Southern templars?

Southern templars are either warriors or rangers (player's choice) and then get tweaked to be able to cast spells and have mana. They can still branch like a normal ranger or warrior. The starting spells are detect magick, detect invis, and dispel magick. You then can get I think three of the spells from the magick paths (enchantment, war, etc). You pick which path you want the spells from, but not the particular spell. I think when I rolled I had the Vivaduan deafness spell, parch, and flamestrike. Flamestrike wasn't really that powerful and I could do more damage in melee during the time needed to cast it so I would usually just use it for show and to be dramatic. You get 'rewarded' with more spells as you accomplish IC goals but honestly I don't think anyone ever got rewarded with more spells outside of the rare templar like Samos.

Going toe to toe with a mage would be really dependent on the situation and how well played the mage is. Gemmed mages can't harm southern templars with their spells, but the rest are able to. I think that templars might get combat skills boosted but I played mine before visible skill levels were ever introduced. Templars rarely ever get to practice combat skills though unless they're doing patrols and engaging mobs. It's basically forbidden to spar with anyone except Tor, who the templarate have a partnership with. So really at the end of the day it comes down to a mage vs a young warrior equipped with dispel magick and two Allanaki soldier NPC guards. For someone like a Whiran that could hands of wind them to death I'd say there'd be a good shot.