Thanks for the feedback! I think I agree with you. I love the addition of the symbolic link, very appropriate, very thematic and I can't believe I've not been considering it. I think it's because I associate it with rituals and stuff like that. But it totally makes sense that if I'm writing a note that only you can read, then I need a photo of you or a personal item or piece of you, stuff like that. Thank you so much!

Also, in my mind, I'm thinking everyone can defend against everything done to them in the way they see fit unless the Stunt or Power specifies the sort of Defense roll required. So, in the event that language is taken from you... that's just an Aspect which can be overcome in whatever inventive way the character can. The most irksome obstacle would be the Scale benefit.

I'm not worried about Law Violations. :-)

But I do tend to be in the camp that it's not your power that breaks the Laws, it's what you do with it. A pyromancer can heat a homeless encampment or burn them all alive. It's not the pyromancy, per se that's Lawbreaking. My psychomancy variations on the other hand... there may be no way around those.

Hexing...
A flame that burns pure blue. (in a gaslight setting, that's pretty damning)
Milk that curdles too soon.
A horse that sweats in the morning.

Fresh vegetables that rot overnight.

Water that won't boil. (A really pain when it comes to steam engines).

Birds stop singing, insects stop chirping, leaves stop rustling.

Things that break too easily. Like clocks or locks or utensils and tools.

What's the difference between Ectomancy and Necromancy?

Now that I'm on the topic of Lawbreaking I'm wondering what the differences would be between such magical disciplines? Mortimer deals with ghost, which are the shades of the dead, once living people. Necromancy let's you do that... and more? Is the qualifier for Necromancy using actual human bodies? I say human bodies because we know there's a loophole about animals and dinosaurs and stuff like that. What other loopholes are there?

From what I've been able to find in my research, necromancers do all sorts of things that are withing the purview of other disciplines. They get information from dead brains and control people (which I've seen psychomancers can do). They do all the things ectomancers do with ghosts. They can also make zombies out of corpses. They also seem to be able to find ways to cheat death and that's the real Lawbreaking, right? They bring people back to life? Or they prevent themselves from being killed by re-animating their own bodies or by switching bodies (which might also be Transforming Another lawbreaking)?

Basically, I'm looking for what is iconic for a necromancer, what's necessary? If there was a Focused Practitioner who was a necromancer and they couldn't do X, you'd be like, "This isn't a necromancer!"

Thoughts?

Thanks for your time!

Kinetomancy
Kinetomancer: Your magic enables you to impart motion to and control the movement of people or objects with your will alone. Use Force to create advantages in this way and your kinetomancy operates on a Supernatural Scale.

Principles of Motion: Mark Exhausted to subconsciously harness the ebb and flow of kinetic energy around your body in order to move faster and hit harder. You get +2 to physical actions involving strength and movement for the rest of the scene.

Juggernaut: Mark Burned Out to shield yourself in a skin of seemingly impenetrable force. For the rest of the scene you have Armor:4 against physical attacks.

Stunt Suggestions
Levitation: You can use your kinetomancy to “fly,” rendering certain movement based obstacles inconsequential. Gain +2 to Focus when overcoming obstacles in this way.

Speed of Thought: You can use your kinetomancy to move at preternatural speed. Gain +2 to Haste to overcome or create an advantage.

TK Storm: You’re dangerous. Once per scene, you can attack everyone in an entire zone, friend and foe alike, by hurling everything and everyone into the air, slamming them onto the ground, crashing them into walls and each other. Gain +2 to Force when you do this.

Notes
This is the first ever Focused Practitioner mantle I created. It was a for a character who was raised by the Venatori Umbrorum and trained to use her powers as muscle to protect and defend the brainy types and to slay monsters. It's largely based on the kind of telekinesis seen in the movie PUSH starring Chris Evans, Camilla Belle and Djimon Honsou. Great movie. I love it. Watch it every year for the holidays. With some input from users on Reddit, I included the ability to use kinetomancy to do superspeed type of stuff which I thought was really cool.

Black Magic Psychomancy
Psychomancer: You can perceive and draw out a person’s innermost desires and darkest fears, heightening them and lowering their inhibitions to act on them. Use Guile to create advantages in this way. At the GMs discretion, your psychomancy operates at Supernatural Scale.

Psychic Assault: Mark Exhausted. The deepest fears and most painful memories in the minds of your victims are your weapon. For the rest of the scene you may attack other thinking beings using Intellect; anyone you can see may be the victim of your assault. Any Conditions you inflict using Psychic Assault must reflect their mental or emotional nature.

