Magic for a high-council level wizard?

[Belial666]

OK, we have a wizard with conviction, discipline and lore of 5. We choose spirit for our example. Evocation specialisation goes to spirit power, thaumaturgy specialisation goes to focus crafting.

7 refinements go to spirit control 5, spirit power 4, fire control 3, fire power 2, air control 1  (includes initial specialisation)
8 refinements go to 1 staff offensive spirit control +6, 1 mantle offensive spirit power +6 and 2 bracers for defensive spirit control/power +4 (includes starting items)


For -22 refresh, which isn't terribly high for High Council, we have:
Offensive Spirit Control: 16 shifts
Offensive Spirit Power:  15 shifts
Defensive Spirit Control: 14 shifts
Defensive Spirit Power: 13 shifts

So for someone like Ebenezar which uses both items and is a powerful evoker, 16-shift offense minimum, dealing 25+ stress with a single hit on most opponents or 19 stress on three zones at once or, for killing 200 mooks at once, 11 stress on seven zones at once, assuming said victims roll a fantastic for defense and Ebenezar doesn't roll very well.

[Deadmanwalking]

You're forgetting that Focus bonuses cap at Lore. On the other hand, by the book Ebenezar has Lore and Discipline 6, so it's not really an issue.

And yeah, that's technically possible...but considering how many better things he's got to spend Refinements on than Item Slots (like Thaumaturgy), and that 11-12 shift Evocations (the level he can get with only basic Item Slots) already kill just about anything, why would he bother?

Here's my stat block for Ebenezar, though it notably doesn't include the Blackstaff.

Name: Ebenezar McCoy

Aspects:
High Concept: Senior White Council Wizard
Trouble: God Help Me, I‘m the Blackstaff
Other:
Master of Harry Dresden;
An Honest Day’s Work;
Brawler;
Patient Teacher;
Respected Scholar;
No Time for Bullies;

Skills:

Fantastic: Discipline, Lore
Superb: Conviction, Endurance,
Great: Contacts, Intimidation, Presence,
Good: Alertness, Athletics, Deceit, Empathy, Rapport, Scholarship,
Fair: Burglary, Fists, Investigation, Stealth, Survival, Weapons,
Average: Craftsmanship, Driving, Guns, Might, Resources, Performance,

Powers:

Refinements [-25]
Evocation [–3]
Thaumaturgy [–3]
The Sight [–1]
Soulgaze [+0]
Wizard’s Constitution [+0]
Item of Power: The Blackstaff [-3]

Total: -35 Refresh

Powers:

Evocation: Elements (Air, Fire, Earth, Spirit);
Power (Air +2, Earth +2, Spirit +6, Fire+4)
Control (Air+1, Earth +1, Spirit +5, Fire+3)
Thaumaturgy:
Control (Summoning and Binding +1, Divination +3, Wards +1, Transformation and Disruption +3, Transportation and Worldwalking +1);
Complexity (Summoning and Binding +2, Conjuration +1, Divination+4, Wards +2, Transformation and Disruption +5, Transportation and Worldwalking +2);

Focus Items:
Staff (+1 Offensive Control and Power for Spirit)
Metal Ring (+1 Defensive Power and Control for Spirit)

Enchanted Items:
Metal Ring (8 shift Block or Armor 4, up to three times per sesion)[4 Enchanted Item Slots]

Stress:

Mental: OOOO (+1 Minor Consequence)
Physical: OOOO (+1 Minor Consequence)
Social: OOOO
Armor: By spell or item effect.

McCoy manages to almost equal the Merlin in Evocation, though only through the use of a Focus Items, he can do 12 shift effects either offensively or defensively with those, and 11 Shifts without.

This is McCoy sans the actual Blackstaff, since we have no idea what it does. Though I did include it’s cost on his sheet, assuming it’s about as potent as a Sword of the Cross. He’s a specialist in the kind of Magic that destroys people, places and things on a grand scale, as well as Divination.

In terms of skills I kept his rep as a spy and assassin in mind and gave him some of those skills at modest ranks. He actually has more skill points than the Merlin, they’re just spread around a bit more. I also arranged him into a skill pyramid, which wasn’t hard per se, but not that easy either.

[Belial666]

Crafting Bonus: Foci +1 improves the bonus you can put on a focus by 1. Besides, that's -22 refresh. Another -3 for the Blackstaff (which will also be his control focus so as not to give him more than 1 staff) and we go to -25. You have him at a whopping -35, giving 10 more refinements. That's only 2 thaumaturgy refinements below what you give him-though his Evocation other than spirit falls a bit behind.


Still, the ability to casually obliterate everything in 5 zones with Weapons 5, attack +16 (usually 15 shifts of ownage) is too cool IMHO.

[Deadmanwalking]

Well, yeah, but my version can still do 4 zones at Weapon: 4 using attack +12. It comes down to how often do you need to do more than that...