Why the desire for low magic?

[Batcathat]

Casters have limits too. A Druid, a Cleric, a Wizard, and a Dread Necromancer are all at a pretty similar power level, but play in different ways. It's just that the power level is higher than the mundanes, and people tend to anchor their assessments to what mundane characters can do. If you compare apples to apples, casters can't "do everything" even now.

Sure, they have limits but the sheer versatility of magic mean that most casters can handle almost any type of situation. A fighter isn't capable of doing every kind of violence imaginable, a skill-monkey can't master every skill, why should a caster be capable of (almost) every kind of magic?

Now, that's not to say there's anything wrong with more specialized casters. There are good reasons for doing that, but they're not power level reasons. The Dread Necromancer is a better class than the Wizard not because "Necromancy" is some how inherently more balanced than "Magic" as a character concept, but because people like consistent themes. People want to be able to say "I'm a Necromancer, I do Death Magic" or "I'm a Shaman, I do Elemental Magic" because that's better for establishing a character. Insofar as it does improve game balance, you'd get basically the same effect by just having there be eight or ten Wizard classes that were all nominally as versatile as the Wizard is now.

Yes, thematic classes are nice. I personally find wizards fairly boring in part because "I do magic" is a pretty flavorless concept. But it can also help with class imbalance, if every caster isn't capable of so many different kinds of magic. I'd prefer if they had to specialize, for both flavor and balance.