I have been toying around with a fantasy setting for my group and I have recently come up with an idea for a new skill called Arcane Lore (not that original, I know.)
Here's how it works:
The skill roll would be used to determine things such as:
Determining if your character knew what spell they just saw cast
Guessing the properties of a never before seen magical item
Understanding the workings of magic itself
Etc.
Also, the max levels of a spell you character can cast is determined by this skill. Every 10% your character has in the skill allows for another level of spell to be cast. Obviously this works easiest with Magic, but it could probably be tweeked to fit Sorcery.
I am also working on a way to use the skill in conjunction with learning new spells. For that aspect I am thinking maybe listing spells in order of power and/or difficulty and requiring a certain amount in the skill to learn spells of different difficulties.
Any way, I thought I would post this to get some feedback, maybe some fresh ideas. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks!