I forgot this was a thing, so here's another update almost 1 cycle of the moon later :P
Much of my focus following the last update has been on updating the internal spells system in preparation of upcoming mods. They can now have requirements of any stat to learn, and have cast costs beyond just mana - like health, stamina, and gold - which opens up new opportunities for modding, like providing non-magical abilities that non-mages can enjoy to spice things up (hint, hint). It's now a bit easier to implement custom logic for spells, and there's also now the beginnings of a system available for spells to have their effects configurable (so for example, a spell that allows you to grow / shrink can let the caster pick whether to grow or shrink, rather than having to have two separate spells for each effect). I'd also restructured how spells are stored, because there's no reason they need to be stored in the save file - it takes up unnecessary space, and also makes updating them a bit more of a hassle. I realised when overhauling species that they probably should've been handled in that way too, but didn't commit to the idea. I think going forward with things, I'll be trying to properly port the systems I touch into the most suitable formats (why am I going on about this, nobody will care about it! xP).
Making use of this new system, I've been working on new spells. While the brunt of ideas I have are intended to be featured in my "grab bag" mod, with characters and/or quests tied to them, some of them will probably end up in an earlier generic spells mod, though I'm having a hard time figuring out which ones belong where ^_^; Not much to say about them, they're mostly rounding out what's already there, and introducing effects that feel like there should be spells for. Currently there's a spell for temporarily resizing yourself (yet to add any mechanics to that though, so it's mostly cosmetic), a warding spell that reduced incoming damage (think more proactive healing), and a range of alternative fire spells that are more focused on the burn status effect.
The plan is to get the generic spells mod finished and released, maybe take a brief break so I can scratch my AI art itch, then get going on the biggest task of the grab bag mod. I did however have an idea for something I'm quite enthusiastic about that I might slip in before the grab bag mod - a small system that lets you modify equipment sounds like it could be fun, impactful, quite easy to implement, and a good way to add more self expression for roleplay purposes. Don't like how the early wands force you to be lightning themed if you want the best one for spellcasting? Pay a little extra, and you can modify the damage type! Prefer dice over boring reliable stat scaling damage? I'm sure there's an upgrade to shift those focuses you could buy... etc.