I've always seen Recovery as really weak compared to the other physical powers. For example, Inhuman Recovery allows you to get rid of 2 stress worth of consequence, once per scene, for a supplemental action. Inhuman Toughness effectively reduces stress by 1 from every attack and gives you 2 extra stress boxes that could hold a 5 and 6 stress hit AND it takes no action to use. Inhuman Speed increases your chance to dodge attacks by 30% at least, and gives you an equally better chance to do Athletics maneuvers, and makes you faster, and gives you combat mobility without penalties, and gives you a stealth bonus. The differences become more pronounced at higher levels of ability. Thus, I decided to make a rewrite of the Recovery powers;

[-2] Inhuman Recovery
Musts: relevant high concept
Skills Affected: none
Effects:
Fast Recovery: once per exchange you may heal 1 physical stress, emptying your first stress box or moving a higher-level filled stress mark one step to the left. Alternatively, once per 2 exchanges you may heal a mild physical consequence.
Improved Endurance: you recover faster than normal. You may miss a few days of sleep without negative effects, and higher-level consequences recover as if they were one step less severe.

[-4] Supernatural Recovery
Musts: relevant high concept
Skills Affected: none
Effects:
Rapid Recovery: once per exchange you may heal 2 physical stress, emptying your first or second stress box or moving a higher-level filled stress mark two steps to the left. Alternatively, once per exchange you may heal a mild physical consequence.
Supernatural Endurance: you recover much faster than normal. You may miss a couple weeks of sleep without negative effects, and higher-level consequences recover as if they were two steps less severe.

[-6] Mythic Recovery
Musts: relevant high concept
Skills Affected: none
Effects:
Extreme Recovery: once per exchange you may heal 3 physical stress, emptying your first, second or third stress box or moving a higher-level filled stress mark three steps to the left. Alternatively, once per exchange you may heal two mild physical consequences.
Extreme Endurance: you recover at fantastic speeds. You never get tired or exhausted, and all consequences except extreme recover by the beginning of the next scene.

[-8] Legendary Recovery
Musts: relevant high concept
Skills Affected: none
Effects:
Instantaneous Recovery: you recover from any physical stress immediately after each blow. Unless a blow deals consequences or takes you out, don't bother noting it down.
Boundless Endurance: you never get tired or exhausted, not even from hostile or magical effects that would force you to be so. At the end of each exchange, you may recover from a physical consequence other than extreme. At the end of each scene, you may recover from an extreme physical consequence, including death. The only way you can be stopped is total bodily destruction (merely tearing you to pieces won't cut it) or exposure to lasting damage or force (such as being impaled or crushed by falling boulders and the source of harm not removed for a prolonged time)

If someone makes a magic item like Harry's force rings and then gives it to someone else and then that someone else uses it to kill, what happens lawbreaker-wise? Or, if someone brews a potion or potionlike item with questionable effects and then gives it to someone else, and that someone else uses it for Lawbreaking, what happens?


Basically, if you make some magic but someone else uses it for Lawbreaking, do you get the Lawbreaking or they? What if a mortal without innate magic or a nonhuman monster (that can't get Lawbreaker) uses your magic items like that, what happens?

Wizards can do a lot of things with their magic. Why can't they replicate technology with it? I.e. want cold/hot water? Bind a fire/ice elemental to your water supply or put a spell on the pipes to keep them hot or cold. Want to have an alarm or household security? Wards, animated dogs and the like are good. So why not extend this?

TV/Radio: build a golem/other construct similar to the stone guardians Ancient Mai is doing. Instead of the supernatural sense to detect evil intent/black magic, give them the supernatural sense to hear radio waves. And instead of supernatural strength and toughness, give them the ability to project visual and auditory illusions corresponding to the signals they hear. Presto, you got television/radio.

Cellphones: Take a big rock and carve out a few thousand tablets out of the same rock. Carve a different code/number on each tablet. When a wizard wants to contact another wizard, they use the tablets; since they are pieces of the same rock, they got a sympathetic link. And since they got unique numbers, a wizard that knows the number can cast a very simple communication spell on his own tablet and by focusing on said specific number contact a specific wizard.

