Left over pretender points ought to do something.

[Meglobob]

Leif_- said:
Other stuff left-over points could be used for:

Extra province defense in home province
Minor magic items
An extra scout at start
An extra commander at start
5-10 initital research points
starting experience for your commander or troops
extra population in your home province
more titles for your pretender
down-payment on Dominions 4

Lots of good suggestions here.

There should be a way of spending every point, if I have any left over, I feel ripped off, even if its just 1 pt. Alot of strategy gamers like me, enjoy maximising/minimising everything to get maxium advantage/power.

[Endoperez]

Even better, with 40 or more points left, you get a prompt which lets you write your own title or two! I can do things like naming my pretender "Emppu, Devourer of Apples" but can't have "Emppu" who is also "The King of Kings, The Sword of Balance, Devourer of Apples".

[Nerfix]

That's wonderful, that would be great.

"Carnute Carnifex, the Rock, and the Roll"

My marverni Lord of War kept getting "the Rock".

[Gandalf Parker]

It would save alot of game setup frustration if the points went to SOMETHING. Anything is better than just losing them to nothing.

But there are some great ideas here. Most seem like they would be easy to do but I think they wouldnt. They seem easy when you think of them writing the change directly to the game you are starting. But the god gets checked and created and placed into a file, and later the game is created.

Some of them look like they would easily work. Particularly the ones that are written directly to the god file at that moment, such as additional titles.

[PvK]

Seems to me a benefit from unused points should be optional in one way or another. Otherwise, it would no longer be possible to use fewer than max points for handicap or roleplaying/thematic purposes.

[Maltrease]

Another option would be a penalty for going over (still having to stay over -40). So your build that ends at -1 points (one very frustrating one I have) could be possible. So instead of plus 10 gold, it is minus 10 gold.

[HoneyBadger]

Personally, I'd love to see leftover pretender points used to buff out my pretender, maybe adding additional hitpoints, +att, +def, +prot, etc. or starting magic items. That would allow you to personalize your cyclops or you could give your archmage a few extra heads or arms (or wings!). There should be limitations on what modifications can be done to what pretenders, like adding a flaming sword to a son of Neifel or wings to a great kraken. Ofcourse I realise that this would be a lot of work for the creators, due to a system having to be developed and programmed in, but I think it would add to fun and replayability. Also, if the appearance of your pretender could be tweaked, that would also be cool, especially if there were a way to show, for instance, magic weapons. I disagree, however, with the starting gold theory, just because it's kind of a pretender creation cop-out. Too generic-and potentially too powerful. It wouldn't add much to the fun I have playing the game, as opposed to building a "Son of Ymmr"-Norse troll concept cyclops with 4 heads and inherant regeneration or a "Baba Yaga" immortal crone who flies around in a huge iron pestil-and-mortar or a hut with chicken feet. Other things coming to mind are the ability to purchase bodyguards for your pretender in creation, to make your pretender unaffected by age but not otherwise immortal, the ability to have more than one prophet, and the ability to create a "pantheon", gaining points every time you wipe out another Pretender in battle, those points to be spent themselves on improving your prophet and setting him/her up as a lesser god to your people, in roleplaying terms.

[okiN]

I really prefer losing leftover points. It forces you to strive for efficiency in your build, and sometimes you have to sacrifice a few points to get what you want. It's part of the game.