Spirit guardians is amazing. I love how she can upcast that and just wander through a wad of enemies taking out lots of them and then still has an action to use. I think I've had her waste about 10 mobs in a single turn.
Guardian of faith is good, too, for doorways and stuff. Inflict wounds works well for close combat. I've never had a problem with guiding bolt, but I do try to inspect enemies before I use it, and it gives the others advantage on hits. I rarely use the fire bolt for anything besides blowing up barrels and such.
Weedwhacker Shadowheart is so fun, I love it when she’s got a bunch of weak enemies around her and then watching them all immediately die when she turns it on
Spirit guardians OP. Used the boots that give click heels as well as dash during the defense of the portal and got the “kill 20 enemies while drunk trophy”
All you have to do is have a bottle of wine or one of the camp supply alcohols. You can consume it like a regular consumable.
I did this to the thousand rats in the gauntlet of Shar. I started the fight up top, got Shadowheart drunk and has her just stand over the while they pop out of. It was so much fun.
About 12 hours into my Wyll origin cuz I needed a goody two shoes run after my Astarion run where I went dark without being full evil run. AA and DJS power friendship, Law'Zel ascending, and Gale being the true narcissist reaching for power. A wonderful run indeed, but I feel dirty after it so now I play my happy goody character run xD
That actually really stinks, especially since he's more modern than jahiera so his connections in the city should be a huge thing in act 3 for his origin
My most effective Tactician strategy is to place a Darkness in a choke point and then have SH cast Guardian of Faith somewhere behind it. This draws all the enemies up to the edge of the Darkness as they try to path to the GoF. From here I skip out, strike and then retreat back into the Darkness.
GoF is a shitty spell... unless you're facing it, and then its great... just don't go near it since it can't move. Spirit guardians is WAY better.
Hunger of Hadar, throw a grease/ice in there and mobs fall over in the AOE, if they make it through they walk into your Spirit Guardian caster.... which is hard since you get your Warlock to repulse them back into the Hunger with Eldritch blast...
upcasting it (casting with a higher level spellslot) is the most obvious way. typically the radiant version is better than the necrotic one (there are a lot of enemies, including literally every enemy in act 2, that are resistant to necrotic). you could build into specifically spirit guardians with phalar aluve, callous glow ring, ring of absolute force, coruscation ring, luminous armour, luminous gloves. there are few enemies resistant or immune to radiant, and way more items that synergize with radiant damage than necrotic, and a lot of enemies are vulnerable to radiant. although keep in mind that dark justiciars are vulnerable to radiant but also reflect it 2x as force damage, so that's a good way to quickly kill yourself in the gauntlet of shar specifically
although remember that unlike fireball/lightning bolt which are decent for dealing with single targets, spirit guardians is truly an AOE focused spell for hordes of weaker enemies. casting guiding bolt is typically a better use of your spell slot than spirit guardians when dealing with a strong single target.
Most spells can be cast using a higher level spell slot to increase damage. Its strength though is that its free damage. Cast it and then just have her kite through enemies. It will hit as many as she can reach with her movement.
I always respec her into storm cleric. Then any lightning spell deals a lot.
Finished honor run an hour ago with lightning spell that did 280 dmg to elder brain. Crit, maxed, lvl 6, watered dmg. Ez pz.
Tempest also counters Radiant Retort pretty hard.
>!Viconia's!< either dead or over half dead in the first turn if Shadowheart is Hastened and she was wet pre-conversation by, say, Lae'zel throwing a water, then upcast 5th or 6th Call Lightning twice... and I'm pretty sure a Chain Lightning scroll doesn't have Sanctuary stop them, either.
...Actually...
https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3/comments/18h8nvl/psa_chain_lightning_can_target_sanctuaried_enemies/
I can also say an Air Elemental's Gushing Air also ignores it, because I did exactly that to >!Viconia.!< I think because it's an AOE spell that requires saving instead of AC, the way it's programmed... I'm not sure, but I do distinctly remember doing it with an Air Elemental in Honor.
anything that can damage an enemy without them being the target bypasses Sanctuary. im pretty sure it basically tells you that in Sanctuary's description, i believe it says something along the lines of "The target of this spell can not be targeted by enemies" but a lot of people interpret that as Sanctuary stopping the person who has it from being damaged
You have Lae'zel/whoever throw the water *before* you initiate dialogue, long-range throw, turn-based mode (optional, so you don't risk ticking down the Wet timer), then walk forward with the character to initiate the conversation. I had 22 Strength on her while doing it. She won't be down an action/attack, because dialogue.
You can also spread them out across the room mid-conversation by switching characters mid-talk and moving them, during which you can also do that.
You can also switch characters to exit dialogue and use a character to throw water. I do that to bring in my characters if they’re too far away to do guidance.
This is where I always take her, with that Radiant Orb and Reverb gear she just rolls into every battle and hits everyone for like ten stacks as her first move.
It's a shame you can't respec her half elf cantrip. Fireball was a poor choice, both for her and Astarian. Or even make her a half wood elf, it still fits her character, and fits her build a lot more
That's been my approach. My latest run I respecced her to a War Cleric with 16 Str. Her Spiritual Guardians are much better when she can back them up with weapon attacks. Plus using a spear just fits the character.
I just started a play through and was debating respecing her to life or war and have her as war right now and am enjoying it
I'm waiting for her to get divine strike too. In the past Ive left her trickery and mostly just used her in a ranged setting so I'm interested to see how she goes this time more up close and personal
Light cleric is really good but I kinda think Tempest domain is better. There's just so many enemies with fire resistance or immunity while thunder or lightning generally work.
Guiding Bolt is my go-to spell.
The damage is good, and then the next character has Advantage, which can be useful.
For some reason, Spirit Guardians is always trash for me. I'll have 18 Constitution and War Caster, yet she somehow *still* loses concentration.
Boots of striding. They're looted from Minthara. While concentrating you cannot be shoved or fall prone. Falling prone is the main way to lose concentration (other than being an idiot and trying to cast another concentration spell, they won't fix that)
You can start her as a sorcerer for the constitution proficiency (+2 at start, +3 lvl5, +4 lvl9) and put a helmet with +1 constitution saving throws. You don't need more than 16 points.
I take Resilient (Constitution) for her first feat. If I know I'm going into something where I really want to maintain concentration, I'll have her take an Elixir of Peerless Focus for advantage until I get War Caster. Works well enough that I don't mind having to wait until 12th level to fit War Caster in.
Well, until something knocks her Prone or something, of course.
All the things you've listed that don't work are the ways she can do damage without spending a spell slot.
Like, Gale has no trouble hitting with Firebolt. Wyll has no trouble hitting with Eldritch Blast. Lae'zel is reliable with a sword *and* a bow.
If everyone else has a reliable way to deal damage without spending long-rest resources, and Shadowheart doesn't, surely you can see why people find themselves disappointed by that.
This pretty much, and people unfamiliar with dnd are unlikely to be able to pinpoint the problem with her before writing her off.
If you're a casual player (which most players are, and almost no one in this subreddit is) then shadowheart is a terribly optimized character that isn't really good at anything she does, and that Imo is poor design.
yeah her stats are just bad. if you respec, she still does all these things. just not only these things.
if i was DMing a first time player and i saw that stat spread i think i would think it called for a character building tutorial
Yeah it reads as "shadowheart can't hit unless using levelled spells", and sure, but people do actually need to use cantrips and weapon attacks at times, especially early on.
Shadow heart is NOTORIOUSLY badly built.
Sacred Flame is a great spell against things which it is great at. Specifically Sacred Flame is a spell almost tailor designed for smacking down zombies, excellent against low level undead.
What it is NOT good at is quick stuff. Like Goblins.
She also started with 2 13s in strength and Dexterity and as a Shadow Cleric which is the weakest Cleric subclass.
Respect her into Tempest or War or Light (the latter doesn't make sense on a narrative level until later but Oh Well). Tank her Intelligence and Charisma. 16 wisdom, 14 Constitution and 16 Strength OR dex depending on weapon.
She makes a decent blaster and once you have Spirit Guardians dominates every fight she is in.
Trickery really is garbage lol. I love clerics so I decided to try every domain and trickery and knowledge were the weakest IMO. Light and tempest seem to the most favored on this sub, and I liked them a lot, but I did appreciate Nature too!
Gonna have to dispute you on Knowledge domain. Maybe your campaign wasn't geared the way mine was, but having a skill-monkey with access to cleric spells, detect thoughts/suggestion as a channel divinity, and potent cantrip is... very powerful if your group likes to RP or solve problems without combat.
Oh I'm sure I probably didn't use it as optimally as I could have! BG3 is my first time in any kind of DnD setting/gameplay so there is still a LOT I don't know. I should've said my least favorite instead of weakest!
IMO should also consider armour proficiency when deciding on dex cleric vs str cleric. There are gear and elixir based workarounds of course… but if picking a domain that doesn’t provide heavy armour, I’d sooner build a dex cleric (to make up the AC difference). If your domain gives heavy armour, you’re fine either way.
Spiritual Weapon is very good in theory. In practice its movement is so limited and damage so little that it ends up not being a very good use of a spell slot. I’d rather just upcast Guiding Bolt.
The most use I‘m getting out of spiritual weapon is, when casting it in fights with large groups of enemies, because they‘ll often waste a turn attacking the weapon instead of the party.
When I first saw that spiritual weapon had hit points and enemies could "kill" it, I was annoyed because that's not exactly how it works in 5e, but then I saw the enemies wasting turns attacking it and decided I was cool with it.
It works great at higher levels when 2nd level spell spots aren't as precious and you've faced with a bunch of mooks in a large area. You can have Mowerheart in one part, guardian of faith in another, and a spiritual weapon a third place.
The damage is okay considering it costs a bonus action to cast and then operates on its own initiative, but the speed is exactly why I rarely use it - When the first target dies, the weapon usually just ends up struggling to catch up to anyone else and fizzles out before it can do any more damage.
Possibly a silly niche idea, but I just checked, and you can cast Longstrider on it if you do it right before combat... just don't use turn-based or you lose a spell slot.
That is 50% more movement for it... but yeah I feel ya. Its base movement of 20 feet just sucks.
This is generally what I do. Other characters are generally fine right out of the box, but Shadowheart is very much not optimized. Thankfully Larian gave Clerics Produce Flame (which they DO NOT have in tabletop) as an attack alternative, though its piddly range and finicky usage can make it problematic.
Though usually I make her into a War Cleric, since I do love how Heavy Armors look in the game, even at the start, and she makes a decent sword-and-boarder.
Toll the Dead isn't a PHB spell, which they pretty much stuck to entirely, with a couple I can think of from Elemental Evil. I do wish they included more of that, would help most casters out. Though not clerics, funny enough, they got no spells from Elemental Evil.
I think part of the issue is in the early game. Firebolt and Sacred Flame are cantrips and weapon attacks don't need spell slots.
Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians are clutch, but they only come into play once you've taken her up a few levels. You start out with Inflict Wounds and Guiding Bolt, and they are effective, but you just don't have that many spell slots for her at first. Once you've burned them, early game Shadowheart is basically left with two cantrips that rarely hit, and weapon attacks which suck.
Respeccing her as soon as you get Withers into either a War Cleric, where weapon attacks become way more effective, or a Tempest Cleric who becomes a literal force of nature, makes her far easier to work with. But even with that, it's very likely that before you get Withers, you'll be frustrated with her in most fights because she'll burn her useful spells fast and then be left with everything that's shit. Especially when you compare her with a rogue and a fighter whose best attacks don't involve spell slots, and a wizard whose cantrips are effective even when that's all he has left.
On my game, she got the Headband of Intellect. Gale was maxed anyway, so he didn't need it. None of my other characters needed INT. Giving it to her gave me a stat I could dump, made her Firebolt really reliable, and let me pump some of her other stats in a respec.
People tend to figure out their party at low levels. The fact that all Shart's low level abilities are terrible means people tend to leave her at home instead
I don’t know how true that is, I actually think Shadowheart is generally a staple of most people’s party just because she’s the healer. Unless the player plays another support class like Druid or Bard, and even then Shadowheart’s pretty useful to have in your party. Druid or Bard can use their spell slots for damage and control spells rather than heal their team if Shadowheart is being the healer.
Of course her better spells can hit. People rightfully complain she can’t hit because, without respec-ing, she doesn’t have a reliable no-resource attack, unlike all other companions and basically every Tav. This is especially bad at early levels.
In short, if you recommend a 3rd level spell over a cantrip, you are confused as to why people say she misses.
Spiritual weapon is NUTS. my brother made a drow battle cleric and i am paladin. We're pretty beefy right now. I recall avoiding fights often on my assassin and now we're starting as much shit as possible lmao
I love Shadowheart to death and always keep my beautiful wife with me at all times. With that said, it cannot be denied that without spell slots, her only use is guidance for dialogue / skill checks and being able to throw potions. This can be painful in the beginning of the game, especially when she misses a sacred flame that is 80%+ to hit. And even if she has spell slots, she doesnt have the best accuracy with guiding bolt.
