I’m only level 3, but I’ve died an awful lot so far. Goblins, spiders, those redcaps-is that typical? I’m a bard bc I’ve never played one and I like the skill monkey/party face aspect even if having my bard built like a refrigerator feels weird (always imagined them as thin and agile, but that’s me). No spoilers if possible please.
It’s hard to say where you are having trouble from your description.
I would just broadly say it is worth seeking out other routes to success. Just standing there and slogging away at each other usually does not work well. The game allows for remarkable creativity in how you approach a situation. Have fun finding those ways. Explore the environment.
Oh yes, sorry. I’m outside of the Emerald Enclave and trying to find the Druid. Found a couple of side-quests, hence the spiders. Maybe I need to get better at tactics. People keep throwing explosives and such and catching the whole group.
Those are both very difficult areas. Do more main quest stuff and then go back when you have another level (or two) under your belt.
And don’t be afraid to temporarily turn down the difficulty if you’re feeling hard stuck.
Sounds like you are just wandering of into areas you are not ready for yet. Bard is probably the strongest fighting class ironically, specially sword bards.
Who else is in your party? If you’re at level 3, you have access to Flaming Sphere (Gale) and Spiritual Weapon (Shadowheart) which are both great spells at that level, providing extra damage, blocking enemy paths and sometimes distracting enemies to attack them. Bless is also a big help in combat.
The spider part, if it’s the part I’m thinking of, is one of the more difficult sections in that region of the map.
General Shadowheart mechanical advice I gave long ago:
Shadowheart's Stats & Subclass
The weedier part of Shadowheart is that she was apparently spec’d by someone mad at her. Trickery Domain is pretty lame and doesn’t offer much. Her attributes are sort of poorly assigned. For instance, she has a 13 in both Strength and Dexterity. Odd scores in 5e are “wasted” since you only get a mod bonus on the evens so she effectively has a 12 in those attributes. Her Wisdom is where it should be (17) but her attack cantrips are Sacred Flame which targets Dexterity, not Armor Class and Firebolt which comes from her half-elven heritage, not her Cleric class, and thus uses her low INT score as its mod. So she has two weak cantrips, mediocre melee ability and mediocre ranged attacks. There’s a real math reason for all the “lol Shadowheart can’t hit a barn” memes.
You can either deal with this by loving her for who she is and using her for buffs, Spiritual Weapon and then eventually you get Spirit Guardians and feats to raise her stats, OR you trot her over to Withers with 100gp and respec her. Change her Domain to either Life, Tempest or War (I’d go Life or Tempest) and dump her DEX/CHA/INT to raise her STR/CON (and keep Wisdom high of course). I’d go ahead and give her 8’s in INT/CHA and put remaining points into DEX because DEX has some use for saving throws and initiative order. This will give her more hit points and better melee attacks. Life Domain will give you more powerful heals and Tempest will increase your combat ability. Both will let you use heavy armors for better AC.
That’s excellent advice! I didn’t even consider using him to respec companions!
Shoutout to light domain, my go to for her.
I think I did tempest for her; she might have been my only respec.
Still kept her as a support caster though, I found a few items that really rewarded the player for having a dedicated healer in the party.
Another good choice (not that clearing the bar of Trickery is hard…)
I lean to the heavy armor subdomains just because I use a lot of jumping into the fray with Spirit Guardians and want the extra AC to help avoid losing it. Warding Flare might do the trick as well but I don’t have the experience to say.
So if I want to make my own cleric sometime, I should avoid Trickery?
It’s probably the worst domain, yeah. It fits Shadowheart thematically, and frankly the differences are minor, but it is sub optimal.
I give her the luminous armor from underdark, and she basically wears that the whole game. Radiant orbs are OP.
In my opinion, Trickery doesn’t convert well into BG3 game play. In a tabletop game it probably has more opportunity to be flavorful and shine with the charm and deception and more chances for GM-led stealth-based gameplay. In BG3, I find the domain spells and abilities to be mediocre compared to most of the other options and the few times Pass Without Trace might be useful pale in comparison to, say, Life’s healing bonuses and heavy armor.
As DigitalC says, it “fits” Shadowheart thematically but I could make an argument for either of my preferred domains as well – but won’t here, due to spoilers 
Yes, you can basically fully outfit a radiating orb cleric in act 1 that will be extremely good the entire game even on honor mode.
Level 3 is kind of a weak spot. Lvls 4 and 5 are the biggest power jumps in the game (6 for swords bards though) so exploring until you get a level or two would be a lot of help.
Agree that the spider area would be hard for a lvl 3.
The game gets much easier when your characters reach level 5. It’s very tough before that. You have to clever with positioning your characters to stay alive until you get more powerful.
Oh then I’m so dead lol. I’m never gonna get any “clever tactics” inspirations.
I respecced her to Light, but only when it made sense to do so in the story.