Ultimate Cleric Class Guide | Baldur's Gate 3

when you think of a cleric what image conjures itself into your mind is it the image of a priest-like character using holy magic to inspire and heal their allies perhaps what if I told you that there was much more to the cleric than that stick around I'm going to show you the cleric in a brand new light and together we'll find out how versatile they really are welcome back Travelers I'm glad to see you made it I'm Colo and today we're going to be taking a look at the cleric class in Baldur's Gate 3. we'll be going in depth into their subclasses their spells and abilities with a little bit of lore to spice things up some of the information and images in this video did come from the Baldur's Gate 3 Wiki at bg3.wiki those guys do a great job collecting and organizing information it's a really easy to use Wiki setup highly recommend checking them out I'm going to leave a link in the video description below but definitely give them a look so let's get into it personally I want to cover some information about creating a cleric as a custom character but we will definitely discuss Shadow heart as well because a lot of people are going to use Shadow heart as their group's cleric it's what I did it's what most people are going to do so we'll cover both when creating a custom character you can pick whatever race you want if you want to play as a halfling Claire do it if you want to play as a tiefling cleric nothing's stopping you however there are bonuses that you can get if you choose certain races if we take a look at the gith Yankee cleric they are granted proficiency with great swords long swords and short swords just because of their previous past growing up with the gith Yankee they're all trained in combat like that so they know how to use a sword Shadow heart on the other hand being a half elf was given proficiency with Pikes Spears halbards and glaves for her racial weapon proficiencies wood elf clerics and halfwood elf clerics would have bonus movement speed so that be able to move further during their turns so on and so forth there's benefits and drawbacks to each race take a look at all of them or just pick whichever one you like the looks of the best like I said it's not going to hold you back play whatever you like clerics are unique when it comes to character creation as well because when you make a cleric you get to pick a deity to be a follower of if you're using Shadow heart as your cleric her deities already been chosen because that's a big part of her personal storyline her personal Quest so that's already been chosen for you if you're going to use her Loth sworn drow and only choose Loth as their sworn deity which makes sense because they're lost sworn I would recommend being careful going down that path because Loth is known for turning her devout followers into these precious creatures whenever they don't live up to her standards luckily this isn't going to happen to you in the game so you're welcome to worship spider lady if you want but that's going to be up to you I am eventually planning on making a video going much more in depth into the gods of this universe and taking a look at each one of them individually there's definitely some interesting stories to be told so be sure to subscribe to the channel hit the Bell that way whenever I post videos in the future that you're notified and you can come watch them now that we've got our race and deity chosen now you have to decide which subclass or domain as they're called your cleric is going to belong to each one of these domains is going to have access to the clerics entire spell book by the time you get the max level so each one of these there's seven of them all of them are going to have the same bass spell list and then as you level up you're gonna get domain specific things at certain levels which will vary drastically the domain spells are going to get are always prepared so you don't have to prepare and unprepare them in your spell book they're just always available it definitely opens up the cleric to being able to cover multiple roles in the same group let's go through and take a look at each one of the domains individually and we'll cover the Spells and abilities that each one grants you if you decide to go down that route the first subclass on the list is the life domain this is probably the one that fits the image that we talked about at the beginning of the video most closely this is the Healer cleric they use holy magic to keep their teammates safe and keep their hit points topped off just like you were probably imagining when you first choose this domain you will receive the disciple of Life ability which will cause your healing spells to restore a couple extra hit points and passively over time this ends up adding up to a ridiculous amount of extra healing that gets done this is a super strong ability overall you also gain the cure wounds and bless spells as domain spells and the life domain cleric will also get proficiency with heavy armor so you can cast spells while wearing heavy armor without having to invest the feat to unlock that proficiency which is really strong at second level each domain is going to receive their first Divinity charge the turn Undead ability and also a domain specific ability that we'll use Channel Divinity charges as well the life domain specifically is going to gain access to The Preserve life domain action this is an AOE heel that triggers from your clerics location so you can use one of your actions and a channel Divinity charge and it will cause basically an explosion of healing around your cleric that'll heal any allies that are caught within it it's a very strong skill if your guys are all close enough together this will account for a ton of healing especially since each person that gets healed by that clerics AOE heel gets bonus healing from the other passive you already have and there's much more down the line that unlocks to where more effects go off once you heal people it's crazy life clerics are really good healers they're probably the strongest healers in the game at third level every cleric will be grand access to all of the level 2 cleric spells like I said all clerics end up with the same bass spell list as well as two domain spells which are Aid and lesser restoration as long as you're playing the life domain pay attention to the fact that Aid can be cast at higher levels if you want to upcast it and it works on summonable minions all your party members so group up everybody in your Camp Before You cast the spell and give your party a massive amount of maximum HP boost just by casting this one spell where everybody is a lesser restoration cleanse debuffs off of your party members whenever they have them you won't find nearly as many use for that as you will aid but it still gets spell to have upon reaching fourth level your cleric will gain access to their first feat the feet levels are gonna be big there's ability Improvement that you can take to increase your base stats which is good because you increase the stat by two it basically gives you a plus one on all rolls that are related to that stat so increasing your stats is a big big buff in this game or you can take one of the Feats things like War Caster is really good if you're trying to maintain concentration on spells while you're in combat there's also the spell sniper feet which if you're planning on going more of a Caster DPS route for your cleric spell sniper might be a viable Choice it grants you access to one of these can trips and basically doubles your chain chance to crit with spells so that's excellent on top of getting access to this feat you're