First you need a strategy how are you planning to win the game is it by attrition,dominion,aggressive expansion or perhaps some other way? (dependent on the game mode)
This is important to get known first because Many nations have diffrent focuses in units,in magic and priests (but their are some look alikes of course)!


After you have established that we can continue to the age selection as stated in game the ages affect magic and technology depending on your strategy you will choose an age with active magic but primitive technology(copper/brons weapons/armor) or an age where magic becomes more obsolete and rely more on technology(iron/steel weapons/armor).


These are the things you will need to take note of that will be affecting the creation of your pretender god:

• 1: The race:
  EA Abysia have abysians they rediate heat and have natural fire immunity
  EA Ermor is a human nation think of them as the average nation(eg no real racial disadvantages/advantages)
  EA Niefelheim who is a nation of giants who have full cold immunity
  
  
• 2: The type military
  - Military in Dominons 4 is very diverse yet you still have the basics light troops/medium troops/heavy troops/cavelry weapons such as the spear,sword,crossbow and so on...
  However you also have mythological beasts but does that make them any better then your basic soldier? Not always remember its all on how you use them.
  
  - but most importantly are the sacred units. Why?
  Well every nation has a unit or units that are sacred what makes them diffrent form the other? they require an additional resource called holy but ill return on that later on in the guide. Now what makes them diffrent is that they can be blessed and this may be very well important in the creation of your god.
  
  
• 3: Magic
  The base magic of a nation is not a requirement to have for your god the only nation that really does is MA Ermor because you can not recruit commander and units by normal means!
  
  
• 4: Priests
  These lot are very important for you to know the better they are the more efficient they are going to spread your domain/faith aswell as other good combat support abilities.
  
  
• 5: Scales and Dominion effects:
  Scales are important to know sinds some nation may benefit more from a negative scale rather then a positive.

All these things are included in the discription of your nation so be sure to read up before continuing to the next step!

First we need to make a choice in the chassis or physical form of your god this is imperative because your choice reflects in the role your god shall play how?

As you see when you right click on one of the forms you get an overview of all the stats and perks that particuler chassis has, now their are 3 ways to go at this either your god will be a:

1. SC or Super combatant
A Chassis example could be the Wyrm.
These gods are basicly killing machines these guys will have to be able to take down small armies or light defended provinces. These gods are ussually are expensive point wise and require many points to be trained in a magic path.

Important stats and perks for these are:

• Hitpoints
  Basicly the ability to tank damage.
  
  
• Magic Resistance
  Important more towards mid/end game when playing vs magic geared nations.
  
  
• Protection
  Important all the time this is your "armor" value so having this will avoid ur SC hp to drop too rapidly.
  
  
• Fear/Awe
  This is a nice extra to make your god "untoucheble".
  
  Fear causes enemies with have lower morale or flee away from your god.
  Increases in morale check by 1 each +5 fear and area of fear expands by 1 square each lvl in fear(base is 6).
  
  Awe forces enemies to take a morale check in order to be able to attack them.
  Each level of awe increases the morale check by 1.
  
  Both base morale checks are 10
  
  However doesn't work vs mindless (symbolic 50 morale or the never retreat morale) or very high morale troops like the undead that aren't mindless(20-30 morale)
  
  
• Ethereal
  This is basicly one of the most important things to have early game sinds most won't have crafted magical weaponry this make the hit chance 25% with normal weapons. This however does not mean it reduces the damage
  
  
• Reinvigoration/Regeneration
  Encumbrance causes each attack/spell to make you gain fatigue after you reach 100 fatigue your guy falls on the ground unconciously and will be a sitting duck their! to counter this make sure you have an item with reinvigoration.
  Regeneration is self explanetory its regenerates hitpoints and also reduces afflction chances but does not heal them.

2. Blesser
A Chassis example could be the Monolith.
A Bless god strategy is expensive pointwise to make these gods are adapted to the nations sacred units with the idea to eliminate the weakness and to buff strengths of these sacred units how blessing works I will describe in the next section where we are going to take a look at the magic paths your god can take but at minimum you aim to get the lvl 9 blessing.

