In Maldin's campaign, there are no "clerics". Clerics were 1st and 2nd Edition D&D generalist priests that had access to all of the priest spells listed in the Players' Handbook. In my campaign, all priests are specialty priests of a specific god, with Druids being specialty priests of any one of the Nature gods, and the player must choose his god when the character is created. There are two unified spell lists: one for wizard spells and another for priest spells. These lists are then further subdivided by school of magic (wizard) and sphere of influence (priest).
Different wizard "specialty" subclasses or specialty priests have access to different spheres of magic. Specialist wizards gain the ability to cast extra spells of their chosen school of magic in exchange for the inability to cast spells of "opposed" schools. A Transmuter, for example, would gain extra spells per day in the school of Alteration, but would be denied access to the schools of Abjuration and Necromancy. The special abilities and spells available to a priest are determined by the Spheres of Influence (Combat, Creation, Healing, Necromancy, Protection, Sun, Weather, etc.) defined by the worshiped deity's dogma (e.g., Tyranny, Death, Life, Healing, etc.), power (demi, lesser, intermediate or greater power), and alignment (Lawful Good, Chaotic Evil, etc.).
A similar distinction is made for priests. Priests of any particular god gain their own specific abilities, restrictions, and sphere of influence selection. As an example, a 7th level or higher specialty priest of Iuz can cast Fear as the 4th level wizard spell, and lacks the "only blunt weapons" restriction of normal clerics, having access to two-handed swords, one of the preferred weapons of their god. The selection of spheres of influence worked similarly to the allowed and forbidden schools of magic.
Spells
The priest's dogma determines what type of spell the priest has access to, with greater access (all spells within a sphere, providing the cleric is of sufficient power [level] to cast it) for those spells closely aligned with the deity's dogma and minor access (spells of equal to or less than 3rd level) of those partially within the deity's dogma, while no access to those spells outside the deity's dogma. For example, a greater deity of Healing could grant spells of all levels in the Healing sphere, minor access to Divination spells and no access to combat spells such as Flamestrike since they are antithetical to its healing dogma.Weapons and armor
Reluctant to shed blood, non-evil priests are normally limited to blunt, bludgeoning weapons unless allowed other weapons by their dogma/mythos (such as the previously mentioned priest of Iuz). Being trained for battle as well as spiritual works, they may use any armor or shield by default, again modified by the nature of their god. There are some gods, such as Fharlanghn, who limit the type of armor their priests may use.Below you will find PDF descriptions for specialty priests of several of Greyhawk's gods. These are the specialty priests that I have so far polished up to be presentable enough for public distribution, as they happen to be the gods of more recently active player characters in my current campaign. Eventually I'll try to get up more.
Visit my active site map to see the entire website at-a-glance, find out whats
new, and instantly jump there with just a click.Return to the Game Mechanics Page
Return to my main Greyhawk Page
(in case you got here through a search engine)