Basic Questions

[Taqwus]

There's also ways to boost your spell power during battle. Spending gems, for instance, can boost your mage's effective level by one for that casting. Certain paths have spells which boost either a single path (e.g. "Summon Earth Power", IIRC, boosts Earth by 1 for that battle only, plus gives reinvigoration) and there's at least two spells which boost /all/ paths you have by one (Astral's "Power of the Spheres") or two (Blood's "Hell Power"). You can also use Communion/Sabbath; the communion master will effectively gain levels for that battle based on how many communion slaves there are. The slaves will also divide up fatigue.
None of those ways will help with out-of-battle rituals, forging or site searching however.