Brian: I almost always played a Warrior Monk (Caylis, who is featured in some RMU examples) but occasionally I ran a Rogue. Strangely enough I have never played a spell-caster! I played Monks in D&D as well. I think I like the minimalist and self-reliant nature of the profession: I don’t worry about loot, magic-items, equipment etc. I don’t need weapons to attack or armor for protection. It’s very liberating!
Peter: What I like most are characters that are as comfortable out of combat as they are in a fight. I don’t like the idea that I ever have to take a back seat. The professions I favour in fantasy settings tend to be thieves because they are pretty good all rounders, mentalists and illusionists. I don’t feel the need to be the big firebolt caster much prefering subtler magics. In Space Master I really like the criminologist profession as a basis for building just about any character concept.
To slightly amend the question–the one Profession I always wanted to play was the Mystic!
If you compare the open and closed essence and mentalism lists there is a massive amount of overlap. You could almost call a Mystic another pure essence OR mentalism profession.
I like Sorcerers. They have an almost limitless potential as channelling and essence are so far removed. I have never played one except as NPCs.
yes, the similarities in the open and closed lists were a problem–my most recent pass through has minimized it even further.
I would note that many, many issues raised in the RMForums really tie back to basic problems with Spell Law. No criticism to the RMU developers, but there was a lost opportunity to completely redo the lists rather than just smooth them out and fill in the blanks.
Spell Law us pretty much D&D in disguise with clerics having cleric magic magic users having magic user magic.
The more I have looked at it gheeta more I want to abolish the entire concept of realms and just have ‘magic’.
I know Spectre771 over on the forums only uses magic from the Elemental Companion. That pretty much achieves the same thing.