The priest is essentially a Cleric who gives up virtually all martial ability for enhanced spells and spell-like ability.
Alignment: must match deity
BAB: 1/2
HitDie: d6
Saves: as cleric
class skills: 4/level, same class skills as cleric, must spend 1 skill point each level in Knowledge (religion).
proficiencies: Quarterstaff, Club, Sling, Deity's favored weapon. no armor, no shield.
FAITH ARMOR: As a priest disdains armor, instead she receives a faith armor class = to 1/2 her class level + her wisdom modifier. She does not gain a dex bonus to armor class, as her faith literally is her armor, and she trusts her god to turn the blades of her foes. She is likewise not permitted to benefit from any feats such as dodge that raise AC by avoiding contact. The faith armor bonus is equally effective against touch attacks and when she is flat-footed. The priest is also prohibited from wearing any magical item that increases armor class unless the item is created by an ordained of her god (including herself). Divine spells that give armor bonuses, like magic vestment, if used, can replace the faith armor class, but do not stack with it. The wisdom modifier is still added to this bonus. Similar arcane spells (such as mage armor) have no effect on a priest. Deflection bonuses from spells of both types are allowed.
PRIEST CHANNEL ENERGY: A priest may channel energy as a cleric, a number of times per day equal to 3 + her wisdom modifier. A priest's channel, however, is more powerful. The priest's channel to cause damage affects ALL creatures with opposed alignment - a good priest's channel harms all evil creatures in the area. Undead receive no saving throw against this power from good priests; evil priests gain command undead as a bonus feat at first level. Further channeling feats which would normally expand the type of creature affected by channel (such as alignment and elemental channel) instead expand the types of targets who do not receive a saving throw. An Evil priest heals evil creatures and harms good creatures. A neutral priest heals neutral (TN, CN, LN, not NE and NG) and harms non-neutral creatures (CG, CE, LG, LE). Against creatures of alignments not listed as opposed, if they are hostile to the priest, her companions, or the church and its flock (subject to dm's discretion) the offensive channeled energy of a good priest dazes, a neutral priest nauseates, and an evil priest frightens the affected individuals for a # of rounds equal to the damage die of the channeled energy. Good and neutral deities frown upon using this ability offensivly, such as dazing someone with the intention of the party members taking potshots at them; at the gm's discretion this could have serious consequences. Evil priests' deities share no such compunction, but any attack by one of the priest's allies ends the effect.
SPELLS and DOMAINS: The priest casts spells and has domain powers as a similarly leveled cleric, except as follows: The domain spell slot does not need to be prepared but instead can be spontaneously used to cast either of the priest's appropriately leveled domain spells as needed. A priest still needs to pray for an hour to prepare non-domain spells. Rather than spontaneously casting cure or inflict spells, a priest may expend a spell slot to invoke an extra channel energy, with the spell's level serving as the damage die for that particular channel.
At 10th level the priest gains DR6/- and SR6/- against any opponent that is diametrically opposed to the priest's alignment on both axes (so a LG priest would gain the ability against a CE enemy only.) A Neutral priest instead gains DR3/- and SR3/- against all enemies without an element of neutrality in their alignment (so LE, CE, LG, CG). At 15th level these resistances double.
At 20th level the priest becomes the true conduit of their god's power. They may use their first level domain powers at will. If killed while serving their god's interests, they have a 50% chance of being affected by an immediate reincarnate spell from their deity.
The faith armor creates new rules. It acts like deflection in one sense but for stacking it act like regular armor, and I have not even gotten into the math yet. I would would just have it act like a specific bonus such as a profane for evil priest or sacred for good priest.
You might have to do some math to to see if the armor bonus matches up to what you type of AC you want it to have.
DR 12 is really powerful, just a warning.
What if the player does not want to be reincarnated? By the time the party reaches 20th level bring people back to life is pretty easy, and so is removing levels.
You basically have a cleric that can't fight even if it wants to.
As far as using spell slot for channel energy and the changing HD idea how do you roll a D7?
It seems this is a channel focused class but changing HD should not be done, and many high level monsters have saves so high they will almost always make the save and never be subject to daze or any other affect you tack on to it. There is also the issue of a deity taking your powers if you use them. If not using it offensively then when else would a daze be used?
As a player what I see is a power that is not reliable at higher levels, and if I do use it the deity punishes me. It is not looking attractive.
DR 12 is really powerful, just a warning.
True, but as a 15th level ability against one single alignment for a class that otherwise has not great ability to avoid damage I don't think overpowered.
What if the player does not want to be reincarnated? By the time the party reaches 20th level bring people back to life is pretty easy, and so is removing levels.
Too bad. You're putting your faith in your god completely. By the time you're 20th level it's also tough to die, so I was really doing this one more as a unique flavor option.
As far as using spell slot for channel energy and the changing HD idea how do you roll a D7?
I didn't make it clear - sacrificing a 7th level spell would give a channel at 7d6. Too late to edit.
It seems this is a channel focused class but changing HD should not be done, and many high level monsters have saves so high they will almost always make the save and never be subject to daze or any other affect you tack on to it. There is also the issue of a deity taking your powers if you use them. If not using it offensively then when else would a daze be used?
The idea here is that those daze effects replace damage if you're channeling against hostile stuff that isn't opposed to your alignment. To use an example, a good party with a priest is attacked by a couple plain old bears. Your god's not going to give you the power to obliterate them, maybe you just stumbled into their cave and pissed them off. The idea here is to use the power to not have to kill them. Perhaps you escape, perhaps you negotiate (maybe not with the bears), The gm's discretion line is also an important one. The intention of the enemy is what matters here - if they're trying to kill you for sport, your deity is unlikely to be pissed if you're fighting back. If it's some sort of misunderstanding, your good god probably doesn't want you slaughtering helpless neutral town guards while dazed from channel. The god itself matters too; Gorum's not one for turning the other cheek.
As to the saves; I tried to partly address that by making it a wisdom based save rather than charisma; of course I forgot to include that in the write-up, so that would have helped. I also toyed with the idea of making it 10+class level+wis modifier; think that's too beefy? It IS basically the whole of the class's offense. Also notice that undeads get no save with the ability to get no save from other subtypes through feats. I would probably extend additional feat options to let the priest specialize this more and be able to choose some more subtypes who wouldn't get a save.
You basically have a cleric that can't fight even if it wants to.
Yep. Basically what I worked from was "what would I give a cleric who would fight like a mage instead."