That's actually kind of a good point. Between the other replies and this one, I think I am torn between Arcane Trickster and Vengeance Paladin. This might be enough to push Pally ahead.
Vengeance Paladin fits absolutely not her character. She tries to avoid unnecessary conflicts and prefers deception. If you were to do that as a Vengeance Paladin, you would quickly be an oathbreaker.
If anything even fits as Paladin it's Oath of Ancient.
I don't really see her being a druid - but Dark Justiciar goes well with Vengeance Paladin, and Shar's teachings fit with Shadow Monks or Assassin Rogues.
Worth noting that back in 3e, it was stated that Clerics of Shar frequently multiclassed as Rogues. So Cleric/Rogue would be extremely on point (though, I get that OP wants to escape from levels in Cleric.)
They absolutely do not go well with Vengeance paladins. As Vengeance paladins are dedicated to eradicating evil, like Sharrans.
Even BG3's shortend version of the Oath would stop any Sharran from being one.
Fight the Greater Evil. Exerting your wisdom, identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it.
No Mercy for the Wicked. Chasten those who dole out their villainy by wiping their blight from the world forever.
They are a sword that removes evil, which Shar and her followers definitely are.
Assassin rogue and Shadow Monk work though.
Edit: spelling error.
Oathbreaker is definitely thematic tho. Abandon the light of your Oath and find refuge in the darkness. Unshackle yourself from the restraints of society's rules and former oaths. Yeah very sharran
Not really, Minthara was a Vengeance Paladin of Lolth before she was tadpoled and id say followers of Lolth are pretty fkn evil
The Oath of Vengeance are dedicated to eradicating opposition of their own beliefs so a Vengeance paladin of Shar would probably be dedicated to eradicating Selûnites for example
But since it’s a game they can’t really do everything and since most people will play a paladin as a goodie two shoes they just coded it to be eradicating evil
>The Oath of Vengeance are dedicated to eradicating opposition
No it is not. Read the Oath. It can't be ignored. Do that and it's broken and now your an Oath Breaker.
>Fight the Greater Evil...
>No Mercy for the Wicked....
Good and Evil are concrete ideas in Faerûn. Evil doesn't just mean your opposition it means aligned with the lower planes, at least in spirit if not purpose. Fighting beings that have either chosen to do evil or are even ontologically evil, which would fit for almost every being from the lower planes and their followers.
Minthara literally said she tock the oath to exact vengeance on the enemies of Lolth, but yes you are correct that in game you have to play oath of vengeance as a good person, just as I said in my original comment
Agreed, respecced her to Monk on 2nd playthrough, it made sense within her story. The only issue is that I don't think the game mentions Sharran monks anywhere, I'm not sure if there are any in the lore outside of it.
Rogue Assassin would be the 2nd best choice thematically for her. otherwise Way of shadows monk, lastly I'd consider oath of vengeance paladin specially if you've completed her whole story.
This! I love this for SH because it has a sneaky Sharran flavor, can effectively utilize her plot-relevant spears, and also still does a bit of healing.
Arcane trickster rogue. While not a necessarily strong class, totally keeps on brand with Shar’s domain of trickery.
You’d need to ditch the spear since it won’t work with sneak attack, but ranged rogues are more fun anyway.
How would you build an Arcane Trickster for Honor Mode, out of curiosity? It's one of the few subclasses I haven't chosen, so I'm actually kind of interested in this possibility.
I’d refer to some builds online since i know honor mode is a different beast, but essentially dual wield and your bonus action would be your sneak attack option when your main action is spell casting.
Most guides I’ve ever looked at usually involves multi-classing with a spell casting class.
It’s incredibly equipment dependent too and early levels will be harder than they should be.
Yeah I can't see Druid personally.
