I agree with the use of regen items. And another thing, these items never go out of fashion. You can always use shrouds (if you have a regen bless) or rings of regen. And you get some more turns out of your mages, and if you need the regen items somewhere else, you can always let the mage die a little bit. I disagree with the lycanthrope amulet. It cannot be moved, and auto berzerk sucks on mages. (So the enemy is at your research base? To bad you cannot use all your mages as artillery because you gave the old ones auto berzerk items).
But I wonder if this is really the most efficient use of mage time. If you know you are going to use the regen items later, and you already have spare hammer time, it might is. But it does cost one mage to create the items (probably at higher gem cost). So the question to ask is, is this mage so useful that I can spend one mage turn (and his RP), and 3/2 gems on his survival? (Some times it is some times it isn't, say you have a Gygja who gets a disease, it takes 38(!) turns for it to die. So I wouldn't bother unless he?she?it? has very good randoms. But if you have a diseased sybil (8 hp), and some indy mages with n2, get a ring of regen. (Indy mage RP4, Sybil RP6, cap only)(*)).
But the abysian mages tend to get old faster because fire magic is bad for you. (The use of these magics consumes your life-force at the same rate it consumes your enemies
. Very thematic (or, for roleplay reasons as Gandalf would say
)).
Look at the Edi FAQ ageing mechanics:
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/User:...ging_mechanics
(Which is excellent, and a must read btw). And the wiki page on old age:
http://dom3.servegame.com/wiki/Old_age
So, looking at the FAQ/Wiki what else did we discover? Well, if you give your old age mages nature magic during the winter, their max age increases! And death magic decreases chances. So in winter, move those nature/death boosters onto your old age units. (**)
*: Of course, forging a item means your haruspex site searching is a turn later, which is a potential sites later etc.
**:Of course, only if you have spare ones. Don't wait a turn casting your spells etc, just to save a potential old age affliction. But you get the point. It is all trade-offs. Limited by the amount of min maxing and thinking you want to do about it.