[Ygorl]

On first thought, I *really* like the idea of a sleeping or imprisoned pretender not granting bless effects... It makes sense thematically, and seems like it would be good for game balance - you might even be able to boost the points granted for sleeping or imprisonment a bit, if you did this. I also agree with others that for a small map (i.e. a short game) easy research makes a lot of sense. You're still unlikely to see a lot of level 9 spells, but it opens up a lot more of the research map.