I was stoked to see there was a hireling which actually cast spells. When I hired Marcurio, I loved him at first! But I quickly came to find that he was stomping everything on his own. He cast Fire Bolt and Lightning very rapidly from half a mile away. He also heals himself regularly. Never dies either, which I understand it typical for all hirelings though, but he's incidentally pretty good at kiting and staying away from most foes. I've turned it up to master, and my mage/thief character still has no problems. While still a fun game, I think I accidentally stumbled upon an "ezmode"

I am thinking I may have to re-roll with more rules, including only using melee hirelings, if any hirelings at all :-/