Magic in Novarium

You will see a lot of similarity in the below setup with Ars Magica. It was a very clear inspiration on this for me.

Remember, in this game world only human females truly have the gift of magic. Elves use to have it but their race has fallen into severe decline. They are allowed to use the below system with the caveat that they can only place points in Embue.

Techniques:
The game has 8 techniques, each represents a way of interacting with the game world using magic. Every human female in the entire world (not just PC classes) has 1d6 points in each technique. Elves get 2d6 points in Embue and that's it. Some Elves are going to get screwed by that, some not. When you make an Elf, you take that risk. They are a cursed race, after all.

These should be fairly self explanatory.

- Control
- Create
- Defend
- Destroy
- Embue
- Sense
- Strike
- Transform

Foci:
The game has 12 Foci, each represents what the magic is actually doing. Each human female in the entire world (not just the PC classes) has 1d6 points in each technique. Elves have 1d6 in four Foci, which they choose before rolling the dice.

- Air
- Death
- Demon
- Earth
- Fire
- Life
- Light
- Metal
- Sound
- Thought
- Time
- Water

The Novarii class which goes through an apprenticeship gains 10 dice that they can add to any randomized determination above, but only 1 die for any given unit and they must allocate those dice before they roll. So you could hypothetically roll every Technique as 2d6 and 2 of the Foci as 2d6; or you could roll 2d6 for all Foci except 2. Or whatever combo you wanted.

Casting:
There are two methods.

Improvisational: At any time, to do anything you can imagine that would be reasonable considering the situation, you can combine any Technique with any Foci, add the numbers together, and use it as-if-an-attribute using the game's primary mechanic. For example, you could come across a locked steel door and use Destroy Metal to cause it to dissolve, or Embue Sound to make it talk, or Transform Earth to reshape the earthen walls around the door. Whatever you want. The difficulty is set by the GM.

Using Spells: Beforehand, you can create spells and write them onto a scroll. You must be fairly specific about what the spell does. You can't just say Destroy Metal. You have to say "Dissolve Steel Door" or similar. Using this method, you can roll dice ahead of time and if it fails, you won't be in the shitter. However, it takes longer to read a scroll than to cast a spell improvisationally, so it may not be as useful in combat.

Mage duels will be fast and furious improvisational things as a consequence.

I think it will work pretty well. Preserves a lot of the random generation goodness of the OSR, brings in Ars Magica, easy to teach too. Thoughts?