Vatras's page

My campaign was written by myself and won't change, no matter what the canon is :)
I stole for the second part the title "Rise of the Drow", but the story is completely different. I had epic levels in mind for this, and wanted to touch on several points in Golarions history, like the Earthfall, the surrounding events and how they reach into the present.
If my players act as expected (...they rarely do...), the drow will be freed from Rovagug's dream, eventually redeeming the remnants of their race.

Anyway, I would not mind seeing something new instead of the nth rehash of old adventure modules. I have really no idea how often WotC created reincarnations of Ravenloft or the Temple of Elemental Evil. They produce practically nothing new, which is a pity, as they once had pretty good adventures.

As the others said. As an oracle, I like to point out that no spell is worth taking, if you get it next level for free.

Ask "Are you a wizard?" with the NPC who has a really high sense motive skill (and whatever spellcasters may have, 99% have no bluff skill). Otherwise, anyone with a component pouch or divine focus is guilty.

My 2cp:
If the mirror is of importance to the adventure and not just a minor obstacle, it is not a run-of-the-mill magic item, but something special.

Example: the mirror holds a spirit, who acts as the keeper of the prisoners (think Snowwhite or Shrek here), and there are no commands to release them. The only way to get someone released would be to riddle him or to get the passkey (which is in the possession of whoever is in charge of the mirror or in the crypt of it's maker).

There was a module for basic D&D back in the day called "Skarda's Mirror", where the party had to venture into one such mirror, if you want to look it up.

Let me see...in the webcomic Grrl Power is a vault under the control of a council of powerful groups where they store their artefacts. Partially because they cannot be destroyed, because destroying them would be a bad idea, or because they can do something extremely useful besides the bad stuff.
They have a massive door which can be opened by the combined touch of four council members. Inside is a massive golem with a special weakness aura, that turns (almost) everyone into easy prey. The comment of the golden heroine after beating the golem is hilarious :)
Then there is a ward preventing teleporation by normal means (and which the thieves bypass). Once inside the ceiling comes down and squishes everyone flat. There is also some kind of auto-shooting trap with something for everyone, from shrapnel to firebeams.
Around each item is an individual field that kills anyone alive touching it and blocks dead matter.
And of course, their best defense is that the location of the vault is known only to the council members, but not the public.

I did design a vault once for my high level 1E group. There was a nasty dungeon with deadly traps, rarely seen monsters, deadly illusions, and finally a treasury that was already plundered, with the skeleton of a robber remaining. The cunning gamers smelled a rat and checked the place again and found a secret door to a small treasury, which left them satisfied. The real vault was elsewhere, behind a secret door (which was an unusually shaped golem and could therefore not be picked or knocked open) in the entrance room, and completely clad in lead to foil most divinations. After all, would you expect the high level clerics to jump through all the hoops to make a deposit?
The whole thing is of course easy, if someone thinks to go through the priests instead of dungeoneering.

If not advancing in the primary class, the best options for MC are martial types.
Then there are prestige classes: holy vindicator, pathfinder savant, and those in the adventure paths for certain deities, which could be used as templates for your deity.

I hit once upon a time the wizard in the party with a curse. As it turned out, when the time came when they could have broken it, that he preferred to keep it, as it was too much fun for him.
He was cursed by Chaos and whenever he cast a spell he had to consult the chaos magic tables for the result. Maybe you would like something similar, if you or your DM can come up with tables for a summoner?

City of Locusts (6th part of Wrath of the Righteous) is level 18 (plus mythic).
Dungeon of No Return in Adventures Quarterly #2, also level 18.
Dungeonlands: Palace of the Lich Queen.
Gorged on Ruins, 11th part of a path from Zeitgeist Games, is for level 19. Part 12 and 13 are for level 20.
The lower levels of Rappan Athuk, a mega dungeon from Necromancer Games, are high level. My copy of this is a 2" hardcover book, going from level 1 to 20+, so using just the lowest levels is kinda wasteful.

