I want to get married!
 

To Whom It May Concern,

Lo and behold my fellow adventurers. Having spent some lonely time traipsing around Darion and the Isles of Freedom, I feel the need for some companionship. I, therefore, intend to seek out a woman to wed that would share my joys and sorrows and accompany me on my journeys through the land. Alas, I know not yet, which fair maiden would be suitable! Mayhap, thou who have travelled the land more extensively may lend me a helping hand here and perhaps recommend a fitting bride, whom I shall cherish until the end of days and beyond! I await your advice with eagerness and anticipation, for my soul grows fonder with each passing moment for a companion with whom I could share my fortunes.

Yours Faithfully

Roman, The Mage

Wow. You are really into this game.

For a mage, I'd recommend getting Feanora, the Frog (princess?) from Marshan Swamp. That is, if you didn't bag her and hand her over to the Duke or the Earl or whatever in Arlania.
If instead you chose to get the potion for him and free her sisters, you can wed her, and she gives +3 intellect in her human form and +100% attack for snakes and spiders in her frog form (not nearly as useful unless you're leading an army with a couple troops of snakes and spiders, obviously.)
Also, her slots are 2 artifact, 1 artifact / belt and 1 helmet. Artifacts tend to benefit mages, and I've found both belts and helmets that do as well, so she is definitely a solid choice for a mage.

Know that having children is risky--you don't know which child you're getting (drawn from a pool at random, like everything else in the game) until 10 battles after you talk about it (conceive). Children are risky. Some are really beneficial (my first child on first play through gave +5 intellect), and some are crap (+4 scroll capacity). I'd probably recommend not having children so that you have more control, but it's up to you.

Hope this helps.

Your choice of wife should depend on items you gather in your inventory because they have diffrent slots.

Well, I thought this would be a more fun way to ask, than simply posing a question: "Which wife is the best for a mage?" ;)

Thanks for the answers!

BTW: Have the bugs with wives (Mirabella crash and Neoka's inability to have children) been corrected yet in a patch or are they only present in some onpatched games rather than all?

they are fixed in the patch, yes

Thanks! Just to clarify, both of them are fixed, right?

Actually game encourages pragmatic flexibility. :) Different wives give bonuses to different troops, so sometimes adopting the wife to your current army is a good decision. Animals, undeads, pirates, dwarves, elves, demons are best with corresponding wife. Don't be so fogyish, test each candidate.

If you're a mage the frog wife just is best until you can get xeona, frog wife gives +3 intel and I had 2 babies giving me +5 intell and 10% mana respectively.

Seeing this finally drove me to release my mod here (thanks btw, I would have procrastinated forever :-P), so with a tad of shameless self-promotion, might I also interest you in this?

In the official 1.6.5 patch is both Mirabella and Neoka fixed (one won't crash to windows, the other one won't be sterile anymore)

If you don't have 1.6.5 patch, search for mod_16b7_eng_interface.zip or mod_164_eng_interface.zip MOD (fixes Neoka)

For Mirabella search for MOD:
mod_16_eng_fix_mirabella.zip

(yes - this fix works for any version of the game, 16b7, 164, 165 does not need this fix-mod)