The village priest

[GreatLemur]

The cleric class is an adventurer. Clad in armor, wielding a mace, and well versed in divine magics, the cleric is a spiritual warrior.

Yeah, the issue of a non-adventuring priest class aside, I've always thought it was weird that the Cleric wasn't more equivalent to the Wizard. The armor and medium BAB really seem kind of unrelated to the divine spellcasting bit. Of course, the Cleric is so overpowered that you could take away the martial capabilities, give it a few more skill points, and you'd have a perfectly reasonable, balanced class.

Bards are *fantastic* priests. In addition to their skills, they can perform things like healings. They have bardic music, which is certain to make folks enjoy going to church. They can win over converts, through magic and through persuasion.

That is an extremely great idea. And the "Bardic Music" ability doesn't even need to run off of literal music, just anything that you can express with the Perform skill, so oratory would work fine. I might screw with the spell list a little, too, but otherwise it's a really great fit.

 

[WayneLigon]

For many, many years I've considered your basic village priest to be a non-classed person just like the rest of the people in the village. In 3E he's ususally got one level of Expert in there to represent some specialized knowledge skills.

 

[Grimstaff]

I use clerics for priests in general, just for simplicity's sake. The typical village priest is 3-5th lvl and keeps his breastplate and morningstar in the closet in case things on the frontier get rough. There's usually a druid nearby as well to keep on eye on the crops and make sure the "old ways" aren't ignored. He's typically 1st-3rd level and reports directly to a druid of no less than 7th level.
The typical demon cult is run by Sorcerers (usually 6th-9th with 6-12 acolytes of 1st-3rd level) as opposed to clerics, usually tending towards Summoning and Necromantic spells, with a bit of charm and suggestion thrown in to keep the local politicians and noblewomen in their pockets. I like to give these Sorcerers access to a Domain to better represent their dedication to their patron and give them a little more variety in spells known.

 

[Angerland]

seems to me there is a bit of gray area by some folks on the difference between natural healing and magical healing. Natural healing is done by resting. Long term care and first aid are covered by the heal skill, all of which an NPC class can handle. Magical healing is the domain of Clerics and other "miracle workers" of the various faiths. I agree that clerics are probably more like holy defenders of the faith and not priests, per se, but I see no reason that the role could not be filled by the expert or adept.

 

[Darklone]

...

Good post, same way like I do it. I had more than one campaign now without the D&D cleric class, all priests were bards or experts.

I'd give the cloistered cleric class in UA a better look though... yet I'll cut their armor and weapon proficiencies down.