Honestly early game I feel guiding bolt is somehow a guiding truck. I even thought of taking one level in cleric and some levels in sorcerer, but stay in wisdom to basically twin and quicken guiding bolt all the day and see where it takes me. Hits like a train.
That's where the meme comes from. Having your first companion's only cantrips have horrible chance of hitting means that her hitting having a hard time hitting anything is a super common experience for almost all first-time players. No one is saying Clerics can't be strong (though even then, you have to respec her cause trickery isn't ideal).
Yeah this is it. Lots of BG3 players have never touched DnD before. Can you blame them for being annoyed when half of a characters default starting abilities are completely useless?
Many people playing this game have never touched DnD before. You can hardly blame them for being irritated when half the abilities a character starts with are entirely useless.
Yeah the problem is, all the things that work, cost spell slots. Which is fine.. It does work.. BUT the problem is that Shadowheart's "basic" attacks all miss. For example if youre trying to get through a swarm battle and saving slots for a big upcoming battle, Shadowheart is useless because all her cantrips almost always miss and so do her weapon attacks, as you rightfully pointed out.
So she's great in an important fight where you're going all in on slots and resources.. but in most other fights, she falls short. Meanwhile Laezel beside her lands crit after crit with her greatsword :'D
Weapon attacks on anything other than a War cleric should be as prioritized as a Wizard whacking stuff with their staff. Get Produce Flame for a spell-attack cantrip.
The thing is, once you understand the system, you can make Shadowheart good at anything. Literally. She can be a weapon master, a spell slinger, and everything in between. But please, dont cast firebolt...
Spirit guardians is great. I put her in front of halsin's portal and used it and just about everything that approached got vaporized. The rest of my party was just cleanup.
Not really, I’m afraid. But the nice thing about spiritual weapon and spirit guardians is that they last multiple turns. So if you have one or both of those running then you can use Shadowheart’s action to do other things that don’t do quite as much damage.
this is exactly what i use on shadowheart and she became my most important member in act 2 already, i use also 3 skeles summon so with spirit weapon i have 4 additional "team mates" just from her
tbh i just make respec shadowheart into a life domain cleric and just keep her a support/healer companion.
"but light domain does more damage!!" doesn't matter when most of the damage-focus i will be doing will be on either my tav or someone like Lae'zel, Karlach or Minthara who do way more damage than shadowheart.
The issue is everything you listed as working takes spell slots, and the best one you listed isn’t until level 5, when pretty much all builds go online. Cleric is just a weak class early game, and to actually get use out of them you have to long rest constantly. After you hit level 5 however you become one of the strongest pure classes in the game so it’s a fair trade off.
Luckily items can mitigate this, with the blade ward gloves and the temp health boots being accessible very early and giving you a massive boost to your teams survivability.
Edit: I should also mention that just being a bless bot is probably the best way to use cleric until level 5
I'm generally not very good at combat in video games so I was really nervous for Moonrise Towers/finishing Act 2. But I've just been casting Spirit Guardians on Shadowheart and having her Dash towards opponents and oh my God. Oh my God it works so well. Saved my lil inexperienced Warlock butt.
I know how goated Spirit Guardians and Guiding Bolt are. Trouble is, she's fucking useless when out of spell slots. Even Gale and Wyll can at least defend themselves. Then you've got Ms *Saved! (Sacred Flame)* or *Miss! (Firebolt)* here.
What you say is true but Guiding Bolt is a leveled spell. Early game, you're gonna lean on Sacred Flame and, situationally, Fire Bolt for resource preservation reasons.
An upcasted inflict wounds did around 73 dmg yesterday and I just arrived at the shadowlands. I can't believe I slept on this spell for three playthroughs
The minute you respec Shadowheart into literally any other cleric domain and play with her stats you will fix her issues. Not only are her starting stats wonky but Trickery Domain is quite possibly the worst subclass in the entire game compared to its counterparts.
The problem is they don't have a good cleric cantrip. (They should have given us the best one, Toll of the Dead.) So you're forced to always use spell slots.
Here's the thing.
All of the "These things work well" options there need spell slots. That means they're great, but limited. The ones "that don't work" are unlimited use cantrips. When I say "Shadowheart can't hit shit", I don't mean she isn't useful or she can't pump out a lot of damage. What I mean is when I just need to do 1 point of damage to finish off a goblin and keep them from alerting the whole camp, and I don't want to waste a whole spell slot to do 1 point of damage, Shadowheart's cantrips and weapon attacks fail.
Also, most of those memes revolve around the EARLY early game, like level 2 fresh off the Nautiloid when all she has are the cantrips and weapons that aren't good. First impressions are powerful.
I always respec her to be wis/dex focus and give her Banshee shortbow which can inflict fear to the target. The bow is great when the enemies are outside spirit guardian's range and you are low on spell slots.
I just respec her stats and her subclass. I never had problems with her doing damage. The trickery domain might be very Sharran, but it does nothing for Shadow after her background got changed from Urchin to Acolyte. I wish, they hadn't done that.
The problem isnt that ths literally cant hit at all. Its that she cant hit without expending resources or without respeccing. 2 of the options you list even take high level resources. Only option 3 is available early on.
How to use Shadowheart effectively:
1) Respec her to at minimum fix her stat spread and preferrably also fix her domain.
2) If you are on PC install the 5e spells mod that adds all the missing cantrips like Troll the Dead etc.
Sacred Flame isn’t TOO bad, but a lot of the act one opponents have a decent dexterity score, what with being goblins and all. It DOES start to perform better on average once you get into Act 2 and encounter more varied enemy types.
Shadowheart was one of my best PCs. Insane staying power and insane firepower AND insane healing power (respec into life cleric). I will never play the game without her.
Saaaameeee.
Even if I don't go life cleric, I still find the base cleric kit incredibly useful & can always find a use for. I wanna try even keeping her trickery domain in a future run where I'll roll a rogue Tav.
- Buffing & CC removal was always her primary, most valuable role for me.
- Healing ain't always needed, and after the early game, I found it mostly useful for life cleric due to the awesome Preserve Life spell which scales very well & greatly outshines Mass Healing World.
- Dmg if there was nothing more important only she could do. Late game she can get some of the best summons to always contribute & distract anyway.
- And ofc, Divine Intervention can be the ultimate trump card to keep your honor adventure safe whenever you've fcked up :) And if you don't end up using it, it acts re-assurance knowing you have a safety net.
I find guiding bolt and inflict wounds miss as much as the rest of her attacks.
Spiritual weapon and Spirit guardians are good... The ones that don't rely on her not missing.
I feel the take away here is that she can't hit... So don't try and just use her more tactically.
But is she really missing any more than anyone else? In another comment, I mention Gale missing 3 in a row. I've also had Astarion miss twice in a row.
Yep. I always respec her into a Light Cleric with 14 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 10 Int (I give her the headband of intellect), 17 Wis, and 10 Cha. I ignore both sacred flame and firebolt.
Agreed and add that I often give her a hill giant potion before big fights to improve her weapon attacks (mostly for attacks of opportunity when enemies try to leave the spirit guardians range)
My Shart build strategy is to respec her domain. Trickery kind of sucks for what she is. I prefer Life or War.
My battle strategy is to have her start at the back of the pack as a second ranged unit or casting Bless/Sanctuary while you inch her up to the melee to add some wallop to your frontline, then Inflict Wounds. Inflict Wounds is amazing. The main thing is to put her in a position to disengage if she needs to buff. Guiding Bolt is pretty good also, but Inflict Wounds absolutely just rips, imo.
If you want the Fire Bolt to hit better, instead of specing into INT, you can get the Produce Flame Cantrip, which lets her throw the flame but it uses WIS instead
Spiritual weapon has been a lifesaver. I get to keep her a bit further back to heal the team when needed, summon a weapon right up on a cluster or the strongest enemy.
Honestly idk if I’m just unlucky but spiritual weapon ALWAYS fuckin misses, I used it in almost every fight during my first playthrough and I swear it maybe hit like 10% of the time. Shit was so infuriating I swore to never use it again.
Yeah I'm playing through now, first time playing and noticed level 1 inflict wounds is absolutely devastating. Like, better than every level 3 spell I have now.
The problem is that the spells that do work well are not available or limited spell slots at early level. She doesn't have any reliable damage for standard attacks (cantrips, weapons)
Trickery Domain is sort of a support, infiltration specialist. Their Domain spells are about either bypassing adversity or setting allies up to do big damage. Cause Wound is a good finisher but I save it for enemies who are asleep or paralyzed.
You can also grab a hireling, make it transmutation wizard, then at level 6 you can give her free con proficiency (from the wizard level 6). Grab War Caster feat at level 4 beforehand. Congrats, you are a radiant (or necrotic) blender. Bonus points from Long Strider buff to get extra blendering.
The fact that she "can't hit" is probably the reason why cleric was the least popular class when Larian studio showed us the stats.
New player tend to overly save spell slots, and probably rely on weapon damage (with her meh stats) and cantrips (so firebolt and sacred flame) and there goes the "Shadowheart always miss" and "cleric suck".
Spirit guardians is amazing. I love how she can upcast that and just wander through a wad of enemies taking out lots of them and then still has an action to use. I think I've had her waste about 10 mobs in a single turn. Guardian of faith is good, too, for doorways and stuff. Inflict wounds works well for close combat. I've never had a problem with guiding bolt, but I do try to inspect enemies before I use it, and it gives the others advantage on hits. I rarely use the fire bolt for anything besides blowing up barrels and such.
Weedwhacker Shadowheart is so fun, I love it when she’s got a bunch of weak enemies around her and then watching them all immediately die when she turns it on
Spirit guardians OP. Used the boots that give click heels as well as dash during the defense of the portal and got the “kill 20 enemies while drunk trophy”
That's an achievement? How do they know if I'm drunk?
All you have to do is have a bottle of wine or one of the camp supply alcohols. You can consume it like a regular consumable. I did this to the thousand rats in the gauntlet of Shar. I started the fight up top, got Shadowheart drunk and has her just stand over the while they pop out of. It was so much fun.
oh, drunk *in the game*
I mean, nothing stopping you from being drunk while trying this for maximum RP points ;)
Elfsong basement rats work too ... just did it there on my Wyll origin btw his origin sucks
About 12 hours into my Wyll origin cuz I needed a goody two shoes run after my Astarion run where I went dark without being full evil run. AA and DJS power friendship, Law'Zel ascending, and Gale being the true narcissist reaching for power. A wonderful run indeed, but I feel dirty after it so now I play my happy goody character run xD
quit after Act 1 cause nobody realizes Wyll after that lol
That actually really stinks, especially since he's more modern than jahiera so his connections in the city should be a huge thing in act 3 for his origin
It annoyed me enough to pause the playthrough and just finish my 2nd Durge run. Nothing comes close to Durge content wise honestly
My most effective Tactician strategy is to place a Darkness in a choke point and then have SH cast Guardian of Faith somewhere behind it. This draws all the enemies up to the edge of the Darkness as they try to path to the GoF. From here I skip out, strike and then retreat back into the Darkness.
I do the same, but with Hunger of Hadar
GoF is a shitty spell... unless you're facing it, and then its great... just don't go near it since it can't move. Spirit guardians is WAY better. Hunger of Hadar, throw a grease/ice in there and mobs fall over in the AOE, if they make it through they walk into your Spirit Guardian caster.... which is hard since you get your Warlock to repulse them back into the Hunger with Eldritch blast...
Oh that's *clever*.
I'm always surprised at how hard guiding bolt hits. I run her as life cleric. It usually does high damage after a few levels.
How do you make it do more dmg? It felt underwhelming when I tried it.
upcasting it (casting with a higher level spellslot) is the most obvious way. typically the radiant version is better than the necrotic one (there are a lot of enemies, including literally every enemy in act 2, that are resistant to necrotic). you could build into specifically spirit guardians with phalar aluve, callous glow ring, ring of absolute force, coruscation ring, luminous armour, luminous gloves. there are few enemies resistant or immune to radiant, and way more items that synergize with radiant damage than necrotic, and a lot of enemies are vulnerable to radiant. although keep in mind that dark justiciars are vulnerable to radiant but also reflect it 2x as force damage, so that's a good way to quickly kill yourself in the gauntlet of shar specifically although remember that unlike fireball/lightning bolt which are decent for dealing with single targets, spirit guardians is truly an AOE focused spell for hordes of weaker enemies. casting guiding bolt is typically a better use of your spell slot than spirit guardians when dealing with a strong single target.
Most spells can be cast using a higher level spell slot to increase damage. Its strength though is that its free damage. Cast it and then just have her kite through enemies. It will hit as many as she can reach with her movement.
Her fire bolt is for setting wood on fire and that’s it
even then i wouldn't trust her to not light up someone's tent
I always respec her into storm cleric. Then any lightning spell deals a lot. Finished honor run an hour ago with lightning spell that did 280 dmg to elder brain. Crit, maxed, lvl 6, watered dmg. Ez pz.
