The Cleric is a class that has a lot of various playstyles, ranging from full support, damage, and somewhere in between. Typically, damage !Clerics are fine, albeit slightly lacking in comparison to other classes, with the likes of War and Light being your two damage options, the former for martial, and the latter for casters. Meanwhile, your support types are typically Trickster, Life, Nature, and Tempest. Trickery is all about trolling your enemies, using stealth options, mirages, and other things to deceive and support whatever you’re doing. As for the others, Tempest is typically a lightning and thunder class that offers bonus damage while tanking or hitting foes with spells, while Nature offers some !Druid-lite aspects, granting support skills via Barkskin, ground hazard through Plant Growth or Spike Growth or dealing damage with nature spells. Finally, we are left with Life, the holy gem of the !Cleric subclasses, and the best healer subclass in Baldur’s Gate 3. Since the other spells are largely subclass multiclassing options, we are going deep on the Life !Cleric build, offering players a dedicated support playstyle to really help their allies throughout the game.

Baldur’s Gate 3 Life Cleric Build¶

The Life !Cleric is a strong healing type class, and when you improve it further, you can get even more healing spells, healing efficiency and spells that guarantee you get the most out of your heals. This turns the !Cleric’s ranged heals as a free efficient bonus action to pick downed allies up into worthwhile healers, capable of mitigating full attacks of damage or spells later.

Your general build profile will look as follows:

• Life !Cleric - 10
• Circle of Land !Druid - 2

The maximum benefit you can get from a !Cleric, in general, is at level 10. At level 10, you get your final class feature, Divine Intervention. This spell you can only use once per playthrough, which can either be used to do some incredible life-saving stuff, damage, or create a holy weapon for you to wield. You also get access to the max-level spells you can cast at level 9, so, you generally lose out on scalings after level 10.

This leaves you with a few options to spend your remaining two levels. The first is to go !Druid and grab the Cantrips like Shillelagh, which grants your attacks to use your Wisdom. Wisdom is your highest stat for a !Cleric, so you get benefits for attacking foes when you have the room to spend an action on attacks. You can also get Goodberry for some out of combat healing options if you want, which can be used whenever you want them to be used. You may also pick up Thorn Whip for some added crowd control by forcing enemies 3 meters closer to you, handy for pulling them into hazards or closer to your martial characters.

However, the main feature you want is the Natural Recovery feature from the Circle of Land subclass. This adds in the ability to spend an action, both in and out of combat to restore spell slots. Since you’re only dipping into a level 2 !Druid, it means you can only restore one level one spell slot. However, that can make a clutch Healing Word ranged resurrection on a distant ally, especially since its a bonus action spell, and not an action like Natural Recovery. Or, it can be used to recast Bless if you had your concentration broken without it eating another spell slot etc. This can add in a much-needed clutch factor to your play style that can be used once per long rest, allowing you to use your higher spell slots on more efficient healing or support spells.

Best Life Cleric Spells¶

This section will highlight the best !Cleric spells to use for a Life !Cleric Build. You will likely be dipping into the major healing spells, and then throw in some additional concentration spells for various circumstances, and then the remaining spell slots are spent on Crowd Control options for when you don’t need to heal.

At level 5, you get access to third-level spells, which grants you Beacon of Hope. Beacon of Hope offers the party the ability to be fully healed for a spell’s amount and gain advantage on Wisdom saving throws and Death saving throws. This is also a concentration spell, so you can now play a pocket healer for a squishier ally, a class with a taunt, or any other combat predicament you find yourself in.

The other iconic healing spells are Mass Cure Wounds and Greater Restoration, which are level 5 spells, (Cleric level 9). These spells offer a mass way of doing even more very powerful healing spells on either the group or on a single party member. Again, these work with your Disciple of Life passive, granting 2 + 5, for an extra 7 HP. While the values don’t scale as well late game, an extra 7 HP can be the difference between going down or clutching a fight so they can get one more attack in, potentially defeating a foe, saving another ally from a threat, or beating a fight altogether.

As for your remaining spell slots, you can consider using other CC spells. Bless is always a good option, as players can give their allies better attack rolls and saving throws. This is a concentration spell that lasts 10 turns, so, if you know you’re heading into a fight, you can always cast it, toggle turn-based mode, then enter combat with your party ready.

In addition, more CC spells like Silence, Dispel Evil and Good, Banishment, Hold Person, and more can be learned for some solid CC options when your allies don’t need topping up in combat.

If you need more AOE damage in your team, learning Spirit Guardians is also a powerful spell.

Best Cleric Feats and Items in Baldur’s Gate 3¶

Okay, moving onto Feat choices, chances are you’re only going to grab 1. If there’s any you grab, make sure it is War Caster. This is because you want it to improve Constitution saving throws on your Concentration spells. This allows your Bless and our Beacon of Hope concentrations to have better chances of persisting in combat, which are both the biggest support buffs you can give to your party as a Life !Cleric.

Best Cleric Races and Ability Scores in Baldur’s Gate 3¶

When making a !Cleric, you will likely consider using the following stats for your ability scores.

• STR: 12
• DEX: 14
• CON: 13
• INT: 8
• WIS: 17
• CHA: 12

These are slightly different than the ones that Larian recommended. The reason why you want to do this is because you are not going to be dealing weapon damage, so, strength is less useful in this build (if you’re playing War its more of a priority). Instead, placing those points into Dex brings your ability score modifier to 2, which helps your Initiative and your AC. More AC equals harder to hit and start your turn earlier. It means you can cast your CC skills earlier in combat or be ready to top an ally up early in case they may go down as their turn comes much later in the round.

As for the races you want to use, you can use any of the following races:

• Gold Dwarf: Start with two extra HP, and gain one HP per level

• Githyanki: The Githyanki’s Astral Knowledge ability to gain bonuses in an ability score can allow you to take more of a beating by going Con, get more AC by Dex, or more damage in Strengths. You can also buff the other three stats for any hard-party dialogue options you encounter.

• Halfling: Brave and Lucky are great starting racial feats, as you get to re-roll 1s and use the dice your roll as the value. Brave also makes you harder to Frighten, and so, it means you have one less CC effect that can stop your from saving an ally’s life. Strongheart Halfling also offers some good poison resistance mods to, which is handy fairly often.

• Gnome: Gnome Cunning gives you an advantage on Wisdom, Charisma and Int Saving Throws. Again, this is huge since you can really abuse your otherwise high Wisdom, and to a lesser extent, Charisma.

This concludes this Baldur’s Gate 3 Life !Cleric Build. Now you have an idea on how to build this class, its strengths, and its main play style options.

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