Best Cleric build in Baldur’s Gate 3: Race, skills, spells, & more

❘ Published: 2024-03-21T12:15:36

A screenshot of Cleric in Baldur's Gate 3

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Clerics draw upon the divine power of the Gods for their spellcasting – but to harness such potency, you’ll need the best Cleric build in Baldur’s Gate 3.

Baldur’s Gate 3 features numerous potent spellcasters, including the Warlock, Paladin, Bard, and Druid, each offering unique abilities and advantages distinct from the Cleric. While all formidable in their own right, none excel at healing or vanquishing the undead quite like the Cleric.

They’re able to raise the whole party back up to full health while at the same time destroying the enemy in front of them with their high damage capabilities, and that’s not even touching on the Turn Undead spell.

However, creating a Cleric capable of all that can be a pretty overwhelming task in the expansive game. So, to help you out, here’s the best Cleric build in Baldur’s Gate 3, from the ideal race, spells, deity, and more.

Contents

Best Race for a Cleric
Best subclass
Best Background
Best Deity
Best Ability Score spread
Best Spells
Best Illithid powers
Best multiclass options
Best Build

A screenshot of Cleric from Baldur's Gate 3

Best Race to choose for a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

The races that you can choose for a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3 are as follows:

Half-Elf
Human
Gold Dwarf

All these classes offer ideal features for the Cleric but we recommend trying the Gold Dwarf due to its Dwarven Toughness, keeping your Cleric tanky.

Best subclass for a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

The best subclass to go for as a Cleric in the game is the Light subclass. This is because the Light subclass offers a mix of both damage as well as healing.

There are quite a few other subclasses that work effectively when playing as a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3, however. Here’s a breakdown of all the subclasses you can use to create the best Cleric build in BG3.

Life (includes heavy armor proficiency): Enhances healing powers for both caster and target, with access to always-prepared support.
Light: Grants the ability to hinder enemy attacks, along with spells like Burning Hands, Light, and Faerie Fire.
Knowledge: Oriented towards control and role-playing, providing expertise in Arcana and History and spells like Command and Sleep.
Trickery: Elevates stealth abilities for party members and offers spells such as Disguise Self and Charm Person.
Nature (includes heavy armor proficiency): Channel the raw power of the natural world with proficiency in specific skills and a Druid cantrip.
Tempest (includes martial weapon and heavy armor proficiency): Allows retaliation against attackers with lightning damage and provides storm-related spells.
War (includes martial weapons proficiency and heavy armor proficiency): Enables additional Bonus Action attacks and provides proficiency in heavy armor and martial weapons, along with spells for close-combat control, buffing, and damage.

You should remember that at the end of the day dealing damage is important and solely focusing on healing can become frustrating at times.

Best Background for a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

The best background that you can go for when playing as a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3 is Acolyte. This is because you gain Insight and Religion as skills that synergize well with the Cleric class as a whole. However, apart from that, you should also go for the following skills:

History
Medicine
Persuasion

Best Deity for Cleric class in Baldur’s Gate 3

The Cleric class is one where you have to choose a Deity during character creation. The choice of a Deity can define how the world treats you within the game. Therefore, the safest option to go for here is Bahamut, who is the God of Justice and always treads upon the righteous path.

Best Ability Score spread for a Cleric

The Cleric requires a certain amount of balance in order to be powerful. You could go for the recommended Ability Score spread, or you could try this one:

Strength: 14
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 14
Wisdom: 16
Intelligence: 8
Charisma: 10

The Clerics spellcasting modifier is Wisdom, so you’ll want to make that your highest stat. Then, since you’ll be doing a lot of up-front fighting, Strength, and Constitution are your next priority, granting more damage and higher health. The other’s are purely there for ability checks and conversation.

Best Cleric Spells BG3

If you are playing a Cleric then you need your spells to be useful. Here are the best Cleric spells in BG3:

Cantrip: Resistance
Cantrip: Guidance
Cantrip: Sacred Flame
Cantrip: Thaumaturgy
Level 1: Shield of Faith
Level 1: Healing Word
Level 1: Inflict Wounds
Level 1: Protection from Evil and Good
Level 2: Radiance of Dawn
Level 2: Lesser Restoration
Level 3: Glyph of Warding
Level 3: Daylight
Level 3: Spirit Guardians
Level 3: Revivify
Level 4: Banishment
Level 4: Freedom of Movement
Level 5: Insect Plague
Level 5: Dispel Evil and Good
Level 6: Heal
Level 6: Heroes’ Feast

Best Illithid powers for a Cleric

There’s a tonne of Ilithid powers to access if you don’t mind sticking tadpoles to your brain.

Transfuse Health

As the primary healer of the group, your Cleric will often need to make some sacrifices to help keep the team alive. That’s where Transfuse Health comes in. Essentially, it allows you to sacrifice half your hitpoints to heal a target for that amount, keeping someone from going down.

Luck of the Far Realms

While Clerics are certainly used for healing most of the time, they’re still pretty good damage dealers on the battlefield. So, having Luck of the Far Realms to help you turn your hit into a critical could be ideal, especially against a tough boss.

Freecast

Lastly, Clerics are spellcasters at heart, so having the ability to free-cast can be a game-changer. Pretty much every spellcasting class should have this ability, after all, you never know when it might come in handy.

Best multiclass options for the Cleric

Paladin and Cleric

The Paladin and Cleric work so well together because of their similarities. Both are tanks with healing capabilities and are able to hit for a relatively decent amount of damage. However, combine the two and you have an extremely versatile character.

It essentially strengthens the character’s healing capability and adds a little more power on the frontline, thanks to your Smite abilities. Sure, it’s not the most powerful multiclass in the game, but it’s one of the best for the Cleric.

Druid and Cleric

From a brief look at this multiclass, it’s easy to wonder why they go well together – but, they’re both Wisdom based and open up a realm of opportunity for more powerful spellcasting.

You get the defence from the Cleric, the healing from both, and the damaging / control spells from the Druid, almost making your character a one-person army.

Best Build for a Cleric in Baldur’s Gate 3

Race: Human

Background: Acolyte

Deity: Bahamut

Skills: Relion, Insight

Ability Order from highest to lowest: Wisdom, Intelligence, Dexterity, Charisma, Constitution, Strength

Build layout:

Level	Feature
1	Cantrips: Resistance, Guidance, Sacred Flame — Spells: Shield of Faith, Healing Word, Inflict Wounds, Protection from Evil and Good– Subclass: Light Domain
2	Channel Divinity Charges — Turn Undead — Spell: Radiance of Dawn
3	Spell: Scorching Ray, Flaming Sphere
4	Spell: Lesser Restoration — Ability Improvement: Wisdom +2 — Feat: War Caster or Alert
5	Destroy Undead — Spells: Revivify, Daylight
6	Channel Divinity Charges — Spells: Glyph of Warding
7	Spell: Banishment
8	Ability Improvement: Wisdom to max — Spell: Freedom of Movement — Feat: Lucky or Stat Increase or Alert
9	Spell: Insect Plague
10	Spell: Dispel Evil and Good
11	Spell: Heroes’ Feast
12	Ability Improvement: Intelligence — Feat: Tough or War Caster

Check out our other Baldur’s Gate 3 guides: