Beginner Questions

[Frostmourne27]

Re: Buatha
The chosen amount of magic isn't the max level. It can be increased in game by empowerment or by pathboosting items. However, your blessing, the effects of which can be seen at the bottom of the magic page, is based on what you started with.
I'm not sure I understand exaclty what you mean by the rest of your post, but I'll try to answer as best I can. If you have a god with astral three, he can cast ANY spell that requires astral 2, 3, or 4. However, he has to research those spells first. So, at the begining of the game, he can cast twist fate. If you research alteration 1, he can cast personal luck, an astral 1 spell. If you research alteration 9, he can cast any alteration spell that requires astral three or less: Twist Fate, Personal Luck, Body Ethereal, Luck, Baleful Star, Control, and Battle Fortune. His astral magic doesn't go up as you research more spells. If you want him to cast wish (alteration 9, requires nine astral) you would need to empower him, or give him astral boosting items.
Research works as follows: you need X points to get level one (starting settings can change what X is) once you put X points into that school of magic, you have all level one spells researched, for all mages. You then need to put a certain amount of research into that same school to get level two spells. (It allways cost more to research a level than it cost to research the previous level.) The manual, on pages 83 through 91, has a lot more detail about this.

[Archonsod]

You should also note that a character needs at least one level in a path in order to benefit from an item bonus for it. For example, a thistle mace (grants +1 nature bonus) will only work for mages who already have at least 1 level in nature magic (taking them to Nature 2). Mages without nature magic won't gain the bonus (though they would still benefit from any other abilties conferred).

[Patriot]

Has anyone found a liking to Blood magic? I know that Mictlan practically relies on it, but how about with other races? Sacrificing and gathering virgins makes people angry and I'm killing off the population as I patrol it. Should I take Growth when using Blood magic? Or should I just let them suffer and die?

Also, has anyone ever found a Blood magic site? I think I've seen an Arena one day, but it gave like +25 gold.

[Nerfix]

I've found the Blood Citadel and Vale of Infinite Horror. The first one is nice, the second one...well, is not nice. There are some blood magic sites but they aren't very common. Some of them are very, very nice (Mountain of Power, Devil's Den) while others are just lame (that Villains site).

Blood magic was considered overpoweringly good in Dominions 2. I don't play that much with blood nations, so I don't know how strong it is in Dom 3.

Growth can nullify the poploss a bit, but it won't stop it.

[Daynarr]

Growth will allow population to grow back it you stop bloodhunting in that province. Ideally, you will use 2 neighboring provinces, one resting and getting population up and other for bloodhunting (it's like farming )

[Teraswaerto]

Ideally, you'll use ALL PROVINCES YOU OWN LET THE BLOOD FLOW!

[Taqwus]

Mount Chaining, if memory serves, is a blood site which offers a 40% discount on... conjuration, IIRC. The minor blood sites tend to give just unrest, or a little gold; but some do offer devils, discounts, et al. Damned Merchant is convenient, although the impact is minor if you've got even a couple of teams of blood hunters.

Turn off auto-tax, drop taxes to 0, use a couple of B1+ hunters with Sanguine Dousing Rods, move 'em along when pop drops a lot or make 'em pause when there's high unrest.

Blood got a couple of nice new high-level combat spells, and some high level ritual eeeeeeeevil (Horror Seed ), and there are some fun items to forge... but it's still a summoning school at heart.