The Gaming Den

Ars magica system is made of five techniques (verbs, like create, change, destroy, etc, only in latin) and 10 forms (nouns, like earth, air, human, animal, etc, still in latin) each of them have a numeric value ranging from 0 to whatever you can pay for, a spell combine two of these to create an effect, you sum together the scores of the relevant 'arts' (like techniques and forms are called), add a open D10 roll and you reach a number that depend on how difficult is the effect you want to create (i.e if you want to create a wall of stone it would be a creo terram spell, the DC would depend on how big the wall is, if it is made of stone or dirt, how long should it last, etc).

Of course this don't even start to scratch the surface of the system but you can download the 4th edition rulebook (the actual edition is the fifth, but they are not too different) for free (just google 'ars magic pdf') so you can make an idea for yourself.

Would you play it?

I personally love the fact that there is such a variety of different "styles" of magic in modern-day 3.5 (and if you're not using some variant of 3.5, you're clearly a crypto-communist and should be dipped in lava). You've got your basic dichotomies between arcane/divine magic, and prepared/spontaneous casters. You've got different caster classes basing their abilities off Int, Wis, or Cha (and sometimes mix-n-matching, like Shadowcasters). You've got the "blade magic" of Tome of Battle. You're got the "soul magic" of Incarnum. You've got unlimited invocation-using classes, in draconic or fiendish flavors. You've got psionics in all of its various permutations. You've got the random doesn't-fit-with-anything-else systems like pact binding and truenaming, among others. All the specialized lists: Paladin spells, Assassin spells, Hexblade spells, Bard spells, Dread Necro spells, Wu Jen spells, etc. And you've got the many and varied little Prestige Class casters, with their own unique advancements and spells lists. I could go on. So if you're bored by being a wizard, go nuts with it. Be a Sorceror/Wilder/Cerebremancer, or a Warlock/Binder, or a Paladin/Soulborn, or a Hexblade/Swordsage, or an Archivist/Ardent, or anything really. Some of my favorite campaigns have been the "magic-heavy" ones in which nobody decided to play a straight caster.

All that being said, sometimes you just want to play Merlin. For wizards I use the regular Vancian system, with just a little structure borrowed from 2nd Edition: drag out casting times slightly and make it easier to disrupt spells, and just as easily as that it all balances fantastically.