[Agape]

Red mage? Magus base class!

On the whole the idea seems nice, but it would need someone skilled in combat munchkinization to do offense effectively, atm the sage is basically forced to ally with a spike damager. A skilled player could force the personalized abilities to serve combat (see LW and ginga), but in the hands of a new player I fear the sage means autolose.

Divine/Arcane casting seems nice, but the spell lists would need to be carefully thought of to encourage interesting combos. Personally I'd want to see the return of Finger of Death but perhaps the wish is futile. :)

The whole "utility class" idea should be perfected more. I suggest giving the player more leeway in ability-making, because IMHO a lore-restricted approach would hinder designing an utility champ a lot more than a melée champ. (iPhone autocorrect >_>)

On the whole I think the sage should be left 90% finished and design the class to the end with the to-be player.

What should be discussed is the scale and type of his spells and his attribute dependency. I dunno about the attributes, but imho intmaxing should be discouraged. About spells, the Spell synthesis inate of the mystic theurge class is very interesting. I suggest spontaneous casting, perhaps some multiround spells? Spells that take preparations to cast? A magic circle? Other ways to expand the magic system? The vanilla PF magic is rather combat-oriented and could use something interesting outside of combat. (mana founts anyone? City areas linked to spell schools?)

Ugh yeah I think the whole game should be thought over to make it flow better. Especially non-combats. I liked Von adding backstories to the game's flavor, that could be implemented further.

This all assumes that the basic structure is left unchanged, ie the game is something between a full pvp tournament and a mini-campaign. I would myself steer it more towards a mini-campaign than completely stripped pvp. Reward RP more?