This is a port from the dominionsmods.com forum. You can find examples for pretender design and strategy in the All Nations Guide for Dominions 5 and videos on the new blesses by Yakri

Original post: Pretender Design & Bless Strategies in Dominions 5

• All major bless effects now are incarnate only (cost more than 4 bless points, active only when the pretender is on the map), limiting imprisonment.
• The former major/minor blesses are split up e.g. the nature bless is now Regeneration (without HP) and Resilent (HP) and earth bless is now Hard Skin (+5P) and Reinvigoration etc.
• Regeneration doesn't work on inanimate units anymore, undead now have Reforming Flesh
• Minor blesses (< 5 bless points) are always enabled and are cheap to get with a rainbow pretender.
• Some blesses are passive (e.g. Larger or Recuperation) and work on the campaign map too.
• Imprisoned is now 350 instead of 250 points
• Your god is autoblessed in your dominion but can't be blessed outside your dominion (as the god itself isn't sacred) and loses all bless effects for itself. Be careful if you rely on an incarnate bless with your expander!
• Dominion 9+ doesn't give Awe anymore.

Here is a picture of the new blesses from the discussion thread. Press b in the pretender creation screen to see all blesses.

I will outline a quick four step method to designing your pretender: strategy, magic paths, dominion & scales and the chassis. A more in depth guide can be found here: Pretender Design by Maerlande

If you are unsure about creating a pretender, you can try out the sample pretenders in the nation guides

First of all you have to determine a strategy you want to pursue. It depends heavily on your nation, your opponents nations and how short (< 8 players) or long (> 12 players) the game is expected to be. They fall into four categories which can overlap:

• Expander: Your pretender is present at the start of the game and can expand immediately. Most chassis will be Monsters (Dominion 2) and sometimes Titans (Dominion 3), as they have high HP and protection.
• National defender:: Titans (Dom3, size 5 & 6) are more powerful combatants compared to monsters as they have more equipment slots and magic available but generally require some items and spells before being able to compete. For this reason they are often played dormant and can be equipped once they spawn and already use researched spells. Many have Air 2+ or Astral 5+ to use Cloud Trapez or Teleport to surprise enemy armies. As gods lose significant amounts of health in enemy dominion, they are mostly use inside their own, but can still fight well in low enemy dominion.
• Major Bless: Your sacred units are buffed (to sometimes absurd levels) to make them very cost efficient. Note that major / incarnate blesses are only in effect if the god is on the map!
• Rainbow: Rainbow pretenders have many different paths, grant the player access to many different blesses, spells, summons and items. Especially cavalry sacreds profit from the stats and resistance buffs. Due to their many paths, rainbows have high research and are sometimes taken awake to research critical spells. Generally though they are taken imprisoned for extra scales.
• Scales: Your income is very high and you have good mages and/or units which can be mass produced. Over time you will gain a massive advantage against your awake/bless opponents when holding similar and somewhat smaller sized territories.

Imprisonment

Imprisonment determines when your pretender will wake up:

• Awake: Your pretender will be available from the start of the game and can help you expand himself, with a major (incarnate) bless or research
• Dormant: The pretender will arrive around turn 10-15, to help you with in your first war himself (if defensive) or your sacreds with an incarnate bless
• Imprisoned: An imprisoned pretender has the most design points available and only breaks free of his prison between turn 28-42. He can help you with magic diversity, magic path boosters and critical battle field spells & rituals in the mid and late game

For short games it is generally advisable to take either an awake (available at start) or dormant (available after a year) pretender with a strong bless as research into magic and counters as well as growth effects will be limited. Your buffed sacreds and SC will rip the enemies apart and secure victory.

The longer a game lasts, the more magic and summons will play a role while capital only units / sacreds lose in power as more and more forts are built. Growth scales and gem/slave income become increasingly important and will have a strong impact on victory. An imprisoned pretender (available after three years) gives you the largest number of extra points that you can invest into scales and minor blesses.

When choosing your magic paths, there are several things to consider: the bless, magic boosters & diversity, mobility, site searching and key spells.

Bless: Do your sacreds have any strength that can be enhanced? For example, high protection units can be made even tougher with Stygian or Hard Skin, low HP units can quadruple their HP with Luck and high HP with Ethereal. Do they have multiple attacks? Then consider a weapon or quickness bless. If they already have magic weapons, they won't need the Magic Weapon bless. For arcane, death, nature and blood mages as well as mind blasters Arcane Finesse increases the chance to deal damage.

The bless choice also impacts whether you take an awake, dormant or imprisoned pretender. With a strong bless you want an awake pretender or at least dormant if have a good expansion and you want him in time for your first war and to take better scales. Imprisoned pretenders on the other hand should generally take only minor blesses that will be in effect whether the are on the map or not. The effects may also be duplicated or circumvented with magic by the time the pretender wakes up.

Section 2 and 3 of this guide will help you choose a fitting bless.

Magic Boosters and Diversity: Any nation can profit from boosters and mage summons for diversity. While most boosters are easy to craft there are some notable exceptions. Fire and air have a requirement of at least 4 to craft boosters and 44 or 44 to craft Staff of Elemental Mastery. Most blood boosters also require 4+. There are two very powerful astral items the Ring of Sorcery (+1 SDNB) and the Ring of Wizardry (+1 to every path) which need 6/7 to craft, which can be done by an 24 mage with a helm and two misc slots. Magic Booster Guide

Mobility: Some magic paths offer your pretender great mobility to move on the map. Cloud Trapeze (2, doesn't work on immobile units), Teleport (3), Gateway (4) and Astral Travel (5) are great and they happen before normal movement takes place. There are some items which can be used to go underwater (Barrel of Air 4/ Sea King's Goblet 3) or above water (Shambler Skin Armor, Amulet of the Fish).

