Come join the Patreon for written builds, early access, exclusive content, and more ⚔ Patreon: patreon.com/PURGEEVIL By far one of my favorites and one of the most fun classes to play as! The Cleric is severely underrated and I would argue it’s actually one of the best classes in the game. Give it a go and you’ll see what I mean! This video will be referenced in a huge Lore-Accurate Shadowheart video in the future and you can use this Build if you’d like to respec Shadowheart after completed her quest in Act 2. Look out for the Legolas and Griffith Builds coming soon! Thanks for stopping by ⚔️
I somewhat accidentally made my Shadowheart an immortal god. I multiclassed Cleric with Druid, so now she can cast MoonBeam, and then cast Sactuary as a Bonus action. Recasting moonbeam doesn’t break sanctuary so she can’t be targeted, and it doesn’t cost additional spell slots, plus it pumps out dmg. 10/10 would recommend
This build is so close to optimal, but you can also do much better. Forget all those other garbage sources of DPS, just use Spirit Guardians. It is the best in almost every scenario. Pick Drow, not Half Elf. Darkness is overpowered, and we will want to make use of Hand Crossbow Proficiency. The stat line here is a little off. Since you will be using medium armour for the full playthrough, you really only want a 14 in Dex. This lets you play with a 16 in Con for the better saves and the increased total HP. It will also let you pump your strenght a little higher for the purposes of jumping and shoving. Take straight Cleric to level 5. Then at level 6, you want to respec to start with 1 level of Sorcerer for Con save proficiency and the Shield spell (never leave home without Shield, especially on this build). The first feat should be War Caster to make your concentration virtually unbreakable (you need to crit fail while you have advantage: 1/400). The second feat should be Alert; you really don't need any increases to your Wisdom since it barely affects your damage output (see a video by Pack Tactics titled "What AOE Half on a save damage means in D&D 5E). In terms of gear, you never mentioned the Holy Lance Helm. This is the item that breaks this build open. Combine this with the Luminous Armour, and suddenly every miss procs the whole group wiht a -2 to attack rolls. You can see how this might spiral out of control quickly. I don't think there are any helmets or armour sets that outclass these 2 in the whole game. Next up, Glove of Belligerent Skies and Boots of Stormy Clamour are also must haves. With the 4 items described so far, every instance of Radiant damage is applying 4 stacks of Reverberation. Not to mention that failing the Reverberation save causes the Prone condition which instantly ends the opponent's turn. If a creature moves into your Spirit Guardians at the start of its turn, it will get several Reverberation stacks. If it fails its save, its turn is over, and you effectively hard CCd it. Once again, keep these all game. You mentioned the Callous Glow Ring, but it is better than you gave it credit for. It also procs off the Thunder damage caused by Reverberation, inflicting more Radiant Orbs. You didn't mention either of the items in the best melee setup for this character. You want to be using the Adamantine Shield and the Defender's Flail. The shield further lowers your opponent's attack rolls every time they miss and protects you from crits. If you cannot be crit, then an enemy with -10 or so to their attack rolls probably cannot hit you at all. This of course means that every attack against you is procing every armour piece you are wearing again. The AC from the flail is really important since it helps you start your proc chain and lowers the threshold before enemies are literally incapable of hitting you. One early amulet that is relevant is the Pearl of Power Amulet. This build is basically only limited by the number of Spirit Guardians casts you have. Finally, equip two hand crossbows in your ranged slots. You won't have a great chance to hit, but it gives you a way to use your bonus action to apply some more Radiating Orb to some enemies at range which can be important. This build literally only has two weaknesses. The first is enemies with Radiant Retort or similar effects. This is obviously a problem based on how much Radiant damage this build puts out. The other issue is a crash to desktop that happens when an enemy with 30 or more stacks of Radiant Orb attacks the player. This is super annoying and happens all the time with this setup. In larger encounters, it is not uncommon to see enemies with 50 or even 60 stacks of Radiant Orb, sometimes even in the first turn. Make sure you kill them before they make an attack roll or you will crash.