There is not much of this level around, though. Adapting other adventures is not much of a problem, and it allows dipping into 3.4 and d20 modules_
- Hellstone Deep, 19th
- Under the Eye of the Tempest, 18th
- Fane of the Fallen, 13-18
- Adventures in Dungeon #92, 116, 122, 133, 134, 135, 136, 141, 144, 148, 149, 150, 152 (and probably others)
- Well of broken souls, 18th

About casting in melee: yes, there is such a thing as holding the charge, but in the end it comes down to defensive casting. Casting defensively is not that difficult at all, and if you have the feat combat casting, only your highest level spells will occasionally fail.
Your real problem will always be that you have to roll an attack and the enemy must fail a save. The first is not that bad, except that it is subject to all miss chance shenanigans.

My solution is to use the feat Reach Spell, but since I play oracles, I can do that on the fly. As a cleric you would have to prepare in advance.

If I planned to have multiple planar visitors I would use it, if I was afraid that they would run away.

My 2cp are:
- Between shaman and witch you have some healing, and the other two are probably ranged types, leaving the paladin as the only melee. So going melee isnt a bad idea, especially as melees are most effective damage dealers, when supported by casters.
- Slayer is a good idea. It is an effective melee type with some skills and no baggage.
- Bard is meh. Yes, it is an awesome support, but somewhat boring for the player. You also need a worling knowledge of your options and spells.
- With this setup you can also try something like cleric/wizard/mystic theurge, if you like to play broadbabd casters.
- A straight ranger would work well, too, going for dual-wield style. Maybe there is an intersting archetype out there too?
- A fighter can be awesome, but requires some knowledge about how things work, so you can make effective use of those bonus feats and archetypes.
- If you prefer a full caster instead, you can take a look at the psychic from Occult Adventures.

So you end up as Arcanist 6/Evangelist 10/Pathfinder Savant 4, if I got that right. And you can add +2 CL to either the Evangelist or the Arcanist due to your trait. You could end up as Evangelist 15/Arcanist 6 when you look at the caster levels.

If you were shooting for a dual-caster, why not go for a mystic theurge and end up 13/19 casterlevel-wise?
A 6th level plus 15th level caster (but with spells as 13th) seems subpar at level 20. Multiclassing is not a good option for casters the way the system works, though.

Paladins are best, followed by sorcerer for groups (or other class with access to good nukes). No matter what you use channel for, fireball will usually better it. Or any 1d6/lvl nuke.

Out of your feats I would pick Power Attack, Toughness, Weapon Focus, and Weapon Specialization plus their upgrades.

I find Diehard too situational (and that's what the healer is for), and the same goes for Cleave. You often end up with no one else you can hit´, especially later on when so many foes are huge.

My choices would be Improved Critical, Step Up (and possibly the upgrades), Vital Strike and it's upgrade for those feats. The latter is just my personal preference, since I see that you have very often to move around the battlefield and don't get in a fullround attack. It is an option to make that one hit you get after moving count for more.
Our melees have picked Lunge and Blindfight, which may or may not be useful, depending on the situation.

Most of the melees in our games go for 2-weapon fighting instead of 1H weapons, so I have seen much more of that.

If there is a healer, I take the bard. If there is none, I pick the cleric. If there is a semi-healer, witch might be the best option. It depends on what else there is in the group.

And here are my 2cp:
Divine casters are a far cry from what they were in 3.5, where they dominated. Pathfinder used the heavy nerf-bat on the cleric and they are now somewhat sub-par from what I have experienced.
The reasons for this are manifold and add up: loss of heavy armor (not that important), loss of most longterm buffs and the feat that made them run forever (this is the major point; I'll get to it), loss of turn undead and the feats for it, which are not made up by the channel feats (90% of them suck), many horrible spells on their list, and last but not least, he is MAD.