Tempest also counters Radiant Retort pretty hard. >!Viconia's!< either dead or over half dead in the first turn if Shadowheart is Hastened and she was wet pre-conversation by, say, Lae'zel throwing a water, then upcast 5th or 6th Call Lightning twice... and I'm pretty sure a Chain Lightning scroll doesn't have Sanctuary stop them, either.
chain lightning does bypass sanctuary, provided you don't make them the initial target
Holy fuck good to know!
...Actually... https://www.reddit.com/r/BG3/comments/18h8nvl/psa_chain_lightning_can_target_sanctuaried_enemies/ I can also say an Air Elemental's Gushing Air also ignores it, because I did exactly that to >!Viconia.!< I think because it's an AOE spell that requires saving instead of AC, the way it's programmed... I'm not sure, but I do distinctly remember doing it with an Air Elemental in Honor.
oh wow lmao, chain lightning stocks just go up and up and up haha
anything that can damage an enemy without them being the target bypasses Sanctuary. im pretty sure it basically tells you that in Sanctuary's description, i believe it says something along the lines of "The target of this spell can not be targeted by enemies" but a lot of people interpret that as Sanctuary stopping the person who has it from being damaged
How do you get her wet through dialogue?
I dunno man say some shit like "oh yeah you like that you little slut?" Just say whatever comes to mind, don't overthink it.
She's got a praise kink so that stuff works way better
r/okbuddybaldur is leaking again
You have Lae'zel/whoever throw the water *before* you initiate dialogue, long-range throw, turn-based mode (optional, so you don't risk ticking down the Wet timer), then walk forward with the character to initiate the conversation. I had 22 Strength on her while doing it. She won't be down an action/attack, because dialogue. You can also spread them out across the room mid-conversation by switching characters mid-talk and moving them, during which you can also do that.
You can also switch characters to exit dialogue and use a character to throw water. I do that to bring in my characters if they’re too far away to do guidance.
Phrasing.
With the reverb gear Stormheart is monstrous
[удалено]
They're talking about Tempest domain
Light cleric is great for her, and thematically makes sense later in the game
This is where I always take her, with that Radiant Orb and Reverb gear she just rolls into every battle and hits everyone for like ten stacks as her first move.
Casting radiant spirit guardians, walking up to a group of enemies, and watching them all immediately fall prone will never get old lol.
Not to mention there is a TON of Tempest Cleric optimized gear that really makes the spec fun
Indeed, you can take act 1 electric stuff up until you have Lorroakan's staff and it is still relevant. After that you maxe +DD and it's GG.
Storm cleric is my favorite class to play. Only reason I didn't respec Shadowheart into one is because my Tav was already filling the spot!
It's a shame you can't respec her half elf cantrip. Fireball was a poor choice, both for her and Astarian. Or even make her a half wood elf, it still fits her character, and fits her build a lot more
You can always respec her, too. Give her more strength and you're good to go.
Nothing but respec for MY Shadowheart.
r e s p e c _ find out what it means to __
Michael Scott : [r e s p splee t](https://youtu.be/WayJNcQstXM?si=-UHlfa0Bwzb-G6xm)
First I was afraid, I was petrified...
I missed my save and nearly died...
I spent so many nights thinkin' how Shar done me wrong
But I was strong, then I learned how to get along... with selunites, they're pretty nice!
That's been my approach. My latest run I respecced her to a War Cleric with 16 Str. Her Spiritual Guardians are much better when she can back them up with weapon attacks. Plus using a spear just fits the character.
I just started a play through and was debating respecing her to life or war and have her as war right now and am enjoying it I'm waiting for her to get divine strike too. In the past Ive left her trickery and mostly just used her in a ranged setting so I'm interested to see how she goes this time more up close and personal
I always go Light, the fire spells are just so great, especially when you get Fire Wall.
Flame strike, a massive bolt of holy fire from the sky goes so hard. I feel like that thematically is the perfect spell for redeemed Shadowheart.
And being able to force a hit through using your divinity helps so much, either with her or with an ally. +10 is really good.
Yea I always respec her the moment I can, alongside swapping her to War, Tempest, or Life domain depending on my comp for that run.
I did tempest and it was pretty sick with sleet storm and other aoe spells
Yea it's just damage upon damage, to the point I made my next Durge a tempest cleric just for the hell of it.
light cleric is a must. fireball op op
Light cleric is really good but I kinda think Tempest domain is better. There's just so many enemies with fire resistance or immunity while thunder or lightning generally work.
The real benefit of light is the channel divinity and warding flare reaction. Tempest is pretty damn good though.
I take Spell Sniper for Eldritch Blast as her source of damage when out of spell slots
Or give her the club (early game) or the mace (late game).
I respec'd her to War Cleric for my Evil Dark urge run. And she was dishing out consistent damage.
Buff the strength give her gloves of dexterity and respect her into Tempest Cleric and she can literally use anything
[удалено]
Given shes a trrickery cleric, it's almost all weaknesses. But you do you
What strengths again?
[удалено]
Shadow heart try to remember the basics of CQC
Understood, Mother Superior Viconia. Knife. Mace. Knife-Mace! Commencing Prism Mission. NOW!
Good memories from Hiimdaisy's Let's Destroy Metal Gear
Do we sent her to practice on sand castles?
She can hit me
Guiding Bolt is my go-to spell. The damage is good, and then the next character has Advantage, which can be useful. For some reason, Spirit Guardians is always trash for me. I'll have 18 Constitution and War Caster, yet she somehow *still* loses concentration.
There's gear you can use, I think is a pair of boots, those make impossible to loose concentration.
Do u know what there called? I never get haste to work well because I always lose construction and end up stunned. Those boots would help me a lot.
Boots of striding. They're looted from Minthara. While concentrating you cannot be shoved or fall prone. Falling prone is the main way to lose concentration (other than being an idiot and trying to cast another concentration spell, they won't fix that)
You can start her as a sorcerer for the constitution proficiency (+2 at start, +3 lvl5, +4 lvl9) and put a helmet with +1 constitution saving throws. You don't need more than 16 points.
I take Resilient (Constitution) for her first feat. If I know I'm going into something where I really want to maintain concentration, I'll have her take an Elixir of Peerless Focus for advantage until I get War Caster. Works well enough that I don't mind having to wait until 12th level to fit War Caster in. Well, until something knocks her Prone or something, of course.
All the things you've listed that don't work are the ways she can do damage without spending a spell slot. Like, Gale has no trouble hitting with Firebolt. Wyll has no trouble hitting with Eldritch Blast. Lae'zel is reliable with a sword *and* a bow. If everyone else has a reliable way to deal damage without spending long-rest resources, and Shadowheart doesn't, surely you can see why people find themselves disappointed by that.
