NPC Class: Priest

seasong

First Post
I'm playing around with a D&D setting, and I think I want to do the following, but I'm not sure how well it will balance... This would replace the cleric, with a Templar PRC for multiclass priest/fighter characters.

EDIT: The cleric remains a PC class, and the Priest is now an NPC class. It's more powerful than most of the NPC classes, but it is not quite as powerful as a PC class. As with some of the stronger NPC classes, some players may find this an interesting alternative to play, if they don't mind being a bit less powerful than their comrades.

Comments sought and desired!

Alignment: Any (must be within 1 step of chosen deity).
Hit Die: d4.
Skill Points: 4 + INT bonus, x4 at 1st level.
Class Skills: The priest's class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (CHA), Knowledge (all skills, taken individually) (Int), Profession (Wis), Scry (Int, exclusive skill), Sense Motive (WIS), and Spellcraft (Int).

Note: Certain domains alter the priest's skill selection:
Animal, Plant or Travel: Add class skill: Wilderness Lore
Knowledge: +4 skill points at 1st level, +1 per level thereafter, to be put only in knowledge skills.
Trickery: Add class skills: Bluff (CHA), Disguise (CHA) and Hide (DEX).

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Priests are skilled with simple weapons. Priests are not proficient with any type of armor nor with shields.

Note: Some deities have favored weapons; priests automatically gain proficiency in the deity's favored weapon. Priests who take the War domain also gain Weapon Focus in that weapon for free. If a priest takes the War domain with a deity who does not have a favored weapon, the priest may choose a simple weapon to gain Weapon Focus in.

Code:
[color=skyblue]TABLE: The Priest 
        Base           Fort    Ref     Will
Level   Attack Bonus   Save    Save    Save    Special
-----   ------------   ----    ----    ----    -------
1       +0             +0      +0      +2	2 Domains,       
						Turn/Rebuke Undead  
2       +1             +0      +0      +3             
3       +1             +1      +1      +3             
4       +2             +1      +1      +4             
5       +2             +1      +1      +4	Bonus feat     
6       +3             +2      +2      +5             
7       +3             +2      +2      +5             
8       +4             +2      +2      +6             
9       +4             +3      +3      +6             
10      +5             +3      +3      +7	Bonus feat     
11      +5             +3      +3      +7             
12      +6/+1          +4      +4      +8             
13      +6/+1          +4      +4      +8             
14      +7/+2          +4      +4      +9             
15      +7/+2          +5      +5      +9	Bonus feat     
16      +8/+3          +5      +5      +10            
17      +8/+3          +5      +5      +10            
18      +9/+4          +6      +6      +11            
19      +9/+4          +6      +6      +11            
20      +10/+5         +6      +6      +12	Bonus feat

TABLE: Priest Spells Per Day 
            --------------------Spells per Day---------------------
Level       0    1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      9
-----       -    -      -      -      -      -      -      -      -      -
1           3    1+1    —      —      —      —      —      —      —      —
2           4    2+1    —      —      —      —      —      —      —      —
3           4    2+1    1+1    —      —      —      —      —      —      —
4           5    3+1    2+1    —      —      —      —      —      —      —
5           5    3+1    2+1    1+1    —      —      —      —      —      —
6           5    3+1    3+1    2+1    —      —      —      —      —      —
7           6    4+1    3+1    2+1    1+1    —      —      —      —      —
8           6    4+1    3+1    3+1    2+1    —      —      —      —      —
9           6    4+1    4+1    3+1    2+1    1+1    —      —      —      —
10          6    4+1    4+1    3+1    3+1    2+1    —      —      —      —
11          6    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    2+1    1+1    —      —      —
12          6    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    3+1    2+1    —      —      —
13          6    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    2+1    1      —      —
14          6    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    3+1    2      —      —
15          6    5+1    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    2+1    1+1    —
16          6    5+1    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    3+1    2+1    —
17          6    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    2+1    1+1
18          6    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    3+1    2+1
19          6    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    3+1    3+1
20          6    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    5+1    4+1    4+1    4+1[/color]

Spells: A priest casts divine spells. She is limited to a certain number of spells of each spell level per day, according to her class level. Each priest must choose a time at which she must spend an hour each day in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain her daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a priest can prepare spells.

While praying, the priest decides which spells to prepare. To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, a priest must have a Wisdom score of at least 10 + the spell's level. A priest's bonus spells are based on Wisdom. The Difficulty Class for saving throws against priest spells is 10 + the spell's level + the priest's Wisdom modifier.

