Mm, the monk class does cramp the conceptual space for western monks/nuns in D&D...

In AD&D 2nd Edition. The Priest occupied the spot where Clerics did.

And if you look at The Complete Priest's Handbook. You can see how absolutely diverse the concept can be expressed.

Granted. That the whole Priest niche was based on the Cleric. Which in itself, was based on the concept of warrior priests. But it could cover a lot of ground.

Quote from: Simlasa;953848Meh... I've seen a fair bit of scholarly argument that it WAS a term used at the time, such as a famous prostitute being referred to as 'The Nun'.

Ironically, I think you'll discover that the concept of "irony" is actually quite old.

Quote from: Darrin Kelley;953905In AD&D 2nd Edition. The Priest occupied the spot where Clerics did.

And if you look at The Complete Priest's Handbook. You can see how absolutely diverse the concept can be expressed.

Granted. That the whole Priest niche was based on the Cleric. Which in itself, was based on the concept of warrior priests. But it could cover a lot of ground.

Yeah I liked the Complete Priest, from what I can remember. May pick it up secondhand sometime to a reread. There's also Bastion of Faith out there for 3e I think?

Bastion of Faith was apparently actually 2e, although with a 2000 publishing date, it must have been one of the last books of the line.

Complete Priest Handbook was one of the good 'red/brown book' splats. It actually nerfed the cleric role in comparison to the PHB version (which was an odd choice, given that clerics were not specifically overpowered compared to wizards or fighters in 2e, at least not compared to the CoDzillas of 3e). It certainly was from a time when player choice balance was less of a concern-- you could take priests of, like, gods of marriage, getting d4 hd, nearly no weapons, a slightly increased spell selection compared to other sects, and maybe a bonus like calm emotions 3/day or something. Later splats, like Warriors and Priests of the Realms would go in the other direction, with clerics of Meilikki getting fighter +3/4 Con bonus to hd at 17-18 and 18/xx Str for no particular reason.

There's nunneries in Dark Albion.

Quote from: RPGPundit;954813There's nunneries in Dark Albion.

Are they just like the historic versions, or is there a twist?

Quote from: Shipyard Locked;954827Are they just like the historic versions, or is there a twist?

There's not enormous details about them. They're pretty much like the historic versions: prone to corruption, prostitution (that's why in Shakespeare's time it was associated with that, though by that time remember the nunneries were gone thanks to the Reformation), and (in Albion) Chaos Cults.