gonna get to choose another cleric can trip and you'll also be granted another level 2 spell slot fourth level for the cleric is it's pretty strong you're gonna get quite a bit of good stuff at fifth level the cleric gets access to all their level 3 cleric spells as well as the scaling cantrips ability which increases the damage of your cleric can trips you'll also get the destroyed Undead passive ability which causes successful turn Undead casts to deal a decent chunk of radiant damage to any Targets that actually are affected by the turn the life cleric is also going to get the two domain spells revivify and Beacon of Hope both of these spells are excellent you're gonna be glad you have them on your bar because revive allows you to bring Fallen teammates back to life life you click on the Target that you're trying to resurrect you click a destination and it will attempt to Res that Target in that destination very strong Beacon of Hope is a buff that you cast right before you would do like a bunch of party-wide AOE heels or something like that because what Beacon of Hope does is instead of having a roll happen where it determines how much healing each spell is going to do it just instantly heals them for the maximum amount so if you're doing heels on five six seven targets and all those heels are guaranteed maximum healing numbers you are outputting a ridiculous amount of heals so this buff is very strong at six level all clerics are going to receive another Channel Divinity charge another level 3 spell slot and four of the seven subclasses are going to receive another domain specific ability life clear Eric's do get something here you will obtain the Blessed healer passive ability this causes the cleric to also be healed for a few hit points every time they heal someone else this ability right here pretty much makes it to where you never have to specifically Target a heel onto your cleric ever again because they are going to be healing everybody else and every time they heal somebody else they get a heal to the point where the cleric basically never has to be targeted with a heel ever again at seventh level your cleric will get access to their level 4 spells as well as two more always prepared domain spells the life player gets guardian of faith and death Ward at seventh level I don't find myself using death Ward very often I'm sure someone loves it it's just not been a spell I've had to use a lot guardian of faith on the other hand is incredibly useful this is basically a little angel that acts as kind of a stationary turret you'll see a ring around the guardian that will show you the radius of its attacks and and the enemies that come within that ring or attack somebody in that ring or anything like that this Guardian is going to react and it's gonna take a swing at him it's gonna hit these people for 20 damage I believe and then it also deals 20 damage to itself at eighth level the cleric will receive their second feat so like we talked about before the feet levels are very powerful you'll get another level 4 spell slot and another domain specific ability two of the subclasses will receive the potent spell casting passive ability which adds the clerics wisdom modifier to the damage they deal with Claire can trips so more damage added to your cantrips the other five subclasses will receive a Divine strike ability which will add damage to your next weapon strike the type of damage will depend on your cleric's domain life clerics specifically get the Divine strike radiant ability upon reaching ninth level the life cleric will gain access to the level 5 cleric spell list as well as two more domain spells the life domain spells for 9th level are greater restoration and mass cure wounds both of these spells are amazing you're gonna use them both a lot put them somewhere on the bar where you can get to them quickly crater restoration is a bell that gets rid of debuffs off your party members and mask your wounds is just that you get to cure a ton of people at once which is always powerful and the range on this thing is pretty good when you get to 10th level the life cleric is going to get another level 5 spell slot another can trip even more cantrip damage scaling and the divine intervention class action this one's interesting pay very close attention to the wording on the spell you can only use the Ability one time per character that's it once you click it it brings up four choices you'll choose which version of the divine intervention spell you want to cast and once you cast that the ability disappears off your bar forever you can't use it ever again this is something you definitely need to think about when you're planning on using it and potentially you know make your choice and use it or save it for the perfect moment that may never come that's what I'm doing the four options you get to choose from are number one Sunder the heretical AOE damage attack a 50 foot radius that will potentially deal between 8 and 80 radian damage to all enemies in the area it's a big boom that goes off the second one opulent Revival a 60-foot radius circle around the cleric that will resurrect Fallen allies restore half of their hit points and restore all nearby allies as though they have long rested if everybody in your party is dead except the cleric and you use that ability you might win a fight that you were getting destroyed in just a second ago you just have to make sure that your cleric doesn't die first the third one third option you have is arm thy servant this one will place a legendary weapon the devotees mace into your cleric's main hand this mace is a permanent weapon it's something that you own now it's in your inventory you can trade it to your other characters doesn't have to be the cleric that uses it you can sell it to a vendor whatever you want to do it's a weapon that's yours now it's a plus three mace and it's got a healing Aura ability that you can use that is very strong the final choice is golden generosity this divine intervention causes a chest to spawn in front of your character that contains a bunch of potions elixirs and camping supplies you can get quite a bit of good stuff in this chest but I'll leave it up to see you whether it's worth using your one time only spell to get some food and Potions somebody out there is gonna yell at me in the comments about how this is the best one by far I'm telling you right now my cleric is never going to use theirs for this because I would rather hold on to the amazing heal ability and never need it and never use it but for that one instance where the cleric is the last man standing and you can come in clutch with that huge res and heal everybody oh my God that'd be excellent it'd be a that's good enough to justify never having this legendary weapon but I'm gonna tell you a secret like I said before divine intervention can only be used one time per character so after your characters are 10th level respect all your characters to clerics use their divine intervention you can spawn the mace on each one of them you can spawn the box of food and Potions if you want and then change that character back to whatever class they were to begin with and your regular Claire still has their divine intervention available for that other thing so you can basically have your cake and eat it too if you want at 11th level the life clear gains access to their level 6 spells list which all clerics will get at this level the level 6 spells for Claire have some very powerful options available as well also note you can up cast other spells to level six at 12 level all clerics are gonna get their final feat it's not a very exciting level as far as you know