Dominions 3: The Awakening/Nations/Marverni

File:Dom3 Marverni BoarWarrior.gif

The Marverni are a tribal nation of chiefdoms guided by Druids and religious magistrates. The tribes have a long history of war and infighting, but recent developments have joined the tribes in pursuit of a single goal. The most prominent tribes are the Marverni, the Ambibates, the Eponi and the Carnutes. The Sequani, though a small tribe, are influential due to the large number of Druids among them. The smiths of the Marverni tribe are reputedly the inventors of chainmail and most nobles of the tribe use it. Low born warriors fight bare-chested. The Ambibates are known for their martial skills. The Eponi nobles fight on horseback and are the only cavalry available to the nation. The Carnute tribe guards the sacred Forest of Carnutes where the Druids gather every year. The Carnute warriors are able to go berserk when wounded. Boars are a sacred symbol to the Marverni nation.

The Marverni have skilled bare-chested fighters led by druids and nobles. Only the nobles can afford chain mail or horses. Its people have a powerful connection to the Earth, Nature and Astral magic and weak access to Water magic. They exist only in the Early Age.

Background

See the manual on page 121: Marnervi is inspired by the celtic gauls as described by Julius Caesar in his report The gallic war and by other Roman historians. See also the comic Asterix for visual inspiration.

National Features

Your national troops are composed of several light and heavy infantry types, supported by javelin throwers and slingers. Most infantry types exist as a low-resource variant without armor (bare-chested warriors) and a better armored resource demanding noble variant. Your cavalry is expensive, but quit good for Early Era.

Your Druids have powerful Earth, Astral, Nature and Water Skills and can enhance their battlefield magic with powerful Communion Master/Slaves combinations. You have no access to Blood, Death, Fire or Air magic but you can sacrifice Blood Slaves at your temples to push your Dominion.

Your only sacred unit can go berserk and is capital-only.

Your province defense consist of 1 Slinger and 2 Javelin Throwers per point; at Province Defense 20 you one additional Marverni Noble Warrior. The province defense gives you a lot of ranged attacks for your Gold and can be effective against raiders.

Starting Sites

Carnutes Gives 3 Astral, 2 Earth and 1 Nature Gem each turn and allow to recruit Boar Warriors and Boar Lords.

National Spells

Sounder of Boars

Conj-3 N2 Summons 20 sacred great boars (sacred, animal, size-3 trampler, 22 hp, map-move 3/16, forest survival, prot-6).

Contact Boar of Carnutes

Conj-5 N1E1 Summons a sacred monster boar commander (command 40, sacred, animal, size-5 trampler, 81 hp, map-move 3/20, forest survival, prot-10) that in turn occasionally auto-summons sacred great boars and can prevent bad random events from happening in the province in which it is currently located.

Monster Boar

Conj-5 N3 The caster summons a monster boar and sends it to a distant province to ravage the land. Imagine sending a single elephant to capture an enemy province and you get the idea of the chances of success.

Units

Marverni's infantry all have Mapmove 2, even the armored ones. This further translates to a +1 bonus movement rate in battle. Some types also have forest survival, allowing your nation a mobile posture in most terrain.

Auxiliaries

Marverni Horn Blower

Gold 20, Resources 1, Dagger

The horn blower increases the morale of nearby troops (Standard 12) and is a bit slower than all other infantry types (Battlefield movement: 9). When deployed correctly, he substantially decreases the chances your troops will turn and flee. This counts for your weak-morale PD as well. He is only armed with a dagger and does not wear armor though, meaning certain death if he ever comes face-to-face with an enemy. He often outruns javelin throwing comrades, so it is best to deploy him with warrior infantry types where he tends to fall to the rear and perform his role safely protected by blockers. Alternatively you can set hit to 'guard commander' on a leader who in turn is set to 'stay behind troops'.

Marverni Slinger

Gold 9, Resources 3, Dagger, Sling, Shield

Your default missile troops, the Marverni Slinger is mass-recruitable in times of need and wields a dagger and shield (but no armor). In practice, the shield does little to increase their survivability and their morale is low (Morale: 8) without a Hornblower nearby. They work well when deployed behind armored melee blockers (bare chested troops remain vulnerable to friendly fire). While they certainly meet expectations, you will probably find Indy or Jaguar Tribe slingers offer superior value for the money.

