I want to find a magic system based more on internal magic, like pulling the energy out of you. I've always loved that concept in fantasy novels.
GURPS magic actually works that way. A character's spell points are based on Health (Fatigue) and casting spells cost Fatigue points. GURPS also allows you to draw directly out of your Hit Points if you run out of Fatigue, so casting a spell tires and can actually damage a character if you need to pull out that extra bit of life essence to power the magic (keep in mind that unlike D&D, GURPS Hit Points rarely exceed 16... 14 is fairly high in a normal-powered game so a large number of hit point doesn't get around the fatigue rules). The basic magic rules give a pretty good toolkit to customize the magic in your world.
Need lower level magic? Make these kinds of adjustments to the campaign:
1) Limit characters the the Magery 1 advantage (Magery 2+ gives access to more powerful spells)
2) Make a rule that doubles the fatigue cost of all spells (ie -- your game world is a "low mana zone", which means characters will likely dip into their HP more often)
3) Limit characters to one or two levels of the Increased Fatigue / Increased Hit Points advantages (so they don't try to work the system) etc...
There is a "coming soon" supplement called GURPS Thaumatology that looks pretty interesting (combining all the alternate magic rules from three previous 3rd edition source books), but there's no ship date currently announced, so it could be a while.
However, most experienced GM's shouldn't need anything more than the Basic Set: Characters and Magic source books. The basic set includes the trimmed-down magic rules, so Magic is somewhat optional as well. The "Basic Set: Campaigns" book isn't really required, but it is helpful (just like d20 really only requires the PHB, GURPS is ready to run with just the Basic Set: Characters book).
Optional books:
* Fantasy -- self-explanatory: gaming in a Fantasy setting with tips on building game worlds or incorporating historical settings with fantasy elements. Less about game mechanics, more about the "flavors" of the genre.
* Powers -- Super power and psi powers. Required for a Supers game, obviously. Psi powers might make for an interesting flavor of "low powered" magic if you wanted your magic to be more about mental dominations, scrying, or similar. Also a good source book for Force-like powers.
* High Tech -- gear and information for historical and modern settings
* Bio Tech -- cyber punk, implants, medicine, magic-tech
Anyway, I don't want to sound like a GURPS fan-boy. I'm not. I'm the first to admit that it's not a system for everyone (ie -- a single sword wound *could* potentially kill a character... usually not, but it can happen), but it sounds like you'd enjoy some of the mechanics.
GURPS Lite is a free download if you want to browse the basic game mechanics (but doesn't include magic rules in the free download):
http://e23.sjgames.com/item.html?id=SJG31-0004
I want to find a magic system based more on internal magic, like pulling the energy out of you. I've always loved that concept in fantasy novels.
GURPS magic actually works that way. A character's spell points are based on Health (Fatigue) and casting spells cost Fatigue points. GURPS also allows you to draw directly out of your Hit Points if you run out of Fatigue, so casting a spell tires and can actually damage a character if you need to pull out that extra bit of life essence to power the magic (keep in mind that unlike D&D, GURPS Hit Points rarely exceed 16... 14 is fairly high in a normal-powered game so a large number of hit point doesn't get around the fatigue rules). The basic magic rules give a pretty good toolkit to customize the magic in your world.
Need lower level magic? Make these kinds of adjustments to the campaign:
1) Limit characters the the Magery 1 advantage (Magery 2+ gives access to more powerful spells)
2) Make a rule that doubles the fatigue cost of all spells (ie -- your game world is a "low mana zone", which means characters will likely dip into their HP more often)
3) Limit characters to one or two levels of the Increased Fatigue / Increased Hit Points advantages (so they don't try to work the system) etc...
There is a "coming soon" supplement called GURPS Thaumatology that looks pretty interesting (combining all the alternate magic rules from three previous 3rd edition source books), but there's no ship date currently announced, so it could be a while.
However, most experienced GM's shouldn't need anything more than the Basic Set: Characters and Magic source books. The basic set includes the trimmed-down magic rules, so Magic is somewhat optional as well. The "Basic Set: Campaigns" book isn't really required, but it is helpful (just like d20 really only requires the PHB, GURPS is ready to run with just the Basic Set: Characters book).
Optional books:
* Fantasy -- self-explanatory: gaming in a Fantasy setting with tips on building game worlds or incorporating historical settings with fantasy elements. Less about game mechanics, more about the "flavors" of the genre.
* Powers -- Super power and psi powers. Required for a Supers game, obviously. Psi powers might make for an interesting flavor of "low powered" magic if you wanted your magic to be more about mental dominations, scrying, or similar. Also a good source book for Force-like powers.
* High Tech -- gear and information for historical and modern settings
* Bio Tech -- cyber punk, implants, medicine, magic-tech
Anyway, I don't want to sound like a GURPS fan-boy. I'm not. I'm the first to admit that it's not a system for everyone (ie -- a single sword wound *could* potentially kill a character... usually not, but it can happen), but it sounds like you'd enjoy some of the mechanics.