The Tavern

After recovering from a brain-fart concerning Charms, I now wonder if the magic schools should be separated into 'Power' and 'Secondary Effect'. For example, Repel Missiles is a Charms/Air, and since Charms are slated to be tied only to the duration of dual-school spells, not the power, then Air becomes the Power component and Charms becomes the Secondary Effect:Duration component. So, High Charms ~ Long duration; High Air ~ Repels more stuff.

If this is the case, then perhaps other schools could be divided into components like Charms/Other Schools are, so:

• Summoning - Duration
• Transmutation - Duration (Note that Transmuters use a variety of schools, so perhaps it should not be duration-only)
• Charms - Duration
• Hexes - (Amount of MR reduction per cast?) (Duration of Effect? [but what would that leave for the other school to do?])
• Conjuration - (Accuracy? This would have to be dependent on spell level)
• All Others - Power of Spell (This would group Translocations and Necromancy with the Elemental schools)

This would only affect Dual- or Triple-School spells.

Also, Spellcasting no longer affecting Power or Success should precede any other magic-nerfing change like this.

Duration and accuracy are derived from spell power, so I'm not sure I understand your proposal. Charms has the same effect on spell power than other schools. There are some special cases: Ozocubu's armour and condensation shield. Their strength depend only on the ice skill, and their duration depend on spell power.
If you're suggesting that we generalise the system, then yes, it seems a good idea. But let's narrow it down to buffs. No need to change what isn't broken. Also, I don't see why the secondary school couldn't also have an effect on duration.

I do see some advantage other than in the charms school.

Example:I think the reason for the conjuration skill to exist is to give damaging spells a price in xp. But it also has the effect that now conjurers have an easy time pick up conjurations from all over the elements, which I personally does not like so much. If the conjuration skill only affects "accuracy" (and ability to cast it of course), and damage only depends on the elemental school for dual school conjurations, than it would make sense to build different conjurers. You would still need the xp to have strong conjuration spells, but you also need to specialize in one or two elements.

Of course the bigger problem is that the spells are so similar - so you usually do not need to learn from too much schools.

If accuracy and duration are determined by spell power, then I think I was asking for too much in the OP. However, the benefits of differentiating the effects of different schools are just as sanka mentioned; being skilled in the 5 primary schools instantly give you functional access to any secondary schools with dual-school spells. You have to train that school, too, if you want usable spells. This would extend the differentiation that casters enjoy in the early game, since they would tend to stick to their own schools more.

A question, though: Do forms grow in power as spell power increases or is the duration of the form the only variable?