Dominions 3: The Awakening/God Design/Physical Form

Physical Form
When designing your Pretender God, you must first select a physical form. There are great many physical forms to choose from, suited to accommodate many needs and playstyles. Most forms cost design points. Your physical form determines the following:
 * Your Pretender's statistics, such as movement, protection, and number of hit points.
 * Your Pretender's special abilities, such as ethereality, immortality, trampling and special attack.
 * Your Pretender's starting magic paths and cost of taking more magic.
 * Your Pretender's starting dominion.

Some notable characteristics when considering your pretender chassis:
 * The Great White Bull, Sphinx, Wyrm, Monolith and Ancient Kracken all have very high HP. For every candle of friendly Domain for the province they are in, their HP are increased further by 20%, making them very hard to kill if they can regenerate during combat. Each level of Nature magic increases their rate of regeneration.
 * The humanoid mages followed closely by the Titans generally have the highest base Precision for combat spellcasting (technically the Great Sorceress and Virtue offer the highest potential Precision of any chassis). Air magic improves this further.
 * The Crone can be "cured" of old age by giving her at least 1 level of Nature magic (this effect will not be seen during the pretender design screens).
 * The statues, fountains and undead pretenders all have 0 Encumbrance, giving them great advantages for combat spellcasting.
 * The Vampire Lord and Ghost King spontaneously generate vampires and ghosts, respectively, when in high friendly Domain. These free units can sometimes play key roles in a successful National strategy.
 * You lose 1 level in all magic paths if your pretender dies, so the Immortality trait offers a great way to circumvent this. The spells Twice Born and Lichcraft or the magical Crystal Heart or Elixir of Life offer alternatives once they are researched or crafted.
 * The Recuperation skill (ex. Great White Bull) or Immortality has a chance to heal otherwise permanent Afflictions automatically each game turn. Regeneration (be it from skill, ring or spell) can heal lost hp from a diseased commander, but only during battle.

The Pretender Gods can be put into different classes as outlined below.

Types of Pretender God

 * Super Combatant: As the name implies, this god can take whole independent provinces by himself, right from the start. High Hit Points, Regeneration, Trample, Awe or Fear are big bonuses. Immortality (or a magical equivalent) is a must, since it is really only a matter of time before even the toughest Combat Pretender takes on more than he can chew and buys the farm. Since combat pretenders tend to accumulate Afflictions from fighting, Regeneration or being Undead is also of great help to keep them in top fighting condition (note that a Ring of Regeneration will sometimes cure afflictions in battle, but will NOT cure afflictions between game turns). Being swarmed by large numbers of enemies is par for the course for a super combatant, so developing multiple layers of defense is generally the rule (ie. Awe + high Protection + Ethereal). Thus it is important to be able to quickly research those spells that protect and empower you in combat. Some of those functions can be gained by forging items, but that needs time and you want to use your combat pretender fast. Fatigue is one of the biggest threats for combat pretenders, so having either magical means of re-invigoration or 0 Encumbrance is key. Nataraja is a classic combat pretender.


 * Spellcaster: This god needs some troops to protect him. He is tailored to cast certain spells (like hurling lightning or raise clouds of poison) on the battlefield. These spells need some time to be researched. During this time, protective equipment can be forged, so physical might is not as important as for a Combat Pretender. Keep in mind that fatigue is the biggest foe of battlefield spellcasters, so once again having high re-invigoration or 0 encumbrance is key. For this reason undead or animated statues make great battlefield spellcasters. A Solar Disc with high innate fire magic could act as literal Fire support pretender from the start of the game.


 * High Bless strategy: This god has lot of skill points in one (or more) magic skills. Having 4 or more levels in a specific magic path when starting out gives your holy troops a buff when blessed. Later in the game, the god can sit in his fortress and annihilate whole armies with far-casting spells. Bless effect gods double as artillery platforms and combat pretenders. Virtue can easily be a combined combat/arty/bless pretender thanks to her affordable cost and starting Air magic.


 * Rainbow, multi-bless strategy: Instead of many points of one magic path, this god has fewer skills in more magic paths. He will constantly travel the land and do magic site-searching. There are many benefits to be a rainbow mage, such as magic versatility and high research. Rainbow mages are most of the time humanoid pretenders with cheap magic picks.


 * However water magic doesn't allow going underwater any more. This is an important change for all mages (not just for rainbow mages).


 * Bargain: This god is chosen by having the lowest cost of design points. The free design points can be invested in good scales and/or magic skills. The immobile 0-point costing Oracle is a good example of Bargain pretender which can also pursue a Bless strategy.


 * Special Skill: This god is created around a specialized skill like forging magic items, blood hunting or assassination. Fountain of Blood is an example of a special pretender as it is a great blood hunter.