BattleMage is a superior version of the Wizard

[steelsoldier]

I am going to leave each one of the classes descriptions and I will try to explain why I claim this.

Battlemage
Health 50(+5 Per level), Energy 50(+5 Per level)
Weight of Equipped Armor is reduced by 50%
You can cast spells with both hands
You gain +10 Protection and Resist All +10 when equipping a magical staff or an orb

Wizard
Health 35(+3 Per level), Energy 50(+7 Per level)
Willpower +2
Can cast with both hands

I will now make an example with both characters being level 10 without getting anything that would increase their attributes.

Battlemage(lvl10)
Health 95, Energy 95
Let´s assume also that you have a magical orb +10 Protection,+10 Resist All
Health Difference +33 Energy Difference -28

Wizard(lvl10)
Health 62, Energy 123(also adding +10 from +2 willpower)
Health Difference -33 Energy Difference +28

Now let´s think about this for a moment, Battlemage has a higher hp pool and Wizard has a higher energy pool, Willpower will in no way shape or form influence the amount of energy of you gain per level, only energy regen.

Now hypothetically you would assume the wizard is a better caster than the battlemage, but this is only true in the first couple of levels, where the energy difference is much higher, once you pass a certain stage, the battlemage surpasses the wizard in terms of overall tankyness, the thing about this, is that the Mage classes are only as good as how long they can last in the battlefield, the extra energy and the +2 willpower that you get for the wizard are completely useless in the sense that they become redundant later on.

On these specific stats, I did not even give my examples +5 Vitality or +5 Willpower or even the traits, if I did, the value differences would become very insignificant and they are already insignificant if you factor those bonus attributes and traits, but the thing that makes the Battlemage better in all scenarios is overall Tankyness and the ability to be as good as a Wizard in most stages of the game.

The main issue with the Wizard class is that it offers next to nothing that you can easily get in the game or by fiddling around in the character customization screen, at no given point do I feel that the wizard is better, why would I want a squishy caster when I can get another class that does exactly the same things at the same level of efficiency and a lot tankier?

If by any chances, the wizard would deal 5-10% more damage with the spells, then the Wizard class would become much more desirable, but in its current stage, the Battlemage will always be the superior Mage class.

[Dr.Disaster]

Extra energy is never redundant.
More energy always results in more spells cast which results in more damage dealt.

Let's stay with the values you gave: Battlemage with 95 energy vs. Wizard with 123 energy. The Fireburst spell costs 24 energy to cast. Your Battlemage can cast it 4 times (i assume he regens that 1 missing energy during his cooldowns) while your Wizard can cast the same spell 5 times. This results into 25% more damage dealt without a potion to refill which by your own conditions makes the Wizard a very superior caster.

[Rithrin]

I was definitely glad to have a Wizard, and not a Battle Mage, in my playthrough of the game.

The extra 30 Energy possessed by the Wizard, going by the base stats you posted, is about an entire extra casting of Meteor Swarm. Or multiple Firebursts. By endgame, at lvl 15 or 16, it's even more. It's true I had piles of Energy potions laying around by endgame, so you could say the extra energy is not valuable, but I also had piles of Health potions, so let's just ignore potions for the time being.

For a spellcaster, Energy is valuable 100% of the time. The more spells you can cast before resting, the better, even if it's just one big one or a couple smaller ones.

Health, on the other hand, is only valuable when the caster himself is being assaulted. Much like in LoG1, it's far better to simply avoid damage than to be tanky. The extra 30 Health at lvl 10 likely is not enough to withstand even a single additional attack from a Ghoul or Warg. Much better to simply not be attacked. That's not always possible, of course, but if your spellcaster is being attacked for a sustained period of time, you're in for a bad time anyways.

The other half of the Battle Mage's ability, to halve the weight of their armor, is only partially useful for a spellcaster. If you want a Wizard, you are probably wearing the Archmage set, which barely weighs anything to begin with. To put the ability to good use, you'll be wearing Light or Heavy Armor. So you can withstand a lot more attacks now, but you aren't getting the extra 100+ Energy from wearing your Wizard gear.

To summarize, if you want a Wizard, but you bring a Battle Mage, then you're either ending up with a character who is sacrificing nearly 50% of their spellcasting ability or a character who isn't utilizing their class abilities.

If you want a spellcaster who's going to be on the frontlines, then, yeah, bring that Battle Mage.

