Based on the popular Dungeons and Dragons tabletop game, Baldur’s Gate 3 is a new action-adventure RPG featuring a bunch of cool classes. Two of these are Cleric and Bard.
While both classes have their pros and cons, players are often confused about which one they should go with. This detailed comparison article on Bard vs Cleric will help you decide.
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Baldur’s Gate 3 Cleric
Spells
The Cleric class has seven available sub-classes. Knowledge, Life, Light, Nature, Tempest, Trickery, and War. You unlock different spells depending on your chosen sub-class.
Other than these sub-class-specific spells, every Cleric unlocks a certain set of spells at level 1. These include:
- Bane
- Bless
- Command
- Create or Destroy Water
- Cure Wounds
- Guiding Bolt
- Healing Word
- Inflict Wounds
- Protection from Evil and Good
- Shield of Faith
Out of these, Command and Guiding Bolt are the most useful. Command lets you manipulate your enemies’ actions, making them drop their weapon or even flee the battle. While Guiding Bolt is an overpowered Evocation spell that not only deals 4-24 damage, but also grants you an advantage on the next attack roll.
When starting off, you must choose three spells to use. As such, it’s good to have one Range, one Melee, and one Supportive Spell. Guiding Bolt, Inflict Wounds, and Shield of Faith/Bane can be a good combination.
Cantrips
The Cleric class has four available Cantrips. You can pick three of these at the time of character creation. Each Cantrip provides certain bonuses to your character. Let’s discuss all four of these below.
Thaumaturgy
This is a transmutation Cantrip that boosts your Intimidation and Performance ability checks. It is limited to the user and lasts for 10 turns.
Resistance
Resistance is an abjuration Cantrip that grants you a +1d4 bonus to Saving Throws. The result? A boost in defense. This Cantrip requires concentration and lasts 10 turns as long as you maintain concentration.
Guidance
The Guidance Cantrip is a Divination Cantrip that bestows guidance upon an ally. This grants your ally a +1d4 bonus to an ability check of their choice. It requires concentration and lasts 10 turns.
Sacred Flame
The Sacred Flame is an Evocation Cantrip that deals 1d8 Radiant damage via a flame-like radiance. It has a range of 18 meters.
Ability Points
When it comes to Ability Points, a Cleric’s most important stat is Wisdom. You want this to have 16 Range Dexterity and 16 Melee Strength points. Next, look for the Constitution stat. This plays a role in spell casting as it helps preserve concentration, letting you cast more spells. Go for 14 Range Dexterity and 16 Melee Strength points here.
Finally, turn your attention towards the Strength and Dexterity stats. You want to invest a little here as well to boost melee damage and armor stats. 10 Range Dexterity and 12 Melee Strength points work well for Strength. For Dexterity, go for 16 Range Dexterity and 14 Melee Strength points.
If you still have points left after all this, invest them in Charisma. This will determine your force of personality. 10 Range Dexterity and 8 Melee Strength should be good here.
Baldur’s Gate 3 Bard
Spells
Unlike the Cleric class, the Bard class has no sub-classes when starting out. Their unique trait is a special skill known as Bard’s Inspiration. This adds additional dice rolls to Ability Checks, Attack Rolls, and Saving Throws.
This class also lets you choose four spells to use instead of three. It’s a good idea to choose at least one Range, one Melee, and one Support spell. The available spells you must choose from are:
- Bane
- Cure Wounds
- Healing Words
- Animal Friendship
- Charm Person
- Disguise Self
- Dissonant Whispers
- Faerie Fire
- Feather Fall
- Heroism
- Tasha’s Hideous Laughter
- Longstrider
- Sleep
- Speak With Animals
- Thunderwave
Tasha’s Hideous Laughter is a fun spell that forces the target to have fits of laughter, leaving them Prone and open to attacks. While Heroism gives both you and one ally a Valour buff that grants 5 Health Points for the next five turns and makes you immune to being frightened.
Cantrips
Bard’s can only choose two Cantrips to start out with. The available options are:
Vicious Mockery
Deals 1-4 damage and grants you an advantage on the next attack roll.
Blade Ward
Provides resistance against most weapon attacks.
Mage Hand
Summons a hand that can attack enemies and help move items from place to place.
True Strike
Grants advantage on the next attack roll.
Friends
Provides an advantage over Charisma Checks. But the target is aware of the influence once it ends.
Dancing Lights
Summons wisps to illuminate an area.
Light
Improves visibility by lighting up your weapon or any mushrooms you can see.
Minor Illusion
Summons illusions of the user to distract or gather enemies.
Ability Points
Your main stat as a Bard is obviously Charisma. This allows you to easily charm any creature and determines the effectiveness of your spellcasting. So aim for a point score of 16. Your next most important stat is Constitution. This is because the Constitution stat affects concentration, which is required for casting some bard spells. Again, aim for a point score of 16.
Once Charisma and Constitution are taken care of, move on to investing in Dexterity, Intelligence, and Wisdom. Aim for 14 points in Dexterity, 8 points in Intelligence, and 10 points in Wisdom.
Your least important stat is Strength. You don’t need this much as a Bard so if you’ve got the points, go ahead and invest in it. Otherwise, even a minimal score is fine.
Conclusion
Bards are more utility-based, with spells that let them Charm enemies to avoid combat. While Clerics are more combat-oriented with Healing and Damage spells. Which one you choose completely depends on you and your personal preferences. We hope this Bard vs Cleric guide helps. As always, happy gaming!
