Level One Spells

Armor of Faith (Abjuration)
Level: 1
Sphere: Protection
Range: 0
Duration: 4 hrs + 1/2 hr/2 levels (8 max)
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: Caster
Saving Throw: None

The caster of the Armor of Faith receives significant protection against melee and magical attacks. This magical armor is a force of energy that absorbs a portion of the damage intended for the caster. At first level, one's protection is increased by 5%, and every five levels of the caster improves this by another 5%. A 20th level priest would have 25% of her damage 'absorbed' if protected by this spell.

Comments: The spell was given a lengthy duration so that, should you opt to use it, you need cast it only once after resting.

Bless (Conjuration/Summoning)
Level: 1
Sphere: All
Range: 60 yards
Duration: 6 rounds
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 50-foot cube
Saving Throw: None

Upon uttering the bless spell, the caster raises the morale of friendly creatures and any saving throw rolls they make against fear effects by +1. Furthermore, it raises their attack dice rolls by +1.

Comments: Bless is clearly intended to be a combat buff. But, it's hard to justify spending six long seconds waving your hands around and chanting for a minor benefit while your opponents are doing far more dangerous things (like trying to brain you with a spiked mace, for example). So, the casting time was reduced to 1 to allow for a quick cast-and-attack opening gambit when hostility breaks out.

Cure Light Wounds (Necromancy)
Level: 1
Sphere: Healing
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Casting Time: 6
Area of Effect: Creature touched
Saving Throw: None

Upon casting this spell and laying his or her hand upon a creature, the priest heals wound or other injury damage at a magnitude of 8 points plus 1 additional point for every 2 experience levels attained. Curing is permanent only insofar as the creature does not sustain further damage.

Comments: Although the healing spells do their job in name, I've always thought you should become more skilled at healing with practice. Consequently, I've added a bit of scaling to the healing effect. I've also lengthened the casting time to 6.

Command (Enchantment/Charm)
Level: 1
Sphere: Charm
Range: 30 yards
Duration: 2 rounds
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: Special

This spell enables the priest to command another creature to "die" (sleep) for two rounds. At the end of that time, the creature awakens and is unharmed. Creatures with 6 or more hit dice (or experience levels) are entitled to a saving throw vs. spells to ignore the command.

Comments: The duration of the sleep effect was extended to two rounds to make this spell a bit more useful.

Detect Evil (Divination)
Level: 1
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: Sight
Saving Throw: None

This spell discovers emanations of evil from any creature. Any evil creature within the range of the spell will glow red briefly.

Comments: Casting time adjusted to 5 - presumably this will be used when you are not in imminent danger, and it just feels more like divination for it to take a few seconds to cast the spell. Also removed the save, and the spell now bypasses magic resistance.

Doom (Alteration)
Level: 1
Range: Visual range of caster
Duration: 1 turn
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None

This spell causes a feeling of doom to overwhelm the target. For the duration of the spell, the target receives a -2 penalty to all his rolls, this includes THAC0 and saving throws. There is no saving throw for this spell. Multiple castings of this spell are not cumulative.

Comments: I'm not sure if the developer intention was for this to have a casting time of 1 or of 1 round, but since it's a combat spell, now it's 1 for sure, with a description to match.

Magic Stone (Enchantment)
Level: 1
Sphere: Combat
Range: 0
Duration: Instant
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 1 creature
Saving Throw: None

By using this spell, the priest can create a small magical pebble, which then flies out and hits a target opponent. The magic of the pebble lies in its unerring ability to hit; the damage it causes is physical in nature, ignoring the magic resistance of the target (if any). After striking its target, the pebble then falls to the ground, an ordinary stone in every respect. The damage dealt by the pebble scales as follows:

Levels 1 - 8
Damage: 1d4 + 1

Levels 9 - 16
Damage: 2d4 + 1

Levels 17+
Damage: 3d4 + 1

Comments: Magic Stone was one of those worthless throwaways that no one in their right mind would ever use (maybe to add a bit of extra damage in a round using cast-and-attack? But hardly worth a slot, honestly). It has been retooled to be a poor man's spell defense. It now has a near-instant casting time of 1, no save, and bypasses magic resistance. It won't help much against creatures who are immune to lower-level spells (either innately or due to spell protections), but apart from that it will now make for a great quick-casting spell disruptor. I also added a bit of damage scaling as the caster levels up.

Protection From Evil (Abjuration)
Level: 1
Sphere: Protection
Range: Touch
Duration: 4 hrs + 1/2 hr/2 levels (8 max)
Casting Time: 5
Area of Effect: Creature touched
Saving Throw: None

When this spell is cast, it creates a magical barrier around the recipient at a distance of one foot. The barrier moves with the recipient and has two major effects: First, all attacks made by evil or evilly enchanted creatures against the protected creature receive a penalty of - 2 to each attack roll, and second, any saving throws caused by such attacks are made by the protected creature with a +2 bonus.

Comments: The spell was given a lengthy duration so that, should you opt to use it, you need cast it only once after resting.

Remove Fear (Abjuration)
Level: 1
Sphere: Charm
Range: 10 yards
Duration: 8 hours
Casting Time: 1
Area of Effect: 30' radius
Saving Throw: Special

The priest instills courage in the spell recipients, raising their morale to its highest. The morale of the recipients will reset to normal when the duration runs out. The recipients are also protected from magical fear.

Comments: The spell was given a lengthy duration so that, should you opt to use it (as a buff), you need cast it only once after resting.

Sanctuary (Abjuration)
Level: 1
Sphere: Protection
Range: 0
Duration: 1 turn/level
Casting Time: 2
Area of Effect: Caster
Saving Throw: None

When the priest casts a sanctuary spell, it causes all of his opponents to ignore his existence, as if he is invisible. While protected by this spell, the subject cannot take direct offensive action without breaking the spell, but may use non-attack spells or otherwise act in any way that does not violate the prohibition against offensive action. This allows a warded priest to heal wounds, for example, or to bless himself. He cannot cast spells on other creatures without ending the spell.

Comments: This is another spell clearly designed for use in combat. Its casting time has been reduced to 2 (the same as the arcane spell Invisibility) to better allow for this. Also, the duration now improves as you level up.

Shillelagh (Alteration)
Level: 1
Sphere: Combat, Plant
Range: 0
Duration: 2 hrs + 1/2 hr/4 levels (4 max)
Casting Time: 2
Area of Effect: Special
Saving Throw: None

This spell enables the caster to create a magical cudgel which scales according to the level of the caster as follows:

Levels 1 - 3
Enchantment: +1
To hit bonus: +1
Damage: 2d4 + 1 crushing

Levels 4 - 6
Enchantment: +1
To hit bonus: +2
Damage: 2d4 + 2 crushing

Levels 7 - 9
Enchantment: +2
To hit bonus: +3
Damage: 2d4 + 3 crushing

Levels 10+
Enchantment: +2
To hit bonus: +4
Damage: 2d4 + 4 crushing

Comments: This spell needed quite a bit of love to turn it into a candidate for memorization. The updated spell description mostly speaks for itself. The underlying philosophy behind the changes was to consider what would be required to make this a credible substitute for just using a physical weapon, without overpowering the spell.

This is one spell for which I've provided an alternate version as an optional mod component.