The example of the Bladedancer and Priestess demonstrates that in the Auran Empire setting different gods’ priesthoods can have relatively different abilities.
Which raises a big question or three in my mind: Does every god in the Auran Empire have their own spin on Clerics and/or Priestesses with different weapon restrictions, proficiencies, and spell lists, as the core priest defaults to Ammonar, the bladedancer to Ianna, and the Priestess to Mityara? Will we eventually learn the details of how they differ in the published setting (or better yet, here?)
I noticed something that left me pondering one other question: one of the templates for the priestess is a worshipper of Ianna-- would a priestess with that template use the Bladedancer’s spells, since they receive their spells from her?
Edit: Another question occurred to me: Are there clerics of Mityara or Priestesses of Ammonar, and if so do the former have a smaller spell list (and if so, what stays?) Do the latter have an expanded spell list (and if so what new spells do they get?)
Most of the deities have their own clerical or priestly order. These orders are:
-Clerics of the Winged Sun (Ammonar) - Cleric, default
-Templars of Justice (Turas) - Cleric, minor mods
-Dancers of the Blade (Ianna as goddess of war) - Bladedancer
-Dancers of the Veil (Ianna as goddess of love) - Priestess, minor mods.
-Keepers of the Hearth Fire (Mityara) - Priestess, default
-Sisters of Mourning (Calefa) - Priestess, minor mods.
Istreus, god of knowledge, and Naurivus, god of nature, do not have clerical orders. Istreus is widely revered by mages, and Naurivus is popular with shamans, witches, etc.
I assume/hope that an Auran Empire Setting Book will have these “minor mods” included?
It seems pretty easy to make a cleric-variant with the class building guidelines in the player’s companion, but I know all too well how easy it is to accidentally make a class over-powered without meaning to (or under-powered if one tries to over-correct). I’m a player and feel I have to ban my “Elven Wonderworker”, which, despite being perfectly within the class-creation guidelines, is basically the Nobiran Wonderworker without any extra ability score requirements.
At the very least, they tend to get access to reversed versions of certain spells instead of the “normal” version, i.e. inflict spells instead of cure, etc. You can get a lot of variation in flavor by varying the spell selection and religious rules of the cleric, bladedancer, and priestess classes.
And where do Paladins fit in? This is a question I’ve had trouble answering in my own D&D games. How do they fit in the religious hierarchy, if at all?
I’ve always used Paladins as the ‘martial arm’ of whatever religious order they follow. If they have access to divine spells they would be only those available to that gods clerics/priests and if they had their own spells they would lean heavily towards ‘field work’, i.e., combat and healing rather than augury/utility.
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but an odd question occurred to me when I was reading Alex’s breakdown of the priestly orders in the Auran Empire. Do the female deities in the setting have any male priests, or all all bladedancers and priestesses biologically female? Is there anything equivalent to, say, the Galli of Imperial Rome? Auto-castration is probably not the kind of thing that lawful deities encourage, but some manner of gender-bending holy people could fit into the setting.