Spellcasters make the others obsolete?

[Falar]

Really, I'd look less at the power-drawbacks of being a wizard as much as at the other drawbacks of being a wizard.

First, technology, technology, technology. The world is full of technology and runs on technology now. Not only does this technology create an inherent problem with being a wizard, but any enemy with half a brain is going to try to use technