It's time to break up and begin anew.

[Furious]

Here's a mock-up of how I see it working, as an example.



First picture, the scholar has all 4 charges available. No stratagem is active, no cooldown is ticking (can't have more than 4 stratagems)

Second picture, the scholar has activated Stratagem: Accession. That buff is now active, and the charge is cooling down. He has 3 charges available, and the next beneficial effect will be AoE (Adloquium shield, for example). Spells that don't work with this buff will not consume it (ie: succor).

Third picture, the scholar has activated all 4 stratagems. They will apply to whichever spells are able to use them first cast. Eg if he was to cast succor > physick, the succor would first consume Potency, penury and celerity (so it would be 50% stronger, cast twice as fast and free) and then the physic would use accession (it would become an aoe heal).

A charge used while no charges are on cooldown will have a 15 second cooldown.
A charge used while 1 charge is on cooldown will incur a 20 second cooldown.
A charge used while 2 charges are on cooldown will incur a 25 second cooldown.
A charge used while 3 charges are on cooldown will incur a 30 second cooldown.

(This is to discourage "preloading" all the charges to start all the cooldowns - it's potentially better to use them one at a time for quicker cooldowns but if you need to use them for a hard section of the fight you can at a larger cooldown).