Drow4d20 wrote:So if I am making a cleric/hierophant don't go svirfneblin basically lol...
Yes, you can get a lot of extra caster levels with Advanced Divine Spell Power, but going for it is not necessary to get the most out of the Hierophant PRC.
For example, depending on the build, Spell Power II is usually enough to reach caster level of 32 for another additional point of Epic DC bonus. This leaves you with three other Hierophant abilities to use as you please. One could be spent on the 'Blast Infidel' to get 150 or 300 damage Harm spells, while 'Inscribe Rune' of allows you to have one extra spell per spell level in exchange of gold.
Actually, as a Deep Gnome, you could go for a DC based Cleric 7/Rogue 3/
Darkfire Disciple 10/Hierophant 10 and get the caster level of 32. (You need to go Cleric 7/Rogue 3/Darkfire Disciple 7/Hierophant 3 pre-epic not to violate the 3by20 rule.)
But generally speaking, Cleric 10/Hospitaler 10/Hierophant 10 kind of build is pretty good for any DC based cleric. On this server the two last Hospitaler bonus feats can be used to get two Great Wisdom feats, if taken during the epic levels.
Drow4d20 wrote:Why would a svirfneblin bother taking protection domain? I'll be honest that it's a domain I've never bothered to take before.
It gives Stone Skin, which you can apply to party members or summons. As for the Protection Domain power, it is called:
Divine Protection:
The cleric is able to cast an improved form of Sanctuary that sets the save difficulty class at 10 + Cha Modifier + Cleric Level. This has a duration of 1 round per caster level + the cleric’s Charisma modifier.
In other words, any single class cleric will have a rather strong Sanctuary spell. You can epxect a DC of 40 with literally no investment.
But if you are going to multiclass heavily, then the Divine Protection is less useful.
Drow4d20 wrote:Those abjuration spells are all decent, but would they hold up against a mage?
Mages are pretty-much 'OP' when it comes to PvP. Some would argue that they are 'OP' at everything... But only if the mage player knows what they are doing... and presuming that whoever they go against is not willing to spend a larger mountain of gold on UMD consumables. Basically the UMD skill of 11-13 to use wands and rods is generally needed to spam those Wands of Lesser Spell Mantle and Breach.
And as a cleric, Quickened Silence spell cast on the ground tends to silence most mages. There is no check made, they just get silenced, and they have to move elsewhere to cast most of their spells.
But honestly, in PvE, any cleric can you just buff up and beat things up with the aid of Divine Power and Greater Magic Weapon.