And just to let you know, the vast majority of the bosses in CL cheat. You get used to it after a while.
Vast majority is an overstatement. It is not the Vast majority. Side Quest bosses yes, may and usually do cheat, but there are only 5 Main Line bosses that Cheat.
Unimatus & Selwyn in Stellarium Astraeus, Ptolmes, and Mithraya in Trial of Spheres
Cheating Side bosses: Eeglis/Thunderfin Cuthalla/Cuthalla Unimatus/Procyon Selwyn/Narallor Nightborn Marcio
All the other bosses, while they may gain more pips than you, DO NOT cheat. In fact, many of the bosses that do get a lot of starting pips (Astraeus, etc) use out of School spells so 6 Power Pips is an equivalent for 6 Pips for them.
To be fair, I did exaggerate just a little. It just SEEMS like they all cheat, but once you get started and learn how they fight, then it's not so bad.