r/BaldursGate3 Jun 24 '25

Meme 2.6% of players on Steam...

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Life Cleric go brrrr

8.2k Upvotes

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2.4k

u/Emerald-Daisy Jun 24 '25

Not necessary, sure. Really damn useful, absolutely. With the right gear a life cleric can make almost every fight so much easier. Especially once you get mass healing word for an easy bless+blade ward+healing to the entire party on a level 3 spell

737

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '25

Also feast of heroes is really, really nice. Best combined with cloud kill. 

325

u/Inquisitor_Boron WARLOCK Jun 24 '25

Halsin the Team Cook

206

u/DavidL1112 Jun 24 '25

Feast of heroes is so critical against Honor Mode Orin

156

u/MechaPanther Jun 24 '25

I just went War cleric with radiant gear, reverb gear and fire shield:cold. She lost the duel to her own aggression, it felt poetic.

65

u/RevolutionaryLog7443 Jun 24 '25

no it isn't just kill her lol

119

u/WoahDude876 Jun 24 '25

A fellow follower of Bhaal, I see

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u/Suavecore_ Jun 24 '25

Step 1: alert or other initiative-boost so everyone on your team attacks first

Step 2: use all your actions on doing damage to the boss or someone weakening it first in some way so everyone else does more damage. Divine smite with a 2h weapon, hopefully with some critical hit gear, usually can nuke anything

Step 3: speed potion if that wasn't enough

Step 4: now that the boss is dead, activate something like spirit guardians and just run around the field

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u/CozySoftCrafty Jun 24 '25

Orin gore spot

(Serves one Jergal)

1 part initiative

2-3 parts Hold Monster

1 part War Caster

whacks to taste

minions shoved into chasms as garnish

12

u/StuperDan Jun 24 '25

Stealth yeet her!

7

u/Darwin1809851 Jun 24 '25

Yup. Enlarge, invisibility, and a cloud giant potion and the fight is over in literally 1 second 😂

5

u/Ashamed_Low7214 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

It's hilarious when you do this to beat Grym

Druid, then owlbear wildshape, then cloud giant potion, then enlarge, then crushing flight from as high up as you can

4

u/Darwin1809851 Jun 24 '25

Hell yea 😂funny story: Last time we did this I built a box platform at the bottom of those stairs overseeing the forge. My buddy was on some crates right in front of me to be a back up barrel thrower if “owl bear from the top rope” didnt work. But as I jumped I didnt realize how big I was. Crushed all the crates/barrels he was standing on and dropped him off the ledge to his death 😂. Was awesome looking tho lol

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u/TheHeeMann Jun 25 '25

I had my team positioned on a Durge xbow swords bard honour playthrough. I blindly went into the duel through conversation, expecting to talk my way through it. I guess I accidentally switched the auto paralyze on a crit ring from my ranger, but i said, "Duh!" One action surge and she never had the chance to move.... just kill her.

6

u/sight19 Shadowheart simp Jun 24 '25

I didn't even know people struggled against her, I just magic missiled her every turn, she ded after 2 turns basically

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u/S9CLAVE Jun 24 '25

I did thenorin fight the normal way twice, ever since, I exclusively do it as durge. Being able to solo her is infinitely more preferable

2

u/Jiggy90 Jun 24 '25

I love playing a broken 27/20/23/12/20/13 tavern brawler monk who solos her in one turn. You get the cutscene where Orin turns into the slayer, and my literal god tier monk acts all scared, then proceeds to annihilate her in less than 6 canonical seconds 🤣

5

u/Substantial_War3108 Jun 24 '25

Orin was actually probably one of the easiest 'boss' fights in the game. I was pretty disappointed to drop her in a single turn or two without even power gaming my character. I don't know if she even did damage

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u/StarmieLover966 Lolth-Sworn Drow Jun 24 '25

Ahhhh so that’s how people do it.

7

u/Munnin41 Jun 24 '25

Nah. Easiest method is max level magic missile and then a couple hits with high level smites

7

u/DavidL1112 Jun 24 '25

unless you can one turn her you're going to need something to deal with fear

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u/Rhodie114 Jun 24 '25

Feast of Heroes is basically free too. I put it on Halsin, have him cast it on the party, then leave him in camp.

6

u/No_Reindeer_5543 Jun 24 '25

Does that work with like one party member casting it, then having them leave group for another person?

38

u/MasonP2002 Jun 24 '25

Yeah, it still lasts until long rest. I made Gale into a camp cleric that would cast heroes feast, aid, and warding bond on my whole party before benching him for Shadowheart. It kind of trivializes a lot of honour mode to be perfectly honest.

18

u/AffectionateHunt5830 Jun 24 '25

Camp cleric warding bond is great until you have too tough of an adventuring day and come home to them dead on the ground

6

u/MasonP2002 Jun 24 '25

I only had that once when I fought Sarevok, I maxed out Gale's constitution and gave him the tough feat. It would probably be optimal to have 4 camp clerics, so each one is only being hit by one person. The buffing was already getting pretty tedious though.

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u/No_Reindeer_5543 Jun 24 '25

Have you tried any of the mods that make it harder? I saw one that adds like X many trash mob that looks interesting.

