Merging it with intelligence does not sound like a bad thing. But it may hamper too much non-mages?
You mean mages will have to spend less points on stats? That may be so, but devs can also do something with other non-mage stats so that mages will want to put points into them. Maybe make staves use strength and wands - finesse? Or for example, with more strength you become more hardy and take less damage (shrug it off) and with finesse you're more likely to dodge the attack altogether.
