I can imagine that rangers suffer from a lack of special arrows at the beginning, whereas mages already have some spells that never dry up except for the cooldown.
Our Inquisitor (a combat-oriented mage preset to Dual Wielding/Aerothurge/Pyromancer/Witchcraft) and Rogue had no trouble winning the first fights. We later picked up first Bairdotr and then Jahan. As soon as we had enough special arrows for Bairdotr, she began to shine in combat.
I would build a druid as Geomancer for animal summons and dealing/healing poison combined with Aerothurge for lightning, or Hydrosophist for rain and healing, or both.
