Grimrock

This game has been a blast so far, and I am just about to descend down to level 4. However I am starting to worry about my puny insectoid Earth Mage, as he is starting to get left behind by the others. I don't know if it is just me, but earth magic seem to be rather weak in comparison to the other schools. I picked it initially to contend with poisonous creatures (as I hate semi-incurable poisons and diseases), but I quickly learned that the small resistance bonus did't matter much and I got poisoned anyway. Much better to avoid getting poisoned by dodging or killing them quickly enough.

I also find the magic system to be rather cumbersome while fighting agile monsters like spiders and such. I tend to miss out on attack opportunities or fail to dodge properly while casting. I realize that the fault is mine as I am less dexterous than a 15 year old, but still find it difficult to reconcile blazing reaction times with old school RPG's. (That said I love how it enables me to flank monsters and avoid damage).

I think it would be better if we where able to precast 2-4 spells in advance. Perhaps with a small continuous manadrain while the caster is concentrating on the spells. Alternatively the damage could be increased significantly, but with far slower mana regen.

I am afraid that I already know the answer, but does earth magic get any better later on, or should I start over with a ice mage or possibly another rear melee / ranged rogue?
I watched a friend of mine use Ice to freeze a spider while fighting multiple opponents, and to me that seemed ridiculously overpowered compared to my crappy earth magic.

IMO

Well i have (lv5 now) very similar feeling, but it is not so bad.
The poison bolt does quite a damage, even if 0 to undead, and big herders ( they appear on lv4). Dont remember how it works agianst other kinds of herders. I hope it will be a blast against trolls.

Well, you asked to be spoiled, so here goes as I finished the game with a Poison/Fire mage.

Your primary spell will be Poison Bolt - it may not do as much initial damage as Fireball or others, but there is an upgrade in the poison skill tree for it's damage (which is as far as you should go) and it's also a dot, it's only a 2 rune cast and it's very cheap. Only a few monsters in the game are immune to it and it's a very solid endgame spell. Another crucial upgrade is an artifact further boosting poison damage which you will find later. So yes, it is effective, I found myself using it more than fire. Beefed up with the upgrades, you'll be hitting for about 70 damage + the dot damage (which gets "stuck" inside many endgame enemies).

I better not miss that item upgrade then. I still feel that freeze has a lot more utility and tactical value, but I am going to stick to earth .
I was not aware of any dots effects on that spell, but if that is the case then it could indeed be useful (sort of depends on how long it lasts).

Thanks for the help

Posion shield is very useful against spiders.

My mage was behind in experience in the beginning too, but he was second in total exp at the end, behind my throwing rogue. My axe-fighter which leveled up before everyone else in the beginning had the least at the end (I messed up him up though, he mostly just missed all the time). It pretty much balances out in the end if YOU play balanced (i.e. you have to use him). If you meet an enemy which you feel safe against, don't rush to kill him with your easier characters - let your mage do some damage too even if it may not be optimal at that specific battle.

Really though, my earthmage mostly just helped to snipe enemies from afar, up close he was useless (poison bolt makes poison clouds later which screws up your movement - can't circle around when you put poison clouds everywhere.

sevtai not 100% true, you get a Zhandul's Orb on your mage, and fire is so strong, and then for the freeze effect you can also get a melee mace from level 10, so i would actually say none of them are best, but Fire (Best for damage and late game) Air (Always get anyway) Ice (Good cc but not as good as fire at late game) Earth (pretty bad ;/) and spellcraft you should always get to 10, i would go for more though.

With the Earth weapon which upgrades it, it's a lot more potent.

Earth magic is really unfairly underpowered compared to everything else. Ice has fantastic utility as well as boosting your willpower, fire has the biggest raw damage and it's only real downside is that one faily common late game enemy is immune to it. Air has very good damage as well as not having a single enemy in the game that's immune. Earth just blows except for the late game resistances, but by the time you get that far down the tree poison damage is so low that it doesn't even matter if you get poisoned anymore.