What Are the Drawbacks of High Misfortune?

[Endoperez]

capnq said:

Hmm, that's a good point. But I prefer to recruit the highest level priest I have available, then boost him further as my prophet.

That's a good point. Only works if you can recruit H3 priests, of course.

[capnq]

Endoperez said:

That's a good point. Only works if you can recruit H3 priests, of course.

Huh? Other than H3->4 getting you Divine Blessing, I don't see why it "only works" at that level.

[Jazzepi]

capnq said:

Huh? Other than H3->4 getting you Divine Blessing, I don't see why it "only works" at that level.

Because turning a commander into a prophet who has H0-H2 raises him to H3. Turning a commander who is H3 into a prophet gives him H4, and the ever elusive fanaticism which is quite good in large battles.

Basically there's no reason to convert a H1-H2 priest into a prophet when you could just do it with a commander, or a scout, or some one else.

Jazzepi

[Endoperez]

Yeah. As Ulm, for example, I could make either my starting commander (shield, armor) or my starting spy (good stealth) into my prophet. A priest-prophet is just worse than either.

[capnq]

Endoperez said:

Because turning a commander into a prophet who has H0-H2 raises him to H3. Turning a commander who is H3 into a prophet gives him H4, and the ever elusive fanaticism which is quite good in large battles.

Basically there's no reason to convert a H1-H2 priest into a prophet when you could just do it with a commander, or a scout, or some one else.

OK, that makes sense. I never really looked that closely at it, and I'd assumed that making someone a prophet just increased H by 1.

I've only been playing the demo so far, and just ordered the full game yesterday. Once I have the manual to look at, I should know these things.

[Wyatt Hebert]

It happens, capnq.

As for Endo's comment, I've actually seen the Ulmish Commanders knock themselves out if prophetized, simply due to the very high Spellcasting encumbrance of his gear. Otoh, he's very durable, and his only real job is to cast Sermon of Courage.

So it goes...

Wyatt

[Micah]

Problem is that NOTHING is very durable at 100 fatigue. =)

[capnq]

Jazzepi said:

Because turning a commander into a prophet who has H0-H2 raises him to H3. Turning a commander who is H3 into a prophet gives him H4, and the ever elusive fanaticism which is quite good in large battles.

Basically there's no reason to convert a H1-H2 priest into a prophet when you could just do it with a commander, or a scout, or some one else.

Jazzepi

I've thought of a reason , but it's a very small benefit.

If the priest has several other paths, and you're planning to search for magic sites with him anyway, he'll be able to find more of those elusive H sites. A commander or scout with only H3 probably has more useful things to do than searching.

[Agrajag]

EDIT: Whoops, didn't notice the question was already answered (I failed to notice the existence of a third page :S)
So, you can just ignore what I already wrote earlier, which is:

Because "boosting him further as my prophet" is only a real boost if it is from H3 to H4. Since any prophet gets H3 anyway, it is completely pointless to make an H2 priest into a prophet, you might as well boost a mage or a good commander all the way to H3 by making him into a prophet.

[Baalz]

Drawbacks of high misfortune:
You never can take turmoil
You very rarely can take death
You get no (or very few) national heroes
It costs you gold/gems/population both directly and as a hidden cost (the positive events you never get)
It costs you labs/temples/castles, both directly and as a hidden cost
You regularly get attacked by indies
It can cripple you in the first few turns if you're unlucky
It increases your micro

Outside of (obviously) reversing the above, benefits of luck:
Increases your magic diversity, through random gem events and random mages joining you (your national heroes can often help with this as well)
Lumpy income can make it easier to fund larger projects (ie you just got a large gold event so can afford that castle you were having trouble saving for)
Possibility of getting items/boosters you can't forge
A significant portion of your income can't be hit by spies, pillaging, or unrest causing rituals. True, there are some spells which raise misfortune, but to significantly impact your overall income they'd have to hit a significant portion of your kingdom rather than a handful of your best provinces.


One choice that I think is overlooked by the "gold is king, I only take Order/Misfortune" crowd is Order/Luck. True, the synergy is against you, but as your nation grows you start hitting that 3 event limit anyway and have the best gold income possible. I haven't dug into it, but I'm assuming some really good events are tied to order/luck scales. I find order/luck/death to be a very competitive setup...