A 2E Priest in Pathfinder: What's Best? (Part 2: Druids and [Kobold] Shamans)

What characteristics should have a druid to become a 2E priest how I see it?
Let's continue our discussion where I left it last time. The druid has an obvious vantage over the cleric -she's an agent of a specific philosophy, with restrictions on weapon and armor use- and an obvious disadvantage- she lacks many important cleric spells. Plus, we want a way to get free from the wild shape power. And an aura would't be a bad thing at all.
Let's examine some archetypes of druids without an animal companion. Ancient Guardian is almost perfect: the domain choice is the right one for a pacifist priest, and her calm emotions power made my heart leap when I read it. Patience of Nature is also beautiful. Unfortunately, this druid does have wild shape, and the existing archetypes replacing wild shape don't stack with it.
Halcyon Druid is also beautiful, and it does replace wild shape. Peacekeeper? Great! Resist Fiendish Influence? Amazing! It's that bonded mask thing that ruins it a bit, making it too campaign-bonded- and I wouldn't have minded adding cleric spells to her list instead of wizard spells.
Then there are the Nature Priest and the Restorer. Both have something I like, and both have too little to be what I would need. However, I bet you knew I was going to talk about these archetypes, since I fused them together in my Nature Sage here, didn't you?
When we search outside of Paizo, the first thing to come to my mind is Kobold Quarterly #15, with the Nature's Orders article. The Purist druid archetype does a good work replacing wild shape with channel energy. Unfortunately, channel energy was just one of the things I was trying to make facultative for the cleric! Plus, the Purist doesn't alter the druid's spell list.
Another issue of the same magazine, #21, had a class that is still today one of my 3PP favourites, and later earned a book all for itself- The Shaman (before Paizo sent out a class of their own with this name). The Kobold Press Shaman is a spontaneous druid with a spirit guide similar to an animal companion, a series of totem secrets similar to oracle revelations, and some healing witch hexes. I even wrote some official archetypes for it! But, well... I talk about it here only because it expands the fan of options for divine characters, and because I like it so much. It's not versatile enough to serve my purpose.
Then there's (again) the Dùlra from The Book of Many Things! Do I like it? Heck if I like it! I asked for that class to be written, and Faerie Friend is a simply adorable power. I wrote the Brown Friar archetype for the class, and the Faerie Pact alternate class option to give other divine characters some of her abilities. It even has an aura! The only thing is... that even with my modifications, the dùlra spell list still includes too many distructive spells. It would still need some tinkering (maybe one day...)
Do you know what druid would be a perfect priest?! The Spirit Mender from Spheres of Power! But I guess I'd better dedicate an entire new post of this series to spherecasting, since it's a whole different system of magic...

Faith Trait: Alternate Channeler

Sooner or later, I will have to continue my series of speculations about the “perfect priest” in Pathfinder. But in the meanwhile, one thing that can be done to get near to it is modify the channel energy ability.
As I already said, in 2E not every priest was able to turn/command or damage undead. It feels strange that every cleric should do it- even if her deity’s portfolio doesn’t include death in any way. Variant channeling (and the related feats Channeling Variance and Extra Variance from Magic Tactics Toolbox) is a great idea, but it only reduces the power upon undead instead of replacing it.
Channeling feats, now, these are really interesting. We have many that completely replace the healing/damaging ability with another (first of all, the same Turn/Command Undead), and many deities have their own unique channeling replacements. Above all, some of them are already granted to oracles, inquisitors, or necromancers as self-standing abilities. The Genius Guide to Domain Channeling and The Genius Guide to Domain Channeling II gave us plenty of Channeling feats too, adding the interesting idea of linking channeling powers to your deity's domains. It's simple enough devising our own feats to fill the gaps or personalize our homebrewed deities.
Now only the final step remains...

Alternate Channeler (Faith Trait)
Your god blessed you with a power different from others. Choose one channeling feat (a feat that modifies the channel energy power) which has other prerequisites than the channel energy ability. You gain this as a bonus feat, but you only can channel energy using your chosen feat, and cannot channel energy normally. This trait only has effect if you have the channel energy ability.

Fixed Archetype: The Nature Sage

While waiting for my rant about my favored priestly Druid characters... here's one I did myself. A little Ancient Guardian, a little Halcyon Druid, and a little Nature Priest.

Nature Sage

A nature sage is devoted to a deity of nature and community, charged with the duty of  mediate between civilization and nature, so that woodland settlements may prosper and man and green can benefit each other.

Faithful: Like a cleric, a nature sage must worship a deity and her alignment must be within one step of her deity’s. This replaces the normal druid alignment restrictions.

Tamed Faith: A nature sage is proficient with her deity’s favored weapon.

Chosen Druid (Ex): A nature sage must choose a domain for her nature bond. Her choice is limited to her deity’s domains (or subdomains) in place of those typically available to a druid.
This ability alters nature bond.

Patience of Nature (Ex): A nature sage adds Diplomacy, Perform (oratory), and Sense Motive to her list of class skills and gains an insight bonus equal to half her druid level on such checks. This ability replaces nature sense and trackless step.

