Mage and Arch Mage

Tower creatures
Level 1
Gremlin
Master Gremlin
Level 2
Stone Gargoyle
Obsidian Gargoyle
Level 3
Stone Golem
Iron Golem
Level 4
Mage
Arch Mage
Level 5
Genie
Master Genie
Level 6
Naga
Naga Queen
Level 7
Giant
Titan
Towns

Statistics
Mage
Cost per troop  350
	Attack 11 Defense 8 Damage 7–9 Health 25 Speed 5 Movement Ground Size 1 Shots 24 Growth 4 AI Value
Special abilities:
• No melee penalty • Hero's combat spells cost 2 less mana
Arch Mage
Cost per troop  450
	Attack 12 Defense 9 Damage 7–9 Health 30 Speed 7 Movement Ground Size 1 Shots 24 Growth 4 AI Value
Special abilities:
• No melee penalty • Hero's combat spells cost 2 less mana • No Obstacle penalty
Portraits

Magi and arch magi are level 4 creatures of tower. They are recruited from mage tower.

Apprentice magi, under the mentorship of Wizards, serve as Tower troops before they become full masters of their craft. Magi use bolts of energy to strike their enemies while Archmagi use concentrated beams; these beams ignore any penalty caused by walls or other obstacles. They both smack enemies with their staffs if forced into melee combat, but for some reason they don't suffer melee penalty. (Note that, for example, Liches also smack with their staffs yet they get melee penalty).

Overally one of the best shooters in game. The reduced cost spells are really nice, and they have very high damage output for their level, not to mention their ability to ignore terrain penalty once upgraded. This can come very handy in sieges if the hero has tactics to move their Archmagi in range to ignore both range and obstacle penalty. It also hits hard slow units trying to cover their advance with obstacles

If they get dived by flier or fast units, you can use the resilient golems to take in retaliations and let the Magi smash them with their penalty-less staffs

They don't have to be upgraded right away unless you are expecting to siege a town or getting sieged yourself. Their main downside is the heavy cost of their building and the significant requirements making it annoying to pull them out quickly Note, that the correct spelling is 'one mage' but 'many magi'.