How to get high-level priests?

[henyo10]

I really don't know how I am to get papal candidates as Scotland since the whole of Britain is 100% catholic and thus my priests don't get too much piety to make it into the Vatican and the Pope has really been a headache lately. So how do you get high leveled priests?

[Aranu]

1. send a bunch to lithuania or moors, 3-5 since it works better in a group more priest = more conversion = more traits you get
2. build cathedrals so they will become bishops
3. Theologian guild and upgrades, makes new priests with higher piety
4. kill heretics all over the world

or to keep pope friendly just give him some money, or a land if you want him to be allies, join crusades

[RollingWave]

What the above said, find the closest non-Catholic land and start converting. beware that if you only put one guy in a heavy non-cath zone he'll probably end up with negative traits like waning faith etc. so send a bunch at a time.

[SoulBlade]

Participate in the... erm... Council something, it costs 1500 or so, and adds some piety to your priests.

[Mega Tortas de Bodemloze]

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Scotland is a tailor Made Pope factory...Ready here we go.....

1. In Edinburgh the first guild offered should be a theology guild. If it isn't wait and grab it.
2. Build that little country chapel to Huge cathedral quick as you can
3. Hump your Diplomat to Rome quick as his little feet will carry him and get an alliance with the Pope.
4. Heretic killing is always helpful.
5. Once the theology guild is up and running you will see extra traits in your priests.
6. when that huge cathedral hits town just about every new priet...{they come out as Bishops then} is headed for the Papacy.
7. work the alliance with the pope and keep it always at 9 or 10 crosses.

Hope that helps if you need specific details just let me know. If anybody plays as France Paris is another natural Pope factory. Notre Dame and all.

[django333]

If your goal is to have one of your priests elected pope it's not necessary to send priests on mission. All you really need to do is get the Theologians guild ASAP. To do this just recruit priests in one city (whatever city you want the Theologians guild in). Then keep all your priests in that city. It's also important to upgrade churches in all settlements whenever possible and bribe the papacy every turn. The bribe doesn't have to be a lot. I usually do 500 florins per turn. Using this tactic I usually control the college of cardinals within 20 turns.

[TheBromgrev]

If your goal is to have one of your priests elected pope it's not necessary to send priests on mission. All you really need to do is get the Theologians guild ASAP. To do this just recruit priests in one city (whatever city you want the Theologians guild in). Then keep all your priests in that city. It's also important to upgrade churches in all settlements whenever possible and bribe the papacy every turn. The bribe doesn't have to be a lot. I usually do 500 florins per turn. Using this tactic I usually control the college of cardinals within 20 turns.

So true. Whenever I get my Theologian city to Huge size, I practically control the papacy, as every priest I recruit from a city with a cathedral AND master theologian guild becomes a cardinal. Who cares if you become excommunicated, if you can kill the pope and guarantee the next one will be from you faction? Cathedral + theologians guild pretty much guarantees this.

[Tyrenia]

For me as Venice, Rome is my Pope factory. As a Large City with a Master Theologian's Guild, every priest that came out INSTANTLY had enough piety to be a Cardinal. Now it is a Huge City with the Guild Headquaters and a Huge Cathedral. I control every seat in the college of Cardinals (except for the madatory 'other' preferati). So whoever I want as Pope becomes Pope, allowing me to attack Catholics with impunity!

[Quercia]

To get the priests to non-catholic lands from Scotland, boat them over I guess.

You might want to join a crusade and have some priests with the army, and release when you are in a non-catholic land. I guess they get there faster.

[Goofy]

Editing export_descr_character_traits.txt file is the only way that hasn't been mentioned yet. I can edit it for you if you don't have experience and want to get high-level priests more easily. Just PM me or answer in this thread so I know will I do it or not.
EDIT: okay here's it, use it if you want. Search your own one in SS directory, TAKE A BACKUP of it, then replace it with this new one.
I don't know are the traits balanced, but now it's easier to get good priests.
Also, you do this by your own risk.

Better priests:

[Callawyn]

There's a variety of things you can do to help them get better stats at birth, but it takes time to get the buildings up and get the guild. Before and after you get these buildings, all priests should be moved asap to a province where they can sit and get the Battler/Enemy/Purger of Heresy trait line. To get that trait they have to sit in a province long enough for that province's religion level to shift by >=10 points in your favor AND have low heresy rate. So, find the nearest province that will have less than about 75% same religion on the turn you move your priest in, and let him sit there until he gets the +3 piety from Purger of Heresy, then move him out to do whatever you want. I usually use 1 province at a time for this purpose, sending all my priests there to get this trait line, since the more priests in the province the quicker you get the +10 shift and start getting the trait. Once that province gets to about 75% same religion, I pick another province (since religion shift slows dramatically after about 85-90% same religion). I do this for all factions played. Note the low heresy requirement, if the province has high (5+) heresy you won't get this trait line no matter how much religion shift you get until 10 turns after the heresy rate drops below 5%.

For Scotland, keep a boat near the Channel to shuttle agents onto the continent. The nearest provinces with low Catholic% border the Baltic. There's really no point keeping your priests in the British isles, they won't get any traits and won't get ancillaries any faster than they would get them elsewhere. Since the Catholic% is high already and your churches can easily max them out, just ship all your priests to the continent.

