No matter what god you pray to, the Cleric class in Baldur’s Gate 3 is an immensely powerful caster. With access to a huge selection of armor, fantastic spells, and some of the most exclusive healing in the game, you can’t go wrong with choosing a Cleric as the one to spam Healing Word in your party. So, getting a firm foundation of the correct race and ability score setup is quite crucial for your highly effective support caster.
The Cleric is a highly defensive support caster in Baldur’s Gate 3. By default, Clerics have an immensely powerful spell list that, what it lacks in damage, it more than makes up for in healing and buffs. They have slightly weaker problem-solving spells than their Wizard or Sorcerer allies but have options outside of combat that are unique—for example, using Lesser Restoration to cure a paralyzed Tiefling.
Here are the best races and ability scores for the Cleric class in Baldur’s Gate 3.
Best races for the Cleric in BG3
Our favorite race for the Cleric class in Baldur’s Gate 3 is the Gold Dwarf. Getting high health, proficiency in a few fantastic melee martial weapons, and a particularly common resistance to Poison is very good for early-game situations. The slow movement speed is a bummer, but you can make up for that with aggressive spells and cantrips to pepper enemies on your approach. That being said, several other race options can make for a good Cleric.
Gold Dwarves allow a class to safely lower Constitution without sacrificing health. While the stubby movement speed and specific resistance can be situationally poor, Darkvision and HP should never be ignored.
That being said, there are quite a few races that make for very strong Clerics. These include:
- Wood Elves and Wood Half-Elves give the Cleric strong weapon proficiencies and allow them to move closer to the frontlines without issue. Of the two, Wood Elves are superior as they provide the incredibly useful Perception proficiency that makes the Cleric able to see basically anything they want outside of combat.
- Half Orcs can allow weapon-oriented Clerics to deal massive damage on a crit. They also keep themselves from getting knocked out, a huge boon for a class that can heal itself.
- Drow give the Cleric the all-important Perception proficiency, Superior Darkvision, and training with quite a few powerful Dexterity-based weapons.
- Githyanki, while wasting their frankly amazing armor proficiencies, give fine Strength weapon proficiency as well as useful out-of-combat cantrips.
Any race can make a theoretically powerful Cleric, though. The Gnome, for instance, protects the Cleric from mental saving throws while providing either utility in cantrips, History checks, or Superior Darkvision. You can find synergies in most races, thanks to ability scores no longer being tied to them. We simply prefer the more defensive races, or races that can offer the Cleric more cogent out-of-combat abilities.
Related: Baldur’s Gate 3 class tier list
Best ability scores for the Cleric in BG3
The best ability scores for a standard Cleric are Strength 10, Dexterity 14, Constitution 16, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 16, and Charisma eight. If your Domain has Heavy Armor Proficiency, then you can get away with Strength 16, Dexterity 10, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 16, and Charisma eight. If your Domain is a Medium Armor domain and will eventually want you to swing a weapon, such as the Trickery domain, you’ll want to consider Strength 10, Dexterity 16, Constitution 14, Intelligence 10, Wisdom 16, and Charisma eight.
Well, that’s a bit of a weird setup, no? Let’s talk about why we’ve chosen the stats we did.
- If your Cleric is in Medium Armor, then 14 Dexterity should be your minimum. That locks your Medium Armor to the plus-two maximum and puts your AC as high as possible. That’s important for a Cleric since being targeted and taking damage risks your Concentration or, even worse, puts you at risk of being knocked down. That’s a big issue for the class responsible for picking everyone off the ground.
Related: How Concentration works in DnD 5E
- If your Domain is a weapon-based domain, you want Strength or Dexterity at 16. Some domains, at level eight, give you an extra d8 to damage with each weapon swing. You want to be able to consistently hit with weapons at that point since you’ll otherwise waste some damage. Magical weapons will likely hit harder than Sacred Flame. The domains that want to use weapons—and the ones that grant Heavy Armor proficiency and thus lessen the importance of Dexterity—include:
- Life (Heavy Armor)
- Trickery
- Nature (Heavy Armor)
- Tempest (Heavy Armor)
- War (Heavy Armor)
- If you’re fine with the lower damage of the Rapier, Dexterity tends to be the stronger option. DEX saving throws are more common than any other save, and they also let you roll higher on Initiative. The Rapier allows you to use Dexterity for damage and lets you keep a Shield on, which is very nice. But if your goal is to use a Greatsword to tear your enemies in half, then keep that Strength high.
- If your Domain is not weapon-based, then you can keep your Strength or Dexterity lower. Cantrips will hit very hard come level eight—adding your Wisdom mod to damage—meaning you aren’t as reliant as other Clerics on weapons. For these two domains—Light and Knowledge—14 Dexterity and 16 Constitution should be your stat spread for physical stats.
- Wisdom is your highest priority, but don’t ignore Constitution. Wisdom is how Clerics force enemies into terrible situations with spells like Hold Person, Guiding Bolt, and Spiritual Weapon. But if you want your Cleric to consistently buff, you’re going to be rolling Concentration saving throws. For that, Constitution is a must-have. Not to mention, you really want your Cleric to stay conscious for the whole fight when possible, so extra HP is nice.
- Intelligence and Charisma do close to nothing for a Cleric and are safe to lower as wanted. We like to keep Intelligence at 10 for Religion checks if you have no better option, but feel free to dump it to eight to raise either Strength or Dexterity to 12. Especially for Strong, heavy-armor Clerics, having that plus-one to Initiative might come in handy.
