Cleric of Poseidon

[USS Sorceror]

So I was thinking of making a backup character for my DM's ancient Greece campaign. Since I'm already playing as a cleric, I thought I'd make a backup character that is also a cleric.

My idea is for a cleric of Poseidon. He is a former pirate (and served as the unofficial clergyman on his ship) and is trying to redeem himself, but still gives in to old habits occasionally (stealing, cheating, and generally being impolite to people, particularly landlubbers). He particularly likes swindling people in whatever way possible.

What I'm looking for are build ideas, nothing too powerful as I am in a fairly low-op group. We start at level 5 but I'm thinking we'll probably end up at around 7 or 8 (at least) before we end this campaign. This includes feats and classes, but not races (He'll be human). Any sourcebook is okay with DM approval.

[Waker]

Well, if your DM is willing to let the wild companion replace the requirements for the PrC, the Wavekeeper (Stormwrack pg76). It's a 9/10 divine casting class that gives you a choice of several water related domains, give you a swim speed, lets you breathe underwater, some water control and more.

[eggs]

With a Cleric of Poseidon, I kind of want to make it fight from horseback, but I'm drawing a blank on ways to effectively stick a Cleric on a horse and make it excel.

Wild Cohort + asking very nicely to add Ride to the class skill list could work.

Otherwise, maybe Prestige Paladin of Freedom 3, plus either Leadership or a homebrew feat to stack Paladin and Cleric levels for the mount and Poseidon-related domain abilities?

[USS Sorceror]

@Waker: That prestige class sounds pretty cool actually. I will definitely look into it.

@eggs: Paladin of Freedom requires you be Chaotic Good, right? This character (as I'm imagining him) would be more Chaotic Neutral, so that wouldn't work. But I do like the idea of fighting from horseback. Or pegasus-back.

[Zonugal]

What about something like this?

Human Cloistered Cleric (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/variant/classes/variantCharacterClasses.htm#clericVariantCloistere dCleric) 5; Martial Weapon Proficiency (Trident) [1st], Criminal Background [Human], Hurricane Breath (http://dndtools.eu/feats/complete-mage--58/hurricane-breath--1419/) [3rd], Storm Bolt (http://dndtools.eu/feats/complete-mage--58/storm-bolt--2783/) [6th].

Criminal Background places Bluff, Disguise & Knowledge (Local) as class skills forever (so you can play-up your shady past). Hurricane Breath & Storm Bolt both allow you to summon powers akin to Poseidon. From throwing a bolt of electricity to remind people what power you possess to breathing at a sail to give it some extra speed these two feats work well on a build like this.

Some domains you could choose are Ocean (Players Guide to Faerun/Spell Compendium/Stormwrack), Storm (Player's Guide to Faerun/Spell Compendium/Stormwrack), Trade (Player's Guide to Faerun/Spell Compendium), Water (Core) or Weather (Complete Divine or Eberron Campaign Setting).

Thoughts?

[USS Sorceror]

@Zonugal: I love it! Maybe not the lightning thing though, I see that as being more Zeus' area.

I wasn't aware there was an Ocean domain. I'd never ran across when I was looking through the Spell Compendium. Then again, since I've never played a cleric, I probably just ignored the domain spells.

All in all, definitely a good build that I would definitely use as a backup.