Her footsteps echoed emptily off the flagstones, coloured light dancing across her face, the setting sun through the stained glass of this long-deserted church. An elaborate golden sword-hilt lay pathetically on the faded, dusty red carpet, its ceremonial ivory blade long smashed off. A mural on the wall above the sandy training square was barely distinguishable, its battle-scene now obscured by an enormous painted sun symbol, a long-sword plunged through it, engulfed in fire, sanctified graffiti.
She shook her head. This had once been the largest temple to Konrad in the nation, one of the great jewels of the south. Then, she could imagine the scene. Tiagarath’s paladins smashing down the door, in the middle of a service. They’d have killed all the ‘heretics’ inside, their blood splashing on the marble and sand. You could see the skeletons still. They’d smashed everything that would smash, burned everything that would burn. Then they’d scrawled their sun all over the most holy spot and left the place to whoever wanted it.
A crunch of something’s foot on rubble came from the entrance and she spun around, blinking back a tear and drawing her elaborate sword. Zombies. You could tell by the way their feet dragged. At least three. She strode towards the door. She would defend even this desecrated bastion of her lord. She met the zombies at the door, four of them, long-dead. These weren’t a necromancer’s thralls, they could hardly walk. She plunged her sword up to the hilt in the first one’s neck and a horrible gurgling erupted from it. She’d gained their attention now.
One of them lurched at her, hands grasping, but in a quick, clean motion, she side-stepped and removed its head. It fell into a heap at her feat. She raised her sword to the sky and a fiery light erupted from it, scalding the closest one to ashes, the other simply being caught and thrown as if by a strong wind, landing metres away and twitching into motionlessness.

The gods’ intermediaries, priests represent the interests and desires of whichever god or ideal they choose to serve. In return for this, they are blessed with divine magic and use it to great effect for their own and their deity’s desires. As the gods run the gamut from good to evil, lawful to chaotic, interfering to intrusive, so do their priests. Good clerics heal, protect, evangelise and avenge the wrongs dealt to them and their deity. Evil clerics pillage, murder and destroy.

Adventurers:

A priest’s adventures usually, at least partially, support the interests of their god. Sometimes, the organization of their religion will present the priest with these quests, other times they may operate of their own volition. Of course, this is only one possible reason for a priest to adventure. She could just want the riches, the fame, the freedom, the experience, or it might be the only way she can survive in society.

Characteristics:

The characteristics of a priest are usually fairly simple. She is a master of divine magic, the mysterious power granted to her by the faith she holds in her god or her ideals. They are masters of healing and destroying unholy creatures like undead – even a weak priests can bring an ally back from the brink of death, and an experienced one can return their friend even from beyond it. Priests often also have plenty of combat training. They can use many weapons and armours well, and can stand up to more punishment than many other classes.

Alignment:

In the same way as the deities they serve, priests can be of any alignment. There are more good than evil priests for the simple reason that more common people worship good than evil gods. They have no particular tendency on the law-chaos scale, though lawful priests are more likely to belong to a strict hierarchy, where chaotic priest will act alone.
A priest’s alignment may not be more than one step on either axis away from the alignment of his or her deity. For example, most followers of Konrad are Chaotic Good, like their lord, but they can also be Chaotic Neutral or Neutral Good.

Religion:

The vast majority of priests in the world are, of course, the followers of Tiagarath, but there are subtle priestly orders for all other gods. Generally speaking, the priests of each god will form a church, though its strictness will usually defer according to the alignment of the god. Priests may even be atheist, dedicating their faith not to a god, but to a cause or to some other source of divine power. These priests work in the same way as the others, only the source of their magic changes.

Background:

Priests usually join the service of their god at a fairly young age. Followers of Tristan, Konrad and Harajat in particular are often recruited to the religious order as orphans aged less than six or seven. Others may choose to join a church as young adults, or even older. The church’s hold varies depending on the religion. Tristan, Welmer or, of course, Tiagarath, hold very strict hierarchies and will tell each priest where he or she should be and what he or she should do. More chaotic gods such as Konrad, Fin or Ynsertu, allow a priest to act much as they will, so long as that doesn’t directly contradict the god’s views.
Religion is one of the foremost causes for war in the world, and priests are often high up in the ranks when these wars occur. Even within one god’s worship, schisms are known to occur, in which people interpret the words of their god differently. Priests of gods with opposed goals are often sworn enemies.

