I got round to making my Mage char,
I was fighting the ailing wolfs and ran out of mana(forgot to let it recharge) so I pulled out a rapier and took a swipe at the wolf.

I assume it was a critical miss because I cut myself in half.

Anyone know what else it may have been

Definitely a critical miss. Unless the wolf bit you in half. But yeah, that can happen if you critically miss/critically fail a save you can kill/seriously injure yourself.

Keep some fatigue potions around as a mage, or run around (in real time mode of course) away from the fight to let your fatigue recharge.

Thanks SheBear

Your character sheet will show you the extra chance of critical miss produced by the equipment you're wearing - it's worth paying attention to.

Particularly with melee-unskilled characters, it's a good idea to avoid using any weapon that can do more than half your health in damage, and definitely avoid anything that can kill you in one hit.

Tech Fatigue restorers work on mages, and can be made very cheaply with two ranks in herbology or by an NPC with same. Carrying the components will get you a lot of restorers for little weight, which is another significant benefit.

Two ways to avoid this:

Give the mage char some throwing skill and use a boomerang or other sort of auto-return weapon. They won't hurt you.

Give the mage some good gauntlets, and use your fists. In Arcanum, hands are often the best weapons. And you never punch yourself.:)

-- Mal

With my first playthrough I went with an arcane warrior of sorts, expert at melee but also plenty of magic power (Harm, Teleport, Shield of Protection, and maybe Minor Healing are all the spells you need). Golems were tougher to take down because I used Harm to prevent my sword from being damaged, but they do have quite the magic resistance, still they weren't too much of a concern. By the end I could do the most melee damage of anyone in my party AND had Harm to efficiently take down enemies from a distance.