Okay, let me pitch Dominions 5 to you

[deuterio12]

Lifelong protection does not seem so constructive, Horrormarks seems like an eventual death sentence, and the entire goal of this is to get my summoner up on the really high skill level (8-9), where they summon the biggest void critters.

For horror marks, "eventual" can be a pretty damn long time. I've had plenty of games where I spam lightless lanterns by the dozens midgame and barely see a single horror from them until the end.

And with lifelong protection in an elite mage, they may actually be able to take on some lesser horrors.