Dude Ive just made this build by accident and came here to see what how can I mess with it more. I've grabbed the helmet and was like - this could be something hmmm. And OMG I rolled through githyanki creshe like on easy mod (tactician btw) and the funniest part is to run through the enemies to trigger attacks then they miss and killing themselves :D it's just so fun to play ty for the comment, good to know what else should I be looking for
I've been taking it through the rest of the game in a duo on tactician. We are now a chunk of the way through act 3. The only other things I will mention are Markoheshkir using its thunder buff. I haven't tested it too extensively, but it seems to be working. Also the Cloak of Displacement.@@4reg1
I’m in the middle of running a similar build on Shadowheart. I’m still collecting gear and haven’t made it to the crèche yet. I’m finding Phalar Aluve extremely handy-use the Shriek ability to debuff enemies and proc Reverberation on them!
Well of the of the main reasons is that light really goes apeshit due to item interactions while tempest is just solid on its own. So although you will get several usefull items for light fairly early in act 1 there are some locked away to later. Meanwhile tempest doesnt really rely at all on items even if it does have some very usefull ones aswell
With this build I keep the luminous armor untill the end. Small AC but with spiritual guardians everybody around Shadowheart is protected against attacks. After a few turns no ennemy is able to hit anybody anymore, as they easily get -10 penalty to attack rolls. The ultimate protector.
Running something similar to this build on Shadowheart in one of my playthroughs, although I specced her to be 6 Light Cleric/ 6 Eldritch Knight to have a few other spells, multi attack, second wind and action surge. The Stormy Clamour boots in combination with the Thunsderskin cloak and Spiteful Thunder ring can expand on the reverbration part of the built as well. SH's story also helps with the items, since they either provide radiant damage right away or at least glow, making it easier to proc but you can always cast Light from a Cantrip and Draconic Elemental Weapon from the Drakethroat Glaive to help with proccing reverbration. Also recommend the Holy Lance Helmet for the optional Radiant damage on missed attacks against you, which should be a lot considering the shield and all.
It's a great build, if you want a tanking Cleric. I did a respec on Shadowheart and made her a LIFE Cleric. She still has Spirit Guardians, but mostly I have her cast Sanctuary and then heal and buff everyone as needed. Most of the time I finish battles with everyone nearly at full health, although their spells and attacks are depleted. I like this, it looks amazing, and I will say that it appears LIGHT Cleric may be a good choice for Act 2, and I also watched another video about this build so when SH hits level 8 (very very soon) I may just respec her to this at least for the rest of Act 2. Thanks for all you do!
Light cleric is best for Act 2. In Act 3 there are certain enemies that can reflect back damage if you use radiant spells, so changing to tempest domain for lightning damage is more preferable plus you also get proficiencies with heavy armor, heavy crossbow, etc
@@vindicator879Kewl thanx! Yeah, she's been doing pretty good in Act 2 and I have enough characters with healing that it hasn't hurt (yet) to not have her as Life Domain. Thanks again!
It's funny from what I can remember the cleric was the least chosen class originally. I had a blast on my first play through with my Tempest domain cleric. By the third act of the game I did feel like a little God with some of the amazing abilities I had. I realized I rarely used Shadowhearts abilities though, I feel like this subclass will be by far a better support role for my monk or bard character my next go around.
I quite like starting with a 1 storm sorc for the bonus to concentration checks, so jig the stats around accordingly with an even number on con. What it does do is give you a bonus action on casting a spell of flight which massively increases your mobility and synergises incredibly well with upcasted spirit guardians.
Solid feedback and recommendation, usually I would say we wouldn’t even use the flight, being at range majority of the time, but I didn’t think about using it to bulldoze with upcasted guardians, nicely done. I see a sorcerer multiclass build video in the near future 🤔
@@PurgeEvilTV it's a fun build, particularly strong in act 2. it's fairly tanky with 20-21ac and some reactions to deal with attacks of opportunity (shield from the sorcerer)
Bard is an awsome class to multi class with clerick, but you need to get a 16 on both wisdom and charisma. So gear that sets your ability score are recommended. Act 1 gear is warped headband of intellect, gloves of dexterity, and club of hill giant strength. Get all three and you can get 16+ on all ability scores.
10 light cleric 2 evocation wizard for sun beam/moon beam and no friendly fire is better in my opinion. Also radiant retaliation helmet is awesome if you have good AC and radiant orb gear.
