level10

I was going to bold the suggestions that I specifically like, but hell, I love them all!

Definitely. There could be a chance of catastrophic failure that increases the more you try to push a spell beyond your capabilties, maybe even resulting in permanent penalties if you go too far...

With magic being tied to the user's soul, I assume there will be some kind of 'mana' system in place. Rather than having separate spells that are just variations on a theme (wall of fire, fire bolt, fireball, etc), there could be one 'fire' spell, one 'lightning' spell, etc. Using the scroll wheel on the mouse, you'd be able to scale the spell and increase or decrease its power, which would adjust the 'cost' accordingly. For example: on the lowest level, the fire spell would be single-target only, like a bolt of fire. Scale it up slightly and it becomes a small fireball. Scale it up even more and it becomes a large fireball. It could also be modified by right clicking- say you have it set to large fireball, and you right click, this could modify the spell so that it creates a wall of fire around the area of effect, rather than an explosion that engulfs the entire area. For a lightning spell, scaling up could add to the number of targets you can chain, and right clicking could change it to a proper AoE spell, that just zaps everything in the selected area. This could also work for non-combat spells. Scaling up a healing spell would increase the number of hit points restored (if HP is used in this system), and right clicking could modify it so that scaling increases the number of targets healed by a set amount. Also, being able to combine spell effects is definitely something I'd like to see

I think it's generally taken for granted that every time your party rests in games like BG, whether it be in the wilderness or in an inn, they are eating and drinking. The same goes for the downtime while travelling, I think it's generally assumed the characters are performing the essential actions of living. I think having a hunger/thirst system would bog the game down too much, we don't really need that level of micro-management. If we're going that far, why not go all the way and implement a system of repairing armour and weapons between battles? Each 'realism' feature introduced will take valuable time away from the story.

I wonder how feasible it would be to have some kind of 'live' portrait, that updates with what your character is wearing, and possibly their HP level, which is processed through some kind of filter to give it a traditional painted feel...

Oh, lord. I really hope that the second design there has absolutely no bearing on the aesthetic of this game. That is absolutely awful

I think it should be at least partially skill based, but choices you've made through the game, and NPCs predispositions should be more important than what your base stats are. You could be the most charismatic person in the world, but if you've just assassinated the beloved king, you're going to have a hard time convincing the people to not try and kill you. Likewise, you could be totally useless at talking to people, but if you've just saved someone's family, they're probably going to be partial to what you're trying to get them to do. If you've built up a reputation during the game of being a murderous fiend, getting people to trust you will be very difficult. Likewise, if you've built up a reputation for being a kind, merciful, generous person, intimidating someone is going to be quite tough.

It would be nice to see the 'traditional' races, but taken more to extremes. Take elves for example: generally tall, lithe, mysterious forest dwellers, often distrusted by humans. Why not expand on that and instead of having them as tall, pretty, magical versions of humans, focus more on the strange and alien aspect of them. Imagine a cross between 'greys' and Slenderman. Tall, terrifiying creatures that live in the forest and are hardly ever seen, but are known from stories to abduct travellers. Dwarves could almost be living stone. Imagine the scene from Aliens where they're walking through the corridors and we see the xenomorphs coming out of the walls, but make the walls stone and the xenomorphs short, rocky humanoids. The races wouldn't necessarily be malevolent, but they also wouldn't necessarily have the same thought processes and morals as humans. Just my $0.02