Marverni Javelineer

Gold 9, Resources 5, Spear, Javelin, Shield

This unarmored mass-recruitable javelin-thrower has shaky morale (Morale 9) and fights with spear and shield. While providing better stats than most miltia units, his lack of armor provides scant survivability in combat. In large numbers though, mass javelin volleys can still prove effective vs non-shielded troops and to pop glamours. They are somewhat overshadowed by the Marverni Bare Chested Warrior, who fulfills a similar role but comes armed with a superior melee weapon. Even if you don't actively recruit these, you will still see them often because they make up a main component of your PD. As such, you probably want to figure a way to boost their morale using hornblowers or priests. To maintain a cohesive active component in your army, the fire and flee command might be better suited than fire closest.

Bare Chested Troops

None of your bare chested troops wear armor, although they all have decent weapons and wield shields: offense vs defense. In general, even with decent defense skills, their lack of armor protection proves costly: many are often killed after only one hit. Bare chests should never be deployed against enemy archers/slingers without other troops to serve as missile magnets to draw enemy fire: veteran archers will decimate your ranks. Protective magic and clever tactics increases your potential dramatically, however. Also, in the mid/late game where lots of AN magic and weapons come into use, lack of armor becomes less of an issue anyways.

• Note that the Const-3 spell Legions of Steel does NOT affect bare chest warriors, as it only improves EXISTING armors. Other spells such as Protection, Wooden Warriors, Mossbody, Body Ethereal and the like do work. Protection/Wooden Warriors increases their armor to 12.
• Spells that incapacitate the enemy such as Sleep, Tangle Vines, Stellar Cascades, etc. are great ways to press home the advantages of your bare chested troops.

Marverni Bare Chested Warrior

Gold 9, Resources 9, Broadsword, Javelin, Shield, Iron Cap

A crossover between the javelineer and your hard-fighting bare-chested melee troops, they are able to serve both roles. Low gold cost and upkeep, although they demand a surprising amount of resources for an unarmored trooper. Still, they remain better armed (Broad Sword, Shield, Javelin) than most comparable Indy light troops, and when used in large numbers the javelins can be a devastating opening volley vs non-shielded enemies. A decent fighter, however their sub-par morale (9) and only minimal protection (3) proves vulnerable in prolonged fights without magical support. Summon Marverni in large numbers when trying to keep your gold/upkeep costs down.

Ambibate Bare Chested Warrior

Gold 11, Resources 8, Broadsword, Shield, Iron Cap

Slightly better stats and more gold cost than the Marverni tribe, they compose your most skilled fighters. Good on attack, but lack of armor means they are just as squishy as the other bare chests in tough brawls. With some magical protection, they can prove to be quite capable fighters. While it can often be a toss-up between choosing which tribal warriors to muster, the Ambibates are the wiser option if you know javelins will not work well against their likely enemy.

Carnute Bare Chested Warrior

Gold 13, Resources 6, Axe, Shield, Iron Cap

This unit fights with axe and shield, can go berserk and can freely move through forests. Costing the most gold but least resources of your naked melee-ers, they are quite spammable and have the highest morale of all bare-chested warriors. When wounded their morale, attack, protection and strength all increase while their defense (12) decreases. However the tendency to succumb to one-shot-kills means not many survive to berserk, in spite of having 12 hp. They can be deployed in independent formations or mixed in with your other bare-chested troop-types to improve overall morale. With magical support from Gutuaters, these are the goto troops for fighting in and around forested lands.

Armored Troops

Marverni Noble Warrior

Gold 11, Resources 17, Broadsword, Chain Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Shield

A good EA heavy infantry unit, superior to its indy counterpart for like money and resources.

Ambibate Noble Warrior

Gold 14, Resources 17, Broadsword, Chain Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Shield

Better attack, defense and morale than the Marverni Noble Warrior for 3 more gold. A mainstay EA heavy infantry unit of your nation. Build several forts to mass armies of these.

Carnute Noble Warrior

Gold 17, Resources 15, Axe, Chain Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Shield

Initially less proficient at fighting than the other two Noble Warrior types, this unit can go berserk and has the forest survival ability. Mix it with independent Elephants (at least 5 Carnute Nobles for each Elephant) or other melee units to make use of the high morale and the berserk effect. Carnute nobles will nearly never break and flee, but are slower than the Elephants. The Elephants will run forward trampling over the enemies while the Carnute Nobles catch up. Morale is always checked for the entire squad, and as long as you have enough Carnutes alive, the Elephant will fight to the death before considering fleeing.

