Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - General Convince me - Spore Druid or Tempest Cleric

I'll prob play the other on 2nd play. Cant decide on which. Love Clerics and Druids. Spores sounds so cool, but Tempest seems pretty strong. Sell me on one or the other please!

Spores is somewhat borked in PnP, with key abilities competing for your reaction. I expect Larian will make significant changes to deal with this - probably by making the aura always on. Still, I don't think it's strong unless you multiclassed into something that would give you extra attack (hint: 6 levels swords bard).

Tempest, on the other hand, is one of the strongest subclasses for clerics who want to do gratuitous damage, and I see no reason to expect significant changes from PnP.

As Frosty said, Tempest Cleric is much cooler than Spores Druid.

It is still perfectly playable, so I’d base your decision first and foremost on flavor. Two of my favorite fantasy archetypes are druids and necromancers, so I know what I’m picking.

Spore Druid will be my Durge. Start off a Druid, get more and more corrupted until I'm a scary, scary witch.

Tempest will be a Tav; Dwarf that throws thunder and lightning around? Yes please.

One factor that occurred to me. This has no mechanical effect, but in terms of setting lore, if you care about such things, Talos is the only available deity who canonically has the Tempest domain, and Talos is chaotic evil.

The game doesn't enforce domains though, and clerics don't have to match the alignment of their deity, but it's something lore-aholics might want to consider.

Valkur is Chaotic good.

Since there is an incomplete pantheon I would ignore domain affinity and pick who I wanted.

Between War and Tempest which one you would say is better?

Well yeah Tempest Domain is *the* Talos priest. thats the fun part about it.
As for Spore Druid, seems fun on paper, heard it isnt good.

its probably still going to be my first playthrough, even if its not optimal. I like the idea of a melee druid that summons zombies.

Tempest by a land slide.

War gets you a nice extra attack at early levels and , but its channel isn't as good and it's Domain spells are meh.

Tempest gets you a damaging reaction (that later on can push enemies away) which is huge, it has a nice channel divinity with good compatibility with its really solid Domain spell list.

Is Talos still considered an aspect of Gruumsh?

I've been thinking on making a War Cleric that was too drunk on violence and war that tries now to find redemption. Would that role play work for Tempest Cleric?

You could think of the storm powers as a manifestation of his rage bleeding/exploding out from him. He is trying to hold himself back by focusing on healing and buffing his team. But once a storm rolls in, sometimes you just have to wait it out. His arc can be learning to live with the duality of the maelstrom of his soul with the compassion he has for his loved ones (or all of humanity), eventually coming to understand that he can use his weather based powers as a protective shield and not just a whirling battle axe, metaphorically.

The story I've been thinking of is that he was lost in his love for battle and violence until he met a Dragonborn girl who was filled with violent cravings she was terrified of (A Dragonborn Dark Urge I will play at the same time as sort of alternate reality). When he met her he finally snapped out of his cravings and started to help her, support her, give her comfort. Maybe it would work like that whenever she was around a storm would always become calmer and stars could be seen in the sky. Tempest Clerics apparently use fear as one of their tools to make people go into worship and in this case he would try to help another get over their fears and violent cravings. Growing to care for her deeply... Until one day when some pieces of shit attacked them and the violence that ensued turned her into this Slayer thing from the trailer which he ended up killing... And when she turned back he was consumed with rage and self loathing, he tried to forget about it through fighting and worship, but in the end nothing could never sate his self loathing and could never forgive himself, maybe sometimes dreaming of her being out there in the sea, somewhere where he can save her as he couldn't in reality. I was also thinking of making his Guardian be based on her and Dark Urge's on him as she in other timeline ended up killing him and she out of despair isolated herself and turned to worship of Great Old Ones so she could find a way to get away from this violence she struggles with.

I was wondering if this kind of backstory would fit with Tempest cleric. And maybe what God he would worship for it to work.

That sounds like a great backstory! I think Umberlee might make the most sense, but Tempus* would work okay. (https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Umberlee)

They should probably be adding Umberlee in a choice, since she has one of the largest temples in Baldur's Gate.

*fixed the typo

The more I think about it the more it has this Vinland Saga feel with my Dwarf Tempest Cleric being basically like a viking in this case who found something tender to care for, but then had it taken away.

