Gothic 3 Tactics against casters?

I'm on my second playthrough of the game, this time with an archer (with decent melee and no magic). My first character was a paladin turned firebomber, who either forced enemy mages into a corner and whacked them with his bastard sword (in close quarters such as certain old temples), or took them out using the good old fireball (outdoors).

My ranger type is having much more trouble with those bastards, since fireball is faster than my arrows... I'm currently trying to clear the bridge near the wolf clan in Nordmar and find it impossible. The shaman (-s, there might be two, my memory is a bit hazy and so far its been enough to anger one in order to go pyrotechnic) is protected by a bunch of elite warriors, and the shaman is in a position where I cant lure fighters away without attracting his attention as well. How would you guys deal with the bastard (and other similar situation all around Nordmar)?

After trying various ways, I found i could seperate the shamen then get one to come closer using the hit-n-run method, then run at him with the zig-zag strafe method to dodge his spells. You can button-mash him easily then, no problem, uphill or against an object is even better.

The best trick however is to entice them towards some wolves, sabre tooths etc'

The ultimate however is to tame an animal, say a sabre-tooth, then transform into the same animal, then the 'pair of you' can kill without them knowing it was the nameless hero.

There are no appropriate animals around. I managed to spread them out a bit using a summoned golem (from a scroll). Both shamen and a poor warrior crossed the bridge, but were so spread out that I could take them out using the bow. On the way to the bridge there is a small hillcrest that has just the right curvature for the shamen to miss me, and I used this to great effect. Kinda cheesy of me, but enemy casters are a PITA.

That is the thing with tactics - you have to use whatever is available. Like much of melee, I was quick with the fireballs and have loads of AK, so they never bugged me much and went down fast.

Well, personally I like using AoE (area of effect) spells with such groups. I also managed to kill them after a reload (game crashed after taking them down) and while strafing left/right and shooting. Two/three arrows downed them. But with the AoE spells, you sprint trough, use some kind of hit'n'run as Wulf said, and after killing the mages sprint back with the melee fighters on your tail. Make sure you have some distance between you as the spell takes quite some time to cast. -- mind that the frost one also freezes your opponents; i used that one in Elnjar's (sp?) tomb. Awesome-o

if you are playing a hunter/archer/ranger you might want to rethink your strategy of lp spending. putting lots of lps into your hunting skill is essential so you can kill the goblin shaman with one shot and take down even a black troll before it tumbles on your head. even though there are more than enough lps late in the game forcing yourself to put lps into whatever skills you want and the rest solely into either ancient knowledge, fighting, or hunting has huge advantages and still allows you to use the other talents as 'back up'.

Thats sounds about right curious re: hunter/archer/ranger.

I experimented (no saves) and using no magic or melee weapon cleared Vengard using the bow only. As always, high stat's in any trait will make a big difference, noticably so with G3 combat magics.

For Orc Shamans the scroll of summon lighting (high level beliar magic) is your friend

I was able to take down a lot of shamans by hiding in the fog.