early fightin' pretender spells

[rylen]

Wrote something like this earlier, saw the preview, and let it go. Drat.

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The forums introduced me to sending out a pretender early, w/o backup to claim territory. Previously, I'd been using my pretender to buff massed units -- often with "legions of steel" and such to good effect, or as a rainbow hunter. I'll lay out my experiences w/ various paths, and I hope ya'll can tell me how to better use them.

In order of apparent effectiveness:
Air -- I used to not value this too much. Then I read the 10path thread, played around with a 10 air virtue, and was amazed. Even at lower amounts of air, mirror image and mistform allow easy protection w/ just Alt3.

Astral -- Ethrealness + Luck + Twist fate are really good. The pretender seems to get injured more often then Air, but still rarely. What else is good for single travel?

Earth -- Ironskin + Earth Might also allow quick expansion at Alt3. Con2 helps w/ fatigue. My Pretender frequently gets injured and I pull back to troop support (a different subject.)

Water -- Quickness is splendid, and low path cost folks often get a little water just for that. Breath of winter is nice. But whenever I try to do just water on a Titan style figure, he gets mobbed and killed. What else to put on him?

Fire -- All I can see is getting Fire Sheild and then sitting back w/ Evo spells.

----These are mostly speculation.
Nature -- I've mostly been practicing with Pythium and Abyssia lately, so I don't want frenzied casters. But nature seems like a weaker (in combat) earth. Protection + Regeneration. Maybe poison resistance. What else?

Death -- Provides fear. And some great life drain stuff at high levels. But aside from spamming undead, what does a low level pretender do?

Blood -- Because of the need to keep resupplying, I haven't thought much about blood buffs for combat expansion. How much am I missing out?

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Thanks. Remember, this is any "tough" chassis in the first 20ish turns. I've been playing 9Inde, so the pretender needs a good setup to survive.

Rylen