Welcome to the best Cleric Build for Baldur’s Gate 3. For this Cleric build we’ll be using the Light Domain subclass of the Cleric. The BG3 Light Domain Cleric Build works for both PC and Consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S).

Contrary to what you might expect from a class of this nature, we’ll also be using a bow as our main damage-dealing option when not casting spells for our Cleric build. The reason for this is that the Cleric’s main damage Cantrip is quite weak compared to other Spellcasters.

Light Domain Clerics gain abilities that relate to light and fire, debuffing enemies or dealing damage, or simply lighting the way for their allies.

Cleric Build Table of Contents:

Other BG3 Subclass Cleric Builds:

Pros Cleric Build – Light Domain

  • Excellent at buffing allies
  • Can also debuff enemies
  • Powerful healing magic
  • Good survivability
  • Versatile combatant, fights in melee or at range and can cast spells
  • Helps your party to fight in dark areas

Cons Cleric Build

  • Lacks reliable damage options in the early game
  • No good Cantrips available

BG3 Cleric Build Light Domain

BG3 Cleric Class Guide

BG3 Clerics come in several varieties, but all of them live to enact their deity’s will and power in the world.

Clerics are highly skilled with magic, with access to a range of powerful spells that can deal heavy damage to enemies, debuff them, or buff allies. They also have arguably the best selection of healing spells in the game. They also possess decent skill with some weapons, both melee and ranged, and can wear armour.

All of these properties mean that Clerics are strong hybrid characters, versatile and formidable. A good Cleric build forms the core of your team and can adapt to fill a variety of roles when needed.

The unique class mechanic of Clerics is called Channel Divinity – your Cleric will have a limited number of Channel Divinity charges per Long Rest, and these can be spent to use special abilities. The exact abilities your Cleric can use depends on your chosen subclass.

Clerics can feel a little bit weak at the start of the game since they start with a weak weapon, mediocre armour and a selection of spells that are mostly low-impact, but from around Level 5 onwards, your Cleric will begin to become much more powerful thanks to more powerful spells.

One other problem that commonly presents itself with the Cleric is their lack of a good Cantrip – they do not have access to cantrips like Fire Bolt or Ray of Frost, two of the best Cantrips for dealing damage – this is replaced by Sacred Flame which tends to have a comparatively low hit chance, especially early in the game. Therefore it’s recommended to use a bow instead of cantrips to attack on turns where you aren’t casting spells. The type of bow you can use depends on your chosen race, but we will explain that in more detail in the guide below.

Light Domain Subclass

Light Domain Clerics are arguably the most powerful variant of the Cleric in the game. This is because they have greater damage output from their Channel Divinity actions than any other Cleric subclass.

As they level up, these Clerics gain new spells that mostly revolve around light and fire, helping them to either light the way for their allies, blind enemies, or take a more direct approach and simply burn them to a crisp.

Light Domain Clerics can spend a Reaction and a Channel Divinity Charge to use Warding Flare, briefly blinding an attacking enemy with bright light and making them much more likely to miss their attack. At higher levels, you can also protect your allies with this effect.

From Level 2, you can use Radiance of the Dawn, which deals Radiant Damage to all enemies within 9 metres of you. When you get a good roll, this deals decent damage (around 20-30, depending on your character level).

Character Creation (Level 1) – BG3 Cleric Build

In this section, we will guide you through which options to choose in Character Creation for your BG3 Cleric Build.

Important: You also already have to select your Subclass at level 1, this can be easily overlooked because the game pushes you directly to the main class and then just selects the first option in the subclass menu. Therefore make sure that you have selected the Light Domain subclass.

Background

Your Background gives you Proficiency in two specific skills. It makes sense to become proficient in skills that fall under your primary attributes, which for this build will be Wisdom and Dexterity. The most obvious matches are Urchin, which gives you Proficiency in Stealth and Sleight of Hand (both Dexterity Skills) or Folk Hero, which gives Proficiency in Animal Handling and Survival (both Wisdom Skills).

