AuldDragon's AD&D Blog

Here are the races I’m thinking would be allowed to become specialty priests. When a majority of the priesthood is one race over the others, I’ve noted it with an asterisk.

Nebelun – Gnomes: Rock*, forest, svirfneblin, tinkers*

Gruumsh – Orcish blood: Orcs*, half-orcs, orogs*, scro, ogrillon, cyclops & cyclopskin
Bahgtru – Orcish blood: Orcs*, half-orcs, orogs*, scro, ogrillon, ogres
Ilneval – Orcish blood: Orcs*, half-orcs, orogs*, scro, ogrillon
Luthic – Orcish blood: Orcs*, half-orcs*, orogs, scro
Shargaas – Orcish blood: Orcs*, half-orcs*, orogs, scro
Yurtrus – Orcish blood: Orcs*, half-orcs*, orogs, scro
Note: Neo-orogs (Thayan hybrids) and ondonti (peace-loving orcs who worship Eldath) would not be allowed to become specialty priests of any of the orcish gods.

Maglubiyet – Goblins*, hobgoblins, norkers, koalinth
Bargrivyek – Goblins*, hobgoblins, norkers, koalinth
Khugorbaeyag – Goblins*, hobgoblins, norkers, koalinth
Nomog-Geaya – Goblins, hobgoblins*, norkers, koalinth

Hruggek – Bugbears
Grankhul – Bugbears
Skiggaret – Bugbears

Kurtulmak – Kobolds*, urd
Gaknulak – Kobolds*, urd

Kuraulyek – Kobolds, urd*
Meriadar – Mongrelmen*, goblinoids, almost any other race
Stalker – Bugbears*, any goblinoids

Zinzerena – Drow

Diirinka – Derro
Diinkarazan – None

The Elder Elemental God – Humans*, drow*, almost any other race
Juiblex – Aboleth*, humans*, almost any other race
The Dark God – Humans*, almost any other race

Ilsensine – Illithids
Maanzecorian – Illithids

Psilofyr – Myconids*, vegepygmies

Great Mother – Any beholder race
Gzemnid – Renegade beholders

Annam – Cloud*, storm*, stone giants*
Stronmaus – Cloud*, storm*, fog, reef giants
Hiatea – Firbolgs*, voadkyn*, almost any other giant
Grolantor – Hill giants*, ettins, ogres, half-ogres, cyclops, cyclopskin, mountain giants
Iallanis – Any true giant
Karontor – Fomorians*, verbeeg*, almost any other giant
Memnor – Cloud*, fog giants
Skoreaus Stonebones – Stone giants
Diancastra – almost any giant

Baphomet – Minotaurs*, evil giants
Kostchtchie – Frost giants
Vaprak – Ogres*, ogre magi, half-ogres, ogrillon
Yeenoghu – Gnolls*, flinds, ghasts, ghoul lords, vorrs
Gorellik – Gnolls*, flinds

Demogorgon – Ixitxachitl, Ixzan
Jazirian – None (couatl)
Koriel – Ki-rin*, lammasu, shedu, tu’en-rin
Panzuriel – Almost any evil aquatic race (kraken, koalinths, sahuagin, merrow, scrags, vodyanoi, sirines)
Eadro – Mermen*, locathah*, crabmen, shalarin, sirines
Persana – Tritons*, shalarin, sirines
Quorlinn – Kenku*, avariel, aarokocra
Sekolah – Sahuagin*, weresharks
Surminare – Selkies, star selkies
Remnis – Giant Eagles*, aarakocra, avariel
Syranita – Aarakocra*, avariel
Trishina – Sea Elves*, dolphins*, malenti, whales, orca, shalarin, sirines
Water Lion – Any good aquatic races other than malenti
Stillsong – None

Blibdoolpoolp – Kuo-toa
Laogzed – Troglodytes*, blindheims, firenewts, tren
Merrshaulk – Yuan-ti
Ramenos – Bullywugs*, blindheims, firenewts, grippli, grung
Semuanya – Lizard men*, firenewts, laerti, tren
Sess’Innek – Lizard men*, lizard kings, laerti, tren
Parrafaire – Nagas (revered only)
Shekinester – Nagas

