Alternative magic system

[Ingenious]

Appologies for length/ranting/non-coherent thinking below.
Regarding an alternate magic system.. I came up with a brain storm that might have been tried before.

Regarding the sorcery pool in particular.. the bane of my sorceror's existance.. I began to note that the combat and missile pools are set-up via a combined-divisible pair, or trio of attributes.
For example.. CP is Reflex + Proficiency in a weapon.
MP is Aim + proficiency level.
Sorcery pool differs in the fact that it is a grouping of combined attributes.. and has nothing to do with the level of training abtained by proficiencies(vagaries...)
So I thought to myself, 'Self.. WTF is up with that?!'.

Here's the lo-down on a possible fix... to sorcery pool woes, which hopefully makes it easier to make those aging rolls.. thus improving the ability to use magic on a daily basis without a hell of alot of paranoia about turning into what appears to be the world's oldest man.. even though you're only 20..

New sorcery pool is calculated as normal.. but puts the number of vagaries you are going to use into the mix.
I.e. SP=Kaa + Form + # of Vagaries you character has learned.
Same with spells of three and spells of many..
which would be New SP +art...+art and discipline..etc.

This puts a much needed exclamation point on the amount of training a sorceror goes through in pursuit of his Gift.. IMO
Vagaries can be kept as is, or disregarded entirely and replaced with something of your own creation.. or something like this.

Have 'focuses' for certain types of spells.. use normal vagary points to put into these types of spells..(like offensive, defensive, elemental, speed, life, etc etc etc)(or something else).. these points mean additional dice to your SP.
Say, you have a new SP of 18.. and you have 3 points of focus in the 'elemental' spell type(sphere, sector, group.. whatever it gets called)..
this would then amount to a total SP of 21 with elemental spells.
No points in a certain spell type? NO problem.. you just don't get bonus dice for that spell type.
CTN's are kept the same.. but only calculate how many focuses you use.. instead of the level of a vagary.. etc etc.(say, offensive and elemental would be 2 points added to a CTN)(remember the normal spells of one rule though, that still would exist).

You say you don't like aging? Throw it out. Any dice remaining after the spell is cast gets added to the normal 1 die per hour refresh rate(In case of meditation.. that's 2 + dice remaining)

I think I've covered all of the bases here.. sorcery pools, vagaries, aging, refresh rates.. vagary levels and levels of effect..
This seriously will amplify magic though... Dunno about how it will go.. no attempt at playtesting yet.. though I can do that in the IRC with everyone else.

I just figured I'd put this thing here instead of e-mailing it to people.
Questions? Comments? Critiques?
-Ingenious
This system created in under 10 minutes.. though.. haste makes waste, and/or useless lines of text.(I.e. this is a rough draft made to seek opinions on this particular system)

[Ingenious]

Playtesting is going well, seems that it helps to have extra dice when trying to hit a CTN over 10/11(11 being automatically made if you stack a 10 obviously..)

The extra dice are nice.

Example:
a spell to affect animals.. +3.. range is line of sight..2..volume of 3.. for up to 2000lbs of 'animal targets'.. and a duration of instant, 0.. CTN is 8.
Rolling 18 D10 for Ingenious: 9, 8, 1, 4, 8, 6, 6, 7, 3, 6, 2, 3, 9, 4, 12(10+2), 8, 8, 2 <> 7 successes against TN of 8
Let's say this was a variant of a basic movement spell, to fling someone(s) into the air X distance... Where-as X can be a fixed number and the # of successes is a multiplier. Let's say X was 10 feet. That'd be flinging as many creatures as you wanted into the air 70 feet.. so long as you followed the volume constraint in  calculating the CTN..

Going about revamping the CTN system would take a hell of a long time to do.. and I see no problem with it as-is.

Let's just try my new SP idea in a normal spell with an aging roll..

Rolling 9 D10 for Ingenious: 19(10+9), 15(10+5), 9, 6, 3, 6, 6, 2, 3 <> 3 successes against TN of 7
Rolling 9 D10 for Ingenious: 8, 5, 6, 7, 6, 9, 7, 3, 9 <> 5 successes against TN of 7
(Assuming a SP of 18)
So I got three successes on the casting and the spell went off and worked... and to resist aging.. instead of having only maybe 5 dice left..I had 9.. and got 5 successes.. so I only shaved 2 months off of my character's life..
Try it with my sorceror and his SP of 11..
I'll devote 4 to the casting and 7 to the resistance of aging.
Rolling 4 D10 for Ingenious: 2, 5, 3, 5 <> 0 successes against TN of 7
Rolling 7 D10 for Ingenious: 7, 2, 17(10+7), 3, 1, 9, 1 <> 3 successes against TN of 7
So you see, my spell failed AND I aged 4 months. Ouch.

Anyways, back to more playtesting.. Thanks Chade for the use of your 'bot.

Items I still need to address with this system to make it unique.. the CTN calculations.. spell casting times..etc.
Though spell casting times for spells of one can be translated into exchanges. and so a CTN 8 spell wouldnt take 8 seconds.. it'd take 4.. (if 1 round = 1 second) Which means sorcerors can keep up the speed of casting at the same pace as an archer oor crossbowman. Also, since you can pay MP dice to make a reflex roll to speed up reloading a bow.. why cant you speed up the casting of a spell by spending SP for a Form-roll eh? That deals with speed of mind(wit) and perception of one's surroundings.

Work will continue.
-Ingenious