Some great ideas in here. Thanks for sharing burning.
There is one thing that sparked in my mind when I read this. One of my major gripes in this genre is the fact once you get, say 2nd level spells, first level spells are useless. Now this goes for most games, but not all. I would like to see a system in place that as the spell levels are attained, people would still rely on some basic level spells to get along in the world.
Instead of just increasing damage and range, add bonus effects. \'dark bolt\' may do 3d4 dark magic damage, but \'dark flame\' may add another 2d4 fire. Area effect spells, Damage over time spells, Reversal spells, etc etc. Theres really no sense in having dark bolt 1, 2, 3, 12, and 36. Actually, makes a lot of player feel like, \"Wow, Dark bolt 28, wonder what thats going to do. Oh, same as 1-27. \"
Just my feeling on the matter.