Mage. Priest. FIGHT!

[Rhishisikk]

Okay, I'm having a nerf-herder moment.  I know I'm wrong, I just don't know why.

Mages absorb a lot of the functionality of other spell-using classes.  In particular, Enchanters take the role of party healer (such as MC allows) and Reaper takes the undead smackdown into a whole different track. 

I know it's just a knee-jerk DND reaction, but what is role of the party priest?  I'm tempted to draw links to Shadowrun's physical adept, but my internal 'smack myself upside the head' reflex is going off.

What am I missing?  (Other than sleep.  I'm accepting that as a constant.)

[aegis]

He's rather a character who brings guidance, advice, faith and support to the group. The "wildcard magic caster"-role that D&D gave him is suppressed, and that's a good think IMHO. He has a little magic to support his deeds, but he receives it from a few, specific prayers, not from a whole enormous list... The effects are also chosen in accordance with his path, so they keep the same "flavour".

In the end, he can still be the party healer... if he's a healing devotee! If he's a war priest, of course he won't be able to cure, and that sounds logical to me. He fits a little bit more (again, IMHO) the image I have of a priest: a talker/support character first, and a guy who does a little magic (which he calls miracles) second. 

Edit: As Walter mentioned below, the Priest is a bit of a Wildcard. But this is only true "at character creation". Once his paths are chosen, he picks a role and sticks to it. The mage, on the contrary, can have such a variety of spells that he can switch role in the very middle of an encounter.

[Desertpuma]

The Priest's job is to promote his faith. ... He also helps the party as he can and this may entail him aiding with healing.

[MugMug]

According to the book, the Priest is a Wildcard/Backer. [/snark]

Walter

[Crafty_Alex]

Okay, I'm having a nerf-herder moment.  I know I'm wrong, I just don't know why.

Mages absorb a lot of the functionality of other spell-using classes.  In particular, Enchanters take the role of party healer (such as MC allows) and Reaper takes the undead smackdown into a whole different track. 

I know it's just a knee-jerk DND reaction, but what is role of the party priest?  I'm tempted to draw links to Shadowrun's physical adept, but my internal 'smack myself upside the head' reflex is going off.

What am I missing?  (Other than sleep.  I'm accepting that as a constant.)

Start here - the Priest is not a D&D Cleric. This is important on the road to recovery. They are much closer to  a hybrid of most D&D divine classes (clerics and paladins, mainly) with a whole lot of "devoted guy" from history and fiction mixed in. Don't expect them to be casting machines - if you look at the Paths, you'll see that Priests often don't get spells at all at first level. Some Paths give no spells at all! Hell, they don't start at first level with Turning unless you choose the right Path, either.

A Mage is a product of his spells; a Priest on the other hand is a product of his Paths which are much more than spells. He is truly a product of his Alignment, which completely changes the way the class plays at the table - he receives his weapon, most of his class abilities, and most of his cool from his Alignment. Over that very open, Back to Basics sort of construction, he's got a framework of devotion-based abilities to cover classic roles of team support and divine smackdown. He can be a classic druid if given the Beasts, Life, Nature, and Wilderness Paths and a focus on group-boosting abilities from Masks of God, or a blackguard with the Evil, Order, Strength, and War Paths, a sprinkling of combat feats and using the more combat-y nastiness of Fell Hand.

Unlike the Mage, which can heal, the Priest can benefit from longer term, more reliable benefits and support his team in a consistent way. He never has to make Spellcasting checks to get off a critical spell. Abilities like Saved!, Congregation, and Exemplar can make him a support character to challenge a commited Sage, and that's not going into the Paths he may also sport. and he has perhaps the neatest game breaker ever.

It was a challenging class to design and balance, but I will say the Priest is my favorite class ever - not only for the ability to make your own class effectively within the FC framework, but because you can also make that class fit into literally ANY fantasy story you want to match the GM's vision (through the Alignment system).

