Out of sheer morbid curiosity... [3.5]

[Zaq]

Okay, I'm aware of the following.

-Damage, coming from a full caster, is suboptimal.
-Even if you want to do damage, blasting is suboptimal on a cleric compared to a melee juggernaut.
-Even if you want to blast, wizards are better at it than clerics.
-Yes, I honestly know that blasting is suboptimal. Really.

That said, if you wanted to make a cleric blaster, what options do you have? This isn't for a specific character, I'm just curious. I know clerics can generally find some trick up their sleeves to do what needs to be done (usually differently than the wizard gets it done, but that's a good thing. Variety is not bad.), but I wonder, if you really wanted to build a blaster cleric, where would you start? Spontaneous Domain Casting for sure, but there's a lot of domains out there, and the obvious options are rarely the best. Maybe Darkness? I dunno. This is just some idle thought-play, nothing really serious, but I'm interesting in seeing what kinds of strange tricks people can come up with.

[Bluebeard]

Spontaneous domains from PHB2, combined with any blasty domain (Spell?) is a pretty strong starting point.

For PrCs, there's the Sanctified One of Kord (CChamp) which makes all Fire damage bypass Energy Resistance. It loses a caster level, but if you're blasting, it's worth it.
Stormcaster and Stormlord (Storm & CDiv) give some nice abilities for lightning-based blasters, but SC's lost caster level and SL's heavy feat requirements make them a bit less appealing.
Contemplative (CDiv) makes for good filler past level 10, adding immunities and a couple domains.

This has a list of spells that might help.

From there you should be pretty set.
Maybe pick up Empower Spell, Energy Substitution (Fire) and a Reserve feat, if that's your thing.
The Fell Drain and Fell Weaken Metamagics from Libris Mortis can tack some nice effects onto your blasting spells.
Divine Metamagic isn't only for Persists.
And isn't there a CL-boosting divine feat in CDiv? That might be worthwhile.

The Born of Three Thunders and Lord of the Uttercold from Complete Arcane might be useful if you don't take the Sanctified One route. I haven't given them much of a look, but they sound like they could be okay.
Another talking-out-of-my-ass-but-probably-good-times feat would be the blaster tactical feat from Complete Mage. It looked like it would be fun, whatever that's worth.

[quick_comment]

BoED has some good cleric blasting in it

[Waspinator]

If you just want some cheap blasting to have something to do while staying away from nasty melee monsters, there's always reserve feats. Yes, I know many people don't like them. However, I think it's worth the feat and spell slot to be able to do something more interesting than ping at the monster with a bow if I'm trying to save spell slots for later.

Although, I have to admit that maybe part of my liking of Fiery Burst comes from being a Roy Mustang fan.

[magic9mushroom]

From there you should be pretty set.
Maybe pick up Empower Spell, Energy Substitution (Fire) and a Reserve feat, if that's your thing.
The Fell Drain and Fell Weaken Metamagics from Libris Mortis can tack some nice effects onto your blasting spells.
Divine Metamagic isn't only for Persists.
And isn't there a CL-boosting divine feat in CDiv? That might be worthwhile.

Divine Spell Power. It's ok, but not that awesome.

The Born of Three Thunders and Lord of the Uttercold from Complete Arcane might be useful if you don't take the Sanctified One route. I haven't given them much of a look, but they sound like they could be okay.
Another talking-out-of-my-ass-but-probably-good-times feat would be the blaster tactical feat from Complete Mage. It looked like it would be fun, whatever that's worth.

Born of the Three Thunders dazes you for one round. But it's ok I guess. Lord of the Uttercold ain't that useful unless you have a horde of undead and you want to heal them insanely fast.\

Reserve feats are indeed underrated for games in which there's a lot of encounters/day, but for less than 4 or so you'll never run out of spells anyway.

[Biffoniacus_Furiou]

Gnome Cloistered Cleric, Illusion or Gnome (SC) and Shadow (ECS) domains, PH2 Spontaneous Domain Casting for Illusion or Gnome domain, Shadowcraft Mage (RoS). If you can visit the Frog God's Fane in Complete Scoundrel to gain Skill Focus: Knowledge: Religion without spending a feat, go Cloistered Cleric 5/ Divine Oracle 2/ Shadowcraft Mage 5/ Contemplative 8, gaining the Oracle, Gnome or Illusion, and probably Travel or Trickery domains. Get Heighten Spell, Earth Spell (RoS), Divine Metamagic: Heighten Spell, Residual Magic (CM), Easy Metamagic: Heighten if you can, maybe Rapid Metamagic (CM), maybe Ability Focus: Silent Image if you can, maybe Spell Focus: Illusion and Metamagic School Focus (CM), and a lot of Night Sticks (LM).

Cast a Heightened Silent Image, either spontaneously converted from an existing spell of the desired level (but two higher for Earth Spell and Easy Metamagic) or spontaneously from a 1st level slot with Divine Metamagic: Heighten. This spell can mimic any Evocation, Conjuration (Summoning), or Conjuration (Creation) of a level up to one lower than the Silent Image's spell level (one higher than the spell slot used). It's at a significantly higher caster level and DC than the spell would otherwise have. On the following round cast Silent Image from a 1st level spell slot, Residual Magic will Heighten it for free to the same level as the one on the previous round. Otherwise refer to the Shadowcraft Mage Handbook for more details.

[Shpadoinkle]

Take a look at Reserve Feats from Complete Arcane. They're less powerful than normal spells, but you can use them every round, all day long.

[Curmudgeon]

Complete Champion has a couple of domain feats that would work if you want to blast your enemies. Knowledge Devotion provides bonuses on attack and damage rolls for specific creature types based on appropriate Knowledge checks; maxing out the 6 Knowledges related to creatures will give you bonuses versus all enemies. (You'll want to go Cloistered Cleric to have enough skill points.) Then there's Magic Devotion, which gives you a short range blast attack. Add Nightsticks (from Libris Mortis) to provide more blasts daily.

[Eldariel]

I think I've got just the thread for you.

Tip: Be of alignment that "ok":s casting evil spells. Darkbolt helps more than you can imagine.

That said, domains can also help. As has been said, you can take some extremely bomby domain and the PHBII Domain Spontaneity variant, or the feat that burns turnings to spontaneously cast Domain-spells.


EDIT: It appears practically everything I was going to say has been said. Then again, it's fine I suppose. Repetitium mater studiorum est.