I don't necessarily agree with a lot of this. The only healing spell worth taking is Healing Word. The access to potions is so high in this game that tossing a potion on somebody is the defacto way to heal and anyone can do it without wasting any spell slots. Wisdom is the hardest stat to increase in the game. There are only a couple ways to do it permanently without gear and darn few gear pieces that do it. So get the Hag's Hair. Try to save Mayrina by intimidating the Hag into giving her up along with the hair. If you fail, well Mayrina isn't exactly the epitome of morality and kindness herself. She entered the deal for her baby willingly. I didn't feel bad leaving her behind. The gear list left out the Spineshudder Amulet. The Boots of Stormy Clamour are incredible. With the combination of gear passing out radiant orbs and reverberation, you'll be inflicting conditions every turn. You just wander about with Spirit Guardians on tossing out any radiant or flame spell and enemies just start falling prone while being unable to save against much of anything. Oh and take Warcaster at level 4. respecing to take level 1 as a sorcerer gives you Constitution proficiency, Shield (so you wont' often get hit) and false life which can give a huge boost of temp hit points. With the Adamantine Shield, and the Holy Lance Helm if they miss they lose. If they hit, they still lose. Very few enemies are resistant or immune to radiant damage in the game.
I made my light cleric build with fighter to get dual wielder that gives me opportunity to equip myself with Lathander blood and Devotee's mace. Now I can use my bonus action to stack orbs and deal extra dmg. We can change Lathander blood for The Sacred Star to stack even more(im very upset that Lathander blood dont deal radiant dmg). The biggest advantage of this build is that my Light Cleric looks badass with 2 maces❤
The boots you can get from the underdark gnome that let you bonus action dash helped me cheese through so much of Act 2 with Shart just spirit guardians dash and blend everything.
In the house of grief fight in act 3 I had a wizard cast globe of invulnerability and put guardian of faith right at the edge. It retaliated on everyone and did no self damage
Oathbreaker Padlock is so ridiculously strong. It’s my main character of the campaign you see in these clips, even specced into War Domain too. Once you have 5 Warlock and 2 Paladin you’re basically a God and the rest of the levels you can do whatever you want with
The most truly broken version of this is to keep luminous armor, gloves of belligerent skies, callous glow and ring of spiteful thunder with the boots of stormy clamor. luminous armor is currently broken atm and can apply an uncapped amount of radiating orb and can apply several stacks of radiating orb in one turn compared to the only 2-3 you get from the other ring and gloves. this build is so broken in fact it tends to crash your game 😂, but seriously you can solo with it even on tactician plus mods since any enemy with -20 to attack rolls is absolutely useless
id also recommend investing into one point of sorcerer at the beginning in order to reach 10 con saving throw, only feats you truly need is war caster, (shocking grasp as a reaction applies all said debuffs), your wisdom truly doesnt matter since you have all the turns you need to deal damage since nothing can hit you, and spirit guardians will always do damage.
You’re 1000% correct. I had thought to myself after editing the gear that Luminous Armor probably could just be used the entire game. Those boots are busted too, I may have to update this in the future and bust this broken build 🫡🤔
If you're worried about the role-playing aspect of all of this, you *probably* wouldn't use a re-specced Shadowheart in Act II in the first place. Or at least not one re-specced to "Light" domain... :D I've cheezed her way too early in my first two runs (one run as Light, one as Life) but on my third run I didn't send her to Withers until she had changed her hair-color... Had her run Life after that, but I did change that to Light again and gave her back that Radiant Shockwave armor. It makes her a bit too squishy for my taste, but its effect is just too good. And Shadowheart with all her potential for dealing radiant damage is the obvious choice for that armor - at least in my party.
Really great video! Nice to see a detailed build for this class. I'm currently doing a playthrough were Shadowheart is a Light Domain Cleric and she kicks ass :) Out of curiosity, do you have or will make a War Domain Cleric build video? Either pure War Domain or a multi class?
I like that more build videos are realizing how powerful single class builds actually are. Multiclassing is fun, but some classes have enough firepower & choice flexibility to be absolute powerhouses all by themselves. Side Note: I wish a lot of these builds didn't overlap so much of their gear. The Gloves of Belligerent Skies are used in so many builds & with so many classes, even Blood of Lathander to a lesser degree. Thankfully, the rest of the items I'm no using for a million other builds, so I'm good to go there! 😅
I second that, also playing as a single class build gives you the knowledge you need to really make good decisions for multiclasses for other runs or characters.
You can replace blood of lathander with spear of dawn or the devotees mace which you get by using the lv10 cleric ability divine intervention: arm thy servant
@@PurgeEvilTV True, I honestly never looked at it like that. But as someone whi knew nothing about D&D coming into BG3, playing a class levels 1-12 definitely helped me understand multiclassing way, way more.