[Eärendle]

Happiness!

While it may further muddle the terminology, Gandalf is likely a fair approximation of a Fantasy Craft priest in terms of spell power displayed in fulfilling a party role. Despite being labelled a wizard, the Istari were Maiar: angelic beings sent to guide and inspire the Free Peoples in their fight against Sauron rather than contesting with him personally. He is capable enough with weapons to stand beside his comrades in battle but does so without fireballs and lightning bolts a'blazing. Even his ability to face a Balrog or a pack of Nazgul may have more to do with his Origin than his class.

I'm waiting for the dead tree so this may not be precise but wildcard/backer feels right to me. A counselor and sage who primarily motivates and supports others through minor magicks that provide aid and solace when their efforts match his idealised view of the big picture. Think of the description in LotR's appendices of the chance meeting with Thorin, his need to find the truth about the hobbit's "funny little ring" or his desire to restore the line of kings in Gondor.  These examples might be too epic for every PC but I think they establish the theme correctly.

[Drawback]

Yeah, I'm waiting for the dead tree version also. *WINK* *WINK*

[Desertpuma]

I think we are all waiting for the dead tree version

[Eärendle]

Perhaps I should have phrased my condition as currently abstaining from the pdf.

@Drawback: I had our deal in mind when I initially made that comment.

[Rhishisikk]

Unlike the Mage, which can heal, the Priest can benefit from longer term, more reliable benefits and support his team in a consistent way. He never has to make Spellcasting checks to get off a critical spell. [/quote]

Got it!  GURPS: Knacks, not spellcasting. 

Shadowrun: Physad, not mage.

I can't say I'm quite comfortable with Priest yet, but at least I've got a handle to work with.  Wildcard/Backer really wasn't that helpful, since I didn't see HOW the priest was backing people up.  Oddly enough, I can see how to make Priest into something like a DnD monk (just not as narrow of focus).

[Agent 333]

Note that if you have the Priest follow the Path of Magic, he can be a pretty effective spell caster!

[Desertpuma]

Actually the Cleric/mage Conversion thread I started & which Alex responded to basically covered the idea of a Priest using Magic Spells while fighting unarmed.

[brazen_saint]

I've been thinking about it like this:

As I understand it, in early editions of D&D, clerics channeled the power of the Positive Energy Plane.

Later on, they gained a little bit of customization to their powers, based on what they actually believed and/or what their gods actually represented.  But unless you were doing some kind of heavy modification, the Spheres/Domains were still kind of a tacked-on, secondary thing.

The FantasyCraft Priest, unlike the D&D cleric, is all about their beliefs.  If a player wants a D&D-style cleric, my campaign world has a god of light, good, and healing.  But more interesting will be to tinker with the Priest class and discover options that haven't been present in other games.

Honestly, FantasyCraft may be the first d20 product OR fantasy game where I've thought it looked like a blast to play a clericky type. 

[Rhishisikk]

Or a scholarly type.  Sage isn't bard (or not DnD bard, at any rate).  I can already see why a party would want or require a Captain or Sage.  I can see the difference between lancers and soldiers, between assassins and burglars.  I expected a similar mage/priest/druid split, rather than what was actually there.  I'm almost convinced that it's a GOOD split... now that I've stopped raving senselessly that the Pkunk threaten the purity of our genetic legacy (except that I always liked the Ur'Quan and Chenjesu in that game better).

I was kind of stubbed that the Grimmoire and Bestiary look like adaptions of the SRD.  On the one hand, that was EXCELLENT work.  On the other, I was really looking for spells like 'Are you okay?' rather than 'Status'.  Argh!  Now I'm thinking about different health-paths for Priests again.  I just need to RUN the dang game and get it out of my system...

[Agent 333]

Remember also that the Medicine skill is actually useful at healing people. If you add the Bandage feat on top of that... throw on a level of Paladin for some Lay On Hands, and you've got yourself a pretty good out of combat heal bot.