Clerics are some of the best healers in Baldur’s Gate 3 and will often be the main support for the team. No matter your party, Clerics are vital to your survival in RPG games. They provide great healing and even better damage, often coming in clutch when facing a mass of undead or a dying party.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, Clerics represent the gods they worship, meaning they can wield potent magic on their deity’s behalf. Without them, it’s difficult to keep the party safe from damage during combat.
As a Cleric, you can expect to draw from the elements and your holy powers to keep allies safe while debuffing enemies in combat. So, while developing your Cleric build can be a relatively complex process, you’ll have a much more streamlined approach if you build your character with this guide in mind.
Choosing the ideal Cleric subclass: Light Domain
When it comes to selecting the most suitable subclass for your Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3, you’ll find a variety of options available. Each subclass brings unique abilities and strengths to the table, but in this game, the Light subclass stands out as the top choice.
The Light Domain strikes an excellent balance between dealing with damage and providing healing capabilities. This versatility is crucial in the challenges you’ll face in your adventures.
It’s important to note that while healing is a fundamental aspect of being a Cleric, focusing solely on this can become limiting and even frustrating during encounters where damage-dealing is more important during an encounter. With the Light subclass, you can harness the power of both healing and offensive spells, ensuring that your Cleric remains a valuable asset to the party in all situations.
Choosing your Deity
Clerics in Baldur’s Gate 3 must choose one of the 20 available deities to worship. While this choice may affect how NPCs interact with you, it doesn’t significantly impact your character’s build. Notable exceptions include Drow Clerics, who must worship Lolth, and the same goes for the Githyanki, who worship Vlaakith.
Cleric Weapon, Armor, and Class Proficiencies
- Cleric Weapon Proficiencies: Clerics are proficient in simple weapons and morningstars. They can also wear light and medium armor, as well as shields, granting Clerics a better chance in combat.
- Skill Proficiencies: Choose two skills from a pool of options: History, Intelligence, Insight, Medicine, Persuasion, and Religion. These proficiencies enhance your character’s versatility and utility both in exploration and in battle.
- Saving Throws: Clerics excel in Charisma and Wisdom saving throws, making them resilient against many forms of magic and mental attacks.
Best race, background, and skills for Clerics
Selecting the right race, background, and skills can significantly enhance your Cleric character. But for an optimal and min/max build, this is what we think is best for Clerics.
Best Cleric Race: Gold Drawf
- Gold Dwarves possess Dwarven Combat Training, providing proficiency in battleaxes, handaxes, light hammers, and warhammers.
- Like Elves, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, Gnomes, and Tieflings, Dwraves have Darkvision. This grants the ability to see in the dark.
- Dwarven Resilience offers an advantage on saving throws against poison and resistance to poison damage.
- Dwarven Toughness increases your maximum hit points, making you sturdier in combat.
Best Cleric Background: Acolyte
- Acolytes dedicate their lives to temple service, aligning well with the Cleric class.
- Proficiencies in Insight and Religion empower you to discern the intentions of others and recall religious history and lore.
Best Ability Score allocation
To unlock the full potential of your Cleric, achieving a balanced Ability Score spread is crucial. Consider the following distribution:
- Strength: 14
- Dexterity: 10
- Constitution: 15
- Wisdom: 17
- Intelligence: 8
- Charisma: 10
Since the Cleric’s spellcasting modifier is Wisdom, prioritize this ability to your highest stat. Given your role in front-line combat, invest in Strength and Constitution to enhance your damage output and survivability. The other Ability Scores primarily serve for ability checks and conversations with NPCs.
Top Cleric spells and cantrips
Clerics start with three cantrips, a number of known spells equal to your Wisdom modifier +1, domain spells, and two level 1 spell slots. They also gain additional spells as they progress.
Best Cleric cantrips:
- Level 1 Cantrips: Blade Ward, Resistance, Sacred Flame
- Level 4 Cantrip: Guidance
Best Cleric spells:
- Level 1: Healing Word, Sanctuary, Bane, Inflict Wounds
- Level 2: Prayer of Healing, Enhance Ability
- Level 3: Glyph of Warding, Protection from Energy, Mass Healing Word, Remove Curse
- Level 4: Banishment, Wall of Fire (Light Domain only)
- Level 5: Dispel Evil and Good, Contagion
- Level 6: Heal or Heroes’ Feast
Best Cleric feats
Clerics can select feats at Levels 4, 8, and 12. You can choose any feats that suit your character the best, but we suggest these feats because, so far, they’re the most helpful out of all of the other feats in the game.
- Level 4: War Caster – War Caster is a solid early-game Feat to grant Advantage on Saving Throws to maintain Concentration on a spell. With this Feat, you can also use your reaction to cast Shocking Grasp at a target moving out of melee range.
- Level 8: Lucky – Lucky grants Advantage on any Attack, Ability Check, or Saving Throw, or you can also use it to make an opponent reroll their Attack.
- Level 12: Tough – Tough grants two extra max HP per level, and this Feat is retroactive at whatever level you choose, meaning you can select it at Level 12 for an immediate 24 HP boost for endgame content.
Multiclass options for Clerics
If you want to spice up your cleric build, you should consider multiclassing. It’s more fun and gives more diverse options to your build. Here are two multiclass options you can try out:
- Paladin and Cleric: The combination of Paladin and Cleric synergizes remarkably well due to their similarities. Both classes excel as tanks with healing capabilities and are also capable of dealing significant damage during combat. By combining these two classes, you create an extremely all-around character. This multiclass not only strengthens your character’s healing capabilities but also adds power to the frontline, thanks to your Smite abilities. While it may not be the most powerful multiclass in the game, it’s undoubtedly one of the best choices if you want to multiclass your Cleric.
- Druid and Cleric: At first glance, the combination of Druid and Cleric might seem unusual, but they share a Wisdom-based spellcasting attribute, opening up exciting possibilities for more powerful spellcasting. By opting for this multiclass, you benefit from the Cleric’s defensive capabilities, combined healing from both classes and access to damaging and control spells from the Druid. This combination can make your character a formidable one-person army.
The Cleric class is one of the most essential and flexible classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, capable of healing, dealing damage, and supporting the party. By choosing the right race, subclass, skills, and spells, you can create a formidable Cleric that embodies the divine power of the gods. Whether you prefer the path of the Paladin, the Druid, or stick to pure Cleric, the choice is yours to make and have fun on your journey through Faerûn.