A different take on priests

[zot]

[PLEASE NOTE, THE NEW THEURGY TOOLKIT DOCUMENT IS HERE]

I posted about this in the Priest and Theologian thread but I think that thread's pretty old, so I thought I'd move it to another thread.

My document is here. There's plenty to read in the document but here is some summary text from it so you have an idea of what's in there:

The Priest and Theologian talents allow a character to perform time consuming ceremonies (around 15 minutes) that can only be done "when the time is right". A group must wait for an "appointed time" before a priest can perform a ceremony (there are 5 appointed times each day) and even then the priest can perform only one ceremony. Despite these limitations, I feel that priests will be fun to play and, power-wise, fall somewhere between wizards and non-wizards, offering both support and utility.

I think allowing ceremonies to be performed only at certain times has quite a different feel from giving the character "spell slots" they can use whenever they want. Also, I think this system has a more "religious feel" because the character is dependent on something outside himself (appointed times). Note that "before a meal" times are important so the priest can purify food before a party eats and also provide some time-wise flexibility.

Some observations about ceremonies:

1. Priestly effects don't require a new attribute, use points like magic, or use Vancian “spell slots”
2. A priest cannot perform ceremonies during combat
3. Ceremonies take a comparatively long time (15 minutes)
4. Meal times provide some flexibility with appointed times
5. Priests are limited to only one ceremony per appointed time, period (around 5 per day and this doesn't increase with experience)
6. Priests can normally only choose one effect per chunk of game time
7. Ceremonies require a priest player to make potentially difficult decisions
8. Combat effects must be prepared in advance
9. Some ceremonies are "mass-effect" because, for instance, a physicker can attend each person in the party but a priest can only perform one ceremony per "appointed time"
10. Priests aren't WoW-style battle-healers, but they can seriously patch up a group AFTER a combat, which helps general survivability without defaulting to a D&D-style cleric
11. During combat, priests can use normal weapons and fighting talents