Dispel Hostility (Su): A nature sage doesn’t gain spontaneous casting at 1st level. Instead, she can channel stored spell energy into a spell capable of dispelling hostile thoughts and strong emotions. She can “lose” a prepared spell in order to cast calm emotions as a 1st level spell. Instead of the normal Will saving throw for that spell, the DC of a calm emotions spell cast with this ability is 10 + ½ the nature sage’s druid level + her Wisdom modifier. This ability replaces spontaneous casting.

Clerical Sage (Su): At 3rd level and every level thereafter, a nature sage chooses one spell from the cleric/oracle spell list and adds it to her druid spell list. The chosen spell must be of a level she can currently cast.
This ability replaces wild shape.

Unimpeachable (Ex): At 4th level, a nature sage gains a +4 bonus on saves against enchantments. This ability replaces resist nature’s lure.

Mental Strength (Ex): At 9th level, a nature sage gains immunity to charm and compulsion effects. This ability replaces venom immunity.

A Thousand Voices (Su): At 13th level, the nature sage can communicate with any creature with a language, as if using tongues, for up to 1 minute per druid level per day. These minutes do not need to be consecutive, but must be spent in 1-minute increments. This ability replaces a thousand faces.

A 2E Priest in Pathfinder: What's Best? (Part 1: Priests & Clerics)

Back in 2E days, I adored the many different options for priest characters. I spent hours imagining my own deities and choosing spells spheres and granted powers, weapon and armor options, for each one. In particular with Spell & Magic options, I felt I could construct nearly anything I needed, from a warrior crusader to a pacifist, unarmed friar. And not every priest could heal or turn undead.
With 3E, 3.5E and then Pathfinder, this ability was lost- clerics were pretty much all the same. Some of it was regained little by little, with domain powers, archetypes, prestige classes, obediences and mostly, new divine classes. Now we have the Warpriest in place of the Crusader (and the Sacred Fist archetype for lovers of the priestly Monk), the Shaman... Inquisitors are great priests/rogues, and Oracles can be very versatile specialists. But something to find again the feel of the sphere casting priest is still missing, and most notably, many would want a "western monk", unarmed and with knowledge powers. In addition, I still think that there should be priests who can't heal or channel energy.
Some Paizo archetypes and 3PP classes have been created attempting to fill this void. Many of them are neat, but none satisfied me completely. Here are, however, some of my favorites.
(Incidentally... I love divine classes like the Saint (Fat Goblin Games) and the Cantor (Encounter Table Publishing), but I won't discuss them here because what I'm searching for this time is a full caster. I'll discuss druidic archetypes and classes in the next post of this series).
First, let's see the official material. The Cloistered Cleric was the first attempt by Paizo in this direction and, honestly, I don't consider it available in my games. Light armor and one domain? No, thanks.
Ecclesitheurge and Blossoming Light are, on the other hand, two splendid examples of unarmored cleric instead. I love them... but neither can personalize her spell list or waive channel energy. Sorry, I'll try elsewhere.
In what I call the "rigid classes batch", there's Adamant Entertainment's Priest, that receives 3 domains but wears armor. Then we have Flaming Crab Games' Priest, with some neat archetypes for flexibility and a good rewriting of domains as dogmas. Kobold Press' Priest is similar, being a divine arcanist with some very cool options and flavor. Finally, maybe the one I like the most in this batch, The Knotty-Work's Priest, a pacifist, unarmed friar with awesome level-based powers similar to swashbuckler deeds. I would very gladly adopt this for my games were not for some little things... powers are fixed as the characters advances in level, and I'd have liked a little more customizability; the class is super great for good characters, but precluded to other alignments; and prohibiting all spells that inflict damage is too much even for a pacifist priest. I mean, not even harming undead or evil outsiders? I can understand and approve from a philosophical point of view, but from a gaming point of view... I fear it's too much. Lastly, all these have one point in common- they can prepare all spells from the cleric/oracle's list, without the chance of differentiation.
Another batch includes the highly customizable classes- and they all are products of Rogue Genius Games. The Magister is simply beautiful and has a lot of options; I also like that she uses both Wisdom and Charisma as primary stats, and as a hybrid spontaneous caster, she can choose any spell she likes more. Sadly, the class has only a limited group of domains or mysteries available, having a "tribal priest" flavor, and so it doesn't fit well as a "western monk".
The Guide to Divine Archetypes offers some fantastic choices for divine characters, both "lay brethren" and spellcasters. My favourite here is the Chantry, an archetype/alternate class that transforms a priest into a divine bard (and has that "2E soothing word" power I like so much as a divine performance). It goes very near to the image in my head... but still not quite. I would have liked a more powerful soothing ability, and the divine performances are fixed. Plus, its cleric version still has channel energy and the whole spell list at her command.
And here comes the Talented Cleric, the princess of this batch. Now this seems to have everything. Like a domain power? Take it. Don't like another? Don't take it. Want a power from another domain? This can be done (within limits). You can channel energy or not, or exchange it with an alternate form of channeling (Merciful Channeling is the one I love the most). Just one thing... what about the spell list? There's one in an appendix, and it's very restricted. Have we to suppose that these are the only spells available to the talented cleric except domain spells, or is it only an example list? However... that's not customizable.
*Sigh* That's all for now. Next time I'll talk about druidic "priestly" classes and archetypes.