@LeviKornelsen Ironically, there is a real world precedent for "mixed adventuring party" - the groups of would-be treasure hunters from early modern Europe!
And yes, these often had mages or priests for the necessary "treasure magic"...
@LeviKornelsen having read many of the sources, I’m always particularly surprised when someone uses terms like “Vancian” or refers to Tolkien when complaining about how D&D presents material. After some discussion it often turns out they’ve never actually read the source material (seriously Tolkien!?!?). I particularly take umbrage with the term Vancian, which does an absolute disservice to Vance’s work by comparing it to a truly lesser effectuation.
@LeviKornelsen The fiction writers played up the strain on the wielder of having one weapon with an agenda, while the games (esp. video games) are take a dozen cursed items, it's all good.
@LeviKornelsen So what game, or game flavoring, arises from revisiting the bits that were left behind? Seems like it could be a much more interesting and coherent game setting