Obryn
Hero
In my experience... no, not at all.
A lot of that is in templates. If a Magister or Greenbond above 10th level doesn't look nearly godlike, he's not using his templates well. For 30 gp, you can add the Electric template to a spell (Foe needs to make a Fort save in addition to whatever damage he gets; failure means he's stunned for 1 or more rounds). Acid? Auto-stun 1 round per 20 points of damage if you add the template to an acid spell. Runic? Force a save using Intelligence at the cost of extra casting time. (For big, beefy, high-level characters, this can amount to a penalty of -10 or more to their saves.)So you're doing tons of damage and getting the cool side-effects.
Additionally, if a caster picks up Brandish Magical Might, they can eat right through a foe's spell resistance - many times per day.
Let's add in Quicken Spell at the right level. Sure, it costs 2 spell slots of whatever level, but you can do it 3 times per day and pick the spells you want to quicken at the time you cast them.
There are still several spells that are effectively save-or-die, as well. Vitrification is a 6th-level Complex spell. It turns you to easily-shattered glass, not stone. The various Resilient Spheres effectively remove a threat from the field for the duration of a battle.
I stand by my original conclusions from running the game for a few years. Magic is crazy powerful in AE.
-O
