Shattered Kingdoms

I know that we have enchantments that cause weapon speed to increase, but I was wondering if there was anything that caused casting/blessing/chanting (referred collectively as 'casting' from here out) time to speed up (or take less time, however you prefer to think of it). I may be mistaken, but it seems like even the very basic spells still take as much time for a *insert much higher rank level here* as they do for an amateur. That just seems a little ludicrous, particularly if that spell has since been mastered. Wouldn't the caster that's mastered said spell be able to drop it down with very little need to prepare whereas the amateur who just learned it would have to spend extra time to actually achieve the effect. I know the probability of actually pulling off the spell is taken into account when looking at the spell's level, but wouldn't the casting time decrease with increased rank levels and/or increased capacity with the spell/blessing etc as well? Maybe I've just not noticed it... but it does seem that the amount of time needed hasn't budged at all.

It's an interesting idea, but from a game balance perspective I don't think it'd work without substantial other changes. What other enchantment would a caster possibly use if the option to cast devastating spells like petrification quickly was available?

Being in mood aggressive speeds (or at least used to) up the casting time of most if not all spells.

I think recent flying changes slows casting down.

EDIT: Scrolls, wands and staves have lag time after but no start up time, if you count that.

No, being in mood defensive slows down casting, as does magical flight.

Try quaff, recite, zap, and brandish for faster casting time.

I could see where petrification or other extremely higher level spells would never change in time... they're way advanced anyway. But let's take the simple amateur level spell of that beautiful purple missile... wouldn't it take a LOT longer for an amateur that's still in school to produce that than it would a mentor/master/champion who has mastered/perfected the skill? I'm not necessarily saying that all casting times need to be faster... I'm saying that maybe we should consider a sliding scale based on the rank of the caster compared to the rank of the spell AND the caster's ability with said spell. Maybe current casting times should be the median of the slider.

EDIT: Or perhaps there should be a new skill introduced called 'concentration'. The lower the skill, the harder it is for the caster to cast when there's lots of commotion/fighting around... resulting in longer cast times... whereas the higher the skill, the ability to focus more during commotion leading to quicker cast times.

No it doesn't, and it never did. I argued strenuously that it should when stances were first implemented, but it was never implemented. Stance neutral/aggressive casting times are the same. Defensive has extra lag.

It is not documented entirely, but this functionality already exists somewhat. Ask around in-game, and someone can give you information that's had the serial numbers filed off properly. I can only give you blatant OOC info.

I will do that... thanks. But I still think the slider scale I mentioned earlier would be a better alternative to addressing this issue.

Ah, thank you for clearing that up for me. I knew that casting with defensive was slower than neutral, but it hadn't occured to me that aggressive wasn't faster. The more you know.