D&D 3E/3.5 Specialty Priests (ala 2E) in 3.5?

HI all,

I'm looking for some feedback on the possibility of recreating the Specialty Priests of 2E in a 3.5E format.

The basic concept is this: rather than all gods having generic Clerics, who are all basically identical apart from Domain choices and possibly later adding a PrC, Priests of different Gods have differing abilities.

Hit Dice, armor & weapon choices, spell selection, granted powers etc. will all vary depending on what God the priest worships. For instance, a Priest of War would have better armor and weapon selections at the cost of spell selection and granted powers, while a Priest of Magic would probably have better spell casting prowess at the cost of weapon and armor selection.

If anyone has already done something like this, or has any suggestions, please post here, thanks.

I used to have some 34 specialty priests in my setting. In 3e one survived as a prestige class. The simple truth is they are a bear to keep balanced against each other and unless a player wants to explore one they represent a lot of investment with little return.

Well,

Here is an idea for you. A lot of work mind you. But a lot easier than creating the very cool and flavorful spheres of second edition.

Have three divine classes:

The Priest 1/2 BAB, 1/1 caster level, d6 HD, 4 domains
The Cleric 3/4 BAB, 3/4 caster level, d8 HD, 3 domains
The Zealot 1/1 BAB, 1/2 caster level, d10 HD, 2 domains

Each god would only have 2 of the classes and not all three.

This may be enough to create the feel you are looking for.

Another idea would be to make divine casters spontaneous (like in UA) and have the clerics only select spells that the player and DM both agree on that fit the deity.

But if you want to go further Then,

You could combine domains into mega-domains. Any "like" domains would get subsumed into a larger domain. Hopefully so you wind up with around 12 key domains.

And Finally,

Cut the cleric spell list down to just a few universal spells. Disperse the cut spells into the domains and - BAM - you'll have it.

I would do this with Prestige Classes. There are already quite a few in Complete Divine.

-Stuart

I did that for my campaign and don't think it is very hard work.


Step 1. Start of with getting a general idea of what the priest of each god should be focused at (what kinds of magic are their specialty, are they priests or warrior-priests, what kind of services do they provide for the community and so on).


Step 2. Only go further than step 1 for those specialty priests that will actually be used for PC's. I only disclosed the information from step 1 and if someone decided they wanted to play a priest of this or that god they then got the rules related information.


Step 3. For those specialty priests that are actually going to have play time.

-decide on their HD. 1d4 for noncombatants or pacifists (could be priests of the Goddes of Love, Peace, Knowledge and so on).
-decide on their BAB. Either 1/2 level or 3/4 level (again mostly going by how often the normal priest end up fighting/trains for combat)
-decide on armor and weapon proficiency by the same principles.
-determine the domains the priest will have to choose from
-decide if the priesthood should have the ability to turn undead (again a priest of the Goddes of love or knowledge perhaps shouldn't be able to).
-if you did away with turning undead make/find another ability that has to do with the gods portfolio and can be used fairly often (you also need to decide if the new ability can be substituted for turn undead in regards to divine feats)
-decide on the number of skill points/level. 2 is minimum, 6 is maximum. The less combat ability, the more skill points.
-choose class skills based on the priests role in society. Again more class skills for those with weak combat ability.
-go through the cleric spell list and remove spells that doesn't fit the general theme of the special priest. Count the number of spells removed. Add in the same number of spells from other lists (druids, wizards) sticking with the theme (charm person for Priests of the Goddes of love and so on).


Here are two examples from my campaign. The first are priests of a community god, the priests do sermons, marriage and burial rituals, they are healers and in general are the glue that keeps communities together.


“Community” god

Hd: d6
BAB: Medium
Fort: Bad
Refl: Bad
Will: Good
Skillpoints: 4 per level
Class Skills: Concentration (con), Craft (int), Diplomacy (cha), Heal (wis), Knowledge (arcana) (int), Knowledge (local), Knowledge (religion) (int), Profession (int), Spellcraft (int)

Armor&Weapon Proficiencies: Simple Weapons, Light Armor and Shield proficiency

Alignment: Lawful Good, Neutral Good, Neutral.

