Obscure Blade

Nothing consistent, but during the fight in the Nova Warden arc where you have to capture "Patient Zero" my henchmen refused to reply to attacks on me for most of the battle. I had to beat the enemy down with my veteran powers.

Get at least the equivalent of two endurance reduction SOs in Dark Regeneration, and as said skip Cloak of Fear (Oppressive Gloom is better anyway). I find that just that alone makes it not noticeably more end hungry than the average set.

The Book of Counted Sorrows, fictional book mentioned often by Dean R Koontz.

Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly

Traveling With the Dead by Barbara Hambly

A Dark Traveling by Roger Zelazny

At The Mountains Of Madness by HP Lovecraft

I intend a bunch of explanations.

Professor Perdition the Demons/Traps is obsessively rationalist and an ivory tower scientist - he learned to summon demons via magical ritual by deducing the rituals from transuniversal physics, and still doesn't believe that the "hostile interdimensional aliens" he summons are actually demons. The fact that he can summon them by waving his hands is just interesting physics, not magic. Cole's shiny, orderly utopia appealed to his sense of how the world was supposed to work, and it was only as the story went along that he became disillusioned. But he was well meaning all along.

Earth-Heart the Earth/Earth Dominator is a earth-elemental type magical being, which was woken from its long sleep by the Hamidon Wars and only just now emerged to the surface. Where it was promptly told that it was now a member of Powers Division since that's where superpowered types are automatically assigned to by the Empire. His response has basically been "What's a Powers Division? What's an empire?" He's well meaning but baffled, and is presently just going along to get along.

Earthspawn the Plant/Earth Dominator is the result of a mother contaminated by the Devouring Earth but not actually Devoured, and has faced hostility all her life due to her weird appearance and connection to the DE. She's been going through the Crusader missions, lashing out at the world that mistreated her and I plan for her to be the atoning-hero type in Paragon.

Lady Apex the mutant brute is going Loyalist/Power (so far), and her attitude is basically "Cole Lite". She's a superior being (in her own eyes at least) who is out to gain recognition of her own superiority even as she sets out to help the "little people" of Praetoria. Her desire to help others is greater than her arrogance so she'll go hero (probably not Vigilante; they aren't admired enough), but still she's the sort of person who should make people glad that I don't role play outside my own head.

Steel Mage the Grav/Psi Dominator was created from stolen copies of the Tin Mage schematics that were in the Omega Team time capsule, and is supposed to be an improved model (Steel > Tin). However, Tin Mage not being stupid foresaw that kind of possibility and left hidden heroic-impulse inducing trojan subroutines in the programming he left behind...

Shatterqueen the SS/Shield brute wanted to be a hero in the first place; it was her temper that got her thrown in the Zig. Given the opportunity she's more than willing to work her way back into the good graces of Paragon.

Weaver of Sorrows the Fortunata was taken from her family (who were then killed) as a young girl for her psychic potential and then brainwashed into loyalty; her going heroic is due to the breakdown of the brainwashing due to conflicts with psionic enemies.

I found the Paragonwiki article on dual builds, that should help answer any other questions.

From a purely stylistic viewpoint, I personally find "SCOURGE SCOURGE SCOURGE SCOURGE" rising from my enemies more satisfying than an invisible increase in debuff strength.

Since you say you are a new player, I'd recommend you go with Necro because hyperactive Ninjas are the harder to control of the two.

I liked the Stalker one best.

I switched places with one hero and one villain. A heroine went to a server where one of my one person SGs needed more heroes; a villainess went the other way to a server where one of my one person VGs needed more villains. And I moved a character off the server I made him to where I wanted him, since I'd made him there because the game wouldn't let me claim any new slots at the time.

/Energy is very nice since the Dominator buff/rebalance a while back. And while it is indeed low on AoE, that can actually be a benefit with a set that uses Sleep powers; that's why Mind/Energy is another good combo.

I just move it to Tray 9, where I keep a lot of non-combat powers. I put it in the third slot; so in order to use it I need to first switch the bottom tray from 1 to 9, then move the pointer and click. Since I started putting it there I don't think I've ever done it accidentally.

I have a Demon/Traps mastermind whom I intend to take blueside; Professor Perdition. Although as it happens he doesn't actually believe they are demons; they are just unruly but useful extradimensional entities that the scientifically unsophisticated might label demons due to their appearance. And no, he is not summoning them with "magic gestures"; those are somatically mediated manipulations of the transuniversal field, thank you; he did the calculations himself.