Reflavoring the divine spellcasters.

[Roxxy]

As it stands, my campaign setting uses the psychic spellcasters from Occult Adventures as a replacement for the divine spellcasters. This is because Occult Adventures really hit on the "myserious, dangerous, occultish, and more to do with spirits and outsiders and understanding of how the mortal mind and body works than gods" flavor I always wanted for divine magic, as opposed to the whole "Gods giving the faithful power" thing. Druids and Shamans are quite easy to fit into this new mold, so they didn't have to be removed, and Rangers are really easy to strip spellcasting from in Pathfinder by just ruling that Rangers are automatically assumed to be Skirmishers, with the vanilla Ranger being an uncommon but available option in case a player just really wants spellcasting and is willing to be kind of occultish flavor wise. Witches make all the sense in the world to switch from arcane to divine here, given their flavor and the source of their magic.

That leaves the rest of the divine spellcasters unavailable. I'd rather like to reflavor them to fit the Occult Adventures themes. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for new flavors for the divine classes? What about replacements for the stuff that especially doesn't fit the setting, namely the ability to turn/rebuke undead or damage them with positive energy, the ability to talk to dieties or predict the future, the ability to gain the favor or power of a diety, and anything else that relies on divine support, power, or guidance. Individual gods aren't even reliably known to exist (That some gods exist is a proven fact, but there are a large [and uncertain] number of them and they are known by multiple names accross multiple languages, and whether groups of names refer to the same diety or different dieties is often uncertain. It doesn't help that some gods are outright fictional or horribly embellished and some exist largely as is told, and which is which isn't clear.), and the gods rarely intervene in mortal affairs or give mortals power.

i also need a new name for the Witch class, because I want to change the name of psychic/divine magic to witchcraft, and use witch as a blanket term for its practitioners. Reflavored divine casters probably need new names to fit new concepts, too.

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, is your world based on any real life cultures? If so, steal a word from that. Shaman, Mystic, or even Hedge Mage come to mind. But what IS the witch in the world?

I think most of the problems comes from the Paladin and Cleric. Variant channeling is often seen as a weaker option then outright channeling, but could work for more spirit-y stuff then your average cleric. through I must wonder how in a world of spirits, how is commanding them to do your bidding not thematically appropriate? Clerics could just gain power from the spirits themselves, from concepts, or even from followers or sacrifices. I would totally play a cleric who had to collect blood sacrifices to cast spells. If your group is agreeable, I'd just edit out some less then appropriate spells from the cleric spell list to fit the flavor better. If you start ripping out too many, I suggest making domains more awesome or tacking on a third if no one likes the new cleric. Unless the cleric needs a nerf in your games anyway. And maybe clerics no longer use wisdom, but intelligence (dark knowledge) or charisma (willpower) instead.

Paladins are harder, as I assume that there aren't established churches for them to protect. Maybe they can be bodyguards or seekers of knowledge who wish to use that knowledge to fight. The lazy answer is that if you have outsiders, that clerics and paladins serve ONLY outsiders like angels and demons. Maybe you have to bind a particular (and sometimes willing) outsider to your very flesh in order to be one of the two classes giving you a bit of an appearance change.

I have forgotten entirely which book it is, but there was an Oracle archetype in it that gave them spirits. I think it would really fit your game, should you use third party. Bascially, they'd summon spirits that would give area-wide buffs, so it was pretty nifty. If you care, I'll hunt it down. It seemed useful enough in a low-op game and really fits the flavor. I suggest stealing that flavor, even if you don't use the third party material, because I think oracles can really easily be refluffed to be given power by spirits for unknown reasons. The Haunted curse works well, and then you can alter the Mysteries as you desire but I think there's a bunch that'll work as-is.

[Vogie]

I could see the witch being a branch of the occultist - instead of drawing power from objects, he or she is bound to that patron and familiar.

Druid could be construed as a type of Summoner. You may need to limit the spell list, unless you are in a setting where there outsiders that control the weather/plants, or you can go the Kami route below.

Clerics could fall into a less named-deity and more into the abstract thought, similar to the Kami of the Shinto religion (Spirit of the harvest, spirit of the air, spirit of lava, et cetera)

I agree with the above - Paladins would probably be more difficult unless you provided specific guidelines, (i.e. only Celestials, et cetera)

[Telonius]

I'm not 100% sure about the rest of the setting (I'm more 3.5 than Pathfinder), but I think Clerics' deities could be reflavored to something almost like a more active version of Vestiges: weird extradimensional beings that are trying to establish power in this plane of existence. Something like Dormammu in Dr. Strange. Clerics would be distinct from Mediums in that it's more of an energetic relationship rather than a spiritual one. The "Holy Symbols" could be intricate diagrams, or weird crystal foci, or whatever you like. Maybe call the class Vessel, or something like that.