Vehicles: Simplest way is to create a golem that looks like a car. A strong wizard could make zombie dinosaurs in a couple of hours. A carlike golem shouldn't be impossible to make if they spend an hour casting each day for a month. What middle-class guy wouldn't dream of a car that needs no gas, costs no money and only needs 30 man-hours to make from scratch?
For air vehicles, a propeller airplane that instead of engines and fuel uses summoned creatures on petals (or animated petals!0 for purely physical propulsion. A jumbo jet for example devotes 100+ tons to fuel alone. That's the equivalent weight to 1000-2000 zombies or equivalent summons. What kind of horsepower can 2000 inhumanly strong zombies provide? Imagine selling such a plane that doesn't need any fuel to a modern aviation company.

Nuclear weapons: fusion weapons are acheived by exposing tritium (and potentially deuterium or even hydrogen) to enough raw heat so it gets to fusion temperatures. This is usually done by exploding a small fission bomb very close to the tritium supply but can also be done by shooting a mass of fusion fuel with lasers (i.e. in an inertial containment fusion device). So, how about 100+ wizards all making a boom potion each and putting said potions around a supply of fusion fuel, trigerred to go off all at once? All that is needed is providing enough energy to acheive fusion.

Hecate Strait is a wide but shallow strait between the Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) and the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It merges with Queen Charlotte Sound to the south and Dixon Entrance to the north. About 87 miles (140 km) wide at its southern end, Hecate Strait narrows in the north to about 30 miles (48 km). It is about 160 miles (260 km) in length. It was named by Captain George Henry Richards in 1861 after his surveying vessel, the HMS Hecate.
Geographically-speaking, it is very shallow, and prone to storms and violent weather. It and its surrounding areas, such as the Queen Charlotte Islands to the west and the British Columbia coastline to the east, are of the most rainy, most cloudy and least sunny places in the world. Combining all three of those factors, they are actually the darkest area in all of America, averaging a bit over 3 hours of sunshine per day and their longest night is about a month in duration.
Metaphysically-speaking, the entire area is lousy in both weather-related and necromancy-related ley lines -not all of them natural- forming a nexus of dark energy on the island of Moresby that goes as far back as the last Ice Age and the creation of the Hecate Strait itself. And the leylines have been growing steadily darker ever since, especially in the last two hundred years. The Queen Charlotte Islands as well as the coastal regions of the mainland are a major hot spot of spiritual activity, with more ghosts, wraiths and other dark spirits than any other place in Canada, rivaled in their thinness of the Veil between reality and the Nevernever in North America only by the city of Chicago and its surrounding areas.



Today, the Hecate Strait is an accorded Freehold and save haven for things that go bump in the night. The Freehold has existed for the better part of two centuries and how it came to be is a rather bloody tale. Populated by the Haida people as far back as anyone can remember, it was surveyed by the HMS Hecate in the 1860s. It had a prosperous native community with a population of over 10.000 and significant resources. Unfortunately, it also was one of the last bastions of Red Court expansionism in North America. The Red Court control of the continent had taken a huge blow over the past three centuries; along with the colonists from Europe had come major powers of the Old World that violently opposed to their practices as they expanded their own power in the New World; the White Council of Wizardry, the Seelie and Unseelie Sidhe and the Black Court of Vampires. The last of those powers had recently suffered a major setback in Europe at the time, seeing their dominance of the Old World destroyed along with the vast majority of their weakest, stupidest and more visible members. That renewed the Black Court expansion and immigration attempts to the New World, though far less than in the heyday of the "Black Death"; after all, the number of immigrating vampires were far fewer.
Unknown to most of the crew of the HMS Hecate and other survey vessels of the time, Black Court nobles were transported overseas and arrived in newly surveyed areas, including the mainland of British Columbia. Threatened by the new arrivals, the Red Court outposts in the area decided to wage war rather than flee. Within a few years, over 90% of the native population had been killed, supposedly due to smallpox and other diseases. What had really happened was that they were used to fuel the Red Court offensives even as the Black Court sought more recruits for their own armies. Within four decades, only 350 Haida people remained - but the Black Court had finally won, despite significant losses.

