Baldur's Gate 3: Best Death Domain Cleric Build

As of the release of Patch 8 for Baldur's Gate 3, you can now play as a Death Domain cleric. Also called the final patch for BG3, Patch 8 was released on April 15, 2025, to all players across all platforms. Patch 8 includes several massive changes, including a new photo mode, full crossplay, and support for Steam trading cards. But perhaps more importantly, Patch 8 also introduces 12 subclasses from the wider world of Dungeons & Dragons sourcebooks and expansions - one for each class it includes.

For the cleric, that's the Death Domain. Death is a fairly curious domain for clerics, who are usually associated with healing, buffing, and debuffing. Death Domain, though, is more akin to a School of Necromancy wizard: when playing as a character of this subclass, your main focus will be on raising the dead, and sending your enemies to meet them. You'll gain tons of Necromancy spells, and a wide variety of features to boost their efficacy and strengthen your undead army. Here's everything you need to know about the Death Domain subclass as it works in Baldur's Gate 3.

Death Domain Cleric Subclass In BG3 Explained

All Death Domain Features & Abilities

Again, the Death Domain cleric's main focus is on Necromancy. Like other cleric subclasses, you choose it at level one, and you get new domain spells for every subsequent odd-numbered level (except 11). The primary benefit of domain spells is that they're always prepared. Besides that, you get a handful of features to aid you in the process of raising the dead and casting more powerful Necromancy spells. The table below includes every feature you unlock by leveling up as a Death Domain cleric.

Level	Feature
1	Martial weapons proficiency
	Reaper: Necromancy cantrips that only target one creature can target two.
	Domain Spells: Bone Chill, False Life, Ray of Sickness
2	Touch of Death: Whenever you hit a creature with a melee attack, spend one of your Channel Divinity charges to deal additional Necrotic damage. You get one Channel Divinity charge at level 2, and one at level 6; all charges are restored on a Long or Short Rest.
3	Domain Spells: Blindness, Ray of Enfeeblement
4	N/A
5	Domain Spells: Animate Dead, Vampiric Touch
6	Inescapable Destruction: Your damage ignores the target's resistance to Necrotic damage.
7	Domain Spells: Blight, Death Ward (prevents target from dying once)
8	Divine Strike: Deal an additional 1d8 Necrotic damage on a weapon attack, once per turn.
9	Domain Spells: Cloudkill, Contagion

As you can see, the grand majority of spells here are Necromancy spells. As a Death Domain cleric, you'll spend a lot of time dealing Necrotic damage, and your base features ensure that you can deal more than other characters with access to the same sets of spells. For example, Reaper will let you cast spells like Bone Chill at multiple targets. When you hit level 6, you'll start ignoring Necromancy resistance, too, which will be immensely helpful in the later chapters of the game.

In conjunction with the base cleric features, Death Domain will effectively give you full dominion over any and all undead creatures. You can force any undead enemies to flee from you using Turn Undead, then blow them up with Destroy Undead. You can then create a few zombies of your own beginning at level 5 with Animate Dead.

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My go-to strategy as a Death Domain cleric is to stand back in the early stages of a fight, dealing damage with Necromancy spells. Once a few enemies have been killed, cast Animate Dead, and use the creepy-crawlies you've summoned to annoy and overwhelm your enemies. Flying ghouls in particular are highly mobile, so they're great for overwhelming distant enemies while you continue taking potshots with your Necromancy spells.

The creatures you can reanimate don't deal a ton of damage, but what they do very well is inflict status effects. Ghouls can paralyze your enemies, while zombies can infect them with the Crawling Gnaw, a disease that transforms them into even more zombies if they die while it's active.

Best Build For Death Domain Clerics In Baldur's Gate 3

Best Stats For A Death Domain Cleric

Shadowheart with the cleric symbol behind her and two backgrounds from Baldur's Gate 3

When it comes to dividing up your Ability Scores, you'll want your Death Domain cleric to have an especially high Wisdom score. Wisdom is the cleric's spellcasting modifier, so you'll probably want at least a 17 to boost your spell attack rolls.

Other than that, you may want to put a couple of points into Strength if you plan on using Touch of Death or Divine Strike very much. If you're okay with being more of a ranged caster with the ability to summon undead minions, though, then you can basically ignore these stats.

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As always, you should put a few points into Constitution to boost your maximum HP. Beyond that, though, you can customize your character as you want. If you're a big roleplayer, you may want some points in Charisma or Intelligence. If you plan on min-maxing for a combat-focused run, you can dump those stats.

Best Gear For A Death Domain Cleric

As a Death Domain cleric, you'll get proficiency in Martial Weapons. That's a pretty handy little feature, and I'd suggest making the most of it. Since clerics can usually use a little extra defense, I recommend picking out a flail for your main weapon. The Flail of Ages, which you can get from Fytz the Firecracker in the Lower City, is a pretty excellent piece of equipment that can inflict a wide variety of status effects on the enemies you hit with it. The Planeslayer Flail is also good for Death Domain, as it offers bonus damage against undead enemies.

As for armor, like most BG3 characters, you want to aim for the Helldusk Armor. If that doesn't work out for you, though, anything that boosts your spellcasting, like the Armour of the Sporekeeper, works just fine.

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Pair that with a solid shield, like Viconia's Walking Fortress, and you'll be pretty well set for Death Domain cleric gear. Again, as primarily a spellcaster, you won't rely too much on your weapons. But it doesn't hurt to have a good flail or two, and everyone needs a set of armor.

Should You Make Shadowheart A Death Domain Cleric?

Shadowheart with statues of Selune in the background.

Although she begins as a Trickery cleric, you can always change Shadowheart's subclass by respeccing once you unlock Withers. As with all subclasses, there are pros and cons to making Shadowheart a Death Domain cleric. Given everything about her, Death Domain certainly makes sense with Shadowheart's lore. Beyond that, though, she has the stats for it: with a 17 in Wisdom, she'll do plenty of damage with the Death Domain's necromancy spells. Her 13 in Strength means she can also make good use of the Death Domain's melee-focused abilities.

However, do note that the Death Domain is an almost entirely damage-centric subclass. It certainly has access to some healing abilities, but that's not its specialty. If you want Shadowheart to be your party's resident healer, then you should make her a Life Domain Cleric. Death Domain may lack the raw power of Light Domain, but it's plenty strong by the mid-late game, and it's a lot of fun to control all those undead creatures.

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With that, you should have everything you need to build a Death Domain cleric. With its similarities to a Necromancy wizard build, the Death Domain might not be the most interesting subclass introduced by Patch 8, but it can be an interesting way to breathe new (false) life into your Baldur's Gate 3 playthrough.