>To read the helpfile on affinity if you think invoker
>practice ends up being too grueling. If you pick 7 paths,
>you forfeit the right to complain that mastery is difficult.

Hmm. Just because you then have only 6 to bother with, or because having six affinity on all but one path is that much easier than having 5 (assuming you distribute equally)?

Not that I think that it makes sense to complain that mastery is difficult anyway, since your efforts are well-rewarded at hero... but I guess the point I'm making is that even with 6 paths, it's still an extremely time-consuming process. So if there's validity to complaining about it at all, I wouldn't think the jump from 7 to 6 would make that much difference. But never having played an invoker, I could well be wrong.