Non spellcasting religious NPCs?

[NewJeffCT]

I hope to start a low magic campaign starting at first level some time in the future, job and new baby permitting. But, I was hoping to start in a small town with a mere one church. I thought having a full spellcasting cleric in town was a bit too much, so I wanted to know if there is some sort of non spellcasting priest / religious acolyte out there? My thought was to have the local church run by a level 1 or 2 Expert who has skill ranks in Knowledge-Religion and Healing. I was trying to give the impression that the town the PCs are from is somewhat of a backwater, and I figured if a cleric is good enough to be a spellcaster, they would more likely be sent to a bigger town or small city to try and spread the faith and convert a larger population. If a PC wanted to be a cleric from this town, they’d likely be some sort of prodigy under the tutelage of this Expert (or equivalent) who would plan on eventually sending the PC off to bigger and better things.

Is there another non spellcasting religious type out there in an NPC class?

 

[Moe Ronalds]

My suggestion would be an Expert with cleric-like skills.

 

[megamania]

Have any said class rant and rave about their chosen god that equates their class (Kord= fighter/barbarian) and put as many skill points as possible into Know: Religion/Healing

 

[Sejs]

Expert.

Diplomacy, Heal, Knowledge (religion), Profession, Sense Motive, and 5 other appropriate skills of your choosing as class skills

6 + int mod skill points per level.

There's your non-spellcasting yet still useful and insightful priest type right there.


Edit(additional): heh, someone already said what I was gonna while I was typing it. ^_^

 

[Dr. Strangemonkey]

Swashbuckling Arcana has a good low magic priestly class. Has the potential to have miraculous abilities, but is not necessary.

Expert works, but I think it really depends on what sort of emphasis the church has. Some might be militant but charismatic war leaders, others might focus on healing, science, education, performance, beauracracy, diplomacy, art, and so forth. Religions can do a lot for people and for many of these functions an expert is to uninteresting and underspecialized.

Nobles or Courtiers seem to me be good classes for the purpose.

I made a homebrew class that I based on the literature surrounding the Catholic clergy of the late counter-reformation, the relatively positive literature anyways. Very skill based with the capacity to specialize themselves more stringently based on their order and gain some benefits from their superhuman dedication to their causes and high position in society.

 

[Hygric]

If this local priest type was of the nobility (gotta do something with excess heirs after all!) consider the aristocrat class. Otherwise, an expert with relevant skill picks. If he is a local lad made good with a bit of an education from the church, how about 1 or 2 levels of commoner followed by 1 or 2 levels of expert?

You could always make him a cleric with a wisdom of 9.

 

[Tuerny]

Religious Training [General]
Your character has been trained in the confines of the Church, learning the intricacies of its dogma and teachings as well as how to act as a priest.
Benefits: You gain Knowledge(religion) and Profession(lay priest) as class skills. If either of these are already class skills you gain a +2 competence bonus to your usage of that skill.
Normal: You either do not have access to these skills, or lack the +2 competence bonus.

 

[Gez]

An idea yoinked from Sepulchrave's story hour:

Experts as the main class for the lay clergy. Once they have the proper rank in Knowledge: Religion, they can take the Contemplative PrC.

This gives them a certain low-magic feel, while giving them also credence and legitimity as religious leaders.

 

[Conaill]

If you want a real backwater town, you could give the local priest a relic. Given enough honest, from-the-heart prayer, the relic *may* grant a CLW. I.e. the players actually have to roleplay praying to their god, and then *maybe* they'll get an honest-to-god Miracle: a Cure Light Wounds!

 

[S'mon]

In my lowish-magic game a typical priesthood is 90% Expert or other non-spellcasting class, 10% Cleric. Clerics are the elite, blessed by the gods, able to channel divine energy through their bodies. No more than about 1 in 2000 people is a Cleric, and larger churches have a need for more priests than that. Although in a land of 20 million that's still 10,000 clerics, they're not immensely rare, you'll find several in a typical city.