Best Death Domain Cleric Build In BG3

The Death Cleric released with Patch 8 of Baldur’s Gate 3 is a unique subclass in its incredible range of versatility. Capable of holding its own in any situation and at any position on a battlefield, the Death Cleric is a Necrotic powerhouse capable of destroying or reviving.

With this class, you’ll be capable of killing enemies and raising them to fight on your behalf. Of course, your Necrotic powers can also be used to undo enemy strategies to heal themselves or to simply erase them from existence. But tanking everything on the frontlines is best suited for your lesser minions, no?

Best Death Cleric Races And Backgrounds

The Death Cleric is a very versatile midrange class that prefers to leave a lot of the heavy-lifting for undead summons while cleaning up the midfield with their necromantic powers.

Functionally, the best races for the Death Cleric are:

• Drow – Fey Ancestry and Superior Darkvision.
• Elf or Half-Elf (Any) – Elven Weapon Training and Fey Ancestry.
• Halfling – Lucky and Brave feats.

For Backgrounds, Backgrounds featuring a Wisdom skill will always serve you:

• Acolyte (Insight and Religion)
• Outlander (Survival and Athletics)
• Folk Hero (Survival and Animal Handling)
• Guild Artisan (Insight and Persuasion)
• Haunted One (Intimidation and Medicine)

The Dark Urge is certainly thematic for this build. While there’s nothing particularly helpful about the boons you receive as the Dark Urge, it is very fitting for this particular subclass from a roleplay perspective.

Multiclassing As A Death Cleric

The first multiclass that comes to mind as a Death Cleric is the Necromancer Wizard. While this is possible, it has just as many positives as it does negatives.

Furthermore, the Wizard class is Intelligence-based. To make Wizard spells work and gain their benefits fully, you’ll have to dump Strength, Dexterity, and Charisma to have a passable Intelligence score (or give up your hat slot for the Warped Headband Of Intellect

).

For this build, a better multiclass option might be the Fighter class. Both Battlemaster and Champion have their perks.

A good spread would be an 8:4 ratio with Cleric being the greater investment. This will give you access to a few important things:

1. Action Surge
2. Archery Fighting Style
3. Your third Ability Improvement/Feat choice

You can use the Arcane Archer for a multiclass with the Death Cleric as well. Pairing it with the Banshee Bow and using Arcane Shot: Enfeebling Arrow can be a deadly combination. However, like the wizard, your Spell Save DC will be dependent on Intelligence. You’ll have to rearrange your stats to account for this.

Best Death Cleric Spells

The spells you want for the Death Cleric class are mostly prepared for you. With Bone Chill, Vampiric Touch, Animate Dead, and Blight already fixed and available, your primary concerns are already taken care of.

Beyond those, there are a few priorities you’ll want to focus on:

1. Toll the Dead – A ranged Necromancy cantrip spell that does extra damage on injured foes. A good follow-up to Bone-chill.
2. Inflict Wounds

   – A melee Necromancy option that can be cast at higher levels for devastating damage.

3. Bursting Sinew – Can use corpses to deal area damage, helping negate some of the cons of the Cleric’s poor action economy (comparatively).
4. Spirit Guardians

   – An extremely powerful shielding spell with multiple uses and flexibility between Necrotic and Radiant damage.

There are a few other spells that can do the Cleric good. As always, healing spells like Cure Wounds

and Healing Word

are crucial.

However, many of the late-game spell slots don’t have much to offer the Death Cleric. Level 5 and Level 6 spells are not necessary for a successful Death Cleric, though extra spell slots for Inflict Wounds and Spirit Guardians are nice.

Create Undead

is very useful for this class, but it should be noted that you can already gain the spell for free via the Crypt Lord Ring. Granted how common corpses are in Act 3, it generally isn’t worth wasting the spell slot on.

Your greatest concern with spells is in Act Two.

