we cant wait 27 mins for something that is worthwhile? Reading a book? I get it. You want more summarized. But those are the videos he does. Dont criticize the man for doing great content.
YT rewards channels based on total minutes watched. I think a video gets monetized after 3000 minutes (eg. 100 full views of a 30 minute video). So some channels do stupidly long videos so that fewer views can still hit the goal (eg. 25 full views of a 2 hour video).
I'm far more likely to watch a 15 to 20 minute video unless it's a deep dive on a topic I'm researching.
People complaining about videos being long... make your own lol
The strangest thing to me about that complaint is like... they clicked on the half hour video? It's not a mystery how long it is!
I like the detail! It’s helpful to know the thought process so I can make changes if it makes sense for the party. Love your vids ❤
This could be 5 minutes long dude.
Get to the point dude?
thats a cleric build not a shadowheart build
Shadowheart is a cleric :)