class specific options but like I said before feet levels are always awesome you're going to be excited to get to this one alright so anyway let's recap the life cleric you're going to gain access to a ton of bonus passive healing you're gonna get a ton of the healing and debuff cleansing abilities that you need as always prepared versions of spells so you don't have to worry about putting them on the bar they're gonna be there if you're looking for a Healer a solid through and through healer I don't think the life Claire can be beaten in this game so the second subclass we're going to discuss is the light domain cleric when you first choose this class you will be awarded the warding flare ability which basically will trigger as a reaction whenever your cleric gets attacked it'll give you the opportunity to use warding flare to set off a blinding flash into the attacker's face causing disadvantage on the attack and increasing the chances of the attack missing you you will also gain the two domain spells burning hands and fairy fire which are both decent spells and you'll receive the light and trip as well the light domain cleric also does not receive the heavy armor proficiency so you'll either have to invest a feat point at level 4 8 or 12 into heavy armor proficiency or you can just wear clothing or light or medium armor so you've got options you don't have to be Heavy Armor it's just nice to have if you can get it at second level the light cleric will get the normal level one spell slot you get your channel Divinity charge you get turn Undead and they will also be granted the radiance of the Dawn domain action this will use an action and the channel Divinity charge because a 30 foot radius burst of light centered on your cleric the light will deal damage to any enemies that are in the area as well as dispel any magical Darkness from the area at third level you'll gain your level 2 cleric spells your two domain spells which are flaming sphere and scorching Ray both of these spells are very good for different situations blaming sphere is essentially a flaming Boulder that you spawn and you can actually control this thing on its turn like it's a minion roll it towards enemies and it'll burn them if they're standing too close to it you can use it to block off doorways and there's all different kinds of things you can do with it scorching Ray is a very interesting spell because just like magic Missile where you cast the spell and it lets you target multiple targets and you can see the little counters ticking up you get three Rays if you don't upcast it that you can choose three different targets or put two of them on one target one of them on another or all three on one target if you want it's a really versatile spell at fourth level the light domain cleric is gonna get an extra can trip a level two spell slot and their first feet at fifth level the light Claire gains their level three spells as well as scaling can trips you get destroy Undead two domain spells which are gonna be daylight and Fireball daylight is a very interesting spell because it can be cast in one of two ways you can either basically enchant an item with it by casting daylight onto somebody's weapon in that weapon will be shining a huge area of daylight all over the place or you can cast it straight out into the world basically leaving a floating ball of daylight sitting there Fireball is much more straightforward it is a massive exploding ball of fire that you hurl uh this will deal crazy collateral damage to your own teammates be careful where you're flinging these things but it's absolutely going to be one of your staple damage abilities you can upcast it later on to even higher spell slots dealing way more damage it's a great spell you'll be using this forever at sixth level the light clear gets the usual another level 3 spell slot and channel Divinity charge you also get the improved warding flare domain ability you got warding Flair when you first took the subclass It's the reaction that lets you impose disadvantage on somebody's attack against you by basically blinding them with a flash of light now you can use that on your party members if they get attacked you can fly Flash the attacker to impose disadvantage on the attack against that party member so basically this just makes you more of a team player same effect but now you can use it on your teammates at seventh level as usual you're gonna get your level 4 cleric spells and you will unlock two domain spells which for the light domain are guardian of faith and Wall of fire so we talked about guardians of Faith before it's very good spell plenty of uses for it while a fire can also be very good but there's some things you should keep in mind when you go to use it it does an absolutely insane amount of damage if enemies or friendlies have to walk through it for any amount of steps they're going to get burned multiple times and it will tear them to shreds so if you can cast it down a long hallway and enemies have to walk through it they'll be dead before they get to the other end and it's a concentration spell so if you forget that you're channeling this wall of fire and you cast something else like bless that's a concentration spell it'll disrupt the concentration from wall of fire to cast Bliss your wall of fire will disappear and bless will show up so just keep that in mind pay attention to your concentration Spells at eighth level the light cleric will receive the potent spell casting ability which will increase the damage of your Claire can trips and you'll also get a level 4 spell slot and your second feat so like we said before pick whatever you need ninth level will grant the level five cleric spell list as well as the two domain spells destructive wave and Flame strike both of these are very heavy hitting area of effect spells destructive wave can either be cast as a radiant or necrotic version so when you go to cast it you'll have to choose you click on the spell it'll bring up two choices a radiant version that does thunder damage and radiant damage and then there's one that does thunder damage and necrotic damage so it's a pretty big blast radius around the cleric when you go to cast it pretty good sized spell flame strike is a smaller area that you'll pinpoint Target basically a pillar of radiant fire Will Blast down and deal strong damage to any enemies that are within that area at 10th level as usual you're going to get your level 5 spell slot you're going to get a can trip you're going to get divine intervention we already covered the four choices for divine intervention they're the same for all seven subclasses and remember you only get to cast it once the 11th and 12th levels will again see you earn your level 6 cleric spells and then a third and final feat so it's pretty safe to say that the light cleric is very different from the life cleric you're given far more DPS Caster tools you get fireball you get wall of fire you get couple different things that the life Claire doesn't have access to if you're interested in playing a cleric as more of like a fire Mage the light cleric is the way to go the next subclass we're going to talk about is the trickery domain this is the domain that shadow heart originally has selected it makes sense for her character that she would belong to this domain but you are absolutely able to and probably should change what domain she's a part of on your first playthrough at least because trickery domain clerics are not bad by any means but they're much more niche as far as their specialization and the abilities you'll get and everything then some of these other domains are so overall you might find another