The thing with using a different skill is that it adds one more skill that the wizard needs in his skill pyramid to be effective when their magic already uses 3 separate skills. Also keep in mind that a wizard using a Weapon:10 spell needs to ROLL a 10 on the control roll which, depending on the level of play you start at, probably requires spending one or more Fate points which the wizard has less access to. Not saying that wizards aren't dominating at higher refresh levels in terms of stress dealt in a single turn, but trying to balance them can end up gimping them more than intended.

A fairly straightforward balance is having the bonus from Foci/Specializations to Control apply only to the actual control roll so that the attack roll itself is just an unmodified Discipline roll (either a second roll, or taking the Control roll and remove out the bonuses from Foci and Specialization), but I haven't had a chance to test it in game so I don't know how well it works.

Also, extra shifts for range aren't really needed. Any combat using a battlefield more than 2 or 3 zones wide in any direction probably means that the enemies have their own means to cover that range and even rifles can attack from 2 zones away without any sort of penalty so limiting Evocation to a target within 2 zones isn't unreasonable.

I interpret the type thaumaturgy (ectomancy, and so forth) to be "you can do anything full thaumaturgy can, but only with this one thing." So summoning a ghost for info? A summoning and binding to take place of a Contacts roll. Ghost protector/possession could probably be some sort of Evocation maneuver if you're trying to do some sort of Sponsored thing. Your "patron" could be the spirit of one of your ancestors or some such.

Assuming you've read Backup, anything involving can make for interesting campaigns. After a sort of "Welcome to the city" arc, I started with it and we're about to wrap it up after... 6 or 7 sessions worth of play I think.

There's a character in my group whose concept and high concept are Huntsman of the Erlking (because when our group does things, we don't half ass it) and in the spirit of the Winter and Summer Knight's swords from Our World he has an IoP elephant gun that gives him some Speed and Toughness powers. Problem is me (and the group as a whole, really) is having trouble figuring out a catch for him. The Knights have "Trappings of (opposite) Court" but nothing really fits with that (). Help me DFRPG boards, you're my only hope.

I was kicking around a modern day Sherlock Holmes skill set up (thanks to the BBC series, Sherlock) and thought about his ability to read people. It's covered by Empathy, normally, but for Holmes it is clearly more of a feat of Investigation (or arguably Awareness, given how instantaneous it is for him but that's another topic entirely). Now that's an easy enough solution, make a stunt to give the Reading People trapping of Empathy to Investigation. Now what if I want to apply a stunt like Read the Surface to the Investigation based additional trapping making the inspection require 1 minute of interaction instead of 10?

The book doesn't really go into it but I'm sure it's just a matter of not thinking to take the rules that far. So would you allow it in your game: Two stunts to provide an enhanced, additional trapping to a skill?

I didn't even think about checking characters from the Our World book. Derp. Thanks.

Basically, I have two people who want to have Evocation as part of their power set. Problem is, one is worried that since he's a wizard and magic is his bread and butter, he'll get outshined and become the thaumaturgy guy. I personally don't think it will be an issue since Evocation is pretty much a combat only thing, but that argument isn't making my player feel at ease (and we haven't actually played so I have no idea if that's even a valid argument). I don't want to play favorites, or make both of them trash their characters completely, and I can't think of anything to tell them to make them get over it. Any suggestions, oh wise ones?