Hi Hellion, as John mentioned you should always keep your spell casters in the rear of the party. I also buff everyone to the best of my ability: protect party for all, strength and haste for my meleers, shield, fire protect and levitate for my magic using spell casters. For in depth info on just how difficult it is to level an elven Sage (or Ranger for the Beta version) check out Snafaru's Fan Page and guides at
http://www.zimlab.com/oubliette/ipad/index.htm. Peter Liska also has an excellent guide for the original game (and much of the information is still useful) that discusses End Game Strategies:
http://oub.liska.ca/files/Oubliette_Strategy.pdf My current Beta Party is composed of: Tai Chi a Lvl 63 Halfling Saurai, Matilda a Lvl 62 Ogre Hirebrand, 4 more Halfling Samurais Herc and Akasagarbha both lvl 56, Nantembo lvl 54, and Maitreya lvl 53. The Party is rounded out by Bombur a lvl 56 Dwarf Sage (534 Hits and Maxed out Magic Spells) and 3 Halfling Rangers: Jaret lvl 56, Brandibuck lvl 59 and Merriadoc lvl 53.
My party with the original ipod version 1.2 game consists of five hardy adventurers:
Lao Tzu a Lvl 102 Halfling Samurai
Zhuangzi a Lvl 94 Kobold Samurai
M'ogre a Lvl 70 Ogre Mage (906 hits -31 AC with Armor, Staff and a shield spell)
Merri a Lvl 80 Halfling Sage
Larinya a Lvl 64 Kobold Sage
I'm really looking forward to continuing my adventures in the next Beta and the final version 2.0.