6th level cleric in an 8th/9th level party?

[bearchucks]

Yep.  me again.  More crazy things happened, including the rescue of the priestess of torm who originally (unknowingly) gave my bard9 the holy avenger he now enjoys, from some 10th level orcish barbarian/ranger cultists of banjo.

Long story short...the zhents are in town and after her, so she's in disguise (our advice) and figures with a group of friendly adventurers who don't like the zhents is a good idea.

I volunteered to throw her together.  GM said 6th level because she just hasn't been through the crazy killer experiences we have (including engineering a confession out of the Cthuluist-cult-leader/island council leader, holding onto a grating with a bed tied to an ankle while hanging upside down hundreds of feet over the ocean and sneaking up on and then deceiving a family of higher-level wildlife-living Banjoist orcs, ultimately convincing them that Banjo has ordained said priestess to be the bard's wife.  You know, a day in the life.)

So...we have a bard9 Inspire Courage, buffing, utility guy with a holy avenger (me), his Warmage1/Rainbow Servant6 cohort who casts the spells that make people fall down (also me), and three L8s, two of them rogues and a dervish-flavored blender.

With the Rainbow Servant 10 coming soonish (allowing the random utility cleric spells to be covered by the warsnake) and her being a couple levels behind, what would you guys suggest, assuming a Human Priestess of Torm at 6th level?

[Gavinfoxx]

Uh, Protection/Strength, and focus on being a melee god? Divine Metamagic it up?

[Epimetheus]

Depends on how much this priestess likes beating things up.

If you want someone who's more squishy and less used to fighting, then Cloistered Cleric, with Protection, Luck, and Knowledge would work. Taking feats like Scribe Scroll, Augment Healing, Protection Devotion, etc.

[Mixster]

Augment healing, seriously?

Throwing down a persistent mass lesser vigor is a useful shtick at level 6. A cloistered cleric 3/church inquisitor 3 could do this quite well (only reason to go church inquisitor is for the better BAB mind you).
Have her grab a level of prestige paladin later on, and she can do almost everything useful.

[CantripN]

Cleric 4 / Bright Warden of Paladine 2 (Holy Orders of the Stars) - Refluff for Torm.

Domains:
Planning
Undeath (Refluff!!!)

Feats:
Undeath - Extra Turning
Planning - Extend Spell
Human - Persistent Spell
1st - Whispered Secrets (Refluff!!!) - You need this for Spot as a Class Skill.
3rd - DMM: Persistent Spell
6th - Serenity (Dragon Compendium - Use WIS for Turn Undead and Divine Grace)

If she can have Flaws, get 2 more Extra Turnings for more Persistent Spells!

[Epimetheus]

Augment healing, seriously?

Right, optimization forum. Should actually optimize.

[bearchucks]

Hokay...Protection and Strength seem to be my choices, given Torm shares most of his domains with my Rainbow Warsnake cohort.  I looked at Healing Lorecall in conjunction with Persistent Mass Lesser Vigor and it doesn't seem to work.  Which is a shame.  But Mass Lesser Vigor, Persisted is a pretty neat trick.

On a fun note, Persistent Weapon of the Deity gives her proficiency with and use of a +1 Defending (it's called Duty's Bond, what +1 quality would you give it?) Greatsword.

So with flaws, she can persist two spells.  I feel comfortable with those two, given the relatively low opti-fu (and for that matter, magic capacity) of the group and the tendency of the DM to have us dealing with humanoids instead of crazy monsters.

Anyway, hm.