I played a mage in the first one as well, and while I had piked up skill to use a staff, I ended up never using it. Thought about doing a mage this go around as well, but decided against it.
Thus far, I've been more a Ranger-type, with healing, instant-food spell, and using a sword instead of magic to end the pitiful lives of my enemies. Eventually I'll pull the Instant-water spell as well (just got to get the skill for it).
I got really lucky, and managed to get an Iron longsword right off the bat. All told I'm doing 10-14 damage straight off, which makes the early game easier. I also took enough cartography to actually see where I'm going. 5 points at start, 2 more to finish it out at level 2.