This is a speculative Life Cleric build for the BG3 Shadowheart companion. My main character for the corresponding playthrough is a Roguish Bard with a dip into Fighter who can fill many of the party's needs. This allows my companions to be more "pure" in their roles. While it seemed like Shadowheart's default Trickery subclass would synergize well with my sneaky Bard, in practice my main character didn't need much help for that, and I found myself mostly using Shadowheart as a healer when she wasn't running around using Spirit Guardians to zap enemies. Or sometimes even when she was.
So I decided to go all-in and switch her to the Life subclass.
Shadowheart is a High Half Elf with the Acolyte (Insight, Religion) background. This cannot be changed via respec. Her attributes can be, though. The build below makes some tweaks.
| Character Level |
Class Level |
Attributes |
Skills |
Proficiencies |
Other |
| 1 |
Cleric 1 |
STR: 10 (+0)
DEX: 8 (-1)
CON: 16 (+3)
INT: 14 (+2)
WIS: 16 (+3)
CHA: 10 (+0)
|
Insight (Acolyte)
Religion (Acolyte)
History (Cleric)
Medicine (Cleric) |
Light Armour
Medium Armor
Heavy Armor
Simple Weapons
Shield
Spear
Pike
Halberd
Glaive
Morningstar
|
Life Domain
Disciple of Life (Life)
Cantrips
Level 1 Spells
Darkvision
Fey Ancestry
Fear of Wolves |
| 2 |
Cleric 2 |
|
|
|
Channel Divinity Charges ()
Turn Undead
Preserve Life (Life) |
| 3 |
Cleric 3 |
|
|
|
Level 2 spells |
| 4 |
Cleric 4 |
|
|
|
Feat (Ability Score Improvement, WIS 16=>18) |
| 5 |
Cleric 5 |
|
|
|
Destroy Undead
Level 3 Spells |
| 6 |
Cleric 6 |
|
|
|
Channel Divinity Charges (1=>2)
Blessed Healer (Life) |
| 7 |
Cleric 7 |
|
|
|
Level 4 Spells |
| 8 |
Cleric 8 |
|
|
|
Feat (?)
Divine Strike: Radiant (Life) |
| 9 |
Cleric 9 |
|
|
|
Level 5 Spells |
| 10 |
Cleric 10 |
|
|
|
Divine Intervention |
| 11 |
Cleric 11 |
|
|
|
Level 6 Spells |
| 12 |
Cleric 12 |
|
|
|
Feat (?) |
That's probably not all quite correct. I'm still learning how the game mechanics work. Hopefully it is close.
This Shadowheart has low DEX on purpose, to minimize Initiative bonus. I prefer she goes last among the party members, because her primary purpose is to heal. If she goes early, then people haven't gotten hurt yet and there's less to do on her first turn. This is especially important in harder fights where enemies may open with powerful special attacks causing high damage. By going last, she can immediately counter this. She'll make up for the corresponding poor AC with Heavy Armor.
I bumped INT a bit, because, well, most of my usual party members are kinda dumb, and it didn't hurt to have someone along with decent checks for INT skills. That may not have been the best min-max choice, and you may want to put those points elsewhere.
This Shadowheart was very effective at her intended purpose. She was a little lacking when nobody needed to be healed, but I tossed a bunch of scrolls into her inventory and used her as a caster in those situations. And of course, she could still always Dash around with Spirit Guardians active - that never got old. For the longer fights, especially boss fights with lots of enemies where the party took heavy damage, she was invaluable.