Priest Characters All five standard varieties of priest—the cleric , the druid , the crusader , the monk , and the shaman —can be considered generic enough to be used in any campaign setting. In
addition, some of the existing specialty priests described in
previous books can be “folded in” to these basic five priest archetypes.
Clerics are militant priests who serve as temple knights, defenders of the faith, and
guardians of a faith’s holy places. They have very good fighting skills and a
wide array of spells to choose from. The skills, abilities, and spell selection
available to the cleric can also describe priests of agriculture, arts,
birth/children, community, crafts, culture, darkness/night, dawn, death, disease,
everything, evil, fate/destiny, fortune/luck, good, healing, life-death-rebirth
cycle, light, love, marriage, messengers, metalwork, mischief/trickery,
music/dance, oceans/rivers, prosperity, race, redemption, rulership/kingship, sites,
sky/weather, sun, trade, and wind.
Crusaders are closely related to clerics, but while clerics can be described as
defenders of the faith, crusaders are weapons against the enemies of the temple they
serve. They are true soldier-priests, skilled in physical combat and armed with
spells appropriate for the battlefield. Crusaders include specialty priests of
fire, guardianship, justice/revenge, lightning, metalwork, race,
rulership/kingship, strength, thunder, and war.
Druids are priests of nature. They are the protectors of the forests or other wild
places and stewards over all living things placed in their charge. Druids are
weaker in physical combat than a cleric or crusader, but their spheres of access
include a number of powerful offensive and defensive elemental spells. In
addition, they enjoy several unique granted powers. Druids can represent the powers
of animals, druid, earth, elemental forces, fertility, hunting, moon, nature,
seasons, and vegetation.
Monks are cloistered priests and adepts who seek enlightenment through the rigorous
training of mind, body, and spirit. Monks are extremely skilled in unarmed
combat and have access to several unusual spheres of spells. Monks may represent
specialty priests of competition, divinity of mankind, literature/poetry, magic,
oracles/prophecy, peace, time, and wisdom.
Shamans are priests of barbaric or savage cultures. They serve as guides and
protectors for their tribes. Shamans have fair combat ability and spell access, but they
also command the spirits of animals, ancestors, and nature. The shaman is a
good choice for any player character who comes from a barbaric or nomadic
culture, and can also represent a specialty priest of ancestors, animals, earth,
everything, fertility, hunting, lightning, oceans/rivers, race, sky/weather,
thunder, and wind.
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