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To test the War Priest Level 1, we used 3 pregens - The Rogue, the Wizard and the Ranger and played the opening battle to Rise of the Runelords slightly modified.
War Priest Build was as follows:
War Priest of Gorum
CG
Blessings: Strength & War
Design: Melee, secondary caster, Out of Combat Face and Know Religion.
Skills: Diplomacy +7, Heal +6, Know Religion +5, Perception +7, Sense Motive +7
20 Point Buy
2 Traits: Eyes and Ears of the City (wanted to boost perception and sense motive, we ignored faith requirement), Human Paragon
Abilities:
STR 18, DEX 10, CON 12, INT 13, WIS 14, CHA 10
Feats: Weapon Focus Greatsword, Skill Focus Diplomacy, Fast Learner, Improved Initiative
(This could have probably been optimized with the selection of Toughness in place of Fast Learner, a use of Tribal Scars or some other health or AC boosting feat, to reduce first level fragility, that said, the build was designed to be ultimately useful in PFS and/or this AP and needed the skill points and the skill focus feat for the diplomacy boost)
AC 15, Touch 10, FF 15
Attempt 1: We set up an ambush with the goblins, 4 CR 1/3 goblins and 1 Goblin WarChanter.
This proved disastrous. All of the PCs failed perception check, Goblins got a surprise round off and dropped the Rogue with a lucky crit in the surprise round. The low AC of the War Priest, lead to issues as the War Chanter upped his companions BAB with Inspire Courage, leading to the War Priest going down in Round 1, before he could even take an action. With the only healer down, and essentially, their main frontliner, the party withdrew.
Thoughts: An optimized Level 1 Fighter or Barbarian could have just as easily failed this encounter with a hot roll from the GM and some poor perceptions and initiatives. That said, the lack of Hit Points was a serious concern for a semi-frontliner class, and the fact that 3 Goblin Attacks, were not only successful (the goblins could hit on 10s) but also able to drop the War Priest in 1 round, before he could even act, was disconcerting.
Attempt 2: We regrouped and reran the scenario of the ambush. This time the party made their perception checks and was able to avoid the ambush.
In this encounter the War Priest showed flashes of brilliance, while also demonstrating some dangerous flaws for a Semi-Frontliner. The build of this War Priest allowed him to act relatively quickly, due to a higher initiative than most frontliners (Improved Initiative) this was important, as the Player used the Blessing of War to up his own AC by 1 and begin to close on his quarry (we played under the assumption that a War Priest counts as his own ally, this may or may not be correct) The boost in AC allowed the War Priest to survive the second volley from the Goblins, before the War Chanter could start his inspire courage, taking only about 3 damage total (dropping him to 8hp in round 1).
The Wizard was able to severely injure one of the Goblin Archers in round 1 using the hand of the apprentice to nearly drop it. The rogue closed on the wounded Goblin and finished it off before Round 1 was over while the Ranger took potshots and closed so he could switch to his battle axe.
Round 2 opened with a pair of arrows plunking our War Priest (AC now at 16 thanks to Blessing), lowering his HP to 4 (thanks to some low Damage rolls) The War Priest sensing the danger the Inspiring War Chanter was causing, switched his Blessing Bonus as a free action to +1 AB and charged through the Goblin Archers (poor planning by the GM to leave a charge lane, but hey they're Goblins). During his charge, he used a swift action to activate his Strength Blessing, upping his charging BAB to +8, he connected and dealt 2d6+7 damage which rolled as 13 nearly dropping the Warchanter in one hit.
Sensing blood in the water the rouge also moved through the goblin Archers with impunity and finished off the Goblin Warchanter before it could act in the second round (a good thing as it would have had a +7 to its attack, with a 5 foot step and most likely would have dropped the War Priest with AC of just 14 (due to charge)
With the War Chanter down, the ranger and Wizard moved in and helped clean up the rest of the mess. The War Priest needed to burn his prepared Divine Favor to cast Cure Light on himself, but the rest of the party was relatively unscathed.
Thoughts: Designed as a Melee damage dealer, the War Priest suffers from Glass Cannon Syndrome at level 1, I don't see this as a huge problem if the War Priest can survive to levels where it can afford Heavy Armor or uses its Sacred Armor class ability, but until then, there's going to be a lot of worrying at levels 1-3 due to a lack of AC and HP if the War Priest wants to be anything other than a beat stick (I.E. have social skills or skill ranks in anything other than Know Religion and Heal).
Gorum and Iomedae, seem to be ideal for the War Priests Melee focus, due to their weapon choices and Blessings (Strength and War for Gorum, War and Glory for Iomedae, but again, this counts on the War Priest counting as his or her own Ally)
Two encounters does not a full play test make, and we will be attempting a run through of the same encounter with the War Priest as a Support/Buffer (complete with blessing and ability skill change), though right now, I must recommend anyone wanting to play as a War Priest spend one of their first level feats on Toughness or Tribal Scars.