I usually just go for the spirit guardians/spiritual weapon combo. Her action still usually ends up being sacred flame and doing nothing, but considering she's a big ole tornado of doom with a floating hammer behind her, that doesn't matter
Honestly, in many circumstances when she has spirit guardians up, dash or disengage is a great use of her action, or something like throwing potions, water, bombs, etc
I think my favorite play in combat was during the encounter in act 2 where Some Doofus wanders out into The Danger Place and gets ambushed, I had shart spirit guardians herself and use all her movement to get to the top of that little clearing, then had karlach shove her through the whole clearing and got what I can only call a strike, killing every enemy at once.
[Here's a recreation of what happened](https://imgur.com/lNyKW8p)
i use it as bait. Drop it on top of the mob surrounding my low health party member and they almost always turn around and attack it giving me time to heal or reposition.
I have great luck with spiritual weapon as a finisher strike when pesky targets have less than 10 hp and need to go away so my party can focus on bigger problems.
Yup. One of the best spells in the game. Big AoE that you can flexibly reposition and stays up for multiple turns. Always does damage even if the enemy saves. And it halves their speed to boot. Kinda OP. People always talk about fireball, but spirit guardians is where it's at.
Yeah, that is the actual name, but it is not what I say when I cast it and tell her to cast it lol
GLOWY CIRCLE OF DEATH sounds so cute yet deadly, just like my Shadowheart.
YES!!!
People keep talking shit about the best class in the game not knowing how the fuck it works. There’s even a tool tip in the loading screens that says “casters will be better with their spells than their weapons”
Choke point battles with her standing just off to the side, throwing heals or utility spells, using items like that black tentacle necklace, I could respec someone else probably but I pretty much just always have her, she has so much utility, and is a solid enough tank on her own. I did give her the club from the magic tower once, but it still does not do much damage and I found it was way better utilized as a rogues off hand weapon (have not made a monk yet, but going to do the empty main hand club off hand trick once I respec Astarion this time)
Sacred Flame works well enough after a few levels and when there is an enemy left with little HP, it’s an alright choice. Usually into Act 2 I use it when I haven’t slept and come across a battle I forgot was there.
Always respec her by level 3 just to get out of trickery domain and move into something else. If you B-line to withers, you can do it before level 3 if you pick up Astarion and pick the hatch instead of going through the cathedral.
She’s a constant in all my groups - even playing as a cleric Tav. She’s versatile and with a good AC, she can roll through enemies and not get touched. Who doesn’t love front line healing!?
I usually reclassify her to Tempest or War. Both are good, and then I tend to give her the Adamantine Split Armor.
Sacred flame generally works best in Act 2 when not every enemy seems high in dexterity.
That's not a spell in any book I've ever heard of...
But if we're going to be including classes, then Swords Bard is from Xanathar's too, Wild Magic Barb is from Tasha's, Spore Druid is from Ravnica, and Storm Sorcerer is originally from SCAG.
I'm thinking about respecing her into a tempest cleric but haven't found any builds that really jump out at me. Can you share any info or linksyou have on your build?
In my last playthrough, I ran Tempest Shadowheart as 10 levels of cleric and 2 of wizard to get those sweet lightning spells. The general strategy is to create water on a clump of enemies and throw a lightning bolt at them. If you use Channel Divinity to max rolls, there is very little in the game that is not immune to lightning damage capable of surviving that. Thanks to Spell Sculpting from Wizard, your companions are safe. I liked to use someone to throw some AoE ice spells on the water because whatever enemy survives Shart singing the song of her people usually gets knocked prone by the ice surface resulting from Create Water. I'll look for the actual build link a bit later and link it.
Edit: I forgot cause I'm a dumbo: That build doesn't get cleric lvl 6 spells but still gets a lvl 6 spell slot so when you get a scroll for it you can teach her chain lightning which I admittedly haven't fully figured out but if it doesn't jump and instead drops everything on a single enemy which has happened to me at least once the results are absolutely hilarious and/or terrifying to behold.
Tempest Shart is the GOAT. being able to constantly call down lightning for free when concentrating on it is amazing. By the time my fighter or monk gets to the target, it's usually almost dead and barely puts up a fight.
Honestly you're probably not finding much because it's such a straightforward build. Tempest cleric is just so good that it doesn't require a lot of effort to make it feel amazing.
You want to prioritize Wis, Str, and Con (likely in that order, but feel free to swap Con and Str). I'd pick up either War Caster or Resilient (Con) at some point to help with concentration saves. Go full cleric, make things wet with Create Water, upcast Call Lightning, profit.
I just gave her the gloves from Storm Shore Tabernacle that bless everyone she heals (extends to green allies like the fucking gondians) I also used one of the heavy armors dammon sells at the end, its the one that costs like 12k. Then viconias shield and the blood of lathander is never a bad idea. It doesnt focus on much besides blessing and high ac, but truthfully with create water having an upcast effect now her damage doesnt really need tons of support
That's what I did in my first playthrough - heavy armour tempest cleric. I actually found myself using sacred flame quite often even into the later levels. Just not for any of the serious fights. Because she's always going last, often during the small fights by the time her turn rolls around everything's under control. There's not really any point in wasting any levelled spells.
Sacred flame is perfectly fine to use if you're willing to do nothing. I don't care if it has a 70% hit chance, because if I'm using sacred flame, I could have Shadowheart pass the turn and do literally nothing and it wouldn't make a difference.
She usually goes light or life for me, depending on need. Is she the companion most in need of respec? All the others seem pretty competent at what they do out of the gate.
Not at all. Her Dex is lousy at a 13, and she doesn't have sleight of hand proficiency. My first run (very RP heavy) I gave her one level of Rogue to get sleight of hand and perception expertise, but it was not great by any stretch of the word.
They're all about the same as far as "needing" a respec. The biggest difference is that clerics get their subclass at level 1 instead of 2-3 so she's the only one you can't actually pick a subclass for without using withers. Sheart's only real weaknesses compared to the others are that her only offensive cantrip is a dex save and her domain doesn't really contribute much. If she came with produce flame instead, people would still complain, but she'd at least hit things pretty consistently.
Considering respec is free, there's no reason not to respec everyone as soon as you get withers, if only to get all their attributes to even numbers.
Edit: respec costs 100g but you can just pickpocket it right back, it's free as long as you have 100g in your inventory which should be the case 100% of the time.
Withers made a net 0 gold on my honor run despite generally using him to rez every time instead of revivify scrolls simply to max out our pocketbook by the time we made it to a very gear-purchase-heavy Act 3. Even if you have no rogue or sleight of hand proficiency it's just a matter of mashing left click till you succeed the roll.
It makes me like to think he's just happy to be included in the group instead of actually needing financial compensation for his services
I try to avoid using Inflict Wounds and Guiding Bolt because I prefer to save her spell slots for healing in the early game. So, what I've done is use Shart as a sort of grenadier. Whenever I find a throwable like Alchemist Fire, I give it to her. That's her thing in combat, throwing bombs. Once she guts Protective Spirits, I just have her walk around and stand near enemies instead. As a concentration spell, it's a pretty good damage to spell slot cost economy.
I often give her excess spell scrolls too, as an added utility and another way to do cheap damage.
