Hey, I am glad that I am not the only one to hate Mage - The Players Handbook. Feh, lists of spells. I hate em.
Anyway, I kinda like the idea of creating Harry as a Mage, but you all seem to be forgetting that he creates his own Foci, so he is going to need at least Prime 3. His blasting Rod is nothing to be sneered at, nor is his Shield Bracelet. Which just goes to show that you should never try to turn a character from an unrelated book into a Mage character, or you will have a MASSIVELY overpowered Mage as you try to compensate for each time he demonstrates a power that works in the book, but not by the spheres he has shown.
As for someone else's comments about the best attempt at a truly universal game, there is nothing better than Hero system. I have yet to find any other game that I cannot run off the cuff with one single Hero rulebook, the core rules. And I have run a star trek game, a star wars game, a battletech game, a shadowrun game, a d&d style game (by which I mean classic fantasy), a spy/thriller game, and of course super hero games all with one rule book. Yeah, I have a couple of supplements that give me ideas, but I have never actually needed them to run the game. I have never found another product that can even come close to the versatility of Hero system.
Now if only it didn't take 4 hours a calculator, reams of scratch paper, and the GM sitting there to say 'yes/no' to every ability you take, to make a character. Oh well, no game is perfect.
Umm, what was this thread about again?
*Wanders off back to the beginning of the tread to see what the point was for posting here in the first place.*