Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Build Discussion Trickery Domain

What does Shadowheart's Trickery Domain bring to the game?

I'm level 6 (half way to 7) have down the gith creche and have just the Grym Forge area of the Underdark to do before moving on.

Shadders is mostly using a Xbow with her flail as backup if enemies get too close. I leave her spells for the more problematic fights (bosses and mini-bosses). I have her stats respecced to be how I would build a cleric so she hits things and does a decent amount of damage with her weapons. The lack of a second attack is a pain but as far as I can see none of the Larian cleric domains have a real second attack (I don't see why War domain shouldn't have one, 5e or no).

Unless I'm missing something about Trickery I'm thinking about either respeccing her as a different domain, multi-classing her or just rebuilding her as a pally or something.

Info and suggestions welcome. The rest of the party is Bard, Lae'zel and Karlach.

Trickery is a tough one because its powers are rather niche.

Blessing of the Trickster can help a rogue or gloomstalker ranger stay in stealth for repeated sneak attacks. I've never tried making a cleric/ranger multiclass, so I don't know if Shadowheart could be effective as the gloomstalker herself. This multiclass would fit the theme for Shar's followers, but I don't know if it would feel good mechanically.

Invoke Duplicity can give your allies advantage in melee attacks against a target, and bait enemy attacks at the duplicate instead of your party. That might be more valuable than trying to attack with the cleric.

Disguise Self (level 1 boon) can be useful in many social situations, especially where being a different race could make a difference. You can also disguise yourself before speaking to the dead if they might be unwilling to speak to their killers.

Mirror Image (level 3 boon) is a great defensive spell that doesn't require concentration. If you have Spirit Guardians up and then add Mirror Image, you are doing damage all around yourself while being very difficult to hit.

Fear (level 5 boon) can be useful for crowd control.

Dimension Door (level 7 boon) can be amazing because you can take a party member with you. Grabbing Karlach and instantly transporting her within smashing distance of the enemy feels really good. If your bard also gets Dimension Door, you can transport all 4 characters anywhere you can see.


Other domains may be more powerful (Tempest nuking is pretty cool!), but there are some good spells in the Trickery list.

Also, if you ever play multiplayer, use polymorph to turn your teammates into sheep!

Niche is the impression I got but niche isn't what I want really. I've only kept things like this so far because I thought it was Trickery which gave Shadders the lock and trap skills. Major face palm tonight when I found out it wasn't. Spirit Guardians is an old friend from Solasta but the way Concentration works in BG3 it doesn't seem as effective. Similar story with Spiritual Weapon, enemies couldn't target it in Solasta but now it doesn't last long (or is that a mod I'm using?)
In Solasta a Battle Domain cleric can melee battle with the best of 'em and has some serious spells.
Tempest seems the best option from my limited research so far.

I'm probably not as far as you, only level 4 and just now getting into underdark for first time. My current group is Bard 3/Rogue 1 Tav, Gale, Karlach, & Shadowheart.

Shadowheart with trickery domain will be a secondary stealthy to support your main. Trireme already broke down most abilities. But one spell you get at level three helps a lot. Pass without a Trace, +10 to stealth checks, last till long rest, & is a aoe around her. This with her high wisdom helps on spotting traps and such.

If you are not big on scouting or stealth play, it be a no Brainerd to respec.

Invoke duplicity is on occasion really good IMO. It's not universally useful, but at times it's been a great boon. I've had the occasional use of Dimension Door too, but not frequently I'll admit. The domain spells are of varying quality.

I respecced her to Light after a certain story evolution took place. The spell picks are nicer but concentration already limits how many spells you'll be using and having one additional nice option isn't as game-changing as you might think. Invoke duplicity is offensive and warding light is defensive, and IMO offense > defense.

Trickery isn't half as bad as some people make it out to be. My only wish would be that the first level domain spells contained at least one with more combat application, such as Faery Fire, Tasha's Hideous Laughter or Color Spray.

I'm not otherwise using respec at all, but I did so a mild respec on Shadowheart as early as possible to Rogue 1>Trickery Domain Cleric x to give her Expertise in Stealth and Sleight of Hand, a 2d6 sneak attack and proficiency in some finesse melee weapons (e.g. Rapier), I also changed her Str 13 / Dex 13 to Str 12 / Dex 14. At level 4 cleric I took the Resilient - Wis feat to bring her Wis to 18 and to giver her back the bonus to Wis saving throws she lost by taking the Rogue level and will probably give her a +2 Dex ASI at Cleric level 8, rather than giving her the Dex 18 gloves, as I'd rather she could use the gloves that give Advantage of Sleight of Hand or some other ones for combat. I think this still keeps the essentials of the stock character of Shadowheart, whilst avoiding the need to take a seperate Thief and Trickery Domain synergises quite well with thieving stuff.

I'm half-tempted to give her another 2 or 3 Rogue levels at some point and to take the Assassin sub-class for fun, though it's probably not the "optimal" thing to do

It seems that my initial impressions were more or less correct in that stealth if the focus of Trickery. Stealth isn't a thing for me and her back story and overall build doesn't really shout 'stealth'. I leaning towards respeccing her domain to one which has the best offensive spells especially AOE or crowd control.

Thanks for all the ideas.

You can stay in Trickery just use your Cleric as a cleric. They get great choices for:

Healing - obvious

Crowd control - Bane, Command, Silence, Hold person, Fear, Banishment, Blade barrier

Bolstering teammates - Guidance, Resistance, Bless, Sanctury, Shield of Faith, Warding Bond and others

AOE damage - Glyph of Warding, Spirit Guardians, Flame Strike, Insect Plague

Above spells are just a sampling. Get your AC up, gear for Advantage and saving throws (especially for concentration), and you can be very effective.

So far everyone has missed the best and only useful extra that trickery domain gets - Polymorph spell.

This works on a lot of mobs that can't be held.

But other than that it is rubbish, the other extra spells are crap. If you just use your cleric as a cleric, you want to switch to life domain, its only 100 gold to do so.

Using Shadowheart as I outlined along with Wyll, Lae'zel (both as single class Warlock and Fighter) and Druid MC I have been very effective.

The game let's you play whatever you like including cheap respecs to try different subclasses or whatever

I let her the Trickery Domain, for lore reasons, although I don't like stealth. Trickery Domain is ok, most good Cleric spells are available. Polymorph saved me in one tough fight. After a certain moment, when Shadowheart changed, I respecced her to Thunder, as Light and Life do not seem to fit her character (debatable). Thunder is much better than Trickery for my style of play, even without the use of the insane results of applying wet.

It seems like Trickery would work better in the tabletop game, but in a video-game, especially one that wants to limit CC, it's just not worth it. I switched her to tempest and it was night and day better. She could still do all her normal good stuff, but now had awesome AOE as well, and was super tanky. Oh no, I can't transform an enemy into a sheep, instead I just killed that enemy.

I do use her as a cleric. Clerics in 5e are really versatile and powerful hence my OP comments about her using melee, ranged and spells.

I'm leaning that way with the Tempest domain.

I made her Light domain and she has so much more utility in combat.

I used jer early one but my MC is a light cleric already. Dislike respeccing butnwant her fornromance so not sure what to do with her.

Have Wyll and Gale in party and swapped her out earlier for Lae'zel.

Dont know how I can have her in the party without a respec though 2 clerics is just abit to much. I need more tabking!