The following is some other random ideas that I have. They are not ones that I expect to get implemented, as they would likely interfere with the balance that has been built into the mod, but hopefully might inspire something anyway.
I have never like the way spell progression works, such as with fire1, fire2 and fire3. As well as not being creative, they make it feel like leveling up material is more important then the characters stats. I really think that 'fire' should be a bit more dependent on the mag stat, so that fire2 and 3 are not needed.By the time a character would normally get to fire3, 'fire' should be doing the same damage 'fire3' would based on the mag stat increase.
I would like to see instead of fire1,2 and 3, they are changed to allow for more variety, with different ones doing different things, and none of them becoming obsolete. So instead of those, we could have:
Fire1 =>Flame Strike: shoots fire at a single target from a distance, . (LIke the fire spells work now)
Fire2=>Flaming Hands: A close range version of flame strike, but is faster to cast.
Fire3=>Fire Dart: A long distance spell that has the advantage of both of the above, but is the least efficient in MP consumption.
Ice1=>Icy Breath: A close distance ice spell
Ice2=>ICe Dart: A long distance ice spell that does slighlyt less damage then Icy breath, but can work from a distance
ICe3=>Freeze: Does the most damage, and from a distance,has a chance to slow, but uses the most MP, and is slowest to cast.
I don't like the names of the above, (they don't seem very Final Fantasy-ish), but I do like the idea of each set having at least one short distance version, that is most efficient in either speed, MP, or damage.The fact is Final Fantasy VII is a game that incorporates magic into fighting, so warriors usually do both. And even Aeris is more physically tough then white mages in usual FF games. It makes sense for there to be short range spells, if that is possible to mod. And I always thought that even if Cloud has caster build, he is a warrior and has a large sword. Their should be an incentive for him to cast from the front, as that's what it looks like he should be doing and it is what his personality is like. And like I said, I don't like the idea of spells becoming obsolete, and the materia level mattering more then the users magic stat.
But such as approach would also require characters gaining a lot less MP as they level, since Magic stat matters for damage more then higher level spells that consume more MP. I think a formula of 50 + Spirit would be about the right amount.
And as I said at the beginning of this post, this is mostly wishfull thinking. But maybe at least there is some way to give some sort of casting advantage to the front row.