Balance among Mage, Pally, Warrior difficulty.

[blueshrike]

I'm going to agree with those who want to leave the Mage alone. That some who are familiar with the intricacies of the mechanics are able to breeze through Impossible with a fine selection of skills as a Mage does not mean that for the average to above average person, the same will happen.

There will always be those who are able to figure out exploits (Fallout 2 in 10 minutes anyone?) but that does not mean the entire fundamentals of the class needs to be somewhat reduced. That's catering to the very few against the likely fun of the average (notice I don't say masses...) player.

Instead here are options that could appeal to both:
An additional "Custom" difficulty where you have settings you can tweak and your score is dependent on the settings.

Adding gameplay options for the Warrior (and perhaps Paladin) class for slightly better control over lost creatures or crowd control.

I for one was in the boat of not finding Ice Snake/Hypotize/Fire Rain/Lightning until very late in the game and dealing with Fireball as my main offense.