do you prefer the wizards on your fantasy novel covers to be jacked to hell muscle monsters, or smirking fucked up little freaks?
smirking little freaks! wizards should, I think, be like the caricature of saruman on @rangedtouch 's Mages & Murderdads. their phenomenal powet offset by a kind of smirking cringing whine. a wizard should be a kind of guy
while I agree in sentiment that whoso places power in the formalized systems of categorization and specialized practice that are spellcasters should thereby be deemed a nerd
I feel it runs the risk of the bastardization of a similar trope to clever, capable Conan being captured, wrought in uncharitable stat distribution (our brute model of personhood and ability distribution at work: have a little restrictive pseudo-science as a treat, no we mechanically insist,) and party role fulfillment to strip your mythic loner ubermensch into the distasteful trope of the primitive "barbarian" berserker trope of D&D--so too is the shackle of the white beard upon the wizard