My PCs (levels 19-20) are really afraid of clerics (it's somewhat justified from their previous encounters) and usually try to focus all their actions in the first round to get rid of one, no matter what other opponents there are.
I've been preparing an arena-like encounter with one of the opponents being a ~23rd level evil cleric. He'll be somewhat ready for spells, but the main issue is Dimension Door-ing the fighter and the dual wielding rogue, who can easily deal 200-250hp damage in a single round.
Of course, it's possible the cleric will win the initiative or the PCs go for buffing themselves instead, but keeping the cleric alive until the second round is still my main concern.
We play D&D 3.5 using mostly the SRD, especially for hostile NPCs (with minor exceptions, like in this case the Danger Sense feat from the Complete Adventurer, which allows to reroll initiative 1/day).
So far, my best bet is Miracle as Contingency triggering Heal at certain HP threshold. Because of an expected Greater Dispel Magic I'd prefer him to be better protected. Evil ideas wholeheartedly welcome!
Some specifics:
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Human, main focus on WIS, CHA and DEX
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Domains: Evil and Trickery
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Magic items: up to 150,000 gp EDIT: this is after considering all the other magic items he already has, that are not relevant to melee or have been necessary for the plot earlier
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No custom epic spells or custom Miracle-based effects (Miracle mimicking other spells is ok)
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Spells and magic items from the SRD only
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Before the encounter he can only cast spells with duration of at least 10 min/level
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He should be able to normally walk and talk before the encounter
About the encounter:
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To simplify things: the PCs and the cleric argue in front of a king, and upon losing the argument, the cleric demands trial by combat. He did anticipate that, while the PCs couldn't (it's a very foreign land and it's not really a typical trial by combat).
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The king orders the combat right away, in front of him in the throne room. His construct-guards create the arena – 50 feet in diameter, surrounded by a wall of force.
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The cleric has no prior access to the throne room and could not anticipate the exact time of the duel, however he could know which part of the throne room is usually used for this purpose.
Exceptions to the SRD:
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Feats unrelated to spellcasting
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Skills and skill tricks
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I could consider prestige classes
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Monsters
One more edit: I have pretty solid tactics for the cleric starting from round one, based on a lot of scouting he did about the PCs. Any suggestions are obviously welcome, but the focus is to make sure the cleric can start his actions at all.
Best Answer
Countering a specific, known threat as a high level Tier 1 spellcaster is usually easy. This is no exception.
Even without appropriate tactics as suggested by Brian Ballsun-Stanton, there is no reason an epic-level Cleric shouldn't be able to just straight-out tank a pair of mundane warriors.
Fighter incoming? Beat him at his game.
You may have heard that "AC doesn't scale as fast as attack bonuses". Well, that applies to muggles, an epic Cleric really doesn't care.
For instance, the Cleric could have the following:
Just keep going (Ring of Protection, an Ioun stone, Amulet of Natural Armor if you can combine it with your Periapt of Wisdom) until the desired level of protection is reached. If you don't want the Fighter to hit you, the Fighter just won't.
If you go the AC-pumping route, I'd say the biggest source of concern should be that it makes the mundane party members useless and boring. Don't overdo it.
Sneak attack damage? Fortification.
You may still be scared of a Rogue popping out of some shadow and touch-attack stabbing you in a kidney. An armor or shield of Heavy Fortification means the Rogue's trick doesn't work. At all. No save.
Greater Dispel Magic? There's a thing for that.
Afraid of some uppity mage coming around and target-dispelling a critical buff? You should be, even with your caster level advantage. Which is why I never leave home at high levels without at least one Ring of Counterspells with Greater Dispel Magic in it. (Or a non-core improvement, ahem.)
Regardless, you probably want to have your buffs cast with an active Bead of Karma. That gives the buffs a Dispel DC of at least 38 (11 + CL (23+4)), hard to beat in core with just Greater Dispel Magic (capping at +20).
Just hope they don't think of bringing Disjunction!
Contingency is very good.
You have a Contingency up and running (it didn't get dispelled, see above). In core, a Heal is probably as good as you're going to get. Make sure it is timed (that is, phrased) well!
You might be able to make the attacks exceedingly unlikely to hit by using it to (further) juice up your AC. If you key it to Polymorph (beware of unusable equipment, do your math first!), you could look for a form with high natural armor as the least of its tricks.
Make sure Time Stop goes off.
If you get a Time Stop, the Cleric likely has enough time to get up enough short-duration buffs to survive most things. I consider Spell Stowaway keyed to Time Stop a worthy candidate for an Epic feat.
Now what?
You have done your homework, and have an invulnerable murderous machine of a Cleric. Just make sure your players do have a way of winning. In my experience, high level PCs usually do, but be careful.