How to do good a cleric without using divine metamagic?

[ivikalavahuj]

Can you help me create a good cleric without using divine metamagic? also what prestige class I should use (can not use ur priest) the campaing setting is in eberron.

[erikun]

This would be better in the 3e/3.5e/d20 (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=59) than in homebrew. You can report your post (the ! sign in the lower let of the post) and ask a moderator to have the thread moved.

Beyond that, what are you looking to do? You could make due with Extend Spell, or even without metamagic and just ration the buffs you apply. You could focus more on party-buffs or buffing others than self-buffs. Or you could skip the buffs altogether, going with debuffs or other aggressive spellcasting.

Heck, you could even create your own undead army.

Different goals would give you different builds.

[Andion Isurand]

It might be possible to take the Node Spellcasting (earth node) and Metanode Spell feats and use a class 6 earth node to apply the Persistent Spell feat (or what have you) to your best spells.

To maintain your link with the earth node, plant an oak tree at the center of the node via Quaal's Feather Token and use the Acorn of Far Travel (http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fw/20040710a) spell, which is easy enough to gain as a spell via a custom runestaff or a level in Prestige Ranger.

[Yitzi]

It really depends what you mean by "good". If you mean "broken, able to compete with an optimized wizard", then I suspect it can't be done (the only ways I can think of that might work are abusing the Magic domain ability and grabbing the Animal domain for Shapechange at level 17.)

Of course, if your DM bans Divine Metamagic, he probably won't be too happy with optimized wizards, so that's probably not what you're looking for.

If, on the other hand, you're looking for a way your cleric can be an essential party member, then that can be done a lot better. While I'm not really a major cleric-player myself, my best suggestions would be:

1. Clerics have the best selection of "block off nasty spells" spells, bar none. Wizard does have a few nice ones that cleric lacks, most notably mind blank, but between Freedom of Movement (blocks paralysis, slow, and even web and solid fog), Death Ward (great against save-or-die and enervation), and Spell Immunity (nice for the few that squeeze through the cracks), cleric has it beat easily. Oh, and don't forget Protection from X and Magic Circle against X, for protection against charms, most of the nasty compulsions, and summons. Beads of karma are useful for boosting your CL so that your protections can't be easily dispelled.
2. Pick your domains carefully, depending on what else you want to do. If you want to get a lot of long-term allies, consider taking two elemental domains (A cleric based largely on this idea is found here (http://community.wizards.com/coco/wiki/TelinArtho/Ialgo)). If you want to go into combat, take War and something else (probably either Luck, Plant for Barkskin, or Animal for Shapechange at spell level 9).
3. Don't overstack on healing spells, as a wand of CLW between-combats is usually a better idea (especially if you can talk the party into letting you not count it toward your share of the loot.) Keep a few for emergencies, though.
4. If you're not planning on taking the offensive, Sanctuary is a very useful spell, especially heightened if you have a good Wisdom score. Or you could use potions of invisibility (or scrolls for Trickery or Magic domains) instead, or both.