A Cleric of Zarus, CharOp advice wanted.

[Kizara]

So, I'm going to be making a cleric for my next character in the group I'm playing in, and I have a decent idea of what I'm doing, but I'm wanting some opinions.

Situation:

1) Group is Evil. Character is going to be a LE cleric of Zarusm (races of destiny; Strength and War will be my domains)

2) 97 points, straight point-buy. So 18=18. I know that's alot.

3) Party has:
-a half-orc bar 1/bard 5
-a Draconion human crusader (ToB), who is going for ruby knight
-a shadowcaster (ToM) who is going for a rogue-esque PrC (master of masks)
-a dread necromancer (heros of horror, I believe)

4) The character is meant to be optimized, but doesn't have to be insane and I don't want him to be really cheesy.

5) I don't believe the group has Complete Champion, and doesn't use online material or Dragon material (except for some UA excerpts, like the variant paladins), and doesnt have the Spell Compendium otherwise it's basically most WotC published material.

6) I am strongly considering Leadership for this character, and received a very postitive response when suggesting it to the group. So, great ideas for the cohort are highly needed.
.............

So, unto the build.

I'm considering this:
str 18
dex 10
con 18
Int 15
Wis 18
Cha 18
Yep, that's an awfully nice helping of 18s.

Now, I'm at a toss up for what to do with feats. I could go Quicken and DMM (quicken), I could go Extend, persist and DMM (persist), but the second build is alot less practical and Nightsticks are unlikely to be viable.

Alternately, I could just take PA, Silent Spell (for Silence abuse; gotta love the lvl 2 AMF) and... other things, maybe Reach Spell?

Obviously, advice is wanted here.

Also, aside from Contemplative at 11, not really having any ideas for PrCing.

[Ponce]

That's quite the powerhouse. Might I suggest Bone Knight from Eberron's Five Nations book? A tidy evil Cleric PrC.

[Kizara]

That's quite the powerhouse. Might I suggest Bone Knight from Eberron's Five Nations book? A tidy evil Cleric PrC.

Thank you.

Unfortunately, no setting-specific material please. Any other suggestions?

[Nebo_]

I was going to suggest church inquisitor, then I remembered you're evil...
How about Walker in the Waste?

[graymachine]

Maybe a cohort that works on enhancing your bard's buffs? ::tries to wrap his head around a half-orc barbarian/bard)

[Lemur]

Master of Shrouds (Libris Mortis) makes you lose a caster level (and has crappy pre-req feats) but it's good at being an evil prestige class, and is well supported by high charisma characters, and gives you 4 extra rebuke attempts (for use with divine feats). You can choose to lose another caster level by dipping in Hexblade or Duskblade in order to qualify for the class two levels sooner. Note that the class becomes a less optimal choice at really high levels.

[Kizara]

I was going to suggest church inquisitor, then I remembered you're evil...
How about Walker in the Waste?

Source?

[quote] Maybe a cohort that works on enhancing your bard's buffs? ::tries to wrap his head around a half-orc barbarian/bard) [/qoute]
Such as? Certinally not another bard. And yea, the character isn't unless, but he's pretty far from strong. The shadowcaster is generally more useless.

Master of Shrouds (Libris Mortis) makes you lose a caster level (and has crappy pre-req feats) but it's good at being an evil prestige class, and is well supported by high charisma characters, and gives you 4 extra rebuke attempts (for use with divine feats). You can choose to lose another caster level by dipping in Hexblade or Duskblade in order to qualify for the class two levels sooner. Note that the class becomes a less optimal choice at really high levels.

I'll have a look.

EDIT: Summoning undead is interesting but completely not the point of the character. It's a melee Czilla build. Also, IMO Zarus would frown on the corruption of undeath. I appreciate the referance, but it seems like I could just take Extra Turning, and then save myself a caster level, fort save, and bab (going into a 3/4 bab class is wrose then progressing one).