Pure Support Cleric Help (3.5)

[Rosalinath]

I need help creating a cleric who places all her resources into buffing/healing her allies to the highest potential. no limit to the optimasation besides buff spam akin to the Wish. All wotc books are allowed, but no dragon/dungeon mags.

My idea was a cloistered cleric/sovereign speaker. beyond that this is unknown territory for me since i've never played a cleric outside of codzilla/necromonster cheese so any help would be welcome

[Toliudar]

I'm a fan of clerics that use a combination of the Arcane Heirophant's Divine Reach ability, rods of Metamagic Chain Spell and Divine Metamagic Persist to create all-day buffs for everyone.

What level's your cleric? Any other restrictions (sources/setting/race/alignment)?

[Rosalinath]

well i'm making this for a game without a set level as of yet. the setting is homebrew, but with all setting sources allowed. the will probably be human to satisfy the feat restrictions that come the neccicary metamagic feats, etc

[ericgrau]

Most of my recommendations in this thread revolved around that:
http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=240109

3rd level also has magic vestment
4th level adds air walk, freedom of movement, greater magic weapon, imbue with spell ability (combines well with shield other or divine favor)
5th level has mass cure light wounds (combines well with massive shield other damage distribution). Not much else for buff/heal in core but there is wall of stone to impede foes and true seeing.

I haven't checked spell compendium for the higher levels but I think it has some good area and multi-target buffs. I prefer those because hitting 4 people adds up whereas buffing one person isn't worth a turn unless you can somehow give him something huge like a +6 to something important. Ya I listed bull's strength in the link but only because at low levels you run out of good options fast.

[Thomasinx]

There's a lot of fun to be had with a buff cleric.

Have you looked at warpriest from complete divine? It's 5/10 spell casting but get some fun spell-like abilities that help your allies. (Mass heal as a spell-like ability? Diehard to allies as a spellike ability?). Since you're gonna buff, the 5/10 progression doesnt hurt as badly, and its certainly a fun class to play.

Also, never underestimate the low level buffs...
Elation. Prayer. Mass Aid. These things are wonderful :D

Also keep 'delay death' ready :D.

[docnessuno]

Your starting level?

If high enough i would suggest something alike Sorc / Rainbow servant / War weaver (possibly the ultimate buffer), Artificer is also very nice.

The main point when buffing and/or healing is breaking the action economy, with a wide list of spells to chose from being quite important objective too.

[eggs]

Spells I use for this role (only considering Summons in terms of their buffing/indirect battlefield control abilities):

Level 1:
Blessed Aim - all allies get +2 morale to ranged attacks; nice ability that scales poorly
Ebon Eyes - party member ignores darkness, nice duration. Works especially nicely with Blacklight (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/divine/spells/blacklight.htm) to basically shut unprepared enemies down without a save (if cast on an ally or self).
Obscuring Mist - Not super-flashy, but a very useful battlefield control spell/defensive buff that remains worthy of a spell slot throughout the cleric's career.
Resurgence (SpC) - Allow a reroll against any status effect. This allows way more powerful healing than a level 1 spell probably should. Combines well with Conviction.
Summon Monster I - Spider webs can steal 8 standard actions from enemies apiece.

Level 2:
Benediction (CC) - Give an ally a general-purpose save bonus and an improved reroll ability (take the higher of the two), nice duration
Darkness - Area of concealment means your allies can't be sneak attacked, reduce successful attacks against the party by 20%
Summon Monster II - Mostly for even more Spider webs at a time

Level 3:
Deeper Darkness - As Darkness, but an absolutely amazing duration.
Magic Circle Against [Alignment] - Nice duration, keep summons away, just say no to mind control. A bit of a party buff element (but you'll probably want more than one casting.
Mass Aid (SpC) - Temporary HP for everybody
Mass Conviction (SpC) - Save bonus stacks nicely, good duration, nerfs enemies' attacks without allowing them to just select a different target.
Dispel Magic - Deny any annoying effect that's going on. Whatever it is.
Downdraft (SpC) - force fliers into your fighter's reach. Also blast.
Nauseating Breath (SpC) - debuff enemies so that your Fighter can outfight them.
[Aligned] Storm (PH) - Screw up ranged attacks made into the area, use alignment-dependent damage to flush creatures of an alignment out of the area.
Invisibility Purge - Let the party see the invisible things they're fighting.
Girallon's Blessing (SpC) - Decent duration, allows characters to add strength to damage multiple times, and just to carry more stuff around.
Mass Resist Energy (SpC) - Resist Energy, but it doesn't give spellcasters the option of just shifting targets. Decent duation.
Mass Resurgence (SpC) - If the party's hit with an area effect, give everyone a chance to recover. Continues to work well at higher levels.
Magic Vestment - Long duration armor bonus. With Extend or higher levels, can cast this the day before dungeoneering to save spell slots.
Summon Monster III - Dretch gives Stinking Cloud, Hippogriff gives the Fighter flight.
Wind Wall - Shut down archers and small creatures

Level 4:
Dimension Anchor - Stop teleportation so that your party can actually fight things.
Mass Shield of Faith - Big Deflection bonus, but unlike the lower-level version, enemies can't just choose a different target instead.
Recitation - +2 luck to everything an ally does; -2 penalty to everything enemies do, no save
Aligned Aura (CC) - minor buff to creatures sharing your alignment, debuff to creatures opposed to your alignment and decent low/mid-level blasting.
Make Manifest (SpC) - pluck an enemy from the Ethereal pane, so the party can whack it.
Greater Resistance (SpC) - Can replace X of Resistance items; long enough duration to cast a day or two ahead of time without competing with Dungeoneering spell slots
Dampen Magic (CC) - an antimagic field that you can cast on an ally.
Greater Magic Weapon - Long-duration weapon enhancement. At higher levels or with Extend, can be cast the day before dungeon-delving without competing for spell slots.
Spell Vulnerability (SpC) - reduce target's spell resistance by your caster level (SR: No)
Summon Monster IV - Mephits add a bunch of battlefield control SLAs (Wind Wall, Pyrotechnics, Glitterdust, Stinking Cloud etc.), Lantern Archons are Magic Circle+temporary HP engines and there are a bunch more potential mounts for the Fighter
Wall of [Alignment] (SpC) - Completely shut down summoned monsters, and inconvenience enemies of a certain alignment.
Wall of Sand (SpC) - A wall that sucks to try to move through. Basic battlefield control to isolate targets so that your party can gang up on them.

Level 5:
Doomtide (SpC) - Designate an area where nobody but you and a party member can see, and where everyone but you and that party member have to save each round against Daze. Very powerful control effect.
Wall of Stone - basic battlefield control. Isolate targets you want to gang up on, then gang up on them.
Wall of Dispel Magic (SpC) - long area dispel + a soft battlefield control barrier.
Righteous Wrath of the Faithful (SpC) - Haste + Mass Aid + Morale bonuses to attack and damage
Summon Monster V - Not many unique options for a support role, but a more Lantern Archons are always useful.

Level 6:
Greater Dispel Magic - General-purpose debuff. Always handy.
Cometfall (SpC) - difficult-to-resist blasting spell with battlefield control components
Rejection (SpC) - push a large cone of enemies away. Includes soft blasting, forces opponents to trigger attacks of opportunity, as well as its obvious effects.
Superior Resistance (SpC) - Replaces X of Resistance, can use spell slots a day or two ahead of entering the dungeon without conflicting with combat/utility spells.
Mass Make Manifest (SpC) - pluck enemies from the Ethereal pane, so the party can whack them.
Heroes' Feast - Lots of benefits, can be used the day before a dungeon without eating spell slots for your dungeoneering
Summon Monster VI - Bralani have some useful wind-based battlefield control and 40ish points of healing; Janni can Enlarge/Reduce on their own actions

Level 7:
Mass Spell Resistance (SpC) - Like Spell Resistance, except opposing casters will have to actually deal with it, instead of just choosing a different target.
Radiant Assault (SpC) - Difficult-to-resist Blasting with a debuff component. Flashy, but helps the party do its thing.
Repulsion - Enemies don't get to approach you. Or the party if you hang out together.
Planar Bubble (SpC) - Choose a planar environment you want to abuse (for free metamagic or arcane magic dampening or whatever), use Planar Binding/Planar Ally to get a native from that environment, use the spell.
Summon Monster VII - Bone Devils have amazing buff/control-based SLAs (namely, Fly, Dimension Anchor and Wall of Ice at will) and Avorals are True-Seeing Temporary HP engines that can spam Dispels and break up Solid Fogs,

Level 8:
Antimagic Sphere - as long as allies end their turns near you, the spell effects that can affect them are restricted heavily. Works well with silly initiative shenanigans.
Wall of Greater Dispel (SpC) - Dispel + soft battlefield control barrier.
Chain Dispel (PHB2) - More flexible Wall of Greater Dispel option with a higher CL cap but no battlefield control component.
Brilliant Aura (SpC) - +9 to +20 to all a party's attacks adds up very quickly.
Mass Death Ward (SpC) - Like Death Ward, except enemies will have to actually deal with it, instead of just choosing a different target.
[Aligned] Aura - toned-down combination of Shield of Faith + Spell Resistance + Magic Circle against X + a retributive effect against melee attacks. Powerful, but way situational.
Summon Monster VIII - The more Avorals or Bone Devils, the better support you give.

Level 9:
Miracle - this basically does anything
Summon Monster IX - For a level 9 slot, you can generally do better than summons, but Leonals and Bone Devils are still good action economy. Leonals have Super-Magic circles, at-will Walls of Force, 100 points of healing and can remove most status effects.

Also, Substitute Domain (CC) gives a lot of flexibility in grabbing wizard spells. Especially for clerics of the sovereign host.