"Loring" You Into Priesthood

Yesterday we took a glance at Paladins and their roles in the world of Sfera, but today we're going to talk more about the lore, the changes being made with it, and we're going to talk about Priests and their role in Sphere Of Sfera. First we will go over some of the changes being made to the lore. Many changes have been made, which not only forced us to change some of the backstories behind certain races, but to remold some entirely. We've even had to "nerf" a couple of them.

Critter-jin were nerfed amongst all others. Their vast numbers, superior strength, and ability to morph into whatever they wished did not seem very well balanced so they received a good remolding all together, but we'll get to that another day.

If anyone recalls the origins behind all of creation in the Sphere Of Sfera universe, you would recall the fact that most races started out as an ancient race that eventually evolved into what they are now. These origins just didn't sit right with me and seemed a little unoriginal. All of this has been reworked, and has been made into something a little more believable. The after life and heavens of SoS' lore has also been expanded exponentially; there are many more Gods and Goddesses, and there are even high ranking Arch Angels that play a huge role in the storyline. Well - enough about lore for now, we'll get to that another day. Let's get to our class of the day; Priests!

Priests have existed for thousands of years, and with the discovery of magic their powers have exceeded by ten fold. Unlike their Paladin brothers and sisters, Priests are a lot more fragile and don't favor in wearing heavy armor. They prefer to sport their silky comfortable robes and kimonos. They don't have much use for all that heavy armor! They're not warriors! Priests don't have all those bulky menacing muscles, at least not in that department. Where a Priest lacks in muscles, they make up for in their vast arsenal of healing spells, and their abilities to summon holy spirits to aid them in battle.

Weapon wise Priests tend to wield prayer beads, staves and books as their weapons. Why books you ask? Or why even prayer beads? What could they possibly accomplish with these 'feeble' weapons? Are they going to choke them out with these beads? Or are they going to bore their enemies to sleep by reading a really long story out of their books? No. Neither. Prayer beads are powerful artifacts that allow a Priest to summon aid from the heavens themselves. This means that if a Priest were in dire need they could summon an Arch Angel to aid and protect them in combat! Books are important because each specific book enhances a Priest or Priestess' spells by a modest amount. Different books have different effects.

Priests are the "middle" class of the path of light, and they're called that for good reason. A unique aspect of Sphere Of Sfera is the ability to have multi-class characters, but you are limited to learning the skills and spells from the classes of your path. In other words a Priest could learn Tier 1 and Tier 2 Paladin and Shamans skills and spells, but she could not learn any Ninja or Mage skills and spells. Priests are unique in the path of light because you can make up for their lack of offensive and protective abilities by learning Paladin spells, and or boost their summoning and spiritual skills by learning Shaman spells.

A Priests role in battle is to ensure that all of her team mates live. To simplify: Heal, Heal, Heal! This doesn't mean a Priest can't bludgeon someone or cause a black eye or two (let's face it, every Priest wants to summon an Arch Angel to help them fight), but their main purpose in a fight is to heal. If things look dire and the battle is obviously lost a Priest can sacrifice his or herself to ressurect his or her allies, which in turns allow them to take the form of an Arch Angel for a VERY temporary amount of time thus increasing their healing abilities by 100%.

Priests and Paladins make a deadly combination in battle due to the fact that while the Paladin is minimizing damage between he and the Priest, the Priest is keeping the two alive through consistantly healing. If the Priest falls she can aid her Paladin companion for a brief period of time before her Arch Angel form wears. A Paladin already has moderant self healing over time spells already, and with an Arch Angel backing him he will not go down so easily.

That about covers some of the basics behind Priests. Tomorrow we will be covering Shamans and their role in the Sphere Of Sfera universe.