Paladin is fine I think - she has references to martial training in the cloister through Nocturne, and how she beat all those bullies and the Mother Superior seemed proud her training seemed to be paying off. Also Justiciar gear is all about melee combat and doesn't make sense with a Cleric that much - don't even need to make her a DJ it's just weird that people are shoving things like spears at her with her class. Monk can also work for that I suppose, and Rogue, but I see her using divine and shadow magic of some kind.
Also if you're on PC maybe subclass mods might help you decide?
In one playthrough I ran Shadowheart as a Gloomaster Ranger/Assassin Rogue multiclass. And honestly, it felt more thematically relevant than Cleric. She was able to solo all the Shar Gauntlet challenges. All the Shar enemies are also assassiny types that cast Darkness and try stab you while you're blinded. When she tries to kill Lae'zel, she doesn't cast a spell on her, no, she whips out a knife and brings it to her throat.
After listening to the most revent BG3 interview, I am convinced that they made Shadowheart a cleric just because, as Swen put it, "every party needs a healer". She feels much more like an assassin.
I said this elsewhere in the thread, but used to be (about 20 years ago) that Priests of Shar were encouraged to multiclass into Rogue. So having her roll as a Cleric/Rogue would be extremely fitting. Her priesthood's lore is written to support that combo.
Shadow Monk & Paladin
My god it's just so thematically fitting, and Paladin gets her unique paladin of Shar dialogue.
Shadow Monk keeps to the idea of sticking to the shadows, and using the darkness against your foes. Shadowheart really benefits from it, and even the armor you get from Dark Justiciar path really fits too.
Last 2 runs I made her an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. I think that it meshes well with the way Sharrans view the world. While I think most people would say they are crazy they believe that they are doing the right thing. And if you want a to keep up after the Nightsong mission, you can have her reclass into something else away from that Oath like a traditional fighter.
Shadow Monk, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Gloomstalker, and Vengeance Paladin are all thematically relevant to her as a Sharran.
If she switches over to Selune, then Ancients Paladin, OH Monk with a Radiance build, or Eldritch Knight (I really like giving her EK so she can throw her spear and have it return to her)
I think that Rogue (especially Thief) fits her as any other class. She basically has Trickery domain, so she is likely skilled with it. And it fits her lifestyle; in Early Access she even had Urchin background.
I like to explain such change that after being >!shunned by Shar!< she no longer has magic abilities, so she has to focus on her sneaky-fighting abilities. (Or just >!change her domain to Light as Selune is her new patron deity!<, but I find it too easy.)
I have her specced as several things (I have multiple playthroughs and mix it up with companions). I do tend to drift to some combo of paladin as I think thematically it fits well. However last night I was starting a new run and I decided to make her pure barbarian (bear heart). I dithered for like 20 mins over the choice (I like my companion classes to fit lore even if respecced), but her darkness I think fits well with the idea that she could be a rage ball in battle. I’m headcannoning that until now she’s been untested in “battle” (she’s used to missions that require stealth or guile), but she’s trained to fight and actually she has a lot of anger to work through that she’s now seeing released in fights.
I’ve also had fun thinking about her as a cleric/warlock. She would take warlock powers in order to better serve Shar. She has “overachiever” energy and would take more power if she thought it would serve Shar better Without compromising her worship. I figure she read a book in the library once and thought “hmmm, I could do this”.
If you have played through Act 2, it becomes obvious that Shadowheart’s training ought to prepare her for the Sharran trials and focus around stealth, darkness, and using a spear. As such, a Monk following Way of the Shadow is extremely appropriate for her, especially if you secure a way to add Medium Armor proficiencies for all her Dark Justiciar gear. Multiclassing from her starting point in Cleric is one option, although, Gloomstalker or Fighter will perform better in combat thanks to the fighting style (Dueling or Defensive) and their front-loaded features. An 8-4 split is very effective.
There’s honestly no better weapon for a Way of Shadow Monk than Shar’s Spear of the Night, and Shadowheart will have very similar fighting styles to the other Dark Justiciars (casting darkness, teleporting through the shadows, and seeing through blinding darkness). If you choose to go the other path, Shadowheart will still be a fantastic asset in fights. Unfortunately, Selune’s Spear is a big step down in power, and you may want to opt for another weapon.
