Combat is pretty screwed up in the game right now. You can beat the game playing as a melee or as a spell caster, it is just much simpler for a melee build than a magic build. Magic builds need to buy spells, enhance those spells, and invest in spell cost reduction to be effective. Melee builds get every skill they need, during character creation, and can get by with pretty much any random weapon they prefer.
As a melee, I beat one of the toughest fights in the game (Meraxis) with a random level 1 weapon from an alley attacker (forceful knuckle dusters), the soldier starting background, and a decent physical stat (50ish). I entered the battle butt naked (literally), with about +12 physical stat boosts on a ring, 6 points invested in the physical perk tree (martial artist perk), ... and I flattened her in 1 turn of combat.
Trying to beat her with magic, I needed a decent magic stat (50ish). I had a top tier fire demon stone. I enchanted gear with fire, ice, and poison resists (about +15 each). I used multiple, 120% healing potions. Invested spell scrolls in every spell (Fire, in this case). Ensured I had my elemental summoned BEFORE the fight started. Invested about 10-12 points into the magic perk tree ... And it still took a few rounds to beat her. PLUS, I maxed out my enchantment capacity to handle all of the resist buffs on my gear, so I could survive against her DOT spells and high damage spells.