A More Pure Caster-ish Cleric?

[Mr. Zolrane]

I'm in my first DnD campaign, and one of my party members is Dwarven Cleric of Wee Jas. He, like myself is a first-time player, and was somewhat surprised by how much a martial class the cleric is; he regularly does more melee damage than me (a Barbarian) and our friend (a Fighter). My question to you guys, is, is there a class that's like the cleric, but much tilted toward casting.

[WarKitty]

Cloistered Cleric?

[Ravens_cry]

Cloistered Cleric?

My thoughts exactly. It can be found here in the SRD.

[gbprime]

Also Shugenja.

[Morph Bark]

Healer.

Though you might want to keep him away from Divine Metamagic.

[Callista]

Cloistered Cleric?

Yes. Benefits: More skill points, better class skills, Knowledge domain, bardic knowledge, a few extra spells. Drawbacks: Bad BAB, lower hit dice, only light armor proficiency.

If you want sorcerer-ish casting, you can also try the Favored Soul.

[Ernir]

It's not easy, considering how well the Cleric spell list synergizes with the combat strategy of "buff up, squash everything". With full casting (and preferably some splatbook access), virtually any high-level Cleric can turn himself into a significant combatant without having a single feat or other build choice devoted to it, simply because the spells exist, ready to be used.

I play one pretty pure divine caster, it's the halfling in my avatar. I got around the temptation of one day picking Divine Power and telling the melee-ers in the party to kiss my high-charisma butt by just not picking any "Range: Personal" buff spells. Which pretty much means she'll comparatively suck in melee forever (forever meaning "until I get Miracle and could cast Giant Size + Bite of the Werebear at the drop of a hat", anyway).

TL;DR version: don't play a Cleric, play something with a different spells known list.

[Tvtyrant]

Or just take the Magic and Travel domains and become the party UMD utility specialist while flying above the combat :p

You can play a normal Cleric as a caster fairly easily, just try to avoid melee combat and concentrate on caster spells. You have a crazy good list of those anyway!

[GoodbyeSoberDay]

Cloistered Cleric is the classic robed scholarly priest, and Archivist (Heroes of Horror) is a divine wizard type.

[gbprime]

You can play a normal Cleric as a caster fairly easily, just try to avoid melee combat and concentrate on caster spells.

This. The big thing that makes a cleric into killer melee is the spell list. Don't take those spells. If you need help avoiding the temptation, use Shugenja or Favored Soul. Cloistered cleric, for example, is a non-combatant, but they can still pop off long-lasting Divine Power, Spikes, etc, etc and fake melee combat very well. Shugenja has the narrow spell list to force a narrow concept.