The downside to using Awaken Dragon (as a non-Mage) is that that eats up your (one, single) spellcast for that round. So it depends on what you want to get done in a round:
place more traps?
Slow or Blind or Hypnotize one of the enemy?
Haste or Stone Skin or Magic Spring one of your own?
get one or two Balls of Lightning on the board from the dragon?
dig up more treasure?
That's going to be your decision to make each battle, though.
The REASON people keep saying to max out the Treasure Searcher isn't for the *treasure* (gold) you can find per se... it's so that you have a chance at Wanderer scrolls (especially Ancient Knowledge) and skill runes.
If you go through the first two rounds (dig & waken & dig on turn 1, dig again on turn 2) without hitting any of the big three, F8 to reload (you ARE doing an F5/quicksave before every fight, aren't you?) and place your armies in different spots to trigger a different set of treasures.
(And if you're a Mage, you can do this in the first round because of maxxed Higher Magic: dig & wake & dig & wake & dig, reload if necessary.)
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