Twiceborn. Gets rid of the old age, and makes her tougher to boot. All without magic halving penalties. My test, I did lose an arm though. It's not much of a strategic advantage, but it is fun, and makes the little old lady a little less vulnerable and/or senile. Think of her as a (non-immortal) discount lich. I'm almost certain I got lucky and got a free level of death magic, to boot. I'm afraid though, that unless I can come up with a good base expansion strat, I'm going to have to go Super Combatant.
Now how do I attach screenshots, or do I have to upload them to an external hoster....
Now, those numbers are a little misleading. They're the result of six dominion. The base numbers are 21 (+25 dom, though how that math works out is beyond me... Golem Cult?), 17 strength (+6 dom, -1 arm lost), attack 12 (exp+1, fire+4), morale 18, defense 12 (+4 water, +1 exp, -1 equipment, MR 16 (+3 dom), precis 10, and leadership is 35 normal, 220 undead, 40 magic versus the original crone's 100, 150, 40.
Keep in mind both the crone and Wight Mage come without any built in equipment. And of course, she gets the weaknesses of undeath, but does get CR, PR, NNE, and Chill 7.
While, unfortunately, Twice Reborn isn't an option for my human mages, it is an option for my Oracles. I was hoping I could get around the human's old age, but alas... Well... if my Oracle's get diseased to death, I just have to give them +1 death magic, an easy enough task.
Also, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to properly update the defense when I equip the helmets. I think I'll have to hop over to the bug thread.
Huh... I played it a little further... Equipped with some lesser magic items, she died again, w/o any benefits when soloing an army 200 strong, with a dozen or so elephants. I wonder why... Breath of winter is a nice touch, though, combines with the chill nicely. I got her 100 percent or more resistance to fire, ice, poison, and if I'd still had another arm, shock.
Oh, and BTW, when she dies, and is called back, its still as a wight mage.