Add Religious Advisors who provide Papal/Patriarch Authority

[Nuclear Elvis]

Paradox Developers/players,
For Catholic and Orthodox nations (and arguably, any other religion that has a metric for church influence), we should be able to pay for Advisors to provide Papal or Patriarch Authority.

- For Catholic nations, only Papal Authority Advisors would be offered, and I think they would be in the Diplomatic category (unless more balanced for Admin).
- For Orthodox nations, only Patriarch Authority Advisors would be offered in the random pool, arguably in Diplomatic category.
- As a "Dynamic" option, potentially game-changing but worth considering, these Advisors could be offered in ANY of the categories, Admin/Diplo/Military (perfect world, we would have this and many other options in pre-game Options build selector switches for "Dynamic Advisors" to appear across all Power lanes). This is a tangential issue but I'd love to see some "utilitarian" Advisors that could spawn randomly for any of the 3x Power branches, as you may want to use your Military points for this Religious Advisor (and considering Religious Wars, doesn't break the Theme).

Given that you're paying a high Ducat amount for these Advisors, and not as Cardinals, and in perspective of Orthodox Icons, I think the rate could be as high as +1 Papal/Patriarch influence per year. This is one case where I wish the higher/top tier Advisor would actually come with more of a buff, as it could be argued that Orthodox should only be +.5 Patriarch Authority per year, but a top-tier (highest cost) Advisor could be +1/year.

From a thematic standpoint, I don't understand why paid Religious Advisors were not designed into the game from Day 1. In a nation dominated by religious influence, the inner circle advisors always included senior church leaders, especially among the Catholic and Orthodox states. Let me give you a brutally honest modern example, that is no different than it was 1,000 years ago -- before Russia invaded Crimea (in the Real World) and took over recently, Rus Pres Putin met with the leader of the Russian Orthodox church to get the "Okay" to invade Ukraine - no kidding, look it up. The Orthodox Church in Ukraine had split off (mini-schism) from the Russian Orthodox Church and thus - Rus was angry about it, so the church leader in Rus was very motivated to show support for Putin's plans for invasion.

I don't think I need to even discuss the lengthy history of the Crusades and post-Crusade to show how interwoven the Catholic Church was to national leadership in Europe, it's very obvious. And as result, if anyone is considered an Inner Circle, close Advisor to the senior leaders/King of a nation, it should be Church leadership (who are not just providing Missionary buffs). I think it's time to expand the Church's influence on national leadership, and provide buffs for Papal Influence or Patriarch Authority, via the paid Advisor system.

 

[Nuclear Elvis]

And I stand on my opinion (see above) that this "Authority buffing" advisor should be Catholic-only, or at least not available for religions which give strong bonuses and/or have little trouble with getting "Authority" in other ways (but I'm not opposed if it's exclusive for theocracies). See also suggestion at https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...panded-to-accommodate-more-religions.1483549/

As a counter-point and potential Compromise alternative, the "other religions" aside from Catholicism - could have more miniscule buff amounts that result in options with balance. For example, perhaps the Orthodox Patriarch Authority advisor may only render .25-.50/year of additional Authority, whereas the Catholic Papal Influence buffing Advisor could be +1/year, as theoretical contrasts. Same with others that need to achieve Zero as a degrading metric (Karma), could be just .25-.50/year rather than keeping the amounts the same/same across all religions.

 

[annulen]

Theocracy can get Great Holy War CB allowing to convert heathens in a peace treaty, as well as other things. And if you have Deus Vult, Great Holy War CB allows you to declare war on every heathen nation in the world.

Though I agree there should be other incentive to play as theocracy besides crusading everything that moves. For example, playing for merchant republic can give you a lot of money to develop your country even if your are OPM, and you are not pacifist you can turn little conquest into massive profits. In the same way, playing theocracy should give you ways to develop country through religion even without wars.

 

[Nuclear Elvis]

Though I agree there should be other incentive to play as theocracy besides crusading everything that moves. For example, playing for merchant republic can give you a lot of money to develop your country even if your are OPM, and you are not pacifist you can turn little conquest into massive profits. In the same way, playing theocracy should give you ways to develop country through religion even without wars.

That option to play a Theocracy government and then potentially "conquer" through religious actions without a War declared - that would be a very interesting twist to the game, if one could seize a Province (or potentially a State if a Theocratic Empire?). I'm guessing that in the current game-we-have, these could only be rendered through a pop-up "Event" system and as seamlessly integrated. I would play a Theocracy a few times if this new strategy were part of the game.

I would also say - this suggestion of yours should probably be its own individual Suggestion here in the EU4 Suggestion forum.

 

[nobodyinparticular]

There are already enough advisors that it's already moderately expensive early game and later just annoying having to cycle trough them just to get the one you want wih the right culture or level, there's no need to add more in my opinion.

Simple fix - add +1 advisors for kingdom rank nations and +2 for empires.