Welcome to our Ultimate BG3 Shadowheart Build. Clerics like Shadowheart can be challenging to play for beginners because she sometimes feels weak early in the game. However, this guide will provide you with a very powerful Shadowheart Companion setup suitable for beginners and experienced players alike.

This build will work on any difficulty, and you can use it for other Clerics other than Shadowheart if you want. Our BG3 Shadowheart Build works for PC and Console (PS5 and Xbox Series X/S).

While Shadowheart begins as a Trickery Domain Cleric, we’ll change that to Light Domain to make this build work and make her a better companion throughout the game. This makes the build especially thematically suited to a “good playthrough”, but that depends on whether you are concerned about roleplaying to that extent or not.

Please visit our Best BG3 Builds overview page for more builds. For more BG3 Cleric Builds, check out our Best BG3 Cleric Guide or BG3 Best Healer Cleric Build. To get an overview of all classes, please visit the BG3 Classes overview page.

Table of Contents:

Shadowheart Build BG3 – First Steps

In this section, we will cover how to recruit Shadowheart in BG3 and how to respec her to Light Domain Cleric for this build. If you’re an experienced player who already knows this, you can just skip to the next part.

How to Recruit Shadowheart in BG3

Shadowheart is one of the most straightforward BG3 companions to recruit, in fact the game pushes you harder to recruit her than any other character. The quickest way to recruit her (and start off with the best possible relations) is to free her during the prologue and then find her on the beach:

  • In the final room of the prologue before you climb up to the ship’s helm, you will find Shadowheart in a pod banging on the door.
  • Head to the optional side-room (it has another pod in the middle of the room) and look around until you find the Eldritch Rune. Pick it up.
  • Return to the console next to Shadowheart’s pod and use the Eldritch Rune to unlock it.
  • Use the console to open the pod.
  • Ask Shadowheart to join you and then complete the prologue.
  • After the Prologue, walk along the beach slightly and you will find Shadowheart knocked out on the ground. Wake her up and get her to join you again.
    • If you somehow missed Shadowheart in BG3, you can later find her banging on a door further up the beach at the side-entrance to the Dank Crypt. If you missed her for a really long time, she’ll turn up at the Druid Grove eventually as a last way to recruit her for this playthrough.

How to unlock Shadowheart in BG3 inside the pod ship

How to Respec Shadowheart in BG3

Recruit a full party, then head to the Refectory Ruins, roughly north of where you washed up on the beach. Enter the ruins either by brute force, stealth or sweet-talking the bandits outside. Then fight your way through and find the Skull Lever to open the secret door to gain access to the Dank Crypt. If you can’t find the Skull Lever, you can instead go back outside and head to the side-entrance mentioned above. You’ll need to Lockpick your way through if you go this way.

Once inside the Dank Crypt, head to the room with the skeletons and open a second secret door. This will cause several skeletons to attack you. Defeat them and head into the small room you opened. Interact with the big coffin and you will meet a friendly but mysterious skeleton called Withers. After you leave the Dank Crypt, he will make his way to your camp. If he’s not there immediately, be patient, he will show up sooner or later.

Once he is in your camp, speak to him as Shadowheart and ask him to change your class. This costs 100 gold. You can then select Cleric and Light Domain Cleric. Once you’ve done that, you’re all set to get started with this BG3 Shadowheart build.

We’ll now proceed with explaining this BG3 Shadowheart Cleric build, including the background info, how the build works and how you can create and use it.

BG3 Cleric Class Guide for Shadowheart

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 and Shadowheart are strong hybrid characters, versatile and formidable. A good BG3 Shadowheart 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 Short 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.

The other problem with the Cleric that is especially noticeable in the early-game is their lack of a strong damage cantrip. Their best option is Sacred Flame, but this uses a Wisdom roll instead of an Attack Roll, and if the target performs a saving throw then they take no damage at all. This makes it too difficult to hit many enemies with this Cantrip early on, leading to frustrating combat experiences when you have used all of your Spell Slots.

The way to get around this is to avoid using Sacred Flame as much, instead using a Shortbow to deal ranged damage on turns where you don’t want or need to spend a Spell Slot. If you have Proficiency with a better type of ranged weapon, such as Crossbows or Longbows, use one of those instead as they deal more damage than Shortbows. Even if the start can be tough as Shadowheart, she will get a lot better once you have leveled up a few times.

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. They’re also able to protect their allies from a lot of enemy attacks.

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 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).

Best BG3 Shadowheart Build Light Domain Cleric

BG3 Shadowheart Build at Level 1

Here we will look at the BG3 Shadowheart Build’s status at Level 1, before we begin leveling up. This is how the build should look immediately after doing the respec to Light Domain.

