BG3 Trickery Build Guide – Manipulate and Deceive Foes!

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

Please visit our Best BG3 Builds overview page for more builds or check out our Best BG3 Cleric Build with the Light Domain subclass. To get an overview of all classes please visit the BG3 Classes overview page.

Contrary to what you might expect from a class of this nature, we’ll mainly 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 really quite weak compared to other Spellcasters.

Trickery Domain Clerics gain special abilities to manipulate and deceive enemies, and they can help their allies to be more successful at stealth. The Trickery Domain is the default subclass used by Shadowheart, so this is an ideal build if you have her in your party and do not want to change her to a different class or subclass.

Cleric Build Table of Contents:

• Cleric Class Guide
• Character Creation (Level 1)
• Levelling Guide
  • Level 2
  • Level 3
  • Level 4
  • Level 5
  • Level 6
  • Level 7
  • Level 8
  • Level 9
  • Level 10
  • Level 11
  • Level 12
• Equipment
  • Early-Game
  • Late-Game
• Tips & Tricks

BG3 Cleric Class Guide

Clerics in BG3 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.

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.

Trickery Domain Subclass

As they level up, Trickery Domain Clerics gradually gain abilities and spells that allow them to trick or manipulate the minds of enemies, and conceal allies from detection.

From Level 6, they are able to become invisible at will, and at Level 8 they can imbue their weapon attacks with extra Poison damage.

The difficulty of the Trickery Cleric is that their role seems to be a little bit strange – the Cleric isn’t normally a class that one associates with a stealthy playstyle and nor does it especially benefit from it, but the Trickery Domain subclass gives you tools to make stealth easier regardless. One useful way that you can make use of this subclass is as a companion to another more naturally stealthy character, like a Rogue. This is because you can use your Blessing of the Trickster action to give another creature Advantage on their stealth checks.

Character Creation (Level 1) – BG3 Trickery Domain Build

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

While in Early Access your race choice was a very important component of your build, this is no longer the case. This is because your race now has no bearing on your Ability scores, which are the most important factor at play. This gives players more freedom to choose any race and class combination that they wish, without having to worry about being pigeon-holed into a “meta” race for their class.

However, 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, however 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

The most important Abilities for Clerics are Wisdom (used for Spellcasting), Dexterity (used for the ranged weapon and Armour Class) and Constitution (for survivability and keeping Concentration on spells). It’s also generally ill-advised to have Strength below 10. Therefore we recommend setting up your Ability distribution something like this:

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

Cantrips

In the Class menu, you need to choose three Cantrips to start the game with. 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 can still sometimes be good for targeting enemies with very high Armour Class that would cause your bow attack rolls to have a low hit chance.

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.

Trickery Domain Subclass

The Trickery Domain Cleric starts the game with the following extra features:

• Blessing of the Trickster – Give another creature Advantage on Stealth Checks. Requires Concentration, can last until the next Long Rest if not broken.
• Trickery Domain Spells – These are extra spells unlocked by this Cleric subclass, they are always prepared and do not need to be manually selected. You’ll unlock more Domain Spells as you level up.
  • Charm Person – Charm a person for 10 turns, preventing them from attacking you and gaining Advantage on dialogue Charisma checks against them. They might become hostile when the spell expires.
  • Disguise Self – Magically change your appearance, preventing NPCs from recognizing your identity.

Using the build for Shadowheart

If you want to use this build for Shadowheart but she is not your chosen Origin (i.e you recruited her rather than choosing her in character creation) then you will need to respec her if you want the same starting point as this build. This is because her default Ability and Skill distribution is a little bit different.

To respec, you first need to recruit Withers to your party – he can be found in the Dank Crypt, beneath the Overgrown Ruins. This location can be found very early in Act I – head directly north along the beach from where you spawn after escaping the Nautiloid.

After you have found Withers, he can be visited in your camp at any time. To respec Shadowheart, select her then make her interact with Withers. Choose the “Can you help me change my class” option, which will incur a cost of 100 gold, then adjust the options to the ones specified in this build.

The difference is fairly small, so you don’t need to do this right away. But it’s recommended to do it before you reach Level 4.

Step-by-Step Levelling Guide – Trickery 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 – Trickery Cleric Build BG3 for PC/PS5

At Level 2, you’ll gain a new Spell Slot for your Trickery 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 Trickery Domain Cleric, you’ll unlock the following Channel Divinity Action at Level 2:

• Invoke Duplicity – Spent a Channel Divinity Charge and summon an illusion to distract enemies. You and your allies will have Advantage on Attack Rolls if both the attacker and the Illusion are within 3 metres of the target.

