Yes.
My impression is that counterspelling requires some kind of magic-science analysis. But I generally ignore counterspells so I'm not exactly an expert.
Still the precedent is there--the wizard can't know the strength of the spell (blocks included) until he does a deliberate assessment. It isn't right that a wizard has to take an extra effort to assess something that, per your argument, any untrained goon can figure out at a glance.
Funny. That's the same amount of time I've spent doing martial arts.
I find that a quick look at somebody's stance and how they move once the fight starts gives you a pretty good idea of what to expect.
But I wouldn't be surprised if it was different for wrestling.
I'm with noclue on that--that sounds like an assessment action, and one that you're mainly qualified to make because of your experience. Were you untrained in martial arts, you likely wouldn't be able to assess that.
That's what the dice are for.
The dice are unreliable--the vast majority of rolls are going to be +1 and under, therefore it's not very sensible to attack something +2 over your attack rating. And yet it keeps happening.
And with a block, the roll is made well in advance. So the information arrives in advance.
I don't necessarily tell everyone "this guy has Great Fists, dudes" but I've found that if somebody ever makes a roll it's easier just to be transparent about where the numbers come from. And if somebody asked "what are my odds of hitting this dude?" I'd tell 'em whether they're any good.
As I've said, it's different between the players and the GM--in a sense, the players are playing a very different game from the GM--the players do need to know the number (or at least how far off they are from it) so they can avoid wasting fate points. The GM, however, is more about creating the experience and rewarding the players for good tactics--meaning the GM's characters won't always know what they're up against, even if the GM does.
I can't be bothered to look it up, but this doesn't square with my memory.
They're all more or less light variations on the theme of "translucent dome of energy." Aesthetically, he doesn't really describe them any differently, except occasionally they might be more or less transparent or a different color.
Maneuvers can look an awful lot like attacks, narratively. And of course there are Compels.
Plus, given the need to pay for duration and the like, it's likely that Harry's shields are about Superb. So it'd often be worth attacking him with skill 3-4.
Granted, we don't know for certain--but given his base Conviction for spirit shields is 5 as of Storm Front, it's extremely likely that he's taken refinements to boost that considerably later in the series. I wouldn't be surprised if his effective conviction score for spirit was 7 or 8.
And I'm referring to vampires jumping him singularly, one at a time, such as they do in Changes when he's with Murphy. If they could tell how strong the block was, they wouldn't take the tactic of individually trying to jump him.
Sorry, my books are in a different house and buried under a bunch of stuff. Can't be bothered to do proper research for the sake of an internet argument.
But I do remember something with Harry and Molly and a snowball fight. Think it was in Summer Knight.
Molly's kind of an outlier, though--her shields are barely holding together at all in the first place. I don't think they can be used very well as an example of what, say, a 3-shift block looks like compared to a 7-shift block, since to me it looks more like she simply failed to create a block in the first place. I mean, really, if a bunch of pre-teens can get through it with snowballs...
That's what dice rolls are for.
As before, they're unreliable at best. Just making a straight dice roll and
hoping to get a +3 on the roll is, as I think you'd put it, sub-optimal.
Or maybe they got together and tried to break it down, because maybe with teamwork they could smash it in time to chase the wizards.
Either way seems fair to me.
I think if you take a full day working together, setting up maneuvers, an
still can't break through it with literally an army on your side, you were clearly never going to get through that block. And by your argument, they would have tried a different tactic entirely.
Harry is impressed when he sees the laser. He can clearly tell how impressive it is.
(IIRC)
I'm fair sure that has a lot to do with the fact that she scythed down dozens of zombies in one pass, at least as much as--if not more--than just looking at it.
