[andrewas]

Lord brass, the zero casting time is because all the enemy mages use spell triggers, contingencies and spell triggers. Its the only way the designers could give them a fighting chance.

The same strategies are available to you, but harder to use because you have to fight multiple encounters every day instead of the one the enemy gets to fight.

Aside from Irenicus II(Who wears the RoV) all mages have the proper casting times.