Okay, the mage promotion is borderline ridiculous. Retrieve Verhoffin's Diary from the ruins. I had completed the assassin and paladin quest before attempting the mage. I'm about level 15-18 and head back to Verhoffin, flowing with confidence. See a few skeleton captains and skeleton warriors and know that I can take these guys. Whomp, whomp, dead. Open a door and BAM! 2!! level 65 Terrors that knocked 2 party members unconscious in their first attack. Healer casts turn undead and they just laugh at her and proceed to decapitate her head and eat it.Left Verhoffin and promoted Healer to Priest. I then leveled party to 25, except for the Scholar. Didn't want him to take 7 levels as a scholar if he could take them as a mage instead. The terrors still scoffed at my Priest's turn undead spell but I was able to use the terrain against them and fought them one on one. It still cost me a Divine Intervention scroll but I was able to win the battle at 25, a full 7-10 levels higher than required for any other promotion, except maybe the lich.
Bottom line? I think in MM9 a Priest is a better spell-slinger than a mage. I will use a lich next time and see how that goes.
I admit I used a map for Verhoffin so that I only had to visit a few areas to get the necessary items. I'll leave the rest til near endgame 