About the longterm buffs: all your combat buffs that turn you into a semi-fighter run for 1 round/level. And you need several of them to stay somewhat significant (lets say divine favor, divine power and prayer). Each buff takes a round to cast and battles usually last 4-6 rounds. At the time you are ready the fight is as good as over. Later on you can quicken a buff, but sacrificing an 8th level spell to be a somewhat less worse fighter hurts. Your buffs can give you mostly to hit, but damage-wise you have nothing.
This ties in with being MAD. You would need STR to get some damage in, because your class lacks a damage mechanic like all the melees have. You also need CON, if you want to go into melee. You need enough WIS to cast your spells, CHA for channeling and possibly skills, and a little DEX wouldn't hurt either, for the intiative at least. This split makes you a very sub-par fighter, and there is no real way out. Furthermore, to stay in the game you need to stack up more STR, as there are no alternatives, which is the kind of loot your melees are looking for, too.

The channel feats are mostly useless, no matter how much some people praise them. As an example, look at channel smite. If I just channel, I can hurt all within 30'r., if I use channel smite I can hurt only one target, which I can miss, and who still gets a save to halve the damage. So why not use the AE since it is more effective?
Channel runs off 1d6/2 levels (and can be saved against) while HP run on d8+CON bonus each level. So it is easy to see why this is not going to be a great source of damage. At level 9 you would get 5d6 against a mob with about 70 HP, which will dent him by 9 or 18 damage. At level 20 you can pit your 10d6 (average 35, saved 18) against 400-600 hp mobs, which is not even funny.
The most useful thing you get out of your channels past level 9 are the side-effects of variant channeling, if your DM allows this. Some of them can be useful and stay relevant.

The cleric spells are often very bad. Usually you get a save to avoid a spell or you have to succeed at a ranged touch attack. As cleric you get things like bestow curse, which require a touch attack (in melee range) and can still be negated with a save. This is one of the really bad examples, though, but there are spells where you have to jump through every hoop (spell resistance, touch and save), and which in consequence rarely work (you run full against mathematical averages here).
Your damage spells usually suck, at least below spell level 5. You get holy smite, which does 5d8 at most, which isn't exactly effective against equal level monsters, and the alignment part makes them useless against all others. Or the 3rd level one that deals 1d8+lvl (and so to you) which deals double that if you forfeit your save. The lack of low level nukes means also that you have little to use metamagic feats on. While wizards can manipulate magic missile, scorching ray, fireball and lightning bolt, you have nothing coming close.
Your best spells are buffs and heals. Some of the buffs are usually useless (check out holy aura, it's buff types and fixed SR), because the overlap with comething common, like a ring of protection, but you get something out of most of them. Typically you get your damage from supporting melee characters. Each attack you can make them hit more often *is* your damage. It does not matter if you raise attacks by 5% with bless, add another attack with the 4th level blessing, or allow him to move freely (freedom of movement and airwalk are good), this is what you can do best.

Now there is a prevalent opinion that healing is a bad option. I can only say that it is often the only option and without healing your party will die, unless the DM is really lenient.
For an example I pick the cleric NPC in RotR, who an crit for a really nasty amount, slaying a weak PC in one round or cripple him enough to make him die the next. If you cannot somehow heal that PC, he is dead and his DPR with him. And crits don't get lower with rising level...I had to deal with crits of 120 damage now and then.
Often worse than crits, which are not certain, is AE damage. When you get fireballed by a couple of sorcerers you will find out that a wand of CLW is just a toy.

Btw, summoned critters and undead hordes share the same weakness: you can fireball them away easily enough...or whatever the current popular AE is. Just nuking the controller and leaving the undead next to his friends is of course even better ;) A simple dispel magic can undo many such schemes, too.

So, after pointing out some of the problems you are forewarned, which is the same as fore-armed. You need to address the problems and patch them up with whatever build you have in mind. If you can come up with an answer on how to overcome your specific weakness, you will be fine.

Our casters like scorching ray, as it is a ranged touch attack (and most foes have no real AC there). Later on it is easily modded with feats, due to it being only level 2.
Flaming sphere has the potential to do more damage, but it depends how your battles are going. You need several rounds to make the most of it, and distances/terrain play a role here.

I don't tell my players the AC of NPCs, unless someone hit it when it becomes obvious.