domain to be a better choice but it's up to you entirely up to you you can play with this one no problem when you first choose the domain you will receive blessing of the trickster which is unique it allows you to Grant advantage on stealth checks to somebody else you can't cast this on the cleric themself if you were making your cleric your sneaky character this ability can't be cast on them so it's almost like it wants you to have another party member be the stealth person and the trickery cleric is just there to grant that bonus to that person I find it strange but I'm sure somebody out there has found a lot of use for this you also get the charm person and disguise self domain spells to start with charm person is great it'll help you with dialogue options and passing certain Charisma checks and stuff like that disguise self is also fantastic it'll allow you to resize your character so if you're playing like a Dragonborn or Ohio for you know whatever regular sized humanoid person there are certain holes that you'll run into that you just your character won't fit into you can climb through a wall and get into a lighter part of the dungeon but your character's too big to fit well you can use disguise self to turn yourself into a basically and squeeze through the sky itself is also a ritual spell so if you cast it outside of combat it doesn't cost you a spell slot so you can do this as many times as you want it's great it's an excellent spell to have available at second level the trickery cleric will receive their normal spell slot turned Undead and Divinity charge and also they'll get the domain skill invoke duplicity this one's pretty cool it allows you to create a clone that will it'll help you out by granting your allies advantage on attacks if the Clone is close enough to the person they're attacking it's pretty good at third level you're going to receive the normal level two cleric spells from those spell list as well as the two trickery domain spells for this level which are mirror image and pass without Trace both of these spells are very good mirror image is absolutely ridiculous in combat it gives you three little clones around you that each boost your armor class by three every time an attack misses that character they lose one of their clones pass without Trace is uh plus 10 on stealth checks to you and all nearby allies if you're trying to sneak through places and you have to sneak your whole party through Pass without Trace is the spell to have for that for sure plus 10 on a stealth check is ridiculous fourth level the trickery cleric is going to receive level 2 spell slot the normal ability to choose a can trip and their first feat at fifth level the cleric will receive their level 3 cleric spells destroy Undead scaling can trips and the trickery domain spells the Stow curse and fear the Stow curse is a concentration space Bell that debuffs the target with a curse of your choice when you go to cast the spell it's going to bring up the different curse variations and you'll choose which one suits your current situation the best fear is a very powerful crowd control ability it casts in a cone shape and a direction of your choosing and will show a horrifying allusion to All Enemies this will make affected targets drop their weapons and attempt to flee from the source of Their Fear at six level trickery clerics only get the usual Divinity charge and level 3 spell slot they don't get a domain specific ability which certainly feels like a trick at seventh level they'll earn their normal level four cleric spells and the trickery domain spells polymorph and dimension door polymorph can be cast on a Target to turn them into a harmless sheep this thing doesn't have a lot of health and if it loses all of its Health it reverts back to the original form with whatever Health that form had when you polymorph them but you can use this to take a dangerous enemy out of the fight for a couple of turns just have them wandering around the battlefield as a sheep anyway it's great it's a great ability to have access to dimension door is also a cool one um it's like the Misty step spell which is a Teleport except the dimension door lets you take a passenger with you which is really great having more Mobility is always good eighth level we'll see the trickery cleric earn their second feat another level 4 spell slot and the Divine strike Nightshade poison ability and you guessed it it adds a bit of poison damage to the hit when you use it at Ninth level the trickery domain cleric will get their level 5 cleric spells and two domain spells which are dominate person and seeming dominate person is a great spell to not only take an enemy out of the fight but you actually get them fighting for you for a couple of turns which is pretty awesome you can have them do damage to their own allies which is great seaming is essentially the same thing as the sky itself except you can cast it on your entire party once you cast this on your party what it's going to do is it's automatically going to pick a different form for each character in your party but what if you were trying to turn him into a halfling or a gnome so that you could squeeze them through a small area well you can you can go in here and change your disguise pick whatever you want so you're not stuck with what it gives you it's a pretty good spell it's there's plenty of uses for this at 10th level the trickery cleric will get the normal level 5 spell slot scaling can trips choice of another can trip and divine intervention same thing as before you get your four choices make sure you don't waste it 11th and 12th levels are just like normal everybody's 11th and 12th levels are the same you get your level 6 Spells at 11th level you get your third and final feat at 12th level and that's Max so in summary it's more of a niche thing you're you're looking at more of a shadowy you know let's sneak around and do not so nice things kind of character but they're perfectly viable you absolutely could leave Shadow heart as a trickery cleric the entire time and she will provide you with still excellent utility and even better open world sneaking utility and stuff like that so definitely an option to keep in mind the next subclass we're going to take a look at is the knowledge domain cleric this one's actually unique in that when you choose it you don't immediately get a passive ability like you do with the others instead what you get to do is choose two skills to gain further Proficiency in if you want your character to be more of a learned scholar type the knowledge cleric is definitely the way to go for this you'll also get the domain spells command and sleep both of which are excellent early game spells and command will still be good later on sleep not so much because it's based on the target's hit points so it's still usable later on if you Whittle down their health but it's not nearly as good as some of the other crowd control abilities in the game so it won't last you too long at second level knowledge clerics will be granted the knowledge of the ages domain action this will cost an action and a channel Divinity charge and it will allow you to choose an ability which is strength dexterity wisdom Etc you're choosing one of the stats and your game Proficiency in all skills that are related to that Statin this lasts until long rest you can't buff two skills at the same time it will override the first one so keep that in mind at third level the knowledge cleric will receive the normal level 2 cleric spells as well as the two domain spells calm emotions and hold person calm emotions can be used to prevent humanoids in an area from becoming Charmed frightened