@lnx the mages still actually work pretty well as battle mages. you can equip spears to them and they have a lot of HP and defense against magical attacks, which is what the more dangerous enemies tend to use. they can still use spells while wielding a spear too, it's just that they won't be as good. they don't get access to physical skills. i know some games like to give access to a lot of different types of skills to every class, but the mage in my game is its own beast entirely whereas the other three classes have a bit more overlap but no access to magic whatsoever (unless through an item).

now that i think about it, since the healing spells go off of magic defense instead of magic attack, you could make a pretty good battle cleric if you wanted to.

that is all to say that the option for physical offense is definitely there, but if you want higher damage output then using spells is way more necessary.