However, it doesn’t make a huge difference if you’d prefer to choose something else. Your Background choice will have little to no impact on combat, but your choices will make various out of combat ability checks more likely to succeed.

Race

First off it is important to note that you can pick whatever race you want, it won’t affect your gameplay that much. However, there are of course slightly better races for our Cleric build. For example, one very useful thing we can get from our race is Longbow Proficiency. Normally a spellcaster uses Cantrips on turns when they don’t want to use up a spell slot. The Cleric doesn’t have any especially strong damage Cantrips – they’re mainly held back by a low chance of actually hitting the target. Therefore the next best option is to use longbow attacks instead. With that in mind, the following races are good options for the Cleric:

  • Wood Elf – Gains Proficiency in Longbows, as well as very high base Movement Speed.
  • High Elf – Gains Proficiency in Longbows, and can choose an extra Cantrip. Fire Bolt is the best option, however it will roll based on your Intelligence so still suffers from relatively low hit chance.
  • Drow – Gains Proficiency with Hand Crossbows. Can see in the dark up to 24 metres.

Skills

The Cleric can choose two of the following five skills to become Proficient at (in addition to whatever you inherit from Background and Race):

  • History (INT)
  • Insight (WIS)
  • Medicine (WIS)
  • Persuasion (CHA)
  • Religion (INT)

Since we’re focusing on Wisdom and Dexterity, the only two options that are a good match here are Insight and Medicine.

Abilities

As mentioned previously, our most important Abilities for this build are Wisdom (for Spellcasting) and Dexterity (for Armour Class and Bow attacks). You should push both of these as high as possible. With the Wood Elf, you can reach 17 DEX and 16 WIS, which is the best possible starting point.

Next up, it’s always important to but some points into Constitution, which gives you more Hitpoints and increases your chances of winning Concentration Checks (continuing to cast an ongoing Concentration Spell after taking damage).

You need to make sure you have at least 10 Strength, otherwise you may find yourself unable to equip good armour pieces a few hours into your playthrough.

The remaining abilities are of little importance, and you’ll only have a couple of points left anyway, so just put them wherever you want.

Cantrips

In the Class menu, you need to choose three Cantrips to start the game with, from four options. We recommend getting the following Cantrips:

  • Guidance – This is a great ability for out-of-combat situations, and can be cast either on yourself or on an active ally from within the dice roll screen, letting you gain a +4 Advantage on whatever it is you are doing.
  • Resistance – Bolster the target’s defences, giving them a +4 bonus to Saving Throws. This is a Concentration Spell.
  • Sacred Flame – This is the Cleric’s main damage Cantrip, and it’s also the reason we’re using a Longbow. This Cantrip is pretty poor most of the time because it has a low hit chance due to enemies typically having fairly high Dexterity. However Sacred Flame is not a projectile and can therefore hit enemies outside line of sight, which is the one saving grace of the spell that makes it still worth slotting, just in case we can’t get a good shot with our bow.

Spells

Finally, you’ll need to choose four Spells to prepare, from a list of 10 known Spells. We recommend choosing the following Spells:

  • Guiding Bolt – This is a must-pick, because it can deal up to 24 damage right from the start of the game, which is very nice early-game damage. As a bonus, the next person to attack the target will have an Advantage against them.
  • Healing Word – Useful for healing yourself or your allies. At first glance, you might wonder why we chose this instead of Cure Wounds, which has a higher potential healing value. That’s because this skill can be cast at long range, while Cure Wounds needs you to be very close to the target.
  • Bless – Target up to three Allies, giving them an advantage on Attack Rolls and Saving Throws. This improves the attack and defense of your allies, which can be really handy. Note that this is a Concentration Spell, so casting it will break any other Concentration effect you have active.
  • Inflict Wounds – Deals up to 30 Necrotic damage to an enemy. The problem with this spell is that it only works in melee range. We’ll be trying to stay at long range most of the time, so won’t get to use it very often. But if an enemy does get close, you can use this to give them a nasty surprise.

