Help a newbie out!

[onomastikon]

Originally posted by Targa:
One other question also: How to decide what to research, and up to what level? There are SO many cool spells...

Well like I said I'm still a newbie, but maybe this helps (if you dont think it is a stupid answer):
Experiment!
I say this because there is no way of saying which schools are better because we don't know what race/theme you are playing, and researching the same will have different results for different races.
A wise person here once suggested to me for Man and Ulm to do some nice Construction research, and that helps. I like Alteration with nature and earth and/or fire Users. Conjuration is good too. If you have a lot of fire Users, you might want Evokation. Do you like to "buff" your units? Then try some enchantment. I usually research Conjuration until 3 to get the "summon power of" spells, then switch to alteration, maybe evocation 1-2, then construction; once I get these four schools to a halfway decent level (3-4), I go with construction and alteration (playing Man, Pangaia, and Machaka), because low reasearch goes fast, specialst doesnt.
But this is me being a newbie. Sorry hope that helps.