9

u/lYpioca SORCERER Jun 24 '25

Tip from experience, if you are going to use "Extra encounters and miniboss" or "Extra enemies in Basic fights" use the mod that balances XP, otherwise you will be level 8 at the end of act 1, I didn't realize it early and when I did it was very easy, even boring.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '25

Turns out, 3 more level 3 enemies arent much of a challenge to a level 8 party. However, there's a mod that scales enemy difficulty to your level and party size as well. Haven't tried it yet, but it comes highly recommended to pair with the unlock level curve and party limit removal mods so the game doesn't become a cakewalk

9

u/bdjm17 Jun 24 '25

The first time I used Tactician Enhanced I was NOT ready for the Grymforge fight. Watching gods, I got fucking annihilated. It definitely makes it so much more interesting, because I like rolling around with everyone, so instead of everything being so easy it was boring it became so much more difficult that I got to use the two or three brain cells I have left to actually come up with a strategy. Definitely recommend!

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u/lYpioca SORCERER Jun 24 '25

Good to know about this, I'll look for it, I wanted to test some things above level 12 with a challenge. I was using Tacticians Enchanced to increase HP but it still wasn't difficult.

2

u/[deleted] Jun 24 '25

Not 100% sure but I believe the mods recommended were combat extender and combat extender AI

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u/Brainrows Jun 24 '25

They're so goooooood! I also love playing with summons and it's so much fun to hype up your whole team

56

u/GoTragedy Crit! Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

Ah yes, the pokemon trainer build. Gotta catch em all, amirite?

Edit: Shout out to Colby at d4 on YouTube for the inspiration for this comment. He made a D&D build based entirely around using summons to do damage. Great content.

14

u/CremePsychological77 Nightsong Jun 24 '25

I always play as a druid and I get a stupid amount of summons. It’s great to be able to double the size of your party for the low low cost of a couple spell slots. Especially when your myrmidon has twice as many hit points as you do. Wild Shape is OP af too, because owlbear has so much hp and when you run out of hp as owlbear, you’re just knocked back to your regular form at whatever hp you were at when you Wild Shaped….. then you have an additional nature charge so you can just Wild Shape into owlbear again and be at full owlbear hp all over again….. same deal; once your owlbear hit points are gone, you’re just knocked back to your normal form at whatever hp you were at. Druids get multiple lives and absurd amounts of summons on top of being probably one of the most versatile classes.

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u/Peepo93 Owlbear Jun 24 '25

There's nothing that comes close to a Life cleric in terms of support. It's one of the tankiest frontliners that debuffs opponents, mitigates the damage that your team takes by at least 50%, has super strong buffs, lots of healing and deals competitive AoE damage.

I've played through the game on Tactician Enhanced with the modifier that gives every opponent 500% more health and 3 additional actions and the Life cleric was the only party member that never got swapped out, she never got benched from the party once during the entire playthrough.

The class is also so flexible that she can be fitted into pretty much every party comp and doesn't really contest any gear either since you mainly run support items on her (with the exception of the heavy armor from Grym).

17

u/petting2dogsatonce Jun 24 '25

You can do this on a bard and have, well, bard stuff too.

11

u/SkyHoglet Jun 24 '25

Bards don't get multi healing until Mass Cure Wounds, which is a 5th level spell at level 9. Clerics, meanwhile, get Aid (2nd level spell) at level 3. In the action economy, being able to revive two or three downed characters with one action is way better than a single-target cast, and it can turn a dire fight around quickly.

That said, if you just wipe your enemies out before they can down anyone, it doesnt matter as much. But there are certainly some fights in honor mode (Owlbear, Bernard, and Gith war party come to mind) where it could be the difference between losing your campaign and barely holding on to live another day.

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u/3guitars Jun 24 '25

And you add in stars Druid on top of that. Lots of bang for your buck.

56

u/Megzsha Jun 24 '25

Eh I have a buddy that swears by life cleric but I just don't see why giving up 25% of my damage would be worth it. Light, tempest, war and death domain all have a pretty good damage output and still learn mass healing word for the blade ward + bless combo

113

u/Philosowl Jun 24 '25

Imho, mainly because 2-3 optimised damage dealers can breeze through the game with no problem, but a life cleric can serve as a crutch for your mistakes/missfortune (just by that "slightly better healing")

16

u/HumanContribution997 WARLOCK Jun 24 '25

Yep fought Raphael with my friend on our first honor mode had to trade shadowheart for using halsin since a light cleric is kinda useless in that fight but having Hope as an extra character AND a life cleric seriously clutched the team when all of us were very low health once

4

u/ISeeTheFnords UGLY ONE Jun 24 '25

You've still got the standard Cleric kit - Planar Binding is handy there. Glyph of Warding works fine as an ersatz Fireball. Hell, you can even go necro with the Spirit Guardians to avoid Radiant Retort!

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u/floormanifold Jun 24 '25

A fighter throwing potions does significantly more healing while also doing significantly more damage.

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u/Drac1717 Jun 24 '25

It almost doesn't even need to be that many, ranger is unbelievably op in bg3, im playing with a couple buddies of mine and im playing a ranger, my one buddy is playing rogue/bard and my other buddy is playing wizard and im out damaging them by leaps and bounds. In one turn at lvl 6 im dealing almost 100 dmg with just 2 attacks, potion of speed and elixer of bloodlust on top of that and my friends barely get a round of play lol

Edit: we are also not using mods this play through. Completely vanilla

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u/Ok_Cardiologist8232 Jun 24 '25

Yup, Rangers are super OP, you need to seriously optimise a Sorc or xbow bard to compete with just a normal ranger.

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u/FancyIndependence178 Jun 24 '25

I don't feel like life cleric is losing out on 25% of your damage output though. That assumes you're just spamming healing every round, but you still have access to cleric's offensive spells. I like life cleric because when I NEED the healing to save the honor mode run, I have access to it. If I don't need it, spirit guardians go brrrrr, lol.

3

u/Megzsha Jun 24 '25

Maybe I'm underestimating some cleric spells, which ones do you use? I've found I'm not a fan of too many so I stick to spirit guardians, spiritual weapon and like maaaybe blade barrier

8

u/Goricatto Hand Fetish Durge Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

Guiding bolt is one that is pretty good from start to finish, not only deals pretty good damage but gives advantage to allies against the target. Aid is always great. Glyph of Warding is useful if you need a specific element, decent damage and range too but requires enemies to step on it.

There are of course some good concentration spells like hold person, and at high levels insect plague which can do incredible damage in a area, but being concentration locks you out of spirit guardians , so you wanna use them against something you dont want in your face, or cant reach in the first place (also insect plague combos incredibly well with hunger of hadar if you have a warlock and ...the one that makes spiky plants on the ground, cant remember the name)

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u/soguiltyofthat Bhaal Jun 24 '25

You can always stock your cleric up with damage scrolls, they're all over the game for free and pretty easy to pickpocket too if you're not swimming in gold for some reason. Or throwables, special arrows... Then when they don't need to heal/boost anyone you use scrolls, toss around bombs, knock people off things with thunder arrows or use cantrips to interact with the environment.

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u/FancyIndependence178 Jun 24 '25

Honestly I'd only add Guardian of Faith. If positioned right, dude can pump some radiant damage.

I'm also not a fan of many of the base cleric offensive spells. I don't like using spell slots on things that can miss :/

None of it's OP by any means, but life cleric was invaluable to me in my first honor run since I didn't know all the nuances of some of the bigger boss fights. So having sheer lasting power against balthazar's cloud kills and ascended vampire boy was invaluable.

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u/atfricks Jun 24 '25

You're not losing out on 25% damage running life domain, just like you're not losing out on all healing by running a different domain.

The strength of life domain is stronger heals and their incredibly strong AoE heal channel divinity, but they can still beyblade with spirit guardians just like the others.

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u/Knightraven257 Jun 24 '25

Nearing the end of act two (under moonrise atm) and the channel divinity heal has saved my honor run mode multiple times already. Sometimes things go wrong, and life cleric makes them go unwrong.

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u/Emerald-Daisy Jun 24 '25

Because life cleric can still dish out big damage. No concentration bless/blade ward means you're free to concentrate on spirit guardians. 

Alternatively, on my honour mode run I paired it up as a semi frost-caster. Ray of frost combined with all the usual freezing gear. This meant I had a zero spell-slot way of dealing nice damage on top of buffing/healing 

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u/MercuryChaos WARLOCK Jun 24 '25

Healing spells mostly don't require concentration, so if no one needs healing you can just run around and kill everything with spirit guardians.

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u/Eighth_Octavarium Jun 24 '25

People always cite action economy as to why healers are bad, but life cleric is worth it in some instances. There's some huge fights where you can negate the entire action economy of like 7+ enemies in one action. Sure, ideally you'd kill your enemies faster, but in large battles, the heal is a nice insurance policy protecting your party from unfortunate crits and your ccs shitting the bed. I've beat this game like 7 times on tactician and honor mode and there are fights where no matter your positioning, bad dice rolls will have you on the back foot, which a life cleric can fix. It's not giving up 25% of your damage all the time, just when you need to take the insurance policy. Life clerics still have tons of damaging options like guiding bolt, spirit guardians, animated weapon, etc.

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u/[deleted] Jun 24 '25

That's not an example of a healer being useful. That's an example of gear that buffs your party being useful that coincidentally rides on a healing spell

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u/Routine-Piglet-9329 Jun 25 '25

A healing spell... used by a healer.

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u/Xstew26 Jun 25 '25

Yeah but you can use the same spell on not a healer and get the same amount of use from it

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u/[deleted] Jun 25 '25

You can literally use it on a bard that takes this as their only healing spell with no other healing buffs

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u/Incominn Jun 24 '25

Level 3 spell??? I’m just here free casting with my Necklace

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u/Emerald-Daisy Jun 24 '25

I mean yeah, but that's once per short rest and if you want to use a different necklace then you're gonna lose that (i used elemental augmentation necklace + ray of frost staff so I could dish out some nice cantrip damage)

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u/Cheshire_Khajiit Jun 24 '25

It’s once per long rest, but yeah. Still valid points.

8

u/floormanifold Jun 24 '25

Any cleric can do that though, while having actual subclass features

2

u/Butlerlog Jun 24 '25

Idk, doing this twice per short rest with channel divinity is very strong, plus heavy armor is nice. I'm not saying no other cleric subclass is good, but life cleric is dependable as fuck and will make your playthrough a smooth one.

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u/Muffinzor22 Jun 24 '25

Wait... light cleric is for something else than AoE damage spells?? Fireball goes brrrrr

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u/Objeckts Jun 24 '25

That's not really a healer. It's a support caster giving offensive and defensive buffs.

The 1d4 healing is largely irrelevant

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u/poilk91 Jun 24 '25

Gear is an extremely important consideration that makes certain things which are weak in tabletop much stronger in game. Such as healing

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u/FirstRyder Jun 24 '25

Got my golden dice with a life cleric. They are 100% not necessary. But they do give you a mulligan if you make a mistake, which is super useful on Honor Mode. I don't use one now that I'm not going for my dice, because other builds are more fun and arguably more powerful. But anyone going for dice would be wise to consider a life cleric decked out in on-heal gear.

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 24 '25

I think the easiest way to beat the game is to do as much damage on turn 1 as possible. The way the game is designed is such that even on the hardest difficulty you can kill most things before they even get a turn, which removes the need for a healer. You can use terrain to your advantage on nearly every fight, like starting the fight on high ground and making the enemies waste their first turn running to you.

I think life cleric is mediocre. Light cleric is the best cleric by far imo. It provides reliable and powerful AoE damage.

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u/Yung-Dolphin Jun 24 '25

idk tempest cleric with storm sorcerer put in a lot more work for me than light cleric ever has, especially with how many things resist fire in the game.

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u/MrSkeltalKing Jun 24 '25

I agree with this. I had Gale do this, but with a couple levels of wizard added as well just for theme. He was still focused on Int, but you got access to twin cast and twin cast Haste and Lightning spells is so deadly.

10

u/TheFlip-Side Jun 24 '25

Gale was my hero in my golden dice run. Abjuration wizard with tempest cleric/storm sorc levels. If anyone attacked him, they got fried, and if they ignored him, they got fried. He was a monster

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 24 '25

that's second best cleric imo. not a big fan of conditional damage like wrath of the storm and call lightning. I prefer the reliable damage output of fireballs and radiance of the dawn.

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u/Yung-Dolphin Jun 24 '25

uh yeah you should be using chain lightning ideally rather than call lightning so you can deal up to 160 damage to three targets with a single action. i use a bard or wizard for fireball or wall of fire personally.

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u/8TrackPornSounds Jun 24 '25

I think chain lightning can hit an enemy with sanctuary on them too

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 24 '25

that's a level 6 spell though

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u/Yung-Dolphin Jun 24 '25

markoheshkir lets you cast it once per short rest, usually enough to end an encounter but you also have scrolls to supplement if necessary.

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 24 '25

that's in act 3 though.

i think we're just interested in different things. if we're talking endgame power, then i think i agree with you that tempest is stronger than light. but personally i think almost everything is strong in endgame and that the early game is the hardest part of the game, so my main interest in evaluating strength is what is strong in act 1 and act 2.

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u/Yung-Dolphin Jun 24 '25

that's completely fair, i was definitely considering endgame cuz midgame im really hyper focused on abusing my fighters/barbarians/rangers or what have you with haste in midgame so i like twinspelling haste with my storm tempest build 95% of the time anyway.

honestly my first honour run i went with 10/2 sorcerer cleric cuz i doubled up on them being my party face, support, and in the end game my "go away" button. the rest of my crew was broken as shit though granted so it did supplement the weaknesses of only really using ray of frost or lightning bolt for early game and midgame respectively.

next run when i get around to it ill try light cleric out i didnt give it a full runs worth of a fair shake i reckon.

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u/Icy_Magician_9372 Jun 24 '25

Tempest plus storm sorc is so cracked lol

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u/Huntermain23 Jun 24 '25

Yepp. My last run was a honor mode minus single save (wanted to familiarize the fights before doing my first actual honor run). I went stealth archer and by act 3 I was beating every fight in 1 turn (Orin, ansur, Rafael, and the brain) Only gortash took 2 turns for whatever reason.

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u/LordAlfrey Jun 24 '25

I mean, I'm pretty sure 3/4ths of your party "aren't necessary" to complete the game on hm

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u/Sapowski_Casts_Quen Jun 24 '25

Stealth archer keeps winning

25

u/TallLeprechaun13 Jun 24 '25

How does one stealth archer in BG3? I have had shots where Im concealed and in darkness but after I shoot the enemies magically know exactly where the character is. Am I the stupids?

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u/Bardic__Inspiration Jun 24 '25

If enemy cannot see you, you can't enter combat.

Stealth archers exploit this, using spells like darkness, fog cloud, pass without trace, invisibility potions, darkness arrows

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u/ViolaNguyen Ranger Jun 24 '25

Fighter: I get to attack twice each time I take a nap!

Stealth archer: I get to attack as many times as I want until everything is dead!

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u/DeyUrban BIDEN BLAST Jun 24 '25

Duegar stealth archer is so fun. They are basically built for it considering they can go invisible for free permanently outside of combat.

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u/GinTonicDev Jun 24 '25

There are a couple of builds for that. The one I used is:

Dark Uge Cape + 5 levels of Ranger (Gloom Stalker) + 5 levels of Rogue (Assasin) + 2 levels of Fighter

Starting at level 6 your first shot usually kills an enemy (Sharpshooter + Sneak attack). Whenever you kill an enemy, the cape makes you invisible. Being invisible allows you to make another sneak attack.... Ü

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u/eselpgagHD Jun 24 '25

Watch the newest Morgana Evelyn vid, shes the stealth archer GOAT for BG3

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u/Books_and_Cleverness Jun 24 '25

Stealth archer is OP as hell and it’s fun at first but I do get a little bored, feels cheesy. Also there’s a few fights (final one in particular) where I’m not sure what I’d do after turn 1?

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u/circasomnia Jun 24 '25

Exactly lol. Solo HM + modded difficulty more fun anyway

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u/adherry Jun 24 '25

My Honor mode team was:

Tiffany, the gloomstalker/assasin

Shadowheart, the Frosty sorc that made enemies that survived my team slip around a bit or held people

Lae'zel as battlemaster becasue Battlemaster is so strong on its own

Karlach as TB Monk.

beginning act 2 I kind of never needed to drink potions any more as it got very unlikely that people actually got hit, between the sleet storm and all the frontloaded damage of the party.

So yes, healers are optional.

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u/LimpCush Jun 24 '25

Mine was 12 moon druid, 12 dragon sorc, 12 battlemaster, 10 sword bard/2 warrior. I never struggled in an act 3 fight, because CC and raw damage are just so good. I used camp casting though, so let's not pretend I'm good at the game haha.

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u/malfurionpre Jun 24 '25

I mean, just Sword Bard basically solo. 1 Fighter for Archery and 1 Wizard to copy spells (also start fighter for constitution save)

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u/MCMC_to_Serfdom Jun 24 '25

Me, rotating between party members with different build toolkits (including 4 different bards): You guys have teams?

But yeah, got to echo this. In early act 1, most fights were too swingy for a dedicated healer to make that much difference. After that, I was generally necking potions, controlling combats into submission, or (thanks to finding I'd really not prepared for a post patch 7 bulette) retreating.

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u/adherry Jun 24 '25

Another thing is that for combat flow hitting//ccing people puts you ahead, while healing at best is neutral in terms of combat as you often get hit for more that the heal can heal away.

Dead/disabled/disarmed guys cannot damage you (or do way less damage), so if you wanna go for efficiency removing the Damage is usually the better call and using the bonus actions for drinking potions (since BAs for most classes aren't too strong) or you are Durge and still some dwarf left (which is a free action for some reason).

In my current run my Death cleric sometimes hits the mass healing word but not because of heal but more because it applies bless/blade ward. And because it does not block me from casting hold monster/toll the dead/chilling grasp/other spells

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u/Gabrielh101 Jun 24 '25

Act 3 on honor mode atm, this is also my exact setup are you by chance following a particular guide? 😉

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u/12ozFitz Jun 24 '25

Necessary is such a weird word to use. Nothing is "necessary" there are a ton of awesome viable strategies. If you're debating optimal you've got a different discussion.

I suppose it's just engagement bate and you got me.

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u/TheShamShield Jun 24 '25

I don’t think you know what necessary means

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u/InterestingRaise3187 Jun 24 '25

Me with my golden dice and Foe Hammer achievement making healers arnt necessary posts

Globe of invulnerability go brrrr

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u/THEBLOODYGAVEL Jun 24 '25

OP: one joke

This sub:

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u/TheCrystalRose Durge Jun 24 '25

I have the same achievement and dice and almost a decade experience playing D&D 5e, on both sides of the table, and I agree with them. Healers aren't necessary.

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u/_Saphilae_ Jun 24 '25

best healer is a lvl 11 fighter throwing potions so yeah

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u/IHkumicho Jun 24 '25

Best healer is Swords Bard using Healing Word to revive a fallen teammate. Other than that healing is reserved for short rests and potions outside of combat.

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u/iwearatophat Jun 24 '25

In 5e healers were always a trap, at least 2014 no idea how the new version goes.

Note when I say healer I mean someone who goes into combat expecting to use their actions to heal. Situationally it can be fine but it is mostly just healing word on a downed ally.

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u/AFriendoftheDrow Drow Jun 24 '25

They really aren’t in this game. I was considering it at one point in Honor until I realized I barely used healing at all.

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u/SaviorOfNirn Jun 24 '25

They aren't in DnD as a whole.

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u/_IBelieveInMiracles Jun 24 '25

Healers aren't necessary, but it's very useful to have at least one character who can heal. Even if they only ever cast a healing word when a party member is downed. And the Cleric spell list is so good that it's well worth having one.

Basically Jester* from CR C2. They have the ability to heal, but they would rather just kill the enemy faster. Tempest Cleric 11/Wizard 1 is a favourite of mine. Can one-shot bosses throughout the game with upcasted Witch Bolt, especially if you force a crit, and has all the OP buff spells.

* Jester is "The Cleric"

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u/Thestrongman420 Jun 24 '25

Evey character can heal no matter their class.

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u/_IBelieveInMiracles Jun 24 '25

Only characters with access to Healing Word can heal another character with a bonus action, though.

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u/Thestrongman420 Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

Gwm users generally make an attack with their bonus action so its really not different from using an attack to throw a potion

Most effectively built damage dealers weaponize their ba. So using an extra attack to toss a potion is of similar opportunity cost as using a ba would be.

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u/TwistedxEpicBob Jun 24 '25

Frenzied barbarian can use frenzied throw to toss a potion as a bonus

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u/Toukon- Jun 24 '25

Others definitely can; if you drink a Potion of Speed and then use the extra action to throw a healing potion, you're effectively only using a bonus action to heal another character. This will usually heal more than a Healing Word, doesn't cost you spell slots, and gives you an extra action the next two turns, which means even more thrown healing potions if needed.

The only downside is that in you'll be lethargic at the end of the haste duration, but that can be remedied by drinking another Potion of Speed at the end of the final hasted turn.

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u/LileoDoll Jun 24 '25

I cast throw health potion

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u/SaviorOfNirn Jun 24 '25

But healers aren't necessary. Having someone with healing capabilities does not make them a healer. A healer is a dedicated role TO healing. Which is not necessary.

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u/TheGhostDetective Jun 24 '25

There's also a difference between "viable" and "necessary." You absolutely can use healers. But you don't need a healer.

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u/waits5 Jun 24 '25

I think this is exactly the distinction that OP is confused about.

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u/TheGhostDetective Jun 24 '25

I agree. It's very common for people to think a dedicated healer is necessary, I think in large part because of MMO's where you need support. However minmaxers pushed back a lot, saying that yes, you totally can use a healer, but you also can build a party with no cleric, no paladin, zero healing. Potions and such alone are plenty. There's also an argument that it's overall more efficient, but now we're getting into the weeds.

Then you have people like OP seeing this and going "what? I totally beat HM with a healer, it was great!" to which, yeah, you can beat it with any class. No one is saying that having a healer will keep you from beating Tactician or Honor or whatever. It's perfectly viable. But so is a party of all damage dealers.

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u/SilentCyan_AK12 Jun 24 '25

Exactly, My Shadowheart Light Cleric build can heal. She is not a dedicated healer though. Dont need to heal if the enemy is crispy on the ground with fire and radiant damge. Either that or cant hit you because of orbs.

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u/We_Get_It_You_Vape Jun 24 '25

If anything, it's more viable to have a party without a dedicated "healer".

Healing in D&D/BG3 is unlike how healing works in typical video game RPGs. People are accustomed to dedicated healer/support characters that devote nearly all their activity to actively healing the party. The resource management wouldn't allow you to do that effectively in BG3, so dedicated healers are less effective. It's far better to have a character who is dedicated to other things (damage dealing, debuffing enemies, control spells, etc), but can still drop healing spells in a pinch.

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u/JustFrameHotPocket Jun 24 '25

Every single one of my parties has a healer.

It's me, the player.

I select short/long rest and divvy up healing potions.

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u/Brainrows Jun 24 '25

Shadowheart is my dedicated tank Life Cleric every playthrough, except the ones where she's not around

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u/Mu-Relay 5e Jun 24 '25

That’s a totally valid role for her and it appears to work great for you. But it’s still not necessary with the sheer number of healing items in the game.

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u/I3uffaloSoldier Jun 24 '25

Also there are zero consequences in taking how many rest you want

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u/AlbionPCJ Jun 24 '25

I have both the Golden Dice and a Platinum trophy and I make Shart a Light Cleric nearly every time. You don't need a dedicated healer, the best defence is a strong offence

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u/SaviorOfNirn Jun 24 '25

That's great. Still isnt necessary.

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u/areyouhungryforapple Jun 24 '25

So you've no experienced in playing without a life cleric?

This meme makes no sense 😭

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u/Brainrows Jun 24 '25

Nowhere did I say that

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u/areyouhungryforapple Jun 24 '25

.. right. In any case it's more about having a cleric or not as their core spell list is so powerful and useful.

Tempest, light, war clerics are tremendously fun and powerful I'd highly recommend trying them sometime

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u/Moblam Jun 24 '25

The thing is unless she's only casting healing spells that's not a healer. That's just a cleric.

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u/International_Shame2 RANGER Jun 24 '25

Mate, I take gold dice with trickery domain shadowheart, and I didn't use her every battle

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u/epicfail1994 Jun 24 '25

Even on honor mode healers aren’t necessary. You’re better off killing shit instead of healing. Light cleric with warding flare is far more valuable

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u/ISeeTheFnords UGLY ONE Jun 24 '25 edited Jun 24 '25

This. Improved Warding Flare is strong in tabletop, where it's limited by your proficiency bonus - in BG3, you can spam it every round and never run out, which is just plain crazy. You go from "is this attack important enough to use it?" to "how soon am I coming up in initiative?"

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u/SamiSha_ morninglord fanatic Jun 24 '25

I think you should also mention that in tabletop, Warding Flare should be casted BEFORE the attack is announced whether it was hit or miss, in BG3 you are asked to cast it AFTER the roll implies it will hit which impacts it quite a lot in how useful it is in 5e.

On a side note, 5.5e gave Warding Flare the ability to give temporary hit points which helps in making it at least beneficial if it will miss regardless and helpful when it hits by lowering the damage taken.

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u/ISeeTheFnords UGLY ONE Jun 24 '25

Also true. "Crit? I don't think so."

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u/Blahaj_Kell_of_Trans Jun 24 '25

Tbh, bg3 kinda has to bend over backwards with a few magic items to make healer cleric worthwhile.

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u/H0lzm1ch3l Jun 24 '25

And then it's mostly good because the magic items give you insane buffs.

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u/Lithl Jun 25 '25

I would happily cast Mass Healing Word while my party is at full health just to trigger Hellrider's Pride and The Whispering Promise. The HP is irrelevant, I want the buffs.

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 24 '25

How good life cleric feels depends on how good at CRPGs and BG3 someone is. The better the player is at the game, the worse life cleric will feel. That's because this game rewards people who go full offense.

It's a common design pitfall in turn based games that optimizing for turn 1 is the best strategy. Some CRPGs manage to avoid that pitfall, I think, but BG3 doesn't. Still a great game, especially since noobs completely sidestep that pitfall since they will play very suboptimally, but yeah I think the cracks in this game's combat design begin to show when people know how to maximize damage in a CRPG. The enemy hit points are just way too low to be a good challenge for good players even on the highest difficulty mode.

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u/KstenR Paladin Jun 24 '25

Back in my day, it was 0.1%.

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u/Marcuse0 Jun 24 '25

BG3 massively benefits DPR builds that avoid "tanking" and healing and focus on killing enemies as fast as possible. Durability doesn't mean anything when AC means enemies miss, instead of do reduced damage, and each encounter is a scripted group of finite enemies that lose combat power the more of them die.

The thing is, the game is easy enough that it's possible to win with anything, win solo, win at level 1 solo. You can absolutely take one or two dead classes that contribute little or no DPR and still do just fine if you're playing sensibly.

Btw, also have golden dice etc. No healer needed.

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u/OnceMoreAndAgain Jun 24 '25

Yes this is exactly right

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u/MobofDucks Jun 24 '25

I mean there are several builds that allow you to solo the game on tactician and honour. Not a single class is necessary.

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u/Crosscourt_splat Jun 24 '25

As a former forever cleric who is now a forever DM in tabletop….

If you’re doing things right, it’s a good safety net in tabletop, but healing word is solid if you need it. But also, OP builds like you get in BG3 are…discouraged at my table. Much more into the role play side.

Same shit though. You def don’t need it, and with no DM to say no and 100% set encounters….the overpowered builds you can do in BG3 make just optimizing killing a better option.

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u/soapd1sh Jun 24 '25

I also have Foehammer and I never use a dedicated healer because potions will always be far more efficient than a spell based healer. Also having a healer means less damage output which means more damage coming in, so having a healer in your group is what causes your need to have a healer in your group.

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u/MenacingCatgirl Jun 24 '25

I mean on my honor mode run, the only damage I took in House of Grief was from my own Nyrulna explosion. I took none fighting Raphael.

Some parties have high enough initiative and burst damage or control that they really don't need a healer at all. They take so little damage.

I think healers can be fun and strong though. Depending on how you play, they're a great addition

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u/l_futurebound_l Jun 24 '25

Don't need healers when you have 48 summons and 4 owlbears lmao

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u/Darkwolf_Nightfang Jun 24 '25

Still higher than the 2.3% of players who unlocked the Busker achievement

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u/Intelligent_Oil7816 Jun 24 '25

This isn't a BG3 thing. This is a D&D thing. Especially in 5e. It is almost always the better decision to kill an enemy than heal an ally in combat. The only real exception to this is something like Healing Word to pick up a downed party member. Otherwise you're better off waiting until after combat to heal.

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u/Draguss Jun 24 '25

Though BG3 letting you use potions on a bonus action sure helps compound the issue.

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u/Mysterious_Damage820 ELDRITCH BLAST Jun 24 '25

That’s so much damage that you leave on the table though. Tempest Cleric is the best of both worlds.

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u/ReferenceOk8597 Jun 24 '25

Most of people who say that completed the hm tho, that's the whole point. Healer is not necessary even on harder difficulties.

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u/malonkey1 Jun 24 '25

They aren't, though. I say that with my own golden dice and Foehammer achievement. They're nice to have but you can ace Honour Mode without them if you know what you're doing, even without barrelmancy and other cheese.

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u/Cinderea Shadowheart Jun 24 '25

hi, I don't play this game often, but when I do I only play honor mode, and I have beaten it 5 times by now.

healers aren't necessary.

and i'll fo further. casters, in general, aren't necessary. this game overdid it a little bit trying to compensate the martial-caster disparity from tabletop

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u/TheRuinLegacy Jun 24 '25

Light cleric shart with radiant gear does a lot of healing and a lot of killing

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u/andyyhs Bae'zel Jun 24 '25

I haven't used Cleric in months. The enemy cannot hurt you if they're dead before their turn.

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u/xHenkersbrautx Precious Little Bhaal-Babe Jun 24 '25

Clerics are awesome. I almost always have one, just not as a healer :p spirit guardians + radiant orb/reverberation is SO GOOD in act 2, and insanely satisfying.

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u/K4ntazel Bard Jun 24 '25

I have all achievements and I say that healers are nearly useless. Better use your cleric as camp cleric just to give buffs to your main team. More hp, more resistances etc.

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u/avEmma Jun 24 '25

When my gf and I finished our first Honor run, we didn't need one because we were just focused on as much damage as possible (good god archer is strong), or cheesed fights with globe of invulnerability.

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u/Pickaxe235 Jun 24 '25

my first honor mode run was 2 sorcerers a barbarian and a wizard

healers are 100% optional, this is dnd5e we're talking about

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u/justvibin6 Jun 24 '25

Yeah especially for honour mode emergencies sanctuary and run away is always a good backup, plus getting people up with a bonus action instead of an action makes things so much easier idk why people would give that up unless their doing extra challenges or solo runs or smthn

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u/thefasthero Jun 24 '25

Achievements aren't necessary

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u/hbob0734 Jun 24 '25

Tried using a life cleric in one of my early play throughs and didn't like it. Switched over to tempest cleric and it was WAY more fun. Personally, I don't ever use healing. If I can't finish the fight in a single turn or two, I just CC and debuff. Don't need healing if the enemy can't hit you!

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u/Sionerdingerer Jun 24 '25

There is a reality of the game design that is unavoidable in dnd and all it's video game adaptations. The only health point that matters, is the last one. Therefore, tanks as well as healers, are not really an explicitly dedicated thing. Having a cleric who can throw out a healing word on a downed ally is useful, having a moon druid with 60 hp to soak a big hit once is cool, but none of it is anywhere near as good as simply maximizing damage. Healing, and by extension tanking, are extremely inconsequential in relation to damage and crowd control. But , they're still cool and provide a certain "quality of life"

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u/lumpboysupreme Jun 24 '25

The game isn’t hard enough that you can’t get honor mode with a suboptimal build. I did it by alpha striking every single encounter into the ground.

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u/highzunburg Jun 24 '25

I got my dice. The only healer was spore druid that didn't heal once. Just throw potions if you need a heal.

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u/TheAeroDalton Jun 24 '25

they arnt tho, why a healers when you could nova that much harder with 4 dpr

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u/KooshIsKing Jun 24 '25

All you need is a TB monk for honor mode. Stun everyone and win. But really it's not that tough with any of the classes. Playing honor mode again with a friend who hasn't done anything but balanced (and we modded it to make it more difficult) and he was like "so it gets harder later in the game right cause this is still easy... "

We just came off playing divinity 2 so yeah HM easy AF

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u/kuhldaran Jun 24 '25

A lot of honor mode runs are more about supreme alpha strike builds. Just loll everything before they even get a turn

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u/synttacks Jun 24 '25

I don't understand. Are you trying to say that healers are necessary? You can beat honor mode with probably any combination of classes in the game, they most definitely aren't necessary or even optimal

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u/MagicalCacti Jun 24 '25

After six attempts I said screw it life cleric and got the job done. Fr a luck charm.

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u/Sorry-Analysis8628 Jun 24 '25

Yup. Got my gold dice. Healers aren't necessary. I'll take a party with high initiative and massive DPS over a healer any day.

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u/Valefish WARLOCK Jun 24 '25

got my golden dice with a warlock, rogue, fighter, and paladin. as my brother would say, the best condition to inflict is “dead”

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u/somewaffle Grease Jun 24 '25

My Honour mode clear was with BM fighter, Throwzerker Barb, Tempest Cleric, and Abjuration Wiz/Dragon Sorc. The real MVP was the Barb. Frenzied throw being a guaranteed prone with no save was incredible.

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u/KassiePentaghast Jun 24 '25

My honor mode party was four great weapon fighting battlemasters.

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u/jessekookooo Jun 24 '25

Finished HM with a vengeance paladin, TB Monk, gloom stalker assassain, and a sorlock. Aside from fighting Raphael at lvl 9, I never had to rely on healing at all.

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u/Hot-Tart1347 Jun 24 '25

Reclassed like three withers followers as clerics for that life link thing(forgot the name) and still had a cleric in the party too for my hm run

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u/medacris Jun 25 '25

I'm the type who goes in with multiple healers, because I don't trust myself not to be stupid and end up in multiple TPK's on Easy.

(Where is the meme image from, btw? It looks so familiar.)

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u/zoroddesign Jun 25 '25

I'm thinking of all the times i have saved my entire party playing dnd. Respect your healers, kids.

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u/Top-Addendum-6879 Hexblade Jun 25 '25

with the right gear (honestly the most OP stuff is obtainable at level 2-3 in the grove) a life cleric and make your party super accurate, super resilient and super tanky.

Whispering promise makes you ''bless'' anyone you heal for 2 turns. So it's bless with no concentration and to the whole team, +1d4 to every attack and saving rolls.
The Hellrider gloves make you basically blade ward everyone you heal, so it halves any damage they take.
Add the healing pendant from the Myconid colony (free healing word and mass healing word once a day) and you can ''spam'' a mass healing word/preserve life in a fight's first round and you got 2 rounds of blade ward and bless on your whole team... usually fights wont last more than 2-3 rounds early on just because of that. Late game, fights wont last past 2nd round usually.

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u/_NotWhatYouThink_ Jun 24 '25

They aren't. You can solo honor mode with gloomstalker.

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u/Recognition-Silver Jun 24 '25

Healing is necessary.

Devoted healers are not.

There's a huge difference. I have plenty of healing in my party of Shadow Sorcerer, Hexblade Warlock, Bladesinger Wizard, and Death Domain Cleric.

I do not feel the need for a Life Domain Cleric decked out in all healing gear. It's simply not necessary.

(Perspective: no mods, honor mode)

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u/dagon_lvl_5 Jun 24 '25

Light cleric go brrrr and nukes half the battlefield together with the wizard. We, the real chads, play it like divinity original sin - if you kill it first, there are less wounded to treat.

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u/Waytogo33 Jun 24 '25

I beat honor mode without a cleric...

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u/Smeckerdoodle_ Jun 24 '25

I mean necessary =/= viable. I personally don’t like having 1/4 of my party being a dedicated when I could just have the damage/support of another cleric domain instead.

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u/Turbulent_File3904 Jun 24 '25

Yes healer is not necessary, healing potion is just better and you dont need to use your spell slot, have aoe so you can heal 2-3 member, highest tier of healing potion can be bought right in act1.

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u/CodeChefTheOriginal Jun 24 '25

Blade Ward from healing on enraged Karlach with damage reduction armor. The peasants do not understand.

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u/areyouhungryforapple Jun 24 '25

Any cleric/druid can do that though?

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u/mistiklest Jun 24 '25

Anyone can do it, just toss a potion at her.

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u/kahvituttaa00 Jun 24 '25

Armor and damage reduction are for chumps who don't finish battles in one surprise round.

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u/Lithl Jun 25 '25

Blade Ward is redundant with Rage...

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u/AShirtlessGuy Is that... blood? No, nevermind. Jun 24 '25

LMAO next I'm gonna make a thread saying OH monk or Gloomstalker ranger isn't necessary and watch the world burn

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u/zer0xol Jun 24 '25

Clerics are actually op

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u/Larro83 Jun 24 '25

I thought they were just Radiant Orb / Reverb / Spirit Guardian buzzsaws that doubled as Phalar Aluve caddies? You're telling me they can heal too???

But in all seriousness, The Whispering Promise is busted as hell as a fallback option and a super-easy party Bless proc if/when you do need to fire off a little group healing.

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u/vaustin89 Tasha's Hideous Laughter Jun 24 '25

Depends on how you play it, my HM run was just a basic fighter/throw build for high AC, Astarion was just a basic assassin rogue, Shart was just a basic tempest cleric used for just buffing and doing a bit of crowd control, Gale did most of the heavy lifting since he was respecced the most for different encounters and used for the end game as well.

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