Light Domain Cleric Build - Baldur's Gate 3 (BG3)

Light Domain Cleric Build

One of the most popular and powerful Cleric subclasses in the game. They are experts in fire spells allowing them to become very powerful damage dealers quite early in the game. One of the best damage-dealing spells Fireball becomes available at level 5.

Not only this, but they are still clerics and can both support and heal allies in combat, so you are not losing much by skipping other subclasses. To further empower Light Cleric we will also dip 1 level into Storm Sorcery via multiclassing. This will give Constitution Saving Throw proficiency, some valuable spells, and higher mobility via its unique effects.

The only downside is that Light Domain does not give have Heavy Armor proficiency making them more of a long-range caster, who is best stationed on the back row. However, Medium armor is still powerful and in case you want to melt enemies with something like Spirit Guardians you can easily do that

So let's get into the build

Short overview

This is a short overview and progression of the build. Use it to get a quick glance if you want to pick the best options without going deep into the explanations. A more detailed description with texts, suggestions, and improvements can be found in the next sections.

Light Cleric Leveling Overview

Level	Category	Choice
1	Abilities	Str 8, Dex 14, Con 16 (15+1), Int 8, Wis 17 (15 + 2), Cha 10
	Class	Cleric
	Cantrips	Sacred Flame, Guidance, Produce Flame
	Subclass	Light Domain
	Skills	Perception, Acrobatics, Medicine, etc.
2	Class	Cleric
3	Class	Cleric
4	Class	Cleric
	Cantrip	Thaumaturgy
	Feat	Ability Improvement - +2 Wisdom
5	Class	Cleric
6	Class	Respec to Sorcerer Lv 1 (check level 6 progression section)
	Cantrips	Light, Fire bolt, Bone Chill, Friends
	Spells	Shield, any
	Subclass	Storm Sorcery
7	Class	Cleric
8	Class	Cleric
9	Class	Cleric
	Feat	Ability Improvement - Wisdom +1, Constitution +1
10	Class	Cleric
11	Class	Cleric
	Cantrip	Blade Ward
12	Class	Cleric

Starting the Game

We start with the early game. I would go into what are the best Races, Abilities, and Skills for Light Clerics. Some of these choices are very impactful as you cannot respec them.

Races

Picking a race provides various benefits - abilities, dialogue options, looks, etc. Because Light Cleric gets Medium Armor proficiency you have many more options on what to choose. I think it is one of the rare classes that really can go with any race.

Race	Features	Description
High Elf	Elven Weapon Training - You have proficiency with the Longswords, Shortsword, Shortbow, and Longbow Darkvision - grants a creature the ability to see in the dark out to a range of 12m. Fey Ancestry - You have Advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.	High elves are a good choice because they can pick additional Cantrip and get bonus resistance against Charm and especially Sleep. This is not critical but good to have. Something like Blade Ward can be very useful.
High Half-Elf	Civil Militia - You have weapon proficiency with Spears, Pikes, Halberds, and Glaives, and Armour Proficiency with Light Armour and Shield Darkvision - Grant a creature the ability to see in the dark out to a range of 12m. Fey Ancestry - You have Advantage on Saving Throws against being Charmed, and magic can't put you to sleep.	Similar to normal elves you get a bonus cantrip and additional resistances. Something like Blade Ward can be very useful.
Githyanki	Martial Prodigy - A lifetime of relentless training gave you Armour Proficiency with Light and Medium Armour, as well as Proficiency with the Shortsword, Longsword, and Greatsword	Githyanki comes with a few special-race abilities. However, the most prominent one is Mist Step that you can cast without expanding Spell slot. You can use it to avoid enemies in the case of being surrounded or jump straight to them with Spirit Guardian active
Mephistopheles Tiefling	Darkvision - grants a creature the ability to see in the dark out to a range of 12m. Hellish Resistance - your blood protects you from flame, abyssal or otherwise. You have resistance to Fire and take only half damage from it. Mage Hand - create a spectral hand that can manipulate and interact with objects	Mephistopheles Tieflings get good spells at levels 3 and 5 - Hellish Rebuke and Darkness. They can be cast once per long rest and will save some spell slots

Class

Overview
Cleric
Features
Domain Spells	You gain spells from your domain. They are always prepared.

Cantrips

Cantrip	Description
Sacred Flame	You could say this is the main ranged attack of Cleric. It can be useful against undead enemies. But I do not use it much, due to its low damage, and rather hit with a crossbow, bow, or other cantrip.
Guidance	Probably the most useful cantrip in the game. Can be used to improve the chances of successful ability rolls. Especially useful in dialogues. The cleric can use this on any character in the group.
Produce Flame	Having the ability to light an object will be useful in some encounters, especially in Act 2
Blade Ward	For two turns decrease slashing, bludgeoning, and piercing damage in half. In theory, this means doubling the HP. The good thing is that this does not require Concentration.

Subclass

Overview
Light Domain
Features
Warding Flare	Shield yourself with divine light. Use your reaction to impose Disadvantage on an attacker, possibly causing their attack to miss.

Abilities

Now let's take a look at the abilities of the Light build. Correct allocation will allow us to maximize the early gameplay and get good modifier bonuses. The thing that may be confusing is that fighter's main ability is strength, but we keep it low. It's because, with some Cleric features, we will change how damage is calculated to the Charisma.

Ability	Value	Description
Strength	8	We are skipping any investment in Strength ability
Dexterity	14	It will help us with Dexterity Saving Throws, and increase initiative. 14 is recommended as that is the maximum amount of dexterity that will give bonus AC to medium armor
Constitution	16 (15 +1)	Increases the amount of HP we have and improves spell concentration. This means there will be a smaller chance to cancel spells if hit and we will be hit a lot.
Intelligence	8	Unfortunately, we lower this so that Constitution's ability could be improved. Gladly there are not many Intelligence Saving Throws.
Wisdom	17	The main damage ability and very important to resist spells in the game. We will also have good perception to detect things in the world
Charisma	10	I would recommend keeping this at 10. Because we do not have heavy armor we will not be as much in the frontline (although that is still viable), so we can use 2 points to improve this ability instead of strength or Intelligence

Skills and Expertise

Overall, the skills should be impacted by your roleplaying and background decisions. However, you would still probably want those that will give you the best benefits. You are best to pick those at which you have a high ability modifier:

Wisdom related:

• Animal Handling - influence animals. Pet all of the dogs.
• Insight - read people and situations. Detect lies.
• Medicine - recognize symptoms. Diagnose diseases. 
• Perception - observe your environment. Spot hidden details. 
• Survival - stay alive in the wilds. Track prey. 

However, I think something like Arcana or Religion also fits the Cleric build

Detailed Leveling Progression

Here is the detailed progression for the build to get you started. You can use it as a guideline because early games can be daunting and overwhelming. Later on, once you get the feel for the class you can start picking your own options

Level 2

At level 2 Light Cleric gets subclass-specific action, Channel Divinity charge, Turn Undead spell, and an additional level 1 spell slot. These are good boons for our build

Action	Description
Radiance of the Dawn	Dispel any Darkness and deal radiant damage in a large area of effect, using Channel Divinity charge

We also unlock the Turn Undead spell. There are a few places where you can use this spell, but to be honest, I never used it. Later on, it becomes a bit better as we also are able to deal damage.

Spell	Description
Turn Undead	Pray to Turn all undead that can see you. Turned enemies cannot take action and can only move.

Prepared Spells

We also get additional spell slots, so here are the recommended Spells to add:

Spell	Description
Guiding Bolt	A strong single-target attack that also gives the next attacker Advantage with Attack Rolls. Very good especially early on.
Inflict Wounds	Early on this is a very powerful spell. In case someone gets close, use this to inflict 3d10 damage which is a lot for a level 1 spell slot.
Bless	A staple spell for Cleric. We can use it to boost multiple ally attack rolls. This is great for general use, but especially good if your party members have Great Weapon Master or Sharpshooter feats.
Create Water	The spell is useful to have. You can use it to remove water so that fire spells can do more damage. However, it can used to make enemies wet and allow allies to deal huge amounts of damage with Cold and Lightning
Sanctuary	A last resort spell that you can save your ally from being killed. This will divert enemy attention from them as long as they don't do aggressive attacks
Healing Word	A very good spell to have in the arsenal. It costs bonus action and can be used safely to heal allies when you expend your main attacks or spells.

Level 3

We finally unlock level 2 spells and this in total gives us 4 level 1 spell slots and 2 level 2 spell slots. Now we can cast much more spells each Long Rest. This will be needed as the Light Cleric arsenal will now increase with new domain spells

Spell	Description
Flaming Sphere	Summons a sphere of fire that has a decent amount of HP and leaves fire blazes in its trail
Scorching Ray	A fire spell that releases 3 rays that can target separate enemies. Perfect for finishing off multiple foes with low HP.

Prepare Spells

As a new spell tier is unlocked a few more options appear to improve both the defensive and offensive prowess of Cleric. Here are some good options that you can include.

Spell	Description
Spiritual Weapon	I think this is the most potent level 2 spell. It has saved my combat encounters numerous times. This summons a levitating weapon that can draw enemy attention and deal a decent amount of damage.
Lesser Restoration	Useful in a few encounters, so good to have in hand in case your allies are under the effects of disease, poison, paralysis, or blindness
Hold Person	Can be used to paralyze a single humanoid enemy. Each melee hit on them deals critical damage.

Level 4

On this level up we gain an additional level 2 spell slot, spell preparation slot, additional cantrip, and a new Feat. The latter will give unique effects based on the choice we make.

Cantrips

You can get a cantrip that you did not take during character creation or take this one, which helps in some dialogues

Cantrip	Description
Thaumaturgy	Gain Advantage on performance and intimidation checks. Makes passing those dialogue checks easier.

Feat

I think this is the main option for now when playing Light Cleric

Feat	Description
Ability Improvement	Put two points into Wisdom +2. This will increase your spell damage and success

Level 5

This is a big milestone for Cleric build. We reach level 3 spells, unlock a new set of Light Domain spells and obtain additional class features:

Feature	Description
Destroy Undead	If you successfully Turn and undead deal additional 4-24 radiant damage. This makes Turn Undead spell much more useful in my opinion.

The new spells that you gain with Light Cleric are decent. Well, Fireball is extremely powerful, while Daylight is more Quality of Life.

Spell	Description
Daylight	Kind of an okay spell. Creates a very large source of light, but uses a level 3 spell slot. An alternative could be Light or Produce Flame cantrips (of course with smaller radius)
Fireball	I think this will be your most popular spell for Light Cleric. It deals a good amount of damage, has a good Area of Effect and just looks cool.

Prepared spells

Because we unlocked level 3 spells, we can update our spellbook with new spells. Here are my favorite options

Spell	Description
Mass Healing Word	Using a bonus action you can heal multiple allies. Of course, this is not much, but can be extremely useful to revive someone from being downed and give a little regeneration.
Spirit Guardians	At this stage, you should have decent spell concentration. Spirit Guardians deal radiant or Necrotic damage in 3 meters radius. This can be perfect, especially against multiple weaker enemies. Definitely keep this spell on hand.
Glyph of Warding	I like this AOE spell as it allows Cleric to choose its element. This way you can maximize the damage dealt if the enemy is weak to a particular element.

Level 6 - respeccing to Sorcerer

"What? Why?" you may say. Well, there is a big reason for that and it will improve our endgame Cleric much more than continuing on the current path. So what do we do next? Well, we respec and take Sorcerer. Why one would do that? Here are some pros:

• Get some really good Sorcerer level 1 spells that can be upcast
• Easily move around the battlefield with Fly, after casting a spell
• Constitution Saving Throw Proficiency. This will reduce your chances of canceling spell concentration and saves one Feat slot.

So here is what we do:

Class

Overview
Sorcerer
Sorcerers are natural spellcasters, drawing on inherent magic from a gift or bloodline.

Cantrips

Take the ones that Cleric does not have, to cover more aspects:

Cantrip	Description
Mage Hand	Quality of Life spell, that you can use to summon an invisible hand. It can solve some puzzles, pick and throw objects. It can also shove enemies from ledges.
Friends	If you are the main character and do most of the dialogues, this is also a good choice as it gives an advantage during rolls.
Bone Chill	Can be useful in some encounters as you can disable enemy healing and greatly weaken undead enemies.
Fire bolt	Use this cantrip to deal moderate damage or light up barrels with oil. Perfect if you want to save spell slots

Spells

You can now select two spells for Sorcerer. The good thing is that we will be able to cast these using Cleric spell slots, meaning that they will be upcast to level 5 for much higher damage.

Spell	Description
Shield	Mandatory pick. Expend a spell slot to increase your Armor Class just before the enemy hits. This gives a huge boost to survivability and you can even engage in close combat using Shield Guardian.

To be honest that spell is the only one we need. The other ones are optional and taken based on your discretion. The good ones may be - False Life, Magic Missile, or Chromatic Orb.

Subclass

Overview
Storm Sorcery
Features
Tempestuous Magic	After you cast a Level 1 spell or higher you can Fly as a bonus action until the end of your turn without receiving Opportunity Attacks.

Abilities

Take the same ones you took for the Cleric at the start of the game. Nothing changes for that, only what is our builds' initial class:

• Strength - 8
• Dexterity - 14
• Constitution - 16 (15 + 1)
• Intelligence - 8
• Wisdom - 17 (15 + 2)
• Charisma - 10

Level 7 - Cleric Lv 6

We get the additional level 3 spell slot and Channel Divinity charge for casting spells or activating reactions. Moreover, the third subclass feature - Improved Warding Flare is unlocked

Feature	Description
Improved Warding Flare	Now Warding Flare can be activated not only on yourself but also on an ally. It is a very powerful reaction allowing to mitigate huge amounts of damage for the whole party.

We also get an additional prepared spell slot, but otherwise, no new spells are introduced that we could use.

Level 8 - Cleric Lv 7

We reach Level 7 which unlocks Level 4 spells. We also get Light Domain Cleric-specific spells that do not need to be prepared and added to the spellbook:

Spell	Description
Guardian of Faith	A summon that can be useful in covering choke points. Unfortunately, each time it does damage it takes off from HP, but the damage is guaranteed.
Wall of Fire	A very powerful fire spell that you can use to hit enemies in line or cover some passageway where for example Fireball would not hit as many enemies.

Prepared Spells

Here are recommended level 4 spells that I suggest using or at least trying them out. I personally only took Banishment, because the level 3 spells that you previously used can be upcast to be even more powerful.

Spell	Description
Banishment	A spell that can remove an enemy from combat for two turns. What makes it special is that it needs Charisma Saving Throw and not many spells target this ability. Unfortunately, it requires concentration so your other spellcasting may be canceled
Death Ward	Protect a creature from death, if their HP reaches 0 they stand back up with 1 HP. A decent spell as it does not require concentration to maintain it and works until long rest

Level 9 - Cleric Lv 8

At level 8 the Light cleric gets an additional level 4 spell slot, new action that can be used in melee rangeMoreover, we get a new Feat to further boost the class.

Action	Description
Potent Spellcasting	Add Wisdom modifier to cantrip damage. A decent passive, however, I am mostly using spells which are way more powerful even with this passive.

Feat

Feat	Description
Ability Improvement	Get 1 point into Wisdom, so that it would reach a maximum of 20. The next point can be allocated to any ability

Level 10 - Cleric Lv 9

At Level 9 the Cleric class starts to shine even more. We have additional spell slots for even more casting and level 5 spells are unlocked. In total, we can now have 13 spells in the spellbook at any given time. Moreover, two new Light Domain-specific spells are unlocked:

Spell	Description
Destructive Wave	Create a shockwave that can deal thunder with necrotic or radiant damage in a 9-meter radius. If enemies fail Constitution Saving Throw they become Prone allowing you to get hits with Advantage in close range.
Flame Strike	A very powerful spell that does good fire and radiant damage. In addition, it has a small Area of Effect.

Prepared spells

So we finally get level 5 spells. I think all of them are powerful if used in the correct circumstances

Spell	Description
Greater Restoration	Can dispel almost any negative status effect like Petrification, Stun, etc.
Planar Binding	You can add this spell to the spell list if you know that encounter is coming with - a celestial, elemental, fey, fairy, etc. It will make them fight on your side
Mass Cure Wounds	If you need something that has great healing for all the party members this is your choice

Level 11 - Cleric Lv 10

At Level 10 you get an additional level 6 spell slot, a new cantrip, and a Prepared spell increase. Moreover, you get Cleric class-specific feature Divine Intervention

Feature	Description
Divine Intervention	This feature allows you to call on your deity for help. It gives 4 choices - a legendary weapon, a very strong revival, a cataclysm with 8d10 damage, and camp supplies. I suggest saving before activating it and deciding which one you plan on using.

Cantrips

To be honest, take anything here. Probably you already have the main abilities that you use every combat encounter so one additional cantrip will not change much. Take something that you may find useful or did not take in the previous levels.

Level 12 - Cleric Lv 11

And we get to the level 6 spells. This also gives one level 6 spell slot.

Prepared Spells

We get 6 new prepared spells, that are truly powerful. As always you can easily switch them out after each combat encounter if you did not find them useful. Here are my preferred ones:

Spell	Description
Planar Ally	You summon a very powerful summon from three choices - Deva, Djinn, and Cambion. Each comes with unique actions and spells. Generally, they are all very powerful and can drastically empower the combat prowess of the Cleric
Harm	The most powerful single-target spell in your arsenal. The only downside is that it leaves the enemy with at least 1 HP. So be ready to take them out, so that they would not heal
Blade Barrier	This spell summons weapons from another dimension that deal 6d10. This is a crazy powerful spell that can cover pathways and hit multiple enemies in a single line.
Heroes' Feast	Gives camp supplies, boosts allies' HP (not just temporarily), gives an advantage on Wisdom Saving Throws, and makes you immune to many status effects. Overall, this is a very powerful spell, that makes your party very strong overall and increases its survivability.

As you can see all of them are very powerful. Pick the one that fits your playstyle the most, you cannot go wrong here.

General Tips

Now I would like to cover some general tips on how to play Light Cleric Build. It is an extremely powerful subclass with a few things

Spirit Guardians and Sorcerer features

This is a deadly combination at level 5 Cleric gains Spirit Guardians that deal damage in 3-meter AOE. It sounds nothing special, however, imagine that you can deal spell damage, and then fly over using the Tempestous Magic feature and deal additional damage with Spirit Guardians. Generally, this will allow you to kill multiple weaker enemies in one turn.

Or you could use Tempestuous Magic as an escape mechanism that does not trigger any Attack of Opportunity. It only costs a bonus action as long as you have cast a spell that turns.

Using Healing spells

Even though casting Fire spells is fun, remember that you are still a Cleric. You have a wide array of Radian, healing, and protection spells. Something like Sanctuary could be invaluable in Saving an ally. Restoration can remove petrification and make your party member get back into the battle.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading Light Domain Cleric build for Baldur's Gate 3. I hope you enjoyed it, and better understand how to use this fire-infused subclass, that can set afire the whole battlefield. The good thing is that also does not lose the core of Cleric's abilities making it also a perfect support if the situation arises.

Cheers!