a player of my group, playing a winter pixie, raised a question. he compared his spell casting capabilities (and the ability to improve it) to the group’s wizard and commented that the wizard “only has to raise five aspects of his magic” (meaning the elements of evocation) via specializations (or foci) but he needs seven or eight (the example aspects of winter magic I wrote down for him: cold, despair, death, decay,... etc.).

this brings me to following question(s):
can sponsored magic be used with foci/specialization?
if the answer is yes, does he need a focus for each nuance of the winter magic or just one for the whole package as it comes from one source?
and, would he need a specific focus for the ritual parts of the aspect “decay” and one for the evocation possibility of “decay”? or, one for “winter magic, evocation” and one for “winter magic, ritual”?

example: does he need...
a ring of ice wall (evocation focus +2 defensive on ice spells)?
or
a ring of ice wall (+2 defensive on winter magic spells)?

how do you handle that in your games?

Hello something got me wondering:

Let's say your wizard has a Ring of Protection with a Spirit Block 5 on it and let us assume that he has dedicated all his enchanted item slots to additional charges, so he has quite a lot of them.

A normal evocation block goes away when it is broken, but if it is not broken it stays the full exchange.

Now how do items do it?

Wizard is attacked, ring activates, using one charge, and let's say the block holds well against the attack.
Does the block hold the whole exchange or does it dissipate because it is an item with charges?

1. Frame the scene: 2 Ghouls attack our wizard
2. Establish groups: Ghouls vs wizard
3. Initiative: Both Ghouls get to act before the wizard does.
4. Begin first exchange.
4a. Ghoul 1 attacks wizard. Ring activates, uses a charge, block holds off attack.
4b. Ghoul 2 attacks wizard.

Here comes the question - the ring's shield - is it still up (until 5a when the ghoul who activated it is taking action and presuming ghoul 2 does not break the block) or is the charge spent and does it need to activate again, using a new charge?

4c. Wizard takes action.
5. Begin second exchange.
5a. Ghoul 1 takes action
...

Can someone clarify this a bit?

Thanks.

maybe I read over this somewhere, but I have no answer...

the question is: how many aspects (semi-permanent) can a character have? or is there a limit to the number of aspects a character can have?

here we have our apprentice wizard with his high concept aspect and his 5 phase aspects. as I understand it these are pretty permanent, but can be changed according to events. maybe he becomes a warden and changes wizard apprentice to puppy warden. same goes for the phase aspects. we can also say that he has always at least 6 aspects.

during a session he may gain some temporaries like consequences or via maneuvers or debts to sponsors and the like.

let's say during an adventure he befriends tom, the troll - this may give him the aspect my friend, the troll. and since that would not be a change of the high concept or an phase aspect, it must be a new one, and as long he or the troll doesn't break the friendship it is pretty permanent. right?

(modified: fixing a typo)

have I missed this?

except for a few monsters - hellhounds, etc - there are no animals in the books?

is there a list for FATE games with some basic animals? (somewhere on the web?) dogs, cats, horses, etc.

I was faced with the problem to provide guard dogs which my players had to outsneak...

hello,

I don't know if I understood the section about thaumaturgic transformations right. As we know from Turn Coat, it is possible to change the wizard him or herself into an animal. There it is done quite fast, but I was thinking about a slower transformation, maybe allowing you to keep your clothes on.

I was thinking, if a wizard has such troubles with technology then there will be problems with public transport. What better to transform into some kind of bird and fly over the city to your destination?

I was having following idea - if I understood the rules vor transformations right, I would roll my casting roll against my own Endurance. Do I make the roll against the Endurance value or against an Endurance roll? Is there something like a "willing target" rule?

Let's say my char has an Endurance of 3 and the maximum I can get on an Endurance roll is 7. Then assume we must take another shift to shift the matter of clothes and the small stuff in the pockets to the Nevernever (or wherever mass goes to or comes from with such transformations). This gives an overall result of 8 for the Complexity of the spell.

A wizard with Conviction +5 and Discipline +4 could raise the power in two standard actions - which should mean maybe a few minutes. Only problem is the Lore - maybe invoking an aspect or two or bring in an Specialisation and you should be set. That would mean that for a few minutes of thaumaturgic casting the wizard could be all over the city with no need of mechanical/technological transport.

Spell would look something like this:
Shapechange – Self
Type: Thaumaturgy, transformation
Complexity: equal to own Endurance-roll (+1 shift for clothes and items), usually from 4-8 (4 may fail, 8 is on the safe side)
Effect: applies the temporary aspect like BIRD, or other animal to the subject

Can someone please confirm whether I understood this right or point the errors out? Thanks.