Don't play the game as a mage - you will get bored quickly!

[Ryastar]

Well, I`m sorry that that was your experience of the game. Let me just assure you that most people do not have the same experience as you did. What difficulty level did you play as? If easy, then maybe you should try normal or higher. If normal, try hard etc. Personally, i had tons of fun as mage on normal, and even more as warrior (probably because i had a better idea of how to play). For my third (well, forth, see below) game, i am trying mage again, on hard this time. So far, fireball has been my primary spell, because i haven`t taken a single leadership upgrade as yet (i`m focusing on my other stats), but it`s starting to be less useful, as enemy stacks are getting larger, and my INT isn`t really very high yet (i`ve only been offered INT upgrade once, and only one INT-raising item so far, i might need to restart). I`m still having fun, though, and this is my fourth time through the starting area (my second game was lost to a fried hard drive shortly after signing the dwarven peace treaty) and second as a mage. I encourage you to try again before passing such a sweeping judgement on a truly great game.