[Belac]

I am currently playing Tien Ch'i in a rich settings game. I went with E9S4 on my God (Lord of Plenty), for similar reasoning. E9 for mages and Ancestor Vessels, S4 to make it easier to get up the S ladder, Lord of Plenty's magic gem providing is useful (although in retrospect, I might have stuck more paths on him if I'd known how the gem providing worked), and he can fight in a pinch with a few items and E/S spells.

So far I have no complaints.