Last Updated: September 30, 2023

Introduction

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Disclaimer
• Cleric Class Features
• Cleric Subclasses
• Cleric Ability Scores
• Cleric Races
  • Dwarf
  • Dragonborn
  • Drow
  • Elf
  • Gnome
  • Githyanki
  • Half-Elf
  • Half-Orc
  • Halfling
  • Human
  • Tiefling
• Cleric Skills
• Cleric Backgrounds
• Cleric Feats
• Cleric Weapons
• Cleric Armor
• Cleric Multiclassing
• Cleric Example Build – Shadowheart, Half-Elf Trickery Cleric
  • Ability Scores
  • Race
  • Background
  • Skill Proficiencies
  • Feats
  • Levels

Disclaimer

RPGBOT uses a color coding scheme to rate individual character options.

• Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational. Nearly never useful.
• Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances. Useful sometimes.
• Green: Good options. Useful often.
• Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character. Useful very frequently.

RPGBOT is fan content published under Larian’s Fan Content Policy. This is not official content, and RPGBOT has no official relationship with Larian.

Cleric Class Features

Hit Points: 8+ hit points is better than a wizard, but not enough to survive on the front lines without some work.

Saves: Wisdom saves protect from stuff that takes you out of a fight, and your Wisdom saves will be really good.

Proficiencies: Medium armor, shields, simple weapons, flails (I’m not sure why), and morningstars (I can’t explain without spoilers). Some subclasses will grant heavy armor and martial weapon proficiency.

Spellcasting: The main reason to play a cleric. While many people overlook clerics because they expect a healbot, the Cleric’s spellcasting includes a ton of utility options, buff options, and even a few excellent offensive options like Spirit Guardians.

Channel Divinity: Channel Divinity is a pool of resources which recharge on a Short Rest and fuel abilities like Turn Undead plus some subclass features.

Channel Divinity: Turn Undead: Only situationally useful, but undead are common enemies and turning them will dramatically simplify encounters.

Destroy Undead: “Destroy” is a bit ambitious. 4d6 damage won’t be destroying anything at this level, but more damage when you turn undead is still great.

Divine Intervention: The fact that this only works once is frustrating, but it’s once per character and there’s nothing stopping you from respeccing everyone in the party into cleric for a few minutes to get Arm Thy Servant or Golden Generosity several times.

• Arm Thy Servant: The only option with a meaningful permanent effect, and it gets you a pretty good mace. Collect multiple maces and use them between fights to recover your party’s hit points.
• Golden Generosity: You can buy these items.
• Opulent Revival: You might save this for the final boss of the game, which feels suitably dramatic, but you should only do that if you plan to respec everyone everyone in your party into cleric temporarily to get Arm Thy Servant.
• Sunder the Heretical: Absolutely not. Cast Spirit Guardians and dive into combat. This is nowhere near good enough to only work once.

Cleric Subclasses

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

#: :

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

#: :

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

#: :

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

#: :

1: :

1: Domain Spells:

• :

2: :

6: :

8: :

#: :

Cleric Ability Scores

Because heavy armor doesn’t have a strength requirement to avoid speed penalties, and because clerics have essentially no reason to use a weapon beyond low levels, and because the value of medium armor for clerics is further increased by the abundance of good medium armor specifically designed for them, there is really no reason to build a cleric around Strength. This does make cleric builds extremely homogenous, which is disappointing, but this is an optimization guide so we’re looking at what’s effective.

If you still want to build a heavily-armored cleric that swings weapons around, take a 2-level dip in paladin for Divine Smite and smite spells, then build your ability scores around Strength, Constitution, and Wisdom.

Str: There is basically no reason to invest in Strength on a cleric since heavy armor doesn’t impose a speed penalty. There are some great weapons that thematically would make sense on a cleric, but those same weapons work better in the hands of a martial character. If you want a viable melee weapon option, multiclass to get Shillelagh and then use it on a magic staff that buffs your spellcasting.

Dex: 14 to fill out medium armor is plenty, but you could just dump it to 8 if you’re in heavy armor. Having high Dexterity so that you can make opportunity attacks sounds interesting, but it won’t be impactful often enough to justify. Even if you’re proficient in heavy armor, you likely want to build around medium armor and Dexterity because many of the armors inended for clerics are medium.

Con: Hit points, Constitution saves, Concentration.

Int: Some skills.

Wis: Spellcasting, Wisdom saves, Perception.

Cha: Face skills.

	Game Recommended	+2/+1	Final	RPGBOT Recommended	+2/+1	Final
Str
Dex
Con
Int
Wis
Cha

Cleric Races

Clerics don’t have any obvious, fantastically powerful race options. Innate spells are hard because they’re almost always Charisma-based, and armor and weapon proficiencies are mostly either redundant or unhelpful. Your best bet is to look for defenses or benefits to your skills depending on your cleric’s role in your party.

Dwarf

Slow, and both Darkvision and Poison Resilience are replaceable with 2nd-level spells. The weapon proficiencies aren’t helpful.

