Why do Priests exist?

[hcobb]

My setting is that the Wizard's Guild is thoroughly agnostic. They see the magics performed by priests and shamans as dangerous shortcuts that shortchange the student's ability to eventually learn the full breadth of magic in exchange for learning prayers to higher powers that most likely don't exist. Those few tricks the priests have that aren't in the schools of magic either aren't generally useful (being limited to religious rituals of dubious value) or involve some trick that it's not worth the effort to research.

Most religions regard the Wizard's Guild as a bunch of misguided souls who are going to hell and who commune with dangerous lower powers like demons.

[warhorse11h]

Originally Posted by hcobb

My setting is that the Wizard's Guild is thoroughly agnostic. They see the magics performed by priests and shamans as dangerous shortcuts that shortchange the student's ability to eventually learn the full breadth of magic in exchange for learning prayers to higher powers that most likely don't exist. Those few tricks the priests have that aren't in the schools of magic either aren't generally useful (being limited to religious rituals of dubious value) or involve some trick that it's not worth the effort to research.

Most religions regard the Wizard's Guild as a bunch of misguided souls who are going to hell and who commune with dangerous lower powers like demons.

I realize you will probably disagree, but I think that the idea I put forth yesterday fits in with those attitudes. But each to their own.

By the way, that self powered spell shield ring for 900 a week. Is that unlimited uses or is there a daily limit with high surcharges for excessive uses?

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by warhorse11h

I think I have finally found a way to incorporate a priest profession.

Delete the priest and the theologian talents and create a new type of character. This would be similar to what was done with the original thief and master thief talents.
The new profession would be called Priest

A priest learns talents and spells at normal cost, neither is doubled. But his spells are cast as prayers and they operate differently than spells cast by a wizard. The ST cost remains the same, the priest expends the ST when his prayer finishes.
...

To sum up, this priest can fight, but until he is fully developed, he won't be as well armed or armored as a comparable fighter and he can use magic, but is a sitting duck for a period of time when he tries to use it.

A Druid would be easier to develop, just give him a few talents, including some weapons talents, that are not double cost and let him be a wizardly priest with a natural/elemental focus. As a Druid, he would have the ability to perform the ceremonies of his faith.

I've been meaning to post some thoughts on this idea so apologies for the delay.

So far be it for me to discourage out-of-the-box thinking, but I have a hard time getting behind this approach. I'm usually open to a lot of varied rule-tweaking with TFT... after all, the system is ideal for adaptation, but there are a couple of core elements that I don't like to mess with. The first is the attribute 'holy trinity' and the second is the hero/wizard paradigm.

TBH though, setting aside my reluctance to introduce a third character type, I think the disadvantages in spell-casting are too significant. The ability to take action in those initial turns is pretty critical in TFT. I'd be worried about long and short-term survivability for such a character. Of course, this only opinion so I would be curious to see if my concerns would bear out in actual playtesting.

[Helborn]

I think the original concept was very direct: to fleece the suckers.

[hcobb]

Originally Posted by Helborn

I think the original concept was very direct: to fleece the suckers.

Of 5 fatigue each?

[Helborn]

No, of money.

I'm being cynical but given the presence of The Temple of Enok, I think this approach reflects the original concept. SJ left religion up to the GM. There is an acknowledgment that it exists but the two purely TFT versions are a con and a philosophy (Rhakkra).

There is nothing which prevents a GM from adding in gods and demons, etc. but it all has to be done by the GM sine there is no canon.

Personally, the lack of religiosity in the mechanics is one of the aspects that attracted me to TFT.