You’ll also get a couple of extra Spells from the Light Domain subclass. These cannot be changed, but it’s worth giving them a mention anyway:

  • Burning Hands – Deals up to 18 Fire Damage in Melee range, and ignites anything flammable. Similarly to Inflict Wounds, this will be seldom used most of the time.
  • Faerie Fire – An AOE spell that encases multiple targets in light, forcing them to be visible and causing any Attack Rolls made against them to have Advantage. This is a Concentration Spell.
  • Light (Cantrip) – Infuse an object with an aura of light.

BG3 Cleric Build PS5/PC - Baldur's Gate 3

Step-by-Step Levelling Guide – Light Cleric

In this section, we have provided a step-by-step guide for levelling up your Cleric, including recommendations at each level for any choices that need to be made, such as Spell and Feat selection.

Level 2 – Cleric Build BG3 for PC/PS5

At Level 2, you’ll gain a new Spell Slot for your Cleric Build in Baldur’s Gate 3, allowing you to cast an extra spell between Long Rests.

You’ll also unlock a special type of ability specific to the Cleric – Channel Divinity Actions.

Channel Divinity Actions have their own number of uses, separate from Spell Slots. To begin with, you only have one use, which can be replenished by either a Short or Long Rest.

With the Light Domain Cleric, you’ll unlock the following Channel Divinity Actions at Level 2:

  • Turn Undead – Present your holy symbol and pray. Each undead that can see or hear you is forced to spend its turns fleeing from you, until it takes damage.
  • Radiance of the Dawn – Harness the sun’s divine power to dispel any magical darkness and deal (2d10 + Cleric Level) Radiant damage to hostile creatures. On a successful save, targets still take half damage. Doesn’t affect creatures that have total cover from you.

Turn Undead is quite a niche spell that you won’t always have use for, but Radiance of the Dawn lets you deal decent damage to all enemies in the area. If you get a very good Damage Roll then you’ll be dealing over 20 damage to all enemies who don’t perform a Saving Throw.

Level 3 – Cleric Build BG3

At Level 3 for your Cleric Build you unlock another First Level Spell Slot, as well as two Second Level Spell Slots.

There’s a couple of Second Level Spells that would be great to prepare at this point:

  • Aid – Heals your allies within 9 metres for 5HP, and also increases their maximum HP by 5, until the next Long Rest. This is a really good long-lasting buff for your party.
  • Hold Person – Paralyse a humanoid creature, making it unable to move and act. At the end of each turns, the creature can try to free itself. This is a Concentration Spell. Very good for putting an enemy out of action for a few turns, but it has a Constitution Saving Throw, so be cautious about casting it on enemies with high HP.

You’ll also unlock a couple of new Domain Spells, which are spells that the Cleric will always have prepared (i.e they automatically go on your action bar without needing to choose them).

  • Flaming Sphere – Summon a flaming sphere that deals 2d6 Fire damage to nearby enemies and objects. It also sheds bright light in a 6 metre radius, and dim light for an additional 6 metres. On a successful save, enemy creatures still take half damage. Requires Concentration, and will continue damaging enemies close to the sphere each turn.
  • Scorching Ray – Hurl three rays of fire. Make a ranged spell attack for each ray. For each ray that hits, you deal 2d6 Fire damage. You can hurl the rays at one target or several.

Flaming Sphere can be a useful AOE spell in tight areas or chokepoints, but Scorching Ray is more widely useful. You can aim all three of the fire rays at the same target, dealing up to 36 damage (on a perfect roll).

Also keep in mind that some of the First Level Spells you already knew can now be upcasted to Second Level, improving their effects but consuming a second level spell slot instead.

Level 4 – Cleric Build Baldur’s Gate 3 for PC/PS5

As with all classes in Baldur’s Gate 3, at Level 4 you’ll need to choose a Feat for your Cleric Build. Feats are powerful passive effects for your character that can enable a specific build or simply boost your stats. We strongly recommend choosing Ability Improvement, which will give you two additional Ability Points. Put them both into Wisdom, which should allow you to reach 18 Wisdom (depending on the race you chose), significantly improving your Spellcasting ability.

