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Clerics are far more than healers inBaldur’s Gate 3.A cleric can range from a dedicated support character to your group’s primary damage dealer. Tempest clerics sit firmly in the middle, providing powerful DPS spells without compromising on the cleric’s excellent utility and healing spells. Smart usage of the tempest cleric’s abilities can make them one of the strongest caster characters in the game.
Related:Baldur’s Gate 3: Complete Guide To Clerics
Getting the most out of this subclass is surprisingly simple, but their wide range of spell options and equipment can be intimidating to newcomers to CRPGs or Fifth Edition D&D. We’ll give guidance on how to go about creating the best tempest cleric build possible, covering everything from good race choices to the types of spells you’ll want to prepare at each level.
Become the eye of the storm with this devastatingLevel 12 tempest clericbuild, no multiclassing needed. Manipulate the battlefield by creating pools of water that you turn into electrified death traps, pushing targets away while debuffing them. And when something needs to be killed immediately,use Call Lightning and your Channel Divinity to force your lightning storm to deal maximum damage, one-shotting most enemies in the game.And if that won’t do the trick, push enemies into chasms with Thunderwave or Gust of Wind, use Ice Storm to slow down your targets, or cast a wide array of healing spells to keep your martial characters in the fray.
This build was born to fry your opponents and support your allies with equal mastery. It isn’t the best character for social encounters or tanking hits up close, but it can help your party fill that niche through the use of the cleric’s amazing cantrips and spells. If you’ve always wanted to play as a lightning caster but disliked how squishy other spellcasters feel, this build is for you.
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Character Creation
A character’s class, skill proficiencies, and ability scores may be respecced at any time by speaking to Withers, an NPC found in anearly Act 1 quest.
Race Options
Dragonborn
Grants an AoE lightning attack, useful for earlier levels. Resistant to lightning damage.
Great option for combat and RP.
Unlocks Enhanced Leap and Misty Step as race features.
High base movement speed and Fey passives.
All-purpose option.
This build does not require a specific race, so feel free to pick whatever suits you. A lightning-themed character meshes nicely with adragonborn, granting you lightning resistance and an AoE lightning attack depending on your subrace. The attack itself quickly falls off once you get Call Lightning at Level 5, but this attack can be useful during the first three levels for clearing tight crowds.
The only major downside of this build is its lack of mobility. To fix that, you can either rely on items or play agithyankito gain access to their amazing class feature spells: Enhanced Leap and Misty Step. There are also some powerful endgame items that become even stronger if you’re a githyanki. If their appearance doesn’t mesh well with the character you wish to roleplay,wood elfhas a fairly high base movement value compared to all other races.
Proficiency with Athletics and Survival checks.
Proficiency with Animal Handling and Survival checks.
Ideal for good-aligned characters.
Backgrounds in Baldur’s Gate 3 determine what inspires your character, providing you with inspiration points whenever you make roleplaying decisions that align with your background. Your background also grants two skill proficiencies.
Outlanderis a solid pick for any version of tempest cleric and a good background option in general. Athletics is frequently used to resist shoves in combat, preventing you from getting pushed into a bottomless pit. Survival comes up surprisingly often in Act 1 and can help your party find some hidden loot caches.Outlanders are inspired by beating difficult encounters and living off the land.Camping in dangerous areas, defeating tough bosses, and trusting your survival instincts will inspire your character.
Folk Herois the ideal pick for any player interested in playing a morally good character in their Baldur’s Gate 3 playthrough. Their skill proficiencies are solid, consisting of two Wisdom skills that benefit from your high Wisdom modifier. The main reason to play a folk hero is for their ample inspiration sources.Folk Heroes are inspired by fighting wicked enemies, helping others, and living up to their legacy.Virtually every good deed will grant inspiration to this background type.
Survival
Animal Handling or Athletics
For skill proficiencies, clerics tend to preferskills that rely on Wisdom.Insight is the only must-have skill we recommend for this build, as it comes up fairly often during important social encounters. The other proficiencies you choose are much less impactful.Medicinecomes up on occasion and scales off Wisdom, same withSurvival.Your fourth proficiency will depend on your background.Athleticsis a good pick for resisting shoves in close-quarters combat, whileAnimal Handlingcan be handy if you don’t use the Speak with Animals spell.
14
10
15 (+1)
8
17 (+2)
Charisma
Clerics scale their spellcasting powers withWisdom,making it their most important stat. Scale this as high as possible. The other two good ability score options areStrengthandConstitution.Strength will scale the damage of most melee weapons and your saving throws against physical effects like shoves. Constitution is incredibly important since it determines your concentration saving throws, something you’ll be making quite often once you unlock Call Lightning at Level 5.Scale your Wisdom and Constitution as high as possible.Dexterity doesn’t matter as much since tempest cleric gives you proficiency with heavy armor, an armor type that doesn’t scale off your Dexterity modifier.
