[Tichy]

The decision about dormant or imprisoned depends on the nation and the strategy. If your initial army and recruitable troops are effective for expanding, and you believe that your recruitables can stave off a rush, dormant or imprisoned might be useful. How you use the extra design points is also dependent on your nation and strategy.

For example, you might use them to improve your scales if your recruitable troops are expensive in gold or resources, you might use them to get more paths on your pretender to make up for some that your recruitables lack, or you might use them to get a good bless for your sacred troops.

Whether to go dormant or imprisoned depends on when you expect your pretender to be most useful. If s/he has paths you will need for summons, searching, or forging relatively early on, go dormant. If the pretender itself is just a vehicle for a bless, or only needed for heavy end-game spellcasting, go imprisoned.

Disclaimer: I stink of newb, so take my thoughts with grains of salt.