The Riddle of Steel: why not using all dices to attack ?

[Lacco]

Yeah, that is the kind of thing I have been looking, though maybe on the more complex side of things than I (or the group I play with) are used to. I'd actually considered doing a system of my own that allowed more options for melee characters, based on elements from various systems I've played over the years with eventually a low level magic system as well. I want a s system where spear and shield is actually one of the better choices, not inferior to swords (which are always overvalued). But I'll have to have a look through the system here and see how it goes.

While the system is complex and deep, it works well in practice. And I am always surprised when DnD players (especially those who play 3.5) think the system is clunky/too complex: I find DnD's system quite distracting and while I love it in theory, I find it hard to run smoothly in practice.

It sounds like it could be a good mix for a Dark Sun campaign, though you'd have to do a bit of work adapting races and introducing a magic and psionic system.

In this case: go with Blade of the Iron Throne. There are some changes to the combat system, but overall it looks a bit streamlined. On the other hand - it has a working magic system, which works pretty well with the Dark Sun setting from what I have heard.

Magic is of the dark variety, with Taint mechanic providing a reverse mana mechanic (the more Taint you accrue, the less dice you have for casting spells), there are no real utility spells (like cleaning clothes), but it allows you to rain fire and lightning on people, hypnotize them to believe their swords are snakes (and it could happen they get bitten and die), causing pain - it is of the eldritch variety, so it should work well.