[Kortobowden]

Definately Friendly fire should be on... It'll make it more skill-ish and less spam-ish as others have said.

And I also agree with AoE attacks hitting the caster for the most part, such as a mage casting a firball that explodes at his feet or some such thing. However, If it's an AoE that starts where the caster is, such as a blast wave(or the nova spell from Diablo 2 as a basic example), then it really shouldn't hurt him. Any friendlies should get hit in the area.

Edit: And about blocking spells, some spells don't make sense to be blocked. For example, trying to block a lightning bolt with a metal shield doesn't make any sense. A wooden shield, however, might make more sense...

And this leads to different types of spells having different levels of effectiveness on different types of armor, along with different types of melee attacks(blunt, slashing, stabbing, etc) having an effect on different armors. Sounds like an interesting, though maybe complicated idea to me. It'd diversify the spellcasting, as well so we don't see the same spell being casted because it's the "best spell" Just a thought.