Domination: Mark Burned Out. If you take someone out using Psychic Assault you inflict the following Condition on them, which is immediately marked:

    [ ]Enthralled (Lasting): You have become a Thrall, a slave, completely subject to another's will. Unless your master commands it, you take no actions other than stand, stare off into space, and drool. Your consciousness and memories remain intact, so you may be traumatized by the things you witness or do while in thrall to another. Your enthrallment lasts until the next sunrise.


Stunt Suggestions
Hitchhiker: You have the ability to “ride” the senses of your Thrall or anyone recovering from an Enthralled condition you inflicted on them. You experience everything through their five (or more) senses from their perspective. While you are doing this, your own body appears to be unconscious.

Incognito: As long as you do not directly interact with a person, they will not remember you or notice your presence. This aura is psychic in nature and does not affect electronic or mechanical methods of detection. If someone is capable of piercing your deception (other mentalists, faeries, those with The Sight), you actively oppose their attempt to discover you using Guile.

Influence: You maintain undue powers of persuasion over anyone recovering from an Enthralled condition you inflicted on them. You get +1 to all actions against them whenever they can see or hear you.


Notes
Inspired by one of my favorite X-Men villains that I love to hate: The Shadow King. I wanted this to be scary. This is the Law Breaking mindfuckery that gets folks beheaded by Donald Morgan. You twist people's perceptions, make them act on their darkest impulses, you break their minds, you turn them into your slaves... and you do all this because you like it.

Questions? Comments? Critiques?

As always: Thanks for your time!

Iteramancy
Iteramancer: You possess the potent magical ability of moving from place to place without regard to barriers. Paranetters have many theories about how such magic works with the most prominent being that the iteramancer somehow traverses inter-dimensional pathways or transmits their material form instantaneously through any medium. Regardless, you (and whatever you’re wearing or carrying) can move through walls, doors, or other physical barriers without difficulty as long as you are touching them. This source of opposition is just off the table for you. When you encounter magical barriers or those with a Threshold, you get +2 to Intellect to overcome them using your ability. At the GMs discretion, your iteramancy operates at the supernatural scale.

Traverse: Mark Exhausted. Move instantaneously from one place to another, or move any object you can fit in your hand from one place to another, as long as such is in your line of sight. You may do this for the rest of the scene and it is your action in an exchange. If something opposes you in this endeavor, roll Force to overcome. Even if your roll doesn’t go well, you can still traverse but at a cost to be determined by the GM.

Gateway: Mark Burned Out. You tear an opening in the fabric of reality between your location and any other place you have ever been. This gateway can be as large or as small as you need it to be and remains open until sunrise. People, objects, environmental factors or whatever, only move through the gate at your discretion. You may grant permission for some things to pass through the gate, but not others, and you dictate if and when the gate is one-way or two-way at your whim. For example, you may dictate that anyone can travel through the gate, but only your allies can come back through from the other direction; or you can dictate that only left-handed red-headed women born on the 4th of July can traverse the gateway. Enacting these restrictions (or lack thereof) are your action in an exchange.

Stunt Suggestions
Anchorpoint: You can mark a location with a mystic rune or arcane circle. From that point forward, you may Traverse to that location regardless of where you are. Only one location can be thus marked at a time. If you opt to make a new location your anchorpoint, your previous runes will mystically erase themselves.

Gatecrasher: You get an additional +2 to Intellect when attempting to overcome magical barriers using your iteramancy.

Passengers: Normally your magic only affects yourself or what you have on your person. With this level of proficiency you may take others with you when you use your iteramancy powers as long as they are in physical contact with you.

Pathways: The iteramancer always knows where they are and maintains a flawless sense of direction. Furthermore, with a moment’s concentration and a successful overcome roll (Approach and opposition at the GMs discretion), she can calculate a route between two points which meets the criteria she needs. The more criteria, the more complicated the route and higher the opposition. This Minor Talent is often possessed by a city’s best Uber drivers.

Notes
This is travel magic! I imagine that these sorts of Focused Practitioners are the ones who have created flying carpets and brooms and cars and bicycles and stuff like that. They probably also make magical maps or maps of places that don't exist in the real world. Maybe they are experts on traveling the Nevernever. They are probably prized as messengers and thieves because of their ability to go anywhere they please. The first tier ability is like being a master lock picker or burglar... locks, walls, doors are just not an obstacle to you. The second tier ability is a natural evolution -- you disappear and reappear wherever you like as long as you can see where you're going (inspired by Nightcrawler of the X-Men!). The third tier ability is a natural evolution of that power where you just make gateways to wherever you like. I imagine that in ages past, this was used to move armies surreptitiously into an enemy's territory or to evacuate entire populations in the event of a natural disaster.

