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 the best support class 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 16 (+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. 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.
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.
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.
