[mhd]

Wu Xia is also a imbuement-heavy genre.

I found limited imbuements more useful than all-out access. So instead of a spell-like system, you just have a few tricks up your sleeves to help reinforce a stereotype or genre. Imbuements (Limited Skills: Forceful Blow/Penetrating Strike) lets you cut through plate and knock guys back a few yards, like we know it to be true from the movies. One could make this a standard ability to model the next level of "basic heroic fighting ability" after Combat Reflexes.

Or similar sets of two/three skills for specific weapon types to reinforce their abilities, so that you'll only end up with Telescoping Spears and not Telescoping Bastard Swords. Could be part of martial arts styles.

I've also used it as a base for some Sorcery spells, but have yet to see a full-time "Imbuer", as the whole shebang seems more like it's coming out of the game instead of out of the background, and I prefer to leave that kind of stuff to D&D.