Cleric (Trickery Domain) Build Guide for Baldur’s Gate 3

Trickery Domain Cleric Build and Guide

Trickery Domain Clerics are able to boost any stealth-based allies significantly and are a great asset to many team comps.

Their ability to greatly buff and heal allies, while also weakening and locking down foes makes them one of the most well-rounded support classes.

In general, Clerics are one of the best support classes in Baldur’s Gate 3 (the Bard has a strong argument too).

You’re also able to choose which deity you follow, allowing for various dialogue options depending on who you picked.

Find out where the Cleric ranks in our Baldur’s Gate 3 class tier list.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Increased survivability due to abilities such as Invoke Duplicity and Mirror Image
• Great buffers for Stealth characters
• Decent dialogue abilities with Disguise Self and Charm Person

Cons

• Don’t have as much healing, damage, or tankiness as other Cleric subclasses
• Somewhat lackluster combat abilities in comparison to utility
• Many spells require Concentration

Trickery Domain Clerics are able to heal allies, weaken enemies, and enhance any stealth characters on your team.

They can give bonuses to Stealth Checks with Blessing of the Trickster and Pass without Trace, making them a wonderful pairing with stealth classes such as Rangers or Rogues.

Additionally, they also have access to a wide variety of Cleric spells and Channel Divinity Charges. This empowers them with a wide variety of supportive capabilities.

A Trickery Domain Cleric’s main issue lies with their Domain Features and actions. Many of their abilities require Concentration. This includes cantrips such as Resistance and Guidance as well as the spells Shield of Faith, Bane and Command.

While this isn’t a problem in itself, it does limit the amount of utility you will have while playing as you can only concentrate on one ability at a time. Additionally, their best Domain Spell, Mirror Image, only applies to themself and they cannot give the added Armour Class (AC) to their allies.

Meanwhile, Life Domain and Light Domain Clerics have access to Class Spells that deal more damage or support all their allies, regardless of class, better.

Races

The best Cleric race depends on your playstyle. There aren’t currently any Wisdom-based Race Traits, so having Wisdom modifiers isn’t a contributing factor. The best Cleric race depends on if you’d like to be a Strength Cleric or Dexterity Cleric.

• Strength Cleric – Gold Dwarf
  • Dwarven Toughness, Darkvision, and Dwarven Resilience
  • Battleaxe Proficiency, Light Hammer Proficiency, and Warhammer Proficiency
• Dexterity Cleric – Wood Elf
  • Darkvision and Fey Ancestry
  • Shortsword Proficiency and Longbow Proficiency

If you’d like to use a bow for your ranged attacks, then I recommend High or Wood Elves. Choosing one of these races will give you Longbow Proficiency, which will help your ranged damage. If you’d like to be more tanky then choosing Gold Dwarf is better.

Their sub-race trait, Dwarven Toughness, gives you an additional 1 HP every time you level up. Dwarven Resilience gives them an advantage on saving throws against Poison, and you have resistance against Poison damage.

Stats, Backgrounds, and Proficiencies

As a Cleric, your highest Ability Score should be Wisdom since it’s your Ability Modifier. Another important reason is the higher your Wisdom is, the more spells you can have as it’s your Level + your Wisdom Modifier.

So since you’re going to be Level 1, if your Wisdom is 17 (+3), you’ll be able to prepare 4 Spells. Your second highest Ability Score should be Constitution, as it increases your base HP, allowing you to stay in fights a lot easier.

The rest of your Ability Points are allocated depending on what your race is. If you’re playing a Dexterity Wood Elf, then your Dexterity should be at 14.

If you chose a Strength Gold Dwarf, then Strength should be at 14. For either route, I recommend giving yourself an additional +2 Wisdom and +1 Constitution in the Ability tab. Your Ability Scores should look something like this:

The best Cleric backgrounds provide Wisdom skills for your character.

