The docs suck! (rant)

[Taqwus]

It is a fair comment that the spell manual is redundant with in-game documentation (given that, unlike item descriptions, all spell descriptions can be browsed from the very start with just a couple of classes of exceptions (nation-restricted spells and holy/unholy; you can only view these descriptions once you have somebody with at least one point in all prerequisite paths).
It would have been useful for the manual to include advice on how to play the assorted nation/theme combinations, but I'm not really sure that at the time of release -- or even now -- there's that clear advice on them all.