You will be gimping yourself severely early-game by going a hybrid that uses two different mainstats (dex/int/strength). I tried making a 'paladin' myself, going water+earth+man-at-arms, and after a while I had to choose between not equipping my best strength gear or making my spells suck. -40% penalty to the efficiency of your spells because of low int makes them not worth the action points.
After a while, though, you end up capping out, at 15 points, your primary main stat, after which you may as well start leveling a secondary, of whic int is the best since strength+dex doesn't make a lot of sense.
So I'd say they're viable mid-lategame. You can get there a lot earlier if you pump all your bonus stats books into the same character. But I wouldn't do it early-game; I tried it, and ended up starting over after reaching lvl 7 or something.
If you don't mind gimping yourself a little, it doesn't matter a huge deal, though, as long as your other characters aren't also all gimped somehow.
Last edited by Simulacrum; 09/07/14 01:14 PM.