• Recommended backgrounds
  • Folk Hero: Animal Handling & Survival
  • Acolyte: Insight & Religion
  • Guild Artisan: Insight & Persuasion
  • Hermit: Medicine & Religion

When choosing your skills, selecting anything with Wisdom or Dexterity/Strength will be optimal. I recommend choosing Insight, Survival, Perception, and Medicine.

Recommended Spells and Abilities

Trickery Domain Clerics are able to pick 3 Cantrips and 4 Spells at Level 1. I recommend choosing Guidance, Sacred Flame, and Light or Resistance.

Best Level 1 Trickery Domain Cleric Cantrips

• Guidance
  • Guidance gives a 1d4 bonus to Ability Checks. This is an insanely good Cantrip for dialogue, as it can give you a +1-4 Bonus on your Charisma rolls.
• Sacred Flame
  • Sacred Flame conjures a flame that does 1d8 Radiant Damage. While this Cantrip doesn’t deal a ton of damage, it’s the only damage Cantrip that Clerics are able to choose.

• Light
  • Light allows you to infuse an object with light. I only recommend picking this spell if your Race doesn’t have Darkvision, and/or if you know your party members will not have Darkvision. If most of your party has darkvision, then choose Resistance as your third Cantrip instead.
• Resistance
  • Resistance boosts a Characters defense, making it receive a +1d4 bonus to Saving Throws. This is just a generally good Cantrip, and will help your allies survive longer.

Level 1

For your Level 1 Spells, I recommend picking Bless, Healing Word, Guiding Bolt, and Command.

• Bless: Gives up to 3 allies within a 9m radius a +1d4 bonus to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws. This is a really strong support spell, since it lets you boost damage and survivability for multiple allies in one action.
• Healing Word: Healing Word heals any ally (as long as your vision of them isn’t interrupted) within an 18m radius. You can revive and heal allies with this spell from a distance and it’s a Bonus Action, so you can still attack in the same turn. I don’t recommend taking Cure Wounds, as you’re forced to be in melee range in order to heal your allies.
• Guiding Bolt: Guiding Bolt summons a bolt of light that deals 4d6 Radiant Damage and gives advantage on the next Attack Roll against the target. This spell does a lot of damage and buffs your allies’ attacks.
• Command: Command gives you the ability to directly order a target to do various actions such as: Flee, Drop, and Grovel. With this spell, you could Command an enemy to drop their weapon in battle or knock themselves Prone. This gives advantage to your allies.

You also gain the Domain spells Blessing of the Trickster, Charm Person, and Disguise Self at Level 1. Blessing of the Trickster gives one creature advantage on Stealth checks.

Charm Person allows you to Charm a humanoid to gain advantage on Ability Checks in dialogue and stop them from attacking you. Be careful, however, as your Charmed target can become angry at you for Charming them. Disguise Self lets you disguise yourself as a different Race and Gender.

You can sometimes get Race-specific dialogue options, which could make your communication easier.

Level 2

At Level 2, you acquire one new Level 1 spell, Turn Undead, Invoke Duplicity, and Inflict Wounds. Turn Undead forces each undead that can see or hear you to run away. This spell can be very good when you’re fighting large groups of undead enemies (which happens more than you’d think).

It allows you to get a bit of space and time to strategize better, providing your party with the ability to pick off enemies. Invoke Duplicity summons an illusion that distracts enemies and gives an advantage on attack rolls if both attacker and the illusion are within 3m of it.

You should pick Inflict Wounds as your new Level 1 Spell. Inflict Wounds is a melee spell that does 3d10 Necrotic damage. While you might not be in melee range often (depending on Cleric type), you can do some serious damage with this Spell so I recommend always having it.

Level 3

Once you reach Level 3, you’ll gain two Level 2 Spells. Your Domain also gives you new Spells, Mirror Image and Pass without Trace.

Mirror Image creates 3 duplicates of yourself that distract attackers. Additionally, each duplicate increases your AC by 3.

