Shattered Kingdoms

Can anyone recommend a race that would fit well with the priest class? I was leaning towards creating a griffon priest. What attributes are most important for a priest? Are they typically in the front row during combat?

If you've never played priest before, I don't recommend griffon. The attribute limitations and the loss of enchantable slots make it a poor choice for a first timer.

Human is always a good choice for just about any class, priest included.

If a priest is front-row in combat, they're going to die. Typically you will be second, or preferably third, row during combat as a priest.

I've seen some good gnome priests about. Enormous mana pools and what not.

Centaur would be a good choice for a first time priest. Innate kick speeds up your training before you can get spear of faith which will be your bread and butter leveling spell.

Human is also a fine choice.

I wouldn't recommend griffon in any case.

I would recommend a deep-elf, or halfling! Halfling have decient stats all the way across the board, and come with natural resistance to magic. And deep-elfs are just plain awesome as casters, they do have their drawbacks but nothing a little enchanting can not help.

Deep-elves* are indeed an awesome caster race, but I wouldn't recommend them to newbies due to the whole racial enmity deal.

Halfling priests are badass, but I find their wis to be annoyingly low.

A lot of races make fine priests, because of their excellent utility and versatility. Best way to make a choice would be to consider what kind of RP direction you wanna go with. Besides, picking a race is not nearly as important as picking a religion is. Sadly, there is very little info on what would be the best religion to pick. (hint: it's Mira, or Thuban, or Dulrik!)

I've only played griffon and halfling priests myself, and both were very enjoyable, even with the lack of equipment slots on griffon. I found the benefits of being a griffon outweighed the loss in equipment. Although if you are largely going for a PK priest, you might find the loss tougher to deal with.

I would not recommend a griffon priest.

Deep-elves might be the best, but I would not recommend one to a new player.

Humans, centaurs, gnomes, halflings are all good choices. In general, though, priests are not extremely stat dependent.

Halfling priest in Miran religion is especially good, since the religion choice will end up compensating you for the relatively low wisdom.

Mira, Ain, Dulrik, Thuban, Dabi, Aludra all have decent religious spells.

Oh, and priests should never ever be in the front row.

Thanks for everyone's advice. Suffice to say that I've dropped the griffon/priest idea! I have one follow up question though. Can anyone recommend a religion that is newbie friendly for someone who has never played a priest before? Which religions are most active and would have time for someone who has never played a priest before? Thanks!

There are LOTS of priests playing right now, and I count that as a good thing! Personally, I would suggest a light aura faith to start the game with (bonuses to levelling that are unequalled on dark aura characters) - or at least a gray faith that allows light auras.

I can name you a priest for each of those faiths except Dulrik and Alshain.