Playing Pool Of Radiance got me learning the ins and outs of 2nd edition AD&D and I came to the realization today that I prefer games with a magic points or mana system. Probably because I grew up with JRPGs which exclusively deal with MP over spell slots. Don’t get me wrong, D&D is great, but it’s such a pain when you get into battle and you realize you forgot to memorize Detect Magic and now you have a bunch of potential good loot.
Spell slots for life. It combines great versatility over the long run with focused choices over the short term: A mage can be a blaster one day and a self-buffed fighter the next, particularly in 2e. In various Final Fantasy games, in contrast, every mage class is usually the same (and so you only get one of each, usually). In my current Baldur’s Gate 2 playthrough, on the other hand, my Fighter/Mage is buffing themself to become a better fighter while my Cleric/Mage is using her Cleric spells for buffing and her Mage spells for damage-dealing, and I could switch that up at any point. I’ve never seen that kind of build variety in a game with magic points.
Okay but why would you ever not be a caster if they can do everything?
It’s a role-playing game, why would you try to find the most effective class? Pillars of Eternity had a system where every class and every stat was supposed to be equally viable and as a result, none of them are memorable or really stick out. Besides, mages can only do what they’ve prepared each day; the power creep is another issue that magic points on their own don’t fix (see all the arguments about D&D psionics).