[Endoperez]

The low-level items shouldn't be very useful, but they should have some use. Of course, the items without any real powers aren't very good (armor piercing isn't enough alone), and some abilities are more powerful than others (SCs have often have higher str than att, so swords are better than axes) even without considering magic. Some items are just hard to use well, because their main use would be as special replacement weapons for normal units (Star of Heroes isn't that good for an SC who should kill critter/turn or could use something that works better against another SC).

Its the second ones I'd like to use more. Star of Heroes is a good example, as is Evening Star, Fire Bola, Flesh Eater, Vine Whip, Rat Tail, Shield of the Accursed (it is easier to just cast Horror Mark against SCs) etc. The chance of losing them is just too big. Maybe, when a commander with bodyguards dies, they should return (most of) his items with his body.
Also, one reason mundane commanders are not used much is the fact that you must choose between buying a mage or a non-magical commander. I'd like to be able to recruit both martial and scholarly commander every turn. This would let me to buy the usual 1st-turn mage, but also get another Spy as Ulm or a Tribal King to levy Slaves as Mictlan. I'm not sure what caste the priests should be in, as some of them lead armies and some of them act as morale raisers, and DomIII having more national priestly spells might change their role a little.