Quote from: Ravenswing;911306I don't even agree with the word "supposedly" in there; the more accurate term is allegedly.  I really can't recall many systems that specify that wizards are putting in a hundred hours a week studying.

And yet we have very few images or stories of where the Wizard character is either not an old man with a beard, or an apprentice if they are younger.  And by younger I mean the character is in their teens.

Oddly, there's very few stories showing wizardly types in mid-twenties to 40s.

HOWEVER, if you've actually read any of the fantasy novels/stories by TSR or Wizards of The Coast, you'd know that most Wizards are taught via intensive scholarly study, which precludes a lot of the physical activity an athlete would have to do.  And this shows up in a lot of the older novels.

Accurate to real life?  No.  But setting consistent in Greyhawk and Forgotten Realms (among others.)

Quote from: Ravenswing;911306LACKING that much, c'mon.  Plenty of people in our culture who otherwise spend all damn day long in office chairs are nonetheless fit and toned, because they jog for a half hour or so every morning, or put in an hour in the gym after work.  Having played a mage in a combat fantasy LARP, in which I had to keep up with college kids half my age going up mountainsides and questing in 90 degree heat, keeping fit was necessary.  And given that your average PC really does spent a lot of time traipsing out in the aforementioned woods and dank caves ... how did they get there?  Where did they camp?  No: I see no reason at all, except through prejudices honed by a generation of players with hands permanently glued to their Doritos bags, to presume that ANY adventurer isn't fit.

There's fit and then there's that woman up above.  She looks like she can drag a car.  Trying to get away from her.  She'd win in a tug of war against a house.

Again, the background the OP wants is dependent on what the setting they are using says about magic.  And the system they plan on using.

For example, an average person in D&D 5e can dead lift, that is lift an object a few inches off the ground and hold it there for a few seconds, 270lbs.  That's the AVERAGE peasant with a 9 (Out of 3-18) Strength.  I don't know of any reasonably fit, grown adult in their 20-30's in a desk job being able to dead lift twice their own weight.  Or be able to force march in a forest with up to 135lbs. on their backs and bodies per day.

And that's the average peasant, the average Adventurer, like say a Rogue or Fighter would have HIGHER.  So if we're going with a Melee Fighter (as opposed to a Ranged one), we're looking at a base 15 to their Strength, based on the mechanics presented in the system, and that's before any sort of racial adjustment.  So the big buff fighter would be able to dead lift 450lbs.  Force marches can be done with 225lbs. on their backs.

That's kinda superhuman, right?

But, and this is a major 'but', in GURPS that ratio may be completely different.  Heck, it's different in various editions of D&D!  And don't get me started on Palladium Books, or Savage Worlds or Mongoose Runequest or Dragon Warrior!

So again, I need to reiterate, what does the setting that OP wants to play in say about how one gets to use magic.  Is it a talent one is born with?  Can anyone learn it, but requires intensive study?  Can anyone learn it, but isn't that hard?  Is a requirement of a bloodline?  These things I would need to know before I can suggest anything.

Well, there's no real rules system suggested by the images, or setting beyond general "Western fantasy."