Many enemies will be immune to Necrotic damage. Though your 6th Level class feat, Inescapable Destruction, allows you to normally damage resistant foes, you cannot overcome immunities.

Therefore, having Spirit Guardians (Radiant), Sacred Flame

, Glyph of Warding

, and a reliable melee weapon will be very important for this section.

Best Death Cleric Ability Scores And Feats

As a cleric, this subclass is a Wisdom-based caster. Although focused on Wisdom naturally, you’ll also want to grow your Constitution to increase your success in Concentration rolls.

Dexterity comes into focus as well. Although we’ll be using Heavy Armor and Dexterity won’t be used for your AC, it will be used for the bow we’ll be carrying.

Strength will be increased to a rounded number via the feat: Heavily Armored. You can take this feat either at Level 4 or Level 8 since the heavy armour we want to use is not available until post-Act Two.

Otherwise, your other two feats will feed into your Wisdom modifier by choosing in the Ability Score Increase.

We don’t want to give up the Necromancy of Thay knowledge for this class, so it’s best to keep it instead of the stat bonus.

Best Death Cleric Equipment

Equipment Type	Equipment Piece	Act Available	Effect	Method Obtained
Helm/Hat	Circle of Bones	2	Gain the ability to cast Create Undead without a spell slot. All summoned undead within 6m become Resistant to Bludgeoning, Slashing, and Piercing damage.	Dropped by Balthazar at any point in Act 2.
Armor	Reaper’s Embrace	2	Gain AC 19, the inability to be moved by force, and the ability to use Howl of the Dead which numbs foes to halve enemy movement speed and give disadvantage on saving throws for three turns.	Dropped by Ketheric Thorm at the end of Act 2.
Gauntlets	Gloves of Baneful Striking	1	Creatures have -1d4 on saving throws against your spells after striking them with a weapon attack.	Sold by Lady Esther on the Mountain Trail on the way to Rosymorn Monastery (close to Waukeen’s Rest exit).
Boots	Disintegrating Night Walkers	1	Gain free cast of Misty Step and cannot slip. Wearer cannot be Enwebbed, Ensnared, or Entangled.	Drop by defeating Nere in Grymforge.
	Helldusk Boots	3	Cannot be forcibly moved and ignore the effects of Difficult Terrain. Additionally, gain the ability to auto-succeed on a Saving Throw you failed and to teleport while dealing 2d8 Fire damage where you land in a 3m radius.	Found in a chest in Wyrm’s Rock in Gortash’s room.
Cape	Cloak of the Weave	3	Gain +1 to spell attack rolls and Spell Save DC. When taking elemental damage, take half damage and deal 1d6 of that damage type on your next attack.	Sold by Helsik at the Devil’s Fee.
Ring #1	Ring of Exalted Marrow	2	Gain Ghoulish Touch (a Necromancy cantrip that may paralyze) and Exhort the Risen (Command for Undead).	Inside a chest at the top of Moonrise Towers; available post-Ketheric Thorm first fight.
Ring #2	Crypt Lord Ring	3	Gain a free Create Undead spell.	Given by Thrumbo after completing the Free the Artist questline and defeating the Mystic Carrion.
Amulet	Amulet of the Devout	3	Gain +2 to your Spell Save DC and an additional Channel Divinity charge.	Inside the offering chest under the Stormshore Tabernacle (in the basement).
Melee Hand Weapon	Staff of Cherished Necromancy	3	Deals +1d4 Necrotic damage. Creatures have disadvantage against your Necromancy spells. When you kill a creature, you can absorb its essence to gain a free spell slot for any single Necromancy spell.	Dropped by the Mystic Carrion.
Off-Hand Shield	Shield of the Undevout	3	Gain an additional 1st Level spell slot and +2AC. Additionally, creatures have disadvantage against your spells and actions that cause Fear.	Dropped by That Which Guards outside the Murder Tribunal doors.
Ranged Weapon	Bow of the Banshee	1	Chance to inflict fear with every strike.	Sold by Corsair Greymoon in Grymforge.

