[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Norfleet:
There are certainly other options than Fire-9, though

Not really. Air-9 is okay but nothing special, and costs too much unless you use the virtue, which has no survivability. Water-9 is too expensive as there are no good water pretenders. Earth-9 is also too expensive, and gives you only a little benefit since your mages aren't that impressive on the battlefield. The cyclops is also far to vulnerable to eyeloss. Astral 9 is useful, but doesn't give you anywhere near the punch of fire-9. Nature 9 is completely out, as it's a death sentence for your mages and is too expensive anyways. Death-9 is less than spectacular, and blood 9 has the same problem.

Astral, air and fire are the only bless effects that are both fairly cheap and useful. Nature would be nice, but it screws up your mages, and water is completely out of the question since a blue dragon has lousy dominion.