I've been thinking about this point for awhile now, spurred on a bit by the latest posts in Rise of the Merchant Prince. Not the least because it's a fairly common problem in fantasy settings. Someone capable of throwing around fireballs, or creating twenty metre long walls of ice or any of the classic mage abilities is going to be a literal army unto themselves. Even one Master wizard could kill hundreds of "mundane" soldiers. Indeed, it becomes nearly impossible for a magic user to be countered by anything except another magic user or a mythical creature. This tends to make a fairly boring story;
It is fully intentional that magic users are very, very powerful in the world of SpellMaster. Frankly, I find the AD&D type wizards boring and uninspiring. You study for years in order to do what? Open a door and light a campfire? Yeah, right.
SpellMaster is a PvP game, not a PvE game. Yes, after some time mundanes will not be worthwhile opponents anymore. Never completely underestimate them, though. There are assassins, poison, siege engines - with great power comes a great number of determined enemies, and humans can be very, very creative when it comes to killing. We're not on top of the food chain for no reason.
But your main opponents will be other players, and that is intentional.
As is the power-trip. SpellMaster is one of the few games in which you can play a
really powerful character, because we don't even try to balance wizards with fighters and thieves.
