(I'm not sure if this is the forum for this...)

So my friend has invited me to join his upcoming Dresden campaign after he found out I've read three of the books. He's not told me the power levels, so I'm going to go with the middle ground and assume it's 'Up to your waist'. I'm still unclear on some mechanics, though I've got it into my head that I really want to be a magic user/wizard. So here's my questions:

In your experience, what are the benefits and applications of Evocation and Thaumaturgy? Could one replace the other? Which is more useful?

What is the 'spirit' element? What sorts of spells fall under it?

How can I add extra survivability to my character? I was thinking Evocation and some sort of speed thing, like mythic speed?


And finally, I'll have to point out that I've not read all the books, so I'm not sure if this messes with the cannon or the rules...but I had this idea for a character and wanted to ask you guys for opinions/input/recommendations. One idea, was the concept of a female wizard who is, for lack of better words, frankenstein's monster. Not so much visually, but basically at some point in the past she dies and her father, who packs some serious magical mojo uses necromancy and all manner of black magic to resurrect her. Visually she's not that different from a regular human, but she came back wrong. There's no trace of the old personality, and barely any memories from before remain. This drives her father mad as he's gone and broken loads of rules for nothing, and she winds up squatting in an old church/warehouse/place after getting away. Basically I want to achieve a Wizard who believes they are an abomination, created by black magic, and as such, feels a degree of resentment towards black magic and overcomes her instincts of self-preservation to prove to herself that she's not a monster. Someone who will walk away, feel guilty and come crashing back in cursing the party for making her go soft. She could have a journal written in code, but with enough illustrations to make her feel like her origins are terrible/disgusting. Also she could be in hiding, as he is trying to undo and remake her at some point. It would


Or, if resurrection in itself isn't possible, perhaps we could have an aging/sickly black wizard, who fearing death instructs her thralls/lover/apprentice to find a young girl with magical talents, abduct her and prepare her body as a vessel. Things go awry and the result is someone who has some good knowledge of magic, but cannot remember a thing. It's unclear to the character whether she's the black wizard in a new body sans evil personality, the original owner of the body, who lacks an identity or something in the middle, a evil wizard timebomb waiting to happen.

I'm not trying to pick out any undead-related skills, but I simply want the association and self-loathing aspects as I think it'd be pretty interesting type of character to have around. Though I don't really know much; I'd love to see some character sheets from other players and stuff, just to know what other people do! So if you have a character lying around, please show me!