: That's pretty darn weak for someone who could have (as a
: living Avatara) been a very powerful archmage.
Not really. The fact that they have enough willpower to learn how to cast a dispersal dream in the first place skeaks volumes for their abilities, even if they need magical gems to actually cast the thing.
: Does GURPS say that Shades have ANY advantage over living
: Archmages?
Mm, nope. Unless you count having access to the vast armies of their Fallen Lord patron, which must be a pretty tasty carrot for yoour average power-mad tyrant. Then there's the little matter of never dying except by hostile force, and being totally immune to any kind of poison- certainly an attractive possibility to a few of the more insane and/or paranoid dictators who don't give a damn what anyone else thinks of them. Shadification might also be attractive to an archmage who "just happened" to have been mortally wounded before he was given the offer of "eternal life".
