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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sledged" data-source="post: 1450704" data-attributes="member: 17045">Specialty Priests and Character Rolls  What I miss about specialty priests is that each type was essentially a difference class whose spell selections and granted powers reflected their religions and gods.  While domains and PrCs allow a certain level variation between clerics, it doesn't offer the same amount that specialty priests did.  Priests of two different gods with different portfolios should be as different as druids and clerics.  The difference between those two classes even at first level is very obvious.  In 2E some priests didn't have the turn/command undead ability.  Some couldn't cast healing spells.  Some could only cast the reverse of certain spells.  Some of the specialty priests of the gods of magic had spellbooks and could prepare wizard spells in place of priest spells.  Specialty priests of Mask had thieving skills.  Specialty priests of Mielikki were rangers instead of priests.  And the 'all' sphere was only group of spells to which all priests had access, and that sphere had all of about five spells.  Even then I once made a specialty priest that didn't use spells at all, but gained extra granted powers instead. You can't make that kind of variation with a cleric in 3E.  No matter what domains are picked, or PrC levels are gained, all clerics can spontaneously cast cure/inflict spells.  All clerics have the turn/rebuke undead ability.  And there's a wide range of spells to which every cleric has access.  Domain spells only add a slight variation in spell selection and granted powers, and even with domain spells, a cleric can only use a domain slot to prepare one.  The only way a PrC could fill the role of specialty priests is to allow a cleric to trade in his levels, abilities, and spell selections as a cleric like the blackguard lets a character trade in paladin levels.  Though I think in order to optimize the creation of such a PrC, divine spells would have to utilize the 2E concept of spell spheres instead of the one-spell-per-spell-level domain concept.</blockquote>

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