Rainbow Armor = <3
Bear in mind, turning a caster into a thug (guy who tears things up
) is in actuality turning him into something that is not, by definition, a caster anymore. Basically, he will only cast 2-3 spells, the buff spells that he has immediate access to that make him so dangerous, and then it's "Attack Closest" (or rear, or.....) time.
I actually just loaded up Marverni, and I don't see any casters I could consider as really being exceptionally thuggable. The primary difference between a thug and an SC (Super Combatant) is that a thug operates with somewhat minimalist gear - you only invest enough in them to make them "pretty effective". Generally, you can't afford the gems to fill every slot on thugs, whereas your SCs are so valuable, you design a full gearset to make them utterly fearsome, and as survivable as possible. As far as Marverni, all of their mages are pretty flimsy, and while they have decent magic paths for thug self-buffing, they are so weak physically that they would need a lot of gear to be very effective. The best choice overall I would say is the Stargazer, as that 1 Astral gets him Body Ethereal and Personal Luck..... Unfortunately, he needs armor, a good weapon, probably a shield..... From there, you start thinking maybe you want a helmet or a misc item to round him out, now you may as well fill all his slots to protect your investment..... Next thing you know, you have fully geared a 9hp mage, just because he can self buff.
That's when you start to wonder if maybe just about any summoned commander (as opposed to soldier, that you can't equip) might be able to provide similar performance with less gem investment.
Oh and the Gorgon is A-MA-ZING! Get her geared out as soon as you can, you don't want her to die, she is a powerful powerful tool for your nation.