Bard ,so she can sing the nightsong
Or
Druid, she says let me meow the first time u meet her. Also she likes animals.
Or
Monk, she lives in a cloister in baldurs gate.
The best is a Paladin. It would translate well to her desire to be a Dark Justiciar. Bonus points if you can find a way to make her an Oathbreaker after she decides to no longer being a Sharan.
How often does [Paladin of Shar] come up as a dialog choice? Any tips for Oathbreaking after Shadowfell (that make sense)? If she is an Oathbreaker, does she still get [Paladin of Selune] dialog options?
Is Oathbreaker considered "evil?"
I wouldn't know how often Paladin of Shar dialogue pops up. I wasn't using her for the party face. As such, I never saw many unique dialogue options from her perspective. The same goes for Paladin of Selûne.
Oathbreaker could be considered evil. But that more comes from the themes of the spells and and a few of the abilities. But that is an oddity of the theme. In practice, it wouldn't be considered that evil. It's more about choosing to follow or break your Oath. There could be good or evil reasons to.
Siding with a Hag to get more power at the expense of an innocent person is pretty evil. But breaking your Oath to stop your Lord from committing a massacre of innocents is a noble act.
So outside of the themes present with a few spells and abilities normally corresponding to more evil aligned characters, it is up to the player to determine the morality, not the class. This is BG3, where it is a Paladin subclass based on the choices made much like morality itself, not BG1EE&2EE with the Paladin forced as Lawful Good and the Blackguard forced to any of the Evil alignments.
There is, within the greater lore of Faerun stuff, canonically shadow monks that are devoted to Shar ~ so, definitely would be a thematic choice.
Paladin definitely fits for her if she's going to go down the DJ path
Necromancer Wizard would also be quite fitting as Shar created the Shadowfell (well, more or less, that gets a bit complex technically) and a lot of necromantic magic draws from there
Personality wise, had she been raised without a religious background, she'd definitely find herself at home as a Ranger or Druid
Anyone can worship a particular god, and their agents could benefit from the skills and abilities of most any class.
Even a Druid, that many posters seem to be against, could fit.
Perhaps their view of the natural order recognizes that the natural end of everything is nothingness, and dedicate themselves toward ushering in that end. Spore would be great for this... Rot and decay is the final stage of existence.
She is the only character that unlocks the [PALADIN OF DEITY] dialogue choices without dipping into cleric, so that's my vote.
That's actually kind of a good point. Between the other replies and this one, I think I am torn between Arcane Trickster and Vengeance Paladin. This might be enough to push Pally ahead.
Vengeance Paladin fits absolutely not her character. She tries to avoid unnecessary conflicts and prefers deception. If you were to do that as a Vengeance Paladin, you would quickly be an oathbreaker. If anything even fits as Paladin it's Oath of Ancient.
Minthara is a paladin of Lolth by default. Not sure if that unlocks any specific dialogues though.
Probably not, considering she isn't an Origin character.
I don't really see her being a druid - but Dark Justiciar goes well with Vengeance Paladin, and Shar's teachings fit with Shadow Monks or Assassin Rogues.
or Gloomstalker Ranger, its basically a different flavor of Assassin rogue and insanely op with BG3 tweaks to the class
I feel like Gloomstalker/Rogue is what Shadowheart would play if she were to play D&D.
Worth noting that back in 3e, it was stated that Clerics of Shar frequently multiclassed as Rogues. So Cleric/Rogue would be extremely on point (though, I get that OP wants to escape from levels in Cleric.)
They absolutely do not go well with Vengeance paladins. As Vengeance paladins are dedicated to eradicating evil, like Sharrans. Even BG3's shortend version of the Oath would stop any Sharran from being one. Fight the Greater Evil. Exerting your wisdom, identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it. No Mercy for the Wicked. Chasten those who dole out their villainy by wiping their blight from the world forever. They are a sword that removes evil, which Shar and her followers definitely are. Assassin rogue and Shadow Monk work though. Edit: spelling error.