The Stunts just seemed like things that make sense. You're a practitioner and you have a sanctum, so you can probably teleport there any time you want using Anchorpoint. You can be adept and getting through Thresholds and wards with Gatecrasher. Passengers allows you to help your allies make a clean getaway. Pathways is a Talent that I imagine manifests to the fledgling iteramancer; a form of divination, it's how they might discover they have this magic within them.

Questions? Comments? Critiques? I'd love to see them all.
Thank you so much for your time!

Kleptomancy
Magical Sponge: You naturally absorb (inadvertently or not) magical energy. You get Armor:2 against magical attacks and +1 to overcome magic-based obstacles with Force.

Kleptomancer: Mark Exhausted. For the rest of the scene you can duplicate any magical power you witness or have used against you, mimicking their approach and action. You are capable of “borrowing” more than one spell or power in a scene, but can only retain one at a time for continual use. For example, if a necromancer strikes you with a flesh-rotting bolt of entropic energies, you can do the same to him until such a time you choose to abandon that magic for some other spell you see in action (Fuego!, for example).

Into the Abyss: Mark Burned Out to make any zone in which you are currently inhospitable to the use of magic. If anyone attempts to use magic in your zone they must add +2 to the opposition; if their magic doesn’t prompt opposition, they must first overcome Fair (+2) opposition to use it. It’s as if their magic is just sucked into nothingness. This lasts until the end of the scene or sunrise, whichever comes first.

Stunt Suggestions
“Borrowed” Power: If you are aiding in the casting of magical ritual, you can use magical energies you have siphoned during your experiences to pay one cost of the spell in lieu of accepting a complication. You may do this once per scenario.

Mana Static: When using Into the Abyss, spellcasters and other magical powers face Great (+4) opposition in order to use their powers.

Thaumavore: Absorbing magic empowers you. When you successfully defend against magical attacks or overcome magical obstacles using your power, in addition to other effects, you gain a Filled With Energy boost reflecting the sort of magic you absorbed. You may only have one such boost at a time.

Notes
This was inspired by the minor talent in the DFRPG called Mana Static. They talked about some people, perhaps even fledgling wizards, just being able to glitch technology the same way that practitioners do when they cast spells. When I saw the name of the power, I thought it meant someone who prohibited magic from working around them. Mana - magical power. Static - unmoving. So, with a little help from Venture City Stories, I worked up this ability.

The first tier ability is just a passive power for all intents and purposes. When magic comes at you, it has a lesser effect. When you actively use your ability to absorb magic, you get a slight increase to do so. I imagine this would be something that comes in handy if someone wanted to push their way past a ward or something.

The second tier ability is the cool one! You don't really have magical powers of your own, but you can "borrow" them when you're nearby. It gives you a bit more versatility depending on what's going on in your story.

The third tier ability is the ultimate expression of the power, where you just become a black hole singularity when it comes to magic. I wonder if kleptomancers are employed by the White Council or hunted by them...

The Stunts are just improvements to the natural abilities. "Borrowed" Power is one I think is cool. You can just use some stored up magical energy to help empower a spell one of your buddies is casting.

Because at the time DFRPG was published, it seemed pretty clear that that's how Dresdenverse magic worked... really powerful practitioners all had broad-spectrum ability.

From GS and SG it's possible Harry was wrong about that; although I'm not entirely sure, given that Mort being better than Harry at his field doesn't mean he'd be better than a wizard that actually put time and effort into that field (which Harry mostly hasn't done), and given that

I'm not sure about that.
Here's examples:
When the author (Billy) describes Focused Practitioners as the minor league of the spellcasting world, Harry jumps in to say...

 

Don’t make these guys sound like they’re featherweights, Billy. They’re specialists rather than generalists, and their power levels can be all over the map. Mortimer Lindquist, an ectomancer I know, is INCREDIBLY capable at what he does. Some of his tricks are stuff I ’m not sure I could easily figure out myself.

In OW, it goes on emphasize:

Billy: "Harry, I was going to write Morty up as a fairly low refresh guy, but you keep talking about how he’s pretty powerful within his own area of focus."

Dresden: "He is."

Regardless, DFRPG made it seem like Focused Practitioner ain't nuttin' the fuck wit'. But the rules were left lacking. Dresden Files Accelerated fixes that problem in my opinion.