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[[..Pretenders|{{:wiki:dom6_version.png?100 }}]]

====== Pretenders and Pretender Design ======

A Pretender God is essentially the player character in Dominions 6. In the wake of the Pantokrator's disappearance, Pretenders rise to lead their nations to greatness and attain divinity for themselves.

In Dominions 6, the player has a great deal of control over the characteristics of their Pretender. Pretender design involves determining the following aspects of the Pretender:
  * "Chassis" (what type of creature the Pretender is)
  * Magic paths and bless
  * Dominion strength
  * Scales (the character/effects of friendly dominion - lands under the influence of the Pretender)
  * Awakening period

The player begins with 450 design points with which to build their pretender, minus those required to purchase the chosen [[#chassis]]. Pretender design consists of purchasing positive characteristics with these design points, and making concessions to gain more design points to spend elsewhere.

You can save and load pretender designs using the shortcuts ctrl+s and ctrl+l respectively.
=====Pretender Design=====
====Chassis====

The specific type of creature used as the basis of a Pretender design is known as the "chassis". Chassis range from highly durable but immobile statues to merely very skilled mages who have attained immortality and now yearn for more. Each chassis has its own characteristics and comes with a base spread of magic paths, with a design point cost reflecting those traits. To change chassis, left-click on the creature which is currently chosen for your pretender. To inspect a particular chassis' traits, right click on it.

In the Pretender design interface, chassis are organised according to their base dominion strength, which is either 1, 2, 3 or 4. Chassis of dominion strength 1 are typically humanoid mages who can inexpensively purchase new magic paths. Chassis of dominion strength 2 are typically monsters (dragons, great serpents, etc.) which are physically powerful from the beginning of the game, but can only purchase new magic paths at great expense. Chassis of dominion strength 3 are "titans", giant humanoid creatures which are often more flexible than monsters but less durable at the baseline. Chassis of dominion strength 4 are typically immobile statues or monuments, which are very durable and can purchase new magic paths at moderate cost, but cannot move on their own. Note that there are exceptions in each category.

In Dominions 6, certain chassis also alter the limits on [[#scales]], which can usually only be increased or decreased by 2 from the default for that nation. For example, choosing the ??Great Mother?? for your pretender allows you to take up to {{scales>G3}}, instead of only {{scales>G2}}. The lower limit moves up in tandem; in the ??Great Mother?? example, the Growth scale could go to at most {{scales>De1}}, up from {{scales>De2}}. Changes to scale limits from Pretender chassis do not stack with national scale limit changes. For example, choosing the ??Void Lord?? (which usually allows taking +1 Magic scale) on [[r-lyeh-la|LA R'lyeh]] (which natively allows +1 Magic limit) still results in a maximum magic scale of {{scales>Ma3}}.

The base paths and scale limit changes of each pretender can be made visible by pressing TAB on the Chassis select screen.

===Polymorph Immunity===
In Dominions 6, Pretenders cannot be affected by spells that would cause their shape to change, such as ??Twiceborn??, ??Transformation??, ??Lichcraft??, etc. 

====Magic Paths====

Additional magic paths over the baseline for a chassis may be purchased using design points. Purchasing higher levels in magic over a chassis' default for that path costs increasing amounts of design points: each new level of magic costs 8 × level of path over default. The exception is purchasing the first level of a totally new path, which costs 10 to 80 points depending on chassis.

This increasing cost means that it is significantly cheaper to purchase a high level of a particular path if the pretender chassis begins with that path by default.

^Additional Path Level ^ Additional Cost ^ Total Cost ^
| 1    | 8, or 10 - 80 if new path (depends on chassis) | 8  |
| 2    | 16  | 24  |
| 3    | 24  | 48  |
| 4    | 32  | 80  |
| 5    | 40 | 120  |
| 6    | 48 | 168  |
| 7    | 56 | 224  |
| 8    | 64 | 288  |
| 9    | 72 | 360  |
| 10  | 80 | 480  |

===Bless Points===
//See [[Bless|Blesses]] for more information.//

Every level of skill a pretender has in a magic path over 1 provides 1 bless point. Bless points can be used to purchase blesses that the pretender's magic paths and scales fulfil the prerequisites for.

