I'm quite deadset on the FoS, actually, since that's the reason I'm starting the game again.
Thanks for the advice, I think I'll go with DW FoS, Taar as a healer, a pet (Doubting between Dire Wolf, Ice Elemental and Dragon) and maybe Lothar as an archer. I'll keep a Fire Elemental in the inn to access the Combat Magic sanctuaries.
I found that without "Provoke" combat mages are too hard to keep alive, despite them packing quite a punch.
So, anybody else heard of that Shield-with-throwing-weapons-mod?