If you’ve found that you’re taking damage a lot and failing too many Concentration Checks as a result, then you could instead put one of the points into Constitution. This should help with your Concentration Checks, at the cost of a little spellcasting prowess.

You’ll also gain another First Level and Second Level Spell Slot, and you’ll need to choose another Cantrip. There’s only one Cantrip option that we don’t have already, Thaumaturgy, so it’s time to grab that.

Level 5 – Cleric Build Baldur’s Gate 3

At Level 5 your Cleric’s Spellcasting ability further improves.

Firstly, the Turn Undead Action is now upgraded to Destroy Undead, which will now deal Radiant Damage to undead who are turned by the spell.

You’ll also unlock two Third Level Spell Slots. While this build is quite flexible and it’s up to you which spells you choose here, we recommend taking a close look at the following options:

  • Glyph of Warding – Inscribe a circle of arcane glyphs on the ground that trigger a magical effect when stepped on by an enemy. Only one glyph can be active at a time.
  • Revivify – Revive a companion. They return to life with 1 hit point.
  • Mass Healing Word – Call out words of restoration to heal up to 6 creatures for (1d4 + Wisdom Modifier) hit points. This spell has no effect on undead or constructs.

Of these options, the first two are generally the most powerful. Glyph of Warding lets you conjure an AOE trap that can deal up to 40 AOE damage of various types, and you can even cast them on a cluster of enemies to detonate immediately. Better yet, enemies who perform Saving Throws will still take half damage from the glyph. Be very careful of where you place this, because any allies caught in the blast are going to have a really bad time, possibly even getting downed immediately from the explosion.

Revivify is really handy, especially for first time players, since it allows you to revive allies without needing an expensive Revivication Scroll.

Finally, you’ll unlock another two Domain Spells at Level 5:

  • Daylight – Enchant an item to shine like the sun or summon a sphere of sunlight that dispels all darkness around it.
  • Fireball – Shoot a bright flame from your fingers that explodes upon contact, torching everything in the vicinity for 8d6Damage TypesFire damage. On a successful save, targets still take half damage.

Fireball is another strong spell that has very high damage potential. It’s an AOE that can roll for up to 48 damage, and deals a minimum of 8 damage. If you have clear line of sight to a cluster of enemies then this is really good option.

Level 6

At Level 6, the Cleric Build gains a couple of new features:

  • An extra Channel Divinity Charge, allowing you to use two Channel Divinity Actions per Short/Long Rest.
  • Another Third Level Spell Slot, giving you three in total.
  • Prepare one more Spell. Choose one of the spells from Level 5 that you didn’t get yet.

That’s basically all you get at Level 6, but fortunately, there’s a lot more to come at the next level.

Level 7

At Level 7, you unlock the following:

  • One Fourth Level Spell Slot, and the ability to Prepare Fourth Level Spells.
  • Two more Spells from your chosen Domain (always Prepared). The Light Domain Cleric gets:
    • Guardian of Faith – Hostiles creatures within a 10-ft radius of the created guardian must succeed on a Dex. save or take 20 radiant damage.
    • Wall of Fire – Create a blazing wall of fire, burning anyone who dares stand too close for 5-40 Fire Damage. Requires Concentration to maintain.
  • One more spot for a Prepared Spell. We recommend getting the Banishment Spell, which lets you banish a creature for 2 turns. This is great for temporarily removing a threat, allowing your party to focus on dealing with other enemies.

Level 8

At Level 8 you unlock:

  • Potent Spellcasting – Add your Wisdom modifier to damage you deal with Cantrips.
  • Another Fourth Level Spell Slot, giving you two in total.
  • Choose another Feat. We recommend picking up Ability Improvement and improving your Wisdom to 20. If you have a point spare after doing this, put it into Dexterity.
  • Prepare two more Spells. Freedom of Movement is a useful spell to get here, as it causes the target’s movement to be unaffected by difficult terrain, spells or water until their next Long Rest, and doesn’t require Concentration. For the other slot you can get Death Ward now, but we’ll be replacing it at the next level.

