Part of what might help would simply be making sure that players use downtime for training. If they have a month to rest between adventures, which skill do they want to bump? Fighters will probably pick weapon skills and casters not.
Ultimately though, the question comes down to not how to keep the wizards from being as good as the fighter in melee, but how to make the fighters 'special' so their options in combat don't degenerate to, "I attack, I defend, I attack, I defend..."
to paraphrase something I read on a forum recently about Feat systems versus pure skill systems, while feats and the mechanics of them might be flawed, the premise is sound. That is, players like their characters to be special and do things that other people can't. Feats/Special abilities allow them that feeling, of being special and capable beyond the guardsman with X% in his skill.
So the Fate Points are definitely a good idea, as are super powers scaled down for more mundane applications.
Another option for how they are learned, depending on world setting, would be as Cult Powers ala the MRQ Elric system. Only fighter, or followers of war gods, could dedicate pow to gain 'specials'. The concept could be broadened to represent guilds and such as well, I suppose, though the sacrifice might have to be reworked a bit.
|