Priests are authorized by their churches to conduct services and to minister to the spiritual needs of the faithful. In order to carry out their duties, Priests are granted access to the deity by the medium of prayer, as well as a number of magical powers. These powers come from devotion to a god rather than knowledge and force of will. Priests may be of any race and may choose from among the gods listed in the Pantheon section.
More then just a follower a Priest intercedes acts on
behalf of others, seeking to use his powers to advance the beliefs of his mythos.
Priests are generally good but can have any alignment acceptable to their order. Spells are the main tools of the Priest helping him to serve,
fortify, protect, and revitalize those under his care. He has a wide variety of
Divine spells to choose from, suitable to many
different purposes and
needs. The Priest receives his spells as insight directly from his deity (the deity does not need to make a personal
appearance to grant
the spells he prays for) as a sign of and reward for his faith, so he must take care not to abuse his power lest it be taken awry as punishment.
The Priest is also granted power over undead-evil creatures that exist in a form of non-life, neither dead nor alive. The cleric is charged with defeating these mockeries of life. His ability to turn undead enables him to drive away these creatures or destroy them utterly (though a cleric of evil alignment can bind the matures to his will).
Upon reaching 7th level the Priest automatically attracts a fanatically loyal group of believers, provided the character has established a place of worship of significant size. He attracts D20 of these followers which arrive over a period of several weeks. The GM decides the exact number and types of followers attracted. The character can hire other troops as needed, but these are not as loyal as his followers.
At 9th level he may receive official approval to establish a religious stronghold be it a fortified abbey or a secluded convent. Obviously the stronghold must contain all the trappings of a place of worship and must be dedicated to the service of the Priest's cause. However the construction cost of the stronghold is half the normal price since the work has official sanction and much of the labour is donated. The Priest can hold property and build a stronghold anytime before reaching 9th level but this is done without church sanction and does not receive the benefits described above.
| Step 1: Attributes | ||
| Roll attributes as normal but an INT of at least 15 and WIS 14 is necessary. Hit points = CON +8, +8 per level. | ||
| Step 2: Skills | ||
| Choose skills in
the normal manner but also gain the following free ones; Knowledge Artifacts Knowledge Demons Knowledge Geomancy Knowledge Magic Knowledge Religion Knowledge Undead |
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| Step 3: Abilities | ||
| Priests gain all the
following free; Spellcast - Priests don't pay for the Spellcast ability as they automatically are bestowed all the spells within the Divine sphere. However they cannot ever learn spells from any other sphere. Further if they are dismissed from their religion for some heinous act they will lose all their abilities. Priests can tap into the world’s natural mana at a rate of INT + WIS x4. Mana is recovered at a rate of 10 per hour if remain active (but not using magic) and 20 per hour if asleep. +10 Mana at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. +1 Spell save at levels 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, 16 and 20. +1 Sanity save at levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17 and 19. +1 Willpower save at levels 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18 and 20. +1 Thaco and AC vs undead at levels 3, 5, 9, 11, 15, 17 and 19. +1 Spell Bonus at levels 7, 11, 15 and 19. Additionally Priests start with 35 Points to spend on any of the following abilities. As they earn more experience they may buy or rebuy more abilities. |
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| Ability | Cost | Notes |
| Damage Bonus | 10 | +1 or +25% damage each time bought (whichever is highest) and only applies to one sphere of magic. Must be rebought for each additional sphere. |
| Extend Duration | 10 | Spell duration increases by +1 round and only applies to one sphere of magic. Must be rebought for each additional sphere. |
| Healing Hands | 5 | This can either be used to totally cleanse the body of any poison or venom, heal any internal fatal injuries or restore the character to 1 HP regardless of how many hit points were lost. It can only be used once every 24 hours per 3 WIS. |
| Holy Confession | 5 | Any victim touched will relive all his sins and be traumatised. He must then save vs. Sanity or become incoherent for D6 days after which he will recover but will develop one random insanity and a phobia of the character. This can be used once per day per 5 WIS. |
| Holy Fortitude | 5 | Immune to any form of Undead special attacks (including fear) and all types of Undead Possession. Further he gains +1 save per level vs Diabolic magic. |
