Dominions 3: The Awakening/God Design/Example Pretenders

The following are some practical examples of some useful generic Pretenders. These can be used as they are or modified to better fit your play-style, or just used as ideas to create your own.

Mother of Life and Death
This pretender starts off as a fairly decent researcher, which should help nicely on the way to getting the spells she needs to survive as an SC. She can heal Afflictions on any unit/commander in the same province throughout the game (must choose the Heal action, doesn't work on old-age or undead), which keeps expensive troops and mages in tip-top fighting condition. She really shouldn't be used alone an as SC until you have researched to minimum Ench 3 and Alt 3. At that point when fighting in friendly or neutral dominion and scripted properly, enemy troops will need magic to kill her.
 * Mother of Serpents, S2 D5 N5, Dom 5, Cost 340: SC, Caster, Minor Bless, Special (healer)

At Con 0 you can forge Birch Boots to give her some re-invigoration and fire/cold resistance or add Black Steel Plate to increase her protection if you have an Earth mage available. Later on at Con 2 she can forge an Eye Shield and a Horror Helmet once she starts going up against tougher enemies. At Con 4 add an Amulet of Resilience and think about exchanging her hand-held serpent for a Snake Bladder Stick.

In combat, her Horned Serpent bodyguard is mostly useful for absorbing attacks while she buffs up. Death 5 gives her a Fear (0) aura (ie. radiates fear to 6 squares against a base roll of 10). Nature 5 allows her to cast Personal Regeneration and Barkskin while boosting her regeneration to ~13% hp/round when active. Astral 2 allows her to buff Astral Shield, Body Ethereal and Personal Luck. When fighting solo finish off by scripting attack closest or with an accompanying army script cast spells. Later on, she will be able to buff herself with such spells as Soul Vortex (Alt 7) or Charm (Thau 7) enemy units.

For the end-game, she can summon Manikens and Tartarans or cast any of the global nastiness that Death is known for.

Pathless Wyrm
This pretender is meant to start capturing indy provinces on turn 1, and is intended for nations that benefit from good scales and want to establish a strong dominion early on. With it's Amphibian skill it can solo-capture sea provinces if needed.
 * Wyrm, no magic paths, Dom 9, Cost 197: / SC

The Wyrm has high hitpoints and a natural regeneration of ~5% hp/turn. Each candle of friendly dominion grants ~+20% extra hp, and with Dom 9 we should be pushing our dominion into neutral territory with ease. So fighting in positive dominion will make our regenerating Wyrm very hard to kill. Dom 9 gives it Awe in addition to its Fear aura, which will help in causing enemies to break. At Con 2 have a mage forge 2 Horror Helmets and a Girdle of Might. As it gains experience from fighting, the Wyrm gains even better combat skills and regeneration.

If the Wyrm ever dies, it takes 40 points worth of Holy magic cumulatively to call it back using Call God. Once recalled, the Wyrm is good to go and fight new battles, no worse for wear.

Booster Babe
This pretender is designed to be able to forge all the magic item path boosters available in the game. As a rainbow mage, she will also make an adequate sight searcher in most paths and an excellent spellcaster for both Rituals and battle magic once she gets her boosters forged... if there is an army to protect her that is.
 * Great Sorceress, F2 A3 W1 S3 E2 D1 N2 B2, Dom 5, Cost 305: Rainbow, Caster, Special (booster forging)

Once Con 6 is researched, the only thing holding her back is the availability of gems. So early-game sight searching is key. That's also where the Great Sorceress's astral pearl income comes into play: for alchemizing any missing gems. What she needs to start out is a very large amount of Astral pearls and a fair amount of Earth gems.

Begin by forging Earth Boots, then put them on and forge a Dwarven Hammer. She can now forge Skulls of Fire, Water Bracelets, Thistle Maces and Moonvine Bracelets cheaply. Using the hammer, forge a Starshine Skullcap, Crystal Coin, Ring of Sorcery and a Ring of Wizardry, equipping each new item as you go. The two rings allow her to forge all the Air, Blood and Death boosters using the Dwarven Hammer's forge bonus. The Ring of Wizardry and either a Skull of Fire or Water Bracelet allow the forging of a Fire Helmet or Robe of the Sea, respectively. From here, equip both rings, a Winged Helmet and a Bloodthorn to forge Robe of the Magi. This should allow the forging of any remaining magic items and casting of most spells and rituals, since your pretender will be able to boost any path to 6 or higher using the forged items.