Hey everyone, there's an oldish game I've searched high and low for a few times a year for the last decade or so, and I don't know the name.

I downloaded a demo of it once (or twice) off of CNET in the timeframe of 1998 to 2001, one noteworthy thing there is there were two downloads labeled "Game Name (small version)" and "Game Name (large version)". It also seems like the name of the game used alliteration and had an ampersand (same first letter of words, so like 'Might & Magic' or 'Sword & Sorcery') but I'm not certain of that detail.

The game was an FPS and Fantasy RPG hybrid that wasn't in the heretic line of games; you played as a single character, I think you wielded melee weapons and probably bows, I believe it had an equipment system, and possibly a food and water system as well as skills and levels and such, but that's all fuzzy. My memory of it was something akin to a quake engine game in terms of graphics,physics, and level design, with RPG elements akin to a Dungeon Masters|Legends of Grimrock elements.

One of the most memorable things about it was the rune combo based casting system where you could cast any spell you *knew* the combination for by clicking multiple rune tiles in the UI, or it would fizzle if the combo was wrong. The UI for this casting system was in the bottom right of the screen I'm pretty sure, and the rest of the UI during play took up the rest of the right hand side, leaving the rest for play, maybe.

I realize there's not a lot to go on here, hence never being able to find it again, but the game had a unique feel that I liked, but for one reason or another I didn't get very far with it either. Obviously it's stuck with me just enough to drive me insane in adulthood though, so if you could save me from insanely scouring the web for hours every six months or so I'd happily gift you a ~$5 classic game of your choice (assuming that's not illegal to do here)

Arx fatalis has a casting system based on drawing runes. Was only released in 2002 though.

Neat looking game but not quite right, it used a number of rune buttons to cast, and you'd click them in different combinations to cast different spells. I updated the post to reflect that a little better.

Holy cow that is the one! I'm astounded how far off my memory was, but that sine-wave healthbar had completely slipped my mind, and is absolutely the right game.

Feel free to DM or friend me or what have you, and let me know what 5$ game you'd like and I'll get it sent your way if you'd like.

Hey, no problem with finding the game. I really appreciate your offer, but feel free to pick up something for yourself. As you can see if you take a look at my profile, I already have more than enough games for a lifetime. :)

Well thanks a ton, as I said, it's been a mild obsession of googling random words over the years to find that rather obscure title.

The name here doesn't meet your criteria, but the game sounds a little like Witchaven, or Witchaven II.

Oops... see somebody else already solved it.

Timeframe is a bit older (1996) but is it Strife: Veteran Edition: https://www.gog.com/game/strife_veteran_edition ? Seems to match the other criteria.