Amelia Este, a Black Court ancient and seer, foresaw the expansion of the White Council's powerbase in North America, soon to be followed by the Sidhe and the White Court. Realizing no Black Court presence could survive following the same practices that had destroyed the court in the Old World, she went about selling her services to both Winter and the seedier members of the White Council against both the retreating Red Court and any native supernatural opposition even as the war in British Columbia raged. Amassing favors in the supernatural  side of the American Civil War with her uncanny ability to back the winners in any conflict, and being one of the most civilized and progressive Black Court nobles left, she managed to declare herself a Freeholding Lady of the Barony of Hecate in 1866.
Moving in Moresby Island after the final retreat of the Red Court, she used the area's climate, its natural inclinations, and quite a bit of powerful magic to make the area considerably more Black-Court friendly while at the same time helping protect the remains of the native community. Whether they were deceived or Lady Este actually helped them, what remained of the native supernatural community actually viewed her as a liberator and protector. Native prosperity actually fitting with her plans of a large number of quality blood donors, shifting the already dark and cloudy weather more to her liking through magic and slowly but steadily winning over (or magically binding) the native dark spirits made for a safe -if very scary- barony.




Supernatural points of interest;

The Moresby Nexus: a nexus of dark energy leylines coursing through the island of that name, and one of the two anchor points for the major spell that significantly enhances darkness and cloud cover in the entire Freehold over the past two centuries. While a portion of the nexus' power feeds the spell, most of it is still usable by sufficiently practiced spellcasters, especially necromancers, ectomancers and entropomancers.
Castle Este: something of a misnomer, this is primarily a victorian mansion rather than a castle and the residence of the Baroness. It is private property in both mortal and supernatural laws and was built a few miles west of Sandspit, the only human community of any size in the island of Moresby. Rumors abound about powerful wards, spirit guardians and extensive dungeons beneath the mansion but none have been confirmed so far - not that the Baroness allows many visitors.
Skidegate cemetery: a cemetery only supernaturals can see or remember, this is a place of power in Graham island and where the Red Court made blood sacrifice of the natives to their nobles. An open, windswept plain without any trees or other growth beyond grass and lichen, it is perpetually covered by a soft mist that coalesces into very active wraiths and spirits at night that roam the area and attack hapless bystanders. If one can survive the wraiths, it is a place that contact with the dead and ghosts is much easier than normal and divinations and memory related magic - especially into the past - are more powerful than usual.
The Prince Rupert Nexus: a nexus of elemental energy leylines coursing through and around the city of the same name in the British Columbia coast. It is the second of two anchor points for the major spell that significantly enhances darkness and cloud cover in the entire Freehold over the past two centuries, and the reason the city of the same name has the most cloud cover and least sunlight of any other city in North and South America, perhaps the world. It is a haven for minor talents with elementalism-related abilities.


Supernatural Dangers:

Darkstorms: the spell that enhances the Freehold's cloud cover and diminishes the effects of whatever sunlight there is is not entirely stable; no spell of that magnitude could be even if the Red Court sacrificed over 4000 people to start it and the Black Court tapped two leylines for three decades to complete it. The spell's instability manifest as Darkstorms, waves of dark magic that are accompanied by a fierce rainstorm and total darkness. In a Darkstorm, all natural sources of light are snuffed out by seemingly natural causes; the sun is hidden by total cloud cover if it happens during the day, fires are very easily snuffed out by high winds and rainfall, electric lights suffer power outages and even the wind seeks to blow carried lanterns off their bearers' hands and smash them against hard surfaces. Every exchange, every light source is affected by a "delumination" maneuver at Great difficulty until it is snuffed out. People carrying light sources are affected by a "blown aside by the wind" maneuver followed by a "disarmed" maneuver that takes away such light sources, again at Great difficulty. Seeing anything beyond your zone faces a Great difficulty for perception, which increases by 1 per zone of distance; creatures with "cloak of shadows" or similar ability to see through darkness are unaffected. Apart from this enforced darkness and the storm's natural dangers, all supernatural creatures suffer a necromantic environmental hazard of superb strength every minute. Unliving creatures are unaffected but living supernaturals must roll Endurance and take physical stress if they fail. A Darkstorm typically lasts a couple of hours and comes and goes without warning, manifesting and fading extremely -though nor unnaturally- fast for a weather phenomenon. There is a Darkstorm covering a radius of at least two dozen miles once per day in the Freehold. Luckily, most of them happen over the water, not land.
Wraith Attacks: Nearly ten thousand natives died to "diseases" during the first few decades in the two islands alone. In reality, they were sacrificed to fuel the war efforts between vampires, mostly by the Red Court. The twisted remnants of people whose life-force was ripped from them to fuel dark magic still endures as countless wraiths and tormented ghosts all over the Hecate Strait. Wraits and ghosts rarely manifest fully under normal circumstances, especially in large numbers. But due to the supernatural battles fought with necromancy and blood sorcery in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the Veil in the area is very thin, resulting in Wraiths being able to manifest a lot more easily, and the lack of sunlight allows them to remain for considerably longer periods. They rarely attack the locals - the Baroness is rather testy about their breaking her own laws and she has the power to enforce them - but more than one tourist or visiting supernatural has vanished without trace.
Barony Vampires: The lesser vampires of the Freehold are exclusively Black Court; other vampire courts are forbidden from entering. Barony vampires are recruited from mortals that have proven their competence and intelligence and the first thing they are all taught about their supernatural powers after feeding is enough necromancy to manipulate their own bodies to preserve themselves, heal and pass as human. Though very few in number, they have this significant advantage over most Black Court and many seek further training in sorcery. While there are strict laws in place about feeding, the most improtant of them is "don't get caught". Of the disappearances attributed to wraiths and natural dangers, a good 30% is actually due to vampires with a sweet tooth for tourists.

