Seriously agreed.  Is there a reason not to imbue your champions (especially once you've capped a couple shards)?

The other problem with this is that champions aligned with the other race are completely defenseless after you've gained a couple levels.  The whole recruiting dynamic is great in the early game and totally broken after that.

As things stand now I agree.  If someone has an affinty for casting they should able to.  This will make it harder to kill opposing heroes.  I think heroes need bodygaurd armies that disappear if they get hired, help to defend said hero at least till mid game.  Give heroes two or three stacks of spearmen and two or three stacks of archers they wont be such easy picking and may allow AI more time to recruit them.   Right now once you have two or three heros in a stack it's pretty easy to kill lower level opposing staionary heroes.

I like the imbue mechanic, but not the maintenance cost. In my experience with WoM and FE I end up rarely using enchantments or summons due to their upkeep. All my mana gets cast during battles. I rarely ever had a lot to spare on enchantments. I'd like to see more sources of mana available.

no mana cost that I could see

+1 to removal.

It sounds to me like the recruitable champions' level needs to keep pace with the game level.

Maybe the mana cost of the imbue spell ought to scale with the level of the champion your trying to imbue.

How about an increasing cost for imbue? Something like:

first hero imbued: 40

second hero imbued: 200

third hero imbued: 1000

fourth hero imbued: 2500

...

Possibly hamstringing the AI, giving a disincentive to pick magical-perks, costing mana but no upkeep, keeping neutral heroes from casting in defense if attacked (should get a pool maybe if the recruitment mechanics isn't changed into something more interesting either imo...)

Like the lore. Don't like the mechanics. Don't see much in favor of it from a gameplay perspective. Seems like a clunky leftover from WoM which has outlived its usefulness...

Not even sure if attaching a mana upkeep or the suggestion marionesi did would salvage it.

All limitations implemented should always mind the AI imo and options that hamstring the AI should be avoided if possible.

So +1 for removing this mechanics in its current form (or replacing it with something more interesting... Like giving extra spell-power to a champion costing the souvereign dearly similar to the paragon spell for pysical attributes... )

Ok...my opinion is, if Channellers are the only ones who can tap into magical forces, why bother giving spell-related perks to Champions who are unrecruited at all? I like the Imbue system myself, but they shouldn't have like, Fire Disciple before someone hires them, Imbues them and then they gain a level and select that perk. Or if you're going to give one of those perks to a Champion, make it so they're carrying a tiny shard of one of the big elemental crystals that is the source of their perk. One you could take away if you felt like it. 

Like I said, I like the Imbue system, but giving Champions affinity for magic before they are Imbued is basically countering your fiction about Channellers being the only ones who can use it.

I like the imbue mechanic, but I wish it had more of a sense of weight to it. In one sense it does, because that awesome screen that pops up makes it seem epic, but ultimately it is spend mana, get caster, rinse and repeat for every champion why not. I know we're far from the days of essence, but I'd like to see it take something out of the channeler. 

Maybe after you imbue someone, your channeler is immobilized for N turns while he or she recovers? 

that is the in game explanation.

It would make more sense for all champions to not have magic knowledge nor be able to take them unless imbued.

Watch out for one of the suggestions above.  I they dump imbue and let heroes cast what they know from the start, autoresolve will waste mana like crazy unless they change that too.

I'm ok with the current imbue system, partly because NOT imbueing many heroes means I can autoresolve with my AI wasting all my mana.

I don't mind the imbue mechanic as much as I mind having champions skill choices always be loaded up with "magic" skills when the champion has even one magic school skill and you never have any intention of using him/her as a caster.

I would suggest both having some way to de-select or drop a magic school from a champion AND adding in a LOT more champion choices for non-magic combat. As many as there are, and it is good that there are, inevitably you end up running out of good ones midway or later through the game and end up taking a bunch that are not useful. Expand the number champion skills available, please.