priest

Class Description

Paragons of a deity's faith, a priest (or priestess) is often the servant of a church or holy organization. Priests of

good deities, such as Mitula or Volcanon, spread holiness and works of charity throughout the lands. They tend to the sick and needy, aiding people in their lives. Priests of dark powers such as the Devil Kings or Vandals, however, will use their powers to spread strife and discord throughout the lands, bringing death, destruction, pestilence, and famine wherever they go.

Hit Die: d8

Alignment: Must be within one step of patron deity's alignment. Cannot be neutral unless deity is neutral.

Abilities: A priest's most important stat is Wisdom, since it governs the level of spell he can cast and the difficulty to resist the spells. A priest must have a Wisdom score of 10 + Spell level (11 for first level, 12 for second level, etc, etc) to be able to cast a spell. Constitution aids a priest's survivability, and Charisma powers many features a priest may have access to, such as turning undead.

Ability Descriptions

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: A priest is proficient with simple weapons, all types of armor (light,

medium, and heavy), and with shields (except tower shields).

Aura (Ex): A priest of a chaotic, evil, good, or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the

deity's alignment. Priests who don't worship a specific deity but choose the Chaotic, Evil, Good, or Lawful

domain have a similarly powerful aura of the corresponding alignment.

Spells: A priest casts divine spells which are drawn from the priest spell list. However, his alignment may

restrict him from casting certain spells opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs. A priest must choose and

prepare his spells in advance.

A priest can cast a certain number of spells per day as indicated on the table in addition to a domain

spell (represented by the +1 on the table). Priests do not acquire spells from books or scrolls, nor do

they prepare them through study. Instead, they meditate and pray for their spells, receiving them through

their own strength of faith. Each priest must choose a time at which he must spend 1 hour each day in

quiet contemplation or supplication to regain his daily allotment of spells. Typically, this hour is dawn or

noon for good priests and dusk or midnight for evil ones. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a

priest can prepare spells. A priest may prepare spells as indicated on the priest spell list, but he must be

able to prepare spells of that level and he must be able to do so during his meditation time.

Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells: Choose a deity for your priest. Deities are listed in the Deities section

of this site along with their domains. The priest's deity influences his alignment, what magic he can

perform, his values, and how others see him. You may also choose for your priest to have no deity and

worship an ideal instead (goodness, for instance). Such priests may choose any two domains, though an

alignment domain (Chaos, Evil, Good, Law) may only be chosen if the priest's alignment matches the

domain. This restriction applies to all priests.

Each domain provides one spell at each level the priest can cast from 1 to 9. If a spell appears only

on the priest's list of domain spells, but not on his priest spell list, then the spell can only be prepared in a

domain slot. The priest must choose which of the spells from his domains to prepare in his domain slot

each level.

Spontaneous Casting: A good priest (or a neutral priest of a good deity) can channel stored spell energy into

healing spells that the priest did not prepare ahead of time. The priest can "lose" any prepared spell that is

not a domain spell in order to cast any cure spell of the same level or lower (a cure spell is any spell with

"cure" in its name). Good priests are especially proficient with manipulating positive energy.

Evil priests (or a neutral priest of an evil deity) can convert prepared spells into inflict spells. Evil

priests are especially proficient with manipulating negative energy.

Special: All priests of Galm must channel negative energy, thus allowing them to only swap spells for

inflict spells.

Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells: A priest cannot cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own

or his deity's. For example, a good priest (or a neutral cleric of a good deity) cannot cast evil spells. Spells

associated with a particular alignment are indicated by the [Chaos], [Evil], [Good], and [Law] spell

descriptors.

Turn or Rebuke Undead (Su): Any priest, regardless of alignment, has the power to affect undead creatures

by channeling the power of his faith through his holy (or unholy) symbol.

A good priest (or a neutral priest who worships a good deity) can turn or destroy undead creatures. An

evil priest (or a neutral priest who worships an evil deity) instead rebukes or commands such creatures,

forcing them to cower in awe of his power.

A priest may attempt to turn undead a number of times per day equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier.

A priest with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (Religion) gets a +2 bonus on turning checks against undead.

Bonus Languages: A priest's bonus language options include Celestial, Abyssal, and Infernal. These choices

are in addition to the bonus languages available to a character because of race.

EX-PRIESTS

A priest who grossly violates the code of conduct required by his god (generally by acting in ways opposed

to the god's alignment or purposes) loses all spells and class features except for armor, shield, and simple

weapon proficiencies. He cannot gain levels as a cleric of that god until he atones.