Whenever you dodge an attack, one of the duplicates disappears. Pass without Trace gives all nearby allies a +10 bonus to Stealth checks. Both of these Spells are decently good, as a +10 bonus is an absolutely incredible augment for characters who can take advantage of it.

For your new Level 2 Spells, I recommend choosing Hold Person and Enhance Ability. Hold Person locks down any humanoid creature, making it unable to move or act. This removes powerful enemies from combat, and all attacks against them are guaranteed to be a Critical Hit.

Enhance Ability gives an advantage on Ability Checks with the chosen Ability. You can use this spell both in combat and exploration, and it’s a considerable buff for your party.

Level 4

When choosing your Feat at Level 4, I recommend choosing Ability Improvement. This Feat lets you improve your Wisdom to 18, causing your Spells to do more damage and heal more.

Increasing your Wisdom also makes it more difficult for enemies to pass Saving Throws against your abilities. You should choose Aid as your new Spell, as it heals and increases the hit point maximum of nearby allies.

Level 5

At Level 5, you should choose Spirit Guardians and Mass Healing Word as your new Level 3 Spells. Mass Healing Word heals up to six creatures, and is basically just an advanced version of Healing Word.

Spirit Guardians calls for Guardians that circle and follow you, causing nearby enemies to take 3d8 Radiant damage or 3d8 Necrotic damage per turn. Nearby enemies’ movement speed is halved.

As a Trickery Domain Cleric, you automatically get Bestow Curse and Fear. Both of these Level 3 Spells are good at de-buffing enemies, as they both give enemies disadvantages. At this point, your spell list should look like this:

Feel free to try out different spells at any point, as you can fully edit your spells at any time.

Level 6

When you reach Level 6, you’ll gain a new Level 3 Spell. For your Level 3 Spell, I recommend picking Glyph of Warding. This spell allows you to cast a giant circular glyph on the ground.

If an enemy walks over it, then depending on the element of the glyph, different things can happen. This includes large AoE elemental damage, pushing enemies back, and putting enemies to Sleep.

Allies can be hit by the AoE caused by enemies standing on the glyph, so be careful with positioning. It’s also important to consider that placing it before you start combat is a good idea as you won’t have to use any actions.

Level 7

Upon reaching Level 7, you’ll gain new Trickery Domain Spells and a new Level 4 Spell. Your new Domain Spells are as follows.

• Level 7 Trickery Domain Spells
  • Polymorph: Transform a creature into a sheep. If the sheep’s hit points drop to 0, the target reverts to its original form with its original hit points. This is a great single-target CC ability and you’ll be able to effectively render any single enemy useless during a fight, allowing you to shift your focus to other opponents.
  • Dimension Door: Teleport yourself and up to 1 adjacent ally to a place you can see. The ally cannot be larger than medium. This is a great tool for movement and can get you and your ally out of a sticky situation.

The best Level 4 Spell is Guardian of Faith. This spell calls forth a divine guardian that attacks nearby enemies. Every time it deals damage, the guardian loses an equal amount of hit points. Using this spell as a zoning tool is a great idea, especially in narrow areas where enemies are forced to walk through.

Levels 8 and 9

At Levels 8 and 9, you’ll gain a new Feat, Divine Strike: Poison, Domain Spells, and a New Level 4 and Level 5 Spell. For your Feat, I recommend choosing Ability Improvement so you can make your Wisdom 20. Divine Strike: Poison allows you to deal 1d8 Poison damage in addition to your weapon’s attack damage when you make a melee attack once per turn.

You gain new Domain Spells and more Spell Slots. I recommend the following spells.

