Clerics, Wizards , Psions....3.5 ubbered or dwarfed

[Darth K'Trava]

Actually, I think it's more of a player bias. Many people don't like playing clerics, possibly for the reasons mentioned by Dinkeldog earlier (the assumption that your spells will be used for healing, potential DM interference), so the designers gave the class a bit more power to compensate.

We usually don't have the problem of getting someone to play a cleric.... There are times though... but not often. Now druids, on the other hand.....

I've played clerics that don't primarily heal the party. They'll do it but it's not their priority. But then I'm not sitting there playing clerics of Pelor.... The two I've played are a cleric of Thor and my previous one, a cleric of Torm. Neither deity who totally espoused healing as part of his ethos. Mostly how much butt to kick in a fight.