Introduction (CPrH)

The Complete Priest's Handbook
==Introduction==
Since the creation of the ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® game system, the cleric has been one of the most popular character classes. He has been a happy bridge between warriors and mages: Capable of armoring up and wielding heavy weapons, capable of casting useful magics, he was a very versatile adventurer and the favorite choice of countless players.
With the release of the AD&D® 2nd Edition game, none of that has changed. The cleric is the same magic-hurling, mace-wielding hero that he always was. And in The Complete Priest's Handbook , we're going to see to it that he's even more than that.
In this supplement, we're going to elaborate on what the priest (including the cleric) is to the campaign, to the setting's civilization, and to the adventuring party.
We'll be providing guidelines for the DM to work up the cleric's faith: The god or philosophy he serves, the rules and mores he follows, the duties he practices, the restrictions he suffers, the powers he possesses, and the relations he and the others of his faith have with the followers of other faiths.
We'll show you how to work up priests devoted to specific mythoi. The druid, from the AD&D® 2nd Edition Player's Handbook, is one example; this supplement describes many, many more, and provides rules for the DM to create new priesthoods of his own design.
We'll talk about priestly orders. Some priesthoods have soldierly orders, scholarly orders, missionary orders, oracular orders, and many other types. If your priest character belongs to a faith with several orders, he may choose one of them, which will give him special abilities and duties beyond those of ordinary priests.
We'll talk about role-playing the priest character. Certainly, priest characters don't have to have the same sort of identical personality (the kindly father-confessor with the bloody mace in his hand) which many players imagine them all to have.
We'll describe whole campaigns devoted to priests: How to run them, how to give them a purpose, how to determine what goals and interests are most appropriate.
And we'll talk about the sort of equipment that priests use in their devotions and adventures, including weapons, armor, holy symbols, priestly vestments, and other items.
The Complete Priest's Handbook is equally useful if you're a Dungeon Master or a player. It will add depth to the campaign world and the range of NPCs for Dungeon Masters, and add detail to the abilities, backgrounds, and responsibilities of player-character priests.
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In the text, for reasons of simplicity, we normally use masculine nouns and pronouns inclusively. When we say "god," "priest," or "man," we're normally also implying "goddess," "priestess," and "woman."
In order to be able to use this supplement, you must use the Weapon and Nonweapon Proficiencies rules from the AD&D® 2nd Edition game. If you're not yet familiar with them, you ought to read them before continuing in this rulebook.
A special note for those of you who are using this Complete Priest's Handbook with your original AD&D® game instead of the new edition: This supplement mentions a lot of page numbers from the Player's Handbook and the DMG. The page numbers cited are for the newest edition, not the original; they won't be correct for those of you using the old books.