Two very good ideas!(i promise)

[HoneyBadger]

Here's an idea for a Pretender ability. It's similar to Pretenders who summon units in battle (Lord of Serpents, Lord of the Night, etc) and ones that produce units (Vampire Queen), but instead of these two abilities, you could choose a Pretender who allows you to *recruit* a special kind of unit-or a small group of related units-with gold and resources, as you would your Nation-specific units, in the same province as your Pretender is in (similar to Capital-only). Only, instead of Nation-specific units, they'd be *Pretender*-specific units.

You could then choose a Pretender who allowed you to recruit a unit that would compliment the nation you're playing with-for instance a Mountain King dwarf Pretender who allowed you to recruit dwarf warriors to support your Niefel giants or a Lady of Coral that allowed your land-based nation to recruit Shamblers right off the bat.

There's lots of possibilities-a Dragon Queen that allowed you to recruit drakes, a Lord of the Flies that let you buy imps, a Tyrant Lord that let you recruit Villains, or a Divine Huntress that allowed you to recruit archers equipped with longbows.

Balancing probably would be easier than with Pretenders that simply produce units, since you still have to pay for the special unit with resources.