While your Cantrips still suffer from a fairly poor hit chance with Cleric, keep an eye out for opportunities where they’re likely to hit so you can make use of the new Potent Spellcasting buff.

Level 9

At Level 9 your Cleric’s spellcasting continues to improve, as you can now access even more powerful spells. Here you’ll unlock:

  • Another Fourth Level Spell Slot, giving you three in total.
  • One Fifth Level Spell Slot, and the ability to prepare Fifth Level Spells.
  • Two more Domain Spells from your subclass. Light Domain Cleric gets:
    • Destructive Wave – Create a shockwave of either divine or malevolent thunder that damages nearby creatures and possibly knocks them prone. Choose from 5-30 Thunder or Radiant Damage.
    • Flame Strike – Make a pillar of divine fire roar down from the heavens like the wrath of affronted angels. Deals 5-30 Fire and 5-30 Radiant Damage, unless the target rolls a Dexterity Save.
  • Prepare one more spell, plus another one to replace Death Ward from Level 8:
    • Dispel Evil and Good – End a condition (charmed, frightened, or possessed) or banish a creature to its home plane.
    • Insect Plague – Locusts attack everyone within a 12 metre area, dealing 4-40 Piercing Damage, making the area Difficult Terrain, and imposing Disadvantage on Perception Checks. Damage halved on targets that roll a Constitution Save.

Level 10

At Level 10 the Cleric unlocks a unique single-use feature to invoke the aid of their god. You gain:

  • Another Fifth Level Spell Slot, giving you two in total.
  • Choose one more Cantrip. We already picked up the most important Cantrips, so you can choose whatever you like here.
  • Divine Intervention – Once per character, invoke your god’s aid. When activating this, you can choose from:
    • Sunder the Heretical – Deal 8-80 Radiant damage to a group of enemies.
    • Arm Thy Servant – Grants you a Legendary weapon.
    • Opulent Revival – Resurrect fallen Companions with half health and restore nearby allies as if they had Long Rested.
    • Golden Generosity – Provides a rich bounty of Potions and Camp Supplies.
  • Prepare one more Spell. Greater Restoration is a good option – it allows you to cure a range of Conditions and debuffs from your allies.

Divine Intervention is a potentially good passive for helping you out in a pinch. But beware that this can only be used once per character. There is no way to recharge the ability.

Level 11

At Level 11 you don’t gain any new class abilities, but you do get access to Sixth Level Spells, the most powerful tier of magic in Baldur’s Gate 3.

You’ll gain one Sixth Level Spell Slot, and as usual you’ll be able to prepare one more Spell.

A good option is the Heal spell, which heals 70 HP and cures all diseases, Blindness and Deafness. This is a great healing spell because you don’t need to worry about the possibility of getting a low healing roll, which is a frustrating possibility with most other healing spells in the game.

Level 12

If you’ve reached this point, then you have finished leveling up your Cleric to max level. Congratulations!

At Level 12 you can choose one more Feat for your Cleric Build. Picking up War Caster is a good idea, as it gives you Advantage on Concentration Checks. Since the Cleric often spends a lot of time in close proximity to enemies while also spellcasting, this is really helpful for making your Concentration Spells more resilient. As a bonus, War Caster also lets you zap enemies who get too close with lightning.

You can also choose one more Spell to prepare. Planar Ally will allow you to summon a powerful celestial, elemental or fiend that will help you in combat in exchange for a payment.

Baldur's Gate 3 Cleric Shadowheart Build

Cleric Build Equipment for Baldur’s Gate 3

In this section we will outline the best equipment recommendations for your Light Cleric. We have included both an early game and a late game section for equipment, so you can use this build no matter how far through the game you are.

Don’t worry if you don’t have all of the listed equipment, and feel free to try out different items and combinations too – this is just a guideline and the build can still work great with some of the equipment changed.

Early-Game

Early-Game equipment is available in Act I and the earlier parts of Act II. It is generally less powerful than the late-game version of the build, however there are still some really handy items that you can find fairly early on in your BG3 playthrough.