Race: High Half-Elf

Shadowheart is a High Half-Elf. This race isn’t very good and is actually a bad fit for Clerics, but it’s not possible to change Shadowheart’s race without modding the game, so it is what it is. One positive of High Half-Elf is the ability to choose an extra Cantrip from the Wizard list. These Cantrips all unfortunately use Intelligence as the spellcasting attribute, something that is not prioritized for Clerics, so you will struggle a lot to deal damage with these Cantrips. It’s therefore better to choose a supportive one like Blade Ward, Friends or Mage Hand.

You’ll also get Proficiency with Pikes, Spears, Halberds, and Glaives from your Human ancestry, and Advantage* on Saving Throws against Charm (and immunity to the Sleep spell) from your High Elf ancestry, as well as the Darkvision passive feature.

The most useful things here are the Sleep immunity (Sleep is a really annoying control spell and a lot of enemies will spam it if a party member has low HP) and the Darkvision (makes you more likely to hit enemies in dark places).

Ability Point Distribution

In Baldur’s Gate 3, Shadowheart starts the game with an ability distribution that is a little suboptimal in my opinion. But when you respec her to the Light Domain Cleric, you will also have the opportunity to fix this.

I recommend starting with the following ability distribution:

  • 10 Strength
  • 14 Dexterity
  • 16 Constitution
  • 8 Intelligence
  • 17 Wisdom
  • 8 Charisma

Wisdom is the most important Cleric attribute, as all of your spells scale from this stat. Low Wisdom means less hit chance with most of your spells. Constitution improves your HP and makes your Concentration Spells more likely to stay active after you take damage. Dexterity improves your Armour Class and makes you better at lockpicking.

We have enough Constitution and Dexterity here to see us through to the end of the game, so the only ability we will upgrade as we level up is Wisdom.

Starting Cantrips

We recommend choosing the following Cleric Cantrips to begin with:

  • 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 1d4 boost to a range of dice rolls.
  • Resistance – Bolster the target’s defences, giving them a 1d4 bonus to Saving Throws. This is a Concentration Spell. Can be used in some dialogue encounters in the same way as Guidance, but these are a bit less common.
  • Sacred Flame – This is the Cleric’s main damage Cantrip. It suffers from low hit chance due to the fact that enemies can perform a Wisdom Saving Throw to completely block the damage. Still, there are situations in BG3 where Radiant Damage is really good and I’ve seen this hit for over 80 damage, so it’s worth slotting as long as you are aware of its limitations. Check the hit chance before casting, and if it’s below 70% just do something else.

Starting Spells

The following spells are a perfect fit for Shadowheart at Level 1:

  • Guiding Bolt – This is a must-pick, because it can deal up to 24 ranged 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 in arms reach of the target, which just isn’t going to cut it. A good healing spell needs to be easy to use in all situations, and that’s what Healing Word gives you.
  • Bless – Target up to three Allies, giving them a buff 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. Use this when fighting early-game boss enemies like the Gnolls on Risen Road – it’s going to help a lot while you’re stuck with weak early-game weapons. Keep Shadowheart safe from damage when she’s using a spell like this – on Tactician difficulty enemies will focus their attacks on anyone who is concentrating on a spell, so you’ll need to be doubly careful with this if you are playing on Tactician.
  • Inflict Wounds – Deals up to 30 Necrotic damage to an enemy. Can be upcast for more damage later in the game. The problem with this spell is that it only works in melee range. But it can hit really hard. Only use it when the hit chance is decent (at least 70%) otherwise it becomes another Sacred Flame situation.

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. I don’t like this spell because the range is really low, but it’s good if several enemies decide to be silly and clump up in a small area.
  • 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 so remember not to use it at the same time as Bless! This spell can be really powerful, but sometimes you just get unlucky and all the targets succeed their Saving Throw.
  • Light (Cantrip) – Infuse an object with an aura of light. Self Explanatory. Occasionally useful.

*Advantage – For the uninitiated, Advantage means that you roll two dice instead of one, and the highest number will be chosen for your roll. This substantially improves your chances of a successful outcome. On the contrary, a Disadvantage means that you roll two dice and must use the lowest number for your roll. The same mechanics apply to the hidden dice rolls that happen in combat, so if a spell like Guiding Bolt gives you Advantage on your next Attack Roll, then this is what it actually means.

BG3 Shadowheart Build level 1 stats setup

BG3 Shadowheart Step-by-Step Leveling Guide

Now that we’ve covered the starting foundation of the build, we can begin looking at how you should progress the build as you level up.

