I agree with your perceptions here wholeheartedly. The granularity of the FP system makes it hard to have any spell at all fall in to the "trivial, but not free category."
My solution is a little complex for most people, I suspect, but I'll present it as food for thought:
From
my website:
Quote:
Magical Energy or Mana
Unlike standard GURPS, the ability to cast magic spells has no relation with the character's fatigue. Instead, a new secondary characteristic, Mana, has been introduced. A character has Mana points equal to (IQ + Magery)²/5 -- the same formula as basic lift, substituting IQ + Magery for ST. Additional Mana can be purchased by way of purchasing extra IQ with the limitation (only for calculating Mana -80%) for 4 CP per level. A character may increase his IQ by maximum of 30% of base IQ in this way.
Most mages will have from 30-50 Mana, and spell costs have been increased accordingly (usually by a factor of four). Recovery rate and maintenance costs remain about same. The effects of this new secondary characteristic are:
Casting spells doesn't make a mage fatigued.
Highly talented mages have a little more power.
Spells can usually be maintained for longer.
Mages take much longer to recover when they are depleted.
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So, in short:
Mages have about 4x as many mana points.
Most spells cost 4x as much.
Trivial spells cost 1 or 2 -- equivalent to 1/4 or 1/2 an FP.
Spells are much easier to maintain.
Food for thought. The system has held up pretty well, but I don't have any players actively trying to abuse it. YMMV.