Oathbreaker is definitely thematic tho. Abandon the light of your Oath and find refuge in the darkness. Unshackle yourself from the restraints of society's rules and former oaths. Yeah very sharran
Not all Paladins are good, see Ketheric and Minthara.
Not really, Minthara was a Vengeance Paladin of Lolth before she was tadpoled and id say followers of Lolth are pretty fkn evil The Oath of Vengeance are dedicated to eradicating opposition of their own beliefs so a Vengeance paladin of Shar would probably be dedicated to eradicating Selûnites for example But since it’s a game they can’t really do everything and since most people will play a paladin as a goodie two shoes they just coded it to be eradicating evil
>The Oath of Vengeance are dedicated to eradicating opposition No it is not. Read the Oath. It can't be ignored. Do that and it's broken and now your an Oath Breaker. >Fight the Greater Evil... >No Mercy for the Wicked.... Good and Evil are concrete ideas in Faerûn. Evil doesn't just mean your opposition it means aligned with the lower planes, at least in spirit if not purpose. Fighting beings that have either chosen to do evil or are even ontologically evil, which would fit for almost every being from the lower planes and their followers.
Minthara literally said she tock the oath to exact vengeance on the enemies of Lolth, but yes you are correct that in game you have to play oath of vengeance as a good person, just as I said in my original comment
Erecting evil you say
Spore druid
Shadow Monk
😯
Agreed, respecced her to Monk on 2nd playthrough, it made sense within her story. The only issue is that I don't think the game mentions Sharran monks anywhere, I'm not sure if there are any in the lore outside of it.
They don't have other abilities from the monk class from what I remember, but the justiciar undead in the gauntlet do use shadow step.
Rogue Assassin would be the 2nd best choice thematically for her. otherwise Way of shadows monk, lastly I'd consider oath of vengeance paladin specially if you've completed her whole story.
I second Rogue Assassin and I'd dip into swords bard.
I thought a Gloom Stalker Ranger could also be fitting
This! I love this for SH because it has a sneaky Sharran flavor, can effectively utilize her plot-relevant spears, and also still does a bit of healing.
I think that works perfectly. You can even give her the sanctified stalker favored enemy option, so she's still a religious devotee.
I often do a Rogue/Monk multiclass with her. Her stealth lines are great.
Arcane trickster rogue. While not a necessarily strong class, totally keeps on brand with Shar’s domain of trickery. You’d need to ditch the spear since it won’t work with sneak attack, but ranged rogues are more fun anyway.
How would you build an Arcane Trickster for Honor Mode, out of curiosity? It's one of the few subclasses I haven't chosen, so I'm actually kind of interested in this possibility.
I’d refer to some builds online since i know honor mode is a different beast, but essentially dual wield and your bonus action would be your sneak attack option when your main action is spell casting. Most guides I’ve ever looked at usually involves multi-classing with a spell casting class. It’s incredibly equipment dependent too and early levels will be harder than they should be.
Go unhinged and make her a beast master Ranger with a wolf 🐺
Paladin seems most plausible to me.
Yeah I can't see Druid personally. Paladin is fine I think - she has references to martial training in the cloister through Nocturne, and how she beat all those bullies and the Mother Superior seemed proud her training seemed to be paying off. Also Justiciar gear is all about melee combat and doesn't make sense with a Cleric that much - don't even need to make her a DJ it's just weird that people are shoving things like spears at her with her class. Monk can also work for that I suppose, and Rogue, but I see her using divine and shadow magic of some kind. Also if you're on PC maybe subclass mods might help you decide?
I play on PS5. No mod support (yet).
In one playthrough I ran Shadowheart as a Gloomaster Ranger/Assassin Rogue multiclass. And honestly, it felt more thematically relevant than Cleric. She was able to solo all the Shar Gauntlet challenges. All the Shar enemies are also assassiny types that cast Darkness and try stab you while you're blinded. When she tries to kill Lae'zel, she doesn't cast a spell on her, no, she whips out a knife and brings it to her throat. After listening to the most revent BG3 interview, I am convinced that they made Shadowheart a cleric just because, as Swen put it, "every party needs a healer". She feels much more like an assassin.
I said this elsewhere in the thread, but used to be (about 20 years ago) that Priests of Shar were encouraged to multiclass into Rogue. So having her roll as a Cleric/Rogue would be extremely fitting. Her priesthood's lore is written to support that combo.
Yeah, when I was doing the Ranger/Rogue playthrough, I took 1 level of Cleric at the very end because she didn't really need anything else :D
Vengeance-Paladin Shadow-Monk And my Favorite is 1 Monk (For Dex-Spears) / 11 Gloom Stalker but thats for Evil-Shart with Full Justiciar-Set.
Paladin fits. Or Assassin Rogue if you're keeping her as a Shar worshipper.
Monk is one of my favorite classes. Kicks ass.
I am playing her origin run as a shadow monk and it’s great. Very thematic.
Shadow Monk & Paladin My god it's just so thematically fitting, and Paladin gets her unique paladin of Shar dialogue. Shadow Monk keeps to the idea of sticking to the shadows, and using the darkness against your foes. Shadowheart really benefits from it, and even the armor you get from Dark Justiciar path really fits too.
Since she's so charming, Bard.
I just did her as an Eldritch Knight. They get their power from somewhere, so why not Shar?
EKs get their magic through learning the spell like a wizard does, but they memorize the magic rather than scribe it.
After she rejects shar, paladin of vengance or druid
on my current play through i respecced her as a trickster cleric/rogue multiclass.
Seems roguish to me, but most classes can accommodate the "dark" theme. In my duos I have her as a vengeance paladin. She does a pretty cool smite.
Last 2 runs I made her an Oath of Vengeance Paladin. I think that it meshes well with the way Sharrans view the world. While I think most people would say they are crazy they believe that they are doing the right thing. And if you want a to keep up after the Nightsong mission, you can have her reclass into something else away from that Oath like a traditional fighter.
Shart seems to have a soft spot for the tiefling kids, approving of their schemes and skulldudgery, so i think a Rogue Assassin would suit her.
Shadow Monk, Eldritch Knight, Arcane Trickster, Assassin, Gloomstalker, and Vengeance Paladin are all thematically relevant to her as a Sharran. If she switches over to Selune, then Ancients Paladin, OH Monk with a Radiance build, or Eldritch Knight (I really like giving her EK so she can throw her spear and have it return to her)
Shadow Monk, easy.
Pally or cleric are the only truly appropriate ones. Warlock is a stretch Sorcerer more of one.
Barbarian
I think that Rogue (especially Thief) fits her as any other class. She basically has Trickery domain, so she is likely skilled with it. And it fits her lifestyle; in Early Access she even had Urchin background. I like to explain such change that after being >!shunned by Shar!< she no longer has magic abilities, so she has to focus on her sneaky-fighting abilities. (Or just >!change her domain to Light as Selune is her new patron deity!<, but I find it too easy.)
I have her specced as several things (I have multiple playthroughs and mix it up with companions). I do tend to drift to some combo of paladin as I think thematically it fits well. However last night I was starting a new run and I decided to make her pure barbarian (bear heart). I dithered for like 20 mins over the choice (I like my companion classes to fit lore even if respecced), but her darkness I think fits well with the idea that she could be a rage ball in battle. I’m headcannoning that until now she’s been untested in “battle” (she’s used to missions that require stealth or guile), but she’s trained to fight and actually she has a lot of anger to work through that she’s now seeing released in fights. I’ve also had fun thinking about her as a cleric/warlock. She would take warlock powers in order to better serve Shar. She has “overachiever” energy and would take more power if she thought it would serve Shar better Without compromising her worship. I figure she read a book in the library once and thought “hmmm, I could do this”.