Also, see the next section about bonus spells from the priest's domains.

Deity, Domains, and Domain Spells: When your character becomes a priest, you may choose to have your character serve a specific deity. The priest's deity influences her alignment, what magic she can perform, her values, and how others see her.

Choose two from among the deity's domains for your priest's domains. You can only select an alignment domain (such as Good) for your priest if her alignment matches that domain.

If your priest is not devoted to a particular deity, you still select two domains to represent her spiritual inclinations and abilities (but the restriction on alignment domains still applies).

Each domain gives your priest a granted power. Your priest gets the granted powers of all the domains selected.

In addition to his standard spells, a priest gets one domain spell of each spell level, starting at 1st. When a priest prepares a domain spell, it must come from one of her two domains.

Spontaneous Casting: Priests can channel stored spell energy into domain spells that they haven't prepared ahead of time. The priest can "lose" a prepared spell in order to cast any domain spell of the same level or lower.

Turn or Rebuke Undead: A good priest (or a neutral priest who worships a good deity) has the supernatural ability to turn undead. Evil priests (and neutral priests who worship evil deities) can rebuke such creatures. Neutral priests of neutral deities can do one or the other (player's choice), depending on whether the priests is more proficient at wielding positive or negative energy. Once the player makes this choice, it cannot be reversed.

A priest may attempt to turn or rebuke undead a number of times per day equal to three plus her Charisma modifier.

Extra Turning: As a feat, a priest may take Extra Turning. This feat allows the priest to turn undead four more times per day than normal. A priest can take this feat multiple times, gaining four extra daily turning attempts each time.

Bonus Languages: A priest may substitute Abyssal, Celestial or Infernal for one of the bonus languages available to the character.

Bonus Feats: Every five levels, a priest gains a bonus feat. This feat must be a divine feat, a metamagic feat, an item creation feat, Extra Turning or Spell Mastery.

Ex-Priests: A priest who grossly violates the code of conduct expected by her god (generally acting in ways opposed to the god's alignment or purposes) loses all spells and class features and cannot gain levels as a priest of that god until she atones.
 
Last edited:

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Neat

You missed a wizard ref in Armor and Weapon Proficiency.

You missed a cleric ref in Spells.

Other than that my only beef is that cleric spells are generally used for healing and buffing. There is no point to buffing this character (BAB is horrible, no armor, etc) for combat except defensively. As far as healing, most times a cleric is in the thick of things, Im not sure the priest would be able to survive out there.

It looks to me like you stripped the cleric of:

Spells, reduced to a wizard's max of 4
Armor, the ability to use it at 1st level
HP, BAB, and Fort Save

In return, you kept turning and added 5 bonus feats over the course of 20 levels (as a wizard). Without playtesting (ie- based on initial reaction) I would say this is too weak, by far. I think perhaps sorceror would have been a better template for spells per day (how often do priests run out of spells?), combined with a wizard's bonus feats, and a cleric's abilitiy you left out: armor (perhaps light at 1-3, med 4-8, heavy 9+), you might have a workable "priest" who can buff the party and himself defensively and stay close enough to the action to heal party members.

The iconic 3e wizard is invisible and flying, remember? :)

Technik
 

I actually like this class, and use one like it (the scholar) as my base high-magic class. I don't see a mention of skill points, but you might give the class an increase in skill points as well as a few communication skills (appraise, bluff, diplomacy, perform (oration/argument/sermon, etc.), and other skills seem appropriate for a priest. Heal might be a good one for priests of appropriate domain.

A few extra feats couldn't hurt, especially if limited to a list of appropriate (domain related) feats.
 

Re: Neat

Hey Technik4, I've missed you :D.
Technik4 said:
You missed a wizard ref in Armor and Weapon Proficiency.

You missed a cleric ref in Spells.
Thanks :).
Other than that my only beef is that cleric spells are generally used for healing and buffing. There is no point to buffing this character (BAB is horrible, no armor, etc) for combat except defensively. As far as healing, most times a cleric is in the thick of things, Im not sure the priest would be able to survive out there.
Yeah, the intent is that this is NOT a fighting class - I am converting the cleric class into a Templar PrC, which will allow a Priest to become a fighting priest; advancing spell levels, improved BAB and saves, etc. The Templar will be fairly rare, though, the sort of thing that sets PCs apart from "ordinary priests".