For stats and traits a bless god doesn't need exactly much however if you want him/her to be usefull in battle the best are the ones are:

• Precision
  This will make your pretender spells to hit more dead on the enemy and can cause quite a bit of havoc.
  
  
• Reinvigoration
  Same with the SC and shouldn't be to difficult sinds bless gods are at the back of the line they don't nessecary need bigtime armors
  
  
• Gem production
  Advanced battlefield spells require magical gems to be cast having a rainbow/bless god generating these will help you on the micromanegement.
  This also can be used as an advantage to gain gems without doing alchemy.

3. Rainbow god
A Chassis example could be the Great Enchantress.
A rainbow strategy aims to get magical diversity this mage would have acces to all kinds of magical paths while not being focused in a specific one these gods make for excellent battlefield support as they can rain hell on your enemies while buffing your own troops.

For stats they would be relatively the same to the Blesser having Prescision and Reinvigoration on the top because they are required to cast many spells.

Now that we have our chassis its time to spend our points but in what lets see what does what!
In dominions 4 their are 9 magical paths however only 8 of them are able to be used by your god here in the designer/creater you make assential choices for these will affect your entire game.

For those who wish to know the magical path your pretender can't use is holy/priest.

Before we review the paths a little explenation on the blessing each magic path has a minor and then a major blessing.
The minor blessing occurs at lvl 4 and gradually gets stronger as you level the path up.
The major occurs at lvl 9 and doesn't get stronger as you level up the path.

In addition the god gets a bonus for himself for each level in this path(this bonus also implies for any other mage)

Now lets review what the paths are and their perspective affects:

• Fire
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +2 attack skill and gains 1 point per 2 lvls in the magic path up to a total of +5 attack skill.
  
  The major blessing is flaming weapons which gives you an extra 6 armor piercing fire damage.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Fire Resistance + 2, Leadership +5, Magic Leadership +5
  
  
• Air
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +2 precision and gains 1 point per 2 lvls up to +5 precision.
  
  The major blessing is an Airshield of 80 which gives you 80% missile resistance.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Shock Resistance +2, Magic Leadership +5.
  
  
• Water
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +2 defence skill and gains 1 point per 2 lvls in the magic path up to a total of +5 defence skill.
  
  The major blessing is quickness which gives you better chances to dodge and allows more actions however mages are still limited at 1 spell.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Cold Resistance +2, Magic Leadership +5.
  
  
• Earth
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you 2 reinvigoration points and gains 1 point per 2 lvls in the magic path up to a total of 5 reinvigoration points
  
  The major blessing is +5 protection which is basicly damage reduction
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Protection +1, Magic Leadership +5.

• Astral
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +1 magic resistance and gains 1 point per 2 lvls in the magic path up to a total of +4 magic resistance.
  
  The major blessing is twist fate which negates the first hit done by an enemy soldier preventing a first strike on your guys.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Magic Leadership +10.
  
  
• Death
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +5 undying and gains 1 point each lvl in the magic path up to a total of +11 undying.
  
  Undying adds the amount to the undead hp.
  And allows living to reach that amount in negative hp but they die after the battle.
  
  The major blessing is death weapons which grants an extra 2 armor piercing damage which magic resistance can negate.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Undead Leadership +30, +1 to existing Fear.
  
  
• Nature
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +3 hp and gains 1 point each lvl in the magic path up to a total of +9 hp
  
  The major blessing is regeneration which simply regenerates some of the hp of your guys.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Supply Bonus +10, Magic Leadership +5.
  
  
• Blood
  The minor blessing at lvl 4 gives you +2 strength and gains 1 point per 2 lvls in the magic path up to a total of +5 strength.
  
  The major blessing is Blood vengeance which basicly reflects the damage back at the one thats attacking you no matter the distance magic resistance can negate this.
  
  Each level in this path gives the god/mage: Undead Leadership +5, Magic Leadership +5..

Now we have come to the final step before you go into the world and start you conquest to become a true god!