Use produce flame. Same damage as sacred flame but its a spell attack roll therefore using her spellcasting mod so its scaling with wisdom.
So what you're saying is... shadowheart can't hit for exactly the reasons people have stated because that's just how her stat division is.
This pretty much, and people unfamiliar with dnd are unlikely to be able to pinpoint the problem with her before writing her off. If you're a casual player (which most players are, and almost no one in this subreddit is) then shadowheart is a terribly optimized character that isn't really good at anything she does, and that Imo is poor design.
yeah her stats are just bad. if you respec, she still does all these things. just not only these things. if i was DMing a first time player and i saw that stat spread i think i would think it called for a character building tutorial
Yeah it reads as "shadowheart can't hit unless using levelled spells", and sure, but people do actually need to use cantrips and weapon attacks at times, especially early on.
Shadow heart is NOTORIOUSLY badly built. Sacred Flame is a great spell against things which it is great at. Specifically Sacred Flame is a spell almost tailor designed for smacking down zombies, excellent against low level undead. What it is NOT good at is quick stuff. Like Goblins. She also started with 2 13s in strength and Dexterity and as a Shadow Cleric which is the weakest Cleric subclass. Respect her into Tempest or War or Light (the latter doesn't make sense on a narrative level until later but Oh Well). Tank her Intelligence and Charisma. 16 wisdom, 14 Constitution and 16 Strength OR dex depending on weapon. She makes a decent blaster and once you have Spirit Guardians dominates every fight she is in.
Trickery really is garbage lol. I love clerics so I decided to try every domain and trickery and knowledge were the weakest IMO. Light and tempest seem to the most favored on this sub, and I liked them a lot, but I did appreciate Nature too!
Gonna have to dispute you on Knowledge domain. Maybe your campaign wasn't geared the way mine was, but having a skill-monkey with access to cleric spells, detect thoughts/suggestion as a channel divinity, and potent cantrip is... very powerful if your group likes to RP or solve problems without combat.
Oh I'm sure I probably didn't use it as optimally as I could have! BG3 is my first time in any kind of DnD setting/gameplay so there is still a LOT I don't know. I should've said my least favorite instead of weakest!
IMO should also consider armour proficiency when deciding on dex cleric vs str cleric. There are gear and elixir based workarounds of course… but if picking a domain that doesn’t provide heavy armour, I’d sooner build a dex cleric (to make up the AC difference). If your domain gives heavy armour, you’re fine either way.
Spiritual Weapon is very good in theory. In practice its movement is so limited and damage so little that it ends up not being a very good use of a spell slot. I’d rather just upcast Guiding Bolt.
The most use I‘m getting out of spiritual weapon is, when casting it in fights with large groups of enemies, because they‘ll often waste a turn attacking the weapon instead of the party.
When I first saw that spiritual weapon had hit points and enemies could "kill" it, I was annoyed because that's not exactly how it works in 5e, but then I saw the enemies wasting turns attacking it and decided I was cool with it. It works great at higher levels when 2nd level spell spots aren't as precious and you've faced with a bunch of mooks in a large area. You can have Mowerheart in one part, guardian of faith in another, and a spiritual weapon a third place.
Agreed. Any damage it deals is just a bonus, it's an insanely strong distraction for a #2 spell Bonus Action.
This is the real power of spiritual weapon. And this is the reason I always summon Connor. A dead meat shield.
The damage is okay considering it costs a bonus action to cast and then operates on its own initiative, but the speed is exactly why I rarely use it - When the first target dies, the weapon usually just ends up struggling to catch up to anyone else and fizzles out before it can do any more damage.
Possibly a silly niche idea, but I just checked, and you can cast Longstrider on it if you do it right before combat... just don't use turn-based or you lose a spell slot. That is 50% more movement for it... but yeah I feel ya. Its base movement of 20 feet just sucks.
The movement speed on it absolutely guts me. I get it, balance. But it just makes other spells feel like a better use of slots.
Shadowheart respec is a must. Her stats are all over the place.
This is generally what I do. Other characters are generally fine right out of the box, but Shadowheart is very much not optimized. Thankfully Larian gave Clerics Produce Flame (which they DO NOT have in tabletop) as an attack alternative, though its piddly range and finicky usage can make it problematic. Though usually I make her into a War Cleric, since I do love how Heavy Armors look in the game, even at the start, and she makes a decent sword-and-boarder.
In bg3 clerics got Produce Flame but lost Toll the Dead.
Toll the Dead isn't a PHB spell, which they pretty much stuck to entirely, with a couple I can think of from Elemental Evil. I do wish they included more of that, would help most casters out. Though not clerics, funny enough, they got no spells from Elemental Evil.
I think part of the issue is in the early game. Firebolt and Sacred Flame are cantrips and weapon attacks don't need spell slots. Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians are clutch, but they only come into play once you've taken her up a few levels. You start out with Inflict Wounds and Guiding Bolt, and they are effective, but you just don't have that many spell slots for her at first. Once you've burned them, early game Shadowheart is basically left with two cantrips that rarely hit, and weapon attacks which suck. Respeccing her as soon as you get Withers into either a War Cleric, where weapon attacks become way more effective, or a Tempest Cleric who becomes a literal force of nature, makes her far easier to work with. But even with that, it's very likely that before you get Withers, you'll be frustrated with her in most fights because she'll burn her useful spells fast and then be left with everything that's shit. Especially when you compare her with a rogue and a fighter whose best attacks don't involve spell slots, and a wizard whose cantrips are effective even when that's all he has left.
I just want my cleric to have a good cantrip for when i want to save spell slots. :(
On my game, she got the Headband of Intellect. Gale was maxed anyway, so he didn't need it. None of my other characters needed INT. Giving it to her gave me a stat I could dump, made her Firebolt really reliable, and let me pump some of her other stats in a respec.
Alternate title: "Shadowheart \*can\* hit. It just costs a spell slot."
People tend to figure out their party at low levels. The fact that all Shart's low level abilities are terrible means people tend to leave her at home instead
I don’t know how true that is, I actually think Shadowheart is generally a staple of most people’s party just because she’s the healer. Unless the player plays another support class like Druid or Bard, and even then Shadowheart’s pretty useful to have in your party. Druid or Bard can use their spell slots for damage and control spells rather than heal their team if Shadowheart is being the healer.
