How does casting time affect spellcasters?
Each character on the field is on a “personal initiative round.” This personal initiative round will be on the order of 3-6 seconds long (you probably can adjust it) – and it corresponds roughly to one 60 second round in AD&D. The rounds are equal in length but are non-simultaneous; that is they do not have exactly the same start and end points for all characters and monsters. Within the personal initiative round the spells fire off at the same proportionate time that they would get released in an AD&D round. That is, a magic missile gets released sooner after spellcasting starts than a fireball, etc. Initiative is determined each round and modifies the timing of spell casts slightly every round, so each round will be slightly different from preceding and following rounds. If a mage is hit between the time he or she starts to cast and the time that the spell is due to get released, the spell is disrupted. Thus shorter cast-time spells are a definite advantage, exactly as in AD&D.
