Divine Prankster help

[golentan]

Hi, guys.

I just put in an application for a game, and am a gnomish cleric going for divine prankster. I'm not going to be super-optimized, but I figured I'd ask some advice having never really played a divine caster before. I looked over the cleric's handbook on Brilliant Gameologists before coming here, but it seems... I don't know. I want some second opinions.

1stly: The Perform and Sleight of Hand requirements. I looked over the sample statblock, and they have no visible way I can see of having reached the requisite skills. Is there Errata on this (I searched but the wizards reorganization of 3.5 material made it impossible to find), or a way for Gnomes to take these as class skills for clerics? Basically I'm wondering how many levels of bard if any I need to dip, and how long it'll delay me if I don't.

2ndly: Killing joke. Am I missing something here? I don't see that it specifies a number of targets. It sounds like it was intended to be tailored to individuals, but is there something stopping me from shouting, designating every enemy who can see me as the target, and unleashing a Save or Die as a skill check if I have the time to get it off, 10 times a day?

3rdly: Obviously I'll be prepping a lot of illusions. Unfortunately, there aren't a lot of illusions. What specific spells should I be looking at that aren't in core or maybe aren't obvious to someone who hasn't played a cleric before. Figments are especially welcome, given my ability to boost their DC by 10. What buffs should I have?

4thly: What must have feats are there. Obviously, I'm grabbing Divine Metamagic. What else is there?

My current plan is Cleric 5 -> Divine Prankster 10 -> Cleric 5 if I can figure out those darn skill requirements and it turns out to be an option. If not I'll go with the sample character Cleric 3-> Bard 2 -> Divine prankster 10. I'd prefer to advance my cleric caster level as high as possible.

[Akal Saris]

You'll probably have to just bite the bullet and take 1-2 levels of bard for the skills. But if you have a high int, once a class skill, always a class skill for maximum ranks, so you could just spend 6 ranks/level increasing your cross-class skills after 1 level of bard.

Otherwise...
Trickery domain gets you Bluff as a cleric skill
-Make sure to take the Gnome Bard substitution level in the same level if you take levels in Bard
-Champions of Valor's feat, Initiate of Baravar Cloakshadow (the gnome god of illusions) gives you some decent illusion and mobility spells.
-If you're allowed Dragon Magic, then being the dragonblood version of a gnome can net you the Draconic Heritage feat, which can get you Perform (from Song Dragon).
-Sleight of Hand I don't know - something probably grants it somewhere...
-The Illusion domain from Spell compendium has a ton of useful illusion spells.

1. Partially answered above - I'd go for 2 levels of bard, that gets 1st level spells, which can be nice if you've got the Spell Compendium. Make the 1st level and 5th level bard most likely.
2. The language strongly suggests a single victim to me.
3. The spell compendium will have pretty much everything you'll want, I think.
4. Extra Turning :P Maybe Extra Music if you can't shake the bard levels, and all the Inspire Courage cheese feats. Practiced Spellcaster, quicken spell.

Good luck!

[golentan]

Okay, thanks.

I'd still like to know exactly what spells to look for if anyone's got some first hand experience. Since Cleric spells aren't listed by school and subschool, sorting through is a proving to be a headache*.

Going bard 1st level isn't really an option, but I think I'll hit it 2nd. Turning and Inspire Courage cheese feats I'll look into.

*And because I realize this I'm not asking people to do my scud work for me, but if you have some gems you've thrown around please hit me with them.

[Vangor]

Simplest entry method is Rogue 2/Cleric 3 with Int of 12, a similarly fast entry method is Bard 2/Cleric 3 with Int of 14, and a slower entry method is Bard 2/Cleric 4 with Int of 12. Remember, first level needs to be the Rogue or Bard for those 4 Ranks, and afterward the max rank progresses as 3+Level, but the Cleric will need to pay two skill points to keep max rank, which will be necessary to an extent.

A better recommendation the UA variant Cloistered Cleric, which permits Bard 1/Cloistered 4, without a need for an Int bonus. An Int bonus will be useful for maintaining a useful Spellcraft rank, which is not a class skill for Divine Prankster, as well as the mass of class skills. However, Garl lacks the Illusion domain which would give you a decent use of Infuse Figment, requiring Gnome and Trickery which isn't bad, but could be better.

Now, my suggestion is to use the Archivist from Heroes of Horror. The Archivist has the same amount of Spells per Day as a Cleric with the addition of Domains, but Int offers greater synergy as well as allowing learning all of the Illusion domain and more for use with Infuse Figment. Plus, Inspire Courage and Dark Knowledge (Tactics) is a great boon to parties, both of which will technically progress in Divine Prankster (if you continue to add Knowledge ranks). Further, after finishing with Divine Prankster, Archivist will continue to amass features whereas the Cleric truly doesn't.