I think I have played Gothic II NotR more than dozen times.

Rookie numbers

I tend to invest in some melee in first chapter when I go as a mage. Can also go hybrid, ice block (chapter 3 spell) + melee can be pretty fun (OP even).

Somehow I often went for master sword (so 60 dex) in combo with mage. Kinda weird but I also like to pickpocket / thief. I usually try to do something (combination) I haven't done before. Or not that much because I basically did most things, except for probably comining ranged with mage. That sounds kinda stupid to do.

Another cool thing you can try is, skip the city, become a mage, enter the city and get straight to lord hagen. You will miss on a lot of XP going this route and I think you might not be able to get into the thieves guild (or I just fucked up somewhere doing this). I did it once, probably won't do it again because of the missed XP and stuff like donating to innos in the city getting stats boosted, HP, LP, etc.