This part is very important to get straight for your nation otherwise you may doom your nation before you even started. The dominion and it scales affects the workings of your empire and what kind of random events may occur.

• Dominion strenght
  - This is the life force of your god the very essence to survive in this game without this your game is lost. this basicly shows the amount of believe in your god and changes the scales of the provinces to your own.
  This value can range between 1 to 10 it is reccomended to at least have 7 or more in my personal opinion
  
  - But this is not everything in your own dominion your god becomes more powerfull he will recieve more Hit points,strength and magic resistance and the stronger your domain the more powerfull the effect will be.
  
  - In addition, pretenders that start with a maximum dominion of 9 or 10 acquire the Awe special
  ability (or, if they already have it, it is increased) according to the following:
  Maximum dominion 9 at start: Awe +1
  Maximum dominion 10 at start: Awe +2
  
  
• Order/Turmoil
  - These scales are important for nations with heavy money needs and Blood magic
  This scale affects you income,Event occurances and unrest
  
  - Negative scales would work in the advantage of demon/blood nations due that some demons have chaos power and events giving you a supply of blood slaves.
  
  
• Productivity/Sloth
  - This scale is important as it depends on the troops you can train the more resource costfull the more productivity you want to have.
  
  - However Sloth would work well for nation with cheap units getting you extra points to spend at the scales or magic paths.
  
  
• Heat/Cold
  - This scale is very dependent on the race you play with by default for most humans a blanced scale or 1 cold/heat for some others while Abysia with their lava borns require a +3 heat scale so this will not only affect income and supplies as stated in the game.
  
  - Heat/Cold play into the encumbrance of your troops the more harsh the affects the more encumbrance they have thus gaining more fatigue. This may lead to fruitfull strategies and be a nightmare when used against you.
  Nations with high heat/cold scale needs in a exact opposite land say a C'tis lizard in a 3 cold scale province he would have +10 encumbrance for each move he makes if he doesn't have any reinvigoration he will automaticly pass out after some time making him a sitting duck.
  This affect can be negated with fire/cold resistances
  
  - It is also good to know that underwater provinces are not affected by this scale. And that surten auras like Chill/Heat become more powerfull and may potentially combust/freeze you opponents.
  
  
• Growth/Death
  - This scale will ussually be on growth or balanced.
  
  - Sinds only few nations like MA Ermor and Abysia suffer very little to none of these death scales. Death scales however trigger events that may earn you death gems but also will cause the most dreafull of events and is best not combined with Misfortune at all. This also increases aging speed and affliction chances!
  
  - Growth will give you a nice boost in supplies,income and population growth and is welcome for most nations sinds population also gives you a fine amount of taxation and is an excellent choice for players who see longterm plans ahead as it slows down aging(just a bit) and protects you from afflictions.
  
  
• Luck/Misfortune
  - This scale affects the events rate and wether or not it is a good or bad event if events are rare you might wanna try and go for a misfortune scale however if events are common a balanced or luck is best.
  
  
• Magic/Drain
  - This scale affects your research in magic low nations Drain is a very valid option or nations like MA ulm needs drain as a must.
  
  - Other then the affects on research this scale also gives you magic resistance(+0.5 MR per scale rounded down) on drain and a magic weakness(-0.5 MR per scale rounded down) on magic so make this choice wisely!
  
  - It also affects the fatigue generation on spellcasting magic nations will have 10% less fatigue while drain will get you 10% more fatigue for spellcasting

This option is more of a trade basicly the deal is bring in your god later in the game in return for extra points. This is very usefull for bless but for SC/rainbow gods it is not very usefull sinds they are required to expand quickly early in the game.
The following types are:

• Awake:
  God starts directly and gives 0 points.(Reccomended for SCs and Rainbow)
  
  
• Dormant
  God starts after +/- 12 turns and gives you 150 points
  
  
• Imprisonment
  God starts after +/- 36 turns and gives you 250 points(Reccomended for Bless)

Thats it I like to thank you for reading this guide and i hope this have been a usefull learning experience about the game. Let me know if you see mistakes or have suggestion to add things.