Unleash Divine Power: The Ultimate Guide to Dominating Baldur's Gate 3 as a Cleric!

Highlights

Players are given the opportunity to select from a variety of subclasses, such as Light, Life, or Trickery, each presenting distinct play styles and unique abilities.

Clerics in Baldur's Gate 3 possess potent spells, making them invaluable in battle, and their choice of deity adds depth to their roleplaying potential.

While healing may be the least popular role in party-based RPGs, it is the most crucial in keeping the party alive during dire situations. Despite lacking the flashiness of other roles, healing offers ample opportunities for role-playing and storytelling, particularly for the Cleric class. In Dungeons and Dragons, as well as Baldur's Gate 3, Clerics are a remarkably versatile class, blessed by their chosen deity with both magical and combat abilities. Their role in supporting the party and weakening enemies is pivotal, and their devotion to a deity leads to intriguing roleplaying prospects.

Clerics in Baldur's Gate 3 are renowned healers who possess a unique ability to excel in different roles, whether it be as durable tanks, formidable fighters, or cunning stealth operatives. Upon character creation, clerics must choose a deity to worship from a vast selection of over 20 gods in the game. This choice significantly influences the motivations, background, and intentions of the player character. Clerics acquire their magical powers and abilities through training with various sects dedicated to their chosen deity, or directly from the deity itself. Moreover, the chosen deity also affects how other characters perceive and interact with the player character, with some gods having more ambiguous reputations than others.

Clerics Are Powerhouse Spellcasters and Fighters

In addition to selecting a deity to worship, Clerics also have the option of choosing a DnD-style subclass when creating their character. This choice determines the play style of the Cleric and the spells that will be accessible to them. To illustrate, Clerics who are part of the Life Domain are renowned as exceptional healers, whereas those who prefer a more combat-oriented approach should align themselves with the War Domain. It is worth noting that players who worship an evil god like Lolth might be inclined to select the Trickery Domain instead of the Life Domain, although role-playing involves crafting a compelling backstory. By employing their own creativity, players who can provide a plausible justification for a Lolth-worshiping Life Domain Cleric could potentially have a winner on their hands.

Light Domain: The perfect subclass for dealing damage and roleplaying a holy warrior on a divine quest.

Life Domain: This Domain is for players who want to focus on healing and support.

Trickery Domain: The Trickery Domain is perfect for those who want to play a stealthy spellcaster.

Knowledge Domain: For scholarly characters and more utility-driven players.

Nature Domain: Offers a taste of Druidic magic.

Tempest Domain: Another damage-focused subclass with stormy magic.

The War Domain enhances the Cleric's proficiency in weapons and armor. In the Early Access version of Baldur's Gate 3, players can currently select from three subclasses: Life Domain, Light Domain, and Trickery Domain. However, upon the game's official launch in August, four additional Domains will be introduced: Knowledge Domain, Nature Domain, Tempest Domain, and War Domain. This will provide players with a total of seven Domains to choose from when creating their characters. Further details regarding the last four Domains will be unveiled at the time of the game's release.

Spells Available to Clerics

Clerics at level 1 are capable of using Cantrips and have access to four Level 1 Spell Slots. One of the most appealing aspects of the Cleric class in Baldur's Gate 3 is their ability to heal, which is a rare skill in the game and makes them a valuable asset on the battlefield.

In addition to their gameplay abilities, the roleplaying potential of a Cleric in Baldur's Gate 3 is significant, particularly due to the impact of their choice of deity at character creation. This includes the unexpected inclusion of Bhaal, the god of murder, who played a central role in Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 as a key antagonist. The ability to worship Bhaal as a Cleric has far-reaching implications for the main character and is certain to attract attention from various characters throughout the game.

Baldur's Gate 3 comes out August 3 for PC and September 6 for PS5.