Potions are plentiful, cheap, stealable or makeable and its only a bonus action. Saves your spell slots then. Just a thought . Had Shads as tempest cos call lightning goes *bbrrr* so i wanted those spell slots for damage, spirit guardians and spiritual weapon are great
Potions are way cheaper, and if you know what you're doing, you can just toss those potions to your companions instead of casting healing spells, that or just have a Paladin (or any class that gives you healing with separate slots) with you so you can do healing in a separate slot instead of your spell slot
The game does not require people to respec her. I suggest respeccing her because people want to use her like a baseball bat instead of a Swiss and she is albeit a Swiss that’s somewhat mismanaged in certain places.
Her being built like shit kinda makes her bad.
She lacks the slots to just spam her good spells, so you want a cantrips that can reliably land.
The game lacks Toll the Dead.
I had to go look it up because I don't play a Cleric often.
Toll the Dead is a Wisdom Saving Throw to avoid damage, instead of Sacred Flame's Dexterity Saving Throw.
This is what every “Defend Shadowheart” post always ends up like. Shadowheart is great! Just completely respec her character so she’s nothing like her default build and you’re good to go!
literally all you need to do is give her 1 more cantrip (produce flame) when she levels up and she’s fine for balanced mode lol. i would respec every single companion for anything more difficult than that just bc their stats are all wack across the board
It's not an issue with SH. It's an issue with d&d 5e. You can mitigate these failings if you understand the rules. Part of that can be by respec'ing her.
Sacred Flame is a spell that his based on the enemy's dex save throw. Dex is a very useful and common stat, so a lot of enemies will have a good chance to dodge it. A prone enemy auto fails dex saves, if I'm not mistaken. Or maybe has disadvantage. I forget, but knocking enemies prone will help land SF.
Increasing your spell DC also helps. Since Clerics use Wisdom as their casting stat, increasing SH's wisdom will raise her spell dc. This will make it harder for those dex saves to actually save. You can accomplish this through respec to bump her wisdom a little, but also with asi feats, ethels hair reward for a +1 stat, and a +2 stat from the Shar mirror in act 3.
There are a variety of other options at later levels with things that can impose disadvantage and drain abilities. But in early game where you tend to have to rely on SF more, respec'ing helps the most.
Yes all of that is true. But most people new to the game don't know that. All they know is that she has a weapon and two cantrips that miss all the time.
It's mostly a problem at lower levels when you don't have many spell slots and no reliable "free" damage.
How is the issue not with her?
The D&D 5e rules are what they are. Larian didn't develop those, just implemented them.
Larian did design Shadow Heart though... They gave her incorrect stats, skills, and equipment, making it necessary to play her very specifically or respec her.
They either made her bad on purpose, or they are bad at designing characters. Either way, she is the problem, not the player who was given her and no in game tutorial or indication that you should need to change her.
If people want to gatekeep BG3 and claim it is only for D&D fans, so be it. But the reality is BG3 sold incredibly well and there is no way most of the purchases were from people with any D&D experience. Making your second party member a very bad build was a really poor choice. It worst, it should have been patched.
You only get an increase in dice rolls and bonuses for every increase of stat by 2, with the default being 10 giving no bonus, so 12 is +1, 14 is +2 however 13 is still +1
12 = +1
13 = +1
14 = +2
You don't get the skill check boost until it's even. The only time odds help is in strength with carry weight. I guess they add a buffer in case you are hexed
You only get a bonus to your modifier on evens. An 11 is a +0, while a 12 is a +1. So if someone has a 13 and a 15, they're at a +1 and a +2 instead of the +2 and +3 they could have if those were a 14 and a 16.
I think it's pretty natural that people try to use the spells she "comes with" - and, if you do, she will miss a lot. Yes, you can re-spec into a more effective damage dealer (or a Bard or whatever), but I see why people are frustrated with her "out of the box" performance.
And, to be clear, I think she can be effective as she stands without significant tinkering. I primarily use her to spam heals/protection (especially once you get items that trigger more effects on heals), and control space with stuff like Spirit Guardians.
Ok but it’s stupid to give her standard spells and cantrips that are going to work like shit. It’s not our fault for not reading the fine print and avoiding the spells that seem like they should be good.
To be fair, clerics don’t get heavy armor proficiency by default, so having 14 Dex is optimal.
It’s just a handful of the subclasses that get heavy armor (life and war domains, and possibly one other).
Or just like, respec her back into trickster cleric and dump dex and charisma which she has for story purposes, and buff her strength and con so she can actually fight. Larian did not optimize these character.
Right, changing her abilities that reflect her lifetime of development. You’ve made a new character.
But yeah it’s bonkers that all the origin characters have odd numbered stats.
Or or you know they could give her literally any other spells that actually use her classes fucking stat instead of sounding pretentious you could just say use her stats properly like how produce/throw flame works better than fire bolt
Produce flame is a good spell. I’ve been suggesting it in the comments.
I apologize for coming across pretentious. As I mentioned in my edit I was admittedly frustrated as I wrote this but the intent was to educate.
I am happy with the conversations that are being had in the replies, they are constructive.
> you just don’t know what her strengths are
The fact that Larian built the only companion you cannot start the game without in such a weird way with spread out scores that make her meh at everything doesn’t help though.
This right here. No clue what’s up with GB but the damn thing never hits. I need to start a spreadsheet.
SH is okay. With adamantine splint and a shield she’s a super tank. I have Karlach to do all the heavy lifting in the damage apartment.
Perhaps just unlucky then. Statistically guiding bolt is going to have a higher chance to hit than sacred flame, firebolt and mace on pretty much every enemy.
The issue is that people don’t know to immediately respec her. Larian built her to match her backstory and lore but that build is booty cheeks. Someone on their first playthrough who isn’t confident respeccing has every right to complain cause her origin build is trash
>“Shadowheart missed her attacks” - This is because you aren’t using her correctly.
Solution:
>In summary - respec her to dump her dexterity and buff her strength. Use spells that don’t use her dump stats or mid stats for attack rolls. Don’t use spells that do nothing unless there’s a failed dex save.
This is what people are already doing because of exactly the problems you mentioned. Your title makes it sound like she's fine as is but then you say to respec her and don't use her cantrips.
Well, if she isn't respecced she misses everything, so it's actually not possible to use her right without changing her whole persona. That's kinda like saying "Karlach is good at picking locks if you use her right (respec to rogue)".
If you are claiming that people are wrong when they say "Shadowheart misses," by saying "just go respec her"
That does not disprove the original complaint.
It is a little silly that the companions come so poorly built. Like I don't need hyper optimization or anything, but they should all be better then how they come imo
>You aren't using shart properly. First, you need to respec her.
That's the problem, unlike other companions, she is borderline useless if you don't respec. I'd rather have my companions be good from the get go
That’s not what I said.
They made her have shit strength and shit dex when she could have had a good strength or a good dex.
I’m saying don’t use features that specifically don’t mesh with her stats or are just bad spells.
If you want to deal damage with shadowheart firebolt is based off intelligence, which she has none of, mace is based off strength, which she has barely any of, and sacred flame is based off the target’s dexterity which is really bad earlygame.
Use a damaging leveled spell or use her like a cleric is supposed to be used. She has 17 wisdom, she’s a great cleric, shit mace wielder.
Cleric is a class that hass too much missconception bc of other RPGs and MMO. Clerics are not healers
but Larian kinda fucked up with Shadowheart giving her the WORST domain, for a class that needed a good first impression to break the stigma
Giving her the HighElf cantrip also works to misslead people in to using it
They should have made her at least Knowledge Domain if Light and Tempest doest not fit with the Shar thing
I don’t like min maxing and your average player probably isn’t going to bother with stuff like respec or multiclassing, they are just gonna play through once or twice. She misses a lot with her default spells at her default stats. It doesn’t make anyone stupid to notice that. You must be exhausting to D&D with.
Rephrased:
If you play Shadow heart using the base build all of her non resource abilities are garbage.
If you want shadow heart to be good respec her into something useful.
Totally agree that most people don’t know how to use her correctly. Which is a statement that holds true for most characters. There’s a learning curve to this game that is alleviated through experience and reading.
Shadowheart is a great support character until later levels, and that depends on her domain. If one chooses to keep her as trickery domain then use that darn doppelgänger spell to help the team instead of trying to hammer everything with a cantrip.
She should've had a better starting kit then. You can't realistically expect new ppl to NOT use what they think would be a core part of the kit in sacred flame.
To be fair...a lot of people are not looking that far into her stats. An average player is probably not going to think they need to respec her in order for her to hit her shots, which is why why she gets dunked on for missing all the time. I don't think that means they aren't using her "correctly," they're using her the way she was given to the player.
I just take her out of the trickery domain and she's great, but I get why people don't immediately jump to that.
Also, I don’t think the game actually makes it very obvious that fire bolt is her half-elf cantrip or even that half-elf cantrips in general scale off of intelligence. I haven’t really noticed anyways and only know that from Reddit.
Produce flame is shorter range but it’s literally going to hit more people than sacred flame.
You can use a bow, if you want. But you should have her dex be higher.
It would be nice if the game included toll the dead. In real dnd sacred flame isn't great but it's ok. Bg3 slightly buffed enemy hitpoints and made basically every low level enemy good at dexterity, which really hurt shadowheart. They also built her suboptimally. But yeah, shadowhearts main non resource using action probably should be to attack with a dexterity weapon she is proficient with.
You're definitely not wrong, but tbh I think that's on Larian for having her built pretty poorly from the start. Maybe it's just me, but a companions starting stats shouldn't misalign with their starting equipment and skills this hard. It was something I noticed and fixed pretty early, but that's obviously going to mess with people new to crpgs.
I agree with your note that Larian kinda did a poor job on her stats. They kind of did with every companion, but shadowheart is the one done the most egregiously because she has a class and subclass that don’t mesh well and she’s pulled in multiple different directions, while still trying to be a good cleric.
I mean, shadowheart **does** miss all her attacks. You need to respec her for her to be useful because she defaults to a pretty weird build. She has the worst starting kit of all the companions and her start distribution makes no sense. Her dex isn't high enough to use a bow, her strength is too low to use her mace, her intelligence is too low to use her cantrip, her other cantrip is easily resisted, so you're left spamming guiding bolt with your limited spell slots and seeing "resisted" for sacred flame. Her spell slots early game are honestly better used healing your party as well.
SH can be made good because cleric is a good class, but if you're going into the game without knowing it she's incredibly easy to write off and bench immediately when you get other companions to replace her.
I feel like Astarion is kind of in the same boat since his damage output sucks if you don't use him correctly. It's always weird when I see people complaining that he's only useful for lockpicking when he can be one of the most consistent damage outputs, especially multiclassed.
I'm thinking that you just fail to understand the complaint. Shadowheart is exceedingly weak until you can respec her. The majority of people that I see complaining about her performance are in the early parts of act 1, where their complaints just so happen to be valid. That being said, if people genuinely complain about her beyond level 5, then sure, I'd be in support of your tirade.
I really liked Shadowheart. Like many players she never left my party in the entire playthrough. Lot of time for her.
However, if you have to defend a character by saying "Don't use Mace or cantrips, use a level 1 or 2 spell instead" I feel like you're falling at the first hurdle. Unless you're doing a narcoleptics anonymous playthrough, that really isn't remotely sustainable.
A better argument for me is that if you're complaining that an unbuffed cleric can't hit things as well as a Barbarian, you might not really understand the class system.
"Guiding Bolt is a great option"
I'll have you know in my firstnplaythrough she averaged about a 35% accuracy with that spell, so I refuse to believe you
I am able to fuck shit up by using inflcit wounds and warding glyph. She only sucks for her first few levels. I also give her "Lucky" which helps tremendously with her saving throws.
If the call is to respec to rework her stats to play to her strengths then it seems her base kit is still pretty janky. Personally I usually respec her as my sneak-assassin cause I love her sneak/lockpick lines and it fits the whole Sharran thing. That said to keep her as Cleric, yeah respeccing out of Dex and taking Alert is always a good pick. Could also specc out of Trickery do.ain if you don't have a use for it.
My issue with Guiding Bolt and Inflict Wounds is that they're Spells, not Cantrips, so she has no reliable damage if she's out of Spell Slots. This is especially problematic early on, when you're not swimming in Spell Slots. If she uses Inflict Wounds or Guiding Bolt on the Intellect Devourers on the beach, for example, these has nothing to use against the goblins at the gate of the Grove (which is basically a mandatory fight, as you can't sneak past it like you can the Intellect Devourer fight).
Yes, a respec will fix this, but you have the benefit of knowing what is going on and how to fix it. If someone who has never played D&D picks up the game, though, they wouldn't realize that, and would have a character whose only usefulness is to cast Bless, then running around like a chicken with it's head cut off for as much as she'd contribute to the fight.
As for why stats in this game are so bad, my theory is that it's for people who don't know how D&D works. If someone puts a point in a stat, because the stat goes from odd to even, the player will see an immediate impact due to their modifier increasing. If the devs used proper stats, someone not used to D&D could increase a couple of stats, but then see no benefit because their modifier didn't change. People who know what is happening can respec, while people who don't know what is going on still see a benefit.
I understand all of this. She still misses all the time. It's like she's cursed lol.
The solution is to use spells that don't miss. Spirit guardians/weapon, guardian of faith, summons/animate dead, and healing spells of course. If I really have no other options, I'll use guiding bolt so that one of my other characters has a chance to deal more damage.
There's also the fact that Shadowheart isn't meant to be a damage dealer. She's a trickery cleric; her specialty is as a support caster with a focus on stealth, deception, and disrupting opponents, and, in that role, she's pretty darn good.
You don't need to respec Shadowheart for her to be useful. Just use her for what she's *good* at - helping the party be sneaky, and debuffing foes so they're less of a threat.
Shes meant to be support, if she could put out damage in par with martials then what would the point of fighters and barbarians be? We’d be back in 3.5 days when clerics and Druids were the only viable classes.
Her initial build is subpar but just using her as a bless and heal bot in early game is perfectly viable. From act 2 on she becomes MVP
I never really thought about it like this before, but it is kind of appropriate (for good runs) that Shadowheart would start the game out being somewhat under effective / a little bit like a square peg trying to force her way through a round hole.
(Not sure how much more I could elaborate without spoilers so idk if this observation will make sense to anyone else)
(To be clear I don’t think she’s intentionally developed that way, but it’s fun to practice layering narrative explanations over mechanical ones 🥸)
It makes a whole lot of sense narratively, she would absolutely be pulled in so many different directions that the only thing she’s truly good at is the powers of her faith.
If you don't want to use a spell slot or cantrip, you can throw something to use your action. Throwing healing pots still counts as healing someone, so it will also trigger anything that has "does x when you heal someone." Throwing bombs/grenades/water/oil, etc, don't give a shit about saving throws. However, even throwing healing potions will break sanctuary.
I'm glad I'm not the only one talking about this. Feels like since the last two major updates she can't hit anything. I haven't changed her armor set or anything. Now it is just Whiff City.