Domains: Good, Healing, Protection

1 lvl: Great healer (all healing spells gain +1 per dice)
5 lvl: Bonus Metamagic, Divine or Item Creation Feat
10 lvl: Bonus Domain
15 lvl: Bonus Metamagic, Divine or Item Creation Feat


1 level spells
Bane
Bless
Bless Water
Burial Blessing (DoF)
Command
Comprehend Languages
Cure Light Wounds
Detect Evil
Detect Undead
Divert charge (BoHM)
Divine Favor
Empathic Resonance (RR)
Endure Elements
Invisibility to Undead
Magic Weapon
Message
Minor Symbol of Divinity (RR)
Protection from Evil
Remove Fear
Resist touch (BoHM)
Sanctuary
Shield of Faith
Sleep
Summon Monster I
Unseen Servant

2 level spells
Aid
Augury
Bulls Strength
Calm Emotions
Charm Person
Consecrate
Cure Moderate Wounds
Delay Poison
Divine Flame (DoF)
Divine Zephyr (DoF)
Eagles Splendor
Endurance
Enthrall
Gentle Repose
Hold Person
Lesser Restoration
Make Whole
Owls Wisdom
Protection from Arrows
Remove Paralysis
Resist Elements
Shield Other
Silence
Spiritual Weapon
Summon Monster II
Undetectable Alignment
Whispering Wind
Zone of Truth

3 level spells
Banish Shadow (RR)
Bestow Curse
Blessed Aim (DoF)
Blindness/Deafness
Continual Flame
Create Food&Water
Cure Serious Wounds
Daylight
Deeper Darkness
Dispel Magic
Divine Raiment (RR)
Glyph of Warding
Helping Hand
Invisibility Purge
Lesser Aspect of the Diety (DoF)
Locate Object
Magic Circle vs. Evil
Magic Vestment
Mass Resist Elements (DoF)
Negative Plane Protection
Neutralize Poison
Obscure Object
Prayer
Pro from Elements
Remove Blindness/Deafness
Remove Curse
Remove Disease
Searing Light
Suggestion
Summon Monster III
Sweet Water (DoF)
Tongues


The second are martial protecters of the first. With each church of the "community" god, lies a small fortificated chapter house with warrior priests protecting the church and the people in the community (the gods are seen as mother and devoted protector son). These priest fight, cleanse out evil, judge criminals and in general protect the populace. The order contains both priests and paladins.


“Protector” god

Hd: d8
BAB: Medium
Fort: Good
Refl: Bad
Will: Good
Skillpoints: 2 per level
Class Skills: Concentration (con), Craft (int), Diplomacy (cha), Heal (wis), Knowledge (religion) (int), Profession (int), Ride (dex), Sense Motive (wis), Spellcraft (int)

Armor&Weapon Profiencies: Simple Weapons, Light, Medium, Heavy Armor and Shield profiency

Alignment: Lawful Good, Lawful Neutral or Neutral Good.

Domains: Good, Protection, Law and Light (BoHM).

Special
1 level: Turn undead

1 level spells
Armor Contingency (BoHM)
Bless
Bless Water
Command
Cure Light Wounds
Detect Evil
Detect Undead
Divine Favor
Endure Elements
Gaze of Truth (RR)
Invisibility to Undead
Magic Stone
Magic Weapon
Minor Symbol of Divinity (RR)
Mount
Protection from Evil
Remove Fear
Sanctuary
Shield of Faith
Summon Monster I