Level 2

At Level 2, you’ll gain a new Spell Slot for your Shadowheart 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 action 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. Look out for enemies who are vulnerable to Radiant damage, as you can get especially good value from Radiance of the Dawn against those enemies.

You also get one extra prepared spell slot. Select Create or Destroy Water. This is a nice spell that can help you extinguish fire in combat or during a quest.

Level 3 – Shadowheart Build BG3

At Level 3 for your Shadowheart 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. Use this after every Long Rest to improve your party’s health. Later on you can upcast the spell to increase the effect by 5HP per spell level.
  • 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. Melee attacks against the stunned creature are guaranteed crits, so this is especially good when combined with a melee heavy hitter in your party, like Karlach, Laezel or any other Fighter/Barbarian/Paladin.

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. Later on you can upcast the spell – each spell level will add another spell projectile. I often find this spell to be a bit disappointing, but when you get lucky and all of the Rays hit, it can do really good damage.

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.

I also want to point out the Prayer of Healing spell. This heals your entire party by a significant amount, but only outside combat. It’s especially useful on Tactician difficulty where Camp Supplies are scarce. Use it to heal your party when you’re out of Short Rests but it feels too soon to take a Long Rest (because you have too many Spell Slots and action charges left, for example). Thanks to the Cleric’s ability to slot and unslot spells freely, you can do this whenever you want without needing to reserve a spot for it.

For now, our recommended prepared spell slots are:

  • Guiding Bolt
  • Healing Word
  • Bless
  • Inflict Wounds
  • Create or Destroy Water
  • Prayer of Healing

If you don’t use a certain spell ever, feel free to swap it out with something else you might think could be worth it.

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

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 19 Wisdom.

You’ll also gain another First Level and Second Level Spell Slot, and you’ll need to choose another Cantrip. We’ll pick up Thaumaturgy, which is very occasionally useful in dialogue checks.

You can slot two more spells now (one from leveling up, another from improving our Wisdom Modifier, you have to go into the spell menu to see the second slot). The following spells are great choices:

  • Spiritual Weapon – Summon a spiritual weapon to help you in combat. The weapon can be controlled and deals Force damage. This is good for dealing extra damage in the early-game, and it’s also good for distracting enemies when you’re outnumbered. Enemies will often waste their time attacking this instead of your party members. It only has 20 HP but it is resistant to most damage, so it’s actually good for this purpose.
  • Enhance Ability – Choose an ability and give yourself or an ally Advantage in all checks of that ability until you lose Concentration on the spell. This is a very powerful buff for both combat and non-combat situations, but it does prevent you from casting any other Concentration spells.

Level 5 – Shadowheart Build Baldur’s Gate 3

At Level 5 Shadowheart’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 in BG3.

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. This is good because you no longer need to carry around Revivification Scrolls to revive casualties. I don’t recommend using it in combat unless you can immediately heal the person you revived.
  • Spirit Guardians – Create an AOE of either Radiant or Necrotic damage that follows Shadowheart, damaging and slowing down all enemies who enter. The Radiant version of this spell is especially good in areas with undead, as they tend to be weak to Radiant damage. Shadowheart can deal loads of damage by casting this and then running through a crowd of enemies. Just beware of opportunist attacks if you do this.

Luckily Clerics like Shadowheart can change their prepared spells at any time (as long as they aren’t in combat) by accessing the Spells menu. So if you don’t like your choices, keep trying new spells until you find ones you like.

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 8d6 Fire 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. Daylight is useful in the early parts of Act II (no spoilers here, though).

For now, our recommended prepared spell setup for the BG3 Shadowheart build looks like this:

  • Guiding Bolt
  • Healing Word
  • Bless
  • Inflict Wounds
  • Create or Destroy Water
  • Prayer of Healing
  • Spiritual Weapon
  • Enhance Ability
  • Spirit Guardians

BG3 Shadowheart Build Level 5 setup

Level 6

At Level 6, Shadowheart 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. Revivify is great, it allows you to res group members without a resurrection scroll.

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 – Summons an immobile Guardian. On his turn he attacks a nearby enemy for 20 Radiant Damage. Enemies who move or attack while within range of the Guardian are also attacked. Every time the Guardian attacks, he also deals 20 Radiant Damage to himself.
    • 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 Freedom of Movement, an excellent situational spell that allows you to snap an ally out of any stun or immobilising effect. This spell has been a life-saver for me several times. The only drawback is that you need to be next to the target.

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 getting Resilience and using it to max out your Wisdom to 20. This will also give you Advantage on Wisdom Saving Throws, making them highly likely to succeed from now on.
  • Prepare two more Spells. There aren’t many more good options for now, Banishment can occasionally be useful but it’s very situational, and Death Ward is generally a waste of a spell in my view. Still, grab them for now and we’ll replace them on the next level when we unlock better options.

