An Endzeitgeist.com review

This installment of the New Paths-series clocks in at 12 pages, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1 page advertisement, 2/3 of a page SRD, leaving us with 8 1/3 pages of content, so let's take a look!

The priest class receives d6 HD, 4 + Int skills per level and gets 1/2 BAB-progression, good Will-saves and proficiency in only simple weapons. The class begins play with an aura as per the cleric's default and bonus languages include the respective languages of the alignment-related outer planes. Similarly, the restrictions we know regarding opposed alignment spells still apply. A priest draws her spells from the cleric spell list and must prepare them in advance; however, they are not expended upon being cast, instead consuming a spell slot available. The governing spellcasting attribute for the priest would be Wisdom and the priest begins with 1 + 1 spells of first level prepared, +4 orisons. Obviously, as a full caster, she progresses to learn up to 9th level spells and the maximum spells per day per spell level clock in at unmodified 4, with prepared spells capping at 4 + 2 per spell level.

The pluses in the list refer obviously to the domain spells; a priest selects 3 domains from her deity and she gains all domain powers of the chosen domains. The priest's spellcasting is also tied to her holy symbol, with which she shares a sacred bond - much like an arcane bond, casting without it becomes problematic, but here's the kicker: The priest may use the holy (or unholy) symbol to cast cure or inflict spells as though they had a range of close instead of touch - which is a huge boon. Back in 3.X literally EVERY cleric in my games had the feat to do just that.

Also at first level, the priest receives a so-called divine gift that can be used 1/day as a swift action. 10 such gifts are provided and all are available - you don't have to choose. The priest may use the ability, as mentioned, 1/day, but may use it +1/day for every 3 levels beyond first. If a gift enhances a spell, it may only enhance cleric spells and only one gift may enhance each spell. The gifts include CL and DC-increases of the next spell cast, invisibility (that scales up to greater invisibility at 7th level), metamagic enhancements, immediate action rerolls, wings at 5th level, Ac and save bonuses with DR and SR or bursts of raw, divine power...or, well, spell-swapping.

The priest also receives access to channel energy at 2nd level, though it is governed by Wisdom for the class and 7th level decreases activation action to move, 14th to swift. Personally, I think the ability should have a catch here to prevent the priest from executing multiple channel energy uses per round - in spite of the limitations in daily uses, three channels in one round can be pretty devastating. 6th level and every 6 levels thereafter net a bonus feat from a nice selection and, as a capstone, the class becomes immune to death attacks and negative levels and may never reduced below 1 in any ability score. Additionally, she remains alive until 2 x negative Constitution score.

The pdf provides two feats: +1/day divine gift use and the option to channel energy as a full-round action, but instead roll d10s, but at the cost of being fatigues for a number of rounds equal to the channel dice rolled. I LOVE the visuals of this feat!

We also receive a brief archetype, the chosen of nature: These guys get an expanded class skills list(but oddly lose none) and draw their spells from the druid list instead of the cleric's. The archetype replaces the channel energy progression beyond 6th level with progressively better beast shape and plant shape SPs. Decent, but honestly, not that cool - the archetype feels a bit like an afterthought.

Conclusion:

Editing and formatting are top-notch, I noticed no glitches. Layout adheres to a beautiful 2-column full-color standard and the pdf features gorgeous full-color artworks. The pdf comes fully bookmarked for your convenience.

Marc Radle's priest addresses a very crucial need I always felt: The need for a divine adherent that feels like a caster. I mean, when you think about agents of the divine in the context of our world, you probably won't think of mace-wielding, armor-clad quasi-crusaders. You'll think about men and women of the cloth. The priest fills this niche rather well. Divine gift also represents a cool mechanic, though frankly, I would have loved to see the whole thing go one step further; divine spells never really felt that "divine" to me and while the priest does a great job of emphasizing this component, I think the engine could carry more.

