Baldur’s Gate 3: The Storm Lord – One Turn Nuke Spellcaster Guide

You may not have noticed, but whenever enemies get the “Wet” condition, they become vulnerable to cold and lightning damage. In itself, it doesn’t look like a big deal, does it? Throwing jars of water on enemies and hope to hit a big lightning or cold attack on them seems like a high risk, low reward investment. Not to mention it requires two actions: one to apply wet, one to strike with lightning.

Well, it just so happens that the Tempest Cleric can use his Divinity Power to use Destructive Wrath whenever they cast a spell that deals lightning or thunder damage. It does not guarantee a hit, but it gives you max damage on the attack if it hits – taking all extra damage dice into account. That includes the extra damage from the Wet condition, but also critical hit and upcast damage dice.

Now there’s the problem of applying the Wet condition in the first place. Fortunately, there’s a spell called Create Water with a decent range and radius that does exactly that.

The action economy problem stands unadressed. Sure, we could get Hastened by someone, but that’s not available for a while, especially if we need to get the first two levels in cleric.
That’s where the Sorcerer multiclassing comes in. At level 2, you get metamagic with sorcery points. At level 3, you get the option to cast a spell using a bonus action.

This build may seem like a one turn wonder, but it really isn’t. At high levels, you can regenerate a lot of sorcery points with spell slots, and you only need 3 to trigger the combo. Yes you’ll need to long rest often, but that is not a problem.

As long as you play your cards well, the late game bosses will basically not be able to touch you. You also get to be the party face.

You don’t have a lot of control options, nor are you the tankiest. You’re here for raw damage. That is fine, but you will need to adapt your party to that. Also, a lot of good items for spellcasters are highly contested. Thankfully, you have alternatives.

Let’s break everything down.

Open as Sorcerer. You want constitution proficiency for saving throws. Take 17 CHA, 16 CON. The rest is up to you.
Take Draconic Bloodline and Blue dragon to get a free Witch Bolt. Your other spells are Chromatic Orb and Shield.
Do not take Blade Ward in cantrips (you’ll get it later if you really want it). Get Friends and Shocking Grasp. The rest is up to you. I like Mage Hand and Minor Illusion.

Level up Sorcerer up to 3. Take Distant, Twinned and Quickened Spell in Metamagic. Twinned and Quickened are super important.

As soon as you reach level 4, respec.
Do exactly the same stuff you did at level 1, save for the ability scores. This time, take 17 CHA, 15 WIS and 14 CON.

Open as Sorcerer and get only two levels, with Distant and Twinned spell once more.
Open Cleric and get two levels as well. Choose Tempest domain. Take the Guidance cantrip and any other two you like.

As for cleric spells, take Healing Word and Guiding bolt because they’re amazing, at least in the early game. The other two are up to you. Create or destroy water isn’t really going to serve yet as you don’t have quickened spells, but you can take it already if you want.

Your combo is now online. Technically you still need Quickened spell to one-turn-nuke, but you can already cast twinned chromatic orbs and max roll both of them for 24 thunder damage with your reaction.

At level 5, go back to sorcerer and get Quickened spell again. You can now cast Create Water and Witch Bolt (or other lightning spells).
Get one more Sorcerer level to get a feat and get +1 in CHA and WIS.

You’re now 4 Sorcerer / 2 Cleric. Now, level up cleric up until level 8.
Once you reach level 8, respec once more. Take 3 Sorcerer levels like you did before, then 4 Cleric with the same choices and feat, and then take 1 Wizard level. This Wizard dip will allow you to learn new spells with scrolls, such as Haste.

After your second respec, you should be Sorcerer 3 / Cleric 4 / Wizard 1

Get two more levels in Cleric to get your second Channel divinity charge. You can now max roll a lightning or thunder spell twice per short rest, so that’s 6 times a day, 8 if you have a bard in your party. Much more than you need – which allows you to use those charge on something else than only bosses.

You should wrap up with two sorcerer levels to be Sorcerer 5 / Cleric 6 / Wizard 1.

The only question here is your feat. If you’re going to wear a shield (see loot to use), then you can take something like Spell Sniper or Elemental Adept (in Lightning). If you’re not going to wear a shield, you can also take Dual Wielder to have two weapons that will boost your spellcasting and spell save difficulty checks.

In my opinion, Dual Wielder is best because you get to wear two staves, or one staff something like a Knife of the Undermountain King[bg3.wiki] to boost critical rate, or something like Rhapsody[bg3.wiki] to boost attack, damage and spell save DC. But there also are some great shields out there, so you do you. See the “Loot to use” section if you need more context to decide.

In therms of ability scores, you should end up with 18 CHA, 16 WIS and 14 CON.

Witch bolt and Chromatic Orb are your go two level 1 spells. Both are staying right up until the end.

Witch bolt is your best spell to deal enormous damage to a single target and is basically your go to on a boss. It also comes for free if you’re playing a Blue Draconic bloodline sorcerer.

Chromatic Orb can be used both for thunder and lightning damage and is a great candidate for twinned metamagic.

Obviously you also need Create or Destroy Water which is at the center of your nuking combo. No need to worry about it, though: you can get it as soon as you open Cleric.

Thunderwave (and Shatter) come for free as a Tempest Cleric. Do not bother getting them with Sorcerer if you see other options (though you can always replace them when getting other Sorcerer levels).

I didn’t get control spells like Hold Person or Command because that’s not really the purpose of the build. Misty step is a great tool to escape out of a tough situation and you’re not going to be super tanky. Mirror image is a good defensive options. Enhance ability is a great way to avoid save-scumming checks in dialogue.

Lightning bolt looks good. It isn’t that good. Witch bolt is much better to nuke a single target, and call lightning is better for AoE. You can still learn it with a scroll if you like, it has situational uses.

Haste is a great spell for this build (and everywhere). You can get it with your loot (see the dedicated section) until you learn it with a scroll.

Glyph of warding is a great spell that you can use with both lightning and thunder damage. The rest of your spells are personal preference, especially on the cleric side.

Unfortunately, you don’t get direct access to Sorcerer and Cleric level 4+ spells. This is were the Wizard dip comes in.
You still get your level 4+ spell slots. So if you’re missing a spell, hopefully you can learn it from a scroll and use it at will (though not all spells are accessible in the form of scrolls).

In particular you’ll want to learn Chain lightning which will be your level 6 spell.

Other than that, my level 4 and 5 spell slots only really serve me to upcast my lower level spells. You can still grab Wall of fire which is an amazing option for some fights.

Boosting spell save DC is important as a spellcaster. The game isn’t very clear about this, so for clarity’s sake: the higher your spell save DC is, the higher your enemies must roll to succeed a saving throw against one of your spells. This makes them less likely for them to halve damage on spells like Call Lightning of Chain Lightning.

Boosting your spell save DC does not boost your spell attack rolls… but usually, a piece of equipement that boosts one also explicitly boosts the other. And enemies get saving throws to resist your spells, so you want to boost your spell save DC.

With a build like that, I’ve no doubt you’ve already wandered what was I going to make of the Lightning charges stuff that can be found throughout Act 1.

Lightning charges are great to have. They’re basically work like a free +1 enchantment so long as they’re active. You actually don’t ever want to reach 5 lightning charges. Getting a mere +1d8 damage on one attack isn’t worth losing the overall +1/+1 on attack and damage. That said, sometimes you don’t really have a choice.

In particular, the Watersparkers[bg3.wiki] are really good with this build. Just make sure not to move once you’re on an electrified surface, and that way you will not get electrocuted. Jumping out also works if you need to.

The Protecty Sparkswall[bg3.wiki] synergises pretty nicely with lightning charge, and you also get a +1 bonus to spell save DC.

The Spellsparkler[bg3.wiki] is a good staff that you can get early. The other two alternatives aren’t that good, so you can safely pick that one.

Finally, you can even consider wearing The Sparkle Hands[bg3.wiki]. You’re not going to hit unarmed attacks… but you sure as hell are going to attack foes with metal armor. In higher difficulty modes, consistency is key.

You can pretty much forget about other lightning charges pieces of equipment, in my opinion. And bear in mind that all these pieces I just mentioned are going to replaced quickly.

The Warped headband of intellect[bg3.wiki] is a great headpiece you absolutely want to pick up. You don’t need to wear it all the time, but since your INT is low, you’ll want to use it to learn more spells once you acquire your wizard level. Just put the headband on, learn your 4 spells, and then you can remove the headband. Do that anytime you need to change your 4 wizard grimoire spells.

Once you reach the Underdark, you should get the Boots of Stormy Clamour[bg3.wiki] and Melf’s First Staff[bg3.wiki]. You can also grab Pearl of Power Amulet[bg3.wiki] while you’re there.

Consider getting the Adamantine Scale Mail[bg3.wiki]. Any options other than the two armors are pretty bad, and the medium armor is going to be great on you. That said, it is not a heavy requirement for this build.

In late act 1, you should get The Gloves of Belligerent Skies[bg3.wiki]. Put them on for the rest of the game.

By the end of Act 1, you will have most of your critical gear. The rest is going to be bonuses.

Within minutes, you can grab the Darkfire Shortbow[bg3.wiki]. While it is a pretty nice weapon, you’ll mostly want to use it to cast Haste on yourself. You can give it to another party member once you acquire the spell via other means.

Considering getting Shield of Devotion[bg3.wiki] for an extra spell slot.

You should get the Ring of Mental Inhibition[bg3.wiki] as well as the Ring of Spiteful Thunder[bg3.wiki]. The first one is optional, and you may replace it with something else.

Hat of Storm Scion’s Power[bg3.wiki] is a good replacement for your headband.

If it is not contested, consider grabbing Ketheric’s Shield[bg3.wiki] for more boosts to your spell save DC and attack rolls.

Act 3 is where you want to swap to dual wielding staves. You can get Woe[bg3.wiki] and obviously Markoheshkir[bg3.wiki]. This staff is so good. Not only you get Arcane Battery for a free spell, you can also get Kereska’s favour to boost your lightning or thunder damage. It is amazing. If you really have to give it to another party member, get Staff of Spellpower[bg3.wiki] instead.

Staff of Interruption[bg3.wiki] is a good alternative to Woe if you don’t have Counterspell, but you should have it.

Rhapsody[bg3.wiki] is great, but is often contested by other builds. Leave it to them, you can make do with staves.

Finally, Amulet of the Devout[bg3.wiki] is your best Amulet and an absolute must have. +2 Spell Save DC and +1 Channel Divinity usage is simply fantastic. Consult the provided wiki link for more details on how to get it.

In most fights starting from late Act 2: bait. the counterspell. I mean it. Just have someone else attack with a low value spell or cantrip, but make sure you don’t get counterspelled. The AI is dumb and usually uses counterspell on the first occasion.

The combo goes like this:

• Activate Quickened Spell.
• Cast Create Water on your target. If necessary, upcast it to level 2 or 3 to hit more enemies. The Wet condition stays
• Cast an upcasted Witch bolt on your target.
• Use Destructive Wrath as a reaction.
• If necessary, use Luck of the Far Realms for a guaranteed critical.

Now, Destructive Wrath triggers before you know whether the spell is a hit. So on rolls with chances lower than 70%, you probably don’t want to use it. But you do you.

If two targets are wet, you can use a twinned chromatic orb instead of a witch bolt. Keep in mind, however, that if you want to upcast it, the cost in Sorcery points will increase as well. But a max rolled chromatic orb with the Wet condition is still 32 damage, so a lot of enemies will die without the need of any upcasting.

You can also use Call Lightning for AoE if you have 3+ enemies wet and close to one another.

For the fattest damage, go with Chain Lightning.

Until you get Quickened spell, you can consider using another party member to throw a water carafe.

Basically every attack roll you do should be either a lightning spell against a wet enemy, or a thunder chromatic orb if the enemy isn’t get. Save Channel Divinity nuking for bosses and enemies you really don’t want to see play.

Channel Divinity regenerates on short rest. If you have a bard with you, that’s 12 Channel Divinity charges a day.

You’re going to be chewing through your higher spell slots pretty fast with all the upcast. But you should still be able to sacrifice one of your level 3-4 spell slots, and create as many sorcery points. You want to have at least 3 to be able to do the one turn nuke combo.

Remember that you can regenerate a level 1 spell slot for free with Arcane recovery. Unfortunately it only goes so far, but that’s still an extra spell (or sorcery point) per day.

Sorcery points should mostly be used on Quickened spells, or on upcasted Twinned spells if it is overall cheaper (e.g. casting 2 level 3 Chromatic Orbs with quickened spell will cost 3 sorcery points and 2 level 3 spell slots, but if you use twinned, it will use only half the spell slots).

If you have Haste, you can nuke 2 targets a turn.

Even without the combo, you can do a lot of damage with thunder chromatic orbs, shatter, glyph of warding, etc.

This build is only a one turn wonder if you manage your resources poorly. Pay attention to your spell slots and sorcery points and regenerate what you can. Short rest to restore Channel Divinity Charge. And don’t be afraid to long rest.

If something isn’t clear to you, or if you feel like I missed something, let me know in the comments below. I read every single comment I get, and will do my best to answer yours.

Thanks for reading the guide and I hope you have fun with the build!