• Domain Spells
  • Dominate Person
    • Make a humanoid fight alongside you. Every time the creature takes damage, it makes a Wisdom Saving Throw against your domination. This spell allows you to make any humanoid creature fight as if they were an ally, including bosses. Important note as of Patch #3, dominated enemies have a bug where they’ll attack themselves and possibly break the domination.
  • Seeming
    • Disguise up to 4 members of your adventuring party. You can use this spell to sneak into areas that you’re not allowed into or get new dialogue choices. This can also be used to allow you to benefit from Equipment that offer racial bonuses.
• Level 4 Spells
  • Freedom of Movement
    • Prevents your allies from being affected by most Crowd Control effects. Difficult Terrain can’t slow them down, and they can’t be magically Paralyzed or Restrained. If the target is Restrained by non-magical means, it can spend 1.5m of movement to free itself. This is one of the best supportive spells in the game as you can effectively make the enemy’s crowd control obsolete. In Act 2, there are many sections with vines that can root your allies so this spell will be handy during those sections.
  • Death Ward
    • Protect a creature from death. The next time damage would reduce it to 0 hit points, it remains conscious with 1 hit point left. This spell can really turn the tides of any difficult battle since it can keep allies in battle long enough to heal them during a subsequent turn.
• Level 5 Spells
  • Mass Cure Wounds
    • Unleash a soothing hum of energy that heals you and nearby allies for 3d8+4 healing. It’s the best healing spell in the game, the range is huge and it heals a lot for multiple allies.
    • Flame Strike
      • Make a pillar of divine fire roar that hits 5d6 Fire Damage + 5d6 Radiant Damage. This spell does an insane amount of damage in a good AoE and can damage a large amount of enemies at once.

At this point, your spellbook can look something like this.

Level 10

Once you reach Level 10, you’ll get access to a new Cantrip, a Level 5 Spell Slot, and Divine Intervention. Divine Intervention lets you call upon your chosen deity for a miracle. This can only be done once per game, and can never be used again.

Levels 11 and 12

At Levels 11 and 12, you get your last Feat and are able to choose two more spells. For your final Feat, I recommend choosing War Caster since your Wisdom is already 20.

This Feat allows you Advantage on Saving Throws to maintain Concentration on a spell and you can also use a reaction to cast Shocking Grasp at a target moving out of melee range. Since so many Cleric spells require Concentration, having this Advantage will help you keep your spells up longer.

For your new Spells, I recommend picking Hero’s Feast and Planar Ally. Hero’s Feast is a spell that causes all your allies to be immune to being poisoned, diseased, or frightened. Your HP increases, and you make Wisdom Saves with Advantage.

These buffs last until Long Rest. This spell also summons a temporary Feast Supplies container containing Camp Supplies. Planar Ally summons an otherworldly entity that fights for you.

You’re able to choose from a cambion, deva, and djinni. All of these different species have different abilities and attacks, and stay summoned until they die or Long Rest.

Equipment

Depending on your Cleric type, you’ll want to prioritize finding different weapons than your starter ones. If you’re playing a Dexterity Cleric, then equipping a Longbow is going to be your first priority. Your melee weapons should be a Short Sword and Studded Shield.

If you chose a Strength Cleric, then your load-out should be a Warhammer and Studded Shield. If you don’t fit into either of these groups, then pick a Mace and Studded Shield.

You should always be wearing Medium Armor as a Cleric. The best Medium Armor in Early Access is Scale Mail and Githyanki Half Plate. You can find Scale Mail in trader’s shops, and you can either use Lae’zel’s Githyanki Half Plate or fight the Githyanki Patrol near Waukeen’s Rest.

For more Act 1 options, check out our article on where to find all the best Equipment in Act 1.