[gasgas]

The difference is that you don't need energy to stay alive, but you need health to keep casting. This thing is huge. You can't afford to interrupt your casting because you have to keep popping health potions cause your wizard takes 2 hits to die.

A battle mage is superior in most situations in my opinion, it's true you have to spend some points in armor (he's probably going to get the skill tomes) and can cast couple fewer spells but the health pool and protection bonuses give you the time to pop a energy potions and be back in business. If wizard spells were faster then we could discuss of general effectiveness.

A factor that has to be taken into account is the party composition though. An alchemist is insane with a battle mage, who's never going to run out of potions, if you don't run an alchemist then probably a wizard would be better for a single encounter, but after that you're gonna need potions as well.

The battle mage also fills two roles: tank and damage dealer (shield spell and extra protection, beats the knight, which is garbage, any day), freeing one extra character for some better synergies.

Currently running a fighter, battle mage in front, alchemist thrower and light weapons rogue in the back on hard mode and this party is incredibly effective.

PS: also keep in mind you cannot manouvre around monsters as easily as in grimrock I, a lot of monsters are able to attack on the sides extremely fast and the battle ground often is unfavourable for circle strafing.

[Vardis]

Wizards sort of suck. A battle mage is better for the front lines if you're going to be casting regularly, and a magic spec alchemist is better for the back lines.

[steelsoldier]

The fact of the matter is, Battlemage and Wizards both deal the same amount of damage, if you spec them both in the same ways, they will be both be able to do things almost to the same level, the main issue is there is nothing that sets the 2 classes apart, the only difference will be energy and health and the fact that battlemage has a few extras in terms of resistance and protection, the +2willpower from the wizard and the extra +2per level arent going to be an huge deal, only at the start of the game.

I just feel that since they took the energy and health per level bonuses out of willpower and vitality, they made these attributes generally meaningless, the flat bonus on the start is good, but the regeneration doesnt seem to be meaningful enough throughtout the game.

[sapientCrow]

Agreed on this and I will throw in another.
An alchemist is superior to both. In my view anyway.

However taking only the 2 into account...
The BattleMage gains +10 resist from a staff or orb. Right there is a winner.
As stated Wizards do not get bonus damage to elemental or hidden bonuses based on their focus in the arcane. (At least to my knowledge they do not)
Hence a wizard gains +2 will and that's it. Which translates into 4 resist to cold.
And in truth resists are the things most needed in the really harsh fights. Everything else is strafe and slash and quaff.

The BattleMage has superior HP by end game. HP is also more important to end game mechanics. Especially when it is about getting nicked on your side or back while running or being slammed into a bad position.

Extra mana is irrelevant as we have potions. The only time this is not the case is if there is no potions and the fight is an endurance test.
Heavy Meteor Swarm use with or without the extra mana is going to be needing a lot of potions.

In my mind the more I play the game though as I stated above the Alchemist is the winner for a mage character.
You can brew potions and dupe herbs. Which translates into more stat points and a lot of mana potions. (My guess on my last playthrough I had a combined total of 100+ etherweeds)
I am actually on my third playthrough and I am playing 3 Alchemist and one Rogue. My last playthrough I did a 2 alchemist team and ended up being able to craft around 30 or so stat potions. That will be 45 this time around. That is fairly insane and can get your champion above all in max mana. Even with a solo alchemist (assuming you have a champ with max alchemy) it is still 75 more mana from straight stats.

If I was to Role Play though I would definitely go with Wizard master of the Arcane.
And since we can not look at the code directly perhaps there are some hidden aspects to each class. If not it would be cool if we could mod that into the game.
What would actually be great is if we could pick Class traits as well as Racial traits. Love to see what combos people make then.

[Dr.Disaster]

Pardon me but when your point is "extra mana is irrelevant as we have potions" i don't see why you plan on brewing 15 more wisdom buff potions to give your alchemists these additional 75 mana you mentioned. Sounds like a contradition to me.

[Zehnpai]

Honestly if you're that worried about it you're powergaming and if you're powergaming then both suck compared to an alchemist if you want a caster.

[steelsoldier]

Pardon me but when your point is "extra mana is irrelevant as we have potions" i don't see why you plan on brewing 15 more wisdom buff potions to give your alchemists these additional 75 mana you mentioned. Sounds like a contradition to me.

He means, the extra mana that the wizard gets from willpower is something that you can easily get from an alchemist making potions in order to get attribute bonuses.