Part of the inspiration for this document was the Faiths & Avatars book for the Forgotten Realms setting by TSR (though the original text actually pre-dated the Faiths & Avatars.) The extreme level of detail paid to each order and distinctiveness provided to each specialty priest class made it an immensely popular book, even outside of the FR following. However, some of the priesthoods detailed therein are extremely powerful characters, having more sphere accesses and abilities than any priest build by the Player's Option rules could hope to muster.

    The authors seem to excuse this by using a modification of the Druid experience table (basically, the same as the Druid table, except that instead of "starting over" at 15th level for no apparanet reason, you just have to gain 500,000 xp per level for every level after 15th.) I used to use this very technique for the more powerful specialty priests that I had in my world in the pre- Player's Option days, but quickly discovered a major flaw in using the druid experience table for "compensation" for additional abilities. At at low and high levels, the druid / specialty priest advancement table is more severe than the cleric table.  However, at mid-levels (where most AD&D campaign play seems to occur, between levels 5 and 13) the druid table is actually less severe than the cleric table, meaning that specialty priests not only get more abilities than clerics, they advance faster of a great range of XP totals that are used for PCs in AD&D.

    I like the idea of specialty priests (most priests in my campaign are specialty priests, except for shamans, monks, and PS pantheon priests) but I'm a big Player's Option fan, and there's NO WAY you can make a specialty preist that even compares with F&A specialty priests (or even some of the Legends & Lore or mosnter mythology priests) using Player's Option.

    Spells & Magic is even more conservative than Skills & Powers on this score; most of the abilities are more expensive than in Skills & Powers. One can understand why; the Skills & Powers system lent itself to a little haphazard application, like psuedo fighter-wizards that masqueraded as priests.

    While that addressed the problem, it seemed a little severe to me. A summary of the rules modifications I've incorporated into the Priests and Powers is as follows:

1) All priests must spend at least half of their points (usually, 60) on spheres.
2) I wrote up all major religons on my prime world (quite a task), including "Major," "Minor," and "Optional" spheres. The player is required to take all listed spheres within one level of the listed level, i.e., "Major" spheres may be taken as major or minor, "Minor" spheres may be taken as major spheres or not taken. Optional spheres may be taken as minor spheres or not at all.
3) The priesthood listing also has a listing of required and optional abilities and restrictions. All abilities (and restrictions) must be taken from the priesthood's list or an "open" list available to all priesthoods.
4) All abilities that were introduced in S&P were reduced to their original costs.
5) I've added abilities from Dragons #235 (planescape) and #236 (specialty priests) to the lists.
6) Spell like powers are reduced in cost from the S&M. Spell like abilities that could be cast by a caster at the cleric's level (when the ability is received) normally cost 10 points, more if the ability is persistant, has many uses, or if the ability is especially useful. Most spell-like abilities must be those from the list; any proposed by the player must be approved by the DM.
7) Wizardly priest is restricted. Some specific priesthoods allow players to buy wizardly priest at 15 points (as per the S&M), but only in certain specified schools appropriate to the deities AOC (For example, my Goddess of Deception allows only illusion spells). Those that do not have this ability must buy it at 25 points (as per S&M), may only buy a single school, and may only buy schools specified by the DM (most DMs blanche at the idea of priests casting fireball...)
8) You may exceed the base 120 points allowed to priests, at a cost of 1% experience penalty per CP you exceed 120 by. For example, if you made a priest with 140 points, you would have to pay 120% of the cost to reach a new level per the cleric table, e.g., 1800 for a priest to reach 2nd level.

    All this has allowed me to have the best of both -- no, 3 -- worlds. My players get to custom make their characters, their priest characters MATCH their Powers, and the characters are fairly balanced ... if they have any snazzy abilities, they pay for them.

    I think that the results are possibly the most significant house rules contribution to the Player's Option rules currently on the web. If you like Player's Option and / or Faiths & Avatars , but feel that priest characters are unbalanced or otherwise off-kilter, I think you owe it to yourself to take a look at the Priests & Powers.
 

    I do have dowloadable RTF files (Thats Rich Text File format, a highly portable format usable by most recent word processors.) Warning: The main file is large (~200kb). Accordingly I've zipped all the files together.

    There are 3 files. The main file details all the major priesthoods of the pantheons in my game, one of which is a slightly modified Celtic mythos. Appendix 1 is a listing of the deities, their alignment, portfolio, power level, and domain, listed by pantheon. Appendix 2 describes custom making Clerics / Pantheon Priests, Monks, and Shamans (all in a much more flexible manner than Spells & Magic,) plus gives a few notes on MY methods of designing priesthoods and assigning costs.
    Note that while the list of powers is mostly complete, in many ways this is a work in progress. I haven't developed many special spells for the priesthoods and am considering new powers for various priesthoods. I'll update the files as that happens, but if you actually use my priesthoods as written and come up with anything new, email me and contribute!