So something I never liked about armor/etc spells, is that you cast them and they have absolutely no sustained cost.. and then run out. While this is kinda ok i guess? I mean its the way it always has been, which says something at least.

However, I feel this is suboptimal; Since mana started restoring itself naturally, I think a different system might work better. If anyone else has played dragon age, spells of this nature would be a constant effect spell, with a stunted magicka effect - I would cast a spell of.. armor, and my armor would be increased as per the spell until uncasted, with the effect of stunting my magicka by whatever amount until then.

The issues I can foresee are levelling related - Im not sure if it would be more ideal to treat it as armor (gain experience on being attacked) or treat it kinda like current stuff - gain experience for having it casted in combat.. like current armor spells, if you have it casted and entering combat, you gain experience as if you had just casted it, or maybe something else, like gaining experience passively for having it casted while in combat.

That perk that increases duration of stuff might instead reduce the magicka costs for sustaining instead of making them or something...

Anyway, overall I just hate dealing with recasting stuff in combat because it ran out, or forgetting to recast it and just dieing.

I assume this would be somewhat trivial to do once the construction kit comes out, and might be something I could play with myself once that is done.. But mostly i just wanetd to hear peoples thoughts on the matter. Do people overall like the way alteration and conjuration work (yes, id be looking at summons too).