Telling players beforehand can give away vital information they don't have yet. It allows them to guess who is who (or what role), or if something is not real.
Once players are familiar with your monsters, unexpected AC numbers will tell them different things, too. It is fun for many players to figure out the details.

My 2cp: I stick with the phrase "one object", and not let someone tear pieces out of larger objects, which was never intended with telekinesis.

As pocsaclypse points out, buildings weigh a lot. A house made of stone - medieval style, not modern construction - is pretty safe from telekinesis.

You use different foes, where melee has less meaning. Presenting a barbarian with straight melee mobs is always in the barbarians favor.

Here are some of the options to vary combat (and you don't use them all the time, of course), some of which you already wrote down:
- flying foes, like a group of sorcerers who area bomb the party
- difficult terrain that prevents charging
- you did not mention the level of the party; if they are high level, consider taking a look at the Epic Level Handbook from 3.5 for appropriate foes; I can assure you from my own experience that those work fine; another nice source for monsters are the D&D Basic Rules (the ancient ruleset from before AD&D which went up to level 36), which contain some unusual monsters
- I generally don't buff up monsters, because it makes spellcasters even more insignificant than they already are; it is fine for a melee to devastate something of his own level imho
- speaking of casters, use more of them as foes; they are too weak in Pathfinder, except for the psionics handbook (which is 3rd party), but they can be used as support; life oracles, sorcerers with nasty buffs (displacement, fly, stoneskin) or straight nukers can be a danger when combined with something else; a group of archers supported by a healer and a sorcerer are way more of a challenge than on their own
- casters can also alter the battlefield with one spell, so that can restrict the barbarian on the fly
- use enemies with abilities that require saving throws that are HD based (those based on spell level are too easy to make), and which will come into play at least once; something that can charm the barbarian to make him kill his partners is not nice but occasionally OK (a well placed illusion may suffice to achieve this)
- use battlefields with hazards on them: hidden pitfalls (it is enough if he falls down, depth does not matter), poisonous plants with thorns, debris blocking straight paths, etc.; your NPCs should place themselves intelligently if they have warning and make use of their surroundings (an illusionist covering up such hazards has already achieved your purpose, even if he is no real danger)
- make use of cover and light levels; those miss chances add up; and I don't believe the PCs have all a lightsource or darkvision - and even if they have, those have short ranges; attacks coming from out of the dark (shooting at the light source works fine) from unknown positions also handicap movement

Anything that allows movement plus fullround actions/attacks is extremely powerful and should probably be banned or restricted. There is a reason why every melee tries to get it in some form. It ruins many assumptions about melee, if you can do that. But I prefer to do banning stuff beforehand, not after someone picks it up, since that often causes bad feelings.
A possible option here is to have your encounters start at longer distances and with more ranged combat from your side. The distance is long enough if it cannot be crossed even with such abilities.

Entangled = half speed, not immobile

The dragon takes a dip into the ocean to hide his trail ;)

I always found it silly that someone wrote it into the rules that you can track birds in the air or fish in the sea.

Go with hard ground (no real tracks left) and medium winds (new modifier, DC +1/3mph) then. The table has no modifiers for the air, since that was not intended, so make them up.

DC = 20 (hard ground) + 5 (wind 15 mph) - 2 (huge dragon) + 20 (tracking through the air) = 43

Selective channel is OK for healing during melee. But forget any and all other channeling feats for now. Quicken channel may be hyped by many, but it really cuts your healing power from the ability in half for the meagre advantage to use it as a move action. If you really have a feat to waste on that, wait until later, when you need channel less and can afford to throw half of it away.
(I could do that at my level, but it is pointless, because there were many other more important feats to pick, and oracles are feat starved.)

If you are needed as a healer, an oradin (and an archer at that) is not the optimum choice, because:
- heal spells are all touch, which requires you typically to stay near the melee to take care of enemy crits; hanging back works against you here
- picking up pally levels delays your oracle, which is already one level behind the cleric spell levels; keep in mind that your healing capacity will be below that of a typical oracle; it is true that life oracles are the strongest healers (I should know), but they take a while to come into their own

My most important feat is Reach Spell, since that is the only practical way to heal across a battlefield, where the party is occasionally split far apart. High hits or even crits are common, so waiting till the end of the fight if often not an option. Therefore I recommend picking that one up, once you have the slots to support it a couple of times.

