If it really bugs you, you could house rule that any evocation that is successfully controlled and uses Power -2 or less doesn't generate stress, provided you still have stress boxes available on your track.

Up side -> more minor spells, and your casters keep going for a bit longer.
Down side -> it's a bit fiddly

I was thinking of letting spin on a control roll (success by 3) be used to reduce stress by 1 instead of applying a bonus to future actions. If you are willing to do a rote of -3 what you can normally control, you can toss around piddly spells for a long time...

On Ivy: I don't think you're giving her enough credit, actually. I'd say she's quite a bit more powerful than that, with abilities including not taking Mental Stress from Evocation, and the ability to cast 2 Evocations a round. Stuff like that is why I'd define her as a Plot Device.

And no, there's no Refinement/Focus Item cap, but both are capped individually by your Lore.


On Glau, the Jann: I'd like to create him...but we don't see enough of him for me to really do so. He's a brilliant lawyer (according to Thomas), with Good Driving, Guns, and Weapons, as well as Inhuman Speed and maybe Inhuman Recovery. That's literally all we know.

There is a mechanical evocation cap that only applies if you apply the skill support system (which I do not do for her).  Given the background of the books that focus items help you shape spells, then, in theory, there is a point where they would no longer help. I was not saying there is an official cap, or that it was a full and compleate, but was trying to guess at what the full value of all current knowledge on the topic was.

As for the Evocation without stress, I think that is a broader issue. When we see Wardens waiding through zombines, they are throwing spells all over the place, just very controlled and low energy...

And the worst part was, when we see Ivy in action, she is actually opperating under very heavy constraint due to the magic energy warding.

To me, the real point of even trying to stat Ivy it to figure out how to use her in plot. How could people approach her to do interesting things, and how she just wins (Magic).

For "The Catch" if you need something besides cold iron, I was thinking that something to do with agriculture might be the bane of that which is wild (or wyld).  Some say that's the origin of the vulnerability of the fey to cold iron in folklore.  Iron was a symbol of human civilization, the tools that cut the trees and tilled the fields and domesticated the animals, and drove back the wilderness which the faeries ruled.  Can't think of a good symbolic representation of agricultural civilization at the moment.

Maybe something that represents the codified laws of civilization?

The pen? Ink? Paper?

Cultivated land? An herb garden, a productive farm field...

The Archive is WAY out of PC power level. And a bit out of stattable power level. She's a Plot Device, and her stats in the book sound about right.

I've been noodling around with a very quick first pass on Ivy, without doing a reread. Most of it I can guess at, a few things I can create effects for, but not cost (blanket refinement bonuses and such).

Ivy
High Concept: Child Archive
Trouble: People want me for what I know
Other Aspects: People don't take kids seriously; Knowledge is Power; I hire the best, and they call him Kincaid; Harry Dresdon gave me a name; tortured by the Denarians.

Skills:
Alertness +2
Athletics +1
Contacts +5
Conviction +3
Deceit +2
Discipline +4
Empathy +1
Intimidation +3
Lore +8
Presence +1
Rapport +1
Resources +5
Scholarship +8

Stunts:
Spot Hipocracy - Ivy may use Scholarship instead of deceit to spot any lie that conflicts with any written document.

Powers:
Evocation [–3]
Thaumaturgy [–3]
The Sight [–1]
Soulgaze [+0]
Wizard’s Constitution [+0]
Refinement [-60?]
Inhuman recall[-?]: Ivy may take a free action each round to make an assessment with lore or scholarship.
Living library (lore)[-?] - Ivy may double her lore value for all uses, but may gain no benifit from consulting existing libraries.
Living library (scholarship)[-?] - See above.




Specializations
Evocation:  All +6
Thaumaturgy: All +6
(The highest single specializations I've seen was Arthur Langtry's +4s, most high council members max out at +3s, 6 is the lowest I can set the total sum of written knowledge on each topic)

Notes: Ivy knows everthing there is to know about magic, but is still a kid and still has some room to grow with having the focus and will power to reach her true potential as a spellcaster. As it is, she can still go toe to toe with the Merlin and hold her one before adding in her ability to assess. She can toss around 22 points of thauatergy with no prep-work, but anything after that takes work to get more power, because she can't add more research.

Ivy is not known to have any magical items. It may be that her skills are so developed that focus items are no longer useful. (added later)The highest refinement + item bonus I recall is again The Merlin at +4/+4. It may be that items make up for lack of refinement up to 8. In which case, make Ivy's refinements 8, and items don't help - her magic is already perfectly refined...

Also, could a spellcaster accept an inability to use magic for the duration of the spell instead of burning Fate Points ala p. 92 as the price of an equal or lesser number of powers? Or at least Evocation? Having a sorcerer turn into a hawk to spy on his foes, while not easy, doesn't seem like it should require 4 Fate Points (Beast Change, Wings, Diminutive Size, Claws), 1 Fate Point and not being able to use Evocation seems like it's more reasonable.

For combat shapeshifting? I couldn't agree more.

I'd say that stacking in the no evocation would be effectivly adding in Hawk Form(human form)[+1] for a net -3. Adding in being a bird with a 7 foot wingspan, and you can drop diminitive size to get to -2 (please keep access to thamatergy in bird form if you have it, I want to see all the prep work done as a bird). Though really, for that kind of bird, I'd add back in inhuman speed and get you back to -4.

It's intentional, though I'm not positive of why.

My guess is to make it better then using stright refinement.

Direct refinement bonuses are +2 per point of refresh, but must be supported by lower bonuses.

Focus slots are +2 per point of refresh, but are stuck in objects and can be changed in downtime, and you can concentrate them where you really want them.

+10 takes 5 refresh slot as Foci, +10 as a innate refinement takes 28 refresh slots (starting from nothing) and comes with a +9, +8 and so on assigned to other things. In theory, given 5 elements, offensive vs. deffensive and power vs. control, you can only hit +20 at most. If you can somehow (ha) get a lore of over 20, you could get a Focus that gave more then +20 too...