2 level spells
Aid
Augury
Bless Weapon
Bulls Strength
Calm Emotions
Consecrate
Cure Moderate Wounds
Delay Poison
Divine Flame (DoF)
Divine Sacrifice (DoF)
Divine Zephyr (DoF)
Eagles Splendor
Endurance
Hedrara’s Balance (RR)
Find Traps
Hold Person
Lesser Restoration
Limbs of Endurance (RR)
Owls Wisdom
Remove Paralysis
Resist Elements
Shatter
Shield Other
Silence
Sound Burst
Spiritual Weapon
Summon Monster II
Undetectable Alignment
Zone of Truth

3 level spells
Banish Shadow (RR)
Bestow curse
Blessed Aim
Blindness/Deafness
Continual Flame
Cure Serious Wounds
Daylight
Dispel Magic
Divine Raiment (RR)
Glyph of Warding
Flame of Faith (DoF)
Invisibility Purge
Keen Weapon
Life Force Transfer (RR)
Magic Circle vs. Evil
Magic Vestment
Mass Resist Elements (ToB)
Negative Plane Protection
Phantom Steed
Prayer
Protection from Elements
Remove Curse
Sacred Weapon
Searing Light
Summon Monster III
Zeal (DoF)

Thurbane said:

HI all,

I'm looking for some feedback on the possibility of recreating the Specialty Priests of 2E in a 3.5E format.

The basic concept is this: rather than all gods having generic Clerics, who are all basically identical apart from Domain choices and possibly later adding a PrC, Priests of different Gods have differing abilities.

Hit Dice, armor & weapon choices, spell selection, granted powers etc. will all vary depending on what God the priest worships. For instance, a Priest of War would have better armor and weapon selections at the cost of spell selection and granted powers, while a Priest of Magic would probably have better spell casting prowess at the cost of weapon and armor selection.

If anyone has already done something like this, or has any suggestions, please post here, thanks.

Click to expand...

I didn't go as far as changing BAB/HD or proficiencies, but I largely changed the spell lists to make clerics of different deities very different.

The basic changes were:

- trim the Cleric spell list significantly, taking away spells which didn't seem generic enough
- add the removed spells (and sometimes some new spell) to certain Domain spell lists

The Cleric list still included healing, protections, a few buffing, a few divinations, and summoning spells.
Each domain had considerably more spells than before, at least twice as much.
The result is that an individual cleric would have an aggregate list of spells which is more dependently on its deity (via domains).
You could also introduce an extra small list of deity-specific spells on top of that.

The last change needed to make this work is to:

- merge the domain spells daily slots with the regular daily slots

one of the simpler options is to enforce multi-classing for different faiths - means that you know its balanced without having to do any work on the class. eg war + strength gods take 'some' levels of fighter, knowledge + magic - wizardry, secrets + stealth -rogue, music + knowledge - Bard, wild - Ranger, honour - paladin etc etc

This makes it really easy to develop an instant pantheon + powers without any excessive work

IMC we have two priests - one of the god of challenges, one of the god of luck, magic and fire

The priest of challenges was told to take approx one level of fighter for every 3 levels of priest (his choice on how and when). Thats worked well to give the more martial aspect of his nature and gave a slightly lower spell caster level in comparison.

For the priest of luck, magic & fire my original suggestion was one level of rogue or wizard for every 3 of cleric but the player wanted just one class so we modified to d6 HD, +2 skill points / level, light armour prof, + 1 domain. he's also taken a feat gaining bonus fire spells from the wizard list. (i think its from complete divine). Probably the biggest change was converting his turn ability to a dismiss conjured creature ability - which given the campaign setting has been a major advantage.

so far they're 9th level and its working fairly well (at least no-one is complaining that they're over or under powered relative to the other characters)

(oh and i've house ruled that any priest can substitute in domain spells the same way that you normally substitute in healing - that seems to create a big difference in flavour as they're each developing signature spells without crippling their daily choice)

if i was starting again, i think i'd put more spells into domains and less in general (good idea btw), and probably develop the lighter priest a bit more formally but i've seen lots of variations on that theme on this board

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that's a lot of specialty priests ... would they work as a 3 or 5 level PrC?