Site searching is important to get a high gem income for combat and rituals. About 60% of the sites are found with 1 magic path, 85% with 2 paths and ~97% with 3 paths. Save your time and don't search in farmlands as the chance of finding a site there is very low. Some terrain types and thrones increase the site frequency. Site Searching - An Empirical Study by Max Wilson

Key Spells are game changing spells that can tip the balance in your favor. They are generally found at research level of 7 and above but need high level magic paths. An example would be Burden of Time at causes unrest (reducing gold income), greatly increases aging and kills 2% of the world population every turn but needs 5 to cast.

• Fire: +2 FR (starting with 5 at Level3), +5 leadership, +5 magic leadership
• Air: +2 SR (starting with 5 at L3), +5 magic leadership
• Water: +2 CR (starting with 5 at L3), +5 magic leadership
• Earth: +1 NP (starting with 3 at L3), +5 magic leadership, inanimate +50% max age
• Astral: +10 magic leadership
• Death: +30 undead/demon leadership, +1 existing fear (gives fear5 at D5), undead +50% max age
• Nature: +2 PR (5 at L3), + 10 supply, +50% max age
• Blood: +5 undead/demon leadership, +5 magic leadership, demons +50% max age

Expansion pretender generally should conquer provinces immediately to regain the investment you made in them by sacrificing scales. However, unless the pretender has Regeneration (Earth Mother, bless) and / or very high protection (>25, e.g. Earth Serpent), it will often need some research or items to get started. Depending on temperature scales, a Heat Aura or Chill Aura bless is very effective against independents but will not affect archers / crossbows (LA!) and it will require finesse to field sacreds in the same army as normal troops / non sacred mages.

Good combos for awake titans: AEN (e.g. Keeper of the Bridge / Annunaki of Love and War) > WEN > EN, AN Quick research objectives are Alt2 for Mirror Image / Stoneskin / Ironskin / Enlarge (size 5 → 6) and / or Ench2 for Personal Regeneration / Flying Shield / Breath of Winter.

With the strategy and magic path chosen, you can now determine your dominion strength and scales. Dominion express much influence your gods has and whether population of has faith in you (shown by candles on the map). Scales determine how your pretender god influences the world around him, whether his dominion brings for example growth or decay, order or chaos. You may want to take a look at A Look at Scales in Dominion 5

Dominion: Generally you want a strength of at least 5 so you don't get dominion killed (also domkilled, i.e. no more of your faith's candles on the campaign map). Bless nations, especially with cap only units, or those with dominion monster spawn (e.g. EA Rlyeh, MA Ermor) will want a strength of 6-8 to recruit more sacreds. Scales nations want 6 to 7 to spread their excellent dominion faster. Your dominion strength will also increase as you build more temples (1 per every 5 temples), so don't go overboard. Your pretender gains a bonus of +10% HP, + 0.5 MR and 1 strength per candle in your dominion and receives an equal malus in enemy dominion.

Order/Turmoil: The most important factor for this scale in Dominions 5 are the recruitment points (10% per level). Most standard units have 10-20 rec points while large units like giants and cavalry cost 30-50 points. Adapt your scale to the needed level by testing them in game. The scale only marginally impacts your income and event chance. Blood nations may find order useful to reduce unrest from hunts. Turmoil doesn't lead to your provinces getting unrest but they will be slower in reducing it automatically and the chance of unrest events increases.

Productivity/Sloth significantly alters the resources that you can use to build well equipped units (-45% to +45%). An excellent way for lightly armored armies to get some design points, but mandatory for nations which want to field heavily armored troops. It moderately effects the income (3%).

Heat/Cold reduces your income by 5% per level, but due to seasonal variants it's only around ~3%. If you need gold don't go too extreme unless the nation already has a preference for one temperature or the nation is underwater (max temperature capped at 1). Most nations prefer neutral temperature settings but can gain design points by deviating from it. Heat/Cold 3 gives +2 encumbrance for neutral setting in battles (avoidable with fire/cold resistances now) while cold blooded gives a +4/+7/+10 encumbrance in cold provinces. This can decisively weaken opponents with a preferred setting on the other end of the scale when fighting in your territory (e.g. Niefelheim with Cold Power vs Abysia with Fire Power). There is also a strategic aspect to the scale as cold freezes rivers/passes while heat thaws them (great for amphibious nations).

Growth/Death impacts your income (3%) and gains compound interest through population growth the longer a game lasts. The latter makes it very important in larger games (>12 players) where the compound interest starts to really shine around turn 50-60. Taking Death scales unlocks disease and some popkill events. Growth and Death also influence how many afflictions old age commanders get, so try to avoid death scales if your nation has them.

Luck/Misfortune alters the number of events and if they are good or bad. Luck can give you money, gems, heroes and items (see scales thread for numbers) while Misfortune can decrease your income as well as making assassination, popkill and invasion events more likely. Taking Turmoil3/Luck3 will give you an excellent if random income, a slight increase in events at the cost of 0 design points and 30% recruitment points.

Magic/Drain alters the number of research points your casters generate by 1. Magic can make cheaper mages more viable while drain doesn't change the number of stronger mages that much. It also alters the fatigue of spells cast in battle so that you can cast 10% more/less spells per point in your territory. At Magic 2 penetration of many S/N/D/B spells is increased so they deal damage more often while units in Drain2 territory gain magic resistance (important for demons/undead!).

Further Information: Dominions 5 Scales Analysis

Now that you determined the status of your pretender, the magic path and your scales it is time to pick a chassis. This is a somewhat iterative process as you may want to change some of the choices from above to get a specific pretender.