===Custom Priest Spells===
//See [[Divine Magic]] for more information.//

{{ :pretenders:azi.png?nolink|}}If a solitary Pretender God has any magic path at or above level 4, the [[divine-magic#banishment-spells | Banishment]] and [[[[divine-magic#smite-spells | Smite]] spells for the nation's priests will change; if there are multiple paths at or above level 4, the highest one is chosen for determining Divine Magic. If a pretender has more than one path of magic in which they are equally skilled, Divine Magic spells are taken only from the path closest to the left (i.e. prioritizing Fire first and Blood last).

These spells are set at Pretender Creation, and cannot be changed either by empowerment or the loss of magic paths. See [[divine-magic#banishment-spells|Banishment Spells]] for details.

[[ermor-ma|MA Ermor]] and [[lemuria-la|Lemuria]] do not gain these spells.

===Indirect Magic Bonuses===

Pretenders with 3 or 4 levels in any given path will get that path's [[magic#indirect-magic|set bonus]].

====Dominion Strength====
//See [[Dominion]] for more information.//

Dominion strength represents how fervently your pretender is worshipped by their people.

The dominion strength of a pretender can be increased over the baseline for that chassis using design points. Each point of dominion strength costs an increasing amount of design points: 7 × additional dominion strength over default. This means that it gets more expensive to purchase dominion as it increases. Chassis that begin with dominion strength 4 are usually preferable if very high dominion strength (9-10) is desired.

Dominion strength determines how many [[sacred|sacreds]] you are able to recruit in any one province. It also increases the likelihood that your pretender's dominion will spread into lands which already contain enemy dominion, better spreading your pretender's influence through the world.

Dominion strength can be increased after pretender design, during the course of a game, by building temples. Each 5 temples built will increase dominion strength by 1. 

====Scales====
//See [[Scales]] for more information.//

The six scales represent the character of the pretender's dominion, and how the worship of that pretender influences the provinces it has dominion over. For example, a pretender whose dominion is strong in Growth and Productivity will cause provinces it has dominion in to grow more rapidly and provide many resources for building units. On the other hand, a pretender whose dominion is strong in Death and Misfortune will cause its provinces to not grow, or even lose population, and experience more unfortunate events.

By default, scales can be increased or decreased by 2 at most. Increasing a scale improves its benefits but costs 40 design points, while decreasing a scale causes penalties but grants 40 design points. The temperature scale is an exception; both decreasing and increasing the scale away from default grants 40 design points. Certain nations, and certain pretender chassis, will alter these increase/decrease limits, allowing them to be increased or decreased more.

====Awakening====
<WRAP box round third right>
<WRAP centeralign>**Loggy’s research:**</WRAP>

Every turn a die is rolled to see if the Pretender awakens. If the result of the die roll is less than the current turn, the Pretender awakens. Dice here are exploding.
  * Dormant: 9 + d4!
  * Imprisoned: 27 + d20!
  * Dormant disciple: 4 + d4!
  * Imprisoned disciple: 13 + d20!
</WRAP>

{{:pretenders:father_of_winters.png?nolink |}}Pretender Gods may either appear Awake, be taken Dormant, where they will usually appear between turns 11 and 14, or  Imprisoned, appearing between turn 29 and 42. For Trinity Pretenders, all three will awaken at the same time. Choosing for a pretender to be dormant or imprisoned provides +150 or +350 additional design points respectively over an awake pretender.

The arrival of the first Dormant and first Imprisoned Pretender God is always announced to the world on the exact turn they appear, although which God has awoken is not stated.

In [[Disciples]] games, Pretender chassis which act as [[Prophet|Prophets]] awaken after half the normal period of dormancy.

Until a Pretender awakens, you will not receive the effects of Incarnate blesses, but you will receive the [[#Custom Priest Spells|path-related]] Banishment and Smite spells their magic dictates. This is also true if a Pretender is banished to another [[Plane]].

Upon awakening, your Pretender reveals the locations of all as-yet undiscovered [[thrones]].

=====Pretender Mechanics=====

====Dominion-related Effects====

{{ :pretenders:devi_of_darkness.png?nolink|}}A Pretender God produces 3 [[dominion|Temple Checks]] while on the map, and is one of the few ways for nations with Dying Dominion such as [[mictlan-ea|EA]] or [[mictlan-la|LA Mictlan]] to spread dominion naturally.

Pretender Gods, including each member of a Trinity individually, are always capable of claiming Thrones, and in friendly [[Dominion]] will bless Sacred troops and commanders fighting alongside them.

