I'm mostly new to MP, so take this with a grain of salt. However, in one of my current games he is doing relatively fine. I made him asleep, with Dom 9, relatively good scales (I am squemish in respect to them; also see below) and 2 magic paths at 4, with no incerase in Death path (namely, Water & Earth for Helheim - the first to increase diversity & for Quickening, the second for blessing their sacred mages). Then I made a Construction my first research priority, which allowed me to make Hammer early on & make some equipment before my King awakened. After that I used him to quicken expansion, using most money on mages. He didn't take a weapon until I got a Construction 4, but expanded fine even before that. And after Construction 4 I switched to other paths. He suffered a pair of afflictions, but remains useful - even after I discovered a sight granting me some Water mages.
Maybe I should have given him Nature instead - to get regeneration, but I reasoned that Nature mages are relatively common to find & Astral... well, it brings a risk of Magic Dules.
Will someone say where I was wrong?
Currently I think he remains relatively solid, but should be taken asleep.