Shifts are just a concise way of measuring how effective your particular attempt at something is, or a particular effect is.

On a dice roll, it's the difference between the difficulty and what you rolled. So if you need a Fair (+2) to succeed and you get a Great (+4) roll, you succeed and have two shifts.

For some actions, it's important to have shifts (like pretty much everything in a conflict), because they govern how much damage you do with an attack, or how far you can move, etc. It just depends contextually on the action. For some actions, it doesn't matter as much, or having shifts lets you do something quicker than usual, or some other special effect.

For stuff like magic, you just talk about shifts directly without making a roll, and they just have a certain effect depending on what kind of action you're performing. So, like, when you summon power for an evocation attack, you just state it as a number of shifts. Those shifts translate directly to damage.

So I want five shifts of power for my attack, right? That means my spell will do at least 5 stress damage no matter what I roll, provided I hit my target.

Does that make sense? Do you have a specific question I can answer that might help more?


-L

As far as I understand the setting, being a full faerie is sort of an exception to the refresh rule - they're incapable of acting contrary to their nature, so it doesn't really matter if they have a positive base refresh or not. Full Red Court and full Black Court vampires are kind of the same way.

That's a conceit from what the Jim sayeth, though - until now, those characters have always been either opposition or heavily in the "supporting cast" role in the books. There's simply just no going back for them.

However, I fully expect that people will do high-refresh and/or "anything goes" kind of games, where the only requirement is a positive refresh and a stronger enforcement of high concept compels. And hey, that's cool. My assertion was that people would feel really put upon by the idea of a compel you simply cannot refuse and that can actually force you to respond a certain way, which is what the loss of mortal free will would effectively mean.

I stand by that assertion. But, you know... I could be wrong as far as your group is concerned.


-Lenny

Ongoing damage also just seems like it should be something theoretically available to PCs without needing a workaround. Particularly PCs with Evocation.

Right, my point being, I wouldn't call it a workaround. The tools are available. You just have to make sure your intent tracks to them. The models given are just that - models.

And with Evo, you could theoretically pay maintenance on an attack and have it last for a bunch of rounds, right? Check out the Orbius spell on 295. Why can't that be fire damage?

[EDIT: By no means do I have an issue with the house rules in this thread, by the way. They're cool. I just think the basic argument doesn't actually hold up.]


-Lenny

Question: The mental armor 1 provided by the Conviction stunt Tower of faith would reduce spellcasting stress wouldn't it?  and we know from the books that one can have faith in magic, so as long as you did the equivalent of praying (probably a quick meditation or an extended drawing up of power) you could cast the easy stuff basically at will.

Ha, cute! Given that the context of the passage says, "Strongly held beliefs enable you to protect your mind from the aggression of others," I'm assuming it wouldn't count for anything self-inflicted. The passage in Evo says the absolute minimum is 1 stress. No exceptions are offered. (Except sponsorship, like I said.)


-L

Yeah, check out "The Dark Powers" sidebar - I'd head that under "draw more than a single invocation" stuff.

And I'd consider the once per session/scene limit thing a suggestion, rather than a rule.

(In other words, I'm telling you that it might read a bit differently when it goes to print and we update the PDF.)


-Lenny

Hm. So, this reply is coming in two parts: my gut reaction as a prospective Dresden Files RPG gamemaster, and then the rulesy bits to actually address your issue. If you don't want the soapbox, skip to the part below the "***".

As written, I'd have a real problem with this character concept for one main reason: magical items are seldom easily transferred in ownership from one party to another.

Most enchanted items are only usable by the crafting wizard, and most items crafted for others are either crafted specifically for others or simply too valuable to part with. And if they're parted with, mortal money certainly isn't the medium of exchange - the supernatural world works in boons and favors and bartered goods. Often, too, magical artifacts are sponsored by an entity, like the God of Abraham and the Swords of the Cross, who simply may not like the new bearer.

Any compromise I could think of asking for keeps the character from being Pure Mortal in any fashion. He could be a Ritual Crafter who knows how to magically "claim" ownership of "found" goods (meaning, taken from the original owner's dead body). He could be an Emissary of Thoth or something, who could usurp the use of enchanted items via innate ability.

More interestingly, he could "pay" for the use of the items he gets in another way, like via a soulbinding. He finds or commissions an item that he wants. The owner/enchanter of that item can magically "sign it over" to him for a price - a supernaturally related favor of some kind, like a contract killing. He has to enact the favor to be able to use the item, and can keep it when the job is done. (I can easily think of a forest full of potential trouble aspects for such a character.)

But there's no way you get away with "I'm a rich monster hunter who buys magical artifacts" in my game. Just sayin'.

***

Rules-wise, the easiest way to get at the character you want is to just take Items of Power. You say the guy can't make new items, so he's stuck with what he's got - so define what he's got and be done with it.

If you're suggesting he has a collection of enchanted items like wizards do, without actually being a wizard, then I'd just invent a custom power. Because he's not a real wizard or other practitioner, I wouldn't allow the rate that Refinement gets - my eyeball figure is -1 refresh for two enchanted item slots. And then I'd just give him Lore skill, because that's all you really need to determine effect strength anyway, right? And he's a monster hunter, so he'd have it anyway, right?

A third option is a custom power similar to Mimic Power - you "reserve" a number of refresh points to have powers available to you, with the limitation that you must predefine them at a time that is amenable to your group. They represent your bevy of items.

So there you have it.


-Lenny

So, by this can one infer that material (such as the Archive and its knowledge, or lack thereof, of electronic only information) is canon up to the divergence of the RPG-verse and main-verse?

Well, you have to take into account the following:

* It may not be canon in the actual Dresden Files that Billy wrote this game.

* Even if it were, the contents of the game represent Billy's best educated guess on how the universe works, and that's it.


-Lenny