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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tratyn Runewind" data-source="post: 446839" data-attributes="member: 685">Hello!Hmm, interesting question.  I'd probably go with GURPS, Runequest, or Fantasy Hero, in that order.  I actually like 2nd (Chaosium) and 3rd (Avalon Hill) Edition RQ about equally - 2nd has more Glorantha stuff, but 3rd has the Sorcery magic system, which I also like.Interesting pick from back in the day.  I've seen both the 2nd Edition of this, by independent SPI, and the 3rd from after they were bought out by TSR.  Typical TSR changes were made, sadly.  The Black Magics college was excised entirely (though replaced with the Shaping college), Greater Summonings was reduced to Summoning and all the demonic stuff was culled (including the huge list of demon rulers), Necromancy and the Courtesan skill were edited slightly, and at least one adult reference was removed from the sample adventure.Yes, if you fight like a typical D&D fighter, standing still and swing, swing, swinging round after round, you'll need a lot of armor to survive.  If, on the other hand, you realize that the level of detail in GURPS will require you to explicitly make proper use of combat actions one might actually employ in a fight, like feinting and retreating defense, you'll do fine with lighter armor and either a good shield or a weapon that parries well (fencing swords, katanas, etc.).  GURPS combat is not an abstracted hit-point-attrition-fest.  And being outnumbered will tell in GURPS, moreso than in D&D 3e after the first few levels, so players may actually have to employ tactics, like withdrawing to a place where they can fight on a narrow front, for more of their careers than they would need to in D&D.Yes, the standard magic system for GURPS is deliberately somewhat (brace yourself!) generic.  GMs can use their own ideas to spice it up, or easily adapt concepts from myth, legend, or fantasy literature, or use one (or more!) of the many variants presented in GURPS sourcebooks for that (the ones in the aforementioned GURPS Cabal and in GURPS Celtic Myth are both fun).  But there is not a thing in the rules limiting a wizard to "a small group of spells", beyond the character point totals that limit everyone in everything.  Many highly useful spells, in fact, require broad-based magical knowledge, having as a prerequisite "at least one spell in each of X different magical colleges".  Yes, there are certain themes that are well represented across a broad range of magical colleges.  Is this really so surprising, given the challenges mages typically face in literature and gaming?  Detection spells are usually among the easiest of them, having few prerequisites in GURPS, costing few points in Fantasy Hero, being low level in D&D, or being at the first Rank of a Sphere in Mage.  Combat-useful spells, offensive and defensive, are well represented in many colleges, because of the action-oriented nature of fantasy role-playing and the myths and books that inspire it.  But all the GURPS colleges include other spells that can be interesting tricks to have up your wizard's sleeve - all you have to do is spend the points to learn them...As for what the "average wizard" might have - well, that very phrase means less in GURPS, where wizards aren't bound to a strict fixed progression by spell levels, with clearly superior and inferior spells in each level that make truly effective characters all wind up looking somewhat similar.  But the GURPS equivalent of Knock, called Lockmaster, has few prerequisites and is in a college (Movement) with many other useful spells, and so is hardly difficult to come by.  As a rough guess, small-hamlet hedge wizards will bother to learn it less often than "average", and wizards on retainer to big-city crime guilds will have it available more often than "average".  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Not sure what version of GURPS you've been playing, but it sure isn't any one I've ever seen.  You get one casting of Minor Healing and one of Major Healing per person per day in GURPS before you start running into serious and cumulative negative modifiers.  Penalties for repeated Divination are even more harsh, and the various Divination spells all have high energy cost and relatively high prerequisite requrements, to boot.  And the alarm bells for the potential campaign implications of Divination are sounded right at the beginning of the spell description itself.  Constant Flight or Invisibility are possible, but hardly seem unbalanced - they're far more expensive in terms of points than the countermeasures to them.Have you checked out Castle Falkenstein?  Haven't had much of a look at it myself, but it has a reputation for being in that style of roleplaying, too.  It might be worth a peek...Hope this helps!  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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