[Chris_Byler]

PoD is weak to undead slaying weapons/spells (a couple sauromancers on eagle eyes, dust to dust x4 can really ruin his day, to say nothing of thugs with herald lances or flambeaux) and IIRC has fewer HP than the titans. Cyclops is weak to Vision's Foe, eye shields and assassins with magical eyes (and sometimes poison, since as an earth mage he is likely to cast invulnerability whether it is scripted for him or not). Since they're fairly commonly used these counters are well known and people will start preparing them as soon as a scout spots your god (maybe even before, if they guess based on pretender titles).

Many of the titans also have unique special abilities (Lord of the Night comes to mind).

I disagree about the "redundant" pretender abilities, though. You can't have too many supplies, especially when you're invading the Ashen Empire. Also, strong pretender magic (ie 6+) in a path your nation has level 2 or 3 mages in can be very useful indeed, IMO; especially if it's a hard-to-boost path. I find a pretender whose paths match the nation's more useful in general; you don't have to alchemize for gems to power your big rituals, or struggle to accumulate enough boosters/empowerment on a mage who started at only level 3.