You can check below the table for more detailed information about each item, including how to obtain them.

Slot Item
Helmet Wapira’s Crown
Armour Adamantine Scale Mail
Gloves Hellrider’s Pride
Boots Vital Conduit Boots
Cloak Cloak of Protection
Amulet Pearl of Power Amulet
Ring 1 The Whispering Promise
Ring 2 Ring of Protection
Melee main hand The Blood of Lathander
Melee off hand Shield of Devotion
Ranged Spellthief (if you have Longbow Proficiency)

Wapira’s Crown

Whenever you heal another creature, you also gain 1d6 HP. This is a decent early game heal and it’s basically free. Even though the Light Domain Cleric isn’t focused on healing, it can still make for a decent healer when needed, so this item is a good fit. You get Wapira’s Crown as a reward from Zevlor for doing the Save the Refugees quest, provided you accept the monetary reward. It is inside the sack he gives you.

Adamantine Scale-Mail

The Adamantine Scale-Mail is a very strong piece of Medium Armour that can be obtained fairly early in the game. It reduces all incoming damage by 1, prevents you from receiving Critical Hits, and debuffs enemies who attack you. To craft it, you need to go to the Grymforge, find the Scale-Mail Mould and some Mithral Ore, then activate the Adamantine Forge with these components slotted into place.

Hellrider’s Pride

With Hellrider’s Pride, whenever you heal another creature they get the Blade Ward condition for 2 turns, giving a 50% resistance to Bludgeoning, Slashing and Piercing damage. They are carried by Zevlor in the Druid Grove. You can get them as a reward for finishing the Investigate Kagha quest. Alternatively you may buy them from him or steal them via pickpocketing.

Vital Conduit Boots

The Vital Conduit Boots give you 8 Temporary HP whenever you cast a spell that requires Concentration. The Cleric has many such spells, so these boots are a really good fit. They are sold by A’jak’nir Jeera in Crèche Y’llek at the end of Act I. To find this area, you need to take the Mountain Pass route to Act II and explore the Rosymorn Monastery.

Cloak of Protection

The Cloak of Protection is a simple defensive item that gives you a +1 bonus to your Saving Throw rolls and your Armour Class, making you a little more resistant to a variety of attacks and hostile effects. It is sold by Quartermaster Talli in Last Light Inn, in Act II.

Pearl of Power Amulet

The Pearl of Power Amulet lets you restore a spell slot of first, second or third level, once per Long Rest. This is particularly handy in the early game when you don’t have a huge number of spell slots available. It is sold by Omeluum in the Myconid Colony, in the Underdark. To trade with them, you must first finish their quest to help them investigate the parasite.

The Whispering Promise

The Whispering Promise is another item that gives a very nice extra buff with healing spells. Whenever you heal a creature, they get the Blessed buff for 2 turns, giving them a 1d4 bonus to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws. This item can appear in several locations:

If the item isn’t available in any of these vendors, you can do a Long Rest to reset their wares. You don’t need to use any camp supplies when doing a Long Rest for this purpose.

Ring of Protection

The Ring of Protection basically does the same thing as the Cloak of Protection, giving a +1 bonus to Saving Throws and Armour Class. You get it as a reward from Mol for completing the quest to steal the Sacred Idol, in the Druid Grove.

The Blood of Lathander

A legendary mace with a +3 bonus to its Attack Rolls and Damage, The Blood of Lathander will also heal you when you reach 0 HP, once per Long Rest, and lets you cast a weaker version of the Sunbeam spell, which can be a big help in Act II for dealing very high damage to groups of shadow-cursed undead enemies.

Obtaining the Mace requires you to fully explore the Rosymorn Monastery and enter the secret area by solving the statue puzzle, near where you meet Vlaakith’s projection. It is protected by a trap, which you can either disable by collecting the Ceremonial Weapons found in the Monastery, or you can take it without disabling the trap, in which case you should ensure the character who grabs it has a self-teleport ability like Misty Step, and give everyone a Potion of Speed to make sure they can escape from the Monastery in time.

