Archonsod said:
Mage246 said:
ie, it's way too low for Mages, so by the endgame every single battle is horrendously unbalanced
By the endgame a mage should be able to fabricate an entire army from virtually nothing. It's only an issue if you've focused on damage spells rather than battlefield control. In fact the end game is actually easier; you can take your casualties on the stacks that vanish at the end of combat, warriors and paladins on the other hand have to watch their attrition.
Direct damage spells are useless by the endgame; stop assuming you know my strategy. The issue is that, in certain battles, the enemy is strong and fast enough (and can cast spells like Dispel) that you can't cast spells often enough to keep up with their damage. Plus, you run out of mana very quickly (even after stuffing your inventory full of +mana items). Once your mana empties, you're screwed (yes I used all kinds of methods for rapid mana regeneration, but those all take time you don't have).
In one battle in particular (the orcish god battle), the enemy is a powerful spellcaster with a larger army (with each individual stack being practically an army-killer on its own). If you cast summon spells, he will take them down immediately. If you try to use battlefield control spells to keep his units locked down and at range, he will use teleport and his own ranged attacks. The only real option is to kill his forces quicker than he can kill yours, and that requires a much larger army than a mage can assemble (even after leveling up much higher than him). Once you've whittled his forces down to a manageable level, you have options for resurrecting your army, battlefield control, and otherwise mitigating losses.
Plus, any warrior can learn summon, phantom, etc. By the endgame, your dragon abilities are as strong or stronger than any attack, and you can use them almost every turn as well as cast spells. By the end, it's actually a good tradeoff to be able to cast one less spell per turn than a mage but use your dragon abilities more often.
I suspect you didn't play a Mage on Impossible.