[thejeff]

One thing I often like to do if I'm not running a bless or planning for a specific late-game spell, is set up pretender to be able to forge boosters for the nation paths that my mages can't make themselves.

If you've got A3 mages an A4 pretender can make them bags and helms (or start the process).
If you've got Fire mages, a Fire/Death pretender can make them Flaming Skulls.
Etc, Etc.

I find it often not so useful to have a heavy investment in non-national paths, since it's hard to get gems to do anything with them, if only the pretender can search.
Death and nature are somewhat exceptions to that, since weak indy nature mages are common and once you get some death gems, revenants can take over your searching.