I find it more useful to have my mages survive. Especially since building really powerful mages in the first game is a rather tedious affair imo. Despite taking a hit in damage and range, at least you don't have to completely worry about them getting destroyed by enemy combatants. Overall, I feel the mages are too specialized and rarely useful in the first title. I generally find it more useful to create mages as apprentices so I can teach their magic to more useful members of my party (Like Etna and Laharl).
