Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

This would give him 5. Is it worth it??

Or should I save it for a priest with holy 3 so that I'll have 2 with holy 4 which allows him to cast cast bless on all sacred units on battlefield I think.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Or give it to a pure melee type, so he will benefit from your blessing effects and make a kick-*** commander. All are possible strategies, it just depends on how you want to use your prophet.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

Holy 4 priest can cast Fanaticism! That is just like Sermon of Courage but affects the whole battlefield. Also he can cast all the holy units at once (Divine Blessing). Level 5 priest gets Smite, a spell giving out nice amount of accurate (I think) damage that either is armor piercing or negating, unless I I have been unbelievably lucky. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That is especially true if you have a nature blessing... I was quite dismayed when my priest got nicked by a stray arrrow and went ineffectually beserking to his gruesome death... sending his vastly superior troops into a rout.

Thus it is important to consider what type of blessing your pretender gives when deciding who will be his/her/its prophet...

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I've seen what I believe to be a bug with Smite though - that 100 precision bLast from the sky, striking empty plots of land. With just a Smite-Prophet, about 10 enemies, I would have been able to see attrition from Smite, but 4 out of 5 missed.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

Like others say, depends on what you want, but smite is quite nice if you can get it. He can also cast the other spells too.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

I've found that Smite is rarely worth the trouble, it's usually better to make a level 3 priest Prophet and save the money for troops.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

I never found smite that useful but it just won my Last battle for me. My footmen routed and smite allowed me to pick off enough stragglers to get the enemy to rout. So it does have its uses.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

Yes, it depends. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif
If you're Pythium or Marignon, for instance, you may get a national hero with an intrinsic Holy-5 (!). It's also not that hard for Pythium to Smite en masse even without that hero or an Arch-Theurg prophet, because Communion boosts holy/unholy power as well.
If you lack easy access to Communion and don't have such a national hero (or have only one but want more smiters without Communion or boosting items), however, it may be more interesting to you to prophetize that Holy 4.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

If you're playing as a nation with really expensive non-sacred mages, you might want to make one of them your prophet to save on upkeep.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

It depens on the nation, of course, but usuually I go for holy 5. Smite is a good spell, even if there are a few misfires. Having 2 smiters with some cannonfodder, is really nice. However, in the long run fanaticism is the more important spell (in my games at least).

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

I always go for Holy 5 if the nation allows it (i.e., having a holy-4 recruitable unit). Early game against indy provinces, smite is very effective.

Pythium with a holy-5 arch theurg and a dozen heavy infantry can take out some serious indy provinces. Yes, Smite does seem to miss occassionally, and is resisted occassionally, but it costs little or no endurance, and hits quite frequently. Against an indy heavy infantry squad, a bLast of 4 or 5 smites is often enough to cause a rout.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

I've currently done three different c'tis strategies which all require a different unit to become a prophet.

-I made a Shaman a prophet to cast body etheral and luck on my super combatant and so that he wouldn't die from a stray arrow.

-I made an Assassin a prophet so he could preach in provinces before my immortal pretender got to it.

-I made a Lizard King a prophet to gain smite to take on calvary provinces. Smite is very effective on independence and gets your prophet lots of experience and heroic abilities.


Just reallllllly depends on what you have availible. In my case, it only had to do with how to expand. (except for my immortal pretender who I used for the whole game)

-Shaman was for a super combatant
-Assassin was for an immortal
-Lizard King was for the ability of weak armies to take over calvary-filled provinces

(some editting was involved)

[ March 23, 2004, 18:17: Message edited by: Argitoth ]

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Erm... how does making someone a prophet help with casting spells? I understand the HP gain idea, but is there some kind of magical bonus as well?

Bayushi Tasogare

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

A Prophet is permanently Blessed, so if his/her/its Pretender has the appropriate magic, the Prophet might gain Wind Shield, Reinvigeration, Regeneration, etc. I'm not sure if that's what is being referred to however, and other then that, I can't think of any spell-casting benefit prophethood would bring, aside from the built-in boost to Holy/Unholy magic.

Re: Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?
 

Nooooo, like this:

Shaman = Prophet = High HP.

High HP = Doesn't die from single arrows

Single Arrows = Rare to hit prophet in the first place (but it always happenes at least once before I want it to)

[ March 25, 2004, 00:39: Message edited by: Argitoth ]