But I am rambling. Frankly, I feel that this should be the base class, with the more martially inclined cleric being something of a specialist. In my games, most clerics tend to not be too martially inclined (except when adventuring or when the background/deity fits), so the priest is guaranteed to see a lot of use. The divine gifts and at range cure/inflict casting also make for great balancing tools to offset the loss of the decent 2nd-line fighting options of the cleric. In short: I really, really like the class. Deceptively simple, fun and elegant. Similarly, the feat provided is nice and while I think channel spamming should be prevented with a cap, that operation's pretty simple to perform. The one thing that left me somewhat disinterested herein would be the archetype, perhaps the space would have been better served with FCOs. Oh well, this is certainly a cool class for the fair asking price - my final verdict will clock in at 5 stars.

Endzeitgeist out.

One of my greatest frustrations in Pathfinders classes has been the cleric. The holy man empowered by his god to do his work on earth, the cleric class has been the go to choice for anyone looking to play a suite of characters from divine scholar to holy sword for nearly a decade. Unfortunately, its design from the beginning has always been a problem. Born from an age when that single class was meant to be both the transfer class of players looking to move their cleric from 3.5 and fulfill every possible permutation of "holy man" regardless of style, theme, or faith the cleric has always felt far more bland and strained as compared to the other classes, with a lack of class abilities and player options pigeonholing the class into a play space that has always felt powerful, important, but overall uninteresting to play. Domains on their own never feel like the awesome power of an omnipotent being, channel energy doesn't feel like the holy hand's miracles restitching bones, and the spell list never feels quite like the same thing Moses uses to call down the 10 plagues or that Thoth-Amon uses to summon that horror from beyond space and time to destroy his enemies with. This disparity between the expectation of the class and the reality only gets worse as you start to try to build something outside the spectrum of buffing battle cleric/healbot (especially that of the unarmored divine scholar) as the design strains against its need to be appeal to every possible permutation of the holy man. With all that said this paucity of memorable abilities and exciting options has only worsened with time, as Paizo's design staff have become more comfortable with the system and with that mastery designed some truly amazing classes that build on those specific niches that used to just be the purview of the cleric. Inquisitors let you live out your dreams of Helsing like investigators of the occult and enemies of the faith like divine rangers, Oracles create the ur text on how to build a flavorful divine class that oozes style and theme that feels like an oracle out of myth, and the warpriest presents an amazing holy sword that stands tall right next to the paladin as an interesting (and different) holy warrior all in its own right. With all of these new divine classes now filling our hardcovers the weird lack of class abilities with the cleric just becomes all the more glaring, and what's worse, all those concepts left unfullfilled by new options feel even more unsatisfying to play.

Of those unmet options one of particular note has always been the divine scholar. The holy man who expresses his faith through study, doctrine, and spellcraft moreso than sword and layers of armor, this character concept has always suffered the most under the cleric design. Unable to take advantage of armor but stuck with a terrible suite of skill points and lacking class abilities to lean on, the character has always felt flat and underserved with the current options as they are and often misunderstood when it comes to any archetype that tries to tap that vein (looking at you cloistered cleric). But now, with the Kobold Press and the Priest class I think those of us who have been looking for that option and maybe even a replacement for the cleric itself have had our prayers answered.

Coming in at about 8 pages of content, the Priest is a divine dynamo of scholastic theme and design, with class abilities that evoke the vibe and style of not just the scholastic priest but the raw might of the gods issued from humble hands. For the cost of your armor proficiencies, weapon proficiencies, and a Wizards BaB players gain access to more domains, a whole new system of casting, and miracles. Now the first two are pretty self explanatory, with the extra domain, extra domain spell slot at each spell level, and the new spont prep casting fusion lending a new and unique style to the Priest class in terms of play but the real star here is the miracles. A new mechanic reminicent of smite in terms of power and progression, miracles are the divine favor of the Priest's god acted out large, allowing the priest to summon up powerful boons upon his companions and himself in order to carry the them to victory. These miracles run the gamut from annointing a spell with holy power to boost the save DC and calling down holy auras of protection upon the priest allies to literal divine intereventions that allow players to reroll saves, become invisible to their enemies, or even grow wings for short periods of time. The whole thing reads like a dream and feels amazing to play out on the table, with your priest channeling their gods powers to defeat enemies one minute and then shouting out prayers of safty that literally enwrap their allies in protective wards or bend fate to turn mortal wounds into near misses. The whole thing makes you feel like an utter badass and honestly makes you wonder how the hell no one thought of this sooner.