Boar Warrior

Gold 35, Resources 15, Sacred, Axe, Chain Mail Cuirass, Iron Cap, Shield

The sacred Boar Warriors are only recruitable in your capitol. Fighting with axe and shield, this unit is capable of going berserk (3) and can be blessed to higher stats. Without a bless, the Carnutes offer the same stats for half as much gold.

Cavalry

Eponi Knight

Gold 30, Resources 18

Maybe the best unit in your arsenal. Not very expensive for a mounted unit, and having the unique combination of good armor, shields and javelins. Like most mounted missile troops, the precision is low (precision 8) but the Eponi Knights are excellent melee fighters with shield and broadsword. Unfortunately, the horses are not trained to use their hoof in battle like other heavy cavalry.

Remember that in one combat square can fight 3 infantry units (size 2) but only 2 mounted units (size 3). Depending on the foe you are facing, it can be better to use the Eponi Knights as flankers or second line troops behind your Ambibate Noble warriors instead as shock troops in the first line.

Unit Comparison

Marverni, Time of Druids

Name	Gold	Resources	HP	Pro	Mor	Res	Enc	Str	Atk	Def	Prc	Mv
Marverni Horn Blower	20	5	10	0	9	10	3	10	10	10	10	2/9
Marverni Slinger	9	3	10	0	8	10	4	10	10	13	10	2/11
Marverni Javlineer	9	3	10	0	9	10	4	10	10	13	10	2/11
Marverni Bare Chested Warrior	9	9	10	3	9	10	4	10	10	14	10	2/11
Marverni Noble Warrior	11	17	12	12	10	10	5	11	11	14	10	2/10
Ambibate Bare Chested Warrior	11	8	10	3	10	10	4	10	11	15	10	2/11
Ambibate Noble Warrior	14	17	12	12	11	10	5	11	12	15	10	2/10
Carnute Bare Chested Warrior	13	6	12	3	11	10	4	11	10	12	10	2/11
Carnute Noble Warrior	17	15	13	12	12	10	5	11	11	11	10	2/10
Eponi Knight	30	18	12	12	11	10	4	11	11	17	8	3/23
Boar Warrior	30	15	14	12	13	10	5	12	12	11	10	2/10

Commanders

Marverni Scout

Gold 20, Resources 2

A simple Scout with bad morale (9), no armor, no shield and a spear. Use independent scouts instead.

Marverni Chieftain

Gold 40, Resources 17

The marverni Chieftain fight with Broadsword and shield and increase the morale of nearby troops (Standard 3). He is a good all-around-commander (Leadership 40).

Ambibate Chieftain

Gold 50, Resources 17

The only difference to the cheaper Marverni Chieftain is the better attack value (13 instead of 12). Not really worth spending 10 more gold.

Carnute Chieftain

Gold 60, Resources 15

Capable of going berserk and having the forest survival ability, the Carnute Chieftain is quite expensive.

Eponi Chieftain

Gold 60, Resources 18

Your best commander to ferry huge armies, the Eponi Chieftain has excellent leadership (80) and good strategic movement (3).

Vergobret

Gold 50, Resources 1, Magic: 1H, sacred

Your standard priest suffer from low precision (9) as well as from old age (that will in turn lower his precision even more). For the same amount of gold you can recruit a younger independent priest.

Sequani Stargazer

Gold 80, Resources 1, Magic: 1S

This mage is a dirt-cheap researcher (until you find independent Sage provinces) and a useful dominion slave for your battlefield mages. Recruit lot of this units, you will need them. The precision is good (11). Note that the Stargazer is not sacred.

Gutuater

Gold 120, Resources 1, Magic: 1H1N 100%(WESN), sacred

A versatile Mage-Priest. Recruit enough Gutuaters to have at least one of each variant. The precision is good (11) and the Gutuater has the forest survival ability as well as good strategic movement (2). He can perform blood sacrifices if you find a way to get blood slaves.

Interesting Spells for the Gutuater:

• Summon Bog Beast (Conjuration 4), N2W2, 5 Nature Gems, summons 3 Poison-spitting Beasts with Poison Cloud
• Moss Body (Alteration 3), N1W1, Fatigue 20, AoE 1, Range 1: Good for buffing tramplers like Elephants
• Curse (Thaumarturgy 1), N1S1, Fatigue 30, Aoe 1 Person, Precision 100, Range 50: curses one enemy

Druid

Gold 380, Resources 3, Magic: 2E2S2H 100%(WESN) 100%(WESN), 10%(WESN), sacred

The Druid is a powerful sacred priest mage. The druid suffer from old age but has excellent precision (12). If he is lucky to have a nature pick old age is less of a problem and he can also cast the spell eagle Eyes on his self to further increase his precision. If your Druid has no nature pick you should take care of his old age problems if you want to use him as a battlefield mage. He can also perform blood sacrifices. Druids can command cast Communion Master and use the cheap Stargazers as Communion Slaves.

Interesting Spells for your Druids:

• Summon Earthpower (Conjuration 3) E2, Fatigue 20, Earth Magic +1, Reinvigoration 4 (also to Communion Slaves).
• Troll King Court (Conjuration 6), E3, 55 Earth Gems, Gives you an E3 Troll King and a army of Trolls
• Legion of Steel (Construction 5), E3, Fatigue 40, AoE 25 x 5, Precision 0: Raise Protection +4
• Weapons of Sharpness (Construction 7), E5, Fatigue 20, Aoe 25, Rrecision 0, Range 10: Gives Armor Piercing !
• Solar Rays (Evocation 2), S2, Fatigue 20, AoE 1, Precision 100, Range 35+, Damage 12+ AP
• Blade Wind (Evocation 4), E3, Fatigue 80, AoE 1 Person x 52+, Precision 0, Range 30+, Damage 14
• Gift from Heaven (Evocation 5), E3S1, Fatigue 50, AoE 1 x 3, Precision -3, Range 100, Damage 150 !
• Strength of Giants (Enchantment 3), E3, Fatigue 40, AoE 25, Precision 0, Range 10: Gives +4 Strength

Interesting Items for your Druids:

• Crystal Shield (+1 to all magic paths in Battle, including Holy)
• Crystal Matrix (autocast Communion Master at the start of combat)
• Slave Matrix (autocast Communion Slave at the start of combat)

Boar Lord

Gold 100, Resources 15, sacred

The Boar Lord bears no standard and is recruitable only in your capitol. He is sacred an can be blessed to higher stats. He is also capable of going berserk.

Heroes

The Wanderer

In the depths of Carnutes lives an ancient man of unknown origin. He is simply known as the 'One in the Woods' or the 'Wanderer'. No Druid has trained him, but he appears to be a master of the Druidic Arts. He is often accompanied by wild beasts and seems to prefer their company to that of men. Animals in turn avoid attacking him unless severely stressed. With the awakening of the God, he has reluctantly left his forest to aid the Druids of Canutes.

• A sacred druid E2S3N4H2 armed with a magical poisonous Thistle Mace and the Animal Awe (+3), Forest Survival, Supply Bonus (40) skills.

Antlered One

Carnon

Blinded

Coriax

Strategies

Useful Spells

If you take magic scales and/or an awake pretender, it is possible using Druids to get to level 3 within a single school within 7 months on 'normal research' setting.

Early Game

• Conj-1 Tanglevines and Alt-1 Eagle Eyes, Earthgrip. Those are quite useful to give your bare chested warriors the upper hand in battle when spammed, also against tough Indies. As a bonus, if you are rushed by Neifelheim or Abyssia your W randoms can buff Cold Resistance/Resist Fire on units that are set to 'Hold and Attack'.
• Thaum-1 Farstrike (combos well with Alt-1 Earth Might) plus this school sets you up for boosting your S-magi using Communions.
• Evoc-1 Starfires admittedly is a weak spell, but it gives your Stargazers something to cast. Later on Arcane Bolt works well vs magical seasonal spirits.

