Religion-specific spells?

[Nor'easter]

I'd had this idea for a while, but it took meester's thread about civilization-only spells (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=261262) to inspire me to start this separate thread.

Those of you who have played the BtS Gods of Old scenario will know that it has religion-specific spells: one spell that you can cast only if you have a particular state religion, and which can only be cast be a great person. Unlike the FfH2 World Spells, the religion-specific spells in Gods of Old can be cast repeatedly -- makes those late game Great Prophets a LOT more useful.

The religions in FfH2 are already quite distinct and flavorful, but having a spell specific to each religion might be an interesting addition. I haven't thought of what the particular spells might be, or whether you'd want to use the Great Person mechanism from Gods of Old, but I just thought I'd throw the idea out there for people's consideration.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Fine by me.

I personally think that each religion should have unique spells and rituals, but the number and strength of these don't really have to match up.

 

[it-ogo]

All divine magic is mainly religion-specific. No?

 

[Lord Bayushi]

Great Profits should have another option behind them, as once you found your religious Wonders they have very little to deter you from making them Alter bait (unless you are evil, that is). Giving them a purpose other than the Alter and the Shrines would be nice, and I even think that each religion, to include the Council, should have a World unit that can only be upgraded from a Great Profit by the founding Civ once it has established the Shrine: an Avatar unit that represents the chosen of that particular God. They should start out as relatively weak heroes on the lowest tier of priesthood, but with access to a specialized set of promotions (or World spells) as they advance. I would be very in favor of that.

 

[Nor'easter]

All divine magic is mainly religion-specific. No?

You're right in that the disciple units for each religion have access to mana spheres that disciple units for other religions don't, so there are some divine spells that can be cast only by the priests of a given religion.

I guess since I had the Gods of Old model in mind, I was thinking conceptually of a spell that would be (1) more powerful than a tier 3 divine spell (because it could be cast only by a great person rather than a divine spellcaster, so it couldn't be cast every turn), but (2) less powerful than the various civ-specific world spells, because it could be cast more than once (each time you generated a great person).

Again, just a thought. If people don't like it or think it's unnecessary, I won't be offended, since it comes from a BtS scenario and is obviously not my original idea.

 

[Mithrus]

Great Profits should have another option behind them, as once you found your religious Wonders they have very little to deter you from making them Alter bait (unless you are evil, that is).

I think the typo is hysterical, but also very accurate Great Prophets are awesome to add to a city with the hammer/coin combo that can really help turn a struggling city/civ around. I just wish there were easier ways of churning them out earlier...Since I usually build the elder council before the pagan temple (and only really build PTs if i have access to incense), getting a great prophet as the first GP is pretty hard. That, and I really like having as many of my cities having academies as i can.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I think that religion-specific rituals is a better idea, but there is nothing wrong with religion specific spells (there are actually already some, like drown and spread council of esus)

 

[Lord Bayushi]

We'ss so vary goode at tha spellin oh dah wordis...

Opps.