Shield of Devotion

A good early-to-mid-game shield, the Shield of Devotion grants you an extra level 1 Spell Slot and lets you use your Reaction to try to knock over an enemy who hit you with a melee attack. It also grants you a unique version of the Aid spell, however this version only casts on you and not on your team, and it will not stack with the normal version. Be careful when using this, as it will replace the buff you have from the normal version of Aid.

The Shield of Devotion is sold by Quartermaster Talli in Last Light Inn, in Act II.

Spellthief

A handy Longbow for an early-game spellcaster, Spellthief can restore a Level 1 Spell Slot once per Long Rest, by landing a Critical Hit with the weapon. It is sold by Arron in the Druid Grove.

If you don’t have Proficiency with Longbows then you can substitute this for a different ranged weapon that’s more suited to your character.

Late-Game

Late-Game Equipment is found in Act III and the latter parts of Act II, however some items from the early-game may also find their way onto this list, if they are powerful enough to remain competitive with items found in the latter parts of the game.

At this stage of the game we are mainly focusing on finding items that improve our Spell Save Difficulty Class – increasing this stat means that enemies need to roll a higher number to succeed a Saving Throw against our spells.

However most items that improve this stat are fairly light on the defensive side, therefore we have included a couple of optional items that you can use instead if you’re struggling to stay alive with the optimal setup.

Slot Item
Helmet Hood of the Weave
Armour Armour of Landfall OR Armour of Agility
Gloves Helldusk Gloves
Boots Helldusk Boots
Cloak Cloak of the Weave
Amulet Amulet of the Devout OR Amulet of Greater Health
Ring 1 Ring of Feywild Sparks
Ring 2 Ring of Protection
Melee main hand Blood of Lathander OR Devotee’s Mace
Melee off hand Viconia’s Walking Fortress
Ranged The Dead Shot

Hood of the Weave

The Hood of the Weave grants a +2 bonus to your Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls, making all of your spells more likely to succeed at damaging or applying a condition to their target. It is sold by Mystic Carrion in Philgrave’s Mansion in Act III.

Armour of Landfall

We’re going with the Armour of Landfall for one main reason – it gives another +1 buff to your Spell Save DC. However as added bonuses, it also gives you Advantage on Constitution Saving Throws, lets you use the Plant Growth spell to summon vines, and heals you 1d4 per turn when standing on vines. This armour can be obtained by one of the following methods, depending on the status of certain characters in your playthrough:

  • If Rolan is dead – Sold by Lorroakan’s Projection in Sorcerous Sundries
  • If Rolan and Lorroakan are both alive – Sold by Rolan in Sorcerous Sundries
  • If Rolan is alive but Lorroakan is dead – Pickpocket from Rolan in Ramazith’s Tower

The drawback of this armour is that it is Light Armour and has a low Armour Class of only 13 – this build is not especially high on Dexterity so this is a bit risky. If you have a hard time because of this, then you can use the next item instead.

Armour of Agility (Alternative Armour)

The Armour of Agility will solve any problems presented by having a low armour class. It has a base Armour Class of 17, and your Dexterity Modifier will also be added to your Armour Class (which will be +2 if your Dexterity is still at 14). As an extra bonus, you get +2 added onto all of your Saving Throw rolls, making for a decent all-round defensive armour. This item is sold by Gloomy Fentonson in Stormshore Armoury, in Act III.

Helldusk Gloves

The Helldusk Gloves are important because they give another +1 bonus to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls. Your weapon attacks will also do 1d6 extra Fire Damage with these gloves equipped. They are dropped by Haarlep in the House of Hope.

Helldusk Boots

With the Helldusk Boots equipped, you cannot be forcibly moved by hostile spells or actions, and you are immune to being slowed down by Difficult Terrain. You can also use your Reaction to automatically succeed a failed Saving Throw. These effects are especially good for your Light Domain Cleric, as they are very likely to be the spellcasting core of your party, and the Helldusk Boots will make it much harder for enemies to prevent you from casting spells.