Those spell paths can work for an emergency if you get rushed early, and all of them can help assist your expansion. Otherwise once you feel confident you can research deeper into your chosen magic path:

• Alt-2 gives your expensive druids AoE Earthmeld then Alt-3 allows the defensive buffs Body Ethereal, Protection and Mossbody. This is the first step towards turning your low-resource bare-chested warriors and inexpensive Stargazers and Gutuaters with random N and W picks into an asset. Set up your warriors to 'hold and attack' in groups of 8 led by a mage who in turn is set to cast their buff spell three times. Ethereal warriors are much tougher to hit by normal enemy infantry, and ethereal Eponi Chieftains outfitted with some basic magic items can serve as (squishy) mini-thugs. Protection bumps your bare-chests' armor up to 12 and your noble warriors to 19. Mossbody likewise increases armor, which should be enough to prevent your bare-chests from succumbing to one-shot kills.
• Const-2 to forge Dwarven Hammers and Boots of Giant Strength (for boosting Farstrike even more). Other useful thuggery magic items gained at this level are Eye Shield (N2) and Crystal Shield (S3 E2), along with clams, fetishes and soul contracts if your Pretender has the right paths. Then on to Const-3 so your E-random druids can cast Legions of Steel, a good AoE buff for your noble warriors or indy troops, but it doesn't work on bare-chests.
• Conj-3 allows Summon Earthpower and Power of the Spheres. Both boost your E/S spell-casting power and lessens fatigue for Druids and Stargazers in battle. If Stargazers join in a communion first, a Communion Master casting PotS will boost all Communion Slaves to S2. Most early summons are pretty weak, but Sounder of Boars might be useful to help defend a besieged castle or when combined with Alt-3 buffs.
• Thaum-2 for Mindburn (S2, combos well with Conj-3 LotNS) and Sleep (N2). The AI also likes to cast Berserkers, which can backfire if it randomly targets one of your own magi. Then on to Thaum-3 for Teleport (strategic mobility for Druids) and Panic (another favorite of the AI).

Mid Game

Construction 4 is a must (Wine Bags) to avoid supply problems and form simple items like Vine Bows and Ethereal Crossbows for your Eponi Chieftains.

Thaumaturgy 2 is important for site searching and Communion Master/Slave. Higher Thaumaturgy gives you Soul Slay , Enslave Mind and Charm.

Evocation 2 is necessary for Arcane Site searching and Combat spells, Evocation 4 gives you the deadly Blad Wind spell.

Construction 6 let you forge all path boosters (Ring of wizardry) and useful items for your commanders (Heraldic Lance).

Construction 7 allow Golems (great Raiders) Weapons of Sharpness (great Mass Buff) and Forge of the Ancients which let each of your mages forge as if he had +1 of every magic skill (so even your stargazer (S1) can an forge an Fever Fetish (F1N1, gibes 1 fire gem each turn).

Later on, research either Evocation/Thaumaturgy spells for more battlefield magic or concentrate on summons (conjuration)

If you have Golems:

Alteration 3 (Personal Luck, Body Ethereal) and

Enchantments 3 (Astral Shield) are important.

Golems have two Levels of Astral Magic, and which just a skull cap (Construction 6) can Teleport (Thaumaturgy 3) themselves on top of enemy armies (magic movement phase comes before normal movement phase).

Conjuration 6 allows you to cast Troll King Court and Sea King Court. Troll Kings make excellent battlefield buffers with spells like Legions of Steel, Strength of Giants and Weapons of Sharpness. Sea Trolls allow you to go underwater.

You have Astral/Nature mages. Equip them with path boosters and make good use of the Spell Winged Monkeys. Very funny in combination with charm.

Gift from Heavens is a vital part of your arsenal for demolishing thugs and other heavy units. Use with Eagle Eyes and/or Eye of Aiming or other precision booster abilities to make this spell actually connect with it's targets.

Nation Design

Marverni's power rests on large armies backed by magic, so we need good scales for both money and research. Take Order and use Sloth to pay for it: spread recruitment of noble warriors between your many cheap forts always built in mountains/forests, so can can get away with some Sloth. Magic should always be set at 3; this is not debatable, since Marverni needs as much research ASAP to be able to bring out the heavy combat magic, and your high magic scales also reduces enemy MR when fighting in friendly Dom. Growth is also important, so that our economy grows into the mid-game, and some of our old-age Druids won't catch afflictions in winter as easily. Misfortune 2 is quite tolerable; generally the worst event is losing some gold or barbarian invasions, which our PD set to 20 in each province can easily handle. Later on, our Great Boars of Carnutes national summons can help prevent unlucky events while you spread them out among your provinces to blood hunt. to Try to put magic skills on your pretender that your Druids can not reach, like Blood, Death, Fire and Air.

Use nobles and lots of slingers / javelin throwers until you find independent archers. Build large armies, you have the commanders to lead them. Build Enough Stargazers and use the Druids with Nature Skill (no old Age problems), as deadly accurate Combat Mages (cast Communion Master, Eagle Eye, Combat Spells). Try to field at least 4 Stargazers for each Druid. Forge useful items for your Eponi Knights. Build lots of castles, your castles are cheaper than the castles of other nations and your troops are recruitable everywhere.

