Hidden Priest (Cleric Archetype)
Any campaign setting is no doubt a big place, full of all sorts of cultures and creatures, so it would only make sense that these differences would create unique challenges, some of which cause more trouble to some than most.
In this case, I’m talking about regions and cultures that despise divine magic, or perhaps divine magic from a certain source. In such places, clerics may be targets of bigotry or state-sanctioned violence and the like, such as in Golarion’s nation of Rahadoum, which has rejected all gods after a religious war devastated the nation.
However, despite such forbiddance, faith persists, and there are those, whether as a blanket ban or a more targeted ban against a specific faith, channel divine power in secret. These hidden priests learn to mimic other forms of spellcasting, though in truth they still gain their power from a divine source.
These priests often choose an arcane casting theme to mimic, hiding their divine spells with such effects, such as learning to cast their curatives into fluids to pretend to be an alchemist, using song to mimic a bard, or arcane jargon to mimic other arcane casters. They can still cast spells normally of course, but pretending they are from an arcane source does require them to put their knowledge to good use to make it believable. However, no matter how passable their magic is, it remains divine, and therefore, requires a divine focus. Thankfully, they often have holy symbols integrated subtly into their equipment, such as tattoos hiding a symbol in the patterns, amulets that seem secular, but hide a holy mark, and so on.
Masterful hidden priests even can call upon a reserve to cast their spells without gestures or words entirely, making them seem like happenstance or random miracles rather than the work of a cleric.
An archetype mostly meant for story reasons, this option is great for playing a cleric in a region where they are frowned upon, or even playing a cleric of an unpopular religion, such as a goodly cleric in an evil nation, or vice versa. Pick your arcane cover carefully, however. While the average layperson may not see the difference, using healing while pretending to be a sorcerer, wizard, or arcanist may tip off the knowledgeable, rather than pretending to be a bard, alchemist, or witch.
The wording of this archetype makes no mention of other types of arcane casters beyond bards, alchemists, sorcerers and wizards, which to me seems very limited. These clerics could easily mimic witches, and in theory summoners if they focus on summoned and called allies. Psychic magic, on the other hand, is trickier, since it is often less well-known than other forms of magic, and is naturally silent and still, something that these priests can only mimic so often.
Forbidding all worship save for that of their god-king, the fire giant overlords of Fernash rule over smaller races and other giants alike. There are those, however, that resist, particularly priests of the Chainbreaker, who are no strangers to hiding in plain sight. Teaching others to do the same, they pose as simple chirugeons and alchemists, the regulation on volatile reagents meaning nothing to their false alchemy.
The party has come to rely on the aid of the centaur mystic Chirodenas and his potent divination magics. However, eventually it comes out that he is no master of the arcane, but rather a priest of the star-goddess. Why he chooses to hide the nature of his craft is a mystery they will need to solve quickly, for his enemies muster against him.
Sent searching for a cult leader of the Eternal Feasting Maw, the party has been led from city to city and nation to nation, destroying seemingly abandoned altars of the dark god. However, they soon discover that the altars are not dedicated to him, but rather, against him, and the court minstrel that set them on this path begins displaying some very un-bard-like abilities.
