[Windreaper]

Yup, it's devilishly easy to cripple supercombatants nowadays. Even crossbows can do it. I'm personally very fond of the Blindness -spell (Machaka starts with it, yay) even though it allows a mr. check.
I don't mind the current affliction system since I find it reasonably realistic (real combat veterans weren't scarred for no reason) and gives supercombatants something to be afraid of. There could be some positive battle afflictions like 'impressive scars' to increase ld or 'horrible scars' to give lesser fear or so, though. It however goes without saying that Pan and especially Arco got a huge advantage here. Faery Queen having this ability is very nice but it's so high in the tree that it's basically the priviledge of nature-heavy nations (Pangaea, Man etc) who go for Conjuration anyway.