A comment about fantasy RPGs

[womzilla]

rickj has been thinking about tabletop RPGs and made this comment about Baldur's Gate 2, a computer game based on D&D:

Anyway, playing Baldur's Gate 2 did remind me about one of the problems that I'm glad they're fixing in 4e -- the constant need for sleep. The game has pretty much been "we fight until the wizards run out of artillery and the clerics run out of healing, and then it's nap-time." Also, I like how most of their wizard characters are actually dual classed wizard/rogues, so they can use short bows and not totally suck when they're low on spells. I may have to try that with a character, either in 3e or 4e.

I replied,

One of the worst features of magic in most fantasy rpgs is how magic users (Gygax's generic term never seemed more appropriate) get used up.They have a certain amount of magic they can use over a certain amount of time, and then they're useless normal humans until they recover.

Real magicians (that is, the characters in good fantasy fiction)--they have limits on how much they can do, but they're always magical.They can sense magic, converse magically, predict the weather, unravel omens, draw magical sigils, light their pipes without a match,whatever. Even Jack Vance's wizards weren't so completely nonmagical as a D&D MU who has burned through all her spells.

I think that cantrips were Gygax's attempt to keep magic user magical even when they didn't want to burn spell points, but they're pretty weak beer. Has anyone ever written a fantasy RPG where magical PCs get to do magical things all the time just by nature of their magical background/training/sacrifices? (Well, Heroquest. Anything else?)