Personally if I knew it was a low-damage skill I would wait for those better spells and use a sword or whatever. That's what the D2 skill system was all about. You would never dump 20 points into ice blast what you had frozen orb at level 30.
Apparently you haven't played 1.10 -- there's a very good reason to pump up lower supporting skills, because they synergize with later skills, and vice versa. Some low level skills receive so many synergies, that it's tempting to add points in high level skills to make the low level ones even more effective.
But that's neither here nor there, since neither DD nor BD use that sort of tiered skill system. Or any sort of tier, really.
The problem I think is with DnD players, i.e. 'true' roleplayers or whatever they think they are. They follow a system that's incredibly restrictive i.e. a mage must use spells all the time, not wear armour and so on and its definatley not what <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/beyond.gif" alt="" /> is all about.
So, you're content with mediocrity, then? Because there simply are not enough skill or stat points to make a warrior who can use spells as well. You'll either have to give short shrift to one or the other, or be awful at both. Investing in strength and constitution is a waste of points for a mage that stays out of combat and doesn't need heavy armor. Investing in intelligence is a waste for a fighter who just needs to know where to swing his battle axe.
Either buyback or restart. You have 2 choices in the game as it stands. Simple as that.
3 choices, actually -- buyback, restart, or save the game before you a) buy the skill from a vendor and b) try it out a little bit to see if it's broken or sucky. If it's crappy, as too many skills are, you can always reload and get back the points for free, and no amount of "You shouldn't be able to do that in the context of a real story" arguments are going to change that. You shouldn't be able to save and reload in a real story, either, but this ISN'T a real story.
Also, stories of heroic adventures are seldom told about the mage who unwittingly blew a bunch of stat points in Act 1 skills, just to find out that he had to empty his mana stores to seriously harm *1* foe. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" />