or enraged there's definitely reasons to use it but it's not going to be one of your go-to spells hold person on the other hand is a very good crowd control spell be sure to pay attention to the fact that this spell can be upcast each level that you up cast it will allow you to attempt to crowd control an additional humanoid Target this spell is super good you can take three four five people out of a fight by casting this attacks against a held Target are always critical strikes if the attack is made within a certain distance of the held Target at fourth level you'll get the normal level two spell slot you get a new can trip and you'll get your first feat at fifth level knowledge clerics get their level 3 cleric spells scaling can trips the destroy Undead ability and two domain spells which will be the slow and speak with dead spells speak with that is very handy and I want you to pay attention to the fact that it's a ritual spell so you can cast this outside of combat without spending a spell slot it's always great to have some ritual spells on your bar that being said I want to talk about slow this spell might have one of the most hilariously misleading effect descriptions of any ability your skill in the game it says and I'm gonna read this because I want to directly quote it to you alter time around up to six enemies and slow them they won't get far they can't do much and they're easier to hit that's the description the game gives you now let me tell you what the spell actually does when you cast it you'll be able to select up to six targets within 60 feet of your cleric the affected targets get a debuff called slowed what does this debuff do it reduces their movement speed by half so this is the they won't get far their Armor class and dexterity saving throws are both reduced by two which means they're easier to hit spells physical attacks everything will be easier to hit them with because of those two numbers being reduced and they can only perform either an action or a bonus action they can't do both in a single turn and they can't activate any reactions it is a super powerful spell the knowledge clerics 6 level is very similar to the trickery domains you get another Channel Divinity charge you get a level three spell slot but there is no domain ability spoiler alert the next domain we're going to talk about is also like this it sucks that a sixth level for the three that don't get anything doesn't feel great at seventh level your knowledge cleric will receive the level 4 cleric spells two knowledge domain spells this time around that's going to be confusion and otolux resilient sphere confusion is great because it's an area of effect crowd control ability you'll choose an area in a circle and the confusion effect will explode in that area any Targets that see this pattern that it makes are going to get confused and they may skip their turn they may wander around aimlessly they may attack each other or they could still attack your teammates they'll hit anybody around them but there's a chance that they'll hit their teammates instead it's a nice spell to have and odoluk's resilience fear is more unique because it's more of a utility spell it surrounds the Target in a magical barrier that will prevent the person inside from dealing or receiving damage and any kind they have their movement speed reduced by half while they're inside of this thing and they can't hurt anybody and they can't be hurt through this thing it's interesting you can use it as a get out of jail free card cast it on one of your party members and they can escape at half speed or you can use it to imprison an enemy in a sphere that they can attack through it's utility because you've got multiple options on how to use it at eighth level the knowledge cleric receives their second feat another level 4 spell slot and the potent spell casting ability this makes them the only other domain besides the light cleric that gets potent spell casting and remember all the rest of the domains are going to receive a Divine strike variation upon reaching ninth level the knowledge cleric will be granted the level 5 cleric spells a level 4 spell slot and the two knowledge domain spells dominate person and telekinesis we talked about dominate person already in the trickery domain just in case you guys skip that part and you don't know what it was it's a decent crowd control ability that you can use to get through some tough spots telekinesis is probably exactly what you're imagining it is it allows the cleric to pick up and move things with their mind you can use it to fling a massive robot at his own teammates or grab a boss that's standing there next to a ledge and just fling him off the ledge and instantly kill him there's a ton of things you can do you can pick up things in the environment and fling it at people I've actually used telekinesis to grab one of my own allies that was about to have an explosion go off on top of them and fling them out of the radius of the explosion they took minimal damage from getting slung by telekinesis but they avoided like 70 explosion damage when this bomb went off there's all kinds of things you can use telekinesis for it's a cool spell keep your eye on this one at 10th level you guessed it you're gonna get your level five spell slot another can trip scaling can trips and divine intervention one of four choices one-time use 11th and 12th levels are also the same as they have been you get your level six clerics Spells at 11th you get your third and final feat at 12th up next we've got the nature domain nature clerics are those that worship the gods of the very land itself they will end up learning quite a few spells from the Druid spell list as well as all of the bass cleric spells upon choosing the subclass you'll gain multiple immediate benefits first of all you're gonna get the acolyte of nature ability this is going to allow you to pick a druid can trip and a nature related proficiency you'll also gain the heavy armor proficiency and the two starter domain spells for nature which are speak with animals and animal friendship as you might imagine both of these help you have a friendlier relationship with animals you can arm animals with animal friendship basically make it to where they won't attack you and then speak with animals can allow you to actually get story Quest progression by talking to animals just like speak with dead except you can talk to a squirrel or a cow instead of a dead body speak with animals is also a ritual spell so if you cast it outside of combat it doesn't cost you a spell slot you can just use it talk to the cat the cat's gonna cuss you out and tell you you're stupid and then you're gonna be like man I'm glad I used that spell and it didn't cost me a spell slot a second level nature cleric will gain the usual Divinity charge turned Undead and a level one spell slot they'll also get the charm animals and plants domain ability this one is kind of strange it spends a channel Divinity charge and it might be the most situational one of these abilities of all the subclasses because it does exactly what it says it charms all nearby animals and plants spoiler alert there are enemies in this game that are plants I'm not sure that it's worth more than blasting a fireball at him at third level you're gonna gain the normal level two cleric spells and also your two domain spells which this time around are Spike growth and bark skin Spike growth allows the cleric to choose a location and it'll cause Thorns to grow up out of the ground and any creatures that are caught inside the area will have their movement speed cut in half and they will continuously potentially take