i have made a few characters to play online with. and im talking stricktly about server vault servers. not local ones where you can run in with custom everything and a 61 lvl sword. so anyway what in your opinon is the best char, and the best way to develop a char for pvp on a server? at the moment im playing a cleric with air and trickery domains at lvl 20 with about 30 wis, and about 41 ac.i also tried a barb but i liked the cleric more. anyway i just wanted to find you peoples views on this.

ARe they starting off far a way where a wizard has time to cast 1 spell before you can close the distance ?

Or do they start standing face to face and a wizard is basically toast before anything gets rolling ?

If the former, a 17th level Specialist mage loaded up on time stops and attack spells.
TIME STOP
CHAIN LIGHTNING 17D6
CHAIN LIGHTNING 17D6
TIME STOP
CHAIN LIGHTNING 17D6
DARKNESS (lasting 17 rounds...you don't have ultravision you're toast)
CHAIN LIGHTNINGS, FIRE BALLS, WHAT EVER ATTCK SPELLS ARE HANDY...

If the latter, a heavily armored fighter of the same level with his 4 or five attcks per round.

Adn if you talk about boots of speed and the extra attack per round, you also gotta talk about boots of speed on the mage and the extra spell per round he gets off because of it.

Air & Trickery? Dude Sun and Magic are your best bet for PVP.

a cleric focused on plants and magic domain is very potent.
proporly chosing feats, one is often able to attack with the power of a fighter and the magic of a mage. This is only the case if you go with untwinked characters that is - the advantage over a fighter is only if the fighter doesnt have the ability to get his statistics up as high as a cleric can by virtue of spells and the advantage over a mage is that you have some divine spells which bypass the resistances and immunities many people will have.