MA Marignon Advice Needed (and newbie questions)

[Arcturas]

Thanks for the help, TheDemon and Scarlioni. I appreciate it.

Good news about the penetration and fire evocs; you can't stack eyes of the void and eyes of aiming on the same mage...as cool as it would be, it makes them blind.

As far as summoning summer bears goes, I can see how that would be good, it just surprises me. 40 gems for 10 lions? It feels expensive. A harbinger is only 25 astral, and with another 15 gems (frost brand/vine shield, or frost brand/enchanted shield/fire plate) I can have an at least thug-worthy, if not SC creature. I guess the harbinger has more trouble screening for mages, though, and that's what you're paying for. And I am fielding 20 knights/battle. The 9 snakes for 9 gems seems more reasonable, but they'd probably die faster...choices, choices. I'll have to play with them and see. Thanks for the recommendation! (Just got eternal pyre up, so should have plenty of fire gems to play with)

On the subject of thugs/SCs, how much equipment is enough, and how much is too much? Harbingers, for instance, almost certainly need lots of equipment. They have a fist and a horn, so need a weapon and shield, low prot = armor, helmet, and MR/luck is crucial. Someone like Rhuax, a king of elemental fire, has a built-in flamestrike, and while I want vine shield/marble armor/amulet of luck because his protection and defense are terrible, it seems like he doesn't need many magic items.