Here's my latest character idea, a Scion with the blood of both Ares and Aphrodite in her veins. Mostly used as an NPC, unless you're in a game of high enough refresh to handle fairly strong wardens, vampire warriors and faerie godmothers. In that case, a 18-refresh, 17-year-old demigodess should fit right in. Fitting her into the city and story-wise, I envision her as a model, moonlighting as a hitwoman for hire. Given that Ares and Aphrodite are canonically (and fairly happily) a non-married couple, I wanted to make such a scion build for some time. Plus, waifs with missile launchers can be fun.




Adrestia Sture

High Concept: Grandchild of Love and War  Trouble: Big Happy Family (Not!)
Aspects: Beautiful as Aphrodite, Bloodthirsty as Ares, Concordant Opposition, Vengeance Is My Middle Name, Young - Not Naive.
Stress: Physical  OOOO(OOOOOO) armor 3, Social OOOO, Mental OOOO, Hunger OOOO (extra mild) Refresh and Fate: 18/1



Powers and Stunts:
[-4] Mythic Toughness (catch is acid and True Serenity)
[-1] Power of Ares - Adrestia has strength, toughness and balance that belies her slimness.
She can handle massive weaponry exceptionally well, taking a +1 to attack rolls with such weapons.
[-1] Old Or New, War Changes Not - may use modern weaponry with Weapons just as easily as archaic weapons and vice-versa.
[-1] Aura of Aphrodite - as per "flesh mask" but may not conceal items. May make small changes to her appearance as if by makeup or diguise kits instead.
[-1] Blinding Beauty - The first time someone sees Adrestia in a scene, she is always entitled to the "first impressions" of Rapport, even if it is a combat scene
or has met that person in previous scenes. Aspects thus applied are not just natural appearance; the victim might recognize he's supernaturally manipulated after they wear off.
[-2] Incite/Emotional Vampire: Lust - touch only, rapport-based
[+1] Feeding Dependency: Lust - modifying the following powers;
  [-2] Inhuman Strength
  [-4] Supernatural Speed
 
[-1]  Ravager
       *It is what it is: a grenade-launcher (w4, ranged, area) with a massive warglaive added bayonet-style (w4, melee)
       *Indestructible
       *One-time Discount (+2)
       *Feeding Dependency: Blood - modifying the following powers; (+1)
       *Hephaestus-Forged Weaponry: +2 weapon rating (-1)
       *True Aim (-1)
       *Ectoplasmic Ammunition: generates unlimited ammo using the essence of war as fuel; spilled blood. If this is used instead of real ammo, circles block the attack. (-1)
       *Blood-Drinker (-1)

[-1]  Mantle of Mists
       *It is what it is: a sheer nightgown. Somewhat indecent to wear in polite company. (or not - your mileage may vary)
       *Human Guise
       *Concordant Opposition - may take a mental stress hit to boost an attack roll or a defense roll by the amount of stress she took,
         to a maximum of 4. May take a 2-stress mental hit to degrade physical immunity down to mythic toughness.
       *Tears of the Slain: as Cassandra's Tears, only it predicts wars and violent battles instead of other disasters.

