Down With The Bourgeois, or What Is My Favorite Class?

Day three of the 30 day challenge.  What is my favorite class?  This is possibly the easiest question on the list except for the fact that damn Paizo released a sorta kinda variant that I arguably like more.  In all technicality, my favorite class is Cleric (or Priest to you old folks).  I'm still in the weird phase where I'm not sure if I favor the Pathfinder Oracle even more, but it is essentially a variant class, so I'll stick with Cleric.

Plus having oracular abilities evidently gives you a great rack.

My background on the God Squad started with my first taste of roleplaying ever.  My very first character was a Jedi Consular in D20 Star Wars.  That was because they had healing abilities.  See, my buddy, Mike, who started me on the whole roleplaying thing was notorious for being...overzealous...with challenges.  Think level 8 Sith vs three level 1 Jedi.  Someone had to keep everyone alive, and I was fine sitting back and providing extra hit points to everyone.  That continued when we started playing D&D, although to be fair, my first character in D&D was a Druid.  I got a wolf and healing spells.  It was fun.  However, I quickly found that I needed more healing spells, and when my second level Druid died to Mummy Rot (we killed the first two mummies, but the third got me), I rolled up a Cleric of St. Cuthbert, and fell into my most played roll.

St. Cuthbert, the god of law, order, and smashing evildoer in the head with a mace.

Over time, I grew overly comfortable with my heavy mace, heavy wooden shield, scale mail, and holy symbol.  I had a weird stage where I played Bards a lot (they still had healing spells), but when I was playing at the local comic store, everyone was extremely happy to see someone who spontaneously cast healing spells.  I also got very good at playing Clerics, so I knew how to powergame them, meaning that I was owning just about everything, since D&D 3.5 Clerics could basically do anything after a good night of rest.  I also am a fan of using religion to define character, and love having reasons for my character to just blindly hate groups of people ("we shall smite the foul followers of Hextor!").  Plus, refusing healing is the best way to convince the party to do what you want...

I just need to play a Cleric of Popeney now.

Cleric is also a broad heading underneath which one can play a broad variety of characters.  Front line combatant?  Check.  Party band-aid?  Got it in spades.  Blasty caster?  Pick the right domains, and you got it.  Skill monkey?  Between Cloistered Cleric variants and some cool domain and spell interactions, you can do just about anything a Rogue can do.  All of this, plus you can wear good armor, get backup from your local church, and everyone in the party, by necessity, is your best friend.  It is (arguably) the most flexible class.  I am indecisive.  It is a match made in Heaven.  Plus, I'm not a player that needs to be in the spotlight and leading the charge.  I'm perfectly fine to turtle in the back of the party and buff my friends to victory.