Baldur's Gate 3 cleric class guide: Best choices & options to build your cleric

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If you don’t particularly care for Shadowheart, then you will definitely want to be building your own cleric - and our guide hones in on the most optimised build, so you won’t feel exposed during combat.

We cover everything from deities, abilities, spells, cantrips and equipment. No stone has been left unturned, so rest assured you will be escaping the nautiloid as a force to be reckoned with who will only improve as you level up and find more items that further enhance your character.

But without further ado, let’s get to making the best cleric Faerûn has ever seen.

Baldur's Gate 3 cleric class guide: Best choices & options to build your cleric

Below we have a very detailed explainer for the best cleric build - but if you just want a quick overview, here’s what you need to know at a glance:

• Subclass – Light domain
• Race – Human
• Background – Acolyte
• Skills – Wisdom and dexterity
• Weapon – Longbow

This gives you a very balanced cleric build that focuses on healing and hit-points - meaning you won’t be vulnerable to any attacks and can hold your own if you find your cleric up front and taking the brunt of the damage.

We’ve got much more about what spells, abilities and weapons work best for the cleric - so keep reading to get the lay of the land.

Read more on Baldur's Gate 3:

• Baldur's Gate 3 review - our final verdict
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• Baldur's Gate 3 multiplayer - co-op explained
• Baldur's Gate 3 companions - recruit them all
• Baldur's Gate 3 classes - best class and sub-class
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• Baldur's Gate 3 early game tips - get an epic sword

Best deity for cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

Choosing a deity in Baldur’s Gate 3 is mostly for roleplaying, so ultimately this is up to you. It makes most sense to choose a deity such as Bahamut - who is the Dragon God of Justice - as they are well-regarded and are in line with the healing sensibilities of the cleric.

Best subclass for cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

The best subclass for the cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the Light Domain. This is because it balances your damage and healing output, making your cleric far more adaptable and survivable.

We opted for this as if your party members are down and your cleric is the last person standing, it will often be less risky to kill any remaining enemies than to revive a teammate who will only have one HP - leaving yourself open to taking damage.

When choosing the Light Domain, you’ll get access to these features.

• Warding Flare – Shield yourself with divine light. Use your reaction to impose disadvantage on an attacker, possibly causing their attack to miss.
• Burning Hands – Each flammable target is hit with 3 ~ 18 Fire damage.
• Faerie Fire – Encase multiple targets in colourful light. The targets turn visible, and attack rolls against the targets have advantage.

Best spells for cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

As your cleric levels up, you’ll be able to employ more of the spells you unlock at once. Before you have many available slots, you need to prepare spells and it’s best to do these before combat or ability checks.

Cantrips

• Resistance
• Guidance
• Sacred Flame
• Thaumaturgy

Level 1

• Shield of Faith
• Healing Word
• Inflict Wounds
• Protection from Evil and Good

Level 2

• Radiance of Dawn
• Lesser Restoration

Level 3

• Glyph of Warding
• Daylight
• Spirit Guardians

Level 4

• Blade Ward
• Ritual Caster
• Speak with Animals
• Speak with Dead

Level 5

• Insect Plague
• Dispel Evil and Good

Level 6

• Heal
• Heroes’ Feast

Level 8

• Durable

Level 10

• Thaumaturgy

Level 12

• Ability Improvement (Choose Wisdom)

Best abilities for cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

• Strength – 11
• Dexterity – 15
• Constitution – 14
• Intelligence – 9
• Wisdom – 16
• Charisma – 13

These stats allow your cleric to both be a healing powerhouse and a world of pain for your enemies at the same time.

Your wisdom stats affect many of the cleric’s cantrips and spells and having high dexterity means you can employ the longbow to take on enemies from afar, keeping the group healer nice and safe.

Best race and sub-race for cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

Our best pick for choosing a cleric race is your bog-standard human. Our reason for this is that it adds +1 to your wisdom, which is critical for a cleric as much of their spells are wisdom-based - and humans are very versatile, allowing for good stats across the board.

Once you get past 15 widsom (as well as dexterity), your build will be excellent at tackling foes in the latter stages of the game.

Best cleric background in Baldur’s Gate 3

The best character background for a cleric build is the Acolyte. The description for the Acolyte is as follows:

“You have spent your life in service to a temple, learning sacred rites and providing sacrifices to the god or gods you worship. Serving the gods and discovering their sacred works will lead you to Greatness.”

With this background, you gain proficiencies in insight (wisdom) and religion (intelligence), both of which serve the cleric well, both in combat and when out exploring the vast world.

Best equipment for cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

Wapira’s Crown (Helmet)

Crowning Glory – When healing another, the wearer regains 1d6 hit points.

This means that your cleric will be healed as they healed, maximising your efficiency, especially when paired with a spell like Prayer of Healing which heals all visible party members.

Reaper’s Embrace (Armour)

Magical Plate – All incoming damage is reduced by 2.

Reaper's Rigidity – When activated, you can't be moved against your will by any spell or action, but have disadvantage on dexterity saving throws.

This will keep your critically important cleric nice and safe and still be able to heal even when up against powerful enemies. Reaper’s Rigidity is good to have especially when fighting near the many bottomless pits featured in Baldur’s Gate 3.

The Blood of Lathander (Mace)

Lathander's Blessing – Once per long rest, when your hit points are reduced to 0, you regain 2-12 hit points. Allies within 9m also regain 1-6 hit points.

Lathander's Light – Sheds holy light in a 6m radius. In combat, fiends and undead standing in the light are blinded, unless they succeed a constitution saving throw.

This means your cleric won’t be down and out if their HP hits zero and will also heal nearby allies, keeping you all in the fight.

The Joltshooter (Longbow)

Electric Blood – When the wielder deals damage using this weapon, they gain 2 Lightning Charges.

This longbow does heavy damage which is great for when you’ve got the healer in the back of the group and none of your party members currently need healing but you don’t want to waste a cantrip, spell or turn on lesser foes.

Glowing Shield (Shield)

Loving Protection – Once per short rest, if you are below 50% Hits Points and take damage, you gain 8 Temporary Hit Points.

This is another way of keeping your cleric safe, especially when paired with The Blood of Lathander.

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