I've played as a mage a couple times. It is very hard and very unbalanced with other character types. I'm currently playing through as a mage.
First off, the whole leveling system is broken due to training costing more the better you become at a certain skill. So, to fully benefit from +skill items/opportunities you have to save them all until the final fight. If you use your +skill items/opportunities in the beginning of the game, before training, you will have less skill than if you saved them and trained first because all training now cost more LPs. +skill items/opportunities are essential to do well in this game and giving the player the opportunity to waste them sucks. To fix this: training should scale up due to how many times you took training not what your skill is. If it worked like this then you could use +skill items/opportunities whenever you wanted and you'd still only have to pay minimal LPs for training. As it is now I can say you are pretty fucked as a mage if you don't save your +mana stuff until later in the game.
I never put points in weapon skills as a mage and only acquire the skills from items and free training opportunities. IMO, you should spend at least 60 LPs on +mana training before you use any +mana items. This way you get more mana for cheaper instead of doing it later on... Also, train to make runes for spells that have the best mana:damage ratio. A lot of fire is 1:5 which is the best aside from some holy spells like holy arrow which is 1:10.
Now for mage specific crappiness. This is for the "fuck Battlemages" people like me.
A.) I've found that spells will almost always miss their target if it is in melee range. This is probably unintended by the developer, but it exists so it needs fixing.
B.) You can't cast any spells while moving. So, unlike a melee character, you have to stand there and take it while you throw magic. Unless, it's melee then you can't even hit them as stated in A.). You just have to keep running away til they stop chasing you then mana up and go back to them. Move, stop, cast, move, stop, cast, repeat. Lame.
C.) New magic circles are chapter based. This sucks ass. A melee character can be all that he can be based upon his level. A mage has to wait until the story progresses. Mages should always have access to higher circles as long as they have the LPs to spend. Unless there's a good roleplaying reason for withholding the training instead of "You aren't ready... (NEXT CHAPTAR LOL)."
D.) No mana regen... even outside of combat. So, you either need to sleep or drink a bunch of potions to be able to cast again. I spend more time drinking potions than actually casting spells.
E.) No quick slots for potions. You have to go into your inventory and find the potion then drink then exit your inventory. During combat this can be tricky. Pretty much you're dead. I read there's a way to edit some file to allow you to press one key to drink, but that's pretty lame to make people go through that instead of making a couple quickslots.
F.) More mana per training please! For me usually one moderately powerful enemy is a full mana bar if not two full mana bars. Training is expensive and if you spend all your points in it you won't have any spells to cast. It's a tricky business making the most out of your LPs.
Mages pretty much suck. I really hope they get some love in Gothic 3 because mages are a lot of fun. Personally, if nothing else, I hope they can regenerate mana out of combat. In combat would probably be asking a lot, but that would be good too.
