SpellCraft: Aspects of Valor was a game released in 1992. It was developed by Asciiware and published by Brøderbund.
The game itself is a neat little gem, and plays like a mix between Diablo and an RPG.
You started with a slideshow story, thrusting your character into the game. Turns out there's a problem in the wizard's world, and they need you to fix it for them. You choose a realm of magic out of the four available (Earth, Air, Fire, Water). Your realm's spells can be cast cheaper, and you gain access to some of your realm's special spells, but you can still cast the majority of the other realms' spells. Spells themselves are rather varied, ranging from summoning flying swords to casting lightning to opening rifts in the ground. Many paths to victory were present.
Spellcasting had an interesting setup to itself. You had to ready the spell in your laboratory before you could cast it, and to ready it you had to get the spell formula (or find it haphazardly-- not a good choice, as failing would waste the ingredients and bad things could happen...) and use the proper ingredients. To gather these ingredients you would cavort around the battlefields or fly around Earth talking to your acquaintances and buying their goods.
Battling was done only from your 'home' at Stonehenge. You would warp to one of the realms and battle there, using your spells and your sword. You gradually grew in power and hit points, moving on from fighting mere orcs in the woods to fighting powerful wizards underwater with zombie minions.
The story itself wasn't actually that bad, and it was gradually revealed throughout the game.
It fails me how Diablo is reigned as the end-all Action-RPG when SpellCraft came out 5 years earlier and blended RPGs and spellcasting with action wonderfully. Very little online documents its existence, as well. It's just one of those gems that was passed over in its time. Worth a shot if you have a 486 and see it at a yard sale.