I can not stress enough how much better GURPS is for fantasy RP.

I have recently started up a D&D game at the store I work at, I find the system so limited and the character development very restrictive. Thankfully I have a gang of good players and the old 'hack-n-slash' is not the focus. I am skeptical of the upcoming 4th edition, I fear it is just another money maker for the company and not a quality product.

GURPS Fantasy is a quality product and one of the best books I've picked up in the last year. It provides the basics for most fantasy sub-genres. However it is not really required to run a good fantasy game with the system. I'd recomend the GURPS core books and Magic if you want to play in a magical setting of any sort. I'd advise picking and chosing the magic you use in your world carefully, I recomend a very low number of powerful casters and limit the magic by restricking access to spells or by having low manna levels. Unless you like playing in wierd and wonderful places. The Magic book applied in intirerty to any one world setting creates some very fantasticl settings.

With GURPS you really nead a GM who will put the effort into developing his own world and adventures. But I'm guessing you might know this.