Yup, you gotta pass the bandits. Its best to fire at them from range and let them come to you, little by little if your too low of level.
The first few sorcerer spells suck. Your going to be mostly using mage spells, so its best to max out mage before going sorcerer because your not gonna have good sorcerer spells right off the back...................but the spells you get later on as a sorcerer.........................GAME CHANGERS!!
They MORE than make up for the lack luster sorcerer spells early on.
These spells take a REALLY long time to cast, we're talking like 10-20 seconds. And in combat thats a VERY long time, but once you cast them...........its pretty much game over for everything but boss level enemies.
A single high level sorcerer spell can decimate the entire battlefield.
But that makes enemy sorcerers just as threatening. You see an enemy sorcerer, you make that your top priority to take em out ASAP or your whole team is fucked if they get a cast off.