[militarist]

Pretenders... cbm did really well in improving the balance, but I think there is still a long way to add some real diversity. there are a lot of unusable, for which some niche usage are possible..in theory..but nobody really uses them.
One common thing to consider - is giving all pretenders who have blood, like deva some bloodhunt bonus, less then fountain, of course. Freak lord, vampire queen. It's very thematic.
And those pretenders that have other weak blesses, like air, all of them but great enchantress... if to add them 1-2 more air, will not make them op, but in some cases at least some will stat thinking about using them. If it will make some of them OP for one of nations (sacred hidras comes to mind), those can be not available for specific nations.

Otherwise cyclops, master druid,mother of rivers will always be a priority (or some sc). Adding recuperation to some Sc's would be also cool, otherwise many of them just unusable..at early stage because of nott compensated encumbrance problems in addition to risk of affictions and to lose it, later - because just bigger armies. Adding recuperation to more pretenders would make Sc choice more fun of later use of them. Not just early game, especially those relying on force rather then magic.