Quick Links
Shadowheart is a fan-favorite character from Baldur’s Gate 3, and with the game’s close connection withDungeons & Dragons, the question of how you could add the trickster cleric into your tabletop games was bound to be asked.
But how would you go about thistransition from ones and zeros to pens and papers, and how do you make the cleric’s story fit in with that of your D&D campaign world? This question, though seeming daunting at first, isn’t a very hard one to answer.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is already a very similar experience to playing fifth edition D&Dso the full jump between the two won’t be as dramatic as it might seem at first.
Who Is Shadowheart?
To understandhow Shadowheart could be added to Dungeons & Dragons, there are a few things that you will need to understand about her first.
Shadowheart is introduced at the beginning of Baldur’s Gate 3 asa cleric of the deity Shar, the Goddess of Loss, who is a neutral evil god. Shadowheart serves this deity as a trickster domain cleric.
Selûne, the Goddess of the Moonand Shar’s good counterpart is yet another very important piece of this puzzle. When playing through Bladur’s Gate 3, there is an option for Shadowheart to abandon her worship of Shar in favor of embracing the light of Selûne.
Shadowheart is a character who is defined by this duality, and it influences her throughout the entirety of the game’s story.
Now how to add her to a D&D campaign? In terms of stats, the answer is quite simple. Just create a Trickster Domain cleric at the desired level — the domain is available in thePlayer’s Handbook. In terms of introducing her to the story, there are two options for how to do this.
The first is that you introduce her into the campaign world as she was introduced to Baldur’s Gate 3. The other option is that the version of Shadowheart that your players will meet is a post-game version of the characterwho has already completed her arc within that game.
Shadowheart At The Beginning
If you want to add Shadowheart as a fresh-faced cleric, the first thing that you need to consider is why she would be present in your campaign at all.
In Baldur’s Gate 3, this is answered by her theft of the Astral Prism, and her continued presence throughout the game is because of her desire to rid herself of the Mind Flayer Tadpole that is infesting her brain.
An easy way to adapt her story into D&D is to keep the beats the same but change the details.
A central point of adding Shadowheart into the early game of a campaign is to remove the Astral Prism from her story.
Whether or not she is trying to retrieve a different powerful item for her Sharran masters is entirely up to the Dungeon Master, but the Prism has to go, as do the Mind layer parasites, that is unless the campaign is a tabletop adaption of Baldur’s Gate 3.
Let’s use the Orbs of Dragonkind as an exampleof a different powerful item the DM could tie her story into. The Orbs of Dragonkind are immensely powerful items that allow the wielder to controlChromatic Dragonsof the corresponding color of the orb.
Needless to say, one of these falling into the hands of Sharran cultists would be a major event in any campaign.
Shadowheart can be introduced early in the game, similarly to her introduction in Baldur’s Gate 3.Having accomplished her goal of stealing one of the Orbs, Shadowheart begins her journey back to the Sharrans, only for her to be captured by aHobgoblin scouting party.
Your adventuring party, one way or another, will be sent after these Hobgoblins, and once they succeed in defeating them,they are also introduced to Shadowheart.
After you free her, your party can either convince her to accompany them or let her continue on her original journey.
A great way to have Shadowheart choose to stay with your party, should this be the DM’s desired outcome, is to have her offer to help them in exchange for the party safely guiding her back towards her home.
With Shadowheart now introduced to the story, a whole new world of options opens up.If she doesn’t accompany your party, then she could be a useful recurring NPC for the DM to have up their sleeve.
You could eventurn her into a pure antagonistif that is what makes the most sense in the story.
If Shadowheart does accompany your party, then slipping in hints of what she is carrying and its world-shaking power is a good idea.
After slipping these hints to the players, a good way to pull the curtain back and reveal what the item truly is would be to havethe character she stole the item frommake an appearance in the story.
Once there is no question about what she has been so secretive about,the duality of her character can be reintroduced.
Perhaps Shadowheart, gifted with more time to think about the consequences of handing such a powerful item to the other Sharrans through her adventures with your party, might start to have a change of heart.
If this is the case, thenthe Sharran faction could become a new looming threat in the campaign, and the DM can do with them as they wish.
If you want to keep your players on their toes, and you know that they have played Baldur’s Gate 3, simply change around the deities involved with Shadowhearts story. Tharizdun, God of Chaos, and Pellar, God of Light could make great replacements for Shar and Selûne.
Shadowheart As A Post-BG3 Character
If Shadowheart is being introduced asa post-game version of herself from Baldur’s Gate 3, then she can be introduced as a powerful ally of the party in their fight against the villain of the campaign.
However,if she went downthe Dark Justiciar routein the canon of this campaign, then she might be the villain waiting at the end.
For this approach, don’t be afraid of giving her access to powerfulmagical items. If she is an ally to your party, maybe she will share some of these with you, and if she is a villain, thenthey will make an excellent reward for your players after a hard-fought battle.
If this version of Shadowheart is introduced early in the campaign,her mystique and reputation in the setting are incredibly importantaspects that you must consider before adding her to the story.
Somebody who helped stop the rise of the Absolute, whether they are good or evil, is a character that will have made themselves quite a reputation. Especially a character as well-traveled as Shadowheart.
