| On fighters being overpowered in hack 'n' slash games -- I'm not sure about that. In most hack 'n' slash games I've played, D&D style "spell slot" magic is replaced with a "mana bar" style magic system, which regenerates in minutes and can further be increased by drinking potions or something of that sort. As such, the playing field isn't as uneven as it would be if you took the Planescape: Torment style combat system, where mages have very limited spell slots with pre-prepped spells and injected it into a hack and slash game.
Personally, I'd like to see a fusion of "pre-prepped" D&D style magic and simple, Diablo-style magic. I'd scrap the spell slot system, and have a mana bar like Diablo, but then I'd have the mana bar allocated before sleep, like in D&D. So a low-level mage might be able to choose between casting 6 first level spells, 4 first level spells and 1 second level spell, 2 first level and 3 second level spells, or 3 second level spells, but there would be trade-offs among levels, rather than just a fixed number of levels to be filled.
In Planescape: Torment, becoming a mage is worthwhile solely for the use of Friends spells. Friends is probably the most overpowered spell in the game, given how cheap, early, and low-level it is. It's a bit like having a high speech rating in Fallout: it just solves so many problems.
Considering that charisma isn't needed except during conversations, it's an easy stat to increase. Overall, you can increase it without using friends or using characteristic point additions by 11 points.
Permanent bonuses:
Sebastion's scar ammelioration: +2
Vivian's embalming scent removal: +1
Tattoos:
Tattoo of the Source: +2
Tattoo of Greater Presence: +2
Tattoo of (Presence/Morte/Tale-Weaver/Redeemer): +1
Others:
Godsmen weapon (Reason/Ascension/Enlightenment): +1
Fiendish Eye of Kalem'Darr: +2
Overall, if you start with a charisma of 9, you can boost it to 20 without even using the friends spell by the time you "kill" Ravel and get the Fiendish Eye.
Even just getting the freebies gets you to 12, which, with a lucky "friends" scroll (and cast those 100 gp scrolls enough, and you're bound to get lucky at least once, leaving aside time-consuming reloading tricks), gets you to 20, which is the highest useable for lowering prices, and more than enough to get you infinite money at the lower ward pawn shop. If it bothers you that TNO is carrying 200,000 cp without encumbrance, just say it's 200 platinum pieces instead, which is just four pounds. Which Dak'kon could easily carry, since he usually uses only about 80 pounds out of 700 or something.
What can I say? Sit me down with a GM and some dice, and I'll cringe if someone does something silly with rules like get infinite money by using charisma to lower purchase prices below resale prices, but put me in front of a computer with a cRPG, and I'm a munchkin.  | 
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