Io – None
Aasterinian – Brass, copper, mercury dragons
Bahamut – Gold, silver, bronze, steel dragons
Chronepsis – None
Faluzure – Shadow dragons, dracoliches
Tiamat – Yellow, brown, blue, green, red dragons

Cegilune – Hags
Kanchelsis – Vampires
Mellifleur – Lich-priests, priests wishing to become liches

Squerrik – Wererats
Balador – Werebears
Ferrix – Weretigers
Daragor – Werewolves, seawolves, loup du noir, loup-garou
Eshebala – Werefoxes

Titania – Sprites, brownies, buckawns, hybsils, kercpa, other faeries
Oberon – Sprites, pixies, buckawns, kercpa, faerie-warriors
Caoimhin – None (Killmoulis)
Damh – Satyrs, korreds, atomies
Eachthighern – Unicorns, pegasi, asperii, pegataurs, hippocampi
Emmantiensien – Treants
Fionnghuala – Swanmays
Nathair Sgiathach – Faerie dragons, pseudodragons
Skerrit – Centaurs, pegataurs, chevalls, hybsils
Squelaichie – Leprechauns
Verenestra – Nymphs, dryads, hamadryads, sylphs
The Queen of Air and Darkness – Quicklings, elves, unseelie sprites, other evil faeries

I’m open to additional suggestions, too, of course.

The last grouping of gods are those who just have Shamans, and not a full-blown specialty priest class. Many of these seem somewhat arbitrary when compared to other races that have full-blown specialty priests.

Kuraulyek – I don’t see any reason to limit his priesthood to just shamans; virtually all the other goblinoid deities, including the kobold deities, offer specialty priests. I’m not sure why he is limited to just shamans; Urd don’t seem like they’d be any less likely to organize the way kobolds do.

Gorellik – Yeenoghu allows specialty priests, so it is clearly possible for gnolls to become them. I don’t see why Gorellik wouldn’t allow gnolls to become Specialty Priests.

Surminare – Selkies never struck me as “tribal” or all that primitive; I would expect them to become specialty priests more than shamans.

Laogzed – One of the less likely gods to have Specialty Priests, but I would think living so close to humanity, some troglodytes would adapt more civilized and organized mannerisms, including a dedicated priestly caste. Now, Laogzed is also a rather uncaring god, being rather bestial and living only to eat; however, there is also the case of Sekolah, who allows sahuagin to become specialty priests, and he is fairly bestial, too.

Ramenos – Advanced Bullywugs are considerably more organized than regular Bullywugs, so I’d think they would be likely to organized into specialty priests, too. Regular Bullywugs would probably be restricted to shamans. Arguments similar to Laogzed can probably be made about Ramenos, as well, however, although I’d again point to the case of Sekolah.

Semuanya – Semuanya doesn’t seem very active with his followers, but if he takes notice of Sess’Innek’s corrupted Lizard Kings and his encroachment onto his followers, he might start pushing for specialty priests. At the same time, Advanced lizard men seem very likely to organize into specialty priests, particularly those who spelljam.

Sess’Innek – Sess’Innek is trying to usurp the lizard men from Semuanya, so I’d imagine he’d really push for specialty priests, especially amongst Lizard Kings and advanced lizard men.

Squerrik – Wererats are by far the most urbanized lycanthropes, so I’d think specialty priests would be far more likely than shamans. I would really only expect to see Shamans in groups that live in the wilderness, and have no nearby urban civilizations.

Okay, now for the remaining gods with no priesthoods. This is a very mixed bag of deities, many of whom are demigods.

Skiggaret – The Bugbear god of fear oddly has no priests. Since he is a demigod, he can only activate one avatar at a time, so I would expect he would embrace the use of priests to drive bugbears into fits of destruction. Some priests would probably re-interpret the god’s fear to being the fear they inflict on other races.

Stalker – This god, who is both part of all goblinoid pantheons and none, seems less likely to have a priesthood, but even so,a s a god of death, there would probably be a number of priests who would want to channel that against enemies. In addition, having priests would ensure the “Stalker’s share” of souls after battles; goblinoids might see the priests as some sort of protection from Stalker.