damage as they move through these spikes depending on where you get to place your Spike growth you may end up causing a ton of damage with this and this can also cause enemy casters to lose concentration on spells definitely something to keep an eye out for Spike growth is not a bad ability uh you do have to maintain concentration to keep it going though so definitely something to keep in mind bark skin is a much more straightforward buff turns their skin into tree bark and brings their Armor class up to 16. if your character's AC is above 16 and you use bark skin on them nothing happens also bark skin requires concentration this right here for me just completely rules it out I already don't like single Target concentration spells it's it's hard for me to justify it anyway if I'm wrong about this someone leave me a comment tell me how dumb I am also if you're enjoying the video make sure to leave me a like subscribe to the channel I'm very appreciative for all the support you guys have been showing I've gotten much more support than I thought I was going to when I got started it makes me really excited to get back in and make more videos like this for you guys so anyway I appreciate it Travelers let's get back to it fourth level nature cleric is going to get the normal level 2 spell slot choice of a can trip and your first feat fifth level you're going to get scaling can trips destroy Undead level 3 cleric spells and the two domain spells which this time will be plant growth and sleet storm plant growth is another area denial spell basically what this means is you pick an area to cast this into and it's going to cause plants to grow everywhere in this area anyone moving in the area has their movement speed quartered so you can use this to like strangle up hallways where you know the targets all have to move down a certain hallway you throw this plant growth in the middle of that and they all have to walk right through it it's going to take them four times as much movement to get through as it normally would the plant growth is very flammable though so keep that in mind you can use this and if any fire touches the area all the plants bust into flames and becomes a fire trap you can use that to your advantage as well you could get everybody stuck in this area and then set all the plant ring on fire and burn everybody that's stuck inside of it it could be a two-prong two-prong pincer strike sleet storm the second domain spell this one's really crazy um it's essentially a concentration spell that exists for the purpose of interrupting other concentration spells you choose an area once again except instead of growing plants this time you'll be blasting down a storm of sleet everywhere the way it works is that every time the sleet blasts down once per turn every Caster that's concentrating on a spell within that area has to do a saving throw to maintain their concentration just like they got hit it also makes an ice surface on the ground which has the potential to cause those same casters to slip and fall prone and if you fall prone you instantly lose concentration on any spells you were concentrating on so this is like a a dual strike as far as interrupting concentration on spells definitely a good spell to have at six level you'll get your level 3 spell slot your channel Divinity charge and for the final time thankfully nothing else from the domain side so it sucks but that's the way it is seventh level nature cleric you get level 4 cleric spells you get your two domain spells and this time those two are going to be dominate beast and grasping Vine both of these spells do pretty much exactly what their names imply dominate Beast works just like dominate person which we already talked about but it only works on beasts you probably won't use it like a ton of times but it'll be nice when you get to use it grasping Vine summons a giant vine when it says things turn you can do little Vine grasp and try to grab targets and pull them towards the vine eighth level is going to see you get your level 4 spell slot your second feet and for nature you'll get Divine strike Elemental Fury this one is unique because the nature cleric gets to do one of three types of Elemental damage with theirs they can either do cold fire or lightning damage and you get to pick each time it's not random so this is a nice ability to have being able to switch out damage types in the middle of the fight is always strong upon reaching 9th level the nature cleric will obtain their level 5 spells and two domain spells which is insect plague and Wall of stone insect plague is another concentration spell so as you can see the nature cleric is getting quite a few of those and it also focuses on arid denial just like the others did you choose the target area it casts a circle of bugs into the area and anyone that's in the area will potentially be taking piercing damage while they're inside they have disadvantage on perception checks and their movement speed is cut in half so similar to the others except they're also taking piercing damage from getting stung by all these insects that you've spawned Wallace stone is basically entirely a utility spell I say that but that does not mean that it can't be used in combat it's a very strong in combat for utility reasons the spell basically summons a wall of stone just like it says the wall is made up of different Stone panels or pieces that each have their own health bar they can be destroyed individually but while they're standing there they block line of sight and they block off a chosen area so if you for instance want to throw a bomb into a room and set the room on fire that has all the enemies in it and then use a wall of stone to block the doorway closed so they can't get out then there stuck in a room that's on fire 10th 11th and 12th levels are the same as always at 10th you get your level 5 spell slot scaling can trips you get to choose another can trip and divine intervention 11th you get your level 6 cleric spells and then 12th you get your final feat this next domain is a fun one it changed my opinion on the cleric the most out of all the possible subclasses and I would wager that it'll probably do the same for a lot of you as well the Tempest cleric listen to this description I'm gonna read this so I don't mess it up your faith has made you the very Thunder that Quakes the black firmament the lightning coursing through the veins of a terrible storm are you gonna try to sit there with a straight face and tell me that you don't want that guy on your team I don't think so when you first choose the Tempest domain you're gonna be granted the Wrath of the storm domain ability this allows you to use a reaction when someone attacks you to retaliate against their attack with either thunder or lightning damage you will also gain martial weapons proficiency and heavy armor proficiency you can be a thunder and lightning Knight that's correct yeah the two domain spells you're gonna get this time around are Thunder Wave and fog cloud thunderwave is insanely good you use this to deal minor Thunder damage to Targets in a very small area in front of you and it has the opportunity to blast your targets right off a cliff and instantly kill them so that's why that spell is super great fog cloud is also a fantastic spell this one probably doesn't get nearly enough attention in combat it's great you select an area you spawn a huge dense cloud of fog and it blinds and heavily obscures everybody that's inside of it so you can cast this onto your enemies to Blind them to make them have to move out of the area because they can't attack very far they can attack out of the area because they're