having played a great many fantasy games in my early years I was appreciative of the Hero systems take on fantasy. You created spells by choosing an effect then

having played a great many fantasy games in my early years I was appreciative of the Hero systems take on fantasy. You created spells by choosing an effect then modifying it with advantages and disadvantages; a common disadvantage is a focus, think staff or similar. When it comes to MMOs, Asheron's Call had the most unique system whereby as originally launched the uses of a particular spell by all players could reduce its effectiveness. Akin to a world mana pool. While it never went down severely it did suffer a reduction in effect. Combined with an early spell learning system that eventually was broken by players through group effort higher tier spells were initially rare. The best thing about their magic system was that projectile spells had the same rules as projectile weapons which means the target could dodge them! Currently most MMOs have reduced magic spells to nearly auto attack format. As in, you never really run out of power, your health is your real resource.