Are Dom3 Pretenders more powerful?

[Archonsod]

What would be cool is penalties to the bless effects depending on how close your god is to waking.

I suppose maxing the scales would be incredibly useful in the late era, when magic is less influential. You could go for a decent combat pretender instead. Not only would you have the nasty mage and army core, but after a few years you'd get a rather fearsome commander to lead it...