Caster cleric

[Kaeso]

Hello there playgrounders,

As we all know, the cleric is one of the core "big three" classes, better known as the tier 1 classes. They're one of the champions that are known for their ability to melt faces, break bones, bind demons, undo creation in such a way that it snows their favourite ice cream flavour every other day and cure tuberculosis, usually before dinner.

However, something about the cleric bothers me. While Wizards and Druids are pretty straight forward, the most popular cleric builds are often little more than souped up beatsticks that can cure and buff themselves. If one would make a cloistered cleric that focusses mostly on casting (ie. battlefield control, buffing, debuffing, healing, direct damage), what would a good build for that cleric be? What would be good feats and good spells for this cleric to use?

Note: while domain suggestions are welcome, I'm looking to adapt these tips to a campaign I'm already in. Since my PC is a cleric of Bahamut, he's pretty much stuck with the Dragon, Air, Knowledge (cloistered cleric) and oracle (1 level dip in divine oracle) domains.

[Circle of Life]

What would be good feats and good spells for this cleric to use?

Divine Metamagic, Divine Spell Power, Extra Turning, Streamers, Flame Strike. I can't imagine you'd need anything else after that for blasts, so add any of the bajillions of control and buff spells Clerics get to taste.

Edit: A personal favorite blast/control combo of mine is Fell Drain (Libris Mortis) + Boreal Wind (Frostburn). Multi-round damage + battlefield control + negative levels to just about everything ever. Doesn't require DMM for Fell Drain, since it's such a cheap metamagic effect, though it never hurt if you have the spare feats. The ridiculous damage of Streamers makes this look tame in comparison, but Streamers was never a good balance point to begin with, so...

[Kaeso]

Divine Metamagic, Divine Spell Power, Extra Turning, Streamers, Flame Strike. I can't imagine you'd need anything else after that for blasts, so add any of the bajillions of control and buff spells Clerics get to taste.

Edit: A personal favorite blast/control combo of mine is Fell Drain (Libris Mortis) + Boreal Wind (Frostburn). Multi-round damage + battlefield control + negative levels to just about everything ever. Doesn't require DMM for Fell Drain, since it's such a cheap metamagic effect, though it never hurt if you have the spare feats. The ridiculous damage of Streamers makes this look tame in comparison, but Streamers was never a good balance point to begin with, so...

What is the purpose of divine spell power in the first combo? It only raises your DC for your, with a riskof lowering at as well.

[Circle of Life]

What is the purpose of divine spell power in the first combo? It only raises your DC for your, with a riskof lowering at as well.

Divine Spell Power doesn't raise spell DCs, it raises your caster level. Higher caster level = more kaboom. More kaboom = better blaster.

It's trivially easy to pump your turning check to the point where you're guaranteed a positive result, and not hard to boost it even further, depending on available resources. Google Turn Undead Optimization or similar for an indepth look at the options.