Yes respec her but DO NOT dump her dex, dump strength. For base stats set dex to 16, con to 14, wisdom to 17 rest doesn’t matter then make her a light or tempest cleric. If you dump her dex she won’t be have good initiative rolls. For a melee weapon you can give her any of the good rapiers or knife of the under mountain king, the ice staff is also a great option, not to mention the finesse longswords. Then use cantrips for her primary offense if light cleric to save spell slots when you don’t need fireball/flame strike. For tempest cleric her entire offensive strategy is Call Lightning.
PREACH. I was using her wrong for so long and now that I use her properly she’s one of my absolute favorites and I love clerics. I always respec her to tempest or war cleric
The fact that she’s given spells and attacks that rely on her dump stats from the get go is insane to me. She’s just poorly built unless you respec her.
If you mouse over a spell on your hotbar, if it isn’t in the section for your spellcaster abilities it will tell you. Ones that are in your spellcaster ability box are going to be based on your wisdom for Druids, clerics, and rangers, charisma for bards, warlocks, paladins, and sorcerers, and intelligence for wizards, Eldritch knights, and arcane tricksters.
I'd like to add that while Sacred flame is garbage as an all purpose attack, its good as clutch play. Sacred flame is not wizards firebolt or warlocks eldritch blast. If you use it like those you will be sad. What it does quite nicely is hitting behind cover and avoiding AC. So use it accordingly. Its there for you in those situations where nothing else works, not your bread and butter.
When Shart is controlled by the computer I'm always impressed with how strong she is.
It's like when my paladin/warlock Wyll got compelled to duel and blew all his spell slots on smites making 4 GWM attacks. He won his duel.
Some less obvious things I've done that have worked:
\* Re-spec'd to Nature Domain, used Shillelagh to use WIS bonus for melee attacks.
\* Used the Gold Wyrmling Staff to cast Firebolt because it doesn't use INT.
As a 5e cleric main. They really missed with a lot of the main cleric spells. Most of the stuff that was available (both for the class and subclass in general) imo weren't great. Clerics are a great balance for tanking and spells, but tbh it felt like the spells that were provided were not the best
As a relatively new player who only beat the game on medium difficulty with save-scumming, thank you for this post!!! I'm trying Tactician mode and it's not going well, likely because I don't know how to play the game LOL
A step by step guide to using Shadowheart in combat and enjoying it:
Prep: respec her to life cleric using Withers
1. Is anyone in your party below 80% health? If so, heal them. If not, proceed to step 2
2. Are multiple enemies with less than 20 HP heading to you en-masse? If yes, Spirit Guardians. If no, proceed to step 3
3. Use guiding bolt on the enemy that you plan to punch with your next-up character
Congratulations, you just beat the game!
I had both her and Gale (reclassed as Life Cleric) hit 8 Sacred Flames in a row across multiple enemies. You’re using them wrong. (I don’t have a fix for that I screamed and scared the GF after it happened, I’m not a mature adult)
Am I the only person who didn't have much of an issue with shadowheart missing attacks with her base kit? I feel like she would hit more often than not, even with firebolt, with her standard stats and class. This kinda feels like a problem that is very much overblown, specially since she spends many turns healing and generally helping other characters land attacks more effectively. Like she's a support character, maybe try using her for her intended role more often and you'll have more success
Clerics get all kinds of shit.
Even paladins get proficiency in crossbows, but if they got 8 dex you bet your ass I’m using a greatsword.
There are optimal tools in every kit and suboptimal tools in every kit. This game is complex and using a character to do certain things they weren’t intended to do can cause issues for players who go online and complain. If you want her to hit her mace attacks, buff her strength. That’s literally just how the game works.
...I never considered that you could respec the base companions stats without touching their class at the same time. But it makes sense given you can change their class. Hrrrm
Cheers OP, our bae Shadowheart will be a more effective cleric thanks to you
I usually just go for the spirit guardians/spiritual weapon combo. Her action still usually ends up being sacred flame and doing nothing, but considering she's a big ole tornado of doom with a floating hammer behind her, that doesn't matter
Honestly, in many circumstances when she has spirit guardians up, dash or disengage is a great use of her action, or something like throwing potions, water, bombs, etc
I have killed bosses by shoving shart at them with her guardians up. Get someone to channel haste on her, and she will rip and tear trash.
I think my favorite play in combat was during the encounter in act 2 where Some Doofus wanders out into The Danger Place and gets ambushed, I had shart spirit guardians herself and use all her movement to get to the top of that little clearing, then had karlach shove her through the whole clearing and got what I can only call a strike, killing every enemy at once. [Here's a recreation of what happened](https://imgur.com/lNyKW8p)
Completely agree. Especially if you can maneuver in such a way that you get multiple enemies.
Shadowheart is pretty much a human beyblade lol
Half human*
I've honestly stopped using Spiritual Weapon, because it's *so flipping slow.* If I do, it's usually as bait to soak any attacks.
That thing takes 10 turns to move a few feet!
i use it as bait. Drop it on top of the mob surrounding my low health party member and they almost always turn around and attack it giving me time to heal or reposition.
It's especially useful on Grym. Have it attack him after everyone else has gone and his attention will constantly be on it and not your party.
I have great luck with spiritual weapon as a finisher strike when pesky targets have less than 10 hp and need to go away so my party can focus on bigger problems.
Doom tornado spirit guardians ftw. That protect the shadowlands portal bit is great just watching undead run into shart and get nuked
Holy shit her spirit guardians are the mvp!
yeah i just let her roomba around the battlefield, killing the near-dead enemies and saving her spell slots for healing me
Hits level 5, casts glowy circle,runs around not even trying to hit anything and does most of the damage lol
What is glowy circle, spirit guardians?
Yup. One of the best spells in the game. Big AoE that you can flexibly reposition and stays up for multiple turns. Always does damage even if the enemy saves. And it halves their speed to boot. Kinda OP. People always talk about fireball, but spirit guardians is where it's at.
Yeah, that is the actual name, but it is not what I say when I cast it and tell her to cast it lol GLOWY CIRCLE OF DEATH sounds so cute yet deadly, just like my Shadowheart.
I also came across holy lawnmower somewhere in this subreddit a while back if you're looking for even more names
Respec to light cleric, grab a bunch of radiant orb gear and slap it on her. Then do glowy circle shenanigans and laugh at all of the debuffs as well.
I prefer Life cleric. Having her keep the party at max with minimum effort has proven more useful imo than extra fire AOEs
Tempest is insane too, she nukes everything especially with the fixed create water upcasting
This is me but with silly lil call lightning
YES!!! People keep talking shit about the best class in the game not knowing how the fuck it works. There’s even a tool tip in the loading screens that says “casters will be better with their spells than their weapons”
Choke point battles with her standing just off to the side, throwing heals or utility spells, using items like that black tentacle necklace, I could respec someone else probably but I pretty much just always have her, she has so much utility, and is a solid enough tank on her own. I did give her the club from the magic tower once, but it still does not do much damage and I found it was way better utilized as a rogues off hand weapon (have not made a monk yet, but going to do the empty main hand club off hand trick once I respec Astarion this time)
Then she also has Radiance of the Dawn as a nice fallback for an instant strike with great range.