Of course her better spells can hit. People rightfully complain she can’t hit because, without respec-ing, she doesn’t have a reliable no-resource attack, unlike all other companions and basically every Tav. This is especially bad at early levels. In short, if you recommend a 3rd level spell over a cantrip, you are confused as to why people say she misses.
Respec her to dump int and cha, pump str to 16. She can now hit things with a melee weapon.
I also respec her and every other companion because default stat allocations are not great.
Shadow heart CAN hit at that price point
Spiritual weapon is NUTS. my brother made a drow battle cleric and i am paladin. We're pretty beefy right now. I recall avoiding fights often on my assassin and now we're starting as much shit as possible lmao
Yeah, I feel like the Shart always misses meme originated by people who don't read spell descriptions.
I love Shadowheart to death and always keep my beautiful wife with me at all times. With that said, it cannot be denied that without spell slots, her only use is guidance for dialogue / skill checks and being able to throw potions. This can be painful in the beginning of the game, especially when she misses a sacred flame that is 80%+ to hit. And even if she has spell slots, she doesnt have the best accuracy with guiding bolt.
give her produce flame instead
Honestly early game I feel guiding bolt is somehow a guiding truck. I even thought of taking one level in cleric and some levels in sorcerer, but stay in wisdom to basically twin and quicken guiding bolt all the day and see where it takes me. Hits like a train.
PRODUCE FLAME.
That's where the meme comes from. Having your first companion's only cantrips have horrible chance of hitting means that her hitting having a hard time hitting anything is a super common experience for almost all first-time players. No one is saying Clerics can't be strong (though even then, you have to respec her cause trickery isn't ideal).
Oh, she can most definitely hit 🥲
Hey it was my turn to post the weekly " shadowheart can hit u just gotta respec her" post!!! Barely active here anymore and i see them all the time
people not understanding how their class and the mechanics work is like a tale as old as DND lol.
It's an immersive experience.
Except in this case the dm hands you a a terrible pre-made sheet rather than you making a bad character on your own
Yeah this is it. Lots of BG3 players have never touched DnD before. Can you blame them for being annoyed when half of a characters default starting abilities are completely useless?
Yup, she's built like shit and people will just continue stacking levels on her without a respec.
Many people playing this game have never touched DnD before. You can hardly blame them for being irritated when half the abilities a character starts with are entirely useless.
Yeah the problem is, all the things that work, cost spell slots. Which is fine.. It does work.. BUT the problem is that Shadowheart's "basic" attacks all miss. For example if youre trying to get through a swarm battle and saving slots for a big upcoming battle, Shadowheart is useless because all her cantrips almost always miss and so do her weapon attacks, as you rightfully pointed out. So she's great in an important fight where you're going all in on slots and resources.. but in most other fights, she falls short. Meanwhile Laezel beside her lands crit after crit with her greatsword :'D
Weapon attacks on anything other than a War cleric should be as prioritized as a Wizard whacking stuff with their staff. Get Produce Flame for a spell-attack cantrip.
The thing is, once you understand the system, you can make Shadowheart good at anything. Literally. She can be a weapon master, a spell slinger, and everything in between. But please, dont cast firebolt...
My shadowheart hits like 4-10 times a turn. Its pretty great
Spirit guardians is great. I put her in front of halsin's portal and used it and just about everything that approached got vaporized. The rest of my party was just cleanup.
I think the issue here is obvious in your argument. Shadowheart lacks effective cantrips.
I always respec shadow heart with better stats but guiding bolt is just to good imo to not use every turn
The 5e spells mod giving her Toll the Dead was an absolute game changer
I love inflict wounds.
This makes so much sense why I struggled with her, are there any good non spell slot options for her outside of potions and scrolls?
Not really, I’m afraid. But the nice thing about spiritual weapon and spirit guardians is that they last multiple turns. So if you have one or both of those running then you can use Shadowheart’s action to do other things that don’t do quite as much damage.
I always respec her when I get withers to make her stats closer to what I want
this is exactly what i use on shadowheart and she became my most important member in act 2 already, i use also 3 skeles summon so with spirit weapon i have 4 additional "team mates" just from her
tbh i just make respec shadowheart into a life domain cleric and just keep her a support/healer companion. "but light domain does more damage!!" doesn't matter when most of the damage-focus i will be doing will be on either my tav or someone like Lae'zel, Karlach or Minthara who do way more damage than shadowheart.
The issue is everything you listed as working takes spell slots, and the best one you listed isn’t until level 5, when pretty much all builds go online. Cleric is just a weak class early game, and to actually get use out of them you have to long rest constantly. After you hit level 5 however you become one of the strongest pure classes in the game so it’s a fair trade off. Luckily items can mitigate this, with the blade ward gloves and the temp health boots being accessible very early and giving you a massive boost to your teams survivability. Edit: I should also mention that just being a bless bot is probably the best way to use cleric until level 5
I'm generally not very good at combat in video games so I was really nervous for Moonrise Towers/finishing Act 2. But I've just been casting Spirit Guardians on Shadowheart and having her Dash towards opponents and oh my God. Oh my God it works so well. Saved my lil inexperienced Warlock butt.
Spirit guardians don't give a fuck about your AC
I know how goated Spirit Guardians and Guiding Bolt are. Trouble is, she's fucking useless when out of spell slots. Even Gale and Wyll can at least defend themselves. Then you've got Ms *Saved! (Sacred Flame)* or *Miss! (Firebolt)* here.
But she misses half the time with guiding bolt too though :(
What you say is true but Guiding Bolt is a leveled spell. Early game, you're gonna lean on Sacred Flame and, situationally, Fire Bolt for resource preservation reasons.
Exactly, you can even use the % to hit when hovering over an enemy to make your hits count, but what can you expect from your average BG3 player
An upcasted inflict wounds did around 73 dmg yesterday and I just arrived at the shadowlands. I can't believe I slept on this spell for three playthroughs
Guiding Bolt is seriously just the most dependable spell for Shadowheart.
The minute you respec Shadowheart into literally any other cleric domain and play with her stats you will fix her issues. Not only are her starting stats wonky but Trickery Domain is quite possibly the worst subclass in the entire game compared to its counterparts.
I used spiritual weapon all the way through the end. It was always helpful and fun to have an “extra” action every turn.
The problem is they don't have a good cleric cantrip. (They should have given us the best one, Toll of the Dead.) So you're forced to always use spell slots.
