Frankly I thought Oblivion's spell effects were pretty disappointing (never played Morrowind). Throwing a fireball was cool at first but as the game went on it just got old (all fire spells basically looked the same). It'll be nice if higher level spells resemble Final Fantasy spells.

I'd like to add to my response. I've been playing Dark Messiah of Might & Magic lately, and that along with Bioshock have made me really want to see a visual representation of my equipped spell (hand on fire, lightning arcs between my fingers, and so on) in the next game. I'm willing to accept having to switch between casting and weapons (even though I liked being able to do both at once, it made being a spellsword/battlemage a lot more fun) if it means I can see the spell before I cast it. And on the subject of Bioshock, I like how in Bioshock 2, different levels of different plasmids have radically different effects (level one of Incinerate just sets them on fire, level two is an AoE, and level three turns your hand into a flamethrower). Let's consider something like that, eh, Bethesda?

How would the spell maker work, then? If spells effect were separated by levels, instead of subtle degrees of intensity, like they currently are?

Maybe there could be different visual effects depending different things in the spell maker. Like, "on target" could shoot the flamethrower and "on touch" could incinerate your opponent. AoE could have different visuals, depending on the spell effect, like magic damage could ripple outward, fire damage could make an explosion, ice damage could have a layer of frost gradually cover the ground and climb up the creatures/ people it touches.

I very much doubt that they would go back to Morrowind's system of switching between spell flinging and weapons. Oblivion's system was so much more fluid, and that matters a lot more to the game as a whole than the spell animations. However, I can see a system of morphing working here. i.e. whenever you have a weapon at the ready you can see a spell animation at the ready on the hands that are visible. The more proficient you get with magic in general the more defined these animations are.

That would mean that a warrior specialist wouldn't be bothered with the animations at all, whereas a battlemage would constantly see fire (or whatever) licking at his fingers.

Edit: I didn't make this very clear at first. I'm envisioning a weapon/spell system like Oblivion. Whatever spell you have selected determines the skin of the aura around your hands (like BioShock). A fire spell would make fire flicker around your fingers, shock would be electricity, drain health could be a red vortex on the back of your hand... it could get pretty creative actually. When you're a novice mage the auras are very faint, if they're there at all. The better you get at whatever school of magic is relevant to the equipped spell, the brighter the aura becomes.

I would say while Oblivion's effects looked better, I remember Morrowinds were much more diverse in terms of effects, especially when It came to spellmaking. It would be interesting if someone like http://www.youtube.com/user/xilverbulet were to be hired for the next Elder Scrolls. Someone who could put those together.

I was quite partial to Morrowind. Oblivion just didn't quite make magic out to be quite as grand as it could have been (it's an intellectual pursuit after-all). I'd much rather see magic mature a little bit, as well as share a few similarities with the plasmids of Bioshock (2).

Well, when it comes to projectiles, especially the ones for destruction, I think that Oblivion did a better job. I like the diversity - the flash for lightning, the fog for frost. Those are nice. I'm not sure what the fire projectile looked like in Morrowind, so I cannot judge here, but I must say I do not like the ball-ish frost and lightning projectiles of Morrowind. When it comes to the on self and on touch effects, I think that both games made them about equally well. What I miss a lot in Oblivion, though, is the combined projectile of combined spells. If you in Morrowind made a target spell that consisted of several effects, the projectile had them all. It is not so in Oblivion, which is a pity.

I agree that in TES V we should get somewhat more diverse graphics for spells, perhaps even more interesting effects, but I cannot agree with Sebleth that more interesting effects would be worthy of sacrificing the possibility to tailor your own spells. This feature is very unique for TES games (or at least I have not seen any other game having it) and it just too good to let it disappear.