5 AEB, choose natural in photomatix so you get away from the HDR look, unless that's your style. I adjust a few natural sliders but just a bit. Set your white balance on all 5 photos before photomatix. I use paint brush often. When your merging 5 or even 3 for that matter you tend to get dark areas like in between to valleys, sun shining away from a mountain also. I usually brush the sky, trees, water and very underexposed areas.
I use clarity too, but only when I brush. The entire pictures doesn't need clarity, just parts of the picture that has deep detail. Some just murder the pic by killing it with the clarity slider.