Shattered Kingdoms

I think that protection for lighties/darkies should apply 1/2 the effect to gray auras - I think this would be RPishly and Gameplayly reasonable. I'd consider the choice between protection and spirit aura to be basically a wash, with pros and cons on each side that make it a true no-lose choice from a gameplay perspective as opposed to an objectively good or bad decision.

Personally, I like protection more for reasons Ardith alluded to but from a gameplay perspective think that SA wins out for warriors due to the fact that there is generally at least one gray aura twink chars playing as a lightie/darkie at any given time. Fortunately, such chars are rarely very tough and don't usually last, so this shouldn't really be considered in choosing for yourself whether to stay pantheist or go religious!

It already applies half of the effect to gray auras.

I think he meant Lighties should get half protection from greybies, not greybies should get half.

I would have to actually feel threatened by gray aura characters to support such a thing.

My main thought is that if a melee character with SA is facing off against another melee character with protection, then IMO the character with SA has a decided upper hand.

SA is negated by another SA of any level. So if you go meleee with a GM shaman and you have a journeyman SA vial, you negate their protection.

I took less damage on Val with protection than I did Ikibi with SA

BUT BUT BUT if a melee character with SA is facing off against another melee character with protection and a certain religious spell, the character with jesus has a decided upper hand!

My point is that yes, of course there's pros and cons and we can make up scenarios that favor either side. Overall, however, the two are well balanced against each other right now.

Not necessarily. Spirit aura has some hilarious weaknesses.

They're somewhat balanced, but not exactly balanced. In general spellcasters should join religions and melee characters should not, because taking damage just because you are dealing damage is bad. However, protection is still a nice enough buff that melee characters are not just totally punished for joining religions now like they were before.