Thoughful post, though, you do come off as a know-it-all even while admitting you are a new player at the same time. So.

Firstly, yes it can get frustrating seeing logs of mages walk through a group of villagers, taking only scratches and killing every last one of them. You are thinking that it can't be fair how someone could gain this sort of advantage. Then, you, as an unprepped mage try to kill a lone ranger or bard or whatever and find that even this can be a daunting task. As a mage, this is frustrating, and I can sypathize. But mages have powers that make them freaky scary. I would rather see a group full of warriors running around in my pk then a group full of conjurors, transmuters, and invokers any day of the week, in terms of fearing for my little character's life.

But. The odd phenomenon about people posting logs, is that you see mainly the extreme cases. As an outsider, I'd get the impression from your post that every hero mage is running around with a/b/s and every warrior is running around shielded up with haste. Again, let's agree that an a/b/s mage is going to kill your face quick if you fight him. But does this really happen to you that often? I'd hope not. It rarely does to me. And if it does, I can choose not to fight if all I'm doing is scratching that guy. Preps, barrier in particular, are very difficult to keep up. Impossible to keep up all the time, or even 2% of the time. Remember that. The only time I found a barrier wand (I was given it) I burned it up trying to chase somebody. I wanted to puke.

Now. What's the solution? For me, I am learning to get mileage out of preps I can buy or are free. Do you ever used protection vs align? Do you ever make use of bless? Resist mental? For example, throw these three on alone, with any class specific damage reduction you might have, and you probably have a dead bard if you play your cards correctly.

I also think you are underestimating the inherent protection powers of hero mages.

Let's look at invokers. Shields + protection align + bash protection, and you have some decent staying power. For free! Berserkers might rape you, but, all you need to do is get off a couple big damage spells and you're competitive from the get go.

Transmuters? Sure, with a/b/s you are nigh untouchable, but don't underestimate their durability with their inherent protections. Corporeal hardening+calcify+desensitize+quickening+accelerate+control translucense+spiderhands+protection align is going to make you toss that unprepped warrior around like a rag doll. I've played a couple transmuters thinking, wow, this neuro thing is way too overpowered. That wasn't fun at all. I'm outtanking/outdamaging this axe spec and he can't move? One neuro and two disrupts can take down some hero range warriors if you're lucky. And that's before they can even move. Unlikely that easy, but you get the point that it's possible.

Anyways, I think you need to have fun and fight some more and not worry about a/b/s preps and just enjoy. You don't have to dominate every fight to have fun!