Super Combatants: Most are found in the Dominion 2 (thick-skinned monster) and 3 category (humanoid titans). In category 2 the dragons (Drakon, Azi) are sound choices for early expanders but are expensive and limited in the paths they can choose. Important criteria are high hit points and protection, Regeneration (prevents 70% afflictions which may reduce your magic paths!) /Recuperation (heals afflictions), and Fear/Awe. Chassis in category 3 have access to more/higher magic paths but often lack special abilities and armor for protection though some have a retinue which can be quite good.

Rainbow/Research: You want a mobile, cheap and magic diverse pretender to go research/site search which leaves human-sized Dom1 chassis (although the Dom2 Ghost King also has magic path for 20 points). With only 10 points per new path they can break into many different magics. Imprisoned is the common choice, as it gives you a lot of design points for a broad non-incarnate bless and magic diversity.

Imprisoned: If you want high dominion and don't need as much paths, the immobile pretenders (Dom4 with 40 path cost and Demilich Dom3 with 20 path cost) are very cheap otherwise stick to the Dom1 chassis as they can site search when they wake without teleport.

Magic paths have an increasing cost (see table below). Levels already on the pretender chassis or extra bless points for a nation can reduce cost drastically ( e.g. 1 level present = 10 → 9 and reduces point cost by 90 or on 3 pretender 10 bless cost only 226 instead of 440 points)

A weapon bless can take advantage of multiple attacks of units and apply to additional attacks to weapons that don't profit from strength (e.g. hoofs). They only affect melee attacks (natural like claws and weapons) and ranged attacks with weapons. Natural ranged attack (e.g. mind blast) and magic / holy spells (e.g. Smite) remain unaffected. Note that weapon blesses (“XY Weapon”) create an additional attack and do not increase the normal damage of weapons. This means they additional attacks will have to go through the full armor value (unless the are armor piercing / negating) making 3 AP or 8 normal damage very weak attacks.

• Flaming Weapons [F6, 160 Points, Deals 6 AP fire damage]
• Thunder Weapons [A7, 226 Points, Deals 1 capped AN shock damage, 3 fatigue damage and has a chance to stun for 1 round]
• Frost Weapons [W4, 80 Points, Deals 8 cold damage]
• Strength of Earth [E3, 50 Points, Gives +2 strength]
• Magic Weapons [S4, 80 Points, Normal weapons effective vs invulnerability / ethereal]
• Solar Weapons [S3F1, 60 Points, Deals 3 AP fire damage (9 vs UD/Demons)]
• Death Weapons [D8, 290 Points, Deals 2 AN vs MR and disease vs MR]
• Withering Weapons [D4, 80 Points, Applies Decay on hit vs MR]
• Poison Weapons [N4 & Death1+, 80 Points, Deals 5 AN poison damage at 1damage per round]
• Strength of Flesh[B3, 50 Points, Gives +2 strength]
• Unholy Weapons [B6, 160 Points, Deals 10 AP raw damage vs sacreds & pretenders]

Comparison of Weapon Blesses

Thunder Weapons in grey, decay damage is 0.5 instead of 1 damage per round

Weapon Blesses

Magic Weapons: Not as cheap as before patch 5.29 (25 → 80) but still well worth it. Negates Ethereal, Mistform and Invulnerability (like Stygian Flesh). Very handy against thugs, air / fire elementals, Fog Warriors and Stygian Rains.

Strength of Earth/Flesh: Not a weapon bless but does bonus damage on top of your weapon damage and much cheaper (picked once or twice) than most weapon blesses. It gives +2 strength for 50 points which increases your damage roll by two (ranged attacks +0.67). Especially worth it with low strength or item damage. Note that many attacks have the modifier “Strength not added” (e.g. hoofs)!

Circumstantial:

• Thunder Weapons: Giant & Elite Killer. Capped at 1 AN shock damage but does fatigue damage too and can stun for 1 round (-75% defense skill). Good vs size 3+ and single units (giants & thugs), though larger units have an increased chance to resist based on their HP (stun chance = 5% + [(1 AN + DRN vs resistance) / target HP] %. Countered by any shock resistance.
• Flaming Weapons: Lower priced (160) than Death & Thunder Weapons, the 6 AP damage still do good work on armored targets with 10 or less protection. Countered by protection and FR.
• Unholy Weapons: Not too expensive, devastating against pretenders and sacreds with 10 AP raw damage. Useful against sacred heavy nations (e.g. Mictlan / Xibalba) but useless against non sacred units. Countered by high protection.
• Frost Weapons: It costs only 80 points with 5.29 and is now non incarnate. It still does only 8 cold damage, meaning that medium armor and cold resistances make it useless. It can be decent for fighting underwater, as units and water elementals have few if any protection. As Jinn have a cold weakness, it can be quite effective against them.
• Death Weapons: Does 2 AN damage which excellent against heavy armored targets. However, it is prohibitively expensive (290 points) and both damage and disease can be resisted with MR. However, D8+ enables you do do all the high death rituals and summonings.
• Withering Weapons: On hit target can be decayed vs MR, aging 5 years as well as suffering 1 AN damage every two rounds. There is a recurring 5% chance to get an MR check vs 15 and stop the decay. The 1 damage ticks can lead to fast routs. Can induce old age and additional afflictions even in SC and thugs with low MR. Countered by high MR.
• Solar weapons: Does 3 AP fire damage (9 vs demons & undead). Useful against undead / demon nations and in later stages of the game (e.g. against vampires / skellispam). Goes through Invulnerability and Ethereal (and many units with these have no protection like Lemuria's troops or air elementals). Countered by high protection and FR.

Not recommended:

• Poison Weapons: Looks fine with 5 damage but those are spread out over several rounds and most targets die before damage happens. Better against heavily armored targets when combat takes 5-10 rounds. However, it also requires death scales making it a questionable pick.

