Cleric or Ardent?

[JMS]

So I am going into a partner Ravenloft campaign, and the other player has a blaster Psion. I would like to do healing or Melee, and the other player suggested Ardent or Cleric. I don't need a ton of optimization, but also don't suggest horribly weak classes. I am new to 3.5, so I woulden't know those. also, if there is a better class to partner with the Psion, tell me
Thanks, JMS

[Uckleverry]

Cleric is better at healing and melee, but it's also more complex to play than ardent. The most complex choices you're making for ardent are at character creation, whereas with cleric you're always looking at a big list of spells to prepare.

[JMS]

would the healing hrom life mantle as a primary be enough for 2, and what other mantles are good?

[JMS]

would life mantle alone work for keeping us alive in an are like Ravenloft, and if not what is needed?

[Eldariel]

Cleric is obviously an amazing class and can easily do anything at all you might ever desire if you put your mind to it. Thus, you can always build a Cleric that does precisely what you want; it can also do all the healing stuff in the side without putting any resources into it so you can focus on being an arcane master of summoning/destruction, a warrior, a teleporter, a god, whatever you feel like any given day. The problem of course is that good Clerics in Ravenloft have it pretty bad. Though nothing stops you from playing a neutral deity serving something evil and building up armies of undead; you still have access to all the problem removal spells.

Ardent, hmm...the big thing about Ravenloft is, it's full of undead and thus drains of all type are fairly common. So, gaining access to Restoration on level 11 as opposed to level 7 and lacking access to the laundry list of Cleric healing effects can be a thing. The big problem is not HP damage (which you can heal with simple Wand of Lesser Vigor/Cure Light Wounds), which is something Ardents excel against as well, and reviving is sorta doable with Psionic Revivify, but it's the Lesser Restoration/Remove Disease/Remove Curse/Remove Blindness-Deafness, etc. that you'll be sorely missing. And yeah, getting Restoration 4 levels late hurts. Panacea [Spell Compendium] is another great catch-all and unlike Heal, Mend Wounds sadly doesn't have the laundry list of things it cures. SOn the other hand, Mend Wounds is basically Mass Heal way early so far as healing HP damage goes, it's really good but that's just not the issue at all. Empathic Transfer allows dealing with poisons and disease in a limited manner particularly if you make yourself immune.

The existence of Stygian Ward and Psionic Revivify make it an interesting option to try though, but do make sure you can deal with ability/energy drain in a reasonable manner. Certainly ensure you can deal with ability damage since like every undead ever deals that.

[JMS]

ah, looks like cleric then.
Thanks