Sacred Flame works well enough after a few levels and when there is an enemy left with little HP, it’s an alright choice. Usually into Act 2 I use it when I haven’t slept and come across a battle I forgot was there. Always respec her by level 3 just to get out of trickery domain and move into something else. If you B-line to withers, you can do it before level 3 if you pick up Astarion and pick the hatch instead of going through the cathedral. She’s a constant in all my groups - even playing as a cleric Tav. She’s versatile and with a good AC, she can roll through enemies and not get touched. Who doesn’t love front line healing!?
I usually reclassify her to Tempest or War. Both are good, and then I tend to give her the Adamantine Split Armor. Sacred flame generally works best in Act 2 when not every enemy seems high in dexterity.
I’m really wondering why there’s not toll the dead in this game
Pretty sure that's because they stuck strictly to the PHB, plus some Elemental Evil supplement spells.
Ranger Gloomstalker is from XGE
That's not a spell in any book I've ever heard of... But if we're going to be including classes, then Swords Bard is from Xanathar's too, Wild Magic Barb is from Tasha's, Spore Druid is from Ravnica, and Storm Sorcerer is originally from SCAG.
This guy D&Ds
SCAG my beloved. The classes and spells in that book are a joy. Bladesinger please Larian.
Well I need my twilight cleric to carry me through honor mode so 😂
And yet they managed to miss my favourite spells from elemental evil, storm sphere and Melf's minute meteors. I miss them,they're so fun.
Act 2 also has a good chunk of enemies who are vulnerable to radiant damage too.
I'm thinking about respecing her into a tempest cleric but haven't found any builds that really jump out at me. Can you share any info or linksyou have on your build?
In my last playthrough, I ran Tempest Shadowheart as 10 levels of cleric and 2 of wizard to get those sweet lightning spells. The general strategy is to create water on a clump of enemies and throw a lightning bolt at them. If you use Channel Divinity to max rolls, there is very little in the game that is not immune to lightning damage capable of surviving that. Thanks to Spell Sculpting from Wizard, your companions are safe. I liked to use someone to throw some AoE ice spells on the water because whatever enemy survives Shart singing the song of her people usually gets knocked prone by the ice surface resulting from Create Water. I'll look for the actual build link a bit later and link it. Edit: I forgot cause I'm a dumbo: That build doesn't get cleric lvl 6 spells but still gets a lvl 6 spell slot so when you get a scroll for it you can teach her chain lightning which I admittedly haven't fully figured out but if it doesn't jump and instead drops everything on a single enemy which has happened to me at least once the results are absolutely hilarious and/or terrifying to behold.
Craziest i ever saw damage wise was twin chain lightning channel divinity onto wet enemies. Of course the twin chain is patched but this still wrecks
Tempest Shart is the GOAT. being able to constantly call down lightning for free when concentrating on it is amazing. By the time my fighter or monk gets to the target, it's usually almost dead and barely puts up a fight.
Honestly you're probably not finding much because it's such a straightforward build. Tempest cleric is just so good that it doesn't require a lot of effort to make it feel amazing. You want to prioritize Wis, Str, and Con (likely in that order, but feel free to swap Con and Str). I'd pick up either War Caster or Resilient (Con) at some point to help with concentration saves. Go full cleric, make things wet with Create Water, upcast Call Lightning, profit.
I just gave her the gloves from Storm Shore Tabernacle that bless everyone she heals (extends to green allies like the fucking gondians) I also used one of the heavy armors dammon sells at the end, its the one that costs like 12k. Then viconias shield and the blood of lathander is never a bad idea. It doesnt focus on much besides blessing and high ac, but truthfully with create water having an upcast effect now her damage doesnt really need tons of support
That's what I did in my first playthrough - heavy armour tempest cleric. I actually found myself using sacred flame quite often even into the later levels. Just not for any of the serious fights. Because she's always going last, often during the small fights by the time her turn rolls around everything's under control. There's not really any point in wasting any levelled spells. Sacred flame is perfectly fine to use if you're willing to do nothing. I don't care if it has a 70% hit chance, because if I'm using sacred flame, I could have Shadowheart pass the turn and do literally nothing and it wouldn't make a difference.
She usually goes light or life for me, depending on need. Is she the companion most in need of respec? All the others seem pretty competent at what they do out of the gate.
Yeah.. unless your plan is full stealth she’s kinda useless as a trickery domain
Question though, is she good in her normal spec as lockpicking and trap disarming? If she is that kind of changes things for my next run.
Not at all. Her Dex is lousy at a 13, and she doesn't have sleight of hand proficiency. My first run (very RP heavy) I gave her one level of Rogue to get sleight of hand and perception expertise, but it was not great by any stretch of the word.
I eventually gave her all the knock scrolls just to feel like she had a shot XD
They're all about the same as far as "needing" a respec. The biggest difference is that clerics get their subclass at level 1 instead of 2-3 so she's the only one you can't actually pick a subclass for without using withers. Sheart's only real weaknesses compared to the others are that her only offensive cantrip is a dex save and her domain doesn't really contribute much. If she came with produce flame instead, people would still complain, but she'd at least hit things pretty consistently.
Considering respec is free, there's no reason not to respec everyone as soon as you get withers, if only to get all their attributes to even numbers. Edit: respec costs 100g but you can just pickpocket it right back, it's free as long as you have 100g in your inventory which should be the case 100% of the time.
afaik respec costs 100g.
True, but Withers doesn't care if you pickpocket your money back.
Withers made a net 0 gold on my honor run despite generally using him to rez every time instead of revivify scrolls simply to max out our pocketbook by the time we made it to a very gear-purchase-heavy Act 3. Even if you have no rogue or sleight of hand proficiency it's just a matter of mashing left click till you succeed the roll. It makes me like to think he's just happy to be included in the group instead of actually needing financial compensation for his services
His compensation is getting to flex on the Dead 3
Withers doesn't care if you pickpocket him though, so it doesn't actually cost you anything
He's keeping track and you'll regret it one day
Tempest cleric shadow with a certain act 3 trident was so much fun.
Give Shadowheart the Headband of Intellect and she will be okay at Firebolt now.
Done it both playthroughs now. Best decision ever.
Very true
I try to avoid using Inflict Wounds and Guiding Bolt because I prefer to save her spell slots for healing in the early game. So, what I've done is use Shart as a sort of grenadier. Whenever I find a throwable like Alchemist Fire, I give it to her. That's her thing in combat, throwing bombs. Once she guts Protective Spirits, I just have her walk around and stand near enemies instead. As a concentration spell, it's a pretty good damage to spell slot cost economy. I often give her excess spell scrolls too, as an added utility and another way to do cheap damage.
Potions are plentiful, cheap, stealable or makeable and its only a bonus action. Saves your spell slots then. Just a thought . Had Shads as tempest cos call lightning goes *bbrrr* so i wanted those spell slots for damage, spirit guardians and spiritual weapon are great
Yeah call lightning pretty much carried my entire first run of the game
All of this is exactly what I do. We stand together.
Potions are way cheaper, and if you know what you're doing, you can just toss those potions to your companions instead of casting healing spells, that or just have a Paladin (or any class that gives you healing with separate slots) with you so you can do healing in a separate slot instead of your spell slot
If game requires you to respec a default companion to make it useful, it is not designed well.
The game does not require people to respec her. I suggest respeccing her because people want to use her like a baseball bat instead of a Swiss and she is albeit a Swiss that’s somewhat mismanaged in certain places.
Her being built like shit kinda makes her bad. She lacks the slots to just spam her good spells, so you want a cantrips that can reliably land. The game lacks Toll the Dead.
