[Shovah32]

Only summon 1 death mage with your pretender though, he has better things to do. Black servants make very skilled raiders, heres an example of (imo) a nice one:

no weapon (built in lifedrain ftw)

charcoal shield (your main damage dealer, works wonders vrs non jotun pd/troops)

horror helm (combined with fireshield its a very nice way to rout the enemy sooner, especially if you used in groups)

black steel full plate (great prot to take hits, need i say more?)

boots of giant strength (boots lifedrains damage, very helpful)

luck pendant (doubles your survivability, almost essential on any combatant without astral magic)

amulet of antimagic (helps you resist those deadly banishings, if using more than one black servant spread them out so they dont all get hit)

and there you go, for 5 astral, 13 earth, 3 fire and 8 death (thats off the top of my head and if your astral/earth/shield items are made by smiths with hammers) you have made a raider who takes almost no damage from attacks (not all attacks hit, mundane hits only have a 1 in 8 chance of getting past luck and ethereality and even then they have to get past your nice protection), is resistant to magic, can heal himself, has fear AND damages anyone who attacks him.