[DGDobrev]

Traps work against dragons one or two times, depending on your troop setup, unless you replay your battle like 5-6 times with different strats and see exactly where to put them in several turns in the proper cell the dragon occupies, because, let's face it - a trap itself doesn't do much damage. Besides, you are aware of the various resistances the dragons have.

Target+stoneskin is nice, but against a big army of 4-5 lvl units, even a strong tank will feel the big bang on his back and may die - afterwards the rest of your army will be minced meat in a few turns.

I do agree that a lot of debuffs will most certainly compensate for the lack of numbers, but you need to pump them like crazy and you still need to play with as many leadership items as you can get and leadership upgrades from lvl 2 in order to get as much units as possible.

As for the bullets you put up:
Higher int make last non attacking spells longer and that is a substantial plus a warrior won't have.
> the warrior compensates with numbers

Higher Magic level 1 and 2 provides you two spells in one round and that's too is a huge plus a warrior won't have.
> the warrior compensates that with high initiative, a lot of rage, which means 1 buffer spell + 1 high-level spirit ability every turn. That pretty much compensates for higher magic.

With spells that last shorter and and no double spells boost a warrior cannot support as well some tactics with Target use during all the fight.
> Target isn't paramount. If you find your tank being busted by numerous 1-4 lvl units and he dies before you can wear the enemy down enough to start the big ressing, you've pretty much lost the battle. Lvl 5 units will attack your weaker stacks straight away.

Teleport can be huge when well used and is often a waste for a warrior that has better to do, not for a mage.
> I totally agree, but once again strength in numbers + spirit abilities can compensate for that. Glot's armor works like the trap ability - it makes the enemy lose an attack. Ice thorns can slow enemy advancement. Soul drain can reduce an enemy stack way more than any mage spell. Time back saves you quite a bunch of resurrecting. AND you can alternate between those in every turn, which acts like a spellbook.

With mage I use less long range and more close range and close range hit much harder. With mass haste you provide your troops better initiative and very good mobility allowing easily to concentrate attacks on one troop that counter attack only once.
> The warrior does the same. Just Mass haste and you're ready to go.

Against fast dragons, double traps is quite better than one trap, and again double trap at second round can be sometimes quite good.
> Against fast (like the ones in the labyrinth and in the end game) dragons 1 trap + glot's armor does the same. The rest that works is Knights, Archdemons and Demons - good fire resistance and circle attack or furious trait.

A mage is also better to use Cursed Ghost because of his attacking spells to use in case of lost control. And Cursed Ghost can be a huge plus in many fights, a plus a warrior can't use as well.
> Undead make most of your other troops lose morale. A troop with high morale gets +40% attack and defense and +30% crit chance (and a warrior can easily afford going that far down the paladin tree and get the morale upgrades). Top that with a lot of atk and def attributes the warrior gets through items... Now that can easily outweigh most of the things a mage can do.

I don't want to sound biased or something, but in so many play-throughs of KBTL and KBAP, I can't shake the feeling that this game is just made for a warrior. 1 buff/debuff spell + 1 high level spirit ability every turn usually works a lot better than 2 buff/debuff spells + 1 low level spirit ability (since the mage can't afford the high level ones). I tried to analyze and 2 armageddons + 1 decent level black hole were worth about 1800 damage at most and that's the best a mage can show for.

The next thing is that a warrior has over 12k leadership more than a mage for every stack as well as 12+ points in the atk/def attributes. That strength in numbers can make even the last battle a matter of "who pulls out the bigger gun" (or the bigger army in our case). As a warrior, an army of Knights, Archdemons, Demons, Horsemen (all of those have fire resist and good stats) and a random unit of your liking (EDIT: Come to think of it, a good last unit will be the cerberus - 3 pronged attack and 50% fire resist) can beat the crap out of the dragons there. I can say that for a fact because I managed to overpower that nasty Dragon Haas even with the paladin on impossible. As a warrior with some more units, I would have had even easier time.

heck... maybe this is why I like the Paladin so much. It's probably the most challenging and most fun char to play - no higher magic, no huge amounts of rage. Only the careful planning, the good tactics and the cunning will win the day.