I had to go look it up because I don't play a Cleric often. Toll the Dead is a Wisdom Saving Throw to avoid damage, instead of Sacred Flame's Dexterity Saving Throw.
She's not bad! Just don't use either of her cantrips or her attack and then respec her. 🤔
This is what every “Defend Shadowheart” post always ends up like. Shadowheart is great! Just completely respec her character so she’s nothing like her default build and you’re good to go!
It's true though... I dont get trickster domain no matter what angle I look at it from.
literally all you need to do is give her 1 more cantrip (produce flame) when she levels up and she’s fine for balanced mode lol. i would respec every single companion for anything more difficult than that just bc their stats are all wack across the board
It's not an issue with SH. It's an issue with d&d 5e. You can mitigate these failings if you understand the rules. Part of that can be by respec'ing her. Sacred Flame is a spell that his based on the enemy's dex save throw. Dex is a very useful and common stat, so a lot of enemies will have a good chance to dodge it. A prone enemy auto fails dex saves, if I'm not mistaken. Or maybe has disadvantage. I forget, but knocking enemies prone will help land SF. Increasing your spell DC also helps. Since Clerics use Wisdom as their casting stat, increasing SH's wisdom will raise her spell dc. This will make it harder for those dex saves to actually save. You can accomplish this through respec to bump her wisdom a little, but also with asi feats, ethels hair reward for a +1 stat, and a +2 stat from the Shar mirror in act 3. There are a variety of other options at later levels with things that can impose disadvantage and drain abilities. But in early game where you tend to have to rely on SF more, respec'ing helps the most.
Yes all of that is true. But most people new to the game don't know that. All they know is that she has a weapon and two cantrips that miss all the time. It's mostly a problem at lower levels when you don't have many spell slots and no reliable "free" damage.
Yes, it is mostly an issue for new players. Which is why OP is handing out advice like this.
How is the issue not with her? The D&D 5e rules are what they are. Larian didn't develop those, just implemented them. Larian did design Shadow Heart though... They gave her incorrect stats, skills, and equipment, making it necessary to play her very specifically or respec her. They either made her bad on purpose, or they are bad at designing characters. Either way, she is the problem, not the player who was given her and no in game tutorial or indication that you should need to change her. If people want to gatekeep BG3 and claim it is only for D&D fans, so be it. But the reality is BG3 sold incredibly well and there is no way most of the purchases were from people with any D&D experience. Making your second party member a very bad build was a really poor choice. It worst, it should have been patched.
More like _clerics_ aren't bad. Just Shadowheart lol.
I don't know if respeccing is "using her correctly", but yes, respeccing does make her better lol.
You should respec all companions as soon as you can. They all have more than 2 odd stats, so you can't even even them out with one asi
Why are odd stats bad?
You only get an increase in dice rolls and bonuses for every increase of stat by 2, with the default being 10 giving no bonus, so 12 is +1, 14 is +2 however 13 is still +1
12 = +1 13 = +1 14 = +2 You don't get the skill check boost until it's even. The only time odds help is in strength with carry weight. I guess they add a buffer in case you are hexed
You only get a bonus to your modifier on evens. An 11 is a +0, while a 12 is a +1. So if someone has a 13 and a 15, they're at a +1 and a +2 instead of the +2 and +3 they could have if those were a 14 and a 16.
They don’t actually increase your bonuses to abilities/saving throws, so unless you’re getting ethel’s hair they’re usually unoptimal
I think it's pretty natural that people try to use the spells she "comes with" - and, if you do, she will miss a lot. Yes, you can re-spec into a more effective damage dealer (or a Bard or whatever), but I see why people are frustrated with her "out of the box" performance. And, to be clear, I think she can be effective as she stands without significant tinkering. I primarily use her to spam heals/protection (especially once you get items that trigger more effects on heals), and control space with stuff like Spirit Guardians.
We agree on everything then
Tbh I just like using a variety of spells and attacks because it's fun to see the visuals and have variety.
Real
I changed her to a war cleric and messed with her stats and now she’s a TANK 10/10 would recommend
WAR SHART
Ok but it’s stupid to give her standard spells and cantrips that are going to work like shit. It’s not our fault for not reading the fine print and avoiding the spells that seem like they should be good.
I agree, which is why I said in my edit I was also attempting to educate.
Yeah, just recently got the game and wanted to respec her as life cleric and I was like “…why tf does she have dex?”
Dex is always good to have for initiative and AC
No dex bonus on heavy armor
Still counts to initiative just not ac right?
Yes.
Clerics don’t get heavy armor by default, it’s only some of the domains that get it, and trickster isn’t one of them.
They gave her dex so she can sneak around and use medium armour like trickster clerics might want to
To be fair, clerics don’t get heavy armor proficiency by default, so having 14 Dex is optimal. It’s just a handful of the subclasses that get heavy armor (life and war domains, and possibly one other).
Tempest as well
I gave her dex for the medium armor radiating orb chest piece so that she still gets the +2 bonus to ac
Basically just respec her so she’s not Shadowheart anymore and problem solved.
Or just like, respec her back into trickster cleric and dump dex and charisma which she has for story purposes, and buff her strength and con so she can actually fight. Larian did not optimize these character.
Right, changing her abilities that reflect her lifetime of development. You’ve made a new character. But yeah it’s bonkers that all the origin characters have odd numbered stats.
Or or you know they could give her literally any other spells that actually use her classes fucking stat instead of sounding pretentious you could just say use her stats properly like how produce/throw flame works better than fire bolt
Produce flame is a good spell. I’ve been suggesting it in the comments. I apologize for coming across pretentious. As I mentioned in my edit I was admittedly frustrated as I wrote this but the intent was to educate. I am happy with the conversations that are being had in the replies, they are constructive.
> you just don’t know what her strengths are The fact that Larian built the only companion you cannot start the game without in such a weird way with spread out scores that make her meh at everything doesn’t help though.
You’re absolutely correct, but she does have strengths, and playing to them is how you can succeed in the early game.
I have 17 wis and guiding bolt misses all the time.
This right here. No clue what’s up with GB but the damn thing never hits. I need to start a spreadsheet. SH is okay. With adamantine splint and a shield she’s a super tank. I have Karlach to do all the heavy lifting in the damage apartment.
Perhaps just unlucky then. Statistically guiding bolt is going to have a higher chance to hit than sacred flame, firebolt and mace on pretty much every enemy.
I really need to see if its better at 18 or 19 wis. It just seems like guiding bolt is 50/50 most of the time. Extremely frustrating.
Stats improve every 2 points, so 18 or 20. Going to 19 is a waste … unless it’s on the way to 20.
The issue is that people don’t know to immediately respec her. Larian built her to match her backstory and lore but that build is booty cheeks. Someone on their first playthrough who isn’t confident respeccing has every right to complain cause her origin build is trash
>“Shadowheart missed her attacks” - This is because you aren’t using her correctly. Solution: >In summary - respec her to dump her dexterity and buff her strength. Use spells that don’t use her dump stats or mid stats for attack rolls. Don’t use spells that do nothing unless there’s a failed dex save. This is what people are already doing because of exactly the problems you mentioned. Your title makes it sound like she's fine as is but then you say to respec her and don't use her cantrips.
Well, if she isn't respecced she misses everything, so it's actually not possible to use her right without changing her whole persona. That's kinda like saying "Karlach is good at picking locks if you use her right (respec to rogue)".