[Callawyn]

Another reason to pile a bunch of priests into a region with crappy same religion %: you can acquire another trait line, the Growing Faith / Strong Faith trait, which gives up to +4 piety. You get the first point of this by having a religion shift >=8% in the first 2 turns your priest is in the region, can get more if >=10% in the first 4 turns your priest is in the region. Clearly, the best way to get this trait is to move a pack of priests/imams into a region on the same turn, especially if the region has really low same religion%. You can get this same trait in other ways too: you can get the first +1 piety of it by moving a priest into Jerusalem province (or Imam in Mecca or Cuman in Embi - I've seen it work just being in province, don't need to be inside the city), you can get this trait by accepting the Great Council Event (25% chance per priest within 60 tiles distance of your capital), or at birth (8% totally random chance of being born with the first level of this trait. Note that you can work this trait line in province after province with the same priests. What you do is move the pack of priests into a region and leave them there for 4 turns only, then move to the next region. You need enough priests to ensure at least a +10% religion shift as quickly as possibly, since you don't start acquiring the trait until at least 10% religion shift, but move on after 4 turns because you get no trait gain after the 4th turn. Note that there's no requirement to be 'idle' (ie. they can move around within the province as much and as often as you like without affecting this trait line). Also, the first +1 piety for this is really easy (85% chance and only 1 point towards threshold needed), Growing Faith, the second level, for +2 piety - Strong Faith is way harder (need to get 3 more points addional to threshold at 33% chance each time trigger is met, so about 9 more turns). The 3rd and 4th levels are even harder yet (4 more to threshold for each at 25% chance each time you meet the condition, so an average of 16 turns in which you actually meet the condition for each +1 to piety, in addition to turns where you don't qualify due to not having the +10 religionshift yet in their current region). IMO its worth a little effort for each priest to get 'Growing Faith', then move on. Too much time/trouble to work this trait line beyond the first level.

If you're really patient (I'm not), you can easily get an additional +3 piety beyond the +3 piety you get for the Purger of Heresy trait line I discussed in my previous post. The Missionary Trait line trigger is: >10 religion_shift, Population_own_religion>95% and Time_Since_Religion>95 is >=10 turns. So, in English: move a priest into a region with <=85 own religion on the turn he gets there, wait until the religion% reaches 96, wait 10 more turns, then you'll start accumulating points to the Missionary trait (85% chance per turn for +1 to threshold, there's 3 levels of the trait with thresholds of 1,3,6 for 1,2,3 piety, so figure about 7 turns on average to max the trait once you qualify for it). Clearly, this can take awhile (~17 Turns to max the trait AFTER you get the religion%>95 for priests that've been there long enough to experience a +10 shift in religion), so not a popular trait line. Its easy to qualify for this in terms of actual effort by the player, but it takes forever. There are much better ways to utilize your priests than to have them wait for missionary trait, I ALWAYS go for Purger of Heresy trait line, then move my priest out and use him offensively rather than having him wait around for Missionary.

GoodDenouncer Trait: you can get as much as +5 Piety by denouncing heretics/witches (85% chance per success for +1 to threshold, thresholds of 1,2,4,8,12 for the 5 levels of the trait - note the diminishing returns: on average about 14 success to get the full +5 piety). Of course, if you fail you can lose levels of this trait, or even go to -3 piety on 'BadDenouncer' (33% chance per fail), and if you fail really badly your priest can turn heretic. Also, if you're smart, you'll notice that the AI is lazy about killing heretics and that heresy has a HUGE effect on public order: if you see a heretic in an enemy castle region - send a priest to denounce, if the heretic is in an enemy city region consider leaving him alive and sending a spy to park in the city and assassins to sabotage buildings until the city rebels, have an army standing by to besiege immediately.

Archbishop Ancillary: This is a VERY easy ancillary to acquire that most people never get. It gives 1 Piety and 5MP (=25% movement point increase). All you have to do is park a priest in a city that has a Cathedral or Huge Cathedral, there's a 75% chance per turn chance to get the ancillary. Easy. However, there's a limit of 1 Archbishop per faction. Be careful though: there's an "Archbishop2" ancillary acquired in the same way, though with a 10% chance per turn, that gives a -2 piety and 5MP, also limited to 1 per faction. There are Orthodox versions of these 2 Archbishops, acquired in the same way, that have double the piety effects (+2 for one, -4 for the other). Well worth going for: 75% chance of getting the good one, 10% for the bad one. If you get the bad one, be sure to send another priest to get the good one. If you get the good one, be sure to NOT leave any priests in cities with cathedrals at the end of your turn, or you may get the bad one.

Witch Hunter ancillary: 10% chance to acquire at birth if faction leader has the Religious Activity trait line, you can also get this by having your priest in a region >6 turns if that region has >15% heresy (20% chance per turn). The trouble with this is that the region must still have the >15% heresy on turns after the 6th turn to qualify, and the 20% chance per turn is pretty low. Worse, the trick to getting it is to move only 1 priest into a region with high heresy, so that you don't drop the heresy% to fast, but just being in a region with high heresy gives a chance of that same priest turning into a heretic! Not worth going for, if you get one occassionally consider yourself lucky.

Monk ancillary: 50% chance per turn for priests that are Idle for >=4 turns (ie. end each turn with 100% movement points) if in a region with >70% ownreligion AND <=10% religionshift. So, in English: you get this by parking your priest in a region that already has high ownreligion when he moves in, because you do NOT want >10 religionshift when going for this ancillary. Unless you're deliberately trying to get this ancillary, seeing it appear is a sure sign that you're not using your priests to best effect, since the last thing you should be doing with your priests is parking them in regions where they're not needed. However, with the 50% chance per turn once you qualify, and only 4 turns to qualify, this is well worth the trouble: you'll average 5 turns per priest for an ancillary with +1 piety. The downside is that any priest that qualifies for skillgain on the Battler/Enemy/Purger of Heresy trait line does NOT qualify for a chance at Monk ancillary (one requires religionshift>10, the other religionshift<=10). So, you'll need to go for Monk either before or after going for Purger of Heresy, and usually in two different provinces.

[ArquebusierX]

Easy, don't piss off the pope and send a group of priests off to non-catholic lands~ Every single game I've ever played I've done this, and it works ;3