I want to play primarily as a mage, and I'm wondering which specializations I should get - fighter or mage. Most people seem to double-spec their mages as mage, but I'm wondering if fighter wouldn't make more sense:

I just started the game with 17 INT, 18 WIS and 13 CHA.

Double-specializing as a mage would allow me to gain several additional points in INT from spec bonuses and Magi tattoo. However, as I understand, I only need INT 19 for all spell-related benefits, and I'll only need >19 for dialogues quite late in the game. Thus, all that INT wouldn't be that useful.

Double-specializing as a fighter, on the other hand, grants you the ability to have 5 proficiency that you can't get anywhere else, and the tattoo has a nice boost to AC, strength and HP. Also, as I understand, both Annah and Dak'kon can use it, while the Magi tattoo from mage-double-spec can only be used by Dak'kon.

What I can't tell yet is:

- Is losing the "double 1st/2nd level spells" from Tattoo of the Magi a big disadvantage? Are they still that useful in the later parts of the game?

- Would a mage TNO with 12 fighter levels (more HP, better THAC0, better saving throws), double fighter spec., weapon proficiency up to 5 and Tattoo of the Supreme Warrior be a decent melee fighter in addition to being a spellcaster? I'm not sure if I'll end up being "lawful", so there might not be great weapons for my mage, and his fighting skills would stop progressing to some extend after fighter lvl12.

- Would things work out in regard to the XP investment? Staying fighter until lvl7 shouldn't be a big deal, since most ppl seem to stay fighter until lvl6 for the HP gain, anyways. However, switching back to fighter after reaching lvl7 as mage, and then progressing until fighter lvl12 seems to be a huge additional XP investment. Would that nerf me in the middle/late game due to having access to high-level spells later? Would I still be able to sufficiently progress as a mage to learn level 9 spells later in the game?

mage+mage all the way

when I play the game I:

finish the mortuary because duh you have to finish that before entering the hive but then, I:

enter the hive and make a bee-line towards Mebbeth to get classed as a mage as early as possible (picking up some quests and even doing some along the way because it makes sense location-wise)

Getting specialization in both classes isn't worth it, focus in one.

If you take fighter double spezialization you might as well take the 13th fighter level for the extra half attack.
Fighter13/mage yields the more powerful character and party if you grind a lot but if you play a party without grinding the 1,250,000 XP or over 3 mage levels missing in the final class will make a big difference.

If you want a powerful character start with 14 con and raise it when needed until you regenerate so fast that offensive power becomes meaningless.

When I wrote the OP I didn't know yet that the tattoos you get for double-speccing in a class are also restricted to that class, so you can't equip the tattoo of the supreme warrior on yourself after changing to mage anymore. This makes my idea pretty much pointless. This isn't how the game originally workd, but I've read that it does work this way now with the fix pack installed. Also, you don't get 1 HP for each levelup in a class lower than your highest class anymore. Taking this into account, class-switching has pretty much lost it's appeal beyond doing class-specific quests.