Which would you choose?

[DGDobrev]

I would reset till I get ancient amulet and banner of true faith or ancient amulet + prismatic helm. In my eyes, that's the best start for a mage.

The dragon slayer is nice, but it is an item with morale and it may become useless very early in the game, and you can't suppress it easily.

The price of the items is not a problem, even on impossible. If you clean up darion properly, you will have enough money to buy troops, both items and even more. In my impossible paladin game, I reset till I started off with gladiator sword and ancient amulet (both giving runes) and a marshal's baton found on the cemetery zombie. It took quite some time, but that was one of the best starts possible.

[McSwan]

hmm,

I focused on getting the +leadership items as the longer you can put off choosing leadership on level up, the better.

[Vilk]

With a mage starting with a very low leadership that will be rude to do that in impossible mode until you can buy the items bringing large leadership. But that's perhaps possible anyway.

[Metathron]

So how much does the game punish you on impossible if you skip leadership up to, say, level 10-15?

[DGDobrev]

A lot

That's why I always take leadership from lvl 2 upwards, unless I play normal I remember how it was with the paladin, I can imagine how will it be with a mage.

[Metathron]

I figured as much.

I took the puny +80 leadership at level 2, but it wasn't too difficult because next to it I was offered +4 rage.

However, I have skipped leadership at level 4, and took +6 mana instead because mana is precious.

[DGDobrev]

Well, if you decide to play with powerspells, mana and intellect will be vital In that case, it is prudent to omit leadership for a while... Still, that leaves you quite weak in the beginning, so it won't be easy. But I guess it's worth it