When I first started playing DF I too was intimidated and instead of making a Wizard I went with what was essentially a front line fighter with a lot of issues.  After he "died" (IE he ascended becoming a full archangel) I decided to play a young warden as my next character and I was surprised at how easy it is to use Evocations. I have grown to really love the freedom the system gives me. Thaumaturgy can be a little difficult for me at times but I am quickly getting the hang of it too. So I say jump in the deep end and face your fear.  You won't regret it.

The wizard I'm running has big-time wards.  I offered him a compel: if he accepted, His wife was going to, unwittingly, invite a Monster into the house and bad stuff was going to occure.

If he turned down the compel, we agreed that the wards would hold up and his wife would be safe as long as they didn't delay and got to the house ASAP to go save her.

As far as mechanics go, the strength of the wards were irrelevant.  

Just thought I'd share something I recently tried - giving the players a chance to choose something for the bad guy.

We recently had a major fight - the big bad tracked down the PCs to where one of them lived.  Fortunately the big bad thought they were rival drug dealers (a huge mix up, don't ask) and wasn't prepared for mystic resistance.

So he had two normal toughs with him - a couple of Good skills each, one stunt each, each could take one minor consequence - and the Big Bad had a full sheet and full consequences.  When he realised that things weren't going good for his side Big Bad decided it was time to leave - and he had a rote for that (Evocation veil that lasted for two exchanges).  Two players made Lore declarations that they had a potion that could pierce veils (they didn't want to look at him with the Sight) and one (the powerhouse in hand to hand combat) was able to spot him.  As combat went on I decided to make part of his sheet public (everything except rotes and items - which were on another page), so people could see just what they were (and weren't) doing to him.

When things got really bad for him, he did a non-rote Evocation veil, taking mental stress so he could have it at Legendary for 2 exchanges.    As he was fleeing at Inhuman Speed, the wizard who went through that ordeal I posted a while back had one last shot at him.  At this point he had his 1st stress box unmarked.  He had taken two mild physical consequences (he had a stunt that gave him a second one) and his moderate and severe were used.

Needing to do at least two points of stress the wizard blew through his remaining FATE chips, taping every aspect he could to get bonuses on his targeting rote to cast his magic bolt at the fleeing warlock.  Then the warlock dodged into the bolt (rolled horrible with his defense roll) and when the last of the warlock's defenses were taken into account there were 7 stress remaining.  If he got away he could rest up, gather allies, and even contact criminals to put contracts out on the group.

So I gave the player a choice over whether the warlock used his extreme.  It was up to the player who fried him - the warlock would use his extreme and escape OR the warlock would die from the 7 stress levels.  After all, the wizard had put everything he had behind the attack (tagging everything he could and spending all of his FATE chips) and he knew the attack could kill, so either the bad guy gets away or the bad guy dies - his choice.

After the game, the player said having that choice was one of the funnest moments of RPing that he'd ever had when dice were being rolled.  A moral choice after the dice are rolled and the result determined? He'd never seen that before.

What did he choose? It didn't matter to him (it mattered to the PCs, not the player).  What mattered was that he had the choice.

Richard

I also think that the single consequence pool forces conflicts to conclusion and indeed, makes the consequences characters suffer in previous conflicts matter no matter what.  Like, you know, consequences. 

Have you done city creation?  I have found in my Seattle game that the stories and villains wrote themselves once the city creation was done.