Level 3 – Trickery Cleric Build BG3

At Level 3 for your Trickery 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. I strongly recommend casting this after every Long Rest. At higher levels, you can upcast the spell to increase the amount of HP (5 extra HP per spell level).
• Spiritual Weapon – Conjure a spectral weapon that can attack enemies. The really useful thing about this is that it has Resistance to all damage, and for some reason the AI really likes attacking the summoned weapon. This is an underrated spell and a really good way of distracting the attention of enemies away from you and your party.

You’ll also unlock a couple of new Trickery 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):

• Mirror Image – Create 3 illusory copies of yourself to distract attackers. Whenever you take damage, one copy is destroyed. Each remaining copy increases your Armour Class by 3.
• Pass Without Trace – You and nearby allies have a +10 bonus to Stealth Checks. Requires Concentration.

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 – Trickery 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 Trickery 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, significantly improving your Spellcasting ability.

You’ll also gain another First Level and Second Level Spell Slot, and you’ll need to choose another Cantrip. Thaumaturgy can occasionally come in handy for various out of combat checks, so let’s grab that.

Finally, we need to choose one more spell at this point. We recommend:

• 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.

Level 5 – Trickery Cleric Build Baldur’s Gate 3

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

You’ll 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. Deals great AOE damage, and targets who perform a Saving Throw will still take half of the damage. You can place the glyph underneath an enemy to trigger it immediately. This can deal a lot of damage to your allies, so be careful when placing it!
• Revivify – Revive a companion. They return to life with 1 hit point. You no longer need to worry about carrying around a stack of Revivification Scrolls, as this spell has the same effect!

You’ll also unlock two more Trickery Domain Spells at Level 5:

• Bestow Curse – When casting this spell, you can choose from a variety of debuffs to apply on the target:
  • Fill them with Dread, forcing them to succeed a Wisdom Saving Throw each turn, or else skip their turn.
  • Cause them to take an extra 1d8 Necrotic Damage from your other attacks and spells.
  • Give them Disadvantage on Attack Rolls
  • Give them Disadvantage on Ability rolls, either Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom or Charisma.
• Fear – Force all creatures in the target area to pass a Wisdom Saving Throw. If they fail, they become Feared for 2 turns and must drop their weapon and flee.

Level 6

At Level 6, the Trickery 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.
• New Channel Divinity Action, Cloak of Shadows – If you are Obscured, you can spend a Channel Divinity Charge to become Invisible for up to 10 turns.
• Another Third Level Spell Slot, giving you three in total.
• Prepare one more Spell. We recommend:
  • Spirit Guardians – Surround yourself with spirits who follow you around. The spirits attack any enemies who move close to you, dealing Radiant or Necrotic damage. The Radiant version of this spell is especially strong in Act II, as many of the enemies there are Vulnerable to damage of that type.

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 Trickery Domain Cleric gets:
  • Dimension Door – Teleport yourself and one adjacent ally to a visible destination within 18 metres.
  • Polymorph – If the target fails a Wisdom Saving Throw, they are polymorphed into a harmless sheep with 3 HP for 5 turns. If the sheep’s HP is reduced to zero, they return to their original form with the same HP they had before they were transformed. This is a funny spell to use, but other stuns like Hold Person are generally better since you can safely damage the target without ending the stun.
• Prepare one more Cleric spell of your choice. We recommend:
  • Guardian of Faith – Summon a guardian at the target location. They are immobile, but will automatically attack enemies within 3 metres, dealing 20 Radiant Damage per attack (halved if the target succeeds a Dexterity Save). Every time the guardian deals damage, they take the same amount of damage. Correct placement is really important with this spell – try to put it in a chokepoint that enemies must pass through, or next to an enemy who is also immobile or tends to linger in the same place for some other reason.

Level 8

At Level 8 you unlock:

• Divine Strike: Poison – Once per turn, infuse your weapon attack with 1d8 extra Poison Damage.
• Another Fourth Level Spell Slot, giving you two in total.
• Choose another Feat. If your Wisdom is still at 19, then use the Resilient Feat to improve it to 20. If you already managed to reach 20 Wisdom from another source, then get the War Caster Feat instead. War Caster gives you Advantage on Concentration Saving Throws, making you much more likely to maintain Concentration on a spell after you take damage. The Cleric has a large amount of Concentration Spells, so this is very important to pick up at some point.
• Choose two more spells. We recommend:
  • Freedom of Movement – Snap a creature out of any stun, and make them immune to the effects of difficult terrain. Prevents them from being paralyzed or restrained.
  • Death Ward – The next time the target drops to 0 HP, they will heal to 1 HP instead of being Downed. This spell isn’t amazing, and we will replace it soon, for now though it’s the best remaining option.

