There's been a lot of griping about cabal pendulums lately. Actually, always. Here's a relatively simple idea (that may be a bit more complex in execution) that could fix it pretty well.

Make cabal powers hinge to some degree on cabal membership - that is, if a cabal has a ton of members relative to its "natural" enemies, one or more of its powers become weaker, more limited in some way, or perhaps even unusable in extreme cases (i.e. 10 Imperials around and very few enemies, everyone loses Centurions and occasionally fails Empire powers, a la magic with an extremely thick Veil.)

In addition, underdog cabals could receive an extra power (or an enhancement of existing powers) that only becomes available during extremely rough times/when outnumbered. It could make a 6 vs. 1 Empire/Nexus raid on the Village way more interesting if black shroud occasionally fails, sigil of pain doesn't seem to make much of a dent on the defender, and Vanguard doesn't do much to soften a deathblow here and there.

Or, maybe said extra power could even be used exclusively when they don't have their item AND face many defenders. Some kind of desperation-themed power with immediate upsides useful in retrievals and some lingering downsides.

This might make bandwagons slightly less attractive, and underdogs slightly moreso.