@@corey2232 sorry I got the name wrong it was divine intervention not invoke deity, the weapon it gives is called devotees mace which does 1d6+3 bludgeon and 1d8 radiant Also gives an ability that heals teammates by 1d4 per turn for 10 turns
I haven't tested it out to see if it works or not but I kept the Divine Intervention weapon after respecing my Cleric and was given the spell back afterwards. Not sure if the spell can be cast again but it's possible and worth trying after saving on a non-honour mode save for any of those interested.
I do want give out a warning, some enemies have sometimes a hidden condition called holy rebuke which would not only hurt you but triple the damage to you if said enemy was hit with holy damage so in most cases this build is really good but it is very easily countered by this condition but it is still a good build.
Would moon devotion robe not also be the best armor to be used in act 3? You can get it by getting into combat with isobel, knocking her out stealing and then going invis with the entire party in rivington, then healing her from a distance with potions from a distance. (note to throw the potion not at isobel but at the floor because it counts as an attack)
Nice build. I suggest to try to Respec once you get at Lev5. Take the First level as Sorcerer, Stormy. To get Proficiency with CON Saving Throws, and the ability to Fly. This FLY is awesome, is added to your regular Movement, enemies cant retaliate with Opportunity attacks. And you can move on the battlefield, illuminating everything and blasting with Guardians. So, PROS: CON Saving Throws, FLY. 4 Cantrips. CONS: Not the 3rd FEAT. But in your Build, you get CON Resilient. That gives exactly the same benefit as the First levl of SOR. You miss the +1, but at that Level you are probably not needing the +1 to CON. Also, speaking of FEATS, i use +2 ASI to WIS, and War Caster, to have Advantages on Concentration Saving Throws. Paired with CON ST Proficiency, its pretty hard to lose a Concentration.
Idk why nobody talking about 6lvl Transmutation wizard as hireling, just cast yourself a Transmuter's Stone and you will have con prof. "Transmuter's Stone: Constitution: Create a stone that grants the carrier Proficiency in Constitution Saving Throws."
This isn't the worst idea, though you miss out on Wisdom saving throws by not taking Cleric first (OOF)... Flying is cool, but I'm not sure it's worth sacrificing getting your best Cleric abilities sooner. Also, (as was mentioned) you get Con saving throws from the Transmutation Wizard's magic stone while you leave the TW in camp. 😉
@@KrimsonKracker constitution is more important than wis. Maintaining concentration on a spell happens WAY more often than a wis saving throw. Honestly the game barely throws any mind altering stuff around to begin with. Seen more cha and str saves than wis too also.
Just started an origin play through with shadow as this. But I plan to use the spear that gives me moonbeam. While the blind is super great, I think light cleric gets sun beam already
I have Shart running around with this build and it is ludicrous how powerful it is. Just cast radiant dmg Spirit Guardians and then walk around and everything either dies or falls over. I am only lvl 8 so will have to see how much better this is when upcasted but so far it has been easymode.
Light Cleric is awesome. Instead of Blood of Lathander i like to use Staff of Arcane Blessing later on, because it makes Bless completly OP. Your Party will never miss again. I can also recommand to pick 1 Level of Wizzard. For this you can go for 14 Dex and 12 Int. You don´t need more than 14 Dex, because she never fights with a weapon. A cantrip would be better. The two Spellslots can be used for Haste and Misty Step. You can also cast a Fire Elemental which can be upcast to a Myrmidion with a Level 6 Spell Slot. The Daredevil Gloves are awesome, too.
Awesome, solid recommendations, for the wizard dip I agree with the dex/int however I do like having the extra dex for initiative (otherwise). I’d wager you can even do this dip/spell combo on a few other classes as well
Just use a hireling to do it for you, now you have the devotee's mace and still have the ability to use a divine intervention that you will never use anyway
So I am playing as Wyll (pact of blade warlock/college of swords bard) and I am pretty much just playing with shadowheart (this build (ish)), Lae’zel as a champion fighter/oath breaker Paladin, Astarion as an assassin rogue/gloomstalker ranger
If you long rest scum like me, pick paladin as base class, move the skill point from charisma to wisdom, level up paladin to level 2, then leveling up cleric. You will have high level divine smith that even normal paladin does not have access to (paladin can only reach level 3 spell slot, while cleric reach level 5 at level 10), and then all you had to do is spam divine smith.
