[Dragar]

I tend to only recruit norna in my capital for most of the game - decent levels of death and astral are never a waste. Easy to teleport them, use them for mind hunt, leprosy. Communion masters naturally.

Also, every so often you are really lucky and land an S4 or D4. The S4 in particular is crucial as it is your only easy (without trading) avenue to rings of wizardy and sorcery, unless you luck on some crystal mages for crystal coin production.

Take any opportunity you can get to trade for hammers or earth gems - as Agema says your pretender is out late, at th very least you want some earth gems ready for him to forge with