Things change. . .

[Doug McCrae]

Artefacts. We can use em but we can't make em. The secret of their creation was lost with the sinking of Atlantis/fall of Numenor/Rain of Colorless Fire.

Lake ballpoint pens in Gamma World.

 

[Storm Raven]

Admittedly, this would be the easiest way to do it, though I think that the arbitrary limitation of spell selection (and then, the narrowing it down to two or three spells in the vein of the source material) might really put off players. What I need is some way to limit the number of powers available without limiting the potential for possessed powers to be awesome. I think that d20 Slayers might be a decent place to start, as it gives a bit of both.

I don't think you quite got what I was going for. Here is how the campaign basics would work:

PCs can be: rogues, fighters, rangers, hexblades, adepts (and other NPC classes), and maybe duskblades.

Young NPCs can be: all of the above.

Older "special" NPCs can be: all of the above plus druids, wizards, clerics, and sorcerers.

There is powerful magic, but the PCs don't have regular access to it. They can do relatively minor magical things, as semi-casters, but the big stuff is left to NPCs. You could make it possible to become a member of a "forbidden class" if the PC jumps through certain hoops (i.e. quest to find and impress a teacher and so on), if you are feeling generous.

 

[Walt C]

It's an obvious plug, but you might want to take a look at Imperial Age: Magick.

While written for d20 Modern, it's pretty easy to adapt to 3.5 and includes a number of options to make spell-casting easier or more difficult. Also, the default system relies on skills and feats, rather than a class (although one is in the appendix).

Walt