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

Life Domain Cleric Build

This build is for those that want to build a cleric as a main supporter in the group that could heal at moment's notice if there is a need. In total, you could have 9 healing spells! Of course, this may be overkill so we also have additional roles that the Life Cleric can undertake

Thanks to being able to wear Heavy Armor and huge healing potential, we can also stand in frontlines close to enemies. This is an especially valuable position once you hit level 5. You wonder why? The Life Domain Cleric can easily damage multiple foes without even casting an offensive spell per turn by using Spirit Guardians

These are spirits that surround you damaging everything nearby. You do not need to do anything just move close to the enemies. This is a perfect choice to finish off any stragglers or close-to-death foes.

To further boost Cleric and give ven more survivability and mobility we multiclass to Storm Sorcerer. This is just a 1 level dip that gives us Constitution Saving Throw proficiency, spell - Shield, and the ability to Fly after casting a spell while expending only bonus action.

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.

Life Cleric Leveling Overview

Level	Category	Choice
1	Abilities	Str 12, Dex 14, Con 15 (14+1), Int 8, Wis 17 (15 + 2), Cha 8
	Class	Cleric
	Cantrips	Sacred Flame, Guidance, Light
	Subclass	Life Domain
	Skills	Perception, Acrobatics, Medicine, Arcana, Religion, etc.
2	Class	Cleric
3	Class	Cleric
4	Class	Cleric
	Cantrip	Thaumaturgy
	Feat	Ability Improvement - Wisdom +2
5	Class	Cleric
6	Class	Respec to Sorcerer Lv 1 (check level 6 progression section)
	Cantrips	Mage hand, Fire bolt, Bone Chill, Friends
	Spells	Shield, any
	Subclass	Storm Sorcery
7	Class	Cleric
8	Class	Cleric
9	Class	Cleric
	Feat	Alert or War Caster
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 Life 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 Life Cleric gets Heavy 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 Sleep. This is not critical but good to have. Cantrip like Firebolt can be useful in setting off explosions
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. Cantrip like Firebolt can be useful in setting off explosions
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

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, especially if I have something like Fire bolt
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.
Light	Can cast a Light effect on yourself or allies. Useful in some situations during the game, so it's good to have it on hand.
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
Life Domain
Features
Disciple of Life	Your devotion empowers your healing Spells. When casting a healing spell, the target regains additional hit points equal to 2 + the spell's level

Abilities

Now let's take a look at the abilities of the Life build. Correct allocation will allow us to maximize the early gameplay and get good modifier bonuses.

Ability	Value	Description
Strength	10	We will be in close combat most of the time, so it is relevant to not have a negative saving throw modifier
Dexterity	14	It will help us with Dexterity Saving Throws, and increase initiative. You could go for a lower amount as we are not as interested in going first during the fight
Constitution	16 (15 +1)	Increases the Cleric's HP and 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 lowered this so that the 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. It is also what Cleric use to determine their spell effectiveness and damage.
Charisma	8	We set this to the lowest value so that we could spend more points on Strength. Gladly there are not many Charsima Saving Throws in the game

Skills and Expertise

Overall, the skills should be impacted by your roleplaying and background decisions. However, you would still 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, History, 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 Life 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
Preserve Life	Use a single Channel Divinity Charge and restore their health. This effect has 9-meter radius making it especially useful when you are in the frontlines

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	Use this spell to create water surfaces and make enemies wet. This is only useful if you have lightning or cold spell users in the party as they can deal double damage then
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. Unfortunately, the spells that Life Cleric receives for subclass are the same ones as for base Cleric. This means that we do not need a spellbook slot for them, but this does not give any surprising effects.

Spell	Description
Aid	Increases all of the ally's HP and restores some of it. The good thing is that this targets everyone in 9 meters Radius around the caster.
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

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. It does not use a Concentration slot
Hold Person	Can be used to paralyze a single humanoid enemy. Each melee hit on them deals critical damage.
Warding Bond	Due to your healing capabilities, you can easily soak some damage from other front liners or even makes in your group. This spell chains you to the target, and gives them bonus resistances and Armour Class. Moreover, it splits the damage between the two of you. The spell does not use a Concentration slot

Level 4

On this level up we gain an additional level 2 spell slot, spell preparation slot, cantrip slot, and a new Feat. The latter will be important in increasing Life Cleric's effectiveness.

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 Life Cleric

Feat	Description
Ability Improvement	Put Wisdom +2. This will increase your spell damage and their success,

Level 5

This is a big milestone for Cleric build. We reach level 3 spells, unlock a new set of Life 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.

You also gain a few spells of the Life domain, but they are average in my opinion:

Spell	Description
Beacon of Hope	The spell requires a concentration slot, which makes it not as useful. It is good in a few game encounters, but overall, other spells will be much better at handling combat encounters and supporting party members.
Revivify	Unfortunately, the spell is useless in my opinion. Generally, you have tons of Scrolls of Revivfy stocked up from pickpocketing. Of course, if you do not steal, then it could have some purpose, but then again you could just throw a potion at the downed ally.

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.
Firebolt	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 anything that does not depend on the Sorcerer ability modifier - Charisma.

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 - 12
• Dexterity - 14
• Constitution - 16 (15 + 1)
• Intelligence - 8
• Wisdom - 17 (15 + 2)
• Charisma - 8

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 - Blessed Healer is unlocked

Feature	Description
Blessed Healer	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 Life 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.
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

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
Freedom of Movement	I think this spell perfectly fits the build. Once you activate Guardian Spirits, you want to move as much around the battlefield without being restricted. It makes it so that difficult terrain cannot slow you down.

Level 9 - Cleric Lv 8

We get additional level 4 and the first level 5 spell slot. Moreover, new melee action is unlocked, and another Feat to further boost the class.

Action	Description
Divine Strike: Life	The spell can be used once per turn. It imbues weapon attack with radiant 1d8 damage.

Feat

Level 10 - Cleric Lv 9

At Level 9 the Cleric class starts to shine even more. We have additional level 5 spell slots for the new level 5 spells. In total, we can now have 13 spells in the spellbook at any given time. Moreover, two  Life Domain-specific spells are unlocked that do not require preparation:

Spell	Description
Mass Cure Wounds	If you need something that has great healing for all the party members this is your choice
Greater Restoration	Can dispel almost any negative status effect like Petrification, Stun, etc.

Prepared spells

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

Spell	Description
Flame Strike	A very powerful spell that does good fire and radiant damage. In addition, it has a small Area of Effect.
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
Insect Plague	Deals 4d10 damage and makes the terrain difficult. Moreover, enemies get a Disadvantage on Perception checks. A perfect spell to control a choke point

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.
Heal	70 Healing and removes diseases. A very powerful spell that you should consider having in your arsenal.

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 Life Cleric Build. It is an extremely powerful subclass with a few things

Summoning Spiritual Weapon

I cannot stress and recommend this spell enough. Especially in the early game, it saved my party multiple times. Summon it close to enemies, so that they would spend time hitting it.

The weapon has resistance to most of the physical and spell types and also deals damage. Think of it as a crowd control ability that uses bonus action.

Do not forget Warding Bond

A very useful level 2 spell. Cast it on your ally and create a connection between you two. The target receives +1 Armour Class and Saving Throws.

If the ally under this effect gets hit, the damage is split between you two. This can make a frontline fighter or a mage survive twice as longer. Moreover, each turn you could heal them and in turn heal yourself from passive bonuses.

Heal for any kind of situation

What makes this stand out from other cleric builds, is that Life Domain has options to cast healing spells with any type of resource:

• Need to heal specific multiple allies - Mass Cure Wounds
• Does somebody die? - Revivify (although I think it is redundant)
• Need a huge strong heal? - Heal level 6 spell
• Don't have spell slots, but want to heal everyone? - Preserve Life
• Do not have an Action point? - Healing Word or Mass Healing Word using bonus action

As you can see the possibilities are wide and the build prepares you for most combat situations in the game.

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.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading Life Domain Cleric build for Baldur's Gate 3. I hope you enjoyed it, and better understand how to use the best support class in the game. As you can see it is not only able to heal overhead allies and yourself but also tank and deal damage itself.

Cheers!