| Holy Inspiration | 5 | Allies are immune to panic or being routed by undead forces so long as you continue fighting alongside them. You can also rally any previously routed by giving a stirring speech. |
| Holy Judgment | 5 | This power comes from within and
releases a burst of holy light within a INT x1 metre radius affecting all
within it in the following way; 1) Others are revealed as they truly are regardless of any form of concealment, disguise or illusion. 2) Spirits are banished unless spell save. 3) Undead are destroyed unless they spell save. If they do save they lose half their HPs in damage. See the table below. |
| HP Bonus | 10 | CON +10 HP instead of 8, +10 per level. |
| Range Boost | 10 | +25% range for spells and only applies to one sphere of magic. Must be rebought for each additional sphere. |
| True Sight | 10 | Can see the true image of any person or object regardless of any form of concealment, disguise, illusion or invisibility. This also includes the ability to detect whether it is magical, and the exact nature of the magic. |
| Step 4: Careers | ||
| There is only one career, you work directly for your religion. | ||
| Step 5: Disadvantages | ||
| As a Priest you answer to your deity and must obey all of its rules or face exceedingly harsh penalties. Unlike other mages you are not your own man. You are a part of a organization and must answer to it. Gain the disadvantage of Watched at +20 points. | ||
| Turning Undead Table | |
| This table shows what types of Undead the Priest can begin affecting with his Holy Judgment ability at each level. | |
| Level | Type |
| 1 | Skeleton, Zombie |
| 2 | Ghoul |
| 3 | Shadow, Ghost |
| 4 | Wight, Ghast |
| 5 | Wraith, Mummy |
| 6 | Spectre |
| 7 | Vampire |
| 8 | Lich |
| 10 | Lesser Supernatural Intelligence |
| 15 | Greater Supernatural Intelligence |
| Duties of a Priest |
| The GM and player should determine how many of the below duties apply to the religion the player's priest follows. |
| Atonement |
| When the flock sins or acts against the wishes of the god the faith usually has a way for the sinner to reenter the god's good graces. This is an act of atonement. Usually, the bigger the sin, the more extravagant the act of atonement must be. The first part of this process is usually the confession a formal meeting of sinner and priest where the sinner confesses his deed. This puts the priest in the position of having to evaluate that sin and then charge the sinner with a course of action which will remove the stain of sin. Remember that each different god will have different ideas of what constitutes sin. Too you must remember that in a pantheistic society (one which worships many gods), it is not usually a sin to do one god's will at the expense of another. To just about any god an insult to the god (including verbal insults or desecration of a temple) is considered a sin. Typical ceremonies of atonement include fasts and meditations where the sinner asks forgiveness of the god. More extensive sins require some sort of sacrifice (such as donation of a cherished object to the god's temple) or an act of expiation (the sinner doing his best to straighten out the bad situation he caused). |
| Calendar Ceremonies |
| Lots of gods have ceremonies based around the calendar
especially agricultural gods. Communities may have celebrations for: The day that marks the start of spring; The day when planting begins; The day when harvesting starts; The beginning of the grape-stomping season; The official start of winter; The day that the first trade-ship of the year is launched; The day that some heroic figure is commemorated; The day of thanks for the god's bounty; The day commemorating some ancient tragedy; The day of the dead (just before or after the night that the ghosts walk the streets); The day commemorating some great battle in which the god participated; And so on. |
| Communion |
| This is a ceremony where the participants try to commune with the god to invoke a little of his spirit, to briefly become more like the god. Here too each god will have a very different ceremony. |
| Confirmation of Adulthood |
| The GM needs to decide when youths are considered to reach adulthood in the culture and then it's possible to have Confirmations of Adulthood. In a culture this will be handled one of two ways. Each youth could have a private ceremony on his birthday. Alternatively all youths born in the same year could be confirmed on one specific day of the calendar. Either way in the ceremony the priest will acknowledge the youth as an adult and this will be marked by allowing the youth some activity which only adults can perform in the culture. |
| Confirmation of Birth |
| With this ceremony the priest visits the newborn child and in a simple ceremony asks the god's blessings upon the child. This is always done in the presence of witnesses because it's important in the culture for others to witness that the child has been born and that specific people (the parents) acknowledge the child as theirs. This becomes important regarding questions of inheritance or the succession of the titles of leadership. |
