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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Tony Vargas" data-source="post: 6552375" data-attributes="member: 996">Just because the classic D&D wizard fails to emulate genre doesn't mean it wasn't an attempt to do so.  EGG described his thought process in choosing the 'Vancian' model as a way of keeping wizards involved in combat.  The artillery analogy was also apt in Chainmail.  But they're still supposed to be magic-wielding guys in robes and pointy hats, ala Merlin, Gandalf and the hermetic tradition. Like the Vancian wizard, they're pulled from only a couple of sources, most obviously Lieber's Grey Mouser.  But there are other precedents going back to the Thief of Baghdad, for instance.  Again, it may not have done a good job of capturing those sources of inspiration, and ended up a dugneon-crawling trap-detector, but that failure doesn't mean no attempt was made.  Another is that D&D PCs are meant to be protagonists, while Gandalf, Merlin, and most other pre-Harry-Potter wizard characters are more there as helpers, plot devices, and sources of exposition.   Emulating the character archetypes of the genre, in the first place, would help.</blockquote>