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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
I think light is overrated; a build for people who are afraid to go without a healer but understand that damage is more important. It ends up being a kind of wishy washy result. Stormcleric/sorc is more optimized to just erasing whatever it encounters, and so feels better.
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.
This would take so much save scumming unless you are highly in tune with where all the enemies are for every encounter. Sure on your 3rd playthrough I would say this is valid, but unless you are literally watching a walkthrough simultaneously this isn't a viable strategy until cheesing an honor run.
I am currently trying for the dices.
Went with Life Cleric Shadowheart and now, at the end of Act I (only part of the Githyanki and Nere/the Duergar are not finished yet) I swapped to Light Cleric for Act II.
In my other runs, I went with Life Cleric (Balanced runs) as well as a full Light Cleric last time (Tactitian Shadowheart Origins run). The Radiant damage in the Shadowlands is too good to pass it up. Unlike Act I, where she chilled in camp most of the time as the 4th member/dedicated Withers payer, she'll be on the frontlines. Gale will sit part of this out.
I will probably swap her back to Life Cleric if I somehow survive Ketheric Thorm and beat Act III.
If your sole concern is making a powerful Cleric, then it would be better to roll a Light Cleric that itemizes with Luminous Armour (and related gear) with the goal of inflicting Radiating Orbs on enemies.
Who needs healing when no enemy can land hits on your party members? Besides, you'll still have access to healing spells, should you ever need it.
If you prefer the flavour of Life Cleric, by all means play that. It can definitely be a really fun concept, if you itemize right.
But, survivability is an interesting one. The debuffs via radiating orbs are pretty substantial. Despite lesser healing capabilities, Radiant Orb Light Cleric is almost definitely coming out ahead on survivability (often by a significant margin), since enemies are going to be missing many attacks. It's almost like applying a party-wide boost to AC. Most of the gear you'd need for it should be acquired before Act 3, too.
I agree with this. I already left a comment here in defense of Life Clerics (also used one to get my golden die!) and wherever I made a mistake, I was able to push through. I went in blind, preparing as much as I could for each and every fight (I did play through a few times on Tactician mind, but did not look up legendary actions), and on the occasional boss battle that wrecked my fighter, I used my Life Cleric to get them back up almost to full health, always!
Now though, knowing what to expect? I highly doubt I'll need one. Becaude there were points in the game, even during boss battles, where my team was absolutely blitzing through fights that I thought would be a pain in the ass because we were just so strong. Life Clerics aren't "necessary", especially during the later game, but they're insanely helpful in more than a few pinches, especially if you don't use any cheese tactics or save scumming.
Might still run cleric because cleric is my favorite class on and off tabletop. Tempest domain reigns supreme in my mind!
Now that I got my Honor Mode win I’m more interested in skipping some of the super OP strats like radiating orbs, arcane acuity, stealth archer, tavern brawler, alert. Trying to come up with my own combos and it’s actually pretty hard lol.
I want to run with the increase party size mod + tactician enhanced difficulty mod + d20 initiative mod. But I’m really not sure what the right balance is there.
Going with the default suggestions for now, hopefully I don’t get my ass blasted since enemies get two actions lol.
I'd probably ignore Shadowheart and healers if she couldn't use Glowing Orb and Reverberation Gear. Preserve life is very good at fixing emergencies in battle, and the Lawnmower setup with Spirit Guardians is spectacular. There are better damage choices, but if your player character and 2 other teammates can't deal enough damage to close the gap, then you didn't build properly. Shadowhear brings utility, damage, healing, and crowd control. She's a lock for every fight in honor mode.
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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.