Benefit to Level 6 Priesthood?

[Cainehill]

Having just had the opportunity, I made a prophet who is a level 6 priest, as well as having good regular magic (2 astral, water, air, I think).

Now, I'm very well aware of the huge benefits of obtaining a level 3 priest or level 4 priest when your kingdom doesn't natively produce such. Sermon of Courage, Divine Blessing, great joy.

Level 5 seems more iffey - 100 accuracy in a spell doesn't mean what I thought it meant, as my arch-theurg prophets call down bolts of lightning with incredible accuracy - on empty tracts of land. Smite just doesn't seem worth it, given that I've watched battles where 5 of 5 castings didn't hit anything. (Bug? Or do I just not understand accuracy?)

So - any benefit to having a level 6 priest? Holy spells have 0 endurance cost, so one major benefit of high magic level is lost - 1/3 of 0 is, well, 0. There's no 6th level priest spells, not that this is usually an issue. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

But, having Bartholomeus the Patriach show up on turn 4 with Pythium, and me not having made my ArchThug, er, Theurg, prophet yet because I wanted him in the hall of fame by attacking an undead area.... Hard to resist.

Now I'm thinking maybe I should have promoted Mohammed (the presumptive Prophet) to have two level 5 priests instead.

Any thoughts?

[archaeolept]

I believe smite has a magic resistance roll to avoid smittenness. that's likely what happened in your battles.

The only advantage of having a level 6 priest that I am aware of is that penetration in banish undead is increased; thus, since 6 is 4 levels avove the requirement of the spell, your prophet will have a 2 penetration bonus (ie. -2 MR on the part of the banishees).

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by Cainehill:
Level 5 seems more iffey - 100 accuracy in a spell doesn't mean what I thought it meant, as my arch-theurg prophets call down bolts of lightning with incredible accuracy - on empty tracts of land. Smite just doesn't seem worth it, given that I've watched battles where 5 of 5 castings didn't hit anything. (Bug? Or do I just not understand accuracy?)
<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Bug indeed. Clearly, your prophet fancies himself an exterminator and is misusing his powers to smite ants, which are too small to be seen in the battle screen. Rest assured that the ants are being smitten with great accuracy, though.

Originally posted by archaeolept:
I believe smite has a magic resistance roll to avoid smittenness. that's likely what happened in your battles.<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">It does, but that shouldn't affect the hit-or-miss vfx. I've seen spells that "hit" me, but fail to cause an effect due to MR or other factors, but still produce an effect that looks like a hit, rather than a flat out miss.

[ March 15, 2004, 03:08: Message edited by: Norfleet ]

[Daynarr]

Bug indeed. Clearly, your prophet fancies himself an exterminator and is misusing his powers to smite ants, which are too small to be seen in the battle screen. Rest assured that the ants are being smitten with great accuracy, though. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Maybe someone should make a mod "Revenge of the Ants". http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

[tinkthank]

I dont know -- maybe in Drain provinces the 0 fatigue of priest spells cause something like 10? (Anyone know?) Then being level 6 could be useful fatigue-wise. Being level 7 however is definately nice +1 pen on smite.

[Pocus]

the main advantage of having a very high level into priesthood is for the reanimate special order. For example A priest level 4 will reanimate one tomb wyrm/turn (C'tis Desert Tombs), whereas a level 6 (Ekishnugal as prophet) will rise 3/turn.

[Pocus]

Originally posted by Daynarr:
I think that is true only for Unholy priests, not for normal ones. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">True, only unholy can reanimate.

[PDF]

I think I've read somewhere than Banishment was more powerful if cast by higher level priests ? Did I imagine that ? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/confused.gif
Else there's no point in getting Holy 6 or more, as Smite is lvl 5... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

[Johan K]

Area = lvl x2
Range = 15 + lvl x5
DMG = 3 + lvl x2

LVL 6 Priest:
Area 12
Range 45
DMG 15
MR -2

LVL 5
Area 10
Range 40
DMG 13
MR -1

And a lvl 2:
Area 4
Range 25
DMG 7
MR 0

Preaching is also affected.

[archaeolept]

sweet info

thanks Johan http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Pocus:
the main advantage of having a very high level into priesthood is for the reanimate special order. For example A priest level 4 will reanimate one tomb wyrm/turn (C'tis Desert Tombs), whereas a level 6 (Ekishnugal as prophet) will rise 3/turn. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pascal, are you reading this? DON'T attack the Lizard King. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[PDF]

Originally posted by PhilD:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by Pocus:
the main advantage of having a very high level into priesthood is for the reanimate special order. For example A priest level 4 will reanimate one tomb wyrm/turn (C'tis Desert Tombs), whereas a level 6 (Ekishnugal as prophet) will rise 3/turn. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Pascal, are you reading this? DON'T attack the Lizard King. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Phil, the Lizard temples now have 600+ undead ! Something has to be done !! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by PDF:
Phil, the Lizard temples now have 600+ undead ! Something has to be done !! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">600? Crunchy. Time for an airstrike. That'll probably net you a good 250+ kills in one shot.

[Pocus]

yes, free us! freeeeed we want to be freeeeed (to be said with an ominous voice)

[Daynarr]

Originally posted by Pocus:
yes, free us! freeeeed we want to be freeeeed (to be said with an ominous voice) <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">That would sound really funny with that avatar. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[Daynarr]

I think that is true only for Unholy priests, not for normal ones.

[PhilD]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Originally posted by PDF:
Phil, the Lizard temples now have 600+ undead ! Something has to be done !! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">600? Crunchy. Time for an airstrike. That'll probably net you a good 250+ kills in one shot. </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">The problem is, this is a "special" scenario where the undead hordes (managed by Pocus) cannot leave their sanctuaries until attacked. I'd have to read the fine print to make sure non-anonymous spells don't count as attacks...