Sponsored Magic "As Fast As Evocation" Question

[blues.soldier]

I'm using the DFRPG magic system for a fantasy FATE game I'm getting ready to run, and I'm trying to figure out how this works. I'm running my divine-cleric-priest characters as all having a kind of Sponsored Magic, so this is a big deal.

I'm basically trying to re-create the Reiki healing spell (or a more powerful healing spell) at Evocation speed. Character has Lore at Great+4, Discipline at Good+3. Help?

Edit: Also, how would turning this into a Rote spell work? She's got a Focus item at +1 Power, and Conviction at Fair (+2)

[Tsunami]

basically you build the spell as an evocation. That means that Lore is no longer of any concern.

Sponsored magic with "biomancy at Evocation speeds and methods" would be required.
Your evocations have a base strength of +2 (conviction) plus your focus items. I'm assuming the focus item is "+1 complexity to biomancy" which i would then allow to be used as a power focus for the evocation.

meaning that the base power you can cast for 1 Mental Stress would be +3.

The Reiki spell has a power of 8 or higher, but lets stick with 8.

Casting that with your +3 base power would require a +5 overcast, increasing the stress you take from that spell to 6.

With a conviction of +2 you have a Mental Stress track of 3. So to not be taken out by the stress you'd have to take a moderate consequence, and still fill in your Nr.2 Stress box.
And that is assuming that you can control the Power:8 spell, which basically is impossible to do with a discipline of +3, at least without invoking some aspects.


So,
Reiki Healing Burst (Biomancy Thaumocation): power 8. - Costs 6 mental stress. Needs at least 1 invoke to control.

As A Rote, the stress you'd take to control the already overpowered spell would be extreme.
You'd need to pay 6 mental stress for the power alone, and another 5 in form of backlash or fallout, unless you invoke 3 aspects (Dicipline of good(+3), plus 3 aspects for +2 each to get to 8 or higher)
So casting it as a rote to 8 shifts and bringing all those shifts to bear (ie. taking backlash), would result in Stress boxes 2&3 filled in plus one mild and one moderate consequence.

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I took Lore out of the equasion because it falls in line with evocations in general quite nicely. But one could argue that in the case of Evocation-Speed-Thaumaturgy, Lore should substitute for Conviction to determine the base power of the spell.

[blues.soldier]

Wow. I had the math on that ALL wrong.

So if she changed her Conviction to Great, that means her evocation has a base of 4, +1 for Focus Item. This drops the Overcast to 3, for a total of 4 stress. Since her Conviction was boosted, she now has 4 Mental stress, so she could take a minor consequence to reduce it to 2.

I'm not following how Rote changes the amount of stress you're talking about. Why would it be different as a rote? The power generated by the spell (8 shifts) is static, yes?

New to the system, trying to figure out how all this works in practice as opposed to theory.

[luminos]

Having it as a rote doesn't change the stress you take from drawing up the power.  But you do take stress from failing a control roll of +8, and for rotes, you always control it equal to discipline + modifiers, meaning you'd be forced to take additional stress as backlash.

[Tsunami]

Wow. I had the math on that ALL wrong.

So if she changed her Conviction to Great, that means her evocation has a base of 4, +1 for Focus Item. This drops the Overcast to 3, for a total of 4 stress. Since her Conviction was boosted, she now has 4 Mental stress, so she could take a minor consequence to reduce it to 2.

correct.

I'm not following how Rote changes the amount of stress you're talking about. Why would it be different as a rote? The power generated by the spell (8 shifts) is static, yes?

New to the system, trying to figure out how all this works in practice as opposed to theory.

It's not the base stress that changes, it's the result of the control roll that is fixed when using a rote.
The Rote fixes your control roll at +0, meaning that you automatically control any spell that can be controled with you discipline skill value alone.
In your case (Good (+3) discipline) that would mean that up to a +3 power spell could be controled without trouble. anything more that that would cause backlash or fallout.
With the power 8 spell, this would result in 5 shifts of fallout or backlash. Fallout is basically damage to everone and everything around you, and it reduces the effective power of the spell, so it's no good to us. Backlash is damage to the caster i.e. stress, but it leaves the spell intact, so that all of the powers is actually in effect. So you'd take another 5 points of stress in addition to the 6 points already taken.
To avoid those 5 shifts of b&f you can invoke 3 aspects to push your control roll to +9, controlling the spell without damage.

Fallout and backlash can happen to you when you use the spell normaly as well. You summon 8 shifts of power (with +3 conv. thats 6 stress regardless of it being a rote or not) then you roll your discipline to control it. Resulsts ranging from -4 to +4.
best case you roll +4 and have now arrived at +7 for the control roll. Meaning you still need to invoke an aspect to get to 8, or take the remaining shift as backlash or fallout.
Worst case  is -4 making your control roll a -1, meaning you have to take all 8 shifts as backlash or fallout, or invoke 5 aspects to get to a control roll of 9 (8 or higher)to control the spell.

[blues.soldier]

Gotcha. So even with her Conviction boosted up, it's still a ridiculously bad idea as a Rote.

Thank you. I think I understand this quite a lot better now.

[John Galt]

Healing is not part of the Dresdenverse.  It is part of yours.  Fate isn't meant to be a straight jacket.  Write up healing powers.   For balance, you could model them off recovery powers.  Make Fate your own and have some fun.  That's what its meant for.