| Devotions |
| These are ordinary prayers and rituals which the priest conducts on a regular basis. They might include the saying of prayers at specific times of the day, upon observation of specific incidents or natural phenomena and so forth. The GM can decide what these are and when they're undertaken. |
| Feast |
| The feast can be as small or great a feast as the DM cares to allow and can celebrate just about anything within the faith. Feasts should be one of the most common sorts of celebrations within the faith, and a great feast is a convenient place to introduce all sorts of adventure elements (challenges from enemies, assassination attempts, mysterious clues left in the soup, etc). |
| Funeral |
| Interment of the dead is also a common ceremony. Note that funerals don't have to be solemn affairs; all this depends on what the culture thinks happens to the departed spirit and how the culture feels about it. The funeral could be a time of mourning, a cheerful celebration of the departed person's life, a drinking-binge so that the mourners can forget their grief, and so on. In any case the ceremony can have several parts. There is the Wake which takes place before the funeral where participants sit overnight with the body, exchange stories of the dead person's deeds, and protect the body from violation at the hands of evil spirits who might try to inhabit and reanimate it or to steal the not-yet-departed soul. There is the Farewell where the participants speak to the corpse of the departed and wish him well on his voyage; often they present him with small gifts and tokens of their friendship. There is the Interment where the body is laid to rest usually with the presents and a variety of the person's belongings. There is the Commemoration where the mourners exchange stories of the dead person; this could be a very solemn or a very merry event. In any case it's likely to accompany a feast for the weary, hungry mourners and participants. |
| Guidance |
| In most civilizations, priests are supposed to act as counsellors to everyone in need of advice (this is one reason that Wisdom is a prime requisite). Therefore the priest character should not be surprised when he finds NPCs seeking him out and consulting him on troubling moral and ethical problems. These are good role-playing opportunities; they are often leads to specific adventures and with especially knotty problems they can be difficult puzzles for the players to solve all without using their swords and maces. Often priests are posted to specific noble leaders in order to be their personal advisors. Naturally this is only done when those noble leaders desire it, are willing to allow it, or because of the priesthood's political strength cannot afford to refuse it. |
| Marriage |
| In many human cultures only the priest can perform
marriages so the GM may wish for this to be a duty of priests in his
campaign. The GM will need to decide for his campaign whether or not
marriages require the ministrations of priests and might make a different choice for each sentient races. |
| Missions |
| The duties of priesthood often involve going on missions important to the welfare of the god or the priesthood in general. One of the most common missions involves going somewhere and trying to convert the local population to worship of the priest's god. Usually this involves religious education and what amount to social services; sometimes it involves conquering that culture and ruthlessly suppressing all signs of its old religion. Other more exciting missions can involve recovery of artifacts, transportation of persons or goods (such as temple money) through dangerous territory, interpretation of phenomena in distant places, and holy war with the followers of another god. It's important for the GM to remember that the god himself isn't the only one who sends priests out on missions. For most missions it's the upper ranks of the priesthood who do the assigning and priests are supposed to follow the orders of their superiors. |
| Mysteries |
| These are involved ceremonies which usually celebrate gods
of nature or rebirth. Celebrated annually or semi-annually they tend to have
several elements and can go on for a full day or more not counting the
rituals which precede the actual celebration of the mysteries. Usually the
pattern is something like this: in the days before the actual celebration
the participants go through purification. These rituals of purification
involve fasting, ritual baths, and abstinence from physical
pleasures. On the day of the celebration the participants dress in clothing
appropriate to the ceremony usually in featureless clothing of white (or a
colour preferred by the god), usually barefoot. They assemble at the temple
of the god, and perform the oath-taking. A high priest administers the oath,
where every participant swears that he will keep what he
has seen a secret and never discuss it with one who is not also an initiate
into the mysteries. The participant swears in the god's name and could
suffer the god's punishment if he breaks his oath.
