I responded and it erased my message but basically, just because everyone of your heroes can cast magic doesn't make you a bigger threat necessarily. It gives you more options from time to time, but 25 mana is a lot in this game if you want to stay growing at a competitive pace. There are many times I could better use that 25 mana to win key quests to further my heroes abilities better than simply imbueing another hero who is a warrior build anyways.

Just my thoughts on the subject.  

Play the game first, then make suggestions. Imbue champion works perfectly! You have one mana pool anyway, so there is no big advantege in new caster.

Ohh, do you have multiplie casters that create insane combos? No? It because system works.

Increasing cost or maintenance will kill the fun! Because everybody will use one super caster.

I have 9 cities, 8 champions, and i dont want to imbue champions even now, when t cost 25 mana, because it is useless to imbue all champions.

I have to side with id. It feels perfect as-is to me at the moment.

The current system seems fine to me.

Increasing the mana cost depending on the number of currently alive imbued champions might also be a good idea. (and if you happen to lost a champion, the cost would need to fall back)

The no advantage thing is total garbage. Most spells are tied to a champion, and you unlock those spells by imbuing them. If you aren't imbuing every single champion you get the moment you get them you are seriously gimping your spell pool. 25 mana is also not a lot, especially if you are taking the -tactical spell cost talents on your casters, when you have reduced your big damage spells to like 2 mana your mana pool quickly skyrockets.

There's no reason not to imbue champions, 25 mana is nominal, there's no drawback, so they might as well remove the spell and have all champions join you with the ability to cast spells and their spells added to your list.

25 mana may be nothing in a long game, but it is a LOT in a small game. A quick tiny game can end in 200 turns.

an increased mana cost for imbue per champion can balance imbue spamm.something like:

First imbue cost 25 mana

Second imbue cost 30 mana

Third imbue cost 35 mana

Fourth imbue cost 45 mana

Fifth and above cost 55 mana

what do you think about this guys?

This was a blast from the past.  I was totally lost until I checked the date of this post.  The game has let all heroes cast magic without imbue for quite sometime.  I would actually like to go back to the imbue model.  All of the champions casting magic has made the champions too powerful.  From the front page--

 "Champions are similar to sovereigns in that they can have proficiency in the various types of magic. Unlike sovereigns, they are initially unable to cast spells. Before they can cast spells a sovereign has to cast Imbue Champion on them."

now they are just like Sovereigns.  You could take almost any Champion and use them as a sovereign as is.  Lord Xia said it best, the Sovereign is irrelevant now in game terms.  Apparently everyone has access to make.

I disagree, unless the AI becomes really effecient with their mana use.  By the time Champions have gotten to the mid teens in level, they are too powerful for even 4 or 5 trained troops.  Between buffs, and attack spells the trained troops are already too injured to make the battle very serious.

Also once you get Champions to mid teen level.  You have to do something pretty stupid to get one killed.  Like wandering into the Asag and getting trapped in a one on one fight with the that big monster.  Even still, the monster only had 40 or 50 points left.

Path of Mage

Level for 4 Air Mage

Affintiy

Evoker 3

plus 5 air shards

equals about 100 points of damage per turn.  If I wasn't stupid, one more lightning bolt and I could have killed a Guardian with a level 18 Champion.  Champions are way overpowered.

That's because this zombie thread has been raised by necromancers.

I imbue all champions because they then have the potential to get more essence as they level up, increasing the overall magical power of my kingdom. In fact, when I level up, I pretty much only choose essence and Hp bonuses as Strength and Intelligence don't seem to stack up as well. Especially when you consider how powerful spells like Curgen's Volcano are. They take a high level caster and alot of essence. 

Are we done talking about ancient game mechanics or do we want to troll and necro for a couple more pages?