Baldur's Gate 3: Best Builds For Shadowheart

Gathering a party together and adventuring across the Forgotten Realms is an age-old pastime, both in Dungeons & Dragons and in the Baldur's Gate series. In Baldur's Gate 3, Larian Studios went to great lengths to write compelling, interesting characters to take along with you and fight alongside you.

Baldur's Gate 3: Best Builds For Lae'zel

Lae'zel is Baldur's Gate 3's tough-as-nails Githyanki Fighter and she makes for a fantastic companion.

Shadowheart is one of these characters. She's a mysterious woman with lots of secrets, that much is obvious, but if you can get her on your good side, she'll start to let you know more about herself and her past. As a cleric, she's fiercely useful on the battlefield.

Updated September 11, 2025: We've gone ahead and added some more detail and recommendations to this build! Specifically, we've focused on the types of equipment that would make her more effective!

Shadowheart Overview

Shadowheart is a high half-elf cleric of the trickery domain, and it's possible to meet her on the nautiloid just like Lae'zel. You'll find her in one of the Mindflayer pods and if you can solve a very simple puzzle to get her out, she'll trust you more when you join up with her again on land.

Strength

Dexterity

Constitution

Intelligence

Wisdom

Charisma

13

13

14

10

17

10

As far as stats go, 'decent' is the perfect way to describe Shadowheart's loadout. A 17 in Wisdom is merely above average, so we'll be taking steps to increase this stat, but her decent scoresin Dexterity and Constitution make her more survivable than many other Clerics.

As clerics choose their domain upon character creation, there's not much in the way of customizability without consulting Withers and reclassing her, but there are certain ways we can build her to make her more effective than she starts out without doing so.

Best Trickery Cleric Build For Shadowheart

This is the build we'd recommend for those who wish to keep Shadowheart as a trickery cleric - it's thematic to her backstory and keeps her the most 'canon'.

For the first few levels, this build will play as any other cleric would - there's not much in the way of divergence to speak of. However, once we start getting feats and better spells, Shadowheart becomes a flexible support character with useful proficiencies, the typical S-tier cleric spell roster, and great stats for her role.

Stat Respec

This build will assume that you head to Withers and re-allocate Shadowheart's stats. For this build, we want a 10/14/15/10/17/8 spread - this will require putting her +1 bonus into Constitution and her +2 bonus into Wisdom.

To do this, you'll need to speak to Withers as Shadowheart and ask to Change your Class. It will cost 100 gold to do this.

Level

Build

2

Shadowheart will get Turn Undead and Invoke Duplicity at this level.

• Turn Undead will make undead enemies run away from you - this is useful when you're outnumbered but annoying when you just want to finish a fight.
• Invoke Duplicity summons an illusory clone to distract your enemies. It's weak, but can be useful if you employ it strategically.

3

This is the level at which you'll gain your first second-level spell slots. Spells to consider are Aid, Hold Person, Silence, and Spiritual Weapon.

Shadowheart will also get the Mirror Image and Pass Without Trace spells permanently memorised.

4

Increase Shadowheart's Wisdom and Constitution by one point each, to 16 and 18, respectively. This will push both stats up to the next breakpoint, giving her a higher bonus to rolls.

You'll also get a new cantrip of your choosing. If Shadowheart is the character you'll be using to talk to people and deal with social checks, Thaumaturgy is a good pick.

5

This is when you finally unlock level three spell slots. This means you now have access to some terribly useful spells. The standouts are Mass Healing Word, Animate Dead, Revivify, and Spirit Guardians.

In addition to general Cleric spells, Shadowheart also gains the Bestow Curse and Fear spells, and Turn Undead becomes a more offensive action and will damage the undead it targets.

6

Shadowheart will get another level 3 spell slot and an extra Channel Divinitycharge here.

7

Here's where you'll get access to level 4 spells. Guardian of Faith is a good 'set it and forget it' spell, and Death Ward has its uses in high-level fights.

8

Increase Shadowheart's Wisdom up to 20 here.

Shadowheart will also acquire the Divine Strike: Poison ability, which improves her melee attacks (whenever she gets the opportunity to use them).

9

Level 5 spells are unlocked here. Flame Strike is useful (as long as your targets don't resist fire or radiant damage), and Mass Cure Wounds is a great healing spell for long fights. Insect Plague and Contagion make for decent support spells when other spells won't contribute much.

Shadowheart also gets Dominate Person and Seeming as permanently prepared spells.