Hag’s Hair
If you decide to give your tempest cleric the Hag’s Hair reward from acertain Act 1 quest, you can increase an ability score by +1. Increase your Constitution score. This will allow you to take the resilient feat at a later level over war caster, granting proficiency with all Constitution saving throws.
This build takes all 12 levels as a tempest cleric with no multiclassing. You’ll gain access to Thunderwave and Create Water immediately from Level 1, allowing you to dish out some solid damage if you can make your targets wet before combat starts.Wet targets take double lightning and thunder damage, so you’ll want to cast Create Water or destroy water barrels whenever possible. Electrified surfaces also act as an amazing source of crowd control, pushing targets that enter the body of electrified water for the first time.
Level 5 is when the build starts to get powerful.Call Lightningwill unlock automatically and become your main source of damage. Get your targets into a body of water, cast the highest version of Call Lightning possible, and use your Channel Divinity to maximize its damage. This will one-shot just about every non-boss enemy in the game, and you’ll be able to repeat this every turn without expending any spell slots on Call Lightning. Paired with the cleric’s other amazing spells like Spiritual Weapon and Spirit Guardians, you’ll be dealing great damage and have the ability to heal your teammates in tough situations.Scale your Wisdom and find better armor, and you should have no issue blasting your way through the campaign.
Tadpole Powers
Illithid Power Spoilers Below
Tadpole powers make this build significantly stronger and are highly recommended if you are comfortable using them. Some good nodes includeConcentration Blast, Black Hole, Psionic Dominance, Fly, and Freecast.Most of those options are locked until a critical story moment occurs near the start of Act 3.
Black Holeis an S-tier actionand makes this build absurdly powerful. Casting this will pull all targets into a tight cluster, allowing your Call Lightning to hit every enemy at once if you have a second action via Haste.Psionic Dominanceis essentially a variant of Counterspell that doesn’t cost spell slots, andFreecastlets you cast a max-level Call Lightning without expending a spell slot once per short rest, letting you use multiple sixth-level spells without needing to rest.
Level Six
Spells are a core part of any cleric build, a tempest cleric being no exception. Unlike most spellcasters,cleric spells are all stored in their spellbook and only need to be prepared.This means that you’re able to freely swap between spells in your spellbook between combat encounters, giving the cleric a ton of flexibility.
As for good spells,Create Wateris a must on any lightning-based build. This gives you an easy way of making targets wet, doubling the damage your lightning and thunder spells deal against them.Thunderwave, Shatter, and Call Lightningare given to you automatically as you level, all of which are fantastic spells for this build. you may mix in the occasionalSpirit Guardianto demolish undead enemies as well, andSpiritual Weaponis an S-tier spell since it only costs a bonus action. For more supportive spells,any healing spell, Shield of Faith, and Heroes' Feastare all fantastic options.
Recommended Gear
Gear recommendations are for an early Act 2 character. Late-game gearing should focus more on improving your character’s mobility and survivability, dropping Lightning Charges entirely.
+1 to AC and saving throws
18AC, makes you immune to critical hits.
The Blast Pendant
Once per long rest, use your bonus action to consume all Lightning Charges, buffing the damage of your next lightning spell.
Ring #1
Gloves of Belligerent Skies
Thunder, lightning, and radiant damage inflict reverberation on targets for 2 turns.
Ring #2
The Watersparkers
Electrocutes water you’re standing on. Starting your turn on electrified ground grants 3 Lightning Charges.
Ring of Spiteful Thunder
Whenever you deal thunder damage to a reverberating target, they become dazed unless they succeed on a Constitution saving throw.
Off-Hand Weapon
The Spellsparker
+1 staff. Gain 2 Lightning Charges when you cast a cantrip or spell.
None
Tempest clerics can drastically increase their damage output with a few items found in the first two Acts. A critical pickup in Act 1 isThe Spellsparker,obtained as a quest reward for saving Counsellor Florrick.This gives youLightning Chargesfor casting cantrips and spells, increasing your lightning damage. We can get an extra three by usingThe Watersparkersand standing on water. This will give you five charges, allowing you to fully powerThe Blast Pendantamulet to greatly buff your next lightning spell cast. Be sure to useThe Sparkswallring or your boots will electrocute you.
Most of these items can be obtained during the first Act, although a few items like the Ring of Spiretful Thunder are tied to Act 2.Focus on finding a good set of heavy armor, and look out for any items that increase your spell attack rolls or spell save DC during Act 3.
