Oh, I agree, magness. I think any offensive touch spell on the wizard list is just rediculous.

How do you get your wizards proficient with ranged weapons, or do you just go with the penalty to hit?

in smallish battles i leave the spell casters behind and they really do nothing, mainly because im too slack to make them attack without spells. I use them mainly when there is a reasonable battle coming up, and i never send them into melee

Krunchy, this is IWD2. IIRC, wizzies and sorcs are proficient in simple weapons, and that includes crossbows. And if you happen to choose to have an elven wizzy or sorc, you get a Bow prof free.

Unless I have an elven wizzy/sorc, I prefer to arm my spellcaster with a xbow, since they have good to hit bonuses, even unenchanted. I don't worry about having a great rate of fire with my wizzy. I'm happy with getting one good hit. And a hit with a xbow is also worth a little more more than any arrow (i.e. 1d8 vs 1d6).

sorcerers get simple weapons, the wizard selection should be smaller.