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 Trickery 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. Trickery Domain Cleric gets:
  • Dominate Person – Force a humanoid creature to fight alongside you. Each time they take damage, they make a Wisdom Saving Throw against your domination. The spell can last for up to 10 turns if no successful Saving Throws are performed and your Concentration remains unbroken. Allies cannot be dominated.
  • Seeming – Basically an upgraded version of Disguise Self, Seeming also lets you disguise your other party members. Everyone is given a random appearance, but the individual recipients of the spell’s effect can then use an Action to change to a desired appearance.
• Prepare one more spell, plus another one to replace Death Ward from Level 8:
  • Mass Cure Wounds – Heals allies within 18 metres by 3d8 HP each. Can provide a strong heal to many creatures at once.
  • Insect Plague – Locusts attack everyone within a 12 metre area, dealing 4-40 Piercing Damage per turn, making the area Difficult Terrain, and imposing Disadvantage on Perception Checks. The damage is halved on targets that roll a Constitution Save. This is one of the strongest spells in the Cleric arsenal – it’s especially effective when placed in chokepoints, and can turn a difficult battle in your favour.

Level 10

At Level 10 the Trickery Domain 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. We recommend:
  • Flame Strike – Call forth a pillar of divine fire from the heavens, dealing 5d6 Fire and 5d6 Radiant damage to everyone in a 3 metre radius. Damage is halved for targets who make a Dexterity Saving Throw. Use this when you need quick AOE burst damage – it’s basically an upgrade of the Glyph of Warding that we’ve been using for that purpose up until now.

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.

If noone else in your party has the Heroes’ Feast spell, then get this on your Cleric. It puts an extremely strong buff on you and your party, providing the following benefits until the next Long Rest:

• Immune to Poison and Disease
• Cannot be Frightened
• Extra 12 HP
• Advantage on Wisdom Saving Throws

You should ideally make it a habit to cast both Heroes’ Feast and an upcasted version of Aid on your party after every Long Rest, to get everyone nicely buffed up.

If someone else has Heroes’ Feast covered already, the consider the Heal spell. This is single-target burst heal that is guaranteed to restore 70 HP, avoiding the RNG of other healing spells.

Level 12

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

At Level 12 you can choose one more Feat for your Cleric Build. If you didn’t already get War Caster, then pick it up here. Otherwise, you may want to go with Spell Sniper, which increases the chance that you land a critical hit with spells (only spells that use Attack Rolls) and lets you get any Cantrip that uses an Attack Roll (including non-Cleric Cantrips). We recommend getting either Fire Bolt or Eldritch Blast, as these are the hardest hitting of the available choices. This will also give you a decent non-Spell ranged damage option other than using your bow.

You can also choose one more Spell to prepare.

If you didn’t already get the Heal spell mentioned at Level 11, you might want to grab that now.

Alternatively, you could pick Planar Ally, which allows you to summon a Djinni, Deva or Cambion to fight for you. These powerful summoned creatures can help turn tough battles in your favour. If not killed, your summon will return to their home plane the next time you Long Rest.

Cleric Build Equipment for Baldur’s Gate 3

In this section we will outline the best equipment recommendations for your Trickery 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.

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 Trickery 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:

• Purchase from Volo in the Druid Grove (later on he can be found in your camp after you rescue him from the goblins)
• Purchase from Grat the Trader in the Goblin Camp
• Purchase from Roah Moonglow in either Shattered Sanctum (Act I) or Moonrise Towers (Act II)

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.

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 Trickery 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.

Shar’s Spear of Evening (Alternative Weapon)

If you’re using this build for Shadowheart and you get Shar’s Spear of Evening, then you might want to keep and use the weapon for RP purposes – it’s also a decent weapon.

Shadowheart Story Spoiler Warning:

Shadowheart must be in the party to get the weapon – she gets it as a reward for siding with Shar during the Chosen of Shar quest in the Gauntlet of Shar, Act II. Make sure Shadowheart has the Spear of Night in her possession before proceeding to the final part of this quest. It is found at the end of the Silent Library, earlier in the Gauntlet of Shar, on the lower level near where you participate in Shar’s Trials.

If you do not side with Shar, you instead get Selune’s Spear of Night, which gives you different abilities but is still a good weapon and worth considering.

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

• Druid Build – Circle of the Moon
• Bard Build – College of Lore
• Ranger Build – Hunter
• Monk Build – Way of Shadow
• Monk Build – Way of the Four Elements
• Monk Build – Way of the Open Hand
• Necromancer Build – Necromancy
• Fighter Build – Battle Master
• Barbarian Build – Berserker
• Warlock Build – Great Old One
• Cleric Build – Light Domain
• Rogue Build – Thief
• Sorcerer Build – Wild Magic
• Wizard Build – Evocation School
• Paladin – Oath of Ancients
• More Baldur’s Gate Guides & Builds

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