Weapon/Casting balance suggestion

Just a thought......in the spirit of maintaining realism/balancing / and benefits/ for each type of attacks:

Hands free mele/casts - benefits being hands free increase spell strength (focus penalty consideration commensurate to damage of other cast types - but perhaps slight cast speed increase) with moderate mele damage (fists) possible disarm???
Would be in line with hands using reagents or summoning.... and add realism to the task.

Wand/Stave casts - charges ("pre-stored" focus low/moderate penalty consideration) at normal spell strength with increased (as opposed to fists) mele damage.
Would be in line with summoning power being drawn from the object - but not be as powerful as "real-time" cast..... and still maintain realism of being struck by blunt force mele contact.

Sword/Mace weapon - reduced spell strength (Highest focus penalty) with Higher mele damage (as opposed to fists or wand/stave).
Would be in line with realism of balancing heavy a cumbersome and un-wieldy object (Weapon and/or shield) while summoning, but would maintain realism of damage if struck by heavy mele contact.

I am not sure if this has already been discussed on forum - I didn't see any mention of it....... but I know the question was raised during the R8 DEV hangout... but not necessarily addressed completely. I am really intrigued by the variations that would be possible between the Deck / Dallas options, provided that the reality of the task provide equal penalty - any thoughts?

 

Similar thoughts and variations thereof have been mentioned in a few threads, but more opinions on the matter is a good thing, since we don't really know what the plan is yet.

 

I would suggest a passive in each weapon and armor tree that gradually reduces this penalty, thus if you really wanted an armored pole-arm wielding ice caster, you could build a specialized version from those trees, you just would lose 10-15 points paying off the casting penalty. Thus, people could build their ideal versions of an idea, but someone who went by the "traditional" route of empty hands and robes would have the extra points for versatility.