I also now imagine both my Dragonborn and Dwarf reacted to each other's deaths. Dwarf buried her body near the sea (or maybe send her body out into the sea, don't know how Tempest Clerics deal with this) while Dragonborn run away, having a Berserk chapter 90 moment as she couldn't bear even looking at his body. Also for Dragonborn I think of doing a roleplay where she resists her urges, but also shoves Tadpoles into her head, further encouraged by this Guardian looking like that Dwarf, she does it to escape them, to be free. A very tragic situation. While my Dwarf needs to deal with his self loathing and forgive himself as maybe that Dragonborn now watches over him and forgave him already while the Guardian takes her form.

I'm planning on rolling a Duergar Spore Druid. It should be fun with the Druegar magic spells, and thematically interesting as well.

WAR

1st Divine Favor, Shield of Faith
3rd Magic Weapon, Spiritual Weapon
5th Crusader's Mantle, Spirit Guardians
7th Freedom of Movement, Stoneskin
9th Flame Strike, Hold Monster

At 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor.

War Priest
From 1st level, your god delivers bolts of inspiration to you while you are engaged in battle. When you use the Attack action, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Channel Divinity: Guided Strike
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to strike with supernatural accuracy. When you make an attack roll, you can use your Channel Divinity to gain a +10 bonus to the roll. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.

Channel Divinity: War God's Blessing
At 6th level, when a creature within 30 feet of you makes an attack roll, you can use your reaction to grant that creature a +10 bonus to the roll, using your Channel Divinity. You make this choice after you see the roll, but before the DM says whether the attack hits or misses.

Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 damage of the same type dealt by the weapon to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

Tempest

1st Fog Cloud, Thunderwave
3rd Gust of Wind, Shatter
5th Call Lightning, Sleet Storm
7th Control Water, Ice Storm
9th Destructive Wave, Insect Plague

At 1st level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons and heavy armor.

Wrath of the Storm
Also at 1st level, you can thunderously rebuke attackers. When a creature within 5 feet of you that you can see hits you with an attack, you can use your reaction to cause the creature to make a Dexterity saving throw. The creature takes 2d8 lightning or thunder damage (your choice) on a failed saving throw, and half as much damage on a successful one.

You can use this feature a number of times equal to your Wisdom modifier (a minimum of once). You regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

Channel Divinity: Destructive Wrath
Starting at 2nd level, you can use your Channel Divinity to wield the power of the storm with unchecked ferocity.
When you roll lightning or thunder damage, you can use your Channel Divinity to deal maximum damage, instead of rolling.

Thunderous Strike
At 6th level, when you deal lightning damage to a Large or smaller creature, you can also push it up to 10 feet away from you.

Divine Strike
At 8th level, you gain the ability to infuse your weapon strikes with divine energy. Once on each of your turns when you hit a creature with a weapon attack, you can cause the attack to deal an extra 1d8 thunder damage to the target. When you reach 14th level, the extra damage increases to 2d8.

I was going to stick with light, I do Like the spell list for LIGHT more. However that is about the only thing it has going for it, my style of Dwarven Battle cleric is going to like one of these two and I will still be on the fence up until character creation, thats when the magic juices get flowing so to speak haha

http://dnd5e.wikidot.com/cleric

Tempest is closer to an evil domain than war is.

War domain is pretty neutral, both good and bad gods have it in their portfolio. You can interpret it both as crazy blood hungry warriors, and as noble champions slaying evil.

Tempest is mostly about the destructive power of nature, and tends to mostly be a domain of evil gods. Some Chaotic good gods still have this domain. But theres a much bigger chance that a tempest cleric would be trying to find redemption as a war cleric than the other way around

Edit: I seem to be answering the wrong question. This is an answer to "which do I think is better".


Tempest generally. War is good at low levels but doesn't scale well. I have been contemplating a couple of archer builds with a dip into war domain though.

You could always go for a backstory along the lines of "I was offered up to Talos as an infant, but now I travel the lands trying to mitigate the harm storms do." Or something of that sort. The one step alignment rule isn't part of 5e, and deities are no longer able to remove spells. Given how BG3 tends to work, the will probably be a few {Talos] dialogue options, but you don't have to choose them.

Or, you can interpret the domains more flexibly. In earlier editions Silvanus* used to get elemental domains, which are not in 5e. So Tempest = Elemental Air.


*Is Silvanus on the BG3 cleric list?