Opening Gambit

[LDiCesare]

Originally Posted by Zorfwaddle

As for the mage thing, I like to be able to bring down as much variety of artillery as possible, holy or otherwise. If I get a chance, the prophet gets as many path enhancers or empowerment as possible.

aka putting all your eggs in the same basket.
Not only will you suffer much more should your mage die (even in SP - like really bad luck with a ninja attack or coming across Bogus's gang), but you also prevent yourself from having one more smiter on the battlefield. Instead of having one smite-mage + 1 other-artillery, you get only a single mage that casts a single of these spells.