blinded so you can use it as a area denial crowd control or for more utility purposes let's say you're standing in the middle of town and and there's a door that you want to lock pick but everybody and their mother is standing there staring at you well you drop a cloud of fog and your party stands inside of it none of them can see what you're doing inside there your whole party can disappear through the door and then the fog is still standing there concealing the whole thing and you get away scot-free if you need to rob somebody blind right in front of their face drop fog walk up steal whatever you're trying to steal and get out of there at second level Tempest clerics received one of the most powerful abilities in the entire game I promise you that's not an exaggeration either firstly you're gonna get the normal stuff your level one spell slot your Divinity charge and turn Undead all the normal cleric stuff the real reward here is the domain ability destructive wrath this thing is a monster whenever you deal thunder or lightning damage it's gonna ask you as a reaction would you like to spend one of your channel Divinity charges to guarantee that that thunder or lightning damage you just did Rolls the maximum possible damage what if it's an area of effect spell that hits multiple targets and you can guarantee that it deals maximum damage to each one it's absurd how much damage you end up being able to do at third level you're going to receive your level 2 cleric spells and the domain spells shatter and gust of wind shatter is a nice stun under damage AOE that does more damage against brittle targets so enemies that are made out of stone gust of wind is also nice it's sort of like Thunder Wave doesn't deal damage but it pushes targets back and if you use this spell over top of a cloud that has already been formed like a cloud of Darkness or fog cloud or anything that's a cloud spell it'll cut a path right through the cloud wherever the wind blasts through so you can cut yourself a path of safety through poison or Darkness or anything dangerous like that at fourth level The Tempest cleric will gain the normal stuff you get level one and two spell slots a new cantrip and your first feat the fifth level Tempest cleric is going to gain level 3 cleric spells destroy Undead scaling can trips and the two domain spells call lightning and sleet storm we've already covered sleet storm it's the one that I said was really good at interrupting concentration spells you cast it and it has a chance to break Target's concentration every time it pulses it also makes ice patches on the ground ice patches turn into water patches water patches can be electrified and you're playing the guy that has lightning spells so it's good call lightning is an interesting spell there's a few spells like this in the game that you cast it one time you maintain concentration and it basically the spell stays open over to the side as a can trip basically and as long as your character maintains concentration you can recast the spell every turn without spending another spell slot you cast this you pick an area a lightning bolt strikes down you maintain concentration and then next turn you can cast it again next turn you can cast it again as long as your concentration doesn't break and I think it lasts 10 turns at six level Tempest clerics get the usual level 3 spell slot and channeled Divinity charge but they also get a domain ability finally the Thunderbolt strike ability will cause your thunder and lightning damage to push enemies backwards up to 10 feet whenever they get struck it'll only push enemies up to a certain size and it doesn't push them super far but having a Caster DPS character that's able to create space between them and enemies is always a strong thing so this is nice to have at seventh level you're gonna unlock your level 4 cleric spells as well as the domain spells freedom of movement and ice storm freedom of movement is a great buff you can use to prevent your target from being paralyzed or restrained or being slowed by difficult terrain ice storm is a powerful damaging AOE that allows you to capitalize on any wet targets you may be facing as it doubles the cold damage they take as well and ice storm will leave another giant ice patch underneath the targets which has a chance to cause him to slip become prone lose concentration all kinds of good benefits that making your target slip and slide can give you upon reaching eighth level The Tempest cleric will be granted the normal level 4 spell slot their second feat and divine strike ninth level will bring you your level 5 cleric spells and the two Tempest domain spells destructive wave and insect plague I've already covered both of these in other subclasses but destructive wave is worth mentioning here again because both variations of the spell deal Thunder damage and you can trigger additional effects so it does a big blast AOE has a chance to knock targets backwards has a chance to be guaranteed maximum damage if you use your destructive wrath all kinds of ways you can make this stronger now 10th 11th and 12th levels are again as follows level 5 spell slot a new cantrip scaling can trips divine intervention level 6 cleric spells and a feat and a partridge in a pear tree we still have to do that one more time I promise you you're going to be excited for those three levels I'm skimming over it because it's not fun to talk about seven times when it's the same thing seven times but you're gonna be stoked by the stuff you're getting all right we've arrived now at the final subclass the war domain cleric if you're interested in playing a character that's more of the knight in shining armor archetype can absolutely hold their own in physical combat and still gets access to all of the clerics basic spell list the war cleric is a completely viable Choice upon first choosing War domain there's a few things you get right away it will obtain the war priest domain ability which will allow you to perform an additional attack during your turn by spending a bonus action and a war priest charge you get these War priest charges when you first take this domain you'll start with three of them and by the end of the game at 11th level you'll be topped out at six charges you regain these charges by finishing a long rest War domain also gets the martial weapons and heavy armor proficiencies the two War domain spells you'll get are Divine favor and shield of faith I'm not a huge fan of either one of these because as I've mentioned before I'm not a huge fan of single Target concentration spells it's so easy to be concentrating on one of these spells granting yourself a buff and then an enemy stabs you with a tiny freaking attack and it breaks your concentration and now all of a sudden You've Lost Your buff concentration can be used for some very strong things and I just don't think these two cut it they're not terrible but I would rather cast Less on three party members for the same cost then use either one of these bless is a great Spell absolutely don't sleep on Bliss it's freaking incredible at second level the war cleric is gonna get a level one spell slot like normal you're gonna get channel Divinity charge turn Undead and the domain ability guided strike this one's unique it allows you to spend your Divinity charge when you do an attack to add a plus 10 to the attack roll doesn't increase the damage that it does it just increases the percent chance of that attack Landing but this is great this will help you out on those emergency attacks where you have to get some damage right now like the stop a countdown from happening or somebody's about to transform into something and