Priest

Game Rule Information

Priests have the following game statistics:

Abilities: Wisdom is critical to a priest and his magical spells. Dexterity increases a priest’s Armor Class and Reflex saves, and Constitution increases his hit points and Fortitude saves.

Alignment: Priests can be of any alignment.

Hit Die: d8

Class Skills

The priest’s class skills (and the key ability for each skill) are Concentration (Con), Craft (Int), Knowledge (religion) (Int), Profession (Wis), and Spellcraft (Int). In addition, his choice of spheres adds a number of additional skills to his skill list, as noted on Table 3:Class Skills & Powers By Sphere.

Skill Points at 1st Level: (4 + Intelligence bonus) ×4

Skill Points at Higher Levels: 4 + Intelligence bonus

Table 1: Class Level & Benefits

Class Features

All of the following are class features of the priest.

Weapon and Armor Proficiency: Priests are proficient in basic weapons and any two weapon groups; with light and medium armor; and with all shields except tower shields.

Aura (Ex): A priest of a chaotic, evil,good,or lawful deity has a particularly powerful aura corresponding to the deity’s alignment (see the detect evil spell for details; the priest registers as a cleric in the table provided).

Spells: A priest casts divine spells, which are drawn from a list determined by combining the spells offered by his chosen spheres (see Deity and Spheres, below, for more details). Additionally, his alignment may restrict him from casting certain spells opposed to his moral or ethical beliefs; see Chaotic, Evil, Good, and Lawful Spells, below. A priest must choose and prepare his spells in advance.

To prepare or cast a spell, a priest must have a Wisdom score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a priest’s spell is 10 + the spell level +the priest’s Wisdom modifier.

Like other spellcasters, a priest can cast only a certain number of spells of each spell level per day. Bonus spells for priests rely on their Wisdom score.

Priests meditate or pray for their spells.Each priest must choose a time at which he must spend 1 hour each day in quiet contemplation or supplication to regain his daily allotment of spells. Time spent resting has no effect on whether a priest can prepare spells. A priest may prepare and cast any spell on his sphere determined list, provided that he can cast spells of that level, but he must choose which spells to prepare during his daily meditation.

Table 2: Spell Slots per Day / Spells Readied at one Time

Deity and Spheres: Choose a deity for your priest. A priest’s deity influences his alignment, what magic he can perform, his values, and how others see him. From among the spheres offered by a deity, the priest selects three (3) spheres to which he has major access, and two (2) spheres to which he has minor access. (Some deities offer only this precise combination of spheres, so no further decision is required once the priest has chosen which god he serves.)

Spheres to which the priest has major access add all their spells to his class list; spheres to which he has only minor access add their spells up to 4th level, but not 5th or above. All priests may also prepare any of the few spells classified as “Universal”.The priest’s class spell list is made up only of the Universal spells, plus the spells from his selected spheres; he does not also have a “core” list on which to draw. A priest may select a sphere to which his god normally grants major access as a minor sphere,but he may not select a minor sphere as a major one.

Duplicate Spells: Several of the spheres share spells in common. It would seem, therefore, that a priest might develop an inferior spell list if he chooses spheres with much overlap. In order to make up for this, a priest functions at +2 caster level when casting any spell that he gains from two or more of his spheres. For instance, spiritual weapon appears in both the Sphere of Summons and the Sphere of War. A 5th-level priest with access to both these spheres would cast spiritual weapon as if he was 7th-level.

Chaotic, Evil,Good, and Lawful Spells: A priest can’t cast spells of an alignment opposed to his own or his deity’s. Spells associated with particular alignments are indicated by the chaos, evil, good, and law descriptors in their spell descriptions.

Sphere Powers: In addition to spells, each sphere grants the priest access to a special associated ability.The priest gains the associated ability for all five of his spheres. Most of these, but not all, are supernatural abilities.

Most sphere abilities can only be used a certain number of times per day. A priest begins with a total number of daily uses (called “blessings”) equal to 3 + his Charisma modifier, similar to the way in which a cleric gains the ability to turn undead. Every three levels thereafter — at 4th, 7th, 10th, 13th, 16th, and 19th — the priest gains one additional daily blessing. These blessings are divided up among all the various special abilities that require them; the priest does not gain a separate pool of blessings for each ability. A special ability’s blessing cost is listed in its entry.

Associated special abilities are described below, under individual sphere entries. In addition to powering sphere abilities, these blessings may also be used to activate certain feats, as described below.

Table 3:Class Skills & Powers By Sphere