[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Blitz:
How then, do I deal with Burden of Time and other nonsense?

Give astral gems to an ally that has easy access to astral 3 most likely. You are just asking to be mind dueled extremely easily when you take astral 3. Or you can just take an astral 1 high seraph and empower them to 2, then build a skullcap. Burden of Time isn't that likely to be cast with multiple gems anyways, since Ermor has many other uses for death gems.

And what will I do with all my water gems except make them into clams? Wyverns? Cold-blooded fliers I do not need.

Wyverns are an air summon, not water. Do whatever you want with your water gems.

Losing astral means my clams aren't as good, I can't dispel, I can't forge many of the best items, and my clams aren't anywhere near as good.

You still have easy access to astral 1, which is where the most useful astral items are. I would seriously dump both astral and fire magic, to get magic 3, order 3, prod 3, and probably lose the water 9 as well.