To avoid stepping on another Cleric's toes...

[Machiavelli]

You're in for a small story and an insight into how I create character ideas before you hit the meat of this thread. Please bear with me here

How I thought through the character design: [sblock]
I'm playing in a campaign at the moment, which started at 3rd level and will likely climb to 12th or so. I decided that I'd give the Geomancer PrC (from Complete Divine) a shot, since the Drift class feature is full of juicey, flavorful goodness and offers enormous room for my absolute favorite part of character creation: customization. The Geo requires base divine and arcane spelcasting classes. Given the Geo's explicitely stated ability to funnel arcane spell slots into Spontaneous Cure/Inflict spells, I decided the Cleric was the class for me, and it fit very, very well with the idea I had that this character would be an orphan (dropped on the temple's doorstep in a big city, and quickly thrust into the care of the cleric of Obad-Hai, an ill-thought-of naturalist in a metropolis). Everything was going nicely in my head as I figured how to work the rules my DM told me to follow into and through the coherent, satisfying backstory that I was imagining in parallel to the actual rules. My DM is loose, but prefers to stick to core stuff and sensible, grounded classes/PrCs, and I respect that. I decided this character was starting at Cleric 3, right about the time his mentor at the temple died, and he would be a sorcerer. That meant he would only be a strict cleric (which our party of 5 already has) for a single level, and he wouldn't have to have any formal schooling to develop his arcane skills, so could jump into the party right away without being tied to a fixed location.

I then realized that the other cleric was specializing in turning undead and bluffs. That left me with just healing to be useful to the party until my arcane offensive casting starts kicking into gear, which suits me fine. Having 2 clerics with no particular bend toward healing is more than enough, and later on the Geo levels will have that enormously useful Spontaneous Cure ability. So, that leaves me with turning undead. That's the other cleric's schtick, and I hate stealing thunder from other party members, so what can I do with my turn attempts beyond, well, turning undead? I thought immediately "oh! I can actually use that extra gift of power from Obad-Hai to boost my inherent talents with Divine Metamagic! Brilliant!" Once again a cross-typed divine/arcane caster is integrating his abilities toward a cohesive character concept. This is what I love about character creation!

Then I ran into trouble. I thought I understood the Divine Metamagic feat from reading it over for other campaigns, took it without much thought, and proceeded to start roleplaying. I decided that when the undead charged us, I wouldn't try to turn them: Obad-Hai's blessing graced me in other ways. Hooray for good roleplaying! The other cleric and the party's meat-cleavers handled them fine, anyway. I went to use the Divine Metamagic feat, pulled open the Complete Divine, and found out I was stuck. Of my first 3 feats from the paltry 6 I'll receive during this campaign, none of them can be offensive divine metamagic that will apply nicely to sorcerer spells: I just don't have the spell levels to support an Explosive Sound Burst in anticipation of a later Explosive Fireball. Taking a feat to cast an Explosive Orison (which isn't even possible) is just cheesy. Dammit.[/sblock]
"Okay," I thought, "my DM is flexible, I'll come up with divine metamagic that caps at 9th level and penalizes going too far above the spells you CAN cast, but otherwise doesn't cap at the highest level spell you can cast the way metamagic usually does. That'll work." Unfortunately, it didn't. My DM was okay with it, and you can see the version I submitted to him in this thread, but in the same thread a few quite bright D&D players shot the idea down. For this campaign, I got away with a license to break the game a little, and I'll just have to be careful not to abuse it to the detriment of the party (like that decision not to turn undead). But I'm a guy who likes good, solid rules. The rules I came up with aren't, and that's where you all come in:
What can I do to use my character's Cleric levels to support his advancement in sorcerer power? How can his classes work together to make a believable character with powers enough to compliment those of his companions?

 

[Nightfall]

You could always be a cleric of Boccob and believe that you're channelling the natural powers of the world in that way.

Howse that?

 

[Starglim]

The Cleric levels give him better hit points than a sorceror, better BAB (provided you pick your break points carefully), a few skill points for Spellcraft and Concentration (very few, given that Intelligence is not a priority for this combination), level-based feats, but if you're looking for caster-specific advantages, there's a reason why people advise against the cleric/sorceror multiclass and why prestige classes like Geomancer and Mystic Theurge are in the game.

If you get that far, you'll probably want to look into the Hierophant or Archmage's Spell Power ability to claw back some caster levels.

edit: Ordinary, vanilla metamagic feats will apply equally to his cleric and sorceror spells.

 

[pawsplay]

Cleric/sorcerer/mystic theurge is not bad. Throw in some sorcerer specific feats, and finish out with three levels of Archmage, and you're good. You'll want Practiced Caster for both classes.

However, I'm going to throw out the possibility of using the Arcane Disciple feat, maybe in conjunction with the Arcane Devotee PrC. Now, you have an arcane caster who, depending on choices, can heal and do other cleric like things. An alternative would be a Rainbow Servant, a sorcerer who eventually gains access to cleric spells through patronage by a coatl.

Another option would be a cleric with the Spell and Magic domains, giving you limited access to arcane spells but still primarily a cleric. Later on, you could add levels of Contemplative and add a domain such as Force, Fire, or Travel that give access to what are ordinarily wizard spells.

Finally, you could simply multiclass as a cleric and a sorcerer. In that case, you are forsaking any possibility of being an offensive or spectacular caster. Instead, you're a walking toolbox of effects. Most likely, when it's time to do damage, you'll resort to conjurations or self-buffs.

Then there's "Red Mage" (inspired by Final Fantasy I). This works best with a human or dwarf. The final build looks like Fighter 1/Cleric 3/Sorcerer 4/Mystic Theurge 6/Spellsword 1/Eldritch Knight 3/Archmage 2. This guy can do basic healing, detect evil and the like, plus raise dead in a pinch, and finishes out with 7th level arcane spells and a BAB of +13. He can even wear very light, mage-friendly armors. AND he likes swords.

 

[Herobizkit]

It's a shame you're fixated on the turning ability of the Cleric, because I would suggest a Favored Soul/Sorcerer build in a heartbeat. No turning ability = no trying to figure out how to use your turning ability, plus your character would get more spells. yay!

 

[pawsplay]

Shugenja/Sorcerer means one spellcasting stat, with healing magic plus fireballs.