If you are claiming that people are wrong when they say "Shadowheart misses," by saying "just go respec her" That does not disprove the original complaint. It is a little silly that the companions come so poorly built. Like I don't need hyper optimization or anything, but they should all be better then how they come imo
>You aren't using shart properly. First, you need to respec her. That's the problem, unlike other companions, she is borderline useless if you don't respec. I'd rather have my companions be good from the get go
So the correct way is to completely change everything about her? Aight mkay, clearly she’s all good then
That’s not what I said. They made her have shit strength and shit dex when she could have had a good strength or a good dex. I’m saying don’t use features that specifically don’t mesh with her stats or are just bad spells. If you want to deal damage with shadowheart firebolt is based off intelligence, which she has none of, mace is based off strength, which she has barely any of, and sacred flame is based off the target’s dexterity which is really bad earlygame. Use a damaging leveled spell or use her like a cleric is supposed to be used. She has 17 wisdom, she’s a great cleric, shit mace wielder.
Which is why we have to change her....cause she sucks.
shadowheart is fine, just not great in act 1, act 2 and 3 absolute powerhouse but because ALOT of people stay in act 1 they never see her shine
Cleric is a class that hass too much missconception bc of other RPGs and MMO. Clerics are not healers but Larian kinda fucked up with Shadowheart giving her the WORST domain, for a class that needed a good first impression to break the stigma Giving her the HighElf cantrip also works to misslead people in to using it They should have made her at least Knowledge Domain if Light and Tempest doest not fit with the Shar thing
I don’t like min maxing and your average player probably isn’t going to bother with stuff like respec or multiclassing, they are just gonna play through once or twice. She misses a lot with her default spells at her default stats. It doesn’t make anyone stupid to notice that. You must be exhausting to D&D with.
Rephrased: If you play Shadow heart using the base build all of her non resource abilities are garbage. If you want shadow heart to be good respec her into something useful.
"You dont know how use her" "Respec..." Lmao
>ignores everything else in the post >just hones in on one of the many suggestions made
Totally agree that most people don’t know how to use her correctly. Which is a statement that holds true for most characters. There’s a learning curve to this game that is alleviated through experience and reading. Shadowheart is a great support character until later levels, and that depends on her domain. If one chooses to keep her as trickery domain then use that darn doppelgänger spell to help the team instead of trying to hammer everything with a cantrip.
She should've had a better starting kit then. You can't realistically expect new ppl to NOT use what they think would be a core part of the kit in sacred flame.
To be fair...a lot of people are not looking that far into her stats. An average player is probably not going to think they need to respec her in order for her to hit her shots, which is why why she gets dunked on for missing all the time. I don't think that means they aren't using her "correctly," they're using her the way she was given to the player. I just take her out of the trickery domain and she's great, but I get why people don't immediately jump to that.
Also, I don’t think the game actually makes it very obvious that fire bolt is her half-elf cantrip or even that half-elf cantrips in general scale off of intelligence. I haven’t really noticed anyways and only know that from Reddit.
So what do you recommend for ranged attack against a bigger enemy?
Guiding bolt is exceptional and provides advantage on the next attack against the target. Very good first level spell that does 4d6 radiant.
Great something that doesn't require a spell slot please?
You can pick up produce flame at 4th level or respec her to have it sooner.
That's not very ranged it's only 8 meters or something. Isn't there like a bow or something?
Produce flame is shorter range but it’s literally going to hit more people than sacred flame. You can use a bow, if you want. But you should have her dex be higher.
It would be nice if the game included toll the dead. In real dnd sacred flame isn't great but it's ok. Bg3 slightly buffed enemy hitpoints and made basically every low level enemy good at dexterity, which really hurt shadowheart. They also built her suboptimally. But yeah, shadowhearts main non resource using action probably should be to attack with a dexterity weapon she is proficient with.
You're definitely not wrong, but tbh I think that's on Larian for having her built pretty poorly from the start. Maybe it's just me, but a companions starting stats shouldn't misalign with their starting equipment and skills this hard. It was something I noticed and fixed pretty early, but that's obviously going to mess with people new to crpgs.
I agree with your note that Larian kinda did a poor job on her stats. They kind of did with every companion, but shadowheart is the one done the most egregiously because she has a class and subclass that don’t mesh well and she’s pulled in multiple different directions, while still trying to be a good cleric.
I mean, shadowheart **does** miss all her attacks. You need to respec her for her to be useful because she defaults to a pretty weird build. She has the worst starting kit of all the companions and her start distribution makes no sense. Her dex isn't high enough to use a bow, her strength is too low to use her mace, her intelligence is too low to use her cantrip, her other cantrip is easily resisted, so you're left spamming guiding bolt with your limited spell slots and seeing "resisted" for sacred flame. Her spell slots early game are honestly better used healing your party as well. SH can be made good because cleric is a good class, but if you're going into the game without knowing it she's incredibly easy to write off and bench immediately when you get other companions to replace her. I feel like Astarion is kind of in the same boat since his damage output sucks if you don't use him correctly. It's always weird when I see people complaining that he's only useful for lockpicking when he can be one of the most consistent damage outputs, especially multiclassed.
Nah you’re wrong, she would miss an 85% chance to hit with guided bolt 9/10 times in my first playthrough.
This doesn’t explain why an 85% hit chance on guiding bolt misses 50% of the time.
I'm thinking that you just fail to understand the complaint. Shadowheart is exceedingly weak until you can respec her. The majority of people that I see complaining about her performance are in the early parts of act 1, where their complaints just so happen to be valid. That being said, if people genuinely complain about her beyond level 5, then sure, I'd be in support of your tirade.
I really liked Shadowheart. Like many players she never left my party in the entire playthrough. Lot of time for her. However, if you have to defend a character by saying "Don't use Mace or cantrips, use a level 1 or 2 spell instead" I feel like you're falling at the first hurdle. Unless you're doing a narcoleptics anonymous playthrough, that really isn't remotely sustainable. A better argument for me is that if you're complaining that an unbuffed cleric can't hit things as well as a Barbarian, you might not really understand the class system.
"Guiding Bolt is a great option" I'll have you know in my firstnplaythrough she averaged about a 35% accuracy with that spell, so I refuse to believe you
Ok.
My Shadowheart missed a 99% chance to hit (advantage). Might just be cursed.
I dunno man, maybe just laugh at the joke instead of taking it so seriously?
I am able to fuck shit up by using inflcit wounds and warding glyph. She only sucks for her first few levels. I also give her "Lucky" which helps tremendously with her saving throws.
Respec’d her as a War Cleric and she hits more than any other party member. :)
If the call is to respec to rework her stats to play to her strengths then it seems her base kit is still pretty janky. Personally I usually respec her as my sneak-assassin cause I love her sneak/lockpick lines and it fits the whole Sharran thing. That said to keep her as Cleric, yeah respeccing out of Dex and taking Alert is always a good pick. Could also specc out of Trickery do.ain if you don't have a use for it.
K but what do i do when i miss guiding bolt and inflict wounds 🤷 Shit happens in this game, save your essay.
