I just reached the farmlands, I'm a mage, level 11. After killing everything on the west side of the river, I find that some spells seem to be underpowered, most notably, the "powers of matter" spells. At the beginning of the game, I found "hellspikes" quite useful against zombie Jake and the skeletons in the catacombs. But lately, I tried using "hellspikes" and "deathly disks" against other creatures like orcs and trolls, and frankly, they don't do much damage at all, I end up using elemental spells like "meteor strike" most of the time, "lightning" consumes more mana and hardly does more damage.

So, I just wanted to know, and I don't want any spoilers here, but will the "powers of matter" spells become really effective later ? or is it because I'm just not using them right ?

Plus, I put most of my "skill points" in intelligence, leaving a few for stamina and hardly any for agility and strength, is this a good approach ?

Hell Spikes and Deadly Disks are quite effective at level 5, and do physical damage (which can not be resisted).

For how the primary stats determine the secondary ones, see;

differences between classes (minor spoilers)
or
Early Starter Tips (NON-Spoiler Version) (contains much of the information in the above topic).


See also (spoilers)

Kaan's Mage Guide

Playing a mage character...

It depends on creature resistance--for example, steel skellies will laugh off a fireball, you need lightning against them. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mage.gif" alt="" />