@lnx yeah, that would essentially be the same as increasing the SP requirement for spells. i actually had to increase the amount of MP they have so that they would be usable at the earlier levels. getting a mage out of that early slump is a bit of a struggle, but once you do they take off like crazy and that's the part i'm trying to reign in a little bit.

i think i'll start with an extremely small increase to the exp curve, and then increase the SP requirement for spells by about 10%. that'll make it so that early-game mages can still make it work (since that's ALL they have at their disposal). then i'll increase the all-enemy ones by more, maybe 50% seems a lot better. currently they require less SP than the best single-target spells, which i thought would be fine since they do less single-target damage, but they do so much more overall damage.

that's not even getting into the all-enemy spells that can cause status effects, either. lightning, with the chance to paralyze, can be absolutely devastating.

i guess there is the caveat that mages are going to be better for mobbing but not for bossing, but that doesn't really matter as much when you get your mages to such a high level that they just blast through bosses anyway.