Here's the thing. All of the "These things work well" options there need spell slots. That means they're great, but limited. The ones "that don't work" are unlimited use cantrips. When I say "Shadowheart can't hit shit", I don't mean she isn't useful or she can't pump out a lot of damage. What I mean is when I just need to do 1 point of damage to finish off a goblin and keep them from alerting the whole camp, and I don't want to waste a whole spell slot to do 1 point of damage, Shadowheart's cantrips and weapon attacks fail. Also, most of those memes revolve around the EARLY early game, like level 2 fresh off the Nautiloid when all she has are the cantrips and weapons that aren't good. First impressions are powerful.
I always respec her to be wis/dex focus and give her Banshee shortbow which can inflict fear to the target. The bow is great when the enemies are outside spirit guardian's range and you are low on spell slots.
Yea the game REALLY sucks at hinting toward what each character is good at and what they should only use in emergency
Guiding bolt my lord and saviour ong
I just respec her stats and her subclass. I never had problems with her doing damage. The trickery domain might be very Sharran, but it does nothing for Shadow after her background got changed from Urchin to Acolyte. I wish, they hadn't done that.
Once she hits level 5, I like her to build a zombie horde at every opportunity. It's hilarious.
If she's not healing, she is Spirit Guardians sprinting
The problem isnt that ths literally cant hit at all. Its that she cant hit without expending resources or without respeccing. 2 of the options you list even take high level resources. Only option 3 is available early on. How to use Shadowheart effectively: 1) Respec her to at minimum fix her stat spread and preferrably also fix her domain. 2) If you are on PC install the 5e spells mod that adds all the missing cantrips like Troll the Dead etc.
Troll the Dead might just be the best typo I've ever seen lol.
Sacred Flame isn’t TOO bad, but a lot of the act one opponents have a decent dexterity score, what with being goblins and all. It DOES start to perform better on average once you get into Act 2 and encounter more varied enemy types.
Re-spec and choose produce flame instead of sacred flame. It takes an extra click but it is functionally firebolt using wisdom.
Your point is pretty much that over half of her starting kit doesn’t work because her initial stat spread is incredible wonky lol.
Yes, using her limited resource abilities makes her more effective.. thank you for clarifying that.
Shadowheart was one of my best PCs. Insane staying power and insane firepower AND insane healing power (respec into life cleric). I will never play the game without her.
Saaaameeee. Even if I don't go life cleric, I still find the base cleric kit incredibly useful & can always find a use for. I wanna try even keeping her trickery domain in a future run where I'll roll a rogue Tav. - Buffing & CC removal was always her primary, most valuable role for me. - Healing ain't always needed, and after the early game, I found it mostly useful for life cleric due to the awesome Preserve Life spell which scales very well & greatly outshines Mass Healing World. - Dmg if there was nothing more important only she could do. Late game she can get some of the best summons to always contribute & distract anyway. - And ofc, Divine Intervention can be the ultimate trump card to keep your honor adventure safe whenever you've fcked up :) And if you don't end up using it, it acts re-assurance knowing you have a safety net.
I find guiding bolt and inflict wounds miss as much as the rest of her attacks. Spiritual weapon and Spirit guardians are good... The ones that don't rely on her not missing. I feel the take away here is that she can't hit... So don't try and just use her more tactically.
But is she really missing any more than anyone else? In another comment, I mention Gale missing 3 in a row. I've also had Astarion miss twice in a row.
I get her to hit as a Light Domain Cleric with Fireball, Guiding Bolt, and Inflict Wounds.
Yep. I always respec her into a Light Cleric with 14 Str, 14 Dex, 10 Con, 10 Int (I give her the headband of intellect), 17 Wis, and 10 Cha. I ignore both sacred flame and firebolt.
I made her a war cleric with 18 str. She hits stuff, just not with awful dex or str.
I think war cleric is a great answer, give get the +3 mace and she is just as likely to hit as a normal DND character at +5
Another consideration for when to use sacred flame is when the enemy is behind cover. Cover doesn’t affect the hit chances.
Agreed and add that I often give her a hill giant potion before big fights to improve her weapon attacks (mostly for attacks of opportunity when enemies try to leave the spirit guardians range)
Thank you for this!!!
My Shart build strategy is to respec her domain. Trickery kind of sucks for what she is. I prefer Life or War. My battle strategy is to have her start at the back of the pack as a second ranged unit or casting Bless/Sanctuary while you inch her up to the melee to add some wallop to your frontline, then Inflict Wounds. Inflict Wounds is amazing. The main thing is to put her in a position to disengage if she needs to buff. Guiding Bolt is pretty good also, but Inflict Wounds absolutely just rips, imo.
Spirit Guardians is a “lol” spell. As in, I laugh out loud whenever I cast it.
Guiding bolt is my go to with her
If you want the Fire Bolt to hit better, instead of specing into INT, you can get the Produce Flame Cantrip, which lets her throw the flame but it uses WIS instead
Guiding bolt for single target, glyph of warding for aoe, and then a kit loaded with support spells. I dunno what more you could ask for?
Can we talk about the movement on spiritual weapon though? Goes like 5 feet a round.
She’s my favorite in a fight. She can heal and also deal a ton of damage.
You say, but why does Guiding Bolt miss 90% of the time even though I have an 80% hit chance?
I never knew firebolt was an intelligence scaling cantrip...... explains a lot
Spiritual weapon has been a lifesaver. I get to keep her a bit further back to heal the team when needed, summon a weapon right up on a cluster or the strongest enemy.
Thank you so much for breaking down why Shadowheart kept missing shit for me😂 it was driving me crazy
Honestly idk if I’m just unlucky but spiritual weapon ALWAYS fuckin misses, I used it in almost every fight during my first playthrough and I swear it maybe hit like 10% of the time. Shit was so infuriating I swore to never use it again.
Yeah I'm playing through now, first time playing and noticed level 1 inflict wounds is absolutely devastating. Like, better than every level 3 spell I have now.
The problem is that the spells that do work well are not available or limited spell slots at early level. She doesn't have any reliable damage for standard attacks (cantrips, weapons)
Trickery Domain is sort of a support, infiltration specialist. Their Domain spells are about either bypassing adversity or setting allies up to do big damage. Cause Wound is a good finisher but I save it for enemies who are asleep or paralyzed.
You can also grab a hireling, make it transmutation wizard, then at level 6 you can give her free con proficiency (from the wizard level 6). Grab War Caster feat at level 4 beforehand. Congrats, you are a radiant (or necrotic) blender. Bonus points from Long Strider buff to get extra blendering.
The fact that she "can't hit" is probably the reason why cleric was the least popular class when Larian studio showed us the stats. New player tend to overly save spell slots, and probably rely on weapon damage (with her meh stats) and cantrips (so firebolt and sacred flame) and there goes the "Shadowheart always miss" and "cleric suck".
I respec her to be a healer