10

Shadowheart gains another cantrip here and the Divine Intervention ability. This is a situational one-time-only ability.

11

With this level, Shadowheart finally gets level 6 spells. Heal and Harm are useful, and Create Undead is a fantastic way to boost your action economy.

12

With your final level, grab War Caster for that sweet advantage on concentration saving throws.

As a cleric, Shadowheart will almost always have such a flexible toolkit that she can contribute to the problems at hand. Spirit Guardians and Spirit Weapon are top-tier spells, ranged healing as a bonus action is great in emergencies to revive someone close to death, and while her battlefield control potential isn't as powerful as, for example, a druid's, there are some magnificent options here.

While your best weapons should go to your dedicated nonmagical characters who rely on them, it's worth noting that Shadowheart can make use of good magical weapons that go well with her playstyle, such as the The Blood of Lathander or Cazador's Woe staff. The Phalar Aluve is also a decent option for Shadowheart if it doesn't find an instant owner in your team - it can let her support without wasting spell slots!

In terms of armour, the Luminous Armour is a standout. When the wearer deals Radiant damage, it reduces the target's attack rolls; this synergises perfectly with spells like Spirit Guardians or Sacred Flame. An alternative would be something more defensive, if your Shadowheart is more front-line than support: in this case, something like the Adamantine Scale Mail would be perfect!

Shadowheart can also get some very fitting pieces of equipment depending on your choices in Act 2! Consider Selûne's Spear of Night or Shar's Spear of Evening as decent, thematic choices for the mid-game!

A really fantastic accessory to be on the lookout for is the Amulet of the Devout, which will give her more Channel Divinity charges. This is essential for any top-performing cleric!

When worrying about spell slots long-term isn't a vital concern (in other words, you have plenty of time to rest between battles), Shadowheart will be a very high-output damage dealer with wonderful control options. Being able to lock down enemies with high-roll Hold Person and Dominate Person casts is a particularly good feature and can simplify tough battles when paired with a good melee character.

One area where Shadowheart will shine brightly is in battles against the undead. Turn Undead is a fantastically powerful skill, especially once you've hit Level 5, and the many sources of radiant damage will stack up very quickly.

Mirror Image and Pass Without Trace are two highlights of the trickery domain spells. The former will provide Shadowheart with some much-needed survivability in the rougher battles, and the latter is a total godsend when you're faced with any sort of Stealth check.

Alternate Domains For Shadowheart

While trickery is Shadowheart's default cleric domain, there are some viable alternatives that you may want to consider reclassing her into. The main reason for this would be if you have a lot of skill or role overlap with another party member, most likely Astarion or a stealth-focused custom character.

• First up, the life domain will make Shadowheart a far more supportive party member. This domain focuses on healing and party support, gaining massive bonuses to the amount of health healed by healing spells. While this sounds great and can be used to great effect, it's likely not the best use of Shadowheart's domain choice - the domain spells gained are all regular spells from the cleric spell book and a massive healing output is not necessary thanks to how the game handles death rolls and how common Long Rests are.
• An alternative is the tempest domain, which is a more damage-oriented domain. This domain would give Shadowheart far more options for being on the mid to front lines and make her a more active damage dealer. With features that make your lightning and thunder spells very effective and a whole host of extra spells that deal those damage types (such as Thunderwave , Call Lightning , and Shatter ), this is likely the perfect choice for a party that doesn't mind their cleric spending turns on offence.
• Finally, the war domain is a potential choice for those who like the image of Shadowheart as a frontline warrior. This domain's features improve melee attacks, and its spells include the normally Paladin-exclusive Crusader's Mantle spell.
  • If you do decide to take Shadowheart down this route, it's a good idea to make sure she has a high Strengthstat. A good way to accomplish this without compromising on her other stats is to stock up on Elixir of Cloud Giant Strength (acquired from the Hag in Act 1 if you're friendly with her) or get the Gauntlets of Hill Giant Strength in Act 3 as soon as possible. Notably, this build allows Shadowheart to make full use of the neat spear she can acquire from Shar's Gauntlet.

Notably, all of these domains will allow Shadowheart to wear Heavy Armor, allowing you to lower her Dexterity if you want to reallocate those stat points. This also makes her a great user of the Armour of Persistence, giving Shadowheart some excellent resilience.

Baldur's Gate 3: Best Trickery Domain Cleric Build

Want to build the best trickery domain cleric? We've got you covered.