what is the role of a cleric?

[Pathos Street]

I never said that they were equal to mages, but a cleric dealing damage with spells ain't a bad choice. Plus they get armor, simple weapons, shields, higher AB, higher HD, healing, etc. etc.

And casting party unfriendly spells is a blast. Nuking the baddies while leaving your comrades untouched is very challenging and fun. Especially when they all turn to you, stunned that they didn't even get singed.

I for one enjoy party unfriendly spells...adds some flavor and requires a bit of ingenuity and skill to use.

Sunbeam and earthquake are poor, due to party unfriendlyness and I can't imagine why anyone would use earthquake for its sad 10d6 damage in any case. Sunbeam is a pale shadow of the mage spell sunburst. Word of faith doesn't need a good DC for its primary use, which is to temporarily blind an opponent, so no point taking spell focus for it. Never been too fussed on flamestrike myself, but I guess some people like it, quite odd in that half the damage is party friendly, half isn't. Firestorm I do like, as I already said, not a huge damage max but a good area.

I'd certainly agree that air and magic are good domains if you want to play a caster cleric though.