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. Sacred Flame in particular can hit really hard when it’s used properly, but there’s little point using it if the hit chance is too low.

Level 9

At Level 9 Shadowheart’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 two more to replace Death Ward and Banishment from Level 8:
    • Dispel Evil and Good – Allows you to dispel mind-controlling conditions (Charmed, Frightened, Possessed). While active, Aberrations, Celestials, Elementals, Fiends, Fey and Undead have Disadvantage when attacking you.
    • 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. This is one of the best spells in the Cleric arsenal, and can turn a chokepoint into a deadly killzone that enemies will really struggle to penetrate. Especially useful in Act III due to the narrow streets and tunnels, which make chokepoint tactics especially good.
    • Mass Cure Wounds – A good multi-target healing spell.

Our Shadowheart prepared spells setup looks like this now:

  • Guiding Bolt
  • Healing Word
  • Bless
  • Inflict Wounds
  • Create or Destroy Water
  • Prayer of Healing
  • Spiritual Weapon
  • Enhance Ability
  • Spirit Guardians
  • Revivify
  • Freedom of Movement
  • Mass Cure Wounds
  • Insect Plague
  • Dispel Evil and Good

Once again, if you see yourself never using a specific spell swap it out with something else that you think could be useful.

Level 10

At Level 10 Shadowheart unlocks another spell, and the ability to get a one-off boon from Shar or Selune. 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.

I highly recommend the Heroes’ Feast spell, which gives another defensive buff to your whole party to use alongside the Aid spell.

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 allows you to summon a powerful creature to fight alongside you, not only dealing good damage to enemies but also redirecting some enemy attacks toward your summoned creature rather than your party members.

BG3 Shadowheart max level setup

To reiterate, the following prepared spells are recommended for the BG3 Shadowheart Build like shown in the image.

  • Guiding Bolt
  • Healing Word
  • Bless
  • Inflict Wounds
  • Create or Destroy Water
  • Prayer of Healing
  • Spiritual Weapon
  • Enhance Ability
  • Spirit Guardians
  • Revivify
  • Freedom of Movement
  • Mass Cure Wounds
  • Insect Plague
  • Dispel Evil and Good
  • Heroes’ Feast
  • Planar Ally

Shadowheart Build Equipment for Baldur’s Gate 3

In this section, we will outline the best equipment recommendations for Shadowheart in BG3. 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 Gear

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 Luminous Armour
Gloves Luminous Gloves
Boots Vital Conduit Boots
Cloak Cloak of Protection
Amulet Pearl of Power Amulet
Ring 1 The Whispering Promise
Ring 2 Coruscation Ring
Melee main hand The Blood of Lathander
Melee off hand Shield of Devotion
Ranged Any Shortbow

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.

Luminous Armour

The Luminous Armour allows BG3 Shadowheart to inflict nearby enemies with the Radiating Orb debuff whenever she deals Radiant damage. This powerful debuff reduces all Attack Rolls by 1 per stack. In this build we will be able to apply lots of Radiating Orb stacks at the same time, giving massive debuffs that cause normally powerful enemies to miss most of their attacks.

When the affected enemy attempts an attack, 1 stack of Radiating Orb is removed, so we need more ways to apply the debuff in order to stack it adequately, We’ll be using more items that play into this mechanic below.

Luminous Armour also has an Armour Class of 15, making it a good piece of medium armour early in the game.

You can find the Luminous Armour in an opulent chest in the Selunite Outpost in the Underdark (Act I). This is the fortified area that you arrive in when entering the Underdark via the Shattered Sanctum entrance.

Luminous Gloves

The Luminous Gloves work in much the same way as Luminous Armour, applying 1 turn of Radiating Orb to the target when you deal Radiant damage to them. You also get a +1 bonus to your Strength Saving Throws.

The Luminous Gloves are found inside the Potter’s Chest in the Ruined Battlefield area of Act II.

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 Coruscation

The Ring of Coruscation is another item that plays into the Radiating Orb mechanic. Whenever you deal damage with a spell while you are illuminated by a light source, you apply 2 stacks of Radiating Orb to the target.

This item can be found in a chest behind the cracked wall in the cellar of Last Light Inn, Act II.

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 (or destroy the trap) in time.

Adamantine Shield

A supremely powerful shield you that can be crafted at the Adamantine Forge in Act I. This is the best shield you’ll find until Act III, and even then it’s arguably the best shield in the game because it makes you completely immune to Critical Hits. This shield is going to make you much much durable.