Zinzerina – This Drow demigoddess apparently wanders the Forgotten Realms (and has apparently been killed by Lolth, according to Demihuman Deities). However, some DMs may want to increase her power and spread in their own campaign. I’m sure she’d eventually have a priesthood were that the case.

Diirinka – I wasn’t sure initially if he should have a priesthood, but after looking up the Derro savants, I realized they would work pretty well as a specialty priest class.  I’ll see if it is worthwhile adapting them to the specialty priest format.

Diinkarazan – Being absolutely insane, it seems unlikely that Diinkarazan would have a priesthood or grant spells. He might be revered by Derro intent on slaughtering Illithids, though.

Ilsensine – Maanzecorian has a priesthood, but he is a more concrete physical being, whereas Ilsensine is almost like divine mental energy. I’m not sure if it would be appropriate if both Illithid gods had priesthoods.

Gzemnid – Being a renegade from the Great Mother, it seems appropriate if Gzemnid is revered by Beholders who have broken away from the regular clans, such as Beholder Mages. He might even have a caste of renegade Beholder Priests.

Diancastra – This Giant goddess is really deserving of a priesthood, I think. She’d probably be a patron of a number of the lesser giant races (giant-kin), particularly firbolg and voadkyn.

Baphomet – This god, despite being a lesser god, is extremely restricted in his interactions, so I imagine the same constraints would prevent him from granting spells. It might be interesting to see what a priesthood would be like if those constraints were lifted, though.

Kostchtchie – This god of Frost Giants, and interloper on Thrym’s domain, has the ability to grant some powers, allowing for the existence of the “wyrmkin,” so a full priesthood is probably not far off.

Parrafaire & Shekinester – I am sadly not well informed on the habits and natures of the naga. I’ll have to read up on them before deciding if priesthoods fit their character. However, Shekinester would make for a *really* complex priesthood if it turns out they seem likely to have priests. However, after researching nagas, I discovered Guardian, Spirit, and Water Nagas all can cast Priest spells, so it may be appropriate to create priest classes for them.

With those earlier larger chunks of deities looked at, it’s time to move onto some of the smaller groups. This time it is the gods from the “seas and skies” grouping. Basically, these are all the gods of the non-humanoid creatures that fall into this category. I’m once again pretty iffy on creating priesthoods for these gods, since their followers tend to be much farther afield from what one normally expects to find in normal priesthoods.

Jazirian – The Couatl, while highly intelligent, don’t strike me as overly religious. I don’t think their relationship to their god would be very similar to humanoid relationships with gods, but more like a parent/child relationship (albeit, older/adult children).

Koriel – Unlike Dolphins, pegasi, and unicorns, I don’t think Ki-rin would form priesthoods, and I’m not sure Koriel would have a priesthood amongst humans/demihumans. However, I do think it likely he would be the patron of a small group of paladins, since he is a god of justice.

Remnis – Remnis takes a great interest in his giant eagles, so it is entirely possible he would grant priest spells. I’d certainly treat them similarly to Dolphins. They’re also be servants to their eyries and their god, and act as protectors of eagles, which fits his portfolio well.

Water Lion & Stillsong – These two are somewhat difficult to pin down. However, I do think that Water Lion is very suitable to having a priesthood. In particular, I think it would contain specialty priests, crusaders, and rangers of many sentient races (mostly aquatic), who are strongly opposed to sahuagin and sharks. Stillsong, on the other hand, probably has no priesthood and does not answer prayers made to him.

Okay, let’s look at some of the “gods of the dark folk” as Monster Mythology puts it. Of all of these, only Squerrik, the wererat god, has any sort of clerical class, and those are just shamans. I’ll address him in a separate post about shaman-only gods. I’m a bit iffy on which of these should have priesthoods, but I think it does make sense for some of them.

Cegilune – This is one I’m not sure of. Hags fear her, but some might still want to be priests. However, I’m not sure whether she’d care to grant spells, or if it is even appropriate for hags to become priests. I’ll need to review their entries in the Monstrous Compendium.

