Nah, he's perfectly capable of playing outside positive dominion, especially when you get a little Alt. Since you're giving him gear, you don't want him dying anyway. The immortality is still nice for emergencies (very nice if you've got an army sitting on your capitol, head out every single turn and cast something nasty), and for removing afflictions.
D5 will give you astral through Spectral mages, MA has enough tribal indies to get you into nature, and at Const-6 you get boosted to W2. But you're right, this build is pretty much your Oracle for initial expansion, then mainly statues etc for the rest of the game. Boring!
I just hate the Ancient Ones: size 4, attack 9, a lousy spear and a buckler, and cold-blooded to boot.