• Gold Dwarf: More hp is nice, but you don’t really need it.
• Shield Dwarf: Redundant.
• Duergar: The innate spellcasting is fine, but doesn’t really add anything that you need.

Dragonborn

Damage resistance is great, and the breath weapon can be a decent area damage option at close range, but you also have spells that fill that niche.

Drow

Darkvision can be replaced by a spell, but Fey Ancestry and proficiency in Perception are both good. The innate spellcasting is fine, but it’s Charisma-based so Faerie Fire won’t be reliable.

Lolth-sworn Drow and Seldarine Drow are mechanically identical, but get access to different dialog choices.

Elf

Darkvision can be replaced by a spell, but Fey Ancestry and proficiency in Perception are both good. The weapon proficiencies open up some additional weapon options for clerics that don’t get martial weapon proficiency from their subclass, and since building with some Dexterity is expected, access to rapiers and bows can be very helpful.

• High Elf: An offensive Intelligence-based cantrip is not helpful. Blade Ward might be worthwhile for combining with Spirit Guardians.
• Wood Elf: Another skill and some extra speed.

Gnome

Gnome Cunning, coupled with the Cleric’s excellent Wisdom saves, makes many of the most dangerous saves in the game trivial.

• Rock: Adding twice your proficiency to History checks is nice, but it doesn’t come up very often.
• Forest: Speak with Animals is a ton of fun and a great asset in Baldur’s Gate 3, but it’s also readily available from consumables, so dedicating your subrace to a single spell is hard to justify.
• Deep: Advantage on Stealth checks is a huge benefit for a sneaky character, or it can offset the penalty from your armor.

Githyanki

The armor proficiency is redundant, but the innate spellcasting and Astral Knowledge are great. The additional weapons are tempting, but not quite as good as the Elf’s.

Half-Elf

Darkvision (which is replaceable with a spell), Fey Ancestry, and a subrace. Civil Militia is almost entirely redundant, so Drow or Elf will be outright better.

• High Half-Elf: An offensive Intelligence-based cantrip is not helpful. Blade Ward might be worthwhile for combining with Spirit Guardians.
• Wood Half-Elf: Another skill and some extra speed.
• Drow Half-Elf: The innate spellcasting is fine, but it’s Charisma-based so Faerie Fire won’t be reliable.

Half-Orc

Relentless Endurance is nice, but Savage Attacks is borderline useless, and Intimidation isn’t a good enough skill for the Cleric that it makes the Half-Orc a good choice.

Halfling

Baldur’s Gate 3 makes a natural 1 a critical failure, meaning that you automatically fail whatever attack/check/save.

• Lightfoot: Advantage on Stealth checks is a huge benefit for a sneaky character, or it can offset the penalty from your armor.
• Strongheart: Poison Resistance is available as a 2nd-level spell which lasts until your next long rest, so getting it from your race is pointless beyond low levels.

Human

Civil Militia is mostly redundant, so it’s just the free skill, which simply isn’t enough.

Tiefling

Resistance to fire is a great start since Fire damage is common.

• Asmodeus Tiefling: Produce Flame is Wisdom-based, but it’s unclear if that’s intentional or a bug. Hellish Rebuke is fine, but won’t be impressive beyond low levels. You can’t use Darkness for much in Baldur’s Gate 3. Altogether, it’s okay.
• Mephistopheles Tiefling: Mage Hand is great, but the other innate spells are unhelpful.
• Zariel Tiefling: Thaumaturgy can make some social options viable for the Cleric, but it’s not good enough to learn it through your class. The smite spells offer a bit of help for weapon attacks, but using a weapon is still generally a poor choice for the Cleric.

Cleric Skills

• Acrobatics (Dex): Only useful when falling and when resisting Shove, which aren’t common enough to justify.
• Animal Handling (Wis): Using Speak With Animals will let you use Face skills like Persuasion instead of Animal Handling, but that may actually be worse for the Cleric. Still, this is a bad skill. Have a party member with better Charisma talk to the animals.
• Athletics (Str): Strength is a dump stat for the Bard.
• Arcana (Int): Frequently useful in conversations and for opening some puzzles.
• Deception (Cha): Occasionally useful in conversations, but not as often as Persuasion.
• History (Int): Occasionally rolled automatically during conversations to give your character in-world knowledge.
• Insight (Wis): Occasionally useful in conversations.
• Intimidation (Cha): Occasionally useful in conversations, but not as often as Persuasion, and NPCs often don’t always respond well. Still, the availability of Thaumaturgy makes this arguably your best Face skill option.
• Investigation (Int): Very rarely useful.
• Nature (Int): Occasionally rolled during conversations and while exploring.
• Perception (Wis): One of the most important skills in the game. Used to detect traps and hidden enemies.
• Performance (Cha): Useless.
• Persuasion (Cha): The best Face skill, but clerics usually don’t have the Charisma to make it work.
• Religion (Int): Occasionally rolled during conversations and while exploring. The fact that clerics aren’t automatically proficient and then are typically worse at Religion than wizards has been a long-standing criticism in the tabletop DnD rules.
• Sleight of Hand (Dex): Locks, traps, picking pockets.
• Stealth (Dex): A hard choice for the Cleric because most of their armor imposes Disadvantage on Stealth checks.
• Survival (Wis): The buried chests are not worth the skill proficiency to find them

Cleric Backgrounds

Backgrounds provide two skill proficiencies and determine the way that your character earns Inspiration. The game has ample opportunities to earn Inspiration for every background, so choosing a background typically comes down to what skills you want.