Make sure to find both pieces of Mithral Ore near the Grymforge so you can craft two Adamantine items!

BG3 Shadowheart Light Domain setup

Late-Game Gear

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 Luminous Armour
Gloves Luminous Gloves
Boots Helldusk Boots
Cloak Cloak of the Weave
Amulet Amulet of the Devout OR Amulet of Greater Health
Ring 1 Callous Glow Ring
Ring 2 Coruscation Ring
Melee main hand Blood of Lathander OR The Sacred Star
Melee off hand Viconia’s Walking Fortress
Ranged Any Shortbow

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.

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.

Callous Glow Ring

The Callous Glow Ring causes you to deal an extra 2 Radiant damage when attacking an enemy who is illuminated by a light source.

Not only is this a handy source of extra damage, it also synergises well with the Luminous Armour and related items, letting you add even more stacks of Radiating Orb to enemies.

The Callous Glow Ring can be found in an opulent chest in the vault room of the Gauntlet of Shar, near Balthazar in Act 2.

The Sacred Star

The Sacred Star is the perfect weapon for playing into the Radiating Orb mechanic, and I strongly recommend that you use the weapon for this BG3 Shadowheart build.

All attacks with the weapon will automatically inflict 1 turn of Radiating Orb on hit, and deals Radiant damage when it hits too, which can in turn trigger other items like the Luminous Armour and Gloves.

The Sacred Star can be purchased from Vicar Humbletoes in Stormshore Tabernacle, Lower City (Act III).

Viconia’s Walking Fortress

Arguably 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.

You can keep using the Adamantine Shield instead, if you prefer. Both options are very strong.

How to Play Shadowheart in BG3

Now that we’ve fully explained the process of creating this Shadowheart build for Baldur’s Gate 3, we will give you some tips about using the build.

Early-Game Shadowheart BG3 Strategy

This BG3 Shadowheart build is obviously weakest when you are low-level, but this can be a particular problem for Shadowheart and other Clerics. Their attacks tend to be rather weak early on, and they don’t have many reliable damage options from spells and cantrips either. Inflict Wounds is your best damage source early in the game, but it often has a low hit chance.

I recommend being especially careful with your Actions early in the game so you don’t waste turns. Attack when there are good opportunities, but otherwise you are best off focusing on supporting and healing allies, and debuffing enemies. Once you obtain some of the Radiating Orb equipment (like the Luminous Armour and Gloves) you can start debuffing enemies quite easily, especially when you combine this with the Light Domain’s Radiance of the Dawn action, which deals strong Radiant damage in a large AOE and can apply many stacks of Radiating Orb to nearby enemies. Unfortunately you only get one or two uses per Short Rest at this early stage of the game, but even that is very helpful.

This state of affairs lasts until you reach Level 5, at which point Shadowheart starts unlocking some much better spells.

Mid-Game Shadowheart BG3 Strategy

In the Mid-Game, Shadowheart is stronger, with a more useful range of spells and abilities. Spirit Guardians is especially good, because many enemies in Act II are weak to Radiant damage. Act II is also a very interesting time in Shadowheart’s story, so make sure to explore the zone fully and don’t miss anything important here.

In spite of the stronger spells, in many fights you’ll still be best off with supporting allies as Shadowheart for now, since we’re still lacking the late-game Cleric spells which are some of the best in the game. Still, if you’ve been collecting the recommended equipment then by now you should be able to put crippling debuffs on enemies with Radiating Orb, even making boss enemies greatly struggle to hit you, and you have good AOE damage potential from spells like Spirit Guardians, Glyph of Warding and Fireball.

Late-Game Shadowheart BG3 Strategy

Once you reach level 9 and above, you’ll start unlocking spells like Insect Plague and Flame Strike. Generally speaking, Insect Plague is the best offensive spell in Shadowheart’s arsenal, as it puts a massive movement speed debuff on anyone caught within, and deals up to 40 Piercing damage per turn. It works amazingly well in chokepoints where enemies cannot find another way to reach you. Dropping it on top of a cluster of enemies can also be really strong, even if they’re not in a chokepoint.

If you want a larger burst of damage immediately though, you’re usually better off using Flame Strike instead. Another crude but potentially devastating damage option you have for single targets is upcasted Inflict Wounds. This old level 1 spell scales really well when upcast, and can crit in excess of 100 damage if you’re lucky.

Make sure to keep buffing your party’s HP by upcasting Aid after every Long Rest, and when you hit Level 11 you can also add Heroes’ Feast to this routine.

We hope you liked this Shadowheart companion build for BG3 (Baldur’s Gate 3).

BG3 Shadowheart Companion Build Image Character