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Message: <blockquote data-quote="TwinBahamut" data-source="post: 3802086" data-attributes="member: 32536">There are pretty much just two types of priest in the world. The classic Christian name for these are the secular clergy and the regular clergy. The secular clergy are those who perform rituals and act as the mediator between normal people and the divine, what we normally call just priests or clerics. The regular clergy are those who hold themselves to an ascetic "regula", or rule, which is intended to let them lead a more holy life dedicated to their faith, in otehr words, monks. There is really no other significant kind worth mention, or further division strictly necessary. Even the difference between monotheisti and polytheistic religion changes this very little (since I would argue there is not a well-defined distinction between the two...).Religious warriors as a whole, don't need to be cosidered as their own clerical role. I don't think there is a single religion which has a group of priests solely trained for battle. There are warriors who take up arms in the name of their religion, but they are never considered priests. There are priests who take up arms, but that is never considered to be the thing they should be doing. There were many monks (especially in eastern Asia) that took up arms, but that was mostly for self-defense (not always), and their martial arts tended to be based on the ascetic principles and religious ideals they devoted themselves to.The D&D style Holy Warrior or Paladin is pretty much a D&Dism inspired by particular individuals, not institutions, and should stay that way. I always cringe whenever I hear someone talking about having orders of Paladins protecting every church... Ugh...The Druid is an odd beast, since real-world druids were pretty much conventional priests. The class itself is more thoroughly based on the idea of the wise forest hermit, but that idea has closer ties to D&D arcane casters, and real world monks.D&D really needs three, and pretty much only three, Divine classes.1) A proper cleric, designed to serve as a religious leader for a community. I say ditch the heavy armor and weapons, leaving those to multiclass characters, and stick with the kinds of things clerics are supposed to do (which the traditional cleric class does poorly).2) A proper monk, which gains supernatural power through ascetic devotion. Less emphasis on martial arts, and more emphasis on divine power and sage-like wisdom, would help a lot.3) A Paladin, just to cover the rare indivdual who is called to action for a just cause directly by a divine power. The current rules are good enough, I guess.Of course, if you want greater historical accuracy, the Arcane/Divine split needs to go, but since that battle is already over for 4E, there is no use dwelling on it.</blockquote>

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