The Helldusk Boots can be found in a locked Gilded Chest on the top floor of Wyrm’s Rock Fortress. Take the boots before Gortash’s Coronation to avoid making nearby NPCs hostile.

Cloak of the Weave

The Cloak of the Weave gives you another +1 bonus to Spell Save DC and Spell Attack Rolls, making it even harder for enemies to resist the effects of your spells. Once per Short Rest, you can absorb half of the next elemental attack that targets you, and imbue your next outgoing attack with 1d6 of the same element.

The Cloak of the Weave is sold by Helsik at the Devil’s Fee, once her special stock has been unlocked.

Amulet of the Devout

The Amulet of the Devout adds another +2 bonus to Spell Save DC. It also grants an extra Channel Divinity Charge. Found in the main offering chest in the basement of Stormshore Tabernacle. Beware that looting it will curse your character, so come prepared with some way to cleanse curses, or be prepared to deal with the curse’s consequences when looting this item!

Amulet of Greater Health (Alternative Amulet)

If you’re struggling with survivability, then the Amulet of Greater Health is the solution to your troubles. It improves your Constitution to 23, which will have the side effect of considerably improving your max HP, too. You also get Advantage on Constitution Saving Throws (which you may or may not already have from the Armour of Landfall).

Can be stolen from a trapped pedestal in the Archive of the House of Hope.

Ring of Feywild Sparks

You might be a little confused about why we’re recommending this ring here, since its stated purpose is to buff Tides of Chaos, a Wild Magic Sorcerer feature. The reason is that this ring has a hidden +1 bonus to Spell Save DC that’s not included in the tooltip.

The Ring is looted from Auntie Ethel in the cellar of The Blushing Mermaid, in the Lower City (Act III).

Devotee’s Mace

An optional alternative to the Blood of Lathander, the Devotee’s Mace can be obtained at Level 10 by using your Divine Intervention Action and choosing Arm Thy Servant. Remember that once a character uses Divine Intervention, they can never use it again! You can bypass this limitation by recruiting a Cleric hireling and getting them to summon the Devotee’s Mace for you, or by temporarily respeccing another character to Cleric – this could be considered a mild exploit so it’s up to you if you want to do that or not.

This Mace has a +3 bonus to Attack Rolls and Damage (the same as Blood of Lathander), and gives you the Healing Incense Aura action, which heals you and all nearby allies by 1d4 every turn for 10 turns.

Viconia’s Walking Fortress

The strongest shield in the game, Viconia’s Walking Fortress gives you a +3 boost to Armour Class, lets you knock over your melee assailants and deal Force Damage to them (using a Reaction), gives you Advantage on Saving Throws against Spells, gives all enemy Spell Attack Rolls against you Disadvantage, gives you access to the Warding Bond spell and the Reflective Shell action.

This shield is looted from Viconia DeVir in the Cloister of Sombre Embrace, in Act III.

The Dead Shot

The Dead Shot reduces the Attack Roll number needed to crit with the bow by 1, and doubles your Proficiency Bonus when attacking with the bow (effectively improving your accuracy). It is sold by Fytz the Firecracker in Stormshore Armoury, Lower City.

Cleric Build Tips & Tricks – BG3

Remember that the whole reason we chose the Longbow for the Baldur’s Gate 3 Cleric build is that this class sadly lacks an offensive Cantrip that is reliable. So whenever you don’t need to spend an Action casting a Spell, you’ll usually want to use the Action up by shooting your bow.

Try to stack up as many advantageous factors as possible to maximise your hit chance with the bow – get high ground whenever possible, don’t let enemies get into melee range, maintain good line of sight, and utilise spells and cantrips that give you advantages and/or enemy disadvantages.

Guiding Bolt is a great opener, especially in the early game, since it will give you an advantage on the next attack against the enemy.

Other Baldur’s Gate 3 Builds

If you want to check out the map of Baldur’s Gate 3, please visit the Baldur’s Gate 3 Interactive Map.