[Ziggurat]

True about heal, you don't really need it a lev 1. I have been working with a small party with one hybrid caster who can heal so over focused on that. I didn't even get any heal til lev 5, now that I think of it. There has been an ongoing debate on fast vs. slow casters. Yes, a faster caster (hmm, could make this easily into a tongue-twister by adding a few adjs) does get shields up quicker and get off an early attack. A slow caster has the benefit against cloud like spells later on which tend to annoy me. It is so nice to cast "remove clouds" or whatever and see them cleared out before the next round begins and they can take effect. Especially Death Clouds. You can increase speed with amulets but not decrease it.