• Acolyte: The go-to option for the Cleric.
• Charlatan: Hard since clerics typically dump Charisma.
• Criminal: Hard since clerics typically dump Charisma.
• Entertainer: Bad skills.
• Folk hero: The skills are both Wisdom-based, but they’red still bad.
• Guild Artisan: Tempting if you’re planning to use your own cleric as your pary’s Face.
• Haunted One (Dark Urge only): If you’re playing Dark Urge, you’re locked into this. You get Medicine and Intimidation, and neither of those are great, but add Thaumaturgy and Intimidation can work reasonly well.
• Noble: Tempting if you’re planning to use your own cleric as your pary’s Face, but Guild Artisan is an easier fit for the same concept.
• Outlander: Bad skills for the Cleric.
• Sage: Two knowledge skills.
• Soldier: Passable skills, and if you plan to build around Strength (not the best idea, but Shove is very tempting), Athletics will be useful. Throw in Thaumaturgy and you can get some use out of Intimidation, too.
• Urchin: An easy choice if your Dexterity is decent.

Cleric Feats

This section does not address every feat, as some clearly aren’t relevant to the class. For more general discussion on feats, see our Practical Guide to Feat Selection.

• Defensive Duelist: Potentially tempting as a way to keep Spirit Guardians running, but Mobile or War Caster are better choices.
• Medium Armor Master: The abundance of excellent medium armor for clerics makes this tempting, but if you’re taking this you’re almost certainly over-investing in Stealth.
• Mobile: Tempting for running around with Spirit Guardians, but the melee attack requirement is a big problem. Using the Disengage action will do just as well without the feat cost.
• Resilient: Resilient (Constitution) is a huge buff for the Cleric.
• Shield Master: Clerics will almost always wear a shield, so this is an interesting way to mitigate area damage.
• War Caster: Excellent for being in melee. War Caster helps maintain Concentration, and Shocking Grasp will outpace your weapon attacks, making it a meaningful Opportunity Attack option.

Cleric Weapons

If you’re building around Strength, you can use basically whatever weapon you like. Weapons which deal bonus radiant damage can be a great choice as they stack well with other items that clerics

Cleric Armor

• :

Cleric Multiclassing

• Barbarian: If you want martial stuff, the Fighter is better.
• Bard: Three levels for Expertise without hurting your spell slot progression is tempting, and between Friends and Expertise you could do okay as your party’s Face, but that’s a lot of effort for little return.
• Druid: A single level for Shillelagh and Faerie Fire is good. Leave Good berry for camp casters.
• Fighter: Starting with one level for Constitution save proficiency, heavy armor, and a fighting style is great.
• Monk: Unarmored Defense and you can make an Unarmed Strikle as a Bonus Action. Of course, there is a lot of really good magic armor that’s likely more impactful.
• Paladin: Two levels for smite spells and Divine Smite does a lot to make weapons appealing for the Cleric, but that still won’t beat Spirit Guardians.
• Ranger: If you want martial stuff, the Fighter is better. If you want spellcasting, the Druid is better.
• Rogue: One level for Expertise. Two levels for Cunning Action so that you can Disengage while running Spirit Guardians.
• Sorcerer: No ability overlap. If you want similar spellcasting, for for wizard.
• Warlock: No ability overlap, and the Warlock doesn’t provide anything new thats’s appealing to the Cleric.
• Wizard: One level for access to the Wizard’s entire spell list. Avoid offensive spells since they’ll be Intelligence-based.

Cleric Example Build – Shadowheart, Half-Elf Trickery Cleric

Ability Scores

	RPGBOT Recommended	+2/+1 Increases	Final	Shadowheart’s Defaults
Str	8		8	13
Dex	14		14	13
Con	15	+1	16	14
Int	10		10	10
Wis	15	+2	17	17
Cha	8		8	8

Race

High Half-Elf. Shadowheart is locked into the Fire Bolt cantrip, and since her Intelligence is poor (and you might make it worse by respeccing), it’s functionally useless in combat, but you might occasionally use it to set things on fire, such as spider webs or pools of grease.

Background

Acolyte. We get proficienct in Insight and Religion.

Skill Proficiencies

By default Shadowheart is proficient in History, Insight, Medicine, and Religion. When you respec, replace Medicine with Persuasion. It won’t be useful, but it’s sure better than Medicine.

Feats

At level 4…

At level 8…

At level 12…

Levels

Level	Feat(s) and Features	Notes and Tactics
1
2
3
4	Feat:
5
6
7
8	Feat:
9
10
11
12	Feat: