Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback Cleric and some spells suggestion

Okay, so I did play a cleric, and for what it is worth, I hate playing clerics, but regardless I played one. And boy do I hate the spells for them. I don't think I am the only one to point this out, but most of the spells are concentration. So bane, bless, etc all require you to concentrate. So if you want to cast a protection spell on yourself you immediately cancel out the other spell you were concentrating on. This seems not such a great way to do things. I mean maybe things really drastically changed in spells since I played, but it used to be only a few spells actually required your concentration like Flaming Sphere and so on. Spells like Bless, just used to be you casted and you were done. No concentration required. Same with bull's strength and the list goes on. Did clerics suddenly become something of you have to concentrate on every spell except healing spells now? I am just greatly confused why so many Clerical spells require concentration and the wizard has all the fun and never has to concentrate on, but a few cross over spells. Also, I thought Hold Person never required concentration of the caster it was just a save vs the person it was casted on? I am genuinely wondering as to why it this way. As it stands seems pretty steep that a cleric has to concentrate and pick which spells they will cast and maintain. Seems it is putting them back into the Healing battery category again. I don't have a problem with spells being concentration based, but I think maybe not make every clerical spell require it is all. If it is a buff then let is have a duration. Feel free to disagree or explain to me why the spells are the way they are. For I am truly befuddled as to why cleric spells are as they are now.

Simply put: you are wrong in assuming that spells like bless/bane and hold person are not concentration in the source material. They are. They are balanced around it.

Seems like you just remembered all those wrong.

Like KingTiki said, most duration spells in the cleric list require concentration. Maybe you are more familiar with a different version than 5e?

One big spell cleric's are missing right now is spiritual weapon. It's a Lv2 non concentration spell that lasts 1 min and gives clerics a ranged attack for their bonus action. This is one of the very few duration spells that doesn't require conc. Once this is in the game clerics will feel much better.

There's a multitude of reasons that the 5e cleric is stronger than the BG3 cleric, but I'm not going into it unless prompted.

Thank you both for your input. I never played 5E. Clerics that I played or are familiar with are from 3.5 and Pathfinder. I played 4E briefly before I just put in the place where it shall be forgotten. :p Probably why I didn't bother to play 5E to be honest with you. That said, I hope they add that spell you are talking about, because as it stands it is rough playing a cleric outside of just being a healer. Maybe the Light Domain would make it easier, but Shadowheart's build isn't really putting my mind at ease as to how BG3 is going to not be kind to a low level Cleric. It just seems to me, compared to the wizard mind you, that the Arcane casters are going to have all the fun, but the Divine casters are the ones having very few offensive or defensive options that don't require them to choose every spell very carefully.

Ahh just wait. Spiritual Weapon is a damn good non concentration spell, and it hits hard and with magic force, so few resistances. And as a divine caster you always have all your spells to chose from, every long rest, so they are way more flexible. And while concentration needs some balancing there are spells like spirit guardians, that really are heavy heavy hitters.

Clerics can be a LOT in 5e and are not merely healbots.

Regarding Shadowheart: her ability layout is pretty bad, and most people think the Devs need to fix that.

From what I've gathered, I think you'd probably enjoy Light Cleric the most right now. It's got the offensive spell list you're looking for.

You've got guiding bolt and scorching ray for your long range blasts. Bless and high ground will ensure you hit these often.

You can take advantage of burning hands' short range thanks to Warding Flare, which let's you mix it up in the frontline a bit more than other domains might.