I am not sure what your point is. Just because wizards are that way in a book doesn't mean it isn't "overpowered" in pnp either. Something can follow the rules exactly as written and still be objectively stronger than the alternatives. What I find odd is that you seem to be unable to acknowledge this. You want to play a powerful wizard that can bend reality and that is better than the mere mortal fighters who do silly things like swing swords. Thats fine, its the power fantasy you find fun. Other people don't want to play that particular power fantasy and like low magic settings, that's fine too. There is no reason for the person that enjoys the low magic setting to pretend the low magic setting features all powerful wizards and likewise there is no reason for you to pretend that the high magic setting is in any way balanced - its not trying to be balanced, the people who enjoy it are enjoying it for the lack of balance.
As i've said many times
FUCK BALANCE!!! Go play 4e if you wanna a balanced and borin game. More balanced a game is, less variety, immersion and consequences will have. Imagine a FPS. If everyone is using M16, the game is 100% balanced, if you have a guy using a PzB 39, other using a Mini uzi, other using a musket, the game can't be balanced unless every weapon is just a resking of one to another.
Every classic RPG is extremely unbalanced. Arcanum? BG1/2? Dark Sun : Shattered Lands? ToEE? VtMB? Every single legendary RPG is unbalanced. Imagine if VTMB had made the curse of nosferatu far less impactful or removed the class for balance's sake. How it would made the game better? And if you look to kingmaker build thread, everyone suggests martial classes, so stop pretending that martial classes are trash on kingmaker.
And magicians can be quite powerful in low magical settings. See Conan's Thoth-Amon. What makes a setting a low magical setting is >
- The rarity of the magic
- The risks associated
- The costs associated
A sorcerer is extremely rare on Conan, most of his magics are ritualistic and often come with high cost. But are quite powerful. And D&D/Pathfinder are high magical setting with some ultra high magical adventures like Netheril. If you don't like, there are other ultra balanced games to play but how many RPG's with a consistency on lore and mechanics we have?
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If the spell does X on a novel, it should does X on a game. That is simple. We don't need more games where necromancers and unarmed monks needs bigger and sharper axes to have powerful undead servants or melee strikes like D3 for the sake of balance.