None of the kids in my game have been natural channelers, but the girl my son married WAS a channeler.  All the children did produce one or two points of mana a turn at least.

Ditto here CdrRogdan.. I ALWAYS imbue the spouse (hell, i always imbue the first 2-5 champions I hire-on). And I've never had a kid/grandkid/great-grandkid/etc ever NOT be a channeler. They have that ability (plus the +1 or +2 health/mana recovery, and usually another perk too.

I always imbue my wife and it doesn't matter my kids never are channlers. Now I have imbue them too and waste 1 mana per turn that what a waste. This is another thing that should be fixed.

I imbue my sov's spouse just after marriage, but I have never had a child or grandchild able to channel, even though many other faction's children do channel.  I too am using a custom sov, male, so maybe that has something to do with it.

I can't leave this one alone? If you're trying to joke, my humour systems are offline again. If you're serious, I want to know what you think is being mistaken for imbuing champions.

My current obsession with the demise of essence makes me want to think you're objecting to that dev decision, but I still mostly feel like the only beta tester left who passionately hates that change from a positive integer to a yes/no flag. It's hard to see a joke in things if you feel like your 'in crowd' is down to just yourself.

Ah, well, I did confess knowing that my humour systems were failing. I'm second generation counterculture, so I tend to think of sex as a wholesome and ordinary thing unless some drama crap is obviously at work.

Plus, I've got all those other 'issues' with the game and all...

I imbue myself. Is that wrong?

Looks like they've taken out the natural ability for children to be able to cast in recent patches (i.e. patch s, t).  And yes the ability for the in laws to cast is because the other sovereign cast imbuie on them...  Personally I think that's a mistake because this means the children are merely just like any other champions; nothing special about them any more.  Would be much better to have them as natural casters,,,

now that mana is global, the advantage of having multiple channelers is very slight; more logistical than an increase in total power (so long as the mana gen is balanced of course). so to my mind they should all be natural channelers.

personally i don't like the idea of charging a mana maint for imbuing at all. it has to be dismissable in order to not break the game, but so long as it remains so, it will be open to exploitation. more than anything, it just doesn't feel right lore-wise. the overabundance of mana maint at the moment makes enchanting and summoning in the early game very unwise, as this is the time when you should be stockpiling for the mid game.

i preferred essense as a means of limitting imbuing because it makes imbuing a personal sacrifice for the sovereign rather than a global one; giving the player the choice of being sauron (and hoarding power for himself) or galadriel (sharing power for logistical benefits). i also think this would make the game more balanced. having one stat govern all magic vs 3 stats to govern combat is not a good idea. if intelligence is currently a dump stat, it's only because the damage formulas at the moment don't scale enough, there are no good high level damage spells and the sovereign isn't being limited by intelligence as he should.

if it was me i'd do it like this

INT: required for casting spells based on their level, increases spell power, admin bonus to city income (giving stay at home sovs more options)

ESS: reduces mana costs of spells, determines spell resistance, sacrificed for imbuing, enchanting and creating fertile land.

i'd also add a spell that turns the sovereign into a Lich; preventing them (and their decendents) from having children, making them unkillable permanently without taking their capital and giving them large stat boosts. that would cmplete the game for me.