effectiveness of priests

[ZealotsACH]

i personally place priests inside my settlements, but i've seen on some "let's plays" people placing priests right outside of settlements (along with the AI doing this also). my question is, does the fact of them being in or outside of a settlement change their effectiveness? i put them inside assuming the church buildings in the settlement will help them develope their piety. does it really matter?

[AJStoner]

The affect the region they are in, regardless of whether they are in a settlement or outside of it. I don't believe settlement buildings affect their piety in the vanilla game but some mods have triggers that increase agent abilities in the presence of certain buildings.

[ZealotsACH]

ok thanks for the info

[eXistenZ]

I would guess that placing them inside a settlement diminishes the risk of turning heretic

[Nazgûl Killer]

Actually, it doesn't. I've had plenty of priests turned heretics from inside my city.

I just place them outside so I see them when I need them and recall upon them, and perhaps even see them transform into heretics without missing it. Just helps me keep things organized.

[eXistenZ]

Actually, it doesn't. I've had plenty of priests turned heretics from inside my city.

ah ok, it was just an assumption, i wasnt certain of it.

[Nazgûl Killer]

ah ok, it was just an assumption, i wasnt certain of it.

To be honest, I did too for a while, until I opened my scroll and noticed that I had around 3 Cardinals, 2 Bishops and just 3 priests, when I had vividly remembered training something along the lines of 20 priests

[danny X]

priests can be quite effective at attacking enemy settlements, if the enemy is a different religion!!

i use them in the following way, along with spies and assassins:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

move priest into enemy terriotry, i usually just stick them next to the settlement, then you will need a spy to spot their priests/imams and to also see what's in the enemy settlement; e.g church.
then use the assassins to kill their priests and sabotage their religious buildings!

if you want a good chance to turn the settlement rebel, then stick the spy in the settlement, to reduce public order and use the assassin to destroy other buildings that increase the settlements happiness, aswell as assassinate the general, if they have one!

i find this great fun sometimes!!