• Precision [A1, 10 points, Gives +1 precision for casters & archers]
• Far Shot [A2, 25 points, Gives +30% range for archers]
• Far Caster [S4, 80 points, Gives +50% spell range]
• Arcane Finesse [S4, 80 points, Gives +1 Penetration]

Circumstantial:

• Arcane Finesse: 17% better chance to hit for mind blast, mages (with MR negate spells [mostly SNDBH]) and some item effects /e.g. Bone Glaive of Assartut), very good on astral nations! Also works on banishment and smite spells from priests.
• Far Caster: Good choice for medium range AoE spells (e.g. Falling Fires & Frost, Banishment) and high precision spells (e.g. Disintegrate, Frozen Heart, Apostasy). Great with items that increase the spell range further (e.g. Water Lens, Arcane Lens, …).
• Precision: Increases the accuracy of mages and archers. Almost a permanent Wind Guide if you invest 80 points. Note that every point over 10 counts double and a precision of 12-16 is advised to hit over longer distances..

Not recommended: Far Shot: Cheap and can give one more volley but doesn't increase accuracy and only works for your sacred archers / thugs

Protections blesses range from low cost HP up to 440 cost Ethereal. Some blesses work well with high HP / armor others low armor & HP. Taking multiple synergistic protections increase your staying power multiplicatively. Protection (Prot) is calculated from natural protection (NP) and armor (AR): [Prot = NP + AR – NP*AR/40].

• Minor / Major Resistances [FAWN 1/3, 10-50 points, Gives +5/+10 FR/SR/CR/PR]
• Awe1 [F7, 226 points, Negates melee attacks by check of moral vs 11]
• Air Shield [A6, 160 points, Gives Air Shield 80, 80% of normal or magical projectiles are negated]
• Fortitude [E8, 290 points, Halves slash/pierce/blunt damage after calculation]
• Fire & Shock Resistance [E5, 120 points, Gives +10 FR & SR]
• Hard Skin [E6, 160 points, Gives +5 natural protection]
• Magic Resistance [S1/3, 10/50 points, Gives +1 & 2 MR]
• Twist Fate [S6, 160 points, Negates first damage]
• Luck [S9 & Luck2+, 360 points, Gives 75% chance to negate deathblows, doesn't effect undead]
• Ethereal [S10 & Magic3, 440 points, Gives 75% chance to negate non-magical attacks]
• Undying [D1, 10 points, Gives 2 Undying HP]
• Stygian Flesh [D5, 120 points, Set natural protection to 10 vs non magical attacks]
• HP [N/B 1, 10 points, Gives +1 HP]
• Barkskin [N6, 160 points, Set natural protection to 10 or +1 if NP > 10, -5 FR]
• Blood Bond [B5,120 points, Half of any damage is distributed to nearby sacreds]

Comparison of Protection Blesses

Calculations with 0 natural protection, 10 armor and no shield.

Protection Blesses

Fire & Shock Resistance: 120 points give sacreds a massive 10 point boost to both FR & SR. Works against heat/shock fatigue & damage and gets rid of the severe heat encumbrance. Very good to protect SCs, thugs and sacreds from fire (elemental) and lightning spam.

Minor/Major Resistances: Good against specific elemental threats or if you want to cast AoE spells on top of your units or improve your thugs. Shock resistance is especially good as it is hard to raise without items. Gets rid of heat/cold encumbrance, but not special encumbrances like cold blooded.

Magic Resistance: You can get 1 MR for 10 (+17% resist), 2 MR for 50 (+35%) or both for 80 points (+52% resist). Solid pick vs non elemental magic (SNDB), holy magic (Banish) or magic based attacks (e.g. mind blast, especially vs Rlyeh).

Barkskin: A bit more expensive than Stygian Flesh and gives -5 FR but the 10 additional NP work against magic damage too and if you have more than 10 NP it adds +1 to NP. Excellent with FR e.g. Abysia or on F/E + N pretenders. It doesn't stack with other buffs that increase natural protection (though it stacks with berserk and paths in earth magic).

Blood Bond: Spreads half the damage across sacreds within range of 5. Relatively cheap and good on high HP units or with Regeneration and excellent on berserker troops, as it triggers berserk for surrounding units. Massive damage (e.g. Gifts from Heaven, but not instant death spells like Soul Slay) are spread and can be devastating. Don't pick it with glamoured units as the glamour of all nearby sacreds gets dispelled.

Awe1: Enemy melee combatants have to make a moral check vs 11 to make an attack (38% to attack at 10 moral) or abort their attack. Existing Awe auras are increased by 1. Very good on giants as it negates attacks and they don't count as harassing (-1 defense), though it offers no protection against ranged or magic attacks. Awesome on early expansion pretenders like the red dragon and high protection sacreds. Now works against animals (boars & elephants) and stops them from trampling units. Countered by high moral (e.g. berserker, elites, immortals) and mindless units (e.g. some undead, summons).

Circumstantial:

• Twist Fate: Expensive [160 points] for a one time damage negation. Not useful for most sacreds but very good on glamoured units, as the glamour isn't dispelled by the first hit making them much more durable. Unlike Luck, it works on undead. Doesn't work against instant death effects like Soul Slay.
• Stygian Flesh is a relatively cheap bless to beef up your sacreds protection against independents. It works well with low NP units (see Comparison of Protection Blesses) and incidentally gives your pretender Fear 5 through death paths, as well as the native ability to summon Lichs & Wraith Lords (Tartarians with head & hand slot). It doesn't work against magic damage nor does it stack with other buffs that increase natural protection (like Stone/Barkskin or paths in earth magic), but is a cheap stop gap until Mass Protection & Army of Lead / Gold come online. Countered by magic weapons, sacreds with magical weapon bless and magic damage.
• Luck: Strong bless that negates 75% deathblows (or effectively +20 HP), however with patch 5.29 it massively increased in cost (280 → 360 points + Luck2!) and is only viable if you want the Luck scales or have extra astral bless points. Very good on low HP / human-sized units as well as shape change units and it works against magic damage too! And you can more easily dispel globals and forge Ring of Sorcery/Wizardry without boosters. Doesn't work on undead or negate instant death spells and is countered by Fateweaving.
• Hard Skin is better than Stygian Flesh at NP of 5 or greater and also works against magic damage. It doesn't stack with other buffs that increase natural protection (like Stone/Barkskin, but does with berserk and paths in earth magic.
• Fortitude: Reduces slash / pierce / blunt damage (phyres) after it's calculated. Very effective against hard hitting units like cav or giants and doesn't reduce strength like Wave Warriors (Alt6). Works well with high HP / protection as well as Regeneration and stays useful throughout the game. Countered by non-physical magic damage.
• Undying: Adds 2 undying (negative) HP. Strong if you take it 7-8 times (14/16 HP) with sacred low HP units. Note that living units die after battle though Regeneration heals them up.
• Resilent / Strong Vitae (HP); Mainly used to break HP threshold for Regeneration, i.e. 11 HP, 21 HP etc.), otherwise it is too expensive.
• Air Shield: Blocks 80% of the projectiles of mundane and magic nature. In EA/MA it is generally better to take Barkskin / Stygian Flesh to get higher protection, however in LA it gets more viable against armor-piercing crossbows.

Not recommended:

• Ethereal: Physical attacks are negated 75% of the time, quadrupling their effective HP. While it's very strong against units without magic weapons, it cost at least 220 to 440 points, 120 for magic scales and you want your pretender awake/dormant for it to still be useful. As players tend to either pick Magic Weapon bless or have magic weapon troops, it is not recommended for longer games, though the AI will have problems with it. Countered by magic weapons and magic damage.

Buffs add stats or special abilities to sacreds.

• Attack Skill [F3, 50 points, Gives +2 AS]
• Death Explosion [F5, 120 points, Deals 10 AP fire damage with aoe[4 +size] after death]
• Heat Aura [F5, 120 points, Gives 10 FR & aoe3+ heat aura]
• Fire Shield [F6, 160 points, Deals (7 – weapon length + path) AP fire damage]
• Swiftness [A3, 50 points, Gives +1 DS & 30% combat speed]
• Charged Bodies:[A5, 120 points, Once per battle deals 15 SR to attacker and your blessed unit]
• Defense Skill [W3, 50 points, Gives +2 DS]
• Chill Aura [W5, 120 points, Gives +10 CR & aoe3+ chill aura]
• Quickness [W10 & Magic1, 440 points, Doubles attack and combat speed, gives +2 AS & DS]
• Reinvigorate [E2, 25 points, Gives +1 Invigoration]
• Fateweaving [S7 & Misfortune1+, 220 points, Attackers get hit more often & harder, negates luck]
• Reforming Flesh [D6, 160 points, Gives 10% reg for undead]
• Fear5 [D10, 440 points, Moral check vs 11 in 5 square radius, aura reduces enemy moral by -5]
• Berserker2 [N5, 160 points, Gives +2 AS/ 2 Protection/-2 DS and 99 moral when wounded (passive bless)]
• Regeneration [N7, 226 points, Gives 10% regen for non-inanimate units]
• Blood Surge [B4, 80 points, Gives +3 AS/ +3 Str/ +1 DS and 1 reinvig after kill]
• Blood Vengeance [B8, 290 points, Any attacker / caster takes damage after 10 vs MR check]

Blood Surge: Units gain +3 AS, 3 Str, 1 DS and 1 reinvigoration after killing a living enemy. Very strong on cavalry and multiple attack units as it increases the chance to hit & repel by 52%, adds 3 damage and 17% chance to defend when triggered as well as giving mages reinvigoration too. Useless against tough units (giants), thugs and undead.

Attack Skill: Increases chance to hit & repel by 35% for just 50 points. Very nice!

Defense Skill: Increases chance to defend by 35%. Not as good as the Attack skill but provides avoidance against trample and reduces chance that enemy will repel by 35%. Excellent for sacreds with shorter weapons (< 3) or mounted units with already high defense.

Reinvigorate: Adds 1 Invigoration which is useful to armored melee sacreds as well as casters.

Circumstantial:

• Regeneration: Units regenerate 10% of their HP per round and suffer 70% less afflictions. Good with high HP or heavily armored units but useless on standard units without added HP. Regen is rounded up (e.g. 21 gives 3 HP / round) and stacks with other sources of Regeneration from chassis, spells and items! Doesn't work on inanimate (e.g. statues, some undead) anymore!
• Swiftness increases speed of sacreds by 30%, making them take less archer fire / spells and more likely to strike first with their higher combat speed. Charge damage of lances is also increased (now only up to 50-100% of strength). With patch 5.29 it costs 50 points, but also gives +1 DS.
• Berserker2 (passive): Gives +2 AS, -2 DS, +2 protection & 99 moral. Good on already heavily armored units, stacks with natural protection and negates repel & Awe. Be careful when you use sacred mages as any damage will erserk them, preventing them from casting! Sacred cavalry is unaffected, though centaurs are. With patch 5.29, it works for unblessed sacreds too.
• Heat / Chill Aura: An aoe [3 + fire / water magic path + existing aura] effect that does 2 AN fire / frost fatigue damage and provides 10 FR/CR, making them virtually immune to the effects of the aura. Can set units on fire or freeze them, which is more effective in the respective climate (Heat/Cold). Great vs heavily armored units but negated by resistances which count double against the fatigue damage.
• Quickness: Very costly (even more so with 5.29) but sacreds gain double combat speed, +2 Attack & Defense Skill and attack twice in melee. Very strong if you can deal with double fatigue. Doesn't improve casting and ranged attacks (neither weapon nor natural).
• Fateweaving: Negates Luck (but not Twist Fate) and applies a curse against attackers (16 vs MR) that increases the attack DRN roll against the cursed unit by ~+2 AS, the chance for critical hits from 1.5% to 15% (-25% prot) and has a 50% chance to decrease it´s protection DRN by 1d6 (~+3 damage, works for AP / AN rolls from magic and auras too). Good on front liners and sacred thugs. For an in-depth description read this post by Ohlmann and greengrocer.
• Blood Vengeance: Counters evocation mages / banishment, but also triggers on friendly fire from spells and arrows. Isn't triggered by poison or trample. Quite expensive for it's effect and high MR as well as Luck counter it.
• Reforming Flesh: Regeneration for undead and blocks picking Undying [7 Undying = +14 HP]. Good on sacred high protection and HP undead as well as summoned Tartarians (with Shrouds).
• Fire Shield: Attackers receive [7 + Fire path - length of weapon] AP fire damage when hitting the blessed sacred. Works well with high HP or armored units. Stacks with fire paths but not with existing fire shields / items (only the highest applies). Don't take it on sacreds with Awe or high repel as the attack negation happens before hitting!
• Fear5: Too expensive [440] and moral debuff doesn't stack anymore, aura deals -5 moral damage to surrounding units.

