You know, I'm playing on hardcore now (as always) and I tried to use pickpocket for the first time. This way, I could stack up quite some money so I'm never worried about getting too less health potions etc. I did the exact same thing (waiting to go down until I killed the ghosts) I got 2 pure warriors, death knight set to 2h crushing damage and my hero set to 1h with shield on shadow, they both deal an average of 70-150 damage at lvl 8. I had to drink loads of potions versus the BF bosses and the ghosts, but since I got enough money from the pickpockets, that's not a problem. I can also just make new potions with alchemy, so I don't really see the problem here, you get more experience due to more opponents. So I guess you getting a pure mage already wasn't such a good choice (yet :D)
