So wanna build a pretender, do you?

Pretenders are the gods that fight for dominion over the land. They imbue the earth they hold holy providence over with a magical climate.
Those considered sacred by the nation can be blessed with holy strength by priests as they go into war, and the pretender himself can be a powerful warrior.

With this in mind, making a pretender that fits the nations gameplan is a vital part of playing dominions 4

Magical Paths

Magical paths play two important roles on a pretender.
The first one, is obvious, and that's the paths themselves the pretender has as a mage.
The second one is for a bless. Every path gives a minor bless at level 4 which scales up, and a major bless at level 9.

Air

Minor Bless: +20% range with +5% range every level thereafter and +2 precision with +1 precision every second level thereafter.
Major Bless: Air Shield(80). Stop 80% of mundane missiles that would otherwise have struck the unit.

The minor bless is decent on sacred mages.
Nobody uses the major bless, it's shit.

Astral

Minor Bless: +1 magic resist every level after 3. Caps at 18 magic resist.
Major Bless: Twist Fate. Negates the first successful hit that would have otherwise struck the unit.

The bless is best for units with high defence or glamour.

Blood

Minor Bless: +2 strength with +1 strength every other level.
Major Bless: Blood Vengence. A unit which deals damage to this unit must make a resist magic 10 roll or take that damage dealt in magic damage.

Death

Minor Bless: +4 Undying with +1 undying every level after.
Undying lets your units enter negative hp before dying. So a unit with Undying(5) will only die at -6hp. Unless Undead, a unit with negative hp will die once the battle is over.
Major Bless: Death Weapons. On hit weapons inflict an addition 2AN magical damage which diseases.

Earth

Minor Bless: +2 reinvigoration with +1 every other level.
Major Bless: +5 Natural Protection.

Water

Minor Bless: +2 defence with +1 defence every second level thereafter.
Major Bless: PseudoQuickness. Unit has twice as much AP as well as an extra turn every other turn.

This bless is best for units that already have high defence (sacred cav or Warriors of the Five Elements) and Elves which make use of glamour.
Other units with multiple attacks can make good use of pesudo-quickness.

Fire

Minor Bless: +2 attack with +1 attack every second level thereafter.
Major Bless: Fire Weapons. As a secondary effect weapons will deal 6ap damage.

This bless is best for units that have multiple attacks like Vanheims Vanhere or T'ien Ch'is Warrior of the Five Elements.