The focus of magician should be as much on role play as actual in game powers, being a magician gives a character so many ways to role play and often problem solve that do not exist to the average character. This alone is exciting it hardly requires being able to take out groups of warriors and solo mobs to make it even better.
A mage should never replace a warrior as the main damage dealer and killer of mobs, doing so only relegates warriors to the lowest class. This in turn leads to a lot of mage characters being played for the wrong reasons.
Further more making magicians support centric creates a need for roleplay a lone mage is not too powerful but if he has a few followers he can buff the team becomes unstoppable. This is a good thing all around and we already demand team work to kill large mobs so we would just be adding to this.
When it comes to spells we need to look at utility spells that make the mage fun to play but do not over power other characters. To this end one can even have schools or classes of magic, but thats for devs to consider.
Utility spells being things like npc invulnerability as long as the mage does not attack or perform any action. This means a mage can easily travel, follow maps, utilize the map.
Conjure weapons, which could be used or given to players, never be unarmed again.
Healing...obviously...
Buff and debuff players
Yes a mage should have a ranged attack but it should be less than an arrow, so as not to replace archers.
Yes a mage should have a close range attack but it should not be more than a good sword especially as they can still use melee attacks.
By giving the mage a range of buffs, healing spells and enemy debuffs we are creating characters who rely on other players and instantly become a good choice as leaders. Following a mage can be the difference between winning and losing.
Just some thoughts, sure I could write out a 100 spells, balance it all up and create an entire system, but thats not my role. I merely want the community and especially the decision makers within it to examine the class and decide exactly what role they want mages to have in this world. With luck it wont be the rule of feared alpha character
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