Zardnaar
Legend
I tend to disagree. Clerics best spells tend to work in close proximity to enemies. They have good AC. Their AoO's actually hit hard enough to be a deterrent.
It's much easier to build a caster cleric - but I don't find them to be better - especially if you are of the school of though of killing enemies faster is one of the best defenses.
Light cleric can but if you're playing a cleric it's not really your job.
I have filed away your build though as I like it and often get stuck with the cleric and new players seem to love ranged PCs and the charisma classes so yeah might have to but it out in the front lines.
I would want something like 14/16/16 as stats though. 13 con is acceptable early on with HAM.
Even with the default array 14 con is doable for most concepts.
Each type of cleric is often a side helping of blaster, skill monkey, beatstick etc so if I'm a trickery or knowledge cleric I would probably build for support.