[Xietor]

Actually the 10e may be overkill. And if i used the extra points, it would be to give my cyclops air magic.

One thing about Air magic sites is they can all be found with just 2a. That is not true of many magic paths. In fact with Earth, Death, and others, you are wasting many gems not to do level 3 searches. But not air. I think there may be 1 or 2 air sites that take 3a to find, and they are rare.

Cyclops has only 1 eye. Bummer that(: One air he can cast air shield, resist lighting, and forge a key artifacts rainbow armor(air/nature combo) as well as robes missile protection.

If i was not playing sp, or a blitz on a small map, almost certainly the Cyclops would have to have at least 1 air, and I would empower him to 2 as soon as possible for cloud trapeze after he awoke.

About the 2 drain. Lightless lanterns are easy to make. Also since EA Abysia is not an Astral race, that extra mr from the drain scale is useful. I do not mind giving up 1 research point for 80 design points and gaining a free mr point for my mages against mind hunts etc.

I typically take 2 drain when playing MA Pangaea in mp games, and just resign myself going in to being dead last in research and working my strategy around the lower level spells. EA Abysia is better off than MA Pangaea because of the lanterns.