[Radio_Star]

Less astral access on smiths is a good start. You'll wind up with thug-smiths and battle-mage smiths instead of just the one-unit-does all. You'll also have to keep at least a few of the precious astral smiths at home for forging, further reducing the available pool of mobile, battle-magic flinging thugs.

As for GoR'd temple guards, I had the thought of just adding them to the happy reverse communions you're likely to be running instead of trying to self-buff them.