You said you played 5 straight paladins. What was the empowerment experience with them? I'd say in general, empowerment works out pretty well as-is. But ultimately, given the nature of empowerment and religions, it will always rely on two people (the player and the Imm) having sync'd times. I just don't see a feasible way of getting around it, without ruining the positive aspects of religion.


What I would say, is that the first religion talk is probably the most important one. That's the foundation that everything else builds off of. Ishuli may approve/reject a book during that first meeting. Azorinne may hear your Vow that first time. Panmorne's going to ask what your war is actually about.

And if you're off the mark, they give you guidance to get back on track. You can't do that with a "fill in" Imm, because.. that fill-in Imm isn't really in a position to make those decisions.

I'd be much more on board with a fill-in Imm providing an empowerment bump, Shaman paths, or Virtues than I would be with them handling the initial empowerment talk. That talk shapes the the entire relationship between Imm/follower.


I also don't like the idea of "merging" religions, because variety is nice.. and more importantly, from the Imm perspective, who wants to tag along with someone else's religion idea? They're playing a character too, if we take that freedom away from them, I'd bet you would have far fewer Imms running religions period.