[3E] GURPS mages

[Themoopanator]

Hi, this is my second post here.

Although I love playing GURPS with my friends I don't have enough time to go through and learn the full rules. So, I play with only the 3rd edition GURPS lite rules along with the full spell, skills, advantage and disadvantages lists just to add more variation to character creation.

Now, from what I have seen of 3rd edition GURPS lite mages is that a decent spell to use in combat such as 'ignite fire' or something to ignite an enemies clothes or the lining of their Armour will cost (I think) 4 strength. A friend of mine is (I am the GM) is currently playing a mage in our world and as for his role in the group it seems that in combat (and out of combat) his role will basically be to quickly get the group out of a sticky situation and then basically not be able to do anything for the rest of the in-game day because a few useful combat spells like the above will sap his entire 12 ST. Because of this I have added enchanted robes to the game which grant mages extra strength, with very little weight on them (because they are robes) but at the cost of not actually armoring them. My question is: Is this correct ? Are we doing the 3rd edition GURPS lite magic system right or is there a way to make a mage more combat oriented so we can make his spells more efficient and long lasting in combat or is this the general role of a mage (not that I don't like it, seems like a cool role to have in group play) because I just want to offer him the option of going a more combat oriented way.

P.S.

At the moment he is going the way of mind control spells and earth spells along with a couple trusty fire spells. (I know these aren't the most combat oriented spells but I have looked at the others and they don't look much different).

Thanks for reading.