You mean independent priests would only be available through random events (and possibly special sites which first would have to be searched for)? Sounds interesting, and quite thematic in fact (at least to me
). I don't personally ever recruit pure H1 national priests (and practically never H2 priests either) unless under spesific conditions, because indy priests can do everything and don't take a slot from a mage.
Have I seen H4 priests at use? I certainly have. I've used three communed Marignon mage-priests (who were H6 after communion) against an undead heavy MA Ermor, and *that* was quite spectacular. Incidently, three such H
6 priests, considering communion-slave costs and all, still would cost less than 3 x $600 (which was the price for H
4 priest I suggested above). True, it wouldn't be as cheap LA where Ashen Empire is, but with communions and mage-priests it is still quite easy to reach H4. The question is then why should mages be better priests than pure priests?