[Tuidjy]

It also depends on whether your pretender has the magic ability to generate at
least one damage dealing aura. Soul Vortex is best, but Breath of Winter and
Fire shield are nothing to sneer at... well, unless you are trying to
inconvenience undead with Breath of Winter :-)

And I definitely do not consider Firebrand an insult to my SCs. Most of my SCs
fall in three categories:

1. Raiders. These wander the enemy rear and avoid combat. They only die to
teleporting squads, and no weapon helps against these. Firebrands/Charcoal
shields all around.

2. Army backbone. These are supported by a dozen of mages, and hundreds of
archers. Once again, they usually deal with chaff. The mages are in charge
of dishing out the hurt. The SCs are supposed to blunt the enemy attack, and
survive, even if they are paralyzed in the process. Charcoal shields for
sure, and often Firebrands... although sometimes I use the second hand slot
for some protection item - the luck sword, a second shield, etc... Note that
Firebrand is also a protection item - 50% fire resistance.

3. SCs killers. These are tailored to the target, and are nearly always
quickened fliers with a weapon in each hand. They rely on crippling a SINGLE
target in the first round with a silly number of attacks. Here the firebrand
would not be the usual choice - but it all depends on the target.

And by the way, I do not think that the Aegis is amongst the top ten artifacts.
Chaff is not what well equipped SCs die to... Mage slayer, now, that's the
real deal. Shows balls, too...