Strategy A: Take a Forge Lord and good Scales

This strategy concentrate on researching construction 7 as soon as possible to summon Golems. Your pretender has a bonus on forging items (even more if he forge himself an dwarven hammer) and can equip your golems / undead thugs with decent armor. Later in the game he can summon Spectres to get mages with random magic skills.

Pretender Design

Take a Lord of the Forge with Earth 4, Fire 2, Death 2. Invest all other Points in scales and medium Dominion strength.

Expansion

At the beginning, use your pretender to help expanding (don't send him out alone) and for site searching. Later, let him forge equipment or summon black servants. Black servants have the life-drain weapon and make good thugs if equipped with a good armor. Your druids are sacred and profit from the Earth-4 blessing. Make sure to bless your druids.

Research Order

Race toward Construction 7 (Golems, Weapons of Sharpness). At Construction 4 forge yourself a bunch of Skull Mentors if you have enough Death Gems. Only stop researching Construction to pick up site-searching spells. Conjuration and Enchantment gives you good undead Mages / Thugs, while Evocation and Thaumarturgy gives you good battlefield spells.

Strategy B: Take good scales and Fountain of Blood

This strategy try to make most use of your good national troops and allow a little blood / devil factory for raiding. It also gives you an interesting Bless Effect (+3 Strength) which is useful for independent amazon provinces.

Pretender Design

Give your Fountain of Blood 6 skills in Blood Magic and 2 Skills in Fire Magic. If you need more magic or better scales, try a imprisoned or dormant pretender. Take Productivity 3 and Growth 2, Dominion 7. You can gamble and take Turmoil 3 as well as Luck 3 to have less income, but more positive random events (some of them will give you gold). Or you could take Order-3 and Misfortune-3 to receive no heroes and a greater percentage of bad events, but more gold. Either choice is a net 0 points.

Research Order

Race toward Construction 2. Now you can forge a Dwarven Hammer (gives 25% forging bonus), a crystal shield for your prophet (+1 to all magic levels in combat, including holy). With an crystal shield, every Druid can cast divine blessing (blessing for all sacred units) so search for amazon provinces.

Switch your Fountain of Blood to Blood slaves hunting as soon as possible. Watch the unrest rate in your Blood Hunting province and lower taxes / patrol if necessary. You can only hunt for Blood Slaves here for a long time so do it. As soon as Construction 2 is researched, build a Soul Contract (gives you 1 devil each turn). It is important to make this as soon as possible because the soul contract pays off more if he is in the game longer. Now split your research as needed between Conjuration, Evocation and Construction.

But your ultimate research goal is Blood 7 (Arch Devil, Fire Magic) and even better, Blood 8 (Bind Heliophagus, a Flying Blood Mage and one of them is also a Death Mage as well).

Strategy C: Take an Oracle with insane good scales

The oracle is cheap and has some astral magic skill. Sit at home, research or cast "Acashic Record" and out-produce everyone with your insane good scales.

Pretender Design

Take an Oracle with medium Dominion Strength and invest in magic scale +3 (gives +2 Research points) and other good scales. The Oracle has already 3 levels of Astral Skill. Prefer good scales over good magic skills.

Research Order

Concentrate on spells that can resisted by magic resistance. Your Magic+3 dominion make it harder to resist such spells. Research the "Enslave Mind" spells and let your army grow as it move !

Strategy D: Scales + Bless

Marverni's Druids are sacred... your best and most expensive magi... so give them a bless to empower them even further. But you want to buy good scales too, so you will need to take an imprisoned pretender to achieve both. You can use blood sacrifice to help spread your dominion, so you can get away with weaker dominion.

Pretender Design

Take an Imprisoned Crone with E4 D4 N4, Scales: O2 G3 L3 M1 Dom 3. This gives you great scales plus a nice multi-bless for your spell-casting Druids (or any other sacred) that will remain useful throughout the game. Nature 4 cures the Crone of her old age, and she can be boosted to summon Lamia Queens for D/B magic diversity and endgame Tarts. Or substitute the Crone with the Arch Druid and you get a very mobile stealthy pretender with recuperation - he should prove to be very tough for your enemies to locate and kill.