Sorry, but I can't agree with you. Can you name some examples?
In my current play through I play as a rogue & mage as well, but especially later in the game are pretty difficult.
I have a fire/earth mage with mostly offensive spells. The ranger has a high range of view with way of the ranger and a ranged weapon. Later in the game it costs 3 AP for bow action and 5 AP for crossbow. Since the drops are "tuned" to your class, I find a lot of both and usually use the one with higher damage/AP rate. With "Barriage" skill you can even kill the orc leader in one round. The enemies don't come at you en masse so you eliminate them one by one.
The ranger can attack first with good accuracy from <20m when the enemy is disorganised. I use pure power
- almost only offensive spells (mage) and basic range attack (ranger). Charm or Silence helped at the early stage. In fact, at the early stage I had to avoid 2-3 particular fights, cause their were very challenging (like 'twins' or bandits).
