[Sir_Dr_D]

Qm, about your comments on rainbow pretenders, I disagree.Isn't the following tru about rainbow pretenders

1) It will give you a big gem income at the beginng of the game, in all paths of magic, not just the ones your nation specializes in. Even if you have no use for gems in some of the paths, you can likely trade them for the ones that you need.
2) Even if you just had one of every path, that would still be enough to cast some battle changing spells such as wind guide, and fire arrows. These can be handy if your nation can not normally cast them.
3) Two of every path will allow you to build a number of path boosting items, to raise your pretender to 3 or 4 in the paths. And since you are also likely collecting gems that your nation can not noramlly use, it is easy to empower. Now you are at 5 or 6 in a number of path and your pretender has a lot of options in what it can do.
4) Isn't bringing a size 6 pretender into battle, painting a big target on it that says 'zap me with spells'. With a human size pretender you don't have to worry about being cursed, horror marked, soul slayed, or decayed, as long as you have some troops in front of you.


I find both rainbow's and large pretenders have their uses.For variety I try to have a different type of pretender each game.