[Aetius]

Originally posted by HJ:
I think that it would equalize things too much, as everybody would in the end get the same bonuses, and therefore diminish the variability inherent in the present system. Furthermore, it would make the sacrifices that you have to make while creating a pretender unneccessary, as you can always make up for it later. This way it's deterministic, and either you sacrifice the points to get a good bless or you don't, but there's no going back - a tradeoff that you have to live with. Also, it would put too much focus on empowering your pretender, as opposed to doing other things with the gems.

I disagree - your approach seems too deterministic. There are many things late game to pump gems into, powerful summons, global enchantments, even some of the more powerful battle spells. And thus there would still be tradeoffs late game as opposed to a one time only decision at the start of the game - maybe that approach suits you but for myself, no thanks.