And for those priests who do want to contribute to an adventuring party... the right domains, combined with the improved spontaneous casting, could do pretty well.
It looks to me like you stripped the cleric of:

Spells, reduced to a wizard's max of 4
Armor, the ability to use it at 1st level
HP, BAB, and Fort Save
Hm, good point on the spells per day.

I'm not particularly worried about the armor, HP, BAB or Fort save, however - this is not a direct combatant, and giving the priest those things would merely encourage direct combat :).
In return, you kept turning and added 5 bonus feats over the course of 20 levels (as a wizard). Without playtesting (ie- based on initial reaction) I would say this is too weak, by far.
Thank you. I'm mostly looking for initial reactions - they point me in the right direction to test things out.

The main reason it seems weak is because it is a wizard... but with a cleric's spell list. And the cleric's spell list, as you pointed out, is focused more on healing and buffing than on direct combat. In other words, it fulfills a "weak" role in combat.

Which is, I think, okay - not everyone wants to play this sort of character, but some people do, and my groups often have a couple of them.
I think perhaps sorceror would have been a better template for spells per day (how often do priests run out of spells?)
Yeah, I need to think about the spells per day.
 

Howdy willpax :). Thanks for the comments!
willpax said:
I actually like this class, and use one like it (the scholar) as my base high-magic class. I don't see a mention of skill points, but you might give the class an increase in skill points as well as a few communication skills (appraise, bluff, diplomacy, perform (oration/argument/sermon, etc.), and other skills seem appropriate for a priest. Heal might be a good one for priests of appropriate domain.
I added the wizard's skill points in for now. I'm going to go and think about your suggestions - they all look pretty good :).
A few extra feats couldn't hurt, especially if limited to a list of appropriate (domain related) feats.
I'm thinking of having "divine feats" that require particular domains; these would be purchaseable with the bonus feats.
 

Increased skill points to 4; modified the class skill list to be more "priestly" - diplomacy, sense motive were the big two.

Left the spells per day alone, but added the "domain spell per level" rule back in - really shouldn't have taken it out in the first place :).

Editted alignment for clarity; bolded each item to help skim for particular bits.

Any more comments?
 

Side note: I know this class is weaker than the cleric. If you had a choice between a cleric and this guy, you shouldn't hesitate to take the cleric - because clerics are the strongest class in D&D, and this one isn't.

The setting I'm working on won't HAVE clerics, though, except as a Prestige Class; I'm trying to make sure that this class is balanced in regards to wizards and bards and such, so that it is a viable and balanced choice, given a lack of clerics.
 

probably the biggest reason that clerics are so strong is because (according to the ptb) their central role is healing the party. because healing spells require touch, clerics have to be able to enter combat safely and still use them. Thus the super armor, good weapons, good hp, etc.

this class would be an after the fact medic, at best. It would never survive the rigors of combat to heal in the heat of battle.

keep that in mind when you set up adventures. :)

DC
 

First of all: great job overall.

My comments will focus more on the domains than the priests, since I don't see anything adapated for them, and there's a few things about them that are a little odd.

One thought was that perhaps all priests should have proficency with their deity's favored weapon, and the War Domain would then grant some armor profiency and weapon focus, medium or so.

The other thing that often irked me about PH domains is that the ones that grant a extra skills to the class skill list don't increase skill points, which means that a priest of the trickery and knowladge domain is no more skilled than your hack & slash war / destruction priest, unless the're getting skill points from Int or being a human. Granting a few bonus skill points with each of these to be spread about the extra skills would be nice..

Finaly, the entire turn / rebuke undead thing really strikes me as odd to leave in. Without spontanious castig of cure / inflict spells you're getting away from the positive / negitive energy focus of the cleric, but this sort of brings it back... If anything I think it would make more sense to add some minor 'deity specific abilities' every few levels (left up to the DM) and make turn the special ability of the Sun domain and Rebuke the special ability of the Death domain.
 

DreamChaser: Hm, not sure I agree with that. The BAB and decent weapon selection have little to do with being able to step next to the fighter and heal him; armor and hit points, do, however...

On the other hand, at least for the players in my campaigns, the "buffing" spell caster with the crappy hit points just stands behind the fighter and touches him on the back.

I'll think about it :).

Destil: Good point on the "skill points as a domain ability" thing. I like that :).

Turning undead: I'm planning to allow this to be swapped out, but since the primary gods worshipped are subordinate to the sun god, this makes a good default ability. Also, it's easier to balance the class if I have a set ability listed there that doesn't go too far from the grain of what people here are accustomed to.
 

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