Next there is the procession. All the priests and participants proceed in a parade to a site that is holy to the god. This is often a cavern or a very secluded glade because there it is possible to keep the celebration hidden from the eyes of non initiates. The procession is led by ranking priests followed by lesser priests in charge of sacrifices, followed by musicians who play during the procession. Then come priestesses who carry small caskets (or draw carts bearing those caskets); the caskets contain artifacts sacred to the god (these artifacts aren't necessarily or even usually powerful magical items desired by greedy adventurers. They're more ordinary items: The rock sacred to the god, the fossilized stone showing the god's footprint, the bone from the feast in which the god participated, the statue the god himself blessed, the cast-off weapon used by the god in some famous event and so on.) Then there are more functionary priests: Priests in charge of the upcoming feast, priests who lead sacrificial animals (if sacrifice is a part of this culture's worship), and priests who act as sergeants-at-arms (they carry non lethal weapons such as staffs and use them to keep the disorderly orderly). Finally the faithful (non-priest) followers come. Once the procession reaches the sacred site there may be a sacred meal. Sacrificial animals will be sacrificed and cooked and then the feast eaten. The character of the meal depends on the character of the god. The sacred meal ends after nightfall. Then, the three most important elements of the mysteries begin. They all
take place at night. First is the recitation a series of songs or chants
concerning the god, his deeds, his promises to the faithful, his demands on
the faithful. The recitation sets the mood for the rest of the ceremonies;
the listening followers are supposed to be reverential at least and the
priests with the staves are still around to keep order and quell (or get rid
of) troublemakers. Second there is the display. The sacred objects carried
in those caskets are displayed for the faithful. Since they actually are
magical objects sacred to the god, they tend to
inspire the faithful with the essence of the god. Third there is the
performance. Priests trained as actors perform a play which
commemorates the most famous of the god's stories especially the one which
most closely deals with the god's demands on and relations with his
worshippers. Regardless of the quality of this play, it is performed at the
end of a lengthy process of worship where the followers are exposed to many
powerful forces of the faith and the onlookers are all At the end there is the rebirth. Once the performance has ceased the lights are doused and the faithful are led in pitch darkness from the area where the play was performed. Once they arrive at the point of departure where the procession home will begin the torches or lamps are again lit and among the faithful this journey in darkness is much like being born again. |
| Prayer |
| Prayer is one of the most common of rituals; it involves asking the blessing of the god, often through the recital of an ancient or famous prayer or part of a holy text. Note that not all cultures demand that prayer be performed from a kneeling position or a pose of obsequience. |
| Purification |
| When a person comes in contact with some contamination (a taboo substance) he must be purified. In some cultures whenever a person has killed another honourably though he is not considered to have sinned he must be purified of the killing. This ceremony involves a ritual bathing or washing of the hands (or other contaminated part) under the supervision of a priest who invokes the god's blessing during the washing. |
| Sacrifice |
| In some cultures animals are sacrificed to the glory of the god. One god may demand that the whole animal be destroyed; another will demand that the animal be killed for it and some part of it destroyed for him, but that the rest of the beast can be used as the worshippers see fit. Obviously human sacrifice is something demanded only by the most evil or unsympathetic of gods. |
| Vigilance |
| Priests have to be vigilant against
powers or elements which threaten their faith or their followers. These
powers and elements don't usually take the direct approach, such as attacks
by armies or monsters. The priest needs to be vigilant against more subtle
intrusions including: The Agent Provocateur - This is someone who falsely joins the priesthood, spends a long time becoming a trusted member or even a leader of it, and then persuades members of the faith to perform actions which will get the faith into trouble. For example, in times when the priesthood is in conflict with another faith, the Agent Provocateur might encourage outright war with that faith. When a conflict with the local rulers could be sorted out by calm diplomacy, the Agent Provocateur will instead recommend or issue ultimatums and demands. And naturally the Agent will keep his true masters apprised of the priesthood's secret movements and activities at all times. Corruption in Specific Orders - Sometimes priests go bad and use the priesthood for their own gain. In addition to methods mentioned above they may also secretly defy requirements of their priesthood, steal temple funds, use their duties of guidance to influence others to profit these priests, etc. No such corruption goes unnoticed forever, but the unwillingness of people to believe that they've put their faith in crooks and thieves can ensure that this corruption can go on for a long, long time. Libels - At times members of rival priesthoods will persuade their followers that other priesthoods perform acts which are profane and evil. In a culture where religious prejudice is a strong factor, this is often easy to do. For instance it might prove simple to convince one's flock that the priests of a more despised faith are kidnapping young women to serve as unwilling temple concubines then killing them. It's especially easy to do when the libeller secretly arranges for the kidnapping and murder of several young women in his own faith. When this sort of thing goes on it's vital that the priests of the accused faith prove the truth. They can't do it just by giving local authorities a tour of their temple to show there are no unwilling concubines here and even if they do a particularly clever enemy will have concealed the body of one of the kidnapped girls there for the authorities to find. It requires capture of the killers and demonstration that they were serving someone else all of which is a good basis for a priest oriented adventure. This is also a good way to establish that an NPC priest is a hero of his faith if he in the past has thwarted such situations. |