Priest Acolyte

A priest acolyte is the parish cleric: someone the party finds tending a shrine, escorting pilgrims, or volunteering at a hospice. They are CR 1/4, AC 13, 11 HP, with a mace and a single Bonus Action that casts Bless, Healing Word, or Sanctuary once per day. Treat them as a roleplay-first NPC who happens to also have a useful combat round in them when the party needs it.

Out of combat, the acolyte is your contact at the temple. They have Medicine +4 and Religion +2, which makes them the right NPC to identify a holy symbol the party recovered, treat a poisoned ranger overnight, or read the funerary inscription the rogue could not. They speak Common and travel light. If a player wants someone to ask about a saint's day or a forbidden text, this is who they ask.

In a fight, the acolyte is a one-trick supporter, and you have to spend the trick well. Divine Aid is once per day total, so pick its moment. Healing Word at 60 feet to pop a downed PC back up is almost always the right call. Bless on the fighter and rogue going into a boss round is the second-best option if no one is bleeding out. Sanctuary on the wizard if the enemy archers have line of sight. After Divine Aid is spent, the acolyte falls back to Mace at +4 (5 bludgeoning, 2 radiant) or Radiant Flame at 60 ft. range, +4 to hit for 7 radiant. Light and Thaumaturgy are at-will and cost the acolyte nothing, so use them for atmosphere.

Acolytes do not stay through a campaign arc. They have a temple to run, a flock to attend, and they were never meant to march into a dungeon. Walk them home after the immediate threat passes. If the party wants ongoing healing, they should be coming back to the temple, not dragging the acolyte to one.

Have the acolyte refuse payment for the heal and ask the party to attend the next service instead. The unpaid invoice is a leash for next session.

A hostile priest acolyte usually means the party has walked into the wrong temple. The acolyte is not the boss of this fight, they are the witness who rings the bell, calls the watch, and stands between the party and the relic until someone bigger arrives. Run them as the moral problem first and the combatant second. Killing a priest in their own sanctuary has consequences in town the next morning.

Mechanically the acolyte is fragile. AC 13, 11 HP, and a +0 initiative mean they will drop in a single round of focus fire. Use that. Open with Divine Aid as a Sanctuary on themselves, which forces any attacker within range to make a Wisdom save or pick a different target. That gives the acolyte a round to cast Light to dazzle a single PC's weapon, or to call Radiant Flame at +4 from 60 feet for 7 radiant against the back-line caster.

If the acolyte gets a second round, Divine Aid is spent on Bless for the actual threats in the room: the cult enforcer, the warrior priest, the temple guards. Acolyte plus Bless on three combatants is the difference between a comfortable encounter and one where the fighter starts missing. After that, the acolyte is throwing Radiant Flame from cover or backing into the next chamber to get help.

Make the players see the acolyte's face when they cast the killing spell. The encounter is more memorable when the body has a name on it.