Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Cleric L3vel 3 Spells Under Powered??

Is it just me, or are the Clerics Third Level Spells pretty under powered? To be clear, I mean spells useable by a 5th+ Character Level Cleric.
Background Note: Long Time (40 years?) Table Top Gamer...BUT my friends mostly moved to Pathfinder instead of 5e.

I am way behind the curve in this game; my longest campaign is just a bit past half way from 5th to 6th. But so far my main use of ShadowHeart's 3rds has been to up cast Prayer of Healing.
I totally get that Cleric Spells should not match the Wiz/Sor power level of the classic Fireball, but I'm kinda feeling like even the 2nd level cleric spells are more useful to me...

Mass Healing Word does 1d4 Healing; Really?!? Vs. spells that do 8d6 and melee opponents with 3 attacks?!? I mean I would think at least d8; or better yet 2 (or 3) d4.
Animate Dead for 1 Skeleton?
Daylight used to effect Drow & do some Radiant Damage to Shadows, No? Other than dispelling a 2nd level Darkness, is it any different than Light Cantrip? Perhaps it has a Storyline application...
Prot from Energy use to effect a 10' radius, no?? Cool but so specific and only on 1 ally. You often don't know which energy to expect...
Revivify probably becomes way more necessary at the higher levels; but we start with free scrolls of that and I haven't used 1 yet.

Glyph of Warding & Spirit Guardians I can get down with. Tho ShadowHeart has slightly morphed into a stealthy archer w utility & healing spells for me...thinking about a level or 3 of Rogue for her.
Just saying, haven't used the Guardians much cuz she doesn't wade into the melee arena much.

Beacon of Hope I just learned a useful little detail from: Concentration Spells are only ended by casting a new Concentration Spell; NOT any spell. Which of course would render the Beacon nearly useless since it was most likely cast by your main healer. Are there challenges looming that will make the Advantage on Wisdom & Death Saves extremely helpful???


Thanks for any & all advice! Cheers!!

Respec her into light cleric, they get fireball as level 3 spell.
Spirit guardians are overpowered if your cleric has the armor and gloves that apply radiating orb, because the orbs stack.

Spirit Guardians is a fantastic 3rd level spells.
Just stay put to protect a place (like Halsin's portal in act 2) and see the enemies run or fly to their doom.
Or run around and blast everyone in your path, including those irritating invisible Bhaal assassins.

Cleric does have a lot of pretty mediocre 3rd (Also 4th and 5th) level spells.

Out of the not-so-amazing spells:

Mass Healing Word can be decent. Mostly because it only uses a bonus action and it can be super clutch as it can get multiple downed party members back up.

Animate Dead can be useful. The zombie can threaten enemies making them less likely to simply run towards backline party members, while the skeleton can do decent damage (I'm not sure if they fixed this but you at least used to be able to take its bow and give it to another character to get a neat bow with a 1d10 bonus necrotic damage on its damage rolls)

For the good spells:

Spirit Guardians is very powerful. Especially given the synergies with Radiant damage (Dealing double damage to undead enemies and the Luminous items that proc Radiating Orbs)

Glyph of Warding is also good, essentially Fireball but with optimal damage typing for the enemies you encounter (As well as the option for something like the knockback which can allow you to send a bunch of enemies to their death via a pit/cliff)

The spells that specific Domains get at this level are also decent:

Light Domain gets Fireball which is Fireball. Scores of Wizards and Sorcerers swear by this single spell for good reason.

Trickery Domain gets Fear. Which can trivialize many fights due to the fact that it makes enemies drop their weapons (Thus, if your characters then... Pick them up. You've successfully neutered the enemies offensive capabilities)

Knowledge Domain gets Slow. Which is another potent CC spell that can absolutely cripple enemies.

Tempest Domain gets both Call Lightning and Sleet Storm. The former is simply a powerful AoE damage spell that provides a lot of bang for the buck due to being a Concentration spell allowing you to blast 3d10 damage in an Area every turn for only 1 spell slot. The latter is a decent control tool both for its base effect of disrupting enemy Concentration and creating an ice surface in a massive area. But also due to its synergies with Tempest Domain itself in that when you stop concentrating on it the ice it formed turns into water... Which you can electrify and if your Tempest Cleric electrifies it, it will proc the level 6 Tempest Cleric bonus of knocking back enemies from dealing Lightning damage (Turning it into a huge impassable terrain for enemies)

yes one or two spring to mind but they are act 3

Thanks for the Response/Info!!

I was hoping that animate dead didn't give you just one basic skeleton that goes down with one hit.

OK. I will def revisit the Luminous Armor idea...I just like how Shadowheart looks in the magic 'Azure Shadows' dyed armor I got her. Pretty sure LZ is wearing the LA
Trickery also gives her a short length Invisibility ability at level 6; and I've been thinking a level of Rogue fits her well in my campaign anyway.
3 levels of Rogue would give her all those extra bonus options & an extra bonus action so she can move further thru the battle with her Guardians out...

I love the Tempest Domain spells & abilities. Planning to give Karlach a level of Tempest Cleric for MOAR Healing and the auto retaliation...fits her fight vs the cambions; Thunder is the only damage they aren't resistant to.

You will get additional and better summons at higher levels and depending on your exact subclass choices with Animate Dead.

There are no death saves in D&D5. Thats an AD&D thing.

You get saves during negotiating if you will die, but those are IIRC Constitution ? Cleric doesnt get Consitution Save Proficiency. They get Wisdom and Charisma.

Cleric is an awesome class, probably the strongest single class in the game, and unless you pick Trickery, you only get good to overpowered options (Light).

Skeletons are ranged in BG3 and are thus massively prefered over Zombies.