I'm currently doing an evil playthrough as a magic user and brought Geoffery, the evil-aligned mage loitering outside the Ashbury cemetary, into my group. Unfortunately he's a bit useless, because rather than using the offensive spells he has, like fireflash, he seems content to just charge at enemies with his fists and get murdered.

It's been many, many years since I last played Arcanum (I remember playing it when it first came out around 2000), and I don't think I ever had Geoffery as a follower since I mainly played technologists, so I can't really remember if it was a problem he had in older versions of the game as well.

Has anybody else noticed this issue, and is it something that only affects Geoffery or all mage companions? I'm using UAP, if it matters.

Yeah it's not that big of a deal or anything: my mage is a one man wrecking crew. People kept saying magic was OP in this game so I thought I'd roll one for a change to see what all the fuss was about . . . and now I do! It's ridiculous what you can do with harm right off the bat. Managing fatigue is a chore, though.

Anyway, I think I'll keep Geoffery around for now since he's a voiced character and seems humorous in a moustache-twirling evil kind of way. It's too bad you can't manually control your followers in combat, though. Pretty big oversight for game that otherwise has tons of depth and is considered an RPG 'classic.'

If you think it's powerful now, wait till you max out your MA. As a borderline-ridiculous bonus, there's a point late in the game where you'll have the option to master a spell college; if you choose Dark Necro, you'll be able to cast Harm (and all the other spells in that college) at half cost. Just keep a supply of fatigue-restoring potions on hand, and/or invest points in CN. (Don't bother going above 17, though; it won't improve your recovery rate further.) Even tech-based fatigue restorers should work on you, despite your high MA; it's only high-tech weapons that fail. One of the upsides to having followers is how some of them interact with each other. If you still have Geoffrey when you run into Torian Kel, for instance, IIRC they'll have quite the interesting side-conversation.

Yeah Ai is dumb but Virgil not healing MAgnus is actually working as intended. Magnus is tech guy magic won't work on him good.

That I knew. But even considering all that:

a) The AI isn't flexible enough to allow Virgil to consider emergencies; if he fast-casts 10 heal spells, one or two might get through.

b) Even if they're on the verge of dying or passing out, followers never use any of the healing salves or fatigue potions they happen to be carrying. Which is commendable (they're not stealing your stuff) but also rather foolish.

c) And even when you supply Virgil with plenty of bandages, IIRC he'll only use them on Magnus (or any other follower) when you specifically tell him to.

With all the different ways of resurrecting someone in the game, I guess the developers figured that dying's not such a big deal after all.

My Virgil seems to cast heal on Magnus every now and then if Magnus is seriously injured.
Not if the wounds are light, even if not in combat.

Just got Jormund and he seems to favor bashing things wildly with staff, haven't seen him cast anything yet...