Casting time - it takes time to focus our minds, align our muscles and bones properly, and draw upon our souls' power to cast a spell. Spirits, to whom spells are far more natural, need only draw upon their power - the focussing and alignment is taken for granted.
Spell Strength - more MPs in a spell create a larger ripple in the ether. If the extra MPs are just thrown into the mix, they do not make the spell itself more effective, but just add to its "bulk", so to speak. This is what boosting a spell does, to make it likelier to crash through defenses. If you understand how to formulate the spell in a more complex way, you use the extra MPs to make a more powerful spell, not just boost it.
Duration -- spells have no duration. They evaporate practically at the moment of casting, and are gone. However, the effects of spells can be longer-lasting. The Fireblade spell sets up a framework in which a keen edge actually slices the ether and in reaction produces flame out of seemingly nothing. (Which is why there is no Firemace spell and, if there was, it would work on different principles.) The spell is gone, but the effect lasts for approximately five minutes. And, naturally enough, the strength of the framework set up is equal to the strength of the spell - in fact, the MPs used to support the spell's structure, ever so briefly, are incorporated into the framework itself. When the framework finally falters, the MPs vanish into the spirit world, where they are presumably recycled.
Spells lacking Duration, such as Heal, do not create a framework to hold their MPs. Instead, the spell's form itself directs the MPs as raw energy to affect the target object in the desired way. Thus, the MP contained within a Disrupt spell is used up in causing damage to the target, and then fades off into the spirit plane, leaving the damage behind.
An interesting variant on this process is Speedart, which is both temporal and instant. The spell sets up a framework on the arrowhead which contains the MP of the spell. When the arrow is launched, the framework "fires", in effect casting a second spell. This spell-within-a-spell takes the energy from the framework (destroying it in the process) and adds it to the missile as kinetic energy, increasing its velocity. Hence, the arrow goes faster and straighter, for a better chance to hit, and more damage upon impact.
Range -- the answer to this is complicated, and I don't feel like writing it all down right now, but suffice it to say that there are different types of "ripples" and energy patterns that can be created. Two are the static and the transient types, corresponding to the touch-only and ranged spell types. Be it known that Ranged spells are not exactly 50m, but vary a bit from person to person. One man might get only 48 meters, while another got 51.
Learning spells - spell spirits are, in effect, permanent ripples in the universe, capable of creating their spell whenever suitably powered by MPs. A human who defeats one of these beings through spirit combat is able to get his mind "around" the ripple, feel its impress upon his mind, and thus understand its nature. Thereafter, he can cast the spell himself, assuming he's capable of doing so. A sorcerer has far more trouble understanding a spirit spell, even if he goes through the same process as other folks, because his mind is the wrong "shape" to readily take the imprint.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/phibbs
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| Philip Hibbs +---------------------------------------------+
| What immortal hand or eye dare frame thy perfect symmetry? |
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