The Hit Points, Strength, and Magic Resistance of a Pretender God depend on the strength of Dominion they are located in. For each friendly or enemy candle they are located in, they gain the following bonuses or penalties:

<WRAP box 800px center>==== Dominion Effect on Pretenders, Disciples and Prophets ====
<WRAP column half>
**Friendly Dominion**
  * +10% Hit Points per candle
  * +½ Magic Resistance per candle
  * +1 Strength per candle

---------------
  * In friendly dominion the Pretender, Disciples and Prophet are blessed at all times.
</WRAP>
<WRAP column half>
**Enemy Dominion**
  * -10% Hit Points per candle (to a minimum of 10%)
  * -½ Magic Resistance per candle
  * -1 Strength per candle

--------
  * Outside friendly dominion the Pretender and Disciples can never be blessed. 
  * The Prophet can still be blessed in combat as normal.
</WRAP>
</WRAP>
Pretenders, much like Prophets, carry over their current but not max HP levels from the prior turn. This level of health will not change until they are affected by remote attacks, combat, or the healing and disease-related damage phase near the end of each [[Turn (Strategic Map)|Turn]] on the strategic map.

Pretender Gods (as well as prophets and disciples) are always blessed in their own dominion without needing a priest to bless them, including otherwise Innate blessings such as Water Breathing, Recuperation, or Half Dead. Outside their dominion, they lose this benefit, and //can't// be blessed. 

====Death and Recall====

{{:pretenders:fountain_of_blood.png?nolink |}}If a pretender dies, it is not permanently dead; instead, it can be recalled using priests. To bring back a Pretender God which has died, around 50 priest-level turns must be spent using the Call God command to recall them. The amount of recall points generated is [Holy level + 1d3 -2] according to [[user:loggy:callgod | Loggy's tests]]. Priests with an Elegist bonus receive additional priest levels for this purpose.

In [[Disciples]] games, the priests of the Pretender God can assist in recalling any dead Disciple God on their team. Any Disciple nation's priests can also help recall the main Pretender God, but not other Disciples than their own nation's.

Although Pretenders can be recalled from death, it can still have consequences. Unless the god is immortal (and wasn't killed by Soul Slay) or its nation is Ur/Uruk, death can result in the potential loss of one level of a magic path, to a limit of 0, or the loss of a point of Dominion, to a base level of 1. The chance of losing a magic path is [50% + 10% / level of Nature] (in tests 80% with any nature paths). If the pretender had no magic paths, it will automatically lose one point of dominion strength. Nature magic is the most likely to be lost (~80-90%), death the least likely. There is also about a 20% chance for a pretender to gain either {{path>D1}} Death, {{path>S1}} Astral, or {{path>B1}} Blood magic on recall, in addition to any other effects.

On recall, the Pretender will spawn in your capital province. If you own the province, the Pretender will spawn inside the fort - even if your capital is under siege. If you have lost your capital province, the pretender will spawn outside the walls.

Upon a Pretender God's return, a heal check is rolled against any [[Afflictions]] they picked up, including Disease, but not the Cursed status or [[Horror Mark|Horror Marks]].

===Exceptions===

==Immortality==

<WRAP column 40px centeralign>{{ :abilities:immortal.png |}}</WRAP>Pretenders with the [[Immortal]] trait respawn automatically after a while and cannot be recalled. The latter can be a boon on nations with weak priests or a curse on nations with strong priests. If they are killed by a soul-slaying effect that would normally prevent immortal units from respawning (e.g. ??Soul Slay??, ??Ethereal Crossbow??), they are treated as a normal pretender and must be recalled to return to life.

==Ur/Uruk Pretenders==
<WRAP column 30px centeralign>{{:nations:flags:ea_ur.png|}}</WRAP><WRAP column 30px centeralign>{{:nations:flags:ma_uruk.png|}}</WRAP>Pretenders of [[ur-ea|Ur]] and [[uruk-ma|Uruk]] will never lose nor gain paths upon death. Combined with their national priests with the Elegist trait these nations can play more aggressively with their pretenders compared to other nations.

====Trinity Gods====

Trinity pretenders are chassis which, when chosen, provide three different units instead of one. Magic paths bought are shared amongst each member of the trinity. 

