Cleric spells at lower levels?

[Komatik]

People often say that the Cleric list is better than the Druid list - at high levels I can see why, they've got Gate, Miracle, Planar Ally, Summon Monster line, some death effects and the like. Low level it seems kind of sparse, though. Thing is, my Cleric knowledge sucks. Can you helpful people enlighten me by posting sample goodies from splats/domains or example spell selections for low level clerics (like, E6 low). Can they be nearly as effective as druids/wizards without smacking things with a mace?

[Aegis013]

I like Guidance of the Avatar, Divine Insight, Darkbolt, Omen of Peril, and persisted Ice Axe. To name a few.

[lhilas]

Well, you got pretty nice healing spells, much better than any other class at your level.
You also have the following awesome spells at 4th spell slot and below :

Bestow curse
Divine power
Zone of silence
Brambles
Lesser holy transformation (or something similar)


There are actualy many more but I can't think of any at the moment...
BTW cleric of 4th level and below is SUPPOSED to hit things with a mace, after you get 3rd spell slot you're kind of able to have some effect on the battlefield without swinging a weapon, but the real wizard-like cleric are mostly level 9+....

[Pluto!]

The Cleric has lots of basic dry but powerful spells like Death Ward, Hero's Feast, Freedom of Movement, Air Walk, True Seeing and so forth, which just negate entire modes of attack. Those aren't flashy, but they're impactful.

It gets silly powerful spells like Dampen Magic and Silence that just turn off casters from very low levels. Or effects that just cheat normal casting limitations, like Consumptive Fields and Assay Spell Resistance.

It gets minions out the wazoo. Starting with summons from the Summon Monster line and its abundance of SLAs and utility abilities, going on into the secondary 'summon' lists (Conjure Ice Beast and Summon Desert Ally) for high strength scores and brute damage, going on to Animate Dead for the silliness that is big monster skeletons, and wrapping up with Planar Ally with its open-ended (though DM-moderated) smorgasbord of Outsider and Elemental allies.

There are an abundance of single target save-or-lose/dies (Hold Person, Plane Shift, Blindness/Deafness, Shivering Touch, etc). That's a risky game, but the Cleric can pick which defense to target and successfully turning enemies off with a standard action is just a blowout.

The Cleric has decent Battlefield control in his Wall of X spells, summoned monster abilities, Doomtides, Nauseating Breaths, etc.

Then there are the numerical buffs, whether they're party-affecting boosts like Recitation, Righteous Wrath of the Faithful, Mass Conviction/Aid/Shield of Faith or Brilliant Aura or self-only boosts like the often-lauded DMM Persisted Divine Powers, Righteous Mights or Divine Favors. There are also non-DMMed single-target or self-only buffs that you could use, but they tend to be less awesome in terms of action economy.

Then there are the Cleric spells that give +YES bonuses to anything skill-related: Guidance of the Avatar and Divine Insight. Together, you're looking at a +35 bonus to any skill roll you might want to make. At higher levels, Surge of Fortune can cap it off to make your skill rolls automatic natural 20s.

And to round it off, there are the domain spells, which can be altered with the Substitute Domain spell, in order to grab whichever of your deities spells/features is the most applicable for the upcoming day.

Not to mention the hundreds of niche divination and problem-solving spells that are automatically available to the Cleric, should the situation warrant them. Spells like Water Breathing, Divination and Tongues aren't flashy and aren't sexy, but there aren't a lot of other classes that can automatically ignore obstacles the way that kind of spell allows.

Edit: Turn Undead also does a surprising amount of work, whether by fueling Divine Defiance to make an Inquisition domain Cleric into a ridiculous spell-duelist, by translating into free metamagic or caster levels via DMM or DSP or by powering massive strength or attack boosts for a melee cleric through devotion feats.