Trickster clerics are not your traditional or stereotypical cleric.
Their gods are the patrons of thieves, scoundrels, gamblers, rebels, and liberators. The clerics themselves prefer subterfuge, pranks, deception, and theft rather than direct confrontation.
Their spells and features are designed to help themselves and their party perform acts of subterfuge.
They do not benefit very much from having a high STR
They receive neither martial weapon or heavy armor proficiencies.
The best STR weapons they can wield without feats or multiclassing are 1d6's one handed or 1d8 two handed.
The difference between using a mace 1d6 + 2(STR) and a dagger 1d4 + 2(DEX), which both will have the same hitchance, is an average of 1 damage per hit.
They don't need STR to wear halfplate, which gives them 1 AC less than full plate. I would recommend wearing breastplate however, so that you don't have disadvantage on stealth rolls.
A decent DEX helps them with their sneakery
A decent CON helps them maintain concentration spells like Spirit guardians
A high WIS is necessary because their spells rely on it, along with increasing their ability to detect lies and scout for the party
A decent CHA helps them trick and deceive enemies, which along with their domain spells, helps them infiltrate places they aren't supposed to be
ALL of this.
Yeah, BG1 and 2 were filled with non-optimal statlines for characters. Anyone remember Anomen the 12 wis cleric? I think wanting every companion to have some sort of perfectly optimized stat line which is not in line with their character is bad for the game as a whole. A party members statline should be representative of their character and i think CHA14 for a trickery cleric fits quite well. Plus with dex 15 she can now get up to 21AC which makes her a defensive beast in EA.
And also all of this.
As a rule, game developers don't give companion NPCs super optimized stats. Maybe they do occasionally, but doing so is usually a very low priority. Because they want the stats to fit the character concept as they've envisioned them, and because it's not really required to be that min/maxed in order to complete the content. Right now the game is already easy as New Orleans, and even on the harder difficulty when they add it, I highly doubt you'll need hyper-optimized companions in order to succeed. You'll just need good tactics and system knowledge.
I kinda like lowering Shadowheart's strength, because she just doesn't look or "seem like" an especially physically strong person. Lae'zel does (despite being an emaciated githyanki), and so does Wyll, but Shadowheart doesn't exude that "big muscles energy" to me.
At first I was a bit skeptical about the 8 intelligence thing, but then I remembered that she has literally...
...had a whole bunch of her mind WIPED. Losing a ton of memories might make someone less smart overall. I mean, it's a good enough excuse, anyway.
As for charisma, I always see people saying like, "Shadowheart is a mean person, therefore unlikeable, therefore her charisma should be low" but I don't concur. I mean first of all, I fundamentally disagree that someone who is prickly, secretive, defensive, or hostile is automatically unlikeable. Maybe I've just had a lot of real shitty people as friends (okay, not maybe) so I'm used to learning to like people with abrasive personalities and little charm.
But charisma is the most nebulous stat in D&D, and it can always mean a whole lot of different things. The player basically gets to decide what their charisma means. Maybe it means you're super likeable, or maybe it just means you have a strong personality or sense of self, or maybe it means you have a lot of confidence, or maybe it just means you're good-looking and that subtly influences the way people see you (or the way you see yourself). Shadowheart is probably pretty good at manipulating people in everyday life, and she probably has a fair amount of confidence owing to her appearance among other advantages. You can be a terrible person and still have a lot of sway over people.
