I am making a campaign world where the dominate magical organization is Psionic. There is a strong central church modeled after the Catholic church.
What I am trying to make is the Psionic group has an active public image and operates clinics all over the empire that service the common man with psionically enhanced doctors.
what I'm trying to do now is make the fluffy explanation as to why it is this way without making the church seem like greedy bastards who are withholding healing from the masses.
so far I have that since clerics spontaneously cast their domain spells and not cure/inflict spells and only one patron saint has the healing domain it makes an immediate reduction.
I have been toying with the idea that magical healing converts to non lethal damage instead of "poof its all better" but that applies equally to psionics and magic.
any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
I think, you've got it explained pretty well with the fluff. The church may not mean for it to be a member's only club in regards to healing magic, but since everyone just thinks "Go to the psionic healer" when they're hurt, that's where they go. Non-members of the church assume they can;t go there for healing or they don't bother since they can get it done without getting preached at or pressured into performing something for the "religious fanatics". The healing can be just as good, but masses just figure there's less hassle if they get psionic healing instead.
Just like where I live. Anybody needs something for the house, we go to Home Depot. There's a Lowe's across the street, literally. But, everyone just thinks "Home Depot". Those who think about going to the church might think (incorrectly) that you have to become a member before getting healed or you have to perform a service... or attend services, but for the psionic healer, just give them money and you're done. Problem solved.
If you want to change the game mechanics, something I did at one point for a low magic / low religion area, wizards had access to healing magic, but it caused non-lethal damage to the caster for healing someone else. That was taken from an old Dragon Magazine in 1E. You could do something like that or maybe the divine healing doesn't heal it all at once. Maybe it heals 1hp / hour until the total is reached.
Cure wounds spells are about the last type of healing the general population cares about. Remove disease to slow an epidemic or even catch it before it starts, cure blindness, remove curse, break enchantment or dispel magic to clear up the nasty aftereffects of some monsters, even stabilize to save dying soldiers on the battlefield - these are the types of healing that non-adventurers will remember. For that matter even for healing HP Pathfinder has channeling.
Perhaps the churches have customs like insisting that those who have diseases or curses removed by them must stay on hallowed ground for a week, something which originated with a particularly infectious magical disease a century or so back. The psions have no such custom and people find that much, much more convenient, especially since the priesthood will try to convert their captive audience. Other such customs are possible.
If people are literally called by gods to become clerics but anyone can learn psionics with enough study then the psionic group will be more open to outsiders.
I like the idea of having to stay in the church and undergo continuous preaching in return for the cure or healing. Farmers will actually care a LOT about healing wounds. They'll heal one, maybe two hp's / night. When you have 3 -6 hp's, that makes a difference. Especially if someone falls in front of a plow is is stabilized at -2 hp's. Or stone block falls on a laborer's leg. I agree that disease is a biggie, though. That's probably the most important one since that spreads and kills multiple people.
I like the idea of having strings attached to clerical healing especially the idea of making those seeking healing stay on grounds. Like having to go through ritual cleansing and purification rituals to be rid of diseases and curses.
The psionic doctors act as a fee service without the heavy dose of religion that comes with it. They can still do most of what the clerics can do, especially with expanded content that Dreamscarred Press added, and do it as a secular public service for minimal cost.
Also, isn't the best healer, if you count 3pp stuff, the psionic healing class? Vitalist? Maybe the psionic doctors are just better than the divine doctors. Also, maybe some divine doctors are cool, but some are really strict and preachy and holier-than-thou and dogmatic and off putting.
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Doubling down on preachiness and intolerance seems to be barking up the wrong tree, since if you have a Catholic Church situation going on, basically everyone is at least nominally a member and if it's strong then most people aren't just paying lip service to it.
The catholic church was strong in Europe when they launched the baltic crusade. You can have a strong central church and still have loads of pagans running about and even some heretical movements like the cathars who existed in southern france for centuries.
The church can be hot garbage but still be strong on account of a few high ranking nobles being tied to it and also being effectively a massive military force able to call down the wrath of god. an abbey filled with clerics can slaughter a town if they aren't terrible.
You could even use the serfs from czarist russia and have the church just own some people and effectively be a massive international player able to depose monarchs even while not having the majority worship them.
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Sounds like your patron saint idea, and spontaneous domain spells might be a winner.
Remember a lot of the Catholic Church's power came from secular sources, by being patronised by the wealthy noble classes (and in turn the church legitimising their power) the Church also gained power. So while the church in town has a simple Expert with ranks in Kn. (Religion), Diplomacy, and Perform (Oratory), the castle has a cleric capable of administering miracles. This individual is higher up in the clergy, occasionally she might come down and perform free miracles and healings for the common folk (if Good), or perform such magics in return for a brief increase in tithes (if Neutral). But ostensibly they are on call for the nobility.
So while middle classes can head over to the Psionic Doctor, any time they get the sniffles or a scraped knee. The lower classes are reliant on the rare visit from the cleric.
Simply making "The Calling" of the Cleric more rare than in the assumed setting, you increase the need for secular doctors. There are not many who truly embody the virtues (or vices) of the gods, or hold faith enough in their hearts to reliably call miracles.
While Psionics, a discipline of combined meditation, inner focus and study is easier to attain than the favor of a god. Not EASY, mind you it still takes years of study to master such powers, but anyone who puts their mind to it (pun intended), can achieve such power. While being chosen by a god, isn't exactly a sure career path.
Ahem.
I think it is populist revisionist history to say that the power of the catholic church was top down.
Sure. There are a lot of nobles and kings that swayed entire countries. But it doesn't change the fact the power of the church was in the message of Christ.
Christians weren't the nobles in Rome. They weren't the nobles in Jerusalem. They weren't the nobles in Greece, or Turkey, or Egypt.
And yet Christians became the dominant force in all those places for a time.
Anyway. Returning to the topic at hand:
The church believes in the power of gifts - not all have the power of healing; not all have the power of tongues etc.
You can make a very satisfying explanation - by saying that psionics is like factory healing - always available, reliable.
But clerical healing - perhaps one abbot can heal blindness. Another has the power to cure dementia. Still a third the ability to cast out demons.
The clerics can still do amazing healing by power of faith - but since it is inconvenient to get to the appropriate cleric people will more rely on psionic healing.
Also. This would give rise to processions of clerics going through out the lands healing people. And of course people would get excited and want to see. Lots of good plot hooks.