However, once you get into Act II or III it isn’t a bad idea to switch out your gear. Some items I would recommend are as follows:

• Adamantine Scale Mail: Found in the Grymforge, during The Adamantine Forge Quest.
• Armour of Agility: Sold by Gloomy Fentonson at Stormshore Armoury in Act III.
• Dark Justiciar Half-Plate: Obtained inside the Silent Library in the Gauntlet of Shar.
• Yuan-Ti Scale Mail: Sold by Quartermaster Talliin in Last Light Inn.
• Helldusk Armour: Found in the House of Hope.
• Shield of Devotion: Sold by Quartermaster Talliin in Last Light Inn.
• Shield of the Undevout: Found in the Bhaalist Crypt.
• Viconia’s Walking Fortress: Found in the House of Grief.
• The Blood of Lathander: Found after solving the puzzle in the Gith Creche.
• Cerebral Citadel Gloves: Found inside Emperor’s old hideout.
• Mantle of the Holy Warrior: Sold by Vicar Humbletoes at the Stormshore Tabernacle.

The Armor of Agility is a Medium Armor that you can buy for 2900 gold. It has the ability, Exotic Material, which adds your Dexterity modifier to your AC, allowing you to be better in combat.

Additionally, you will likely have decent Dexterity, meaning that you will be able to take advantage of this bonus. As an added benefit, the armor gives you +2 to Saving Throws and does not provide you with Disadvantage on Stealth Checks. Adamantine Scale Mail reduces all incoming damage by 1 due to its passive Magical Plate.

It also sends any attackers reeling for 2 turns if they hit you with a melee attack. Reeling gives enemies a -1 penalty to attack rolls againt anyone.

The Dark Justiciar Half-Plate gives the wearer an Advantage on Stealth Checks, which is really nice for Trickery Domain Clerics so you can sneak around easily. You also gain Advantage on Constitution Saving Throws and can access the spell Shar’s Aegis.

This spell is a Bonus Action that increases your AC by +2 and is broken by Concentration. Yuan-Ti Scale Mail can be purchased in Act 2 and has the Exotic Material stat, which adds your Dexterity modifier to your AC and negates the Disadvantage on Stealth Checks. While wearing it, you’ll also gain a +1 bonus to Initiative Rolls.

Helldusk Armor is found in the House of Hope after defeating Raphael. When wearing this armor, you’re considered Proficient in heavy armor and it has 21 AC. When you succeed in a spell Saving Throw, the enemy who cast the spell gets burned for 3 rounds. You also have Resistance to fire damage and you cannot be burned and also take 3 less damage from all sources.

The Shield of Devotion grants you an additional Level 1 Spell Slot, Shield Bash, and the spell Aid. Shield Bash procs when a foe hits you with a melee attack. When this happens, you can use a reaction to knock them Prone unless they succeed in a Dexterity Saving Throw.

Shield of the Undevout grants you Dreadful Hewer, which makes your enemies have Disadvantage on Saving Throws to resist your spells or actions that inflict Fear. Many of the Trickery Domain Cleric’s spells inflict Fear, so this passive increases your chances of them taking effect. You also gain an additional Level 2 Spell Slot and Shield Bash.

Viconia’s Walking Fortress is a shield that gives the wearer Rebuke of the Mighty, Spellguard, Reflective Shield, and the spell Warding Bond. Rebuke of the Mighty acts the same as Shield Bash, except it also deals 2-8 Force damage.

Spellguard gives you an Advantage on Saving Throws against spells and spell Attack Rolls against you have Disadvantage. Reflective Shield reflects any projectiles targeted at you back to their point of origin and is a Bonus Action.

Cerebral Citadel Gloves grants you the passive Illithid Euphoria, which gives you a 1d4 bonus to Attack Rolls and Saving Throws when you Charm or Frighten a creature. Lastly, the Mantle of the Holy Warrior gives you the spell Crusader’s Mantle. This spell radiates a holy power that emboldens nearby allies and causes their weapon attacks to deal an additional 1d4 Radiant damage.

Conclusion

Domain of Trickery Clerics are definitely the most diverse subclass of Cleric within Baldur’s Gate 3 so far due to their access to healing, damage and ability-enhancing Spells. Where they fall off in any of these abilities, they make up for with their specific aptitude towards buffing and enabling stealth classes.