Having a large variety of spells is important, but limiting the amount a person can learn is more important. New spells could be bought with experiance points, or time spent playing the game, or both. Given a large enough spell database a player will be able to choose distinct spells he wants his character to cast, and will give him more of a chance to have a unique caster (which is rare in ANY mmorpg to date). Plus the spells could increase in power as you spend experiance points on them, instead of buying a new spell for money with slightly increased effect, you should be forced to buy an improvement to your existing spell for experiance.
Spells should be able to be swapped, you can unlearn a spell and gain some experiance back maybe? And then learn a new kind of spell. But if every spell is made well enough, it shouldnt matter what spells a caster picks since they are all different but relativly equal.
Spells should be treated like skills; in many mmorpg games ive seen, casters have always had a disadvantage in combat. Melees keep on swinging over and over, but once a caster is out of mana he is virtually useless; if there was a new way to cast spells not based on mana, that would improve play tremendously. Although I have no alterior solution for mana, perhaps someone else has a good idea.
Heres a spell idea: Element = Air; Summon Bird
skill 1 = summon one bird that follows above caster, will attack on command, does 5 damage attacks every 3 seconds, has 1 hitpoint.
skill 10 = summon 2 birds, 5 damage every 3 seconds, have 5 hitpoints
skill 100 (maxxed) = summon 10 birds 10 damage every 2 seconds have 25 hitpoints, they also have regeneration
