Well, yea, I kinda dislike 'high-fantasy' "Overmentioned Realms", but absolutely adore Planescape (great philosophy... no wonder it was discontinued)...
Yet, about spell system:
Well, I kinda agree that it's not very bad... yet... for CRPGs, it's LAME, cause oversimplified.
Yes, I mean
simplified!
Because for DMs calculating mana expendatures and regeneration is a sure pain in lower regions.
Same about stamina.
And material components, that is a rather interesting idea, is out anyway... and not that it would fit usual mold of CRPGs (I mean, how mages are represented - buffing damagers).
Btw, have you read "Archmage' series by Rudasov?
Try
http://rudasov.ru/
His books are freely downloadable from his site.
Well, if DND system was like THAT, I will be more then happy.
But how it's done now - it just reeks of 'lazy DMs that better strike out a few used spell slots then calculate mana and stamina expenatures'.
It's the system that created the lore, not vice versa.
And for me liking Planescape and Planescape:Torment in particular, heck!
I like it
despite it using AD&D mechanics, and I think I've already stated that!
And besides, if you'll remember, P:T went rather freely with the rules - remember NO's character progression, class changing feature, etc?
So, I love Planescape lore,
Unforgotten realms are so-so, but I absolutely
hate gameplay mechanics because they were ripped off from P&P.
Pretty much for same reasons people here sneer at console ports didn't have even interface reworked for PC... I mena, you cannot use mouse, have to select buttons from 'screen keyboard' with directional keys wihen you want to input something, etc.
Same with ADND games that were ported from PNP to CRPGs.
However, for some people it's not a bug - it's a big-ass feature!
Well, I can understand them. But I don't fucking care. I hate ADND gameplay mechanics in CRPGs with a passion, and
nobody will make me think otherwise.