Thing is, passing around Recovery is a fair bit better than just having Recovery. It's the kind of power everyone wants some of the time.

Passing around Strength, though, doesn't seem very useful. Many/most characters don't have the Skills to make especially good use of it.

So calculating appropriate Refresh costs seems difficult.

Could you base on refresh and then scale it to the power? E.G. lending recovery just costs more than lending senses?

Hm. How would you do Homura Akemi from Puella Magi?

Make them make a deal with someone? The Winter Court is a distinct possibility, since they are destroyers.

"I will destroy the curse binding you if you do this Little Thing in exchange."

(Hint: the Little Thing might as well be the Torments of Sisyphus)

You also want to remember that magic tends to be a reflection of the person casting when choosing aspects. I mean, the premier manipulator of Earth in the novels was Morgan, to give you an idea. Suggesting that the player take some kind of aspect related to why his magic turned out the way he is could help refine him more.

*is semi back from the dead*

Ah, I should have clarified, the spells in question are always destructive forces. If they were casting webbing or something like that then that's a different case. Then again I'd think that would be a block more so than a Stress/Consequence dealing attack. But yes, in every instance where this has come up in our games it's been something that's hard to RP as not being death.

What about a Weapon:7 sleep spell from an accomplished biomancer wizard?

This looks like a job for SANCTAPHRAX!

*begins to chant*

And thus we praise the mod... And thus we follow his path of Incite Effect and Limitation and Immunity, and thus we curse the blasphemers who use Orbius, damned to terrible gameS... We thus praise him, and we invoke:

MOD OF THE BOARD!!!!

WRTIER OF THE RP WIKI!!!!!

SAVIOR OF OUR GAMES!!!!

SANCTAPHRAX, SANCTAPHRAX, SANCTAPHRAX, COME FORTH

I love what you've done with the idea. The backstory is fun and would offer tons of opportunities for adventure. I do, however, find it both hilarious and creepy that you somehow managed to tag it with my real name(first, not last). 

Sanctaphrax can stalk over the Internet. It's a superpower.

He's used it for good so far (and for making people post).

Sanctaphrax, please do not be tempted by cookies. We will burn Orbius as many times as you want.

Triple post: Also @Sancta: I'm worried about the balance of Karmic Retribution. I'm not sure if it's too powerful, powerfiul enough, etc.