Kanchelsis – Vampires can be clerics, so I’d suspect some would worship him. There may be some crazy humans who do so as well, in the hopes of becoming a vampire. Priests who become vampires could also fully embrace their new status and switch from their old god to his worship, so again, seems reasonable he should have priests.

Mellifleur – Wizards who want a boost in their progress towards lichdom might choose to become dual or multiclassed specialty priests of Mellifluer. Priests who wish to become some form of priest-lich could worship him, too, or they could be mortals who wish to help wizards become liches. He could also be seen as a general god of Necromancy or undead. This would fit with Velsharoon in the Forgotten Realms, who is a separate god but holds Mellifleur’s alias there.

Balador – The god of werebears explicitly does not have priests, but he intercedes on the behalf of priests so they can continue to be priests of other gods. It may be reasonable to make werebear followers of Balador into sort of a sub-set of priests of another god, perhaps various good lunar deities, similar to Meilikki’s worshippers in the Forgotten Realms.

Ferrix – Weretigresses don’t seem much like the type to take up an active priesthood. She might have a small group of ranger-worshippers though.

Daragor – Werewolves are brutal, evil creatures, but they’re not tribal. If they have any form of priestly worship of Daragor, they’d be priests and not shamans. I’m not sure if Daragor would care enough to grant spells though.

Eshebala – the goddess of werefoxes might have a priesthood, primarily to serve her vanity. I’d imagine they’d have to frequently praise her beauty, cunning, etc. in order to stay in her good graces. She certainly seems to care about her followers, even if it is primarily to receive complements and flattery.

On to the Seelie Court and related deities. In general, I think most of these deities would have priests, and in many cases, they’d probably be druids. While Pixies and Satyrs can’t be priests according to The Complete Book of Humanoids, and Leprechauns can’t according to Polyhedron #116, Demihuman Deities specifically allows sprites, pixies, and leprechauns to be priests of Erevan Ilesere. I see little reason for these races to be able to become priests of an Elven deity, but not priests of their own.

Titania & Oberon – As I outlined earlier, I think it makes sense that faeries can be priests of these gods. Titania might have druids in addition to another type of specialty priest, but I think Oberon would just have specialty priests.

Caoimhin – Killmoulis probably never become priests, so I’m not sure if a priesthood should be created for Caoimhin. I’ll need to read their Monstrous Compendium page again, though.

Damh – Korreds especially and Satyrs to a lesser extent would fit well as druids; however, Damh doesn’t seem very druidic in nature. I’m not sure whether his priests would be druids or something else. Perhaps Satyrs and Korreds who wish to become druids would choose Titania.

Eachthighern – Dolphins can become priests, so why not unicorns and pegasi? In addition, some Pegataurs may worship Eachthighern. I don’t think his priests would be druids, though.

Emmantiensien – Is there a more perfect druidic god in the Seelie Court? He might have some Treant rangers, too, which could make for some really interesting characters.

Fionnghuala – I would probably model her upon Mielikki in the Forgotten Realms, where she doesn’t have actual priests, but instead they’re a sect of another nature deity. Mielikki may actually take her place within the Realms, since they’re pretty similar in character. I dunno that I’d actually merge them, though. Also, since swanmays can only be druids and rangers, it’s a perfect combo.

Nathair Sgiathach – As the god of Faerie Dragons and Pseudodragons, I’d model any priesthood after the other dragon gods. I’d kind of like to see faerie dragons adapted for the Council of Wyrms setting, too.

Squelaiche – As leprechauns can become priests of Erevan Ilesere, I think they should be able to become priests of their own patron. They might even be able to become priest/illusionists.

Verenestra – Another deity who would very likely have druidic priests. They’re probably be modified more than most others, to reflect Verenestra’s focus on charms and beauty, though.

Queen of Air and Darkness – One of my favorite non-human gods, and one with a LOT of potential, especially as one of the few non-drow evil gods with Elven followers. She’d probably also have a priesthood amongst the Quicklings (another favorite of mine). They may be able to multiclass as wizards or illusionists, too.