Not recommended:

• Death Explosion: Hilarious but only really usable with high fire res or as suicide bombers, but even then it's quite expensive for the measly one time 10 AP fire damage.
• Charged Bodies: Once per battle, this bless deals 15 shock damage to the first attacker and to your own blessed unit. Even taking 15 SR on top will not protect you fully. If you are a new player, avoid this like the plague.

This section contains gimmicks that can be good under certain circumstances.

• Wasteland Survival [F1D1, 20 points, Sacreds ignore wasteland movement penalty and use less supplies in the terrain]
• Inspirational Presence [F4, 80 points, Gives +1 inspirational & 30 leadership to commanders]
• Wind Walker [A5, 160 points, Gives +6 map move]
• Winter's Gift [W1 & Cold1+, 10 points, Sacreds snow movement penalty]
• Swamp Survival [W1N1, 20 points, Sacreds ignore swamp movement penalty and use less supplies in the terrain]
• Water Walking [W2, 25 points, Sacred troops can cross rivers]
• Water Breathing [W7, 226 points, Sacred troops can cross rivers and go underwater]
• Mountain Survival [E1, 10 points, Sacreds ignore mountain movement penalty and use less supplies in the terrain]
• Reconstruction [E2, 25 points, Inanimate sacreds lose 'never heals']
• Unbreakable [E4, 80 points, Sacreds get 75% less afflictions in battle]
• Larger [E4N3, 130 points, Increases Size by 1, which gives +30% HP, +3 Strength , -1 DS and +2 MM]
• Arcane Command [S1, 10 points, Gives +10 magic leadership]
• Spirit Sight [S1D1, 20 points, Able to see in the dark as well as invisible units]
• Undead Command [D1, 10 points, Gives +20 undead leadership]
• Half Dead [D2, 25 points, Cannot become diseased and no need to eat]
• Reanimator [D7, 226 points, Killed enemy as Soulless 50%]
• Forest Survival [N2, 25 points, Sacreds ignore forest movement penalty and use less supplies in the terrain]
• Unaging [N3, 50 points, Sacreds start younger and age at 1/4 speed]
• Recuperation [N5, 120 points, Sacreds heal affliction outside of battle]

Circumstantial:

• Spirit Sight (passive): Gives full dark vision, making you able to fight in darkness and night without penalties. Very good if you plan to use Darkness / Solar Eclipse or fight in caves/deeps seas. Removes -10 AS penalty for attacking invisible units (e.g. Titan of the Underworld, Keres) and mandatory when fighting Ubar Jinns.
• Recuperation (passive): Nice if you have high value sacreds that accumulate afflictions like high HP SC/thugs, works on pretender though Regeneration is only 2 points more. Enables you to cure afflictions on undead units, especially Tartarians. Doesn't work on old age units.
• Winter's Gift (passive): Most cold nations already have it, but if you don't and have sacred mages and good troops it can be worth it for the very cheap price.
• Wind Walker (passive): Gives your sacreds +6 map move (or 1 province), which is always good. Advisable with slow MM8 armies to move 2 provinces or thugs / SCs for even more mobility.
• Unaging (passive): Neat pick if your sacred mages have old age (e.g. Abysia) as they start younger and age only at 1/4 speed. However, if you have the ability to Twiceborn or Transform your casters or have Growth 3, it is less useful. Doesn't always remove old age!
• Arcane/Undead Command (passive): Useful if your normal commanders can't lead many magic [e.g. Kailasa, EA Rlyeh] or undead / demonic units (e.g. Abysia, Sceleria).
• Survival (passive): Generally, there are not enough provinces to justify even the low cost. However, if you know your capital will spawn on a special terrain, it can be worth it. Swamp Survival will also make your scareds immune to the effects of Quagmire and MA Ctis Miasma dominion.
• Inspirational Presence (passive): Useful if you want mages / commanders to lead bigger armies and your sacreds aren't worth the AS / FR bless.
• Larger (passive): Often more a liability than an advantage. While size 5 or smaller units gain +30% HP, they also have less units per square, which decreases damage output by 30-50%. Can be useful on size 5 sacreds (they become trample immune) as well as sacred tramplers (e.g. Marverni boars). With patch 5.29 it is 40 points cheaper (E4 not E5). Doesn't stack with Crown of the Titans, Amulet of Giants or Enlarge spell !

