Yeah but... He must've used his extreme consequence slot at least twice BEFORE Dresden.  Or were the ones aimed at Jennifer/Tommy and later at Linda weaker and using less consequences?  I guess after Dresden beat up his shadow projection, then beat up his demon, Victor got scared, so maybe he "figured" overkill was just enough kill.

You can tag multiple aspects.

He spooned (and I don't mean cuddled) a rabbit for +2.
He tagged the storm. (+2)
He created and tagged a dark mood aspect. (+2)
His Lawbreaker gave him another +2. (but that is just because he is killing)
Not to mention that I think each scene you devote to the ritual spell is another shift?

He did all that to make sure that he could reach Dresden even behind a threshold/ward from far away (and because his Discipline is only Fair).

According to the book this is a 32 complexity spell.  Wow, reading what he did makes this spell ridiculous.  He took an extreme consequence?!  Taking more than a mild consequence seems a bit of a stretch (since higher ones take so long to recover from).

You see, because of how Skills work in Fate, Bob had to be all sleazy and obnoxious to prop up his high Lore skill.  [/humor]

Bob seems like he has at least a Superb Lore score.  Other skills for him might be:
- Investigation (he seems to be on the ball when it comes to examining things)
- Social skills (Rapport, Presence, Deceit)
- Performance (Art Appreciation anyway... what?  Aren't "romance" novels art?)
- Maybe Empathy...

So that would give 6 skills to prop up Lore (or 5 if you drop Empathy).  No problem.  Bob definitely has a lot of powers, they just are limited by his bindings to the skull device.  Bob could probably benefit from Discipline just because he was demonstrated as having some "juice" in dead beat.

Don't forget about Refinement specializations and foci bonuses.

When you are talking about Epic/Legendary skills, it isn't insane to assume +2 or +3 specializations and focus bonuses.  So that can be another +4-5 for EACH.

Thaumaturgy [3] gives 1 point of specialization and 2 item slots.
Evocation [-3] gives 1 point of specialization and 2 item slots.
Refinement [-1] can give 2 points of specialization.

3 points of specialization can get you +2 Accuracy (offensive and defensive) in X and +1 in Power (offensive and defensive) in X.  (Remember highest specialization bonus is capped by Lore and it follows the same balancing rules that skills do).

2 Item slots can get you +1 offensive accuracy with 1 element and +1 offensive power with 1 element.  (I am assuming the other items are used for defense or whatever since this is a low Refresh character)

Wizards require The Sight [-1] so these together is -8 refresh.

Assuming a Submerged game, Superb Conviction and Discipline give you +7 (5+1+1) and +8 (5+2+1) when attacking.  So even with a Power 7 spell, your target is resisting 8+4dF, even if a target has an Athletic stunt (like Acrobatic), they maybe get +1 to dodge.  So unless your target has Athletics high on his skills, they are going to get hit (well I guess full defense can help, but that means they aren't attacking you).

As an aside, once you get to a point, Discipline is better than Conviction.  As excess Discipline gives extra shifts of damage which a target that exceeds Discipline takes no damage at all.

But I think this whole 4-6 shots a scene further supports the "it's easier to just use a gun" argument.

To me, evocation magic represents a "pocket bazooka" not a sidearm.  You don't see a lot of military units carrying that many shots.

The limit on shots is a good reason for wizards to not get into the same zone as their target.  Dresden of Storm Front has Conviction 5 and Power (Fire +1) for a "Fire Conviction" of 6.  If he were being rushed by 4 vampires who are all in the same zone (but he isn't in there), he is better off going with 6 shifts of power split for Weapon: 4 and 2 for Area.  Even still he probably wants to spend a fate point to power up his Discipline roll (probably "Not so subtle, still quick to anger", to get it to Fantastic (+6) before rolling 4dF) since Rampires have Athletics Fair (+2).

At Fantastic, Dresden doesn't have much to fear (81.5% chance of having at most 1 level of backlash, which is worth taking in this case).  With Athletics of just 2, there is a good chance the Rampires are going to face Weapon: 4 + at least 2 (so 6 physical stress).  They are going to have to tap into their Feeding Dependent powers.  However since it is a zone filling attack, there is a question of whether the Armor: 1 of their inhuman toughness applies (the fire is EVERYWHERE).  So they are going to start taking consequences (can NPCs take consequences?) or get taken out fast.  (There is like a 81.5% chance that they only get Athletics 3 or worse on their roll, which would be 7 physical stress.)

The attack margin jokes about using shifts of power for movement, but it didn't seem to factor in applying movement to your target.  I think it would be fair to apply 2 shifts of power in exchange for moving the target a zone.  In Fool Moon Dresden blasts MacFinn through several walls, then across a street.  That sounds like a LOT of zones.  In the case of vampire attacks during the day, I imagine launching them out of the shadows and into the open sun is probably a more effective strategy.

FYI: in the rules, "armor against physical stress" is "armor against physical stress."  So if you have Inhuman Toughness with a Catch of "Silver" then it still gives you Armor: 1 against magic that would inflict physical stress.  However Silver would be a +2 catch for a were-form or a +1 for anyone other type.  But most important about a silver catch is that your armor (from Inhuman Toughness) would apply to magical attacks.

A Catch of "Magic" on toughness just means your Armor or Recovery won't apply when you are targeted by magic.  Remember Toughness powers only apply to Physical Stress.  I haven't seen any Mental or Social toughness powers.

Inhuman Recovery is pretty awesome.  Getting rid of Mild Physical Consequences along with your dots of Physical Stress is handy.

Would a catch of magic be a +1 or +2?  I am trying to think of a template that makes sense for a catch of magic.  Only one seems to be the very open ended Emissary of Power.  I think the best way to determine the second bullet point on the cost list is to imagine if the question were posed to a person that was in the dark about magic existing and were asked what they think the catch would be, if they got it on the early guesses, it is a +2, else it is a +1 (unless it is a case of "You have to make him swallow a mushroom stuffed in your wet left sock, which you dipped in an eastern running river with the first rays of dawn shining on the act").  But I seriously can't imagine a monster that falls under the "Duh, use magic" header.

I have read the SotC Fate 3.0 rules and in it PCs "refresh" to 5 when a new story begins, unless they have more than the 5 (i.e. they don't lose extra points).

In the Dresden Files can characters store up fate points beyond their Total Refresh Level?  I.e. can a character with a Total Refresh of 1 be compelled into having more than 1 fate point?

Does this mean that Dresden Files RPG can lose the "Duke Nuke 'Em Forever" aspect?  How does that effect its ability to generate Fate Points?