Should I make commander with 4 holy a prophet?

[Cainehill]

Originally posted by Endoperez:
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.

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.

[tinkthank]

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.

[Teraswaerto]

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.

[Yossar]

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.

[Taqwus]

Yes, it depends.
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.

[Sandman]

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.

[Tricon]

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).