Not recommended:

• Reanimator: Pretty expensive and blocks taking Undying, needs undead leadership and units spawned die after battle. But works with ranged attacks and aoe magic to distract enemy spells / banishment.
• Unbreakable (passive): Reduces affliction chance by 75%. Better to take Regeneration (-70% afflictions) or Recuperation (heals afflictions).
• Water Walking (passive): Quite expensive just for the ability to cross rivers with sacreds. Take cold scales instead.
• Water Breathing (passive): Your sacreds can go underwater. However the still get – 3 AS / DS from being poor amphibians as well as -1 AS per weapon length for non piercing weapons, -2 AS for flails and get an additional night vision penalty in deep seas. If you want water provinces take an amphibious pretender instead or expand with thugs / water mages with a Ring of Water Breathing (Const2).
• Reconstruction (passive): Only useful for statues [MA Agartha, Golems with Shroud], even then they can also be repaired in labs
• Half Dead (passive): Does not prevent afflictions from old age and needs death scales!

Strategies for the bless depend heavily on a given nation and their units but there are general nation categories in which they can be grouped. Specific bless recommendations can be found in the All Nations Guide for Dominions 5.

Tip: Bless efficiently

• If want to run a bless strategy and your nation lacks H3 priests, communions can raise the holy level of astral priests several levels for Divine Blessing.
• For smaller groups of sacreds put them into double line or box formation in the rear on “Hold and Attack” with an embedded priest. An H1 priest can bless a lot of units with 3x bless and advance.

Synergistic blesses

• Resists: Good on valuable sacreds like cavalry or giants. A combination of fire, cold, shock, poison and magic resistances gives your sacreds powerful protection against spells and auras, making them very durable in mid and late game. Cavalry, SCs and thugs will need a lot less items to fix the chinks in their armor.
• Super Strength: Taking E6B6 and earth allows you reasonably cheap access to +8 Strength, making even puny humans into deadly threats, able to punch through high protection. Combined with AS or Blood Surge (B7 for Strength + BS) it will make them even deadlier.
• F&SR + Barkskin: Good on high armor and defense sacreds, as the bless protect from magic and mundane damage, counters fire weakness
• Far Caster + Precision: If you have sacred mages that use low precision and / or low range evocations this bless will make them much more potent
• Fateweaving + Heat / Chill Aura: Decent on tougher sacreds as Fateweaving lowers enemy resist rolls against the aura fatigue and your troops will hit more often and harder. Synergistic with nations that have FR / CR innately, otherwise take care in mixing sacreds with normal units.
• Blood Bond + defensive bless: Good on higher HP sacreds (20+) combined with high protection / Regeneration / Fortitude / Barkskin/ Stygian Flesh to reduces damage exceptionally (a common hellbless combo is Fortitude + Regen + Blood Bond)
• Blood Bond + Berserker: Either on innate berserkers or with berserker bless, a hit will trigger the berserk ability of nearby sacreds (doesn't work with cavalry [expect centaurs], take care with sacred mages!)

Human-sized have size 2, medium strength and low to medium hit points (~10).

Offensive

• Magic Weapons: Just 25 points it negates a lot of magic protections and help in the mid and late game.
• Blood Surge: Repel like crazy with long weapons, hit 50% more and deal +3 damage.after killing a living enemy
• Attack Skill: Better than Blood Surge if you fight giants / undead, great with long weapons (e.g. spears) for repel
• Strength: Cheap and gives your sacreds some extra punch.

Multiple Attacks

• Thunder/Death Weapons: Expensive but AN negating damage makes your sacreds chew through high protection
• Solar Weapons: Cheap and 9 AP fire damage vs undead & demons, usable if you expect undead / demons otherwise the 3 AP damage are way too weak

Defensive

• Resists: Minor and major resists as well as F&SR help protect against magic in mid and late game, making your sacreds much more durable
• Defense Skill: If your sacreds have length 1 weapons, you can take this to reduce repel.
• Luck: Good on low HP units (Adds ~20 virtual HP)
• Stygian Flesh / Barkskin / Hard Skin: Set NP to 10, pick over Hard Skin if your units have < 5 NP

There are only four nations with recruitable archers (cap) out there: EA Kailasa, LA Man & Tien Chi and all ages of Caelum. As archers don't benefit much from incrased strength, weapon bless are better suited. Most archers have low protection so some additional armor can help them ranged duels. Generally, they are not worth a bless alone but if you want to have some fun, below are some options:

Offensive Bless

• Precision: Even a minor bless of 4 precision lets a normal 10 prec archer hit very accurately, even more so with Wind Guide
• Flaming Weapons: Almost an Flaming Arrows buff, this deals good damage to low and medium infantry.
• Withering Weapons: Not too expensive and you can easily get decay on enemy commanders and archers in the back. The decay damage ticks can induce fast routs.
• Death/Thunder Weapons: Much more expensive but the AN damage is good in early and mid game. Starts to fall of in mid game.
• Solar Weapons: Cheap and 9 AP fire damage vs undead & demons are pretty good, useless against normal troops as the 3 AP damage are way too weak.

Defensive Bless

• Stygian Flesh / Barkskin: protects squishy archers

Cavalry has generally high defense, charge damage and protection. They also take only half the normal harassing penalty (-1 def per 2 attacks), meaning they are difficult to hit in melee combat. Several sacred cavalry troops and commanders also have the glamour ability which makes it even harder to hit them in melee. Common counters are fire elementals with their Fire Shield, archers ignoring defense and magic attacks. See also 4. Elflike Nations.

Offensive

• Blood Surge: If your riders have spears (not lances), this is almost a must, as it will increase your repel and hit chance by ~50%. The extra reinvigoration helps to keep their defense up and you are very likely to activate the ability in the initial charge.
• Magic Weapons: If they don't already have magic weapons, this is a good choice help them in the mid and late game.
• Attack Skill (1-2x): Better than Blood Surge if you fight giants / undead, great with long weapons for repel, worth it to take on top of Blood Surge or even taking twice.
• Swiftness: Gives additional defense and makes cavalry even faster, helping with flanking and first strike.
• Solar Weapons: Can be a good pickup vs undead skellispam / demons, as Hoof attacks don't benefit from any strength bonus and you'll normally have 2-3 additional attacks per round.