There isn't much to permanently disenchant items besides the disenchanter.

Maybe smelting them down and shaping new ones with fabricate will do?
Or you can break them up and let someone cast Make Whole on them who doesn't have the level to restore the magical properties.

The formula "no two of which can be more than 30' apart" is the same as a circle with 30' diamater, except that it excludes the spell's area from being modified by metamagic. You could double the radius of a circle that way and the devs didn't want that for many spells.

Paladin and fighter did great, the paladin is better though, because of his superior saves and spells. Barbarian can work, but I have not yet seen a high level one in action.

I would like to try a Soulknife myself, but it is probably not better than those three, just different (unless its the power-using variety).

My 2cp about channel energy:
It is nice up to level 9 and becomes obsolete later. I can heal 250+ with all my channels per day, but only 35 on average at a given moment. When comparing that to the damage flying around or the hitpoints of undead, it is not much.
So I am pretty sure that you cannot make a channel build that is not inferior to everything else you could do with those feats. But I would like to see what you can come up with :)

Btw, channel surge is a fullround action, so you cannot quick channel when using it.

The phrase "works like mythic sleep" means the basic spell description. You cannot apply the augments of one spell to the other because of that.

If you are the DM, you can do what you like to make the plot work of course. And you don't have to explain such details to your players either, to keep rule lawyers at bay :)

All the good polymorphs have been carefully culled from the system and been replaced with plazebos *sigh*

There is a 3rd tier hierophant mythic ability which allows you to do it (enduring blessing). The caster can extend qualifying spells to 24 hours duration with it.

There is a feat series for that, each adding one more attack to the offhand. They have high DEX requirements, but rogues got that covered I suppose.

Steal Power is a regular spell, not a mythic one. You can find it in Mythic Adventures in the spell section after the mythic spells. As written, you can use wild arcana to cast the spell, if you like.

My thoughts about it are:
- I would never waste a surge on the off-chance that it might work. First, I don't know off the bat if the opposition includes a mythic being. Second, they have ridiculous saves, quite often failing only on a 1, and this spell is just 5th level.
- I rather use that surge for something that will happen instead of hoping it will steal surges. Lets say another Heal for example or the 2 points I need on the bloody save against the mythic fireball or die.
- And we have not yet gotten to spellresistance or mythic counterspellers:)

As an afterthought, look closely at the spell description. It says "...regain one use...", so you can only replenish your surges and not collect them.

You can get a level 7 cleric.

Joke aside, there is no cheaper way of removing negative levels.

Think of him as a paladin with "smite everything". He can kill pretty much all such mobs in one fullround attack, aside from special bosses (and some of them got one-shot by our pally, who also went twoweapon).
As Iemeres points out, never present the group with a single enemy. Groups are way better and give everyone a shot.

On the other hand, Instant Enemy is a 3rd level spell. The ranger gets them at level 10 soonest and has a whopping 3 of them at level 20. So he doesn't get close to how often a paladin can smite at that level.

If he gets Terrain Dominance via Horizon Walker, he can diversify his FE bonus, but it does not stack with FE, it just overlaps. Nonetheless, he accumulates more bonuses and raises his value in combat (at level 10 he gets +2 against everything). This is like the fighter class: the bonuses seem not to be much, but they add up in the end.

The planetar was just an example (and not quite serious), and of course will all such summons typically be high level and more costly than a scroll. I just thought to mention the option, since nobody else had yet.

But you can get such beings with only the core rule book, just not with the summon monster spells. There are Greater Planar Ally, Greater Planar Binding and Gate, which have the HD limit needed for an 18 HD mob, and no moratorium on spell-like abilities of the mob.
The planetar was just the only mob I could think of that can use Restoration. Maybe someone can come up with something with less HD that can do it, so that lower spells (and less cash) will do.

