Idea to increase number of parties by allowing dual client priests
Rationale
How many times have you found someone in party range but you don't want to go kill Cloud Hermits or whatever without a priest? Better just to solo with your slave priest right?
Right now, priest is basically required for all party play after the early levels. Due to the exp bonus mechanic, people who want to party must wait for an actual priest to show up. Two random non-priests basically will not go fight monsters alone. (Maybe a monk would work but I've never done it.) But what are the chances that out of two or three or even four random people who want to party, one of them is a priest? Potential parties are often left to wither on the vine, especially during non-peak hours.
Description
The basic idea I am advancing for consideration/discussion is to allow people to dual client priests without ending the party exp bonus. I am not sure of the details. The idea would be to allow all these potential parties to do stuff while also taking care not to devalue actual priest players. An example of how this could work is this:
Players are allowed to dual client a priest without losing party exp bonus. The dual cliented priest adds the normal 20% bonus exp to the party, (perhaps only if there are multiple master accounts in the party active on the map. You can't just party with your slave priest and get the bonus).
However, if a real priest from another master account is in the party, s/he provides a better exp bonus than a dual cliented priest. In fact, you will never get less exp per kill by adding a real priest to your party. This makes real priests preferable to dual-cliented priests, and even preferable to having a slave priest that you keep outside the party. Care should be taken to prevent exploits. People shouldn't be able to fill a party with priests and get a tremendous exp bonus, or anything like that.
Edit: One area of concern would be really small parties. Would this scheme encourage people to form as tiny parties as possible, say a priest and a crusader? I'm not really sure, but perhaps there is no need to give the "real priest" exp bonus for two-person parties. The "real priest" exp bonus is to encourage parties to use a real priest instead of a slave one, not to encourage priests to team up with one person.
Just an idea I had. I welcome everyone's thoughts on the matter.