Experience Levels and Hierarchy

Below is the usual arrangement of priesthoods in a campaign. First is the organizational structure which NPC priests usually follow; then, we'll talk about player-characters and their place in the structure.

Level Zero (Normal Men and Women)

A "level-zero" priest is someone who has just been accepted into a priestly order and is receiving his initial training. Player-characters do not have to start out at zero-level; the only zero-level priests that the PCs will ever encounter will be NPCs undergoing training.

Level One-Level Two

First-level priests are typically assigned as aids, clerks, and assistants to higher-level priests, and keep that assignment through second experience level. During this time, the low-level priests will be getting practical field experience in the execution of their duties, in the way the priesthood works with the population, and in the way the priesthood's organization works in the real world.

Most first-level priests are assigned to priests of third to fifth level, but some few (especially very capable ones) will be assigned to much more powerful priests.

Level Three-Level Five

At third level, the priest will be assigned to a single community (a village, a small town, a broad tract of land containing many scattered farms, or a single small neighborhood in a large city).

If he asks for one, and the faith's leaders (i.e., the DM) agree that he needs one, he will be assigned a first-level priest as an assistant. This priest isn't a follower in the same fashion as the followers he receives at a higher level, and might wish to be re-posted elsewhere if his superior is unlikable or difficult. (However, if this assignee is still with the priest when that priest reaches eighth or ninth level, the DM might decide for him to become one of the priest's official followers.) If he doesn't ask for a subordinate priest, he won't receive one.

The priest is assigned a small building to serve him as a temple or church. (This is not the same as a stronghold.) The priest is supposed to finance repairs to the building, food and supplies for himself and any assistants, and salaries for any servants he chooses to hire through tithes and donations. Half of all tithes and donations are sent on to the superiors, and the rest go to the priest's own temple for these purposes. If the priest doesn't receive enough tithes and donations, the faith will probably not help him; his mission is to inspire his flock, and inadequate tithes and donations are merely evidence that he needs to work harder at it.

Level Six-Level Seven

At around sixth level, if the priest has done a good job of maintaining his church and seeing to the needs of his flock, he may be given a more important assignment. He could become the chief priest of a large town (one with more than one church; the third-level priests operating those churches would report to him), or the central church authority over several villages.

He may keep any subordinate he has had previously. He will automatically be assigned two additional first-level priests as subordinates. Again, they do not precisely constitute "followers," though those specific characters could become followers when the priest reaches the appropriate level.

If the priest's work does not merit a better posting, he won't lose his experience levels or his subordinate, but he'll be stuck in the little church that he has been operating all this time. When a priest reaches sixth or seventh level and is still the priest of a one-horse town, it's often a sign that he is not held in high regard by his superiors. It may merely be a sign that there are too many priests in the priesthood and advancement is slow.

Naturally, a higher-level priest can ask to be posted to or remain posted to such a small community. Some people will snicker at his lack of ambition while others will admire his dedication and his care for the common man.

Level Eight-Level Nine

At around eighth or ninth level, again assuming that the priest has done well in his priestly career so far, he will be allowed to build a stronghold. The faith will finance half its cost, and it remains the property of the faith when the priest retires his post.

However, the stronghold is semi-autonomous; the priest's superiors seldom interfere in its operations. They might interfere, especially by sending another priest to investigate, if they receive rumors of incompetence, greed, or trouble from the stronghold. Otherwise, the priest is free to operate it much as he pleases.

The priest's assigned area may remain the same. He might continue to be chief priest over a large town or collection of villages. At his request and with his superiors' permission, or solely at his superiors' wish, he may instead build his stronghold in some other place: In a frontier where he is supposed to defend the peace, in a wilderness area where he and his subordinates are supposed to work undisturbed by the secular world, etc.

At this same time, the priest will receive his followers, as we have discussed earlier this chapter. The followers manage the stronghold and its duties under the priest's administration. As discussed earlier, the levels, classes and goals of these followers will depend on the attributes of the faith and on the specific goals of the priest for his stronghold. If it's to be a military post manned by holy warriors, the followers will mostly be capable fighters; if it's to be an educational monastery, most of the followers will be Normal Men and Women or first-level priests with appropriate scholastic talents.

During this time, the priest's progress and efficiency will be carefully measured by his superiors, who are considering what role the priest will play in the higher-level politics of the faith.

Level Ten-Level Twelve

Sometime between tenth and twelfth levels, the priest may find himself promoted to prominence over a much larger area; he will be administering a bigger chunk of the religious "map." Priests of numerous cities and regions in his vicinity (at least a fifty-mile radius) will be reporting to him, and of course he will still be reporting to his superiors. By twelfth level, he may be the high priest over an entire nation (assuming that the faith spans several nations, as many faiths do).

He does not, however, receive any more followers.

Level Thirteen-Level Fifteen

The most powerful of a faith's leaders belong to these experience levels: The high priest of the faith and his immediate advisors. If the DM wishes, politics or the god's preference alone may decide who the high priest is, and the high priest might then not have to be the highest-level priest of the faith. The faith's high priest might be chosen by vote or omen, and could be a thirteenth-level priest while all his immediate advisors are of higher level.

Level Sixteen-Level Twenty

These experience levels don't have any effect on the priest's ranking within his faith. They are reflections of additional knowledge that he has learned . . . but don't grant any additional benefits within the structure of the faith.

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