You’re standing in the Silent Library, the air thick with the smell of old parchment and necrotic magic. You’ve solved the Riddle of the Night. Now, the pedestal yields a weapon that feels cold to the touch. It’s heavy. It’s dark. It's the Shar's Spear of Evening.
Most players reach this point in Baldur’s Gate 3 and freeze. It isn't just about the stats, though the stats are frankly ridiculous. It’s about what you have to do to get it. To hold this spear, Shadowheart has to end a life that has been trapped in the Shadowfell for a century. She has to become a Dark Justiciar. It is arguably the most pivotal "evil" turn in the entire game, and honestly, the power spike you get in return is almost enough to make you justify the moral bankruptcy.
What Shar's Spear of Evening Actually Does
Let's talk mechanics. This is a Legendary spear, and it behaves like one. It’s a +3 weapon, which already puts it in the top tier of Act 2 gear. But the real reason people hunt this thing is the Shar's Blessing.
If you’re obscured—meaning you're standing in light or heavy storage—you deal an extra 1d6 damage to everything you hit. That sounds okay, right? But wait. It also gives you Advantage on Saving Throws while you're obscured. And then there's the big one: Shar's Darkness.
This isn't just the level 2 spell you've been using to hide from archers. This is a weapon-bound version that allows you to create a cloud of magical darkness that you—and only you, if you're wearing the right gear—can see through. While everyone else is swinging wildly in the dark, Shadowheart is hitting with Advantage, dealing extra necrotic damage, and basically playing a different game entirely.
The Blindness Immunity Factor
One thing people often miss is the passive Blindness Immunity. Because the spear protects its wielder from being blinded, you can stand inside your own Darkness clouds or those cast by enemies without losing your line of sight. It turns the battlefield into a one-sided slaughterhouse. You cast Darkness on a cluster of enemies, walk in, and poke them to death while they struggle to find their own feet. It’s mean. It’s efficient. It feels like cheating, honestly.
The Narrative Cost: Is the Power Worth It?
You can't talk about the Shar's Spear of Evening without talking about the Nightsong. To get this spear, Shadowheart must kill Dame Aylin.
If you do this, the consequences are immediate and devastating. Last Light Inn? Gone. Most of the NPCs you’ve spent twenty hours helping? Dead or turned into shadow-cursed husks. Dammon, the blacksmith who can fix Karlach's heart? He’s gone too.
It’s a massive trade-off. You are trading the lives of dozens of innocents and the potential for Shadowheart’s redemption for a piece of metal. But from a pure "power gamer" perspective, the Spear of Evening is significantly stronger than its "good" counterpart, the Selûne’s Spear of Night. While the Selûne version offers some decent utility and Wisdom saves, it lacks the raw offensive dominance and the crowd-control potential of the Shar version.
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Shar's Spear of Evening vs. Selûne's Spear of Night
If you choose to spare the Nightsong, you get the Selûne version later. It gives you Darkvision and some moon-themed spells. It’s fine. It’s "good guy" gear.
But Shar's Spear of Evening has Shar's Darkness, which is a 2-turn cooldown. You can basically keep a 17-foot radius of "you can't touch me" active for every major encounter in the game. When you pair this with the Dark Justiciar Plate—which you also get for making this choice—Shadowheart becomes a walking tank that radiates shadow. The armor reduces all incoming damage while you're obscured and adds even more necrotic damage to your strikes.
The synergy is disgusting.
- Cast Darkness.
- Step inside.
- Use Edge of Darkness (the weapon action) to hit every enemy within range.
- Watch as they miss every attack because they're blinded.
Build Synergy: Making the Most of the Dark Justiciar
If you’ve committed to the dark path, don't just leave Shadowheart as a standard Trickery Domain Cleric. That subclass is... well, it's not great.
To really make the Shar's Spear of Evening sing, you want to respec her into a War Domain Cleric or a Paladin/Cleric multiclass.
With War Domain, you get extra attacks. More attacks means more procs of that 1d6 bonus damage from the spear. If you go the Paladin route—specifically Oath of Vengeance or Oathbreaker—you can stack Divine Smite on top of the spear's natural damage. Imagine hitting an enemy with a +3 spear, an extra 1d6 from being obscured, and a Level 3 Smite, all while having Advantage because they can't see you. Most bosses in Act 3 won't last three rounds against that kind of pressure.
Essential Gear Pairings
You shouldn't just rely on the spear alone. There are a few items that turn this from a "strong weapon" into a "game-breaking build."
- Dark Justiciar Helmet: This reduces the number you need to roll for a Critical Hit while you're obscured. Since the spear encourages you to always stay in the dark, you'll be critting constantly.
- Ring of Regeneration: Since you'll be the frontline tank inside your darkness clouds, having a bit of passive healing keeps you from ever needing to waste a turn on a potion.
- Strange Conduit Ring: While you're concentrating on your Darkness spell, this ring adds another 1d4 psychic damage to your melee attacks.
The damage layers start to get absurd. You're hitting for physical, necrotic, and psychic damage all at once.
Addressing the "Moonlight" Misconception
A lot of players think that because the Spear of Evening is "dark," it becomes useless in Act 3 where there's more light. That’s not how it works.
The game checks for your "obscurement" status. You can create your own heavy storage anywhere. Even in the middle of a sunlit street in the Lower City, your Darkness spell creates the conditions needed for the spear's passives to trigger. You aren't dependent on the environment; you carry the environment with you.
Also, keep in mind that the spear's special attack, Edge of Darkness, creates a small cloud of darkness on impact. You don't even always need to cast the full spell. You can just jump into a crowd, use the weapon action, and suddenly you're shrouded.
How to Get It (The Step-by-Step Reality)
You can't stumble into this. It requires a specific set of choices in the Gauntlet of Shar.
First, you have to collect all the Umbral Gems. This involves the Soft-Step Trial, the Self-Same Trial (where you fight clones of yourself), and the Faith-Leap Trial. Once you have those, you descend into the Verge of the Shadows.
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Shadowheart must be in your party. If she isn't, she will literally leave your group forever or try to kill you for entering the Inner Sanctum without her.
Inside the Shadowfell, you'll confront Balthazar and then the Nightsong. To get the Shar's Spear of Evening, you have to let Shadowheart do what she was raised to do. You have to step back and let her kill the daughter of Selûne. There’s a dialogue check involved if you try to influence her, but if you’ve been encouraging her Shar worship throughout the game, she’ll usually do it on her own.
The moment the deed is done, Shar rewards her. The common "Spear of Night" transforms, its stats flip, and you're handed the most powerful polearm in the mid-game.
Final Verdict: Should You Use It?
Honestly, it depends on how much you care about the "good" ending.
From a tactical standpoint, the Shar's Spear of Evening is better than almost any other melee weapon you’ll find until you start hitting the legendary drops in the final hours of the game. It provides defensive utility, massive crowd control, and consistent damage.
But the cost is high. You lose the help of the Harpers. You lose the potential for a "happy" Shadowheart. You lose several powerful allies for the final battle.
If you're playing a Durge (Dark Urge) run or just want to see how powerful a Dark Justiciar can actually be, it's a must-have. If you're trying to save the world and keep everyone alive, it’s the one item you have to walk away from.
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Next Steps for Your Playthrough:
If you decided to take the spear, your next move should be heading to the Sorcerous Sundries in Act 3. You’ll want to look for the Helldusk Armour or continue upgrading your Dark Justiciar set. Also, consider re-specing Shadowheart into a 6 Paladin / 6 Cleric split. This gives her the Aura of Protection, making her nearly immortal while she stands in her darkness clouds. Lastly, make sure you pick up the Eversight Ring for another party member so they can join Shadowheart inside the darkness without being blinded themselves.