Now on that alone I've already added the Priest to my roster of playable classes in my home game and have begun seriously contemplating just axing the cleric altogether, but as of right now the Priest still has one flaw that holds it back from being as good as it should be, the lack of proficiency with their god's favored weapon. Now I know how this might sound but trust me, all of us who've played clerics in 3.5 have done this dance before and always found it unsatisfying. The favored weapon is as much the symbol of the faith as the symbol itself in many cases and lacking that proficiency feels jarring in nearly all respects like somekind of odd punishment for leaning into the lore and specialized options for the character itself. It feels off that somehow my Zon-Kuthon Priest who wields a spiked chain rosary, my Roman Judge with a Fasces, or my Artemis worshipping archer somehow didn't get any sort of training in the use of their god's weapons as a matter of course when every other class that requires a god does and the need to take a feat at 3rd to gain access to most of them feels like an unnessecary tax on the players when one looks at the amazing job Marc Radle has done balancing the Priest out of that martial self-buff role. In short, the Priest doesn't need to have the proficiency removed to balance it martially, the class does that already with the no armor, bad BaB, and lack of free feats to improve it.

This point aside, The Priest has likely become one of my favorite new classes going forward and sets a high mark for whatever paizo or other 3rd party publishers attempt within the realm of both divine scholar and the cleric itself. From a focus on skill points, domains, and more divine agent like class abilities to the just sheer fun of throwing a miracle on a friend and watching the GM have to suddenly pivot as that miss becomes a critical hit or that NPC dying of the black plague suddenly gets a second chance at that last save stave off his affliction or throwing fireballs imbued with holy energy at a pile of fiends, the Priest class as a whole feels like a marked improvement over both the divine scholar concept in specific and the vanilla cleric as a whole.

If you've ever had dealings with real-world ministers of religion - be it a father or a vicar, an imam or a rabbi - you know they have very little in common with the average fantasy 'cleric' apart from devotion to their deity. This priest is a bit different from the clerics you're used to playing, and wouldn't dream of picking up a weapon to further his deity's ends (spells, however, are a different matter!).

OK, so what do you get? Like any class, there's some descriptive text explaining what it's all about, the fundamental features of the class... and a rather good and dramatic drawing that suggests a spell is being cast. Then there is the usual game mechanical stuff: hit points, alignment, class skills and progression chart, then the class features are listed.

Spellcasting is a bit interesting. The priest has to prepare his spells in advance, but once he has cast a given spell it's not 'gone' - he can cast it again provided he's not cast his full allowance of spells at that level. The number of spells that can be prepared is a bit limited (and a high Wisdom doesn't help here although feats do), however the choice is wide - pretty much any cleric spell is available. The number of spells the priest can actually cast does attract a wisdom bonus. Priests also get a bonus 'cure' (if good) or 'inflict' (if evil) spell on top of the others they may learn. Neutral priests can choose which type (cure or inflict), but once made that choice is permanent. To prepare spells, the priest needs to meditate or pray for an hour, which should be at the same time every day.

Another neat feature is the Divine Gift. The priest can pray, asking his deity for a specific blessing on himself or the rest of the party - there's a list of benefits from which the priest can choose at the time of uttering the prayer. These include things like spell enhancements, the priest going invisible or being able to fly, and even calling down a divine intervention, allowing any one player to re-roll a single d20 roll with the addition of half the priest's level to the result - and still being able to choose which roll, the new one or the original one, to use!

The book rounds off with a couple of new feats and a nature-based archetype, the Chosen of Nature. They use the druid spell lists rather than the cleric ones. There's an interesting sketch of a rather punk-looking Chosen of Nature having a chat with a young fallow deer, too... although the best piece of art in the book is a white-robed fellow who really gives over the impression of having his God on his side. (Unfortunately it's not signed so I don't know which of the three artists credited is responsible.)

This makes for an interesting class, appealing to the player who enjoys getting into the role and playing a character using his powers in the service of his deity.