There was a kickstart by a norway team with this idea:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/171497873/festival-of-magic
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Not sure how well it would really work but might be an interesting approach (this game style is more jrpg I think - not sure)
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I cut it out to reduce the length of the quote; but I really dislike the idea of buying regents from vendors. I find that approach rather annoying and some what akin to buying potions (annoying because if you need a specific regent you either run around to the different vendor or wait for the vendors to reset - presuming the game has those mechanics). I'm not sure I see the difference between that and buying mana potions but it is certainly more annoying. DA had regents from plants (for potions; with certain plants being season limited; though I don't remember any mechanics that forced you to not simply wait until the plants 'regened' (been a while since I played); so other than patience it has the issue of no bounds on acquisition.
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I kind of like the idea of very limited rare resources where you have to actually make a decision of when to use them or save them. I think its been a while since I played such a game though for the life of me I can't remember which games took this approach and if it worked as well as I think it could.
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King bounty's (legend) approach to runes and skills is an interesting take. It is not quite as limited as it could be but still quite limited - i sort of like a system like that but use the runes for spells instead of skills.


Originally Posted by Raze


The only farming you should be required to do if you use a high level spell more often than the game designed thought you should be able to use it, is if there is an actual farm in the game where you can hire someone to grow/gather plants or explore for minerals. Seeds can be quest related, and there can be game content related to developing and protecting the farm (recruiting workers, etc). Deciding how many of which herbs to plant and how much gold you want to spend to expand a farm would be strategic; visiting merchants a bunch of times to see if they have what you need, or running around looking for random loot, is not. IMNSHO.