is there any reason spells dont hit all the time being preist does dex or attacking rating have any thing to do with this
i just figured if i had high itelligence i would be ok

There are a few things to bear in mind when playing as a spell-casting priest:
- You should invest into your Wisdom because as the tooltip says: "The amount of Mana necessary to cast a spell and the Stamina loss when casting it decrease. The probability of successfully casting a spell increases and the time needed to restore energy after casting it decreases."
- You should invest into your Intelligence because as the tooltip says: "Each Intelligence point increases Mana by 5 and Stamina by 1. It also increases Magic Resistance by 1."
- For each spell, you should check what school of magic it belongs to. If, for example, you are trying to cast Open Wounds which is an Inquisitorial Magic spell and you have invested your skill points into the Magic of Miracles school, the results won't be any good.

But it is a plain fact that at the beginning, priest's spells fail quite a lot because you just started your adventure. Give it some time, invest your skill points properly, use magic seals instead of spells if necessary, and a few levels later everything will look much better.