Pretenders: Rainbow vs SC

[Squirrelloid]

Consider an S6 Dom 8 Oracle with O3P3G3L3M3 and your choice of H3 or C3. That's neither a rainbow or an SC, and its the extreme end of a perfectly good pretender archetype. (basically pure scales with good dominion and enough astral to matter later).

Consider an S9F9W9 Dom 7 Oracle w/ T2S3H3D3L3Dr2. Not unreasonable for a nation like LA Mictlan who wants a big bless, and can control its dominion spread by choosing if and when to blood sacrifice (so it only really suffers the effects of its dominion in and around its capital). Less extreme versions of that can certainly be imagined. Its also not an SC or a rainbow.

I'm not sure how you would classify a Forge Lord. I mean, he's not really a rainbow, but you'll probably drop 3-4 paths on him. He can SC, but you're not going to use him as one. He's going to sit in a lab and forge stuff.

[rdonj]

With regards to bless pretenders: If at all possible to take an SCable pretender as your bless nation, it is a good idea. Most heavy blesses are not that great for late game spellcasting, and aside from some forging and big globals and such, there is not much that a non-SC pretender there can offer you. Whereas, if you take an SC pretender, it gives you a powerful unit that can be useful and tough to kill whatever you're using it for in the late game, which can be very useful. Whether as a battlefield spellcaster or a frontline combatant. And if you're going strong enough of a bless to be imprisoned, your pretender should hopefully not have to do a whole lot of diversifying or you are probably in trouble.