Each mage would have aura, shield and barrier available to them at certain levels. Aura might be available at 30, shield at 40 and barrier at 50.

These spells would be just as powerful as they are currently, but would have usage restrictions / timers on them, and they would require more time to prep with than using wands.

1. Each of these spells would take 4 rounds of lag instead of the normal holding wands + 2 rounds of zap lag.

2. The durations of each of these spells would be significantly less than their sleek durations. Barrier may only last for 2 hours maximum. Also, consider that with the additional prep lag, you're wasting a lot of that time if you decide to use all 3.

3. A reuse timer on these spells. Give the user half a day or or a full day after each of these spells before they can reuse
them.

4. Can't use these spells in combat, but you can still cast them, much like teleport.

The rest of the wand system would remain as it currently is and having these wands is still a boon to the mage due to the
restrictions on wands. But this will at least give mages a way to prep for some fights without being completely reliant on
wands.

It also increases the tactics players can use against them. A four round lag is nothing to sneeze at, and if you manage to
catch a mage with while they're prepping, that's a lot of time to do significant damage to them. Stunning a mage or drawing
out a fight is another way you could combat these new versions of the preps.

This doesn't fix the problems associated with finding wands, but it does fix the competitiveness problem while giving other
classes means of combating this new power.