Rather than cooldowns, spellcasters could have a sort of “mana bar” (stay with me there for a minute) based on intelligence/wisdom and partly constitution and which becomes “longer” with leveling up. Higher level spells would have a “mana” cost too high for low level casters, maintaining balance. It’s a sort of “fatigue”, the caster can choose to cast low level spells and be able to cast many of them, or higher level spells which wear him out more quickly. Obviously this bar doesn’t regenerate (like in Arcanum, as someone suggested) and potions to regenerate it exist but are waaaaaaaaaaay too rare to be used normally, and should only be employed for important encounters. I’m talking 4/5 potions in the whole explorable world.
Specialist casters could choose options that lower the cost of spells in a specific casting school, but make it higher in the “opposite” school (or not). Cantrips don’t fatigue the caster, and very high level casters can choose a skill that makes 1st level spells be casted as cantrips and so on. When the caster rests, the fatigue regenerates. It regenerates completely only in taverns and similar, and in the wild it only regenerates partially. Of course resting should only be possible at minimum intervals.
This makes casting a much more tactical matter and prevents casters from becoming too powerful too early (baldur’s gate fireball?), allows you to choose among any spell you can cast instead of only the memorized ones and can have interesting/fun moments where a rested mage saves the day by casting a powerful spell but then is too tired to cast anything but cantrips, so now it’s the rest of the team’s responsibility to protect him and so on.
As a practical example, a level 1 mage has 10 “mana” or “fatigue” or whatever. A level 1 spell costs 4 mana, so he can cast 2. A mage with a higher intelligence has 12 mana, so he can cast 3. A level 2 spell costs 8 mana, so he CAN cast something a bit higher than he’s supposed to, but then he’d be too tired to do anything else. At level 3 the mage has 28 mana, so he can either cast 2 lvl 2 spells or a lvl 2 spells and 5 lvl 1 spells (I’m just making stuff up, don’t take these numbers as actual proposals for a scaling system). Gear that affects your intelligence or your “mana” makes you capable of casting more stuff obviously. Special gear has a “mana bar” of its own which can only be used with a certain level of spells and it regenerates slowly, so a ring that gives you 4 mana to cast lvl 1 spells will allow you to cast a lvl 1 spell and then it will (slowly) start to regenerate, and later on during the “day” you’ll be able to use it again. Etc.
This would allow for a sort of spell “customization” too, a sort of metamagic. Do you want your acid arrow to do more damage? It will still be a second level spell, but will cost some more. Do you want to target multiple targets? Some perk or skill will allow you to do that, but it’ll cost you more energy to do so.
Also rather than finding scrolls and memorizing them, you could learn how to use a “basic” magic ability and then be able to modify it according to needs. Let’s say that you learn to cast an “arrow” of raw magical energy. With some extra training and energy, you can make this “arrow” into acid, or fire (let’s say you find a troll) or ice if you find some fire elemental, and so on, to retake a different thread about customization of spells. Why should I throw a fireball, if a similar spell but with acid will serve me better?
This could also get some sort of connection with the whole “souls” things, which, from what little I have gathered, play a role when it comes to spellcasting. Let’s say that at character creation you can choose some sort of “soul” affinity with fire. You’ll be more resistant to it, and casting fire-based stuff will be easier to you, but water/ice casting stuff will be very difficult and wear you out quickly.
Well that’s it, those were my two cents, it’s just that I prefer literally anything to cooldowns. Cheers.
same here, but then someone told me "isn't that a great way to spoil your fun?", so now i'm less sure...