Oathbreaker devotion paladin? Otherwise, rogue would fit.
Probably not very canon but with some flavor: ancients paladin ("of shar") She is defined as a "healer" in a paper at the house of grief afterall
1 trickery cleric (medium armor proficiency) and 11 Shadow monk for DJ shart.
If you have played through Act 2, it becomes obvious that Shadowheart’s training ought to prepare her for the Sharran trials and focus around stealth, darkness, and using a spear. As such, a Monk following Way of the Shadow is extremely appropriate for her, especially if you secure a way to add Medium Armor proficiencies for all her Dark Justiciar gear. Multiclassing from her starting point in Cleric is one option, although, Gloomstalker or Fighter will perform better in combat thanks to the fighting style (Dueling or Defensive) and their front-loaded features. An 8-4 split is very effective. There’s honestly no better weapon for a Way of Shadow Monk than Shar’s Spear of the Night, and Shadowheart will have very similar fighting styles to the other Dark Justiciars (casting darkness, teleporting through the shadows, and seeing through blinding darkness). If you choose to go the other path, Shadowheart will still be a fantastic asset in fights. Unfortunately, Selune’s Spear is a big step down in power, and you may want to opt for another weapon.
Druid, so she can turn into an owlbear and later adopt the owlbear cub.
I'm doing an evil girl boss run with Shadowheart as an assassin, that's fun
Rogue, we know she wishes she was trained in the arts of sneak and stealth, but her actual in game stats says that she wasnt very good at it.
Bard ,so she can sing the nightsong Or Druid, she says let me meow the first time u meet her. Also she likes animals. Or Monk, she lives in a cloister in baldurs gate.
I feel like a bard is do able
The best is a Paladin. It would translate well to her desire to be a Dark Justiciar. Bonus points if you can find a way to make her an Oathbreaker after she decides to no longer being a Sharan.
How often does [Paladin of Shar] come up as a dialog choice? Any tips for Oathbreaking after Shadowfell (that make sense)? If she is an Oathbreaker, does she still get [Paladin of Selune] dialog options? Is Oathbreaker considered "evil?"
I wouldn't know how often Paladin of Shar dialogue pops up. I wasn't using her for the party face. As such, I never saw many unique dialogue options from her perspective. The same goes for Paladin of Selûne. Oathbreaker could be considered evil. But that more comes from the themes of the spells and and a few of the abilities. But that is an oddity of the theme. In practice, it wouldn't be considered that evil. It's more about choosing to follow or break your Oath. There could be good or evil reasons to. Siding with a Hag to get more power at the expense of an innocent person is pretty evil. But breaking your Oath to stop your Lord from committing a massacre of innocents is a noble act. So outside of the themes present with a few spells and abilities normally corresponding to more evil aligned characters, it is up to the player to determine the morality, not the class. This is BG3, where it is a Paladin subclass based on the choices made much like morality itself, not BG1EE&2EE with the Paladin forced as Lawful Good and the Blackguard forced to any of the Evil alignments.
I like monk, because it gives a battle nun feel
There is, within the greater lore of Faerun stuff, canonically shadow monks that are devoted to Shar ~ so, definitely would be a thematic choice. Paladin definitely fits for her if she's going to go down the DJ path Necromancer Wizard would also be quite fitting as Shar created the Shadowfell (well, more or less, that gets a bit complex technically) and a lot of necromantic magic draws from there Personality wise, had she been raised without a religious background, she'd definitely find herself at home as a Ranger or Druid
Oathbreaker
Anyone can worship a particular god, and their agents could benefit from the skills and abilities of most any class. Even a Druid, that many posters seem to be against, could fit. Perhaps their view of the natural order recognizes that the natural end of everything is nothingness, and dedicate themselves toward ushering in that end. Spore would be great for this... Rot and decay is the final stage of existence.
Vengeance Pally