All right. Seeing as, from what I've seen, this is all boiling down to a question of whether or not mages flying is OP, let me post
exactly what the rulebook says as far as flight goes.
Quote:Fly
Transmutation
Level: Mge 3
Components: V, S, F
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Touch
Target: Creature touched
Duration: 1 min./level
Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes (harmless)
The subject can fly at a speed of 60 feet (or 40 feet if it wears medium or heavy armor, or if it carries a medium or heavy load). It can ascend at half speed and descend at double speed, and its maneuverability is good. Using a fly spell requires only as much concentration as walking, so the subject can attack or cast spells normally. The subject of a fly spell can charge but not run, and it cannot carry aloft more weight than its maximum load, plus any armor it wears.
Should the spell duration expire while the subject is still aloft, the magic fails slowly. The subject floats downward 60 feet per round for 1d6 rounds. If it reaches the ground in that amount of time, it lands safely. If not, it falls the rest of the distance, taking 1d6 points of damage per 10 feet of fall. Since dispelling a spell effectively ends it, the subject also descends in this way if the fly spell is dispelled, but not if an anti-magic field negates it.
Focus: A wing feather from any bird.
Quote:Duration: 1 min./level
The RPG Mage class only goes up to level 20, for all intents and purposes.
What this means is that even the most powerful Mage can only sustain flight for twenty minutes maximum, and likely fewer if their concentration and mana are split between flying, spellcasting and doing Light knows what else.
Quote:The subject can fly at a speed of 60 feet (or 40 feet if it wears medium or heavy armor, or if it carries a medium or heavy load).
Now, here's where it gets tricky, as depending on how long you consider an RPG-style "round" to be, this could mean anywhere from 60 feet per second, to 60 feet per minute. However, using the only other unit of measurement provided, let us assume that it means 60 feet per minute. That's about a foot per second, but if you're moving along a third axis, that's still a fairly large deal.
However, with the "level" system still being used to gauge what the "maximum" would be (We're talking Archmage-level characters on par with Lore figures.) that evens out to less than a quarter of a mile of flight distance maximum.
Now if you look at that in terms of gameplay, it actually matches at least the general speed a Levitated Priest can achieve.
At the absolute most, assuming a "round" is treated as a second, then that means that their total maximum, a Mage on par with a Lore character would be able to achieve a maximum distance of around 72,000 feet, which is exactly 13.6363636 miles.
Even with that in mind, the mana cost of such a spell (which the RPG seems to just ignore in this respect) would likely make it a last resort
at best, leaving the caster drained and utterly helpless once they hit the ground, if they were to use it on themself. If they were to use it on others, then they'd be just as drained, only they wouldn't even benefit from their own flight.
In the end, I'd really argue that this isn't that OP if done by someone responsible, and it entirely makes sense that, while
an option mages might be able to access, none of them would ever use it as a primary mode of transportation just on principle of mana cost alone.
Really, if people accessing the RPG books for spells and the like were to look at the entire spell and not just "hey that looks cool" or "hey that looks ridiculous", I think it'd be seen that a fairly large chunk of it
does make sense without breaking any established lore.
My proposal on this entire thing is to re-canonize the RPG books, and whenever there's a direct conflict, defer to gameplay, Blizzard or whoever else happens to be saying whatever they're saying.