Just subbed on patreon 🎉🎉! This has been the most helpful video for me. I can't believe I have been sleeping on this class 😅. It's so much more fun now!
I think starting with 2lvls of sorcerer would be great. it gives concentration prof and metamagics. but we loose planar ally and a feat. hard to decide
Nice take, just bump your wisdom to 20 and forget Resilient: Constitution, it would work well, but I’d recommend having 16 con instead of 15 con in this case
Pretty good build (though it's hard to mess up with Light Clerics). Just a note: High Elf is nearly pointless compared to Wood Elf, since the extra cantrip always scales with Intelligence. Also, Cleric should ideally never be your Persuasion character with such low Charisma.
I mostly agree with you, wood elf is good for basically any class for the movement’s reason. I didn’t choose it specifically for this build because we don’t really need extra movement as a heavy hitting caster. You’re right about the cantrip, though fireball is more a utility spell than anything, shocking grasp would be my second go to for the utility of shock. For the persuasion you’re completely right, however I mentioned putting that point into Persuasion if you Faced this build, because even with such low charisma any cleric is able to snake their way through conversations with guidance and that +1 helps just that much more. That’s only IF you wanted to face this build, it would still be possible, not to mention our other party members buffing our checks. If we want a real persuasion character we’ll just make a bard or a Paladin Edit: Forgot to say thank you!
It doesn't matter the class, I always prefer my main player-made character to be the face/speaking member of the party. Role-playing is one reason, but also it allows all 3 other members a chance up approve/disapprove of all conversation points. When you're speaking as Astarion, for example, he doesn't "approve" of anything because he's the one saying it. Unless that changed, and I just haven't noticed, though I've never seen a party member give an approval while controlling them.
@@corey2232 Good point about approval. I sometimes have specific members say things I know they themselves would disapprove normally (costing no favorability). Funny loophole around the system.
I don't think this works any longer, meaning the stacking of Radiating Orbs so that each one grants -1 to the target's attack rolls. I inflicted 4 orbs on a target with a similar build to this and the target still showed upon examination a total of -1 to attack rolls. I know the developers changed the game to limit stacks to 10, but does anyone know if 10 orbs means -10 to an attack roll, or is it -1 tops?
In Honourmode the Enemys are reducing their Stacks per 5 Stacks per Turn....so this isnt a viable Tactic in Terms of Efficiency....i Play a Bardadin with SG per Magical Secrets and the Debuff IS a helpful Goodie...but Not letting the Enemy Miss frequently
I've gone with starting 1 storm sorc then 11 light cleric which gives us fly after casting and also con prof, also 4 more support cantrips. If you have Infernal Rapier, you can basically start each day with the Cambion AND Heroes Feast. I run Shadowheart with create undead and danse macabe so she's leading a little army of her own. I too am a fan of the sentinel shield because i start each fight with Bless and Spiritual Weapon and i need to buff Tav gloomstalker before he goes and does his whirlwind of bolts turn.
@@PurgeEvilTV I have Withers, and I purchased his respec option. I must be bugged. I can't adjust the ability focus of anyone, not even my Tav. Do they have a preferred place for bug reports?
@@smokepanda2502 Adamantine Shield is also really good for the radiating orb combos. It applies reeling condition to any target that misses you. Radiating orb, Reverberation & Reeling all synergise so well, they put your enemies in a perpetual loop of death, whenever they try (and miss) attacking you, especially if you have Spiritual Guardians activated too.
I have to disagree because the subclass offers enough versatility to deal with those enemies, and even so, you can hang back and play a more supportive role during specific fights. Also, if you’re talking about the Radiant Retort, that’s easily worked around with necrotic options or using the cleric to fight the adds while the rest of the party deals with that enemy
Why wouldn't you use radiant damage? Does every damage type have something special? Because most enemies are not resistant to radiant and in act 2 most are vulnerable to it
@@Agustinguss there’s a condition that certain enemy(s) have called Radiant Retort, which does double the radiant damage you inflicted, to you as force damage
Resilience scales better at higher levels with your proficiency, whereas War Caster only gives you advantage (2 dice rolls). War caster may be better in very early levels, but I would still pick resilience every time. Unless my caster is going to be within melee range a lot (not a light cleric), because the shocking grasp reaction can be pretty useful at times
Light clerics can’t wear heavy armor? That’s disappointing. I was going to make a heavy armor, sword wielding light cleric of Bahamut/Illmater. Guess I’ll have to choose another domain.
