The Beating Heart - Shadowheart
"My faith will guide me."
Shadowheart is a Life Domain Cleric, curing her friends and allies of whatever ails them. This build is a pure support build, with an emphasis on healing and on-heal effects.
Gameplay Notes
Pretty much a utility healer through and through. This build can have insane survivability if you keep Sanctuary up during fights, which is doable as a pure support. Even when your party is at full health, so many items have helpful on-heal effects (Bless and Blade Ward, essentially) that it may be helpful to throw out a Mass Healing Word regardless. This is a great build to cast Warding Bond with as well.
The build feels like it comes online really early in the game (like before the Tiefling/Goblin party...), and it stays relevant throughout. Stronger items and taking feats help, but the primary benefit comes from good Channel Divinity scaling. It's simple, but effective, and probably a large part of the reason Shadowheart is such a popular companion.
Stats and Leveling
Final build: Level 12 Life Domain Cleric
Shadowheart’s (default) stats: STR 13 / DEX 13 / CON 14 / INT 10 / WIS 17 / CHA 8
Level 1 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 1
- Cantrips: Guidance, Sacred Flame, Resistance
- 1st Level Spells [Command is useful throughout the entire game]
Level 2 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 2
- Channel Divinity [the best one in the game, in my opinion]
Level 3 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 3
- 2nd Level Spells
Level 4 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 4
- Feat: War Caster
- Cantrips: add Thaumaturgy
Level 5 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 5
- 3rd Level Spells [Spirit Guardians is great even though the build isn’t optimized around it]
Level 6 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 6
- Blessed Healer [a better version of the Ring of Salving]
Level 7 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 7
- 4th Level Spells [I don’t love any of the 4th Level Spells and mostly use this for upcasting]
Level 8 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 8
- Feat ASI+ DEX>14, WIX>18
Level 9 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 9
- 5th Level Spells
Level 10 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 10
- Divine Intervention [obviously SUPER powerful, I usually use mine in the House of Hope]
- Cantrip: add Light
Level 11 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 11
- 6th Level Spells [Heroes’ Feast is awesome]
Level 12 - Cleric (Life Domain) Level 12
- ASI+ WIS>20
Items
Armor - Adamantine Splint Armour (1 Grymforge)
Melee Weapon -
- Selune's Spear of Night (2 Nightsong)
- Viconia's Walking Fortress (3 House of Grief)
Ranged Weapon - n/a
Amulet - Amulet of Restoration (1 Myconid Colony)
Helmet - Wapira's Crown (1 Emerald Grove)
Ring 1 - The Whispering Promise (1 Emerald Grove)
Ring 2 - Ring of Salving (1 Myconid Colony)
Gloves -
- Hellrider's Pride (1 Emerald Grove)
- The Reviving Hands (3 Stormshore Tabernacle)
Boots - Boots of Aid and Comfort (1 Goblin Camp)
Cloak - Vivacious Cloak (2 Grand Mausoleum)
Lore and Flavor
Moreso than any other character, Shadowheart's narrative begets a major respec at the end of Act 2 (previously, I build her like The Dark Justiciar), and it's not just a new hairstyle: "The Shadowheart I thought I was would never have even dreamed of defying the Lady Shar. I'm a stranger to myself." This build technically works from the moment you can respec into it... but why would you rob yourself of the true power of her character growth? The items with on-heal effects still fit her character throughout Act 1 and 2 without the full respec, so you're only missing the (albeit very potent) Channel Divinity Heal that Life Domain Clerics get. Worth it, in my opinion.
Onto the lore itself. The strongest (if not only) piece of identity that Shadowheart maintains throughout the entire game, regardless of narrative choices, is her skill as a healer. Part of that is inherent to being a Cleric, of course, but we know Shadowheart is considered a skilled healer even compared to other Sharran Clerics thanks to this note in the House of Grief. My allegiance to Life Domain reflects this natural skill as a healer as well as the fact that Life Domain is actually a domain of Selune (Light Domain is not, unfortunately). If we had a Twilight Domain in game, I would be tempted to make use of that as well.
A note about The Blood of Lathander: This is a very powerful item in Shadowheart's hands. If you can get over the fact that it's another deity's relic, then it's a great main hand weapon. I personally go back and forth about it, and decided not to include it here, prioritizing Selune's Spear of Night instead.