There - I finished the game with the sorcerer using magic almost exclusively to battle enemies.
My end of game stats:
190 Hitpoints 1700 Spellpoints
Magic Skills:
Earth: 10 Wind: 6
Fire: 9 Water: 10
Lightning: 10 Flesh: 8
Void: 1
Total Spell levels gained: 47
Combat Skills:
Hacking: 2 Thrusting: 2
Slashing: 10 Ranged: 2
Total Combat levels gained: 12
I found playing as a mage character a lot more fun and easier than playing a fighter, especially in the endgame once you get the mana regeneration amulet. However: The game is massively biased towards Earth magic for one simple reason: You can aquire an armour (Banded Ironroot Armor) that allows you to cast Earth spells at half the mana cost early on, meaning that you should focus on leveling Earth Magic and keep on hitting enemies with Iron Fist. It's nearly as damaging as the Laughing Skull and costs less than half the mana with the Ironroot Armor on, which is without doubt the best armour in the game if you want to be an offensive spellcaster in Anvil of Dawn.
I found Fire magic to be totally useless but was very happy that I leveled Water and Air magic later in the game. Reflections of the Lake spell saved my bacon in the warlord's stronghold and the Levitation Spell (Forget the name) was also very useful for some puzzles. Lightning and Flesh I also leveled, lightning for an the Roaring Column spell and Flesh for the healing spell, both of which came in handy numerous times, especially with the holy branch from the tree.
Void magic is useless to level since the spells suck, but it saved my sanity on the very last level. *spoiler* In the invisible maze, you don't actually have to figure out the maze to finish the game. Just cast Ritual of Unmaking at the invisible walls and they'll disappear. It costs a ton of mana, but I'd stashed enough Yang symbols to fully replace my mana every time I cast it. 3 or 4 castings later, I had punched enough holes in invisible walls to finish the maze without having to map out the damn thing by hand. Please note: This trick does NOT work with the Wand of Unmaking you can also find.
In conclusion, while magic seems very weak initially in the game, it will become VERY powerful as soon as you get a few magic levels under your belt, and playing the sorcerer is highly recommended. Just be sure to set your initial Power level high, so you get a high rate of mana regeneration - Waiting around for it to happen by itself sucks.
Damn awesome game. Props to the developers.
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