Much of the wanted gear for this class is unfortunately not found until late in Act Two and beyond. The Death Cleric will have to make it work until the appropriate items become available.

Some early game items that you can use in the meantime are:

1. Broodmother’s Revenge

   – Dropped by Kagha, it poisons your weapon after you’ve been healed.

2. Strange Conduit Ring

   – Found in a chest in the Inquisitor’s Chamber at Creche Y’llek, it increases your damage by 1d4 Psychic while concentrating on a spell.

However, the list of equipment above allows you to do a few things.

For your undead summons,

1. You can summon and create undead without using your spell slots.
2. Your summoned undead are stronger and more resistant when supporting you.

Abyss Beckoners

can be really useful as well by giving resistance to all damage (except Psychic) for your summons regardless of distance. However, it comes with a caveat of making your creatures go Mad and turn against you. For us, it is too much of a risk, but it’s tempting for those willing to make it work.

When it comes to your Necromancies,

1. You’ll have an additional Channel Divinity charge for extra Necrotic Damage.
2. The Ring of Exalted Marrow will give you a melee Necromancy cantrip that also paralyzes.
3. Creatures will have Disadvantage and -1d4 against saving throws for your Necromancy spells.
4. You’ll absorb enemy life forces to have additional spell slots for Necromancies.
5. You’ll have Advantage on spell attack rolls against Numbed enemies.
6. You’ll have a higher Spell Save DC and an additional 1st level spell slot.

The final piece of this puzzle is the fear bonus.

The Cleric is a midranged option that can play in melee but should really stand back for the safety of the whole team. Since Divine Strike requires the use of melee weapons, this build focuses on using the Bow of the Banshee to create openings.

With the Shield of the Undevout included, you can strike enemies for extra Necrotic damage and have Advantage on locking them in place with Fear. The Gloves of Baneful Striking also reduces their chances of success against Fear by 1d4.

By locking them in place, you can:

• Prevent swarms from overcoming your Cleric
• Grant advantage to Attack Rolls for your summons
• Leave the door open for either a ranged Necromancy spell or the opportunity to close distance with Spirit Guardians active

How To Use A Death Cleric – Battle Tips, Strategy, And Analysis

By the conclusion of the game, your Death Cleric should look similar to:

The primary strategy of the Death Cleric is to create openings and become a midrange support for the team. Granted, you can play this class solo, but that’s not where it most easily shines.

As with many spellcasting classes, the Death Cleric struggles in the early game with poor hit-rates and offensive versatility.

You’ll likely spend most of your time using Chill Touch

to shut down healing potion regenerations and clearing small clustered groups.

As you evolve in strength, however, the Death Cleric will get its hands on better weapons, Spirit Guardians

, and Animate Dead

.

The primary strategy with a Death Cleric is to loosely follow these guidelines:

1. Summon undead minions pre-fight.
2. Cast Spirit Guardians (Necrotic, unless in Act 2).
3. Use your Bow to frighten opponents and lock them in place.
4. Use Toll the Dead as a ranged cantrip option as your undead swarm. Spirit Guardians will keep other unwanted enemies away.

There will be times when you’ll either be forced into or prefer to be in melee. In these instances, you can use your melee weapon with Divine Strike and Channel Divinity: Touch of Death to deal punishing damage.

When you’re out of Channel Divinities and need to do higher levels of damage, you can always turn to a high-level cast of Inflict Wounds

or your Ghoulish Touch.

If you’re facing an opponent immune to Fear, you can alternatively prepare Hold Person

. This will also be a great opening for your own melee attacks since a creature under Hold Person will always receive critical damage from melee hits.

As a Cleric, you’ll still be responsible for healing other teammates (unless your only teammates are undead!) and laying on curses and debuffs to enemies to provide openings for your allies.

With the ability to heal, stun, reanimate, and fight at melee or range, this extremely versatile class is a jack-of-all-trades that is a solid choice for any team.