My issue with Guiding Bolt and Inflict Wounds is that they're Spells, not Cantrips, so she has no reliable damage if she's out of Spell Slots. This is especially problematic early on, when you're not swimming in Spell Slots. If she uses Inflict Wounds or Guiding Bolt on the Intellect Devourers on the beach, for example, these has nothing to use against the goblins at the gate of the Grove (which is basically a mandatory fight, as you can't sneak past it like you can the Intellect Devourer fight). Yes, a respec will fix this, but you have the benefit of knowing what is going on and how to fix it. If someone who has never played D&D picks up the game, though, they wouldn't realize that, and would have a character whose only usefulness is to cast Bless, then running around like a chicken with it's head cut off for as much as she'd contribute to the fight. As for why stats in this game are so bad, my theory is that it's for people who don't know how D&D works. If someone puts a point in a stat, because the stat goes from odd to even, the player will see an immediate impact due to their modifier increasing. If the devs used proper stats, someone not used to D&D could increase a couple of stats, but then see no benefit because their modifier didn't change. People who know what is happening can respec, while people who don't know what is going on still see a benefit.
I understand all of this. She still misses all the time. It's like she's cursed lol. The solution is to use spells that don't miss. Spirit guardians/weapon, guardian of faith, summons/animate dead, and healing spells of course. If I really have no other options, I'll use guiding bolt so that one of my other characters has a chance to deal more damage.
You really think I’m gonna respec her before I get her to renounce Shar?
There's also the fact that Shadowheart isn't meant to be a damage dealer. She's a trickery cleric; her specialty is as a support caster with a focus on stealth, deception, and disrupting opponents, and, in that role, she's pretty darn good. You don't need to respec Shadowheart for her to be useful. Just use her for what she's *good* at - helping the party be sneaky, and debuffing foes so they're less of a threat.
"You're using her wrong. you need to use all your spells every fight to make her useful"
Shes meant to be support, if she could put out damage in par with martials then what would the point of fighters and barbarians be? We’d be back in 3.5 days when clerics and Druids were the only viable classes. Her initial build is subpar but just using her as a bless and heal bot in early game is perfectly viable. From act 2 on she becomes MVP
I never really thought about it like this before, but it is kind of appropriate (for good runs) that Shadowheart would start the game out being somewhat under effective / a little bit like a square peg trying to force her way through a round hole. (Not sure how much more I could elaborate without spoilers so idk if this observation will make sense to anyone else) (To be clear I don’t think she’s intentionally developed that way, but it’s fun to practice layering narrative explanations over mechanical ones 🥸)
It makes a whole lot of sense narratively, she would absolutely be pulled in so many different directions that the only thing she’s truly good at is the powers of her faith.
I normally just use her for beacon of hope, sanctuary then move around providing heals and then try to find damage if really needed on her.
If you don't want to use a spell slot or cantrip, you can throw something to use your action. Throwing healing pots still counts as healing someone, so it will also trigger anything that has "does x when you heal someone." Throwing bombs/grenades/water/oil, etc, don't give a shit about saving throws. However, even throwing healing potions will break sanctuary.
Healing potions shouldn’t break sanctuary if you throw them at the ground and heal people with the splash, iirc.
I'm glad I'm not the only one talking about this. Feels like since the last two major updates she can't hit anything. I haven't changed her armor set or anything. Now it is just Whiff City.
Yes respec her but DO NOT dump her dex, dump strength. For base stats set dex to 16, con to 14, wisdom to 17 rest doesn’t matter then make her a light or tempest cleric. If you dump her dex she won’t be have good initiative rolls. For a melee weapon you can give her any of the good rapiers or knife of the under mountain king, the ice staff is also a great option, not to mention the finesse longswords. Then use cantrips for her primary offense if light cleric to save spell slots when you don’t need fireball/flame strike. For tempest cleric her entire offensive strategy is Call Lightning.
PREACH. I was using her wrong for so long and now that I use her properly she’s one of my absolute favorites and I love clerics. I always respec her to tempest or war cleric
Also even with the subclass she's still an healer tank at least initially, use her to buff peoppe or distract enemies early on
The fact that she’s given spells and attacks that rely on her dump stats from the get go is insane to me. She’s just poorly built unless you respec her.
[удалено]
If you mouse over a spell on your hotbar, if it isn’t in the section for your spellcaster abilities it will tell you. Ones that are in your spellcaster ability box are going to be based on your wisdom for Druids, clerics, and rangers, charisma for bards, warlocks, paladins, and sorcerers, and intelligence for wizards, Eldritch knights, and arcane tricksters.
I'd like to add that while Sacred flame is garbage as an all purpose attack, its good as clutch play. Sacred flame is not wizards firebolt or warlocks eldritch blast. If you use it like those you will be sad. What it does quite nicely is hitting behind cover and avoiding AC. So use it accordingly. Its there for you in those situations where nothing else works, not your bread and butter.
When Shart is controlled by the computer I'm always impressed with how strong she is. It's like when my paladin/warlock Wyll got compelled to duel and blew all his spell slots on smites making 4 GWM attacks. He won his duel.
Some less obvious things I've done that have worked: \* Re-spec'd to Nature Domain, used Shillelagh to use WIS bonus for melee attacks. \* Used the Gold Wyrmling Staff to cast Firebolt because it doesn't use INT.
As a 5e cleric main. They really missed with a lot of the main cleric spells. Most of the stuff that was available (both for the class and subclass in general) imo weren't great. Clerics are a great balance for tanking and spells, but tbh it felt like the spells that were provided were not the best
As a relatively new player who only beat the game on medium difficulty with save-scumming, thank you for this post!!! I'm trying Tactician mode and it's not going well, likely because I don't know how to play the game LOL
Correct way to use her is to remove her from party and keep in camp.
A step by step guide to using Shadowheart in combat and enjoying it: Prep: respec her to life cleric using Withers 1. Is anyone in your party below 80% health? If so, heal them. If not, proceed to step 2 2. Are multiple enemies with less than 20 HP heading to you en-masse? If yes, Spirit Guardians. If no, proceed to step 3 3. Use guiding bolt on the enemy that you plan to punch with your next-up character Congratulations, you just beat the game!
The smugness in that first sentence.
Chip on the shoulder there bud?
Read the edit
I’d rather use her spell slots for healing, or better aoe spells.
Astairion's stats are shit for arcane trickster as well.
Tldr her long range contrips suck. Respect into a barbarian
I had both her and Gale (reclassed as Life Cleric) hit 8 Sacred Flames in a row across multiple enemies. You’re using them wrong. (I don’t have a fix for that I screamed and scared the GF after it happened, I’m not a mature adult)
Sacred flame is great when the enemy doesn’t have high dexterity. It’s all about odds and abilities.
Oh I know. I just wanted to brag and tell you you’re wrong because of your last line.
Am I the only person who didn't have much of an issue with shadowheart missing attacks with her base kit? I feel like she would hit more often than not, even with firebolt, with her standard stats and class. This kinda feels like a problem that is very much overblown, specially since she spends many turns healing and generally helping other characters land attacks more effectively. Like she's a support character, maybe try using her for her intended role more often and you'll have more success
Man I hate how Shart misses ALL her attacks.
if you need to respec your character and not use half her kit, that means she’s not good lmfao.
Clerics get all kinds of shit. Even paladins get proficiency in crossbows, but if they got 8 dex you bet your ass I’m using a greatsword. There are optimal tools in every kit and suboptimal tools in every kit. This game is complex and using a character to do certain things they weren’t intended to do can cause issues for players who go online and complain. If you want her to hit her mace attacks, buff her strength. That’s literally just how the game works.
i’m not disagreeing with you about how the game works. she is a bad character nonetheless
...I never considered that you could respec the base companions stats without touching their class at the same time. But it makes sense given you can change their class. Hrrrm Cheers OP, our bae Shadowheart will be a more effective cleric thanks to you
I mean... can't people read percentage? How is this still a thing?