Newbish question

[Wick]

Various items require various paths at various levels.

Your pretender's paths do not effect the paths of your mages.

Mostly not at all, path booster items for most of the rest, and burning gems to empower them when you really need to.

Experience somewhat increases attack, defense, research, and more but does not effect path levels.

Are you confusing research levels with path levels? Your research unlocks spells which can them be cast by a mage with sufficient paths.

[Endoperez]

There are two kinds of limits for spells and items: research requirement, and path requirement. Level 0 items are trinkets, and mostly require level 1 or 2 in a single path. Items from Construction 2 are minor and often only require level 1 in a single path, but some take level 3 (Enormous Cauldron of Broth takes Nature 3), and Soul Contract is very expensive (Blood 6 Fire 1, so 65 slaves and 5 fire gems).

Similarly for your mages, once you have researched level 4 in Evocation, all mages know the spell "Blade Wind". If they have 3 levels in Earth magic, they can cast it. If they have Earth 1, they can't. But if you give them Earth Boots (for +1 to Earth) and make them cast Conjuration spell Summon Earthpower (for +1 to Earth), even mages who only have one innate level in Earth can cast Blade Wind and other E3 spells.

Earth isn't very important for good items, but Earth 3 gives access to Dwarven Hammers which make all further forging 25% cheaper. They are supposedly one of the most important items available, often traded for in multiplayer if your nation can't forge one, and Earth-wielding pretender is a good choice for any single-player games where you want to try your hand at forging items.