Defensive

• Resists: Even more so than normal troops, cavalry benefits from resistance blesses (e.g. F&SR, PR) as magic is a common counter to them
• Defense Skill (1-2x): Sacred cavalry has already quite high defense, if you take it once or even twice, they become nearly untouchable in melee combat. It also helps reduce repel if you have length 1 weapons.
• Twist Fate: Good on glamoured units as their glamour will stay on longer if a damaging attack would have otherwise dispelled it.
• Reinvigoration: Reduces lowered defense from fatigue
• Stygian Flesh / Barkskin: Reduces damage, especially from archers.

Mages become a significant threat in later stages of the game and are decisive to winning battles. They are generally vulnerable to attacks (e.g. arrows) but can deal a lot of damage with their spells if they hit.

Offensive

• Arcane Finesse: good for all SDNB casters, priests or magic based attacks (e.g. mind blast)
• Far Caster: Together with the minor buff to casting range (+5) in Dominions 5 for many spells, this lets you reach enemies a lot sooner and safer.
• Reinvigoration: Two or 3 Reinvigoration significantly increase the staying power and damage output of your mages for longer battles
• Precision: Even a minor bless of +4 precision lets a normal 10 prec mage hit much more accurately

Defensive

• Luck / Twist Fate: protects squishy mages from dying to stray arrows
• Stygian Flesh /: protects squishy mages
• Unaging: The bless helps to keep your mages from dying, their eyes sharp and their encumbrance low. Less useful with Growth3 or on death / nature mages with Twiceborn / Transformation.
• Regeneration: Good on high HP astral & blood mages acting as turbo communion slaves (e.g. a Skratti with a Shroud can now support 12 instead of 6 communion masters indefinitely).

Giants have high HP, strength and size (4 and above gives them +1 weapon length now). Their size is a serious disadvantage as it limits how many of their units fit into a square and face their more numerous enemies, reducing their defense value very fast. Many of the giant counters are magic based, as it is hard for all but two-handed weapon humans to deal enough damage to kill them. See also 6. Giant and Half Giant Nations.

Offensive

• Blood Surge / Attack Skill: As giants won't harass enemy defense down much, extra AS is very welcome and as their hits will likely kill humans in one hit, the ability stays active.
• Magic Weapons: If they don't already have magic weapons, this is a good choice help them in the mid and late game. Nothing is more annoying than have deathblows continually negated by Ethereal chaff.
• Fire Shield: Giants can take a lot of hits and generally face many enemies, so this is a great help for clearing chaff fast in early and mid game.
• Chill / Heat Aura: As giants are quite durable, the Chill / Heat aura will deal a lot of fatigue damage to enemy troops and the giants gain CR / FR. It is deadly to unprepared enemies as their melee troops will soon be unconscious but falls of in mid / late game and the opposite temperature scales (i.e. Heat3 / Cold 3).
• Fateweaving: The bless helps to negate the pesky Luck on enemy troops, who would otherwise take a lot of hits to take down. It will also help your giants hit and hit harder, as well as increase magic damage on the enemy (e.g. spells, auras, Fire Shield).

Defensive

• Regeneration: One of the most common picks on giants and with reason. Their large HP pool can often regenerate 5- 7 HP per round, making them very durable and it stacks with Mass Regeneration in the late game to double that amount.
• Magic Resistance: A lot of spells to kill giants are based on MR negate attacks (Paralyze, Soul Slay, Enslave, Charm, …) so taking 3 MR will help the giants a lot in mid and late game.
• Resistances: Even more so than normal troops, giants benefit from resistance blesses (e.g. F&SR) as magic is a common counter to them
• Blood Bond / Fortitude: Taking half the normal damage, especially in combination with Regeneration, will make your giants nearly invincible in melee combat
• Awe: If your giants create fear, this will prevent all but the most determined melee attackers from even touching your giants. However water elementals / undead / berserkers will ignore both Awe and Fear.

Undead can be banished, don't fatigue in melee and often have some natural protection as well as poison / cold resistance. See also 10. Undead and Demon Nations.

Offensive

• Quickness: Works well with undead as they don't fatigue from melee combat and just keep hitting at twice the speed for the whole battle. The increased combat speed is handy for getting the first strike and fast flanking maneuvers into the back line. Can be dangerous without fire resistance against Fire Shield (e.g. Fire Elementals)
• Strength: Cheap and gives your sacreds some extra punch.
• Blood Surge: Increases your repel and hit chance by ~50% when active. The additional strength is also very welcome.
• Attack Skill: Better than Blood Surge if you fight giants / undead, great with long weapons for repel

Defensive

• Undead Leadership: More of a comfort bless but it helps keeping your valuable death gems in your pocket instead of investing them into Revive King to move undead / demons around.
• Magic resistance: Strong pick to protect your vulnerable sacred against banishment It stacks with other battle field MR spells (e.g. Protection of the Sepulchre, Antimagic) and “Shrouds of the Battle Saint” can give it to non-sacred commanders
• Resistances: Undead are particularly vulnerable to fire elementals with their low protection, HP and few magic attacks, so fire (and shock) resistance are a good addition to the native cold & poison resistance.
• Undying: Gives 2 negative HP per pick and undead will survive even without Regeneration if they go into the negative. Picking 7 Undying can double or triple troop HP.
• Reforming Flesh: With high HP sacreds (e.g. Lemuria Consuls) you can think about picking this over Undying, try to increase HP to 11 or 21 etc. to increase regeneration by 1 HP/round.
• Blood Vengeance: Quite expensive at Blood7 but great to counter banishment, evocations and battlefield wipes by killing the caster