[Warcow]

There are several typical builds to a mage, the two most prominent ones being

fire/water, and
fire/death/whip

while other combinations such as death/earth, air/fire/water, and air/death has been known to work

Typically, all mages use evocations to some degree, hence most train 7 or more evocation at high levels, some going as far as 14. Another common trait is the use of the mana shield spell, an enchantment of spirit.

Typical fire/water mages depends heavily on the fireball and blizzard spell, while some occasionally seek aid from other evocations of fire and water such as frost wave, firebolt, icestorm, firespray, and firefrost.

Here's a typical skillset for a level 20 halfling with access to no items:

20 fire
20 water
7 life
7 evocation
8 lore
1 enchantment
1 incantation
2 strength
8 meditation
6 to a weapon skill of choice

Some very desirable items (in order of availability): wizard's cap (mage guild-only item), ember/glacier weapons (mini quest prize), shield of power/shield of art (miniquest prize), elite wizard robe/ring of enhanced protection (quest prize), imperial crown of samhoc (no longer attainable, but still in the market), amulet of the falcon (lq prize) amulet of the gauntlet (lq prize), and of course, the ever elusive rings of omnimagic (lq prize)

And the insanely rare: sokoban wizard items (no longer attainable and very rare), amulet of morgos (only 4 in existance), and fancy red gloves (people think they don't exist), Ruby/Amethyst/Sapphire Platemails (they don't exist...)