Stat blocks cheat. They are there to help tell, and fit the story. The Divine variation does not mean that the NPC is an accepted "Priest". It just gives particular mechanical benefits to an NPC for combat purposes. Although (generally) spell selection follows the normal trend that PCs must follow, it is not absolute law. A prime example is the priests of the Ssethregoran "Death God" in the BI....I pulled spells from Necromancy (Primal) and Nerothian Divine sources to give to them.

I wrote the statblocks, so I'll give you my rationale on their construction:

The Druids were designed to be Divine casters of Saluwe' with a few Animism spells thrown in as Deity Tradition spells. It has been reported many times in fiction and in posts here on the boards that the spells as taught that PC's can learn are not the extent of all the spells known to exist. These Druids have access to the knowledge of cants which are functionally identical to the Animism spell "Path of the Wolf" which the Mother Church and its splinter factions do not have.

Additionally, just because they are Divine, doesn't mean they're priests. I can probably name a dozen player builds with the Divine archetype, but Backgrounds like Nobleborn, Squire, etc. The Divine archetype represents that they have received divine education, having the cants drilled into their heads. What it doesn't mean is that they are consecrated priests of that religion.

With Henry's post, my assumptions based on the released information may have been in error, but it doesn't mean the stats are necessarily wrong. We have plenty of examples of 'heretical' factions of the Pantheon who are still divine. These Druids are devout in their faith to Saluwe', but not to the Saluweans of Panari or to the Mother Church in Coryan (or the Milandric Orthodox in Naeraanth and Sylvania).

1) No. Henry says they aren't approved. And I know of no groups of primal casters that are accepted by the Mother Church. If after review things change so that they are officially non-heretical I am all but positive that they will be some flavor of divine.
2) Yes. There are spellcasting Templars and Holy Champions who serve Saluwe. Plenty of them are males.
3) Maybe. There definitely aren't any rules out yet. While we're on the issue of gender and the Priesthood I'll also note that the general rule is that you can't become a Priest of Illiir if you are a woman. That's true for all PCs. There is a minor NPC exception for a small group of Illiir its nuns...and two very prominent and powerful NPCs.

Locally, in the last campaign, we had a female cleric/legionnaire of Illiir. Her first game was the total destruction of her legion. The rest of us didn't know it was coming, either.
It was known when created, the character would be part of the 'nun' sect for it to work.

No, Henry said that male priests of Saluwe aren't approved. My take away from what was posted is that Druids are approved and accepted as part of the church, they just shouldn't be male priests of Saluwe. He recommended primal builds. So my questions is whether that is a church sanctioned version of primal.



Not sure about that. Henry intimated that there might be a different mechanic for male Saluwean's. since there is little mechanical difference between a priest and other divine casters (Templar, divine archetype, etc) it seems that might apply to other divine casters of Saluwe as well. After all, if it was that simple we could just classify all male druids as Templars and call it a day, rather than have to rebrand them as primals.

I do not agree with your interpretation, but remember this: Primal casters are people who have effectively 'sold their souls' (or made some other arcane deal or worship) to powerful creatures such as nature spirits and elder elementals. This means--by my interpretation--that the Primal caster really cannot both honour their patron being and Saluwe' properly to be considered a divine casters/priest. Because the Primal caster honours their patron first, they would effectively be guilty of worshiping non-deity powers, which would mark them as heretics. While the druids themselves may be officially accepted as a worship of Saluwe', if those druids used recognizably primal spells, their protection would probably evaporate as they provably are honouring a power which is not Saluwe'.

This is, of course, a distinction up to Henry.

What interpretation? That druids are allowed in the church as part of the cannon material you quoted and wrote into a module, or that Hnery recommended that a druid might best be written up as a primal caster? Beyond that I'm not applying any interpretation, I'm asking after the implication of those two statements.

I've always wondered if the deals a primal caster makes costs them their souls. Whether it really means a primal sells it all for power, or whether it is possible to make a reasonable deal. I know the church says the deals are evil and will cost them, but we know the church isn't always right. - but its not always wrong either...

Hello,

Alright - I think my error was trying to answer Toodeeps question in both a storyline and mechanics manner and obviously convoluted the two.

As I understand it, Toodeep wanted to play a Male Priest of Saluwe'.

Frankly, if it were my personal table, I would not allow such a character. The rules are not in place for it. I had to create the whole "Druid" story to placate the D&D-isms of D20 and would rather not have them perpetuated into ARG.

So the notes below should not be taken as rules for the OP campaign (Legends of Arcanis) and more for a private home game.

1. There are no male priests of Saluwe' only priestesses.

2. There is a sect of male adherents to Saluwe' which are called Druids. They are not priests but fill the role equivalent to the female nuns of Illiir.

3. There was (is?) a cult called the Black Druids of Janyal that fought an internecine war with the Saluwean priestesses during the Shadowed Age, which eventually ended with a compromise where the male "druids" would serve a different role than the priestesses of Saluwe', more as guardians of the forests, etc.

4. These druids "commune" with the trees and animals sacred to Saluwe' but are NOT taught Cants as normal priests do.

5. I equated them to a Primal Tradition as a stop gap until and if a rule set for Druids is created.

6. Does the Mother Church recognize/accept the druids? Only as a subservient branch of the Saluwean Church and more akin to caretakers of sacred sites.

7. Does the MC approve of the Primal Tradition of casting? No. The casting of spells, etc is a carryover from the Druids of Janyal period and is not condoned.

8. Druidic practioners of the Primal Tradition caught performing such magics would be turned over to the Inquisition for purification.

9. There is an underground group that still practices the rites of the Black Druids (those that follow the teachings of the original Black Druids of Janyal) but they ARE NOT available as a player group/Path.

10. If anyone wishes to play a male Druid of Saluwe', he'll have to hide his practice of the Primal Tradition much like a Sorcerer does from the less sophisticated members of society.

Does that make it clearer?

Perfectly clear to me!

Sorry to continue to ask, but only one remaining question. (honest!) Is the use of priest here indicative of any divine caster, or just anointed priest? i.e. can there be male Templars of Saluwe with access to her spells? I think from what is being said here the answer is yes, but just wanted to confirm, because mechanistically there doesn't seem to be much difference between a priest and a Templar.

And I assume that the answer would probably apply to the mirror image of female Templars (or other divine caster versions other than priests) of Illiir being allowed.