you can stop it if you you know kill him this turn this will help that attack land and maybe clutch the fight for you third level grants you your level 2 cleric spell and two War domain spells the spiritual weapon and magic weapon magic weapon I never used a whole lot because it's a single Target concentration buff increases the attack and damage by plus one for a weapon that you've infused I'm not gonna use it I would cast blast on three or four party members instead spiritual weapon on the other hand is incredible this is a bonus action spell so you can basically take your turn and then as a bonus action summon a spiritual weapon that will float there and then when it's that weapon's turn you get to control it and you can make it fly around and attack people for you the weapons come with one of three abilities depending on which weapon you summon each one of these abilities does something a little bit different it's not hugely important which one you summon it's just great having the extra damage that you can put out for the cost of a bonus action it's absolutely absurd at fourth level you will get the usual level 2 spell slot a new cantrip and your first feat at fifth level you get your level three cleric spells destroy Undead scaling can trips and two domain spells this time around it's gonna be Spirit Guardians and Crusaders mantle both of these are concentration spells Spirit Guardians summons some spirits that fly around your cleric in a ring and the enemies that enter the ring while it's being concentrated on will take either radiant or necrotic damage depending on which version of the spell you cast and they have their movement speed cut in half while they're inside the ring the war cleric is going to be up in melee range anyway most likely why not try to maintain concentration on Spirit Guardians and have these things spin around you and just do extra damage to anybody you walk up to beer Guardians is a super strong spell Crusader's mantle is not terrible by any means it's still not my favorite spell in the world but it casts a radius around your cleric that will stay there it follows your cleric around any allies that are within that radius do extra radiant damage with their weapon attacks it's sort of like magic weapon but it applies in an area around your cleric and benefits everybody so you know it's better it's not a single Target concentration spell sixth level War clerics received the obligatory level 3 spell slot and divinity large but fortunately they are one of the subclasses that receive something else here you get the war God's blessing this ability is essentially exactly the same as the one you got at second level that adds plus 10 to your attack roll except now you can use it on your allies attack rolls when they attack so now you're more of a team player handing out extra hits where they're needed just remember it costs a channel Divinity charge so you don't have unlimited of these per day use it when you need it seventh level will grant you your level 4 cleric spell list and two War domain spells which are going to be freedom of movement and stone skin freedom of movement we've already seen it's a powerful buff spell you can use to prevent a party member from being slowed by difficult terrain paralyzed or restrained so if you need to keep your guys from getting trapped in one place freedom of movement is a great spell Stone Skin's a bit strange to me this is a level 4 spell costs a level 4 spell slot or higher the cast requires concentration you basically have to be in melee range to cast it and it grants resistance to all bludgeoning piercing and slashing damage from non-magical sources the issue that I have with the spell is that the blade Ward can trip that you could have had since level one does almost exactly the same thing effectively it's a can trip you can cast it whenever you want without using a spell slot it still takes an action doesn't require concentration it only lasts two turns but it will prevent half damage from the same things so this is another situation where I'm sure I'm just dumb about it someone if you know how stupid I am right now leave me a comment explaining why I'm wrong about this I'll happily learn I love learning new things about these classes that's why I'm diving down into this stuff and we're all learning it together at eighth level the war cleric gains the expected level 4 spell slot their second feat and the Divine strike War Master ability this one is strange because it adds an additional 1d8 physical damage to the strike and the physical damage type is determined by the the damage type of the weapon in your cleric's main hand ninth level will grant you the level 5 cleric spells your two War domain spells flame strike and hold monster both of these spells are incredible flame strike we've already looked at I told you it's the pillar of radium fire you call down it does radiant damage and fire damage and it's it's a great spell to have old monster functions essentially the same way as hold person does which we already covered it's a crowd control ability you can use to basically hold paralyze somebody and they're just held there and the attacks that come from within a certain distance of those held targets are guaranteed critical strikes it's fantastic but hold person only works on humanoid targets old monster works on everything else except Undead hope monster can also be up cast to level six in order to hold two creatures on the same time with it and then for the final time that we're going to go over this 10th 11th and 12th levels are the same for War clerics as they are for all the rest of the subclasses you get your level 5 spell slot a new can trip scaling can trips divine intervention for 10th level level 6 cleric spells for 11th level and your third and final feat for 12th level so that's all the subclasses covered I mentioned before at the beginning of this video that regardless of which domain you end up choosing for your cleric you're going to end up with a ton of powerful cleric specific spells anyway and then the domain stuff is just added bonus on top of that so light clerics will get fireball and Wall of fire but they also have create Undead and blade barrier and Flame strike and all of the other cleric spells that aren't part of their domain but they still have access to them the class definitely has much more versatility than people probably give it credit for I know it had a lot more than I thought when I first started so with that being said do not be afraid at all to make your custom character a cleric and then also run Shadow heart as a cleric you'll be perfectly fine having two clerics in the group have right at it there's plenty of different options if you do end up playing eclair depending on which deity you choose you and Shadow heart may have some funny dialogue options between the two of you as well so keep that in mind if you enjoyed your time here remember to leave me a like And subscribe to the channel if you want to support the channel further check out my patreon I've got a link to it in the video description below but I appreciate all of you watching the support is greatly appreciated are you planning on making your main character cleric or are you just going to run Shadow heart as the Soul lonely cleric in the group leave me a comment below and let me know what your plan is but anyway Travelers that's the end of the video I appreciate you watching at all I'm glad you got to see me and do your best to stay alive until next time see ya

Channel: Panic Rolling

Views: 10,337

Keywords:

Id: Z8zYFl5wmb0

Length: 67min 28sec (4048 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2023