Having three gods instead of one triples the number of actions that can be taken with these pretenders. However, if they are alive and in different provinces, they temporarily lose paths (-1 for each one missing) and don't spread dominion. If any of the trinity members die, each requires 25 recall points to bring them back to life, meaning it requires 50% more points to bring all back to life, and only one can be resurrected at a time.

===Divine Magic===
For trinity pretender gods, one member of the trinity is designated the "primary member". The paths on the primary member of the trinity dictate whether, and how, ??Banishment?? and ??Smite?? are replaced.

If the first member cannot use certain magical paths, but has access to others, it will replace the listed custom priest spell on the Pretender Creation screen with another, in the same order as a solitary pretender.

For the base game's pretender chassis, this means that:
  * the Hooded Spirit may not use the Earth or Water Banish and ??Smite?? variants. 
  * the Grey Ones may only use the Death, Water, Nature, and Blood priest spells, and using the Death and Water variants requires Death 7 or Water 7 due to how these paths are split and reduced across the trinity.
  * the Titan of the Crossroads has -{{path>D1}} Death and -2 to all other paths in terms of deciding Custom Priest Spells.
  * the Morrigna has -{{path>D1}} Death and -2 to all other paths in terms of deciding Custom Priest Spells.

===Magic Duel===

For the purpose of ??Magic Duel??, the base path level shown when empowering is counted, meaning the -2 malus in pretender creation is included for Morrigna and the Titan of Crossroads. The malus from splitting up the pretenders during the game is not counted for the purpose of base paths. Empowering works normally - no paths are deducted – as does path loss from dying.

===Path Distribution===

Each trinity chassis distributes paths differently. For example a {{path>F5A5W5E5S5D5N5B5}} pretender would be distributed as seen below:
<WRAP box round>
<WRAP column half>
<WRAP column 40px> \\ {{ :pretenders:grey_one.png?nolink |}} </WRAP>**??Grey One??** ({{path>W1D1}}) - 
  * Deino (primary, NB): {{path>W3D3N5B5}}
  * Enyo (FE): {{path>F5W3E5D2}}
  * Persis (AS): {{path>A5W2S5D3}}
</WRAP>
<WRAP column half>
==== Path-Sharing Specifics ====
Divide the Water and Death paths from pretender creation by two. For fractional results, Deino rounds both up, Enyo rounds Water up and Death down, and Persis rounds Water down and Death up. This means FW, WE, DA, DS, WN, and WB cross-paths are one rank cheaper than FD, ED, WA, and WS, and reaching specific WD on Deino only is two ranks cheaper than on all three.
</WRAP>
</WRAP>

<WRAP box round>
<WRAP column 40px>{{:pretenders:hooded_spirit.png?nolink |}}</WRAP>**??Hooded Spirit??** ({{path>W1E1N1}}) 

  * Spirit 1 (E): {{path>E5}}
  * Spirit 2 (W): {{path>W5}}
  * Spirit 3 (primary, other paths): {{path>F5A5S5D5N5B5}}
</WRAP>
<WRAP box round>
<WRAP column 40px>
{{:pretenders:titan_of_crossroads_1.png?nolink |}}</WRAP> **??Titan of Crossroads??** ({{path>S1D1N1}}) 

  * Hekate Lampadephoros (primary, D): -2 to all paths but -{{path>D1}} -> {{path>F3A3W3E3S3D4N3B3}}
  * Hekate Kleidouchos (S): -2 to all paths but -{{path>S1}}, teleporter -> {{path>F3A3W3E3S4D3N3B3}}
  * Hekate Kourotropos (N): -2 to all paths but -{{path>N1}}, disease healer -> {{path>F3A3W3E3S3D3N4B3}}
</WRAP>
<WRAP box round>
<WRAP column 40px>
{{:pretenders:morrigna.png?nolink |}}</WRAP>**??Morrigna??** ({{path>A1S1D1}})

  * Morrigna 1 (primary, D): -2 all paths but -{{path>D1}}, Fear5 -> {{path>F3A3W3E3S3D4N3B3}}
  * Morrigna 2 (S): -2 all paths but -{{path>S1}}, Fortuneteller 15 -> {{path>F3A3W3E3S4D3N3B3}}
  * Morrigna 3 (A): -2 all paths but -{{path>A1}}, Berserk4 -> {{path>F3A4W3E3S3D3N3B3}}
</WRAP>


=====See Also=====
Dominions 5 Wiki

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