So I happened to be watching Sword Art Online (was bored, Netflix failed me, don't judge) and I took a look at how in this show they run spell casting. Different combinations of words give you a different type of spell.
Which reminded me a lot of how ninja's work. With different combinations of giving a different effect (of course, you only get 5 buttons to do combinations with, making it a little easier to remember). So I got to wondering if this kind of structure could be used for a spell caster type profession. Not in the sense that a mechanic like this should replace ALL spells (that would be nuts) but perhaps if there were certain specialized spells that "demanded" more concentration of the spell caster?
Reason I toss this out there, is because it could be an interesting dynamic to experiment with further.