The elemental rune diagram reminds me of something similar in Nephilim. I'm not home otherwise I could look it up.
My experience with RQ combat is a little different than Jeff described, especially with experienced but not yet masters of combat or magic characters: it was more: hit/parry, hit/parry, hit/parry, hit/parry...hit/parry, hit/parry, hit/parry...
otherwise, I like where this is going...