There is the spell Poison, which is delivered as a touch attack. Maybe a ring of spellstoring with that in it can simulate that?

Otherwise, a DM can invent anything...I did not use much poison that way, but I used each of the classics at least once: the ring of the sorcerer in The Scarlet Citadel (Conan story), the poisoned book (Name of the Rose, St. Bartholomews Night), the poisoned key (pope Alexander VI.), the poison grail (the inside coating poisons the fluid in it), etc....

What has not been mentioned yet?

- Line of sight/line of effect: many spells can be shut down by blocking those
- Spellresistance: don't forget, that of your partners works against you, too
- Effects of darkness: might be useful to have at hand, if your setting/DM make use of it

I don't think there is a feat that allows a regular action when surprised. But I think there was something allowing a 5-foot step, if someone comes adjacent to you.

No, attacks are not negated, just punished.

(One of the spells to avoid. It is mindaffecting, a compulsion, save negates completely, and finally it is non-lethal damage, which several monster types don't take.)

Basically you can't with the 3 round casting time during combat.

There is another option not yet mentioned: summon something that can heal ability drain. E.g., a planetar has the necessary spell-like ability.

Spell-wise you can use limited wish/wish/miracle. So anything that can do one of them can help, like a ring of wishes.

If you look for a cheap solution that is always available, back to the satchel it is - or someone plays a divine caster. Ah yes: you can pick up a NPC healer (maybe with leadership?).

About level 13 control spells start to decay. The reasons for this are several:
- spell resistance
- high saves, negating your efforts
- monsters start to be larger than medium size, making many spells ineffective by that; partially your AEs become single target, and their reach negates some effects
- the presence of enemy casters who can negate your efforts; dispelling, counterspelling and immunity by buff weaken control effects
- NPCs with classes get their abilities rounded out now and some of them ruin control effects (bard songs for example)

Rods are OK, but wielding one and switching back and forth can be a problem, if you have only rods.

You can check the basics:
- Spontaneous caster: get those feats suited for your spell picks
- Regular caster: pick a few with care, get some rods
- Are you a nuker: get the damage enhancers at level 11+

Some feats are better than others.
The one I use often is Reach Spell, which is for a healer/support a must. You are usually not in range (which is mostly touch), and never for communal buffs.
Quicken is expensive and an endgame feat, but it gives you an edge. If you have picked up Spell Perfection, this is probably what you aim for.
Many like Extend Spell, which I don't use at all, even if I have a rod. The spellcasters usually open with some form of dispelling, which makes buffs fleeting. If you get never dispelled, it might be OK. It is also often impossible to go from encounter to encounter within the timespan of the shortlived buffs, which lowers the value of the feat again. It depends a lot on the campaign and the DM, if you get some use out of it.
Selective Spell can be useful, if you are a nuker. AE spells are problematic in melee, but would often be useful - this feat allows to do that. Several spells have inbuilt friend-or-foe mechanics, so you can get by without it. If you have a divine partner with communal spell immunity, you can arrange for risk-free nuking, too.

When looking at the rods, the best - in my opinion - are Quicken and Maximize. Both effects are desirable, but too expensive for regular use, making them perfect for rods.

I only got a Life Oracle that far. The capstone is completely passive, but you can ignore a lot of potential problems now.

There is no feat for this.

But there is a path ability in the Mythic Handbook which does this. If taken once, it grants +4 extra 1st level spells to cast per day. If taken again the spell level goes up to 2nd, 3rd, and so on, until 9th.
Of course, it requires mythic play, which isn't for everyone.

The level mentioned in spell descriptions is always the caster level of the person casting the spell. Note that a multiclass wizard/cleric has two caster levels and cannot simply add his different classes together.

If you take a level dip or MC away from your caster class, magical knack might be for you, as tchrman35 says, to keep up with caster level, if not with the spells.

If your DM is OK with it, yes, by RAW no.

Depends on the campaign. In RotR trip is completely useless at the higher levels, because so many foes are huge or have an otherwise insane CMD.

All of them are mind-affecting. Something that defends against that would help. The easy solution used to be Mindblank, but it lost the "immune to mindaffecting" clause.

The power words have also another weakness: they are all single target. They won't take out your group, only one person at a time.
They also have the usual targeting requirements. If you can somehow remain unseen, you cannot be targeted (unless the enemy has special senses). Invisibility, illusions or polymorphing for an underfloor approach can help, as can darkness, fog or other forms of cover.
Then those spells are verbal, and silence will foil the caster. Maybe putting the silence on an object and standing with it next to the caster will shut him down.

Everything else was already said.

Throwing cards sounds more like the superhero genre. One of the Marvel mutants comes to mind.

In my experience clerics are bad combatants, but that might be partially the DM with his high AC NPCs.
Nonetheless, there are several disadvantages to melee:
- you have to cast buffs, or you will suck
- casting buffs takes time and the combat buffs are typically shortlived
- if you cannot prepare at your leisure, buffing means you miss the first half of the battle, since those take usually 4-6 rounds
- statwise a combat cleric is MAD, and you need STR for melee; with the requirements for WIS and CON, you will be mediocre overall
- you miss some basic feats (heavy armor & martial weapons, the latter can be gotten with a good deity)
- clerics are suffering from having no bonus feats and therefore have less combat versatility

You can get the AC and HP, but the real problem is the damage, since the cleric lacks features to enhance it.
It might be a good idea to make a one-level dip into a martial class for the proficiencies and a bonus feat. Starting as a martial also fulfills the requirement for Power Attack, which you cannot get at level 1 as a cleric. That would take care of several problems at the cost of one cleric level.
If you do go melee (or ranged), pick WIS 16 and raise only STR/DEX afterwards. If your campaign is going past level 11, raise WIS to 18.

I tried an offensive divine caster, but it doesn't work very well the higher it gets, since the NPCs start to save most of your spells later on. As much as I dislike summoning, it might be the best option here.

Bolstering the party is what clerics do best. Anything that lets your martials get more attacks in is worth more than what you can do in terms of damage. When our paladin gets going, he dishes out like 500 damage per round, and there is no way I could compete with that, or even make a worthwhile contribution. The fighter is not quite that strong (no smite evil), but still in a different league. In hindsight, Blessing of Fervor is my most damaging spell, especially combined with communal Airwalk.

The trouble with spellcasting foes is that nearly all casters have access to Dispel Magic and its upgrades, which makes buffs unreliable. This should be kept in mind past the lower levels.

While many people will swear by their wands of CLW and deny that healing is effective, I like to see that past the low levels. The more attacks get in, the more crits will happen, and then you need real healing during battle, or you lose. Therefore you need to keep some heals at hand, and prepare something to keep crits at bay. The feat Divine Interference is unfortunately in Ultimate Magic, but the easiest tool to use (at 11+). There is Shield Other, but that will not work so well, if you are in melee too. Anyway, that is the only thing you have to fend off massive damage from your martials.

The other danger besides crits are area damage spells, since they will reduce everyones HP at once, making follow-up nukes or melee attacks more dangerous. Your only effective counter is unfortunately also in the Ultimate books: the communal spells. You simply cannot buff a party against fire damage with single target spells, since you lack the number.

And finally there is a large problem: the battlefield itself. You are often not next to all of your friends, but they will be divided across the board. There is also difficult terrain, often created by enemy spells. And maybe your DM likes to play with light levels and the resulting penalties.
So if you go into melee, you will have trouble rescuing your friends, when the need arises. You have no movement powers, unless you have picked the Travel domain (which is nice), so don't get too far from your friends. Second, in melee you are handicapped when casting , since defensive casting is only safe for spells of two levels under your highest spell level (on average), so Combat Casting is good.

And about combat feats: when you pick one, make sure it will give you an advantage. Power Attack without high STR is useless, and Combat Reflexes without DEX even more so.

And don't forget that combat reflexes requires some DEX to use. It was also of no practical value to our melees in the later parts, because so many foes are huge and have long reach.

Try a rogue with Use magic device and a scroll of antimagic field.