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, 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.


We’re going to go for 9 Storm Sorcerer / 2 Tempest Cleric / 1 Wizard. Here’s why:

9 Storm Sorcerer:

• Access to flying.
  
• Access to Call lightning which will be one of our main damage tools.
  
• Access to metamagic to quicken spells or Twin Haste.

2 Tempest Cleric:

• Access to the Destructive Wrath reaction for max damage on Lightning/Thunder spell damage.
  
• Utility cantrips.
  
• Early access to Create Water.
  
• Access to Light Armor which we will need in the late game.

1 Wizard:

• Access to spell scribing to learn what spells we can’t directly access with Sorcerer.

• Excellent AoE damage and single target damage.
  
• Can provide support with Twin Haste and still deal damage with Chromatic Orb.
  
• Can fly to get in good positions.
  
• Can do its own set up.
  
• Can switch to Cold damage if necessary.
  
• Can be a party face.

• Managing concentration can be a bit tedious.
  
• Destructive Wrath can be wasted if you attack misses.
  
• Unsurprisingly, requires contested items.

Open as Sorcerer. Take 17 CHA, 16 CON, 14 DEX. Rest is up to you.

Go Storm Sorcerer. For cantrips and spells, see Spells selection.


Largely irrelevant as usual. Half-elf and Humans can wear shields which can be useful. Halfing is amazing to avoid critical misses on spell attack rolls. Shield Dwarves, Githyanki, Half-elf and Human also get Light Armor proficiency, which eliminates the need to open Cleric when doing our respec. This in turns saves CON save proficiency.

Stay sorcerer until level 2. Take the Twin and Distant spell metamagic options.

At level 3, open Cleric. Choose the Tempest domain. Keep leveling up as Cleric until level 4.

With Destructive Wrath and Create Water, your combo is now online.


At level 5, go back to Sorcerer. You will be leveling as Sorcerer until level 8.

Get the Quickened spell option at level 5. You are now able to cast Create Water and then a Lightning spell in the same turn. You should also be able to acquire Hag’s Hair for +1 CHA around that time. You don’t need it that much, so leave it to someone else if they need it more.

At level 6, you get your first feat. Get Elemental Adept: Lightning. You will not encounter that many enemies resistant to Lightning, but it also boosts your damage consistency as you can’t roll 1 on Lightning damage rolls. We also get Call Lightning, which is why we replace Shatter at that time.


At level 9, respec. Open Cleric for Light Armor proficiency, unless you already have it (in which case, open Sorcerer for CON save proficiency). Then, get 1 Wizard level for spell scribing. Then repeat your previous levels.

If we do not open Sorcerer last, our item abilities would not scale with CHA. However, that doesn’t really matter too much anymore as we will reach very high attack rolls and Spell Save DC with our gear.

You should end your respec with 2 Cleric / 1 Wizard / 6 Sorcerer. Keep leveling Sorcerer until the end.

For your second feat, take Dual Wielder. You will want to be dual wielding weapons in the late game to boost your stats.

Take no offensive spells (they would scale with INT, and you don’t really want that if you can avoid it). Prefer utility such as Mage Armor, Shield, Longstrider, Feather fall, etc.

Take no offensive cantrips as well. Use these cantrip slots to take utility (Mage Hand, Friends).

Learn whatever spells that you need and can’t access from Sorcerer, especially Chain Lightning. It will be INT based, but at this point, we can mitigate it with our gear.


Guidance and Resistance are non negotiable on the Cantrip side of things.

Take Create Water until you get it from Storm Sorcerer. Other than that, it’s up to you.


Take your offensive cantrips. Absolutely take Shocking Grasp and Ray of Frost.

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 charges, 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.

You can pretty much forget about other lightning charges pieces of equipment, in my opinion.

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.

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

Ring of Absolute Force[bg3.wiki] is a good ring for you.

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 Callous Glow Ring[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 obviously want 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.

Rhapsody[bg3.wiki] is great, but is often contested by other builds. If you can't get it, take the Staff of Spellpower.

Armour of Landfall[bg3.wiki] is your best armor, for advantage on CON saving throws. If you don't want to open Cleric, you can wear Robe of Supreme Defences[bg3.wiki] instead. Robe of the Weave[bg3.wiki] is also a good option (the hood and cloak are very good as well).

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 to oneshot a big enemy 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. Call Lightning is an excellent spell you should use at will whenever you're not concentrating on Haste, as re-casting it doesn't use spell slots.

You are a very good Haste provider. Twin it and Hasten yourself and an ally. Do not use Witchbolt or Call Lightning if you are concentrating on Haste.

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 8 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).

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

You also don't have to always one turn nuke. You can take your time to set up, or even have a teammate throw some water at an enemy, or better yet, have another caster cast Create Water on your targets.

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.

As much as I like this subclass, Storm Sorcerer is just better.

Blue Draconic Sorcerer’s only real gain is adding our CHA to our Lightning spells. Thing is, Heart of the Storm is going to provide a similar bonus, while also giving us access to Call Lightning which is an amazing spell. And frankly, that is a lot better.


If you’re not wearing Armour of Landfall, you can absolutely replace Elemental Adept with War Caster.


Honestly not worth it. It delays access to Haste and Counterspell until your late game respec. You don’t really need two Channel Divnity charges until the late game anyway.

You could go 6 Tempest Cleric / 6 Storm Sorcerer, which preserves two feats and Heart of the Storm passive. But you lose access to the Wizard dip and higher level spells.

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!

For the sake of clarity and transparency, I will be noting relevant changes (that is basically anything but typos) to the guide here.

30/01/2024: Added an optional last respec in leveling plan for optimal late game.

13/02/2024: Removed the level 4 respec to simplify leveling.

06/04/2024:

• Updated leveling plan to account for TADIR's comment and ensure we open Sorcerer last.
  
• Updated feats choice and spells selection.
  
• Updated loot to use.

07/04/2024: Major overhaul.

• Replaced Draconic Sorcerer with Storm Sorcerer for access to Call Lightning.
  
• Added Alternative approaches.
  
• Optimized leveling plan.
  
• Added species choice.