Lightly Armored Cleric

[phindar]

If your twin sister is a sorceress, get her to cast Mage Armor on you. It's not really worth it to give anything up to get access to MA if someone else in the party already has it. (Though we tend to design characters in a vacuum, they're played in a group, so let that work for you where it can.)

Branching out a little bit, its never, ever, ever a good idea to give up caster levels but... take a look at a two level dip into Monk. You'll get to add your Wis bonus to AC, and for the second level bonus feat you can take Deflect Arrows which means once a round a missile attack that would hit you is swatted away. (If your casting, you'll probably have a hand free which is all this feat really requires.) For your 1st level bonus feat I'd suggest Improved Grapple, to give you a bit of an edge if you ever get grappled.

With a 16 DEX and a 16 WIS and Mage Armor, you've got a 20 AC off the bat. Shield of Faith and Owl's Wisdom is on your list, at least until you get items that do that, and Cat's Grace is on your twin sister's list. By the time you guys hit 5th level, you could have a AC 30 fully buffed. (Also, if you can finagle the Plant Domain that gives you Barkskin, which makes the Plant Domain worth it in my mind.)

Most of these spells are fairly short duration, but the Mage Armor is hours per level and the stat buffs are 10 minutes per level, and those should give you a +8 to your AC, on top of your DEX and WIS bonuses, so that puts you in the neighborhood of 24. Shield of Faith and Barkskin are another +2 or +3 apiece (I think these both bump up up to +3 at 6th). Items like Potions of Shield are also inexpensive and its +4 to your AC for 10 rounds.

Assuming you were fully buffed and CL 6 (I'd take Practiced Spellcaster, but that's me), it'd look something like:

Armor Class: 36, touch: 21 (29 vs incorporeals), flat-footed: 24 (+4 Armor, +4 Shield, +6 DEX, +6 WIS, +3 Deflection, +3 Natural). Granted, you'd probably never be able to get those three short duration buffs up, but really, how often does a 6th level character need a 36 AC? You get a Ring of Deflection or an Amulet of Natural Armor an that saves you having to cast the buff.

 

[Darklone]

Ranged cleric: Divine Favor (quickened) plus Divine Might (with maxxed Charisma).

 

[Folly]

If your primary concern is appearance, then Glamored Mithral Breastplate with Iron Silence cast on it will make you look, sound, and move like your not wearing armor.

 

[Elder-Basilisk]

As a cleric, you have a few options.

1. Focus on spellcasting not physical combat. At low levels, your life will be a bit rough because you are tapping your healing and buffing resources for all of your offense, but by the time you reach level 5 or so, you'll be doing well.

A possibility: Cleric 1: Spell Pentration, Cleric 3: Augment Healing, 4-13 Church Inquisitor 6: Domain substitution: Good (as many holy smites as you want in another level); 9. Craft Wondrous Item 12. Greater Spell Penetration, sudden empower spell, or sudden maximize.

2. The archer route others have mentioned. (Though you're again going to have it rough unless your deity's favored weapon is a bow;
one standard archer cleric builds call for either being a wood elf (+2 str, +2 dex and automatic proficiency with bows) with the elf domain (Point Blank Shot), and possibly the war domain (for Weapon fous), then taking precise shot at level 1, Rapid Shot at level 3, and Quicken spell at level 9 (for quickened divine favor).

The other standard cleric archer build calls for being a human whose god has a bow as a favored weapon and the war domain. You get proficiency from the domain (and weapon focus) and spend your first two feats on point blank and precise shot. From there, you follow the same feat path as the elf archer.

The challenge of playing a half-elf whose goddess doesn't have a bow as a favored weapon as an archer is that it will be level 9 before you can actually collect all of the essential feats for filling your chosen role (proficiency with a bow, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, and Rapid Shot).

 

[Darklone]

Clerics make good Xbow archers.... no need for Rapid Shot there, Xbow Sniper is a good feat if you focus on Dex (with no Zen archery) and can't afford a high strength... after all constitution is important too.

And there's that nice spell that grants Dex +10 for some time. Awesome for the halfling Xbow cleric archer. Get autoreloading handXbows with Rapid Shot, Haste and TWF.

 

[Papa-DRB]

Another build is to play an elf cleric of Shevarash (elf god of retribution in FR), taking the Elf and War domains.

Free feats: weapon proficiency with long bow, point blank shot.

and build from there. I would go with high wisdom and take zen archery at 1st level, then fill in the rest later.

 

[phindar]

One of the things I noticed when I was playing my last dedicated healer/buffer (this was an AE greenbond, but the role was very similar to a classic cleric), was that I was healing or buffing pretty much every round. That's one thing to think about before you sink a lot of feats into a particular chain (especially since clerics are feat-starved anyway), what role are you going to play in the party?

 

[Gilladian]

Phindar, that's a good point. I'm thinking crossbow archery just because it is a "secondary" line to the buff/heal role.

Our party will be small - a classic fighter, an NPC rogue or bard, my twin sister the sorceress, who is taking the dragon bloodline from pathfinder, and me, the cleric. So, since she's taking a dragon background, that means I could have one as well - but I don't have any splatbooks with dragon info, so I think I'll pass on that option now.

 

[EroGaki]

Currently, I am playing a 4th level Halfling cleric who is sticking to only light armor. Thus far, I have an AC of 21: +4 for Mithril shirt, +4 dex bonus for 18 dex, +1 size bonus, and a large darkwood shield. Granted, I have a really good dex and small size, but I'm finding that wearing only light armor is working so far. My advice is to work on increasing you dex score. Next level I plan on getting Craft Magic Arms and Armor so that I can enchant my armor and shield.

 

[Shin Okada]

I know many people don't like to be a running bandage. But actually becoming a healing specialist can be fun. How about aimint at Combat Medic in Heroes of Battle?

Descent Dex (14 or 16 for elves) will do. I found Celerity and Healing domains are good combination for this type of build. Eventually, you will become a TRUE running bandage. You will get evasion without losing any spell casting level and Healing Kicker is so good. And in the end, you start to cast Heal spontaneously.

Taking Mobile Spellcasting feat in Complete Adventurer is good, too. This makes a character who can keep distance from dangerous opponents and then run to your comrade and heal when necessary, then go back to safe position in the same round.