if you have read any of my posts you will know I am not entirely happy with the fate rules, especially as it applys to wizards. in most games a moderatly powered wizard can use a lot more magic then a dresden wizard. Most of you will agree. I say most of you because even if you think you don't agree I have seen a lot of your home brewed powers and many of them enhance spell casting in some way. This implies that we are not entirely satisfied with the casting rules. The stress rules severly limit casting. I know this from reading a lot of posts. A lot of us simply allow the caster to "rest" before continuing. Since the rules are vague on what rest is many of us interpret them loosley.

A simply solution i am going to implement is to allow a wizard or caster to be able to cast any spell whose power does not exceed half his convictionat no cost. I am not sure if should inlcude focus items or refinements but as of right now its just conviction. This allows the wizard to cast a good deal of minor or moderate spells with little cost, to be used against mortals and lesser critters without them constantly have to "rest" to reset the stress. It will add more meaning to his spells as he has to reach deeper into his reserves to overcome greater obsticles.

I was rereading stormfront and it seemed to me when harry first overcame the frog demon he did so by tapping the power of the storm. The storm augmented his power to a far greater degree then the a simple +1 to the ladder that the rules state. He channelled the naturally occuring energy of the storm into at least a legendary effect as he put down the frog demon with one hit. If we are at all honest with ourselves the hit was probably far stronger then that. There is nothing in the rules that allows wizards to do this, at least not to the effect harry does in the book. The spell he used would seem to be a cross between evocation and thaumaturgy, he seemed to prepare it but the effects were much stronger then the time he had and what the rules would have allowed for. Does anyone have anything in mind to allow wizards to do such stunts that better mimics what harry did in the book?

so how would we go about that? He needs killing so I think I am going to weave that into the story. I think a couple of strands of unmaking for his noose and his coin should be enough to undo both of them. But getting the strands will be a story or three. Setting a trap for him will be a story or three. Hes considered a minor power under the accords so he probably doesn't think any white council other then harry would be gunning for him. so there is that at least on the first attempted. Boy it will be nice if I can get the gang to kill him and totally unmake his coin so his fallen can never leave hell again. what a coup. Any ideas for the story, or ha someone already done it.

What would such thaumaturgical (SP) effect look like if you were to grant yourself or another inhuman strength or claws? You would want it to last at least a day, if its permanent its going to cost, but if its only for a day. How much for the ability the time for it to last that sort of thing. Granted why give yourself strength or claw when you can make it rain fire, but you never know, Raith was immune to direct magic, enhanced punching ability would have certainly made things easier for harry that day. Any ideas or has some already been posted?

is their any official info on their stats, I am creating a game that begins in-between the time Dresden is "dead" and his return for the Chicago area.

the game, for me, is complex is there any posts that do a decent job going over the rules and give examples for using them. Below there was an excellent discussion on how to use evocation to affect an area and how blocks work compared to armor.

Brought up in another thread I opined that I don't care much for the rules when it comes to magic. Why you might ask:  Wizards have at best 4 spells per engagement with the possibility to flub them fairly easily. If they decide to go balls to the walls to take out some really big bad they have even less. This makes them about level 2-3 in the old dungeon and dragons system. Remember when a first level wizard could only memorize one spell and it was almost always charm person so you could have some one fight for you at for a round.(which would be breaking the laws of magic and so someone would come and cut your head off just cause you were trying to stay alive. ) Maybe you choose magic missile but either way after that you where poking things with your dagger.

True the DFRPG wizards can do some nifty things with the 3-4 spells they have, if they have enough power and if they roll well and if the target doesn't roll well. To many ifs. I Like magic, I like roleplaying games with magic in them, I like my wizards nice and powerful, its one of the reasons i hate MMOs  the guy with the stick is always tougher then the guy who can bend nature to his will and wipe out a continent. Really who would spend years studying the arcane when a guy with the club always wins. In most role playing games this is well reflected and no game reflected it better then Ars Magicka, wizards were top and the magic system is a blast.

I just can't get passed the idea that your limited to 3-4 spells. It doesn't matter how creative you are with them or what they can do in theory, you basically cast one defensive spell and hope it will last a few passes of the engagement. and you have 1-2 shots at taking out the bad guy.

An example defense in action: say you end up with a legendary roll: you have a block of 8 for one pass and then you have to roll again and gain another mental stress. Or you can reduce the block to 6 and have the spell last for 3 passes. Provided it isn't brought down early if the bad guy roles well. And what nasty in the Dresden world couldn't beat a block of fantastic.

I just can't see how the white court brought down the entire red court of vampires. This system is not meant for large scale engagements. Every few minutes the wizards have to hope their not in combat so their mental stress can reset, how does that happen in pitched battle. In the books when lucio is killing zombies with little blasts of flame very pin point stuff, harry even comments on how much control that takes. But she did it over and over again without rest, try that in the game. The game rules do not reflect what the book says these wizards can do. If we want we can describe our spells that way but the effect in no way will match what we describe. the power of the spell has to be broken up over all the targets. So a legendary effect becomes 2 good effects and a fair effect against only three targets. Maybe they die maybe they don't either way i got 1-2 spells left after that one and the defensive one i had to cast or i would have been killed at the beginning of the first pass because anything that's not human is faster and stronger.

Its true we have some enchanted items that really even up things but we really can't cast spells we just carry a lot of junk along with us. Then add the silly rules of magic into it and you got a lot of effects you can't even use against run of the mill bad guys. I just threw those out, what fun is  playing a mage if you cant polymorph someone or read their mind to find out if there the ones your looking for. Just plain ick thats what its is.

Now with all my feeling about the magic system you might ask why bother playing. I love urban fantasy, I can't decide which world is better The hollows or Dresdens I like playing in it. I only wish the magic system lived up to the books.