Thanks for the replies. I've seen nothing to persuade me that archery is beneficial (and my archers have been less effective than my mages or melees) so as a change of pace I think I'll try a mage even though the chapter 1 spells su, er, are imperfectly beneficial. You do get access to better spells quite early in chapter 2.
A few mentioned DK as melee and hero as mage. The theory to going the other way is to have hero with enough strength to use the good armor and stick the DK (who has built-in armor) with high int and low strength. Am I missing a good reason to have the hero as the mage?
