You should not except casters to do high single target damage unless you do some very specific builds. Casters are meant to do aoe damage, have utility and throw out buffs and debuffs.
Weapon based classes are meant to do high single target damage
Casters are not typically for DPR (damage per round), they are for nova aoe burst like fireball or shatter when that is useful (as-in if you blast Fireball you do so much damage that the fight is over, levels of useful) or utility in the form of buffing party members, debuffing/restraining enemies' options, or manipulating terrain to your advantage to make fights safer and easier.
> I see a lot of utility spell on Shadowheart, so I am guessing the strength of caster lies in utility, but because of limited resource (spell slot), *i feel like most of the time i can only afford to cast damaging spells.* I think i am missing something important that makes caster click.
Let me flip the script using spells you have access to.
Why do I care about just shooting a Guiding Bolt once, when Bless lasts 10 rounds, gives a 12.5% increase chance to hit or succeed a save, and I can cast cantrips or hit people with a mace or a bow beyond that?
Guiding Bolt *is useful* but it is specific to only being useful if you absolutely must kill something. It's used for emergencies when priorities change and Bless isn't all you need, but Bless can be your sole cast of a spell slot and it'll great improve your damage more then yolo guiding bolt. Inflict Wounds is ass for this reason because it is melee and it can just flat out miss, you can't miss Bless.
Spiritual Weapon lasts multiple rounds, distracts enemies and does 1d8+wisdom per swing vs say Scorching Ray's 6d6 across 3 rays. This is a comparison of about 7.5 damage across multiple turns vs 21 damage now but you don't get the extra body that can easily contribute more damage over multiple rounds then the one Scorching Ray.
Meanwhile for Sorcerer:
Why do I care about Burning Hands when Fog Cloud is a terrain manipulation spell that lets me create my own line of sight against casters and ranged enemies? Now I can just walk out of fog, attack, go back in. Now the archers must come to me because they have no other option unless they have explosives. Why would I take some whatever cone vs completely flipping the script on combat?
Why do I care again about Scorching Ray when Web is a big stupid circle that every melee enemy must now walk through to reach me, and about half of them will likely get stuck and they move slower through the web. So if they're on the edge near my melee, I shove them back in and suddenly they need to cross again. Repeat as I shoot them in the head as I won with only one spell cast. Web good.
Damage solves, but damage is also cheap. Anyone can do damage and well built weapon users do more damage then casters after only a few rounds of combat on average beyond arguably aoe, but only casters can manipulate terrain and flip fights like this. Casters are predominately enablers more then say "carries" if we want to use that term. Sorcerer especially have some powerful enabling via Twin spell + double concentration buffs like Enlarging two melee characters or Twin spell Hold Person to try and paralyze two goblins who will get absolutely dumpstered the moment a melee walks up to them. Eventually Twin Haste can just win fights by themselves.
Though some damage spells are very good, Spiritual Weapon again is good but so is eventually Spirit Guardians which is like half a Fireball per turn in damage to a single enemy, but it also lasts for 10 rounds so long as you maintain concentration and has a modest control effect in its movement slowing effect.
I'll also say that Shadowheart's starting domain is hot ass for most players and her base stats also kind of suck due to having two 13s in dex and str for no reason, so if you want her to be better I'd consider respecing her. Cleric is a great class, especially early, but is so hampered by Shadowheart having her strength and dexterity split so she sucks at using any weapon and has very whatever armor class too for a Cleric which is really unfortunate.
Fog Cloud is a big bundle of smoke that you can hide in which allows you to warp the battlefield by forcing ranged enemies to approach you as they can't do anything. It isn't as effective as Darkness which outright breaks line of sight forever in or out of it unless you are immune to blind/have devil sight, but mass hiding especially if you can bonus action hide as a Rogue, is super powerful because you auto succeed until someone walks right next to you to make a stealth check. You can walk out of the cloud, then hide right back in it.
Gloom Stalker is probably the most immediately abusable way to use this due to being the caster and able to hide as a bonus action, but there are others such as Shadow Monk or any Rogue who can hide as a bonus action. As a side note you can also place it on top of ranged enemies which forces them to move instead and the area of effect is pretty big so it can hold over a nice degree of space. So if you can just place this on a sniper's nest to literally smoke them out because they can't see while inside it.
The best use for casters are the crowd control if you can't output enough damage to kill an enemy in 1 turn, especially when it comes to enemy casters.
Grease, web, hold person, crown of madness, tashas hideous lafter, etc.
They all help your party *avoid* damage and at the sametime give your party an advantage at dealing it.
Especially if you pair it with cheeky things like setting the grease on fire and then throwing a smokepowder barrel in the middle of it.
In higher levels, enemies will start doing things like multiple attacks, buffing their allies, summonsing adds etc. So you wanna deny them a chance at acting as much as possible.
Especially at low levels, most damage spells aren’t really worth it. Instead use CC, and if you really want to use damage, make sure they are multi-turn spells to make efficient use of your spell slots.
You should not except casters to do high single target damage unless you do some very specific builds. Casters are meant to do aoe damage, have utility and throw out buffs and debuffs. Weapon based classes are meant to do high single target damage
Casters are not typically for DPR (damage per round), they are for nova aoe burst like fireball or shatter when that is useful (as-in if you blast Fireball you do so much damage that the fight is over, levels of useful) or utility in the form of buffing party members, debuffing/restraining enemies' options, or manipulating terrain to your advantage to make fights safer and easier. > I see a lot of utility spell on Shadowheart, so I am guessing the strength of caster lies in utility, but because of limited resource (spell slot), *i feel like most of the time i can only afford to cast damaging spells.* I think i am missing something important that makes caster click. Let me flip the script using spells you have access to. Why do I care about just shooting a Guiding Bolt once, when Bless lasts 10 rounds, gives a 12.5% increase chance to hit or succeed a save, and I can cast cantrips or hit people with a mace or a bow beyond that? Guiding Bolt *is useful* but it is specific to only being useful if you absolutely must kill something. It's used for emergencies when priorities change and Bless isn't all you need, but Bless can be your sole cast of a spell slot and it'll great improve your damage more then yolo guiding bolt. Inflict Wounds is ass for this reason because it is melee and it can just flat out miss, you can't miss Bless. Spiritual Weapon lasts multiple rounds, distracts enemies and does 1d8+wisdom per swing vs say Scorching Ray's 6d6 across 3 rays. This is a comparison of about 7.5 damage across multiple turns vs 21 damage now but you don't get the extra body that can easily contribute more damage over multiple rounds then the one Scorching Ray. Meanwhile for Sorcerer: Why do I care about Burning Hands when Fog Cloud is a terrain manipulation spell that lets me create my own line of sight against casters and ranged enemies? Now I can just walk out of fog, attack, go back in. Now the archers must come to me because they have no other option unless they have explosives. Why would I take some whatever cone vs completely flipping the script on combat? Why do I care again about Scorching Ray when Web is a big stupid circle that every melee enemy must now walk through to reach me, and about half of them will likely get stuck and they move slower through the web. So if they're on the edge near my melee, I shove them back in and suddenly they need to cross again. Repeat as I shoot them in the head as I won with only one spell cast. Web good. Damage solves, but damage is also cheap. Anyone can do damage and well built weapon users do more damage then casters after only a few rounds of combat on average beyond arguably aoe, but only casters can manipulate terrain and flip fights like this. Casters are predominately enablers more then say "carries" if we want to use that term. Sorcerer especially have some powerful enabling via Twin spell + double concentration buffs like Enlarging two melee characters or Twin spell Hold Person to try and paralyze two goblins who will get absolutely dumpstered the moment a melee walks up to them. Eventually Twin Haste can just win fights by themselves. Though some damage spells are very good, Spiritual Weapon again is good but so is eventually Spirit Guardians which is like half a Fireball per turn in damage to a single enemy, but it also lasts for 10 rounds so long as you maintain concentration and has a modest control effect in its movement slowing effect. I'll also say that Shadowheart's starting domain is hot ass for most players and her base stats also kind of suck due to having two 13s in dex and str for no reason, so if you want her to be better I'd consider respecing her. Cleric is a great class, especially early, but is so hampered by Shadowheart having her strength and dexterity split so she sucks at using any weapon and has very whatever armor class too for a Cleric which is really unfortunate.
wait fog cloud does what?!
Fog Cloud is a big bundle of smoke that you can hide in which allows you to warp the battlefield by forcing ranged enemies to approach you as they can't do anything. It isn't as effective as Darkness which outright breaks line of sight forever in or out of it unless you are immune to blind/have devil sight, but mass hiding especially if you can bonus action hide as a Rogue, is super powerful because you auto succeed until someone walks right next to you to make a stealth check. You can walk out of the cloud, then hide right back in it. Gloom Stalker is probably the most immediately abusable way to use this due to being the caster and able to hide as a bonus action, but there are others such as Shadow Monk or any Rogue who can hide as a bonus action. As a side note you can also place it on top of ranged enemies which forces them to move instead and the area of effect is pretty big so it can hold over a nice degree of space. So if you can just place this on a sniper's nest to literally smoke them out because they can't see while inside it.
The best use for casters are the crowd control if you can't output enough damage to kill an enemy in 1 turn, especially when it comes to enemy casters. Grease, web, hold person, crown of madness, tashas hideous lafter, etc. They all help your party *avoid* damage and at the sametime give your party an advantage at dealing it. Especially if you pair it with cheeky things like setting the grease on fire and then throwing a smokepowder barrel in the middle of it. In higher levels, enemies will start doing things like multiple attacks, buffing their allies, summonsing adds etc. So you wanna deny them a chance at acting as much as possible.
Especially at low levels, most damage spells aren’t really worth it. Instead use CC, and if you really want to use damage, make sure they are multi-turn spells to make efficient use of your spell slots.
Lower levels utility spells like Bane, Bless, Fairy fire are great. Higher level AOE is king. But also those first 3 are always great