Skills:
+6: Weapons, Athletics
+5: Discipline, Rapport
+4: Alertness, Presence
+3: Conviction, Might, Endurance
+2: Survival, Deceit, Fists
+1: Lore, Stealth, Scholarship

How do supernatural creatures and mortals with supernatural powers compare to purely mortal forces and what effect could they have? How powerful would supernaturals in the Dresden Files be in various situations? For example, we have a rather inexperienced Harry Dresden blast the Loup-Garou through several walls in a single blow and burn down a large building with a big fire spell. We have a more experienced Harry able to shield himself against multiple machineguns and also able to detonate the gas tanks of several military vehicles at once. We have Ebenezar McCoy handle several hundred heavily armed mercenaries and Cowl hex an entire city.

So, how does this translate refresh-wise? It should be interesting to make a scale for comparison purposes;


1) At what refresh/power is a supernatural creature or channeler rougly comparable to a human soldier in the army?

2) At what refresh/power is a supernatural individual capable of handling several soldiers? I.e. Harry appears capable of that from the first few books.

3) At what refresh/power is a supernatural being capable of taking out a main battle tank? Could a Denarian do it for example?

4) At what refresh/power is a supernatural individual capable of handling hundreds of mortal troops, like Ebenezar seems able to?

5) At what refresh/power is a supernatural individual capable of disabling or destroying mortal infrastructure on a large scale, like Cowl hexing Chicago?

6) Barring ascencion rituals and unusual circumstances, at what power level could a supernatural individual destroy an entire human nation (rapidly or in a prolonged conflict), provided other supernaturals don't stop him/her/it?

What is the relation, if any, between the power of a maneuver and for what the aspect can be tagged or how often it is GM-compelled? For example, we got the following three effects;

1) "Lost Confidence" sticky aspect after a great (+4) intimidation roll by a badass human thug.
2) "Deeply Frightened" sticky aspect after a legendary (+8) incite fear maneuver by a White Court vamp feeding on Fear.
3) "Terrified Beyond Reason" sticky aspect after an ungodly (+16) maneuver through lawbreaking psychomancy.


a) What is the difference, if any, when those aspects are tagged for a bonus by whoever applied them? Do they give the same +2 bonus?
b) What is the difference, if any, when those aspects are tagged for effect by whoever applied them? Would the effects be stronger for stronger aspects?
c) How often do those aspects get GM-compelled? Should there be a difference in how often they are compelled depending on strength?

OK, this doesn't usually come up in most games but on the course of a long campaign, especially a war-oriented one, it might;

Suppose your players (or you, as a GM) want to model making home-made explosives like molotov bombs to use against vampires, nail bombs to use against faeries and the like. Then your players get creative and try for bigger stuff. Vampires having taken over that old mine? Drive that truck loaded with half a ton of ANFO into it and watch the fireworks. Want some protections around your home base that will work if someone dispels all the magic? Add some actual landmines and heavy steel doors. Want an intruder-detection system that will actually work against veiled wizards? Bury a couple hundred microtransmitters around the premises and track them by the burnout of technology - you'd get at least an early warning.
And that's just for starters - custom technology can get you custom weapons (like Kincaid's spear and paintball gun), improved vehicles, custom communications (like fiber-optics or wireless networks between shielded systems or fully optical surveillance equipment that can't be hexed) and weird inventions or new uses of old inventions along with magic.
So suppose your players want to make that stuff. How do you judge the effort (resources, contacts, craftmanship, scholarship and others) required for reproducing high-end technological effects? After all, there are people that can make custom tech, custom guns, custom vehicles and the like. And every new invention is essentially a custom job; when Teller, Uram and their team built the first fusion bomb, they basically worked from the ground up. Ditto for Tesla, Edison, Graham Bell and all those guys. Would rules for ritual complexity be applicable to creating new technological devices?



Because I totally have that dream of an adapted A4W mini nuclear reactor operating behind an active major circle beaming the 104 MW it produces through microwave energy transmission systems into a half-dozen adapted Nautilus laser systems that also operate behind separate active major circles to defend a serious base against supernatural attacks. Seeing as radiation does not interrupt magic circles, neither the lasers nor the energy transmission nor the wireless (or automated) control is going to break them so they can fire from inside heavily warded defenses. Yeah, I still remember playing Tiberian Sun.