Races:

All races but the Labori are well-represented in the priestly arts. The Labori find a life of faith and utter belief to be against their body’s strict logic. Among all the other races, however, going into religion is commonplace. The most likely priests to actually adventure are humans, mutants and Kartika – the first two because they are likely to be persecuted heavily, the latter because it is part of their religion’s demands.

Other Classes:

In most adventuring groups, the priest finds himself acting as the party leader, as well as being the individual who patches up all the disputes. Everyone’s friend, she has no particular enemies, unless she her faith annoys atheists in the party or members of opposing faiths. Everyone also particularly appreciates the priest’s healing abilities. The only class that priests occasionally clash with is necromancers, since their magical arts are somewhat morally questionable.

Role:

Typically, a group’s priest will be the primary healer and a secondary combatant. He can hold his own in a fight, but isn’t as well suited to the front-lines as other classes. His divine spells are also often useful to the party, for buffing and damage, especially against undead.

Game Rule Information:

Abilities: Wisdom is the most important ability for priests, as it determines the number of spells he can cast per day and assists in his crucial healing skills. Constitution and Strength are both handy if the priest is going to act as a secondary mêlée combatant by improving his damage and hit-points. Charisma impacts his turning ability and has great use in the priest’s few class skills.
Alignment: Any.
Hit dice: d8.
Class skills: Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Diplomacy (Cha), Heal (Wis), Knowledge (any) (Int), Profession (Wis), Read/Write Language, Speak Language and Spellcraft (Int)
Skills at 1st: (3 + Int modifier) × 4
Skills at other levels: 3 + Int modifier

Level	Base Attack Bonus	Fort. Save	Ref. Save	Will Save	Special	Spells / day
						Minor	Lesser	Greater	Epic
1st	+0	+2	+0	+0	Turn or Rebuke Undead	4	1
2nd	+1	+3	+0	+0	Combat School I	5	2
3rd	+1	+3	+1	+1		6	3	1
4th	+2	+4	+1	+1	Adamant	7	4	2
5th	+2	+4	+1	+1		8	5	3
6th	+3	+5	+2	+2	Combat School II	9	6	4
7th	+3	+5	+2	+2		10	7	5
8th	+4	+6	+2	+2		11	8	6	1
9th	+4	+6	+3	+3		12	9	7	2
10th	+5	+7	+3	+3		13	10	8	3
11th	+5	+7	+3	+3		14	11	9	4
12th	+6/+1	+8	+4	+4		15	12	10	5
13th	+6/+1	+8	+4	+4	Combat School III	16	13	11	6
14th	+7/+2	+9	+4	+4		17	14	12	7
15th	+7/+2	+9	+5	+5		18	15	13	8
16th	+8/+3	+10	+5	+5		19	16	14	9
17th	+8/+3	+10	+5	+5		20	17	15	10
18th	+9/+4	+11	+6	+6	Combat School IV	21	18	16	11
19th	+9/+4	+11	+6	+6		22	19	17	12
20th	+10/+5	+12	+6	+6		23	20	18	13

Class Features:

All of the following are class features of the priest
Armour and Weapon Proficiency: A priest is proficient with light and medium non-exotic firearms; light, medium and heavy non-exotic mêlée weapons; thrown weapons and light and medium modern and archaic armour.
Every deity has a favoured weapon, and a priest will consider it a point of pride to wield that weapon. They receive the appropriate proficiency, if the weapon is exotic, and the Weapon Focus feat applying to that weapon as bonus feats at 1st level.
Turn or Rebuke Undead: Any priest, good or evil, has the power to affect the undead with the power of his faith, channelled through a holy or unholy symbol. See page XOX for details.
Combat Schools: At 2nd, 6th, 13th and 18th level, a priest chooses a school of combat in which to specialise, giving him or her bonuses as follows:

• Reverend: The priest has dedicated their life to their deity and the spreading of his words. They have spent a long period practising these arts, and gain a +2 bonus on all Diplomacy checks, Knowledge (religion) checks relating to their religion, Appraise checks relating to artefacts of their religion and Intimidate checks.

• Zealot: The priest finds that a more violent approach is necessary to get his ideals across to others. He gains a +2 to all attacks rolls, +4 if he is using his deity’s favoured weapon and a +2 to A.C and Intimidate checks.

Adamant: The priest has an unerring belief in his god or his ideals, and this provides him with great moral solidarity. At 4th level, the priest gains a +2 bonus on all Will Saves.