i was thinking this too, but id really like to get away from the fey and have something less then balance orientation. The cycle of life death and rebirth is kind of covered with the fey. What does earth want. it supports all life things die but that could be seen as a corruption of life. I was thinking something that was anti death anti outsider anti undeath. Something that supports the normal(including human magic but not inhuman things and we should include normal animals in this as well they can be seen as victims to the unnatural things outside of this world as well). Humans that over developed or predators that over consume would also need to be restored. So a balance aspect that is geared toward sustaining life but not encouraging life's corruption. And i would think we would need to make it sentient and on par with the mothers on its own. So Gaia naturally springs to mind or any other earth based deity I suppose. I might me describing God as well but he works through other beings in this fiction.So who does God worth through to preseve the earth from the the outsiders and the nevernever.

if a wizard shield is bypassed and taken down does it still block the attack or does the attack pass through at full effect.(not armor)

lets say the attacker and defender tie in a fist fight The rules say the attacker must have something that changes the 0 to + like a weapon. Does boosted strength that makes your fist attack a weapon attack count?

This. The armor protects against outside forces, not yourself.

i generally let all the healing and toughness abilities you pay for work on all stress, even self induced. You pay for it it represents an advantage you should be able to use for whatever.

You're wrong. It has a Refresh cost of +1, which you add to the cost of the Power it modified. So Physical Immunity (Spell) would cost 7 before taking the Catch into account.

True, it doesn't say you can't. But it also doesn't say you can. And by default, the rules don't let you.

Nope. That's just not true. Armour is armour and Toughness is Toughness.

It is overpowered. You said so yourself in your first post.

And a shield spell of 8 is totally breakable. Not even close to Physical Immunity.

And of course it's important to keep in mind that PI-as-a-spell would have a much longer duration than the shield since you don't need to spend any shifts on power.

That's really only the case when the GM actually tries to make wizards overpowered. Which you shouldn't do, because the archetypal DFRPG party is neither wizard-less nor all wizards.

 the +1 to the spell power for the power makes sense,  it makes it less attractive and I would prefere a temp spell to actually having a wizard have it all the time. 

Actually by default I always assume the opposite... that I can do it. So that would actually be a matter of opinion.

As with the difference between toughness and armor that is a matter of opinion as well. I see no difference between the two. They do the same thing reduce actual damage.They have different names is all. Physical immunity is the same as toughness, but toughness taken to the extreme and there is no reason we cant as wizards dupilcate the effect. You may think its OP I do not. If a power can be dupicated as a defensive spell I see no reason not to let a wizard do it. It is magic after all, and if i know a spell that makes me immune to damage mores the better for me and the worse for my enemies.

I have noticed over the course of reading many of your posts you seem to limit the power of wizards in the game. If you notice I always seek to increase their abilitys. We see the game different. I see dresden as a modern version of ars magica. The books and the game are about wizards, because they are the subject matter they should be the focus of the game. Essentially a dresden wizard can do anything he wants by act of will. In game we limit this with dice and numbers so we can play it out but in point of fact they are mortal gods. They create and destroy out of nothing with nothing but their wills. So in point of fact I do make my wizards stronger, if you played in my game that is the expereince you would have.

I have never understood why some would play a game about wizards and then seek to limit their abilites because it might be unbalancing for someone who plays a mortal. its akin to playing a Grog in ars magica and complaining that the wizards have all the fun. Now if you want you game to be that way cool, I think wizards are the focus and anything that makes the game better for wizards I am up for.

I noticed that many changes to the spell casting rules allow wizards to duplicate powers without actually having them, self transformations being one of them. The new rules make it much easier then any devised in these forums...that is any not devised by me. The new rules regarding personal transformation are pretty much what I use and have expressed on these forums. They added some drawbacks that I didn't but darn close.

Wizards are always supposed to be strong. Stronger then vamps and shapeshifters, demons nothing in the game aside from PD have the same "potential". Thats why I suggesed that if you don't want your other players overshadowed by a wizard and you dont want to run everyone as a knight of the courts dont include a wizard in the game. What wizards can do is OP compared to the other things you can play. I suggest the troupe style of role playing introduced by ars magica.

 In Ars magica everyone makes a wizard, a companion and some Grogs(if you dont now what a grog is they are the red shirts of that game) and they rotate around depending what each player/troupe needs or wants to play that session. Its a good idea when one type of character clearly outshines the other playable type of characters. Its a better then nerfing the OP class when the class is supposed to be OP by game design. In this game and i think dresden the wizard does the heavy lifting the other type of characters add to the game by using abilites the wizard doesnt have or interacting with normal society that wizards in both games have trouble doing. But when it comes down to it the wizard is going to outshine anything you do it a given. You role play what it would be like serving and helping these guys out, you might oppose them with the help of other wizards but on your own against them you are toast. As in dresden.

I don't know how many times i've expressed this opinion.  I hold it of course because I think its right and because it is an opinion consistent with the facts of the books and the game. Dresden wizards are meant to be the focus of this game. They are meant to be OP. We aren't playing Murphy files or the butter files but Dresden files. Now dresden gets into alot of trouble and his friends bail him out but thats cause he sucks as a wizard. And even then he outshines his friends on most occasions. He's getting better but when you read about what the other wizards can do with their abilites and a bit of foresight mortals have no business messing with them. The y are feared by the other supernaturals with good reason.

I wrote to much warcraft time
 

new power option spell and physical immunity, low cost way to give you temp immunity to physical damage, not so bad all on its own for 1 refresh you have a spell that you can keep going for a fair amount of time that keeps the bads from ever doing physical harm.

 but thats not all, combine this with spell defense using defensive roll. Now you can enact a shield spell that is actually armor against all physical attacks and you can do it at the drop of a hat. Now while the description focuses on shielding not armor it doesnt rule out armor or anyother on the fly spell you can use to defend. It only says you cant convert the shield into armor and it ends when the turn does. You could easily opt for armor instead of shield and absorb the hits for one turn. But with the new option power option spell and physical immunity you have the same spell-armor, to its extreme conclusion and it will last longer then a turn.

I think a nice over powered way to boost the defense of wizards

Maybe make the condition that it costs 1 mental stress but then lasts for the scene?

The stunt that let's you dodge with guns requires you to have a gun drawn, so this might be the equivalent. You've put up a spell.

Edit.  It seems I just suggested exactly what sanctaphrax said.

In ARS magica hermetic wizards can cast unprepared spells i kind of got the idea from there. They use them to prevent attacks quick defensive things that take very little effort or power and doesn't interfer with the normal action for that round.

I have a stunt I call defensive art. It uses discipline to make dodge rolls. Basically allows the wizard to block attacks without actually casting a spell, it works like a normal dodge but with magic. I got kind of tired of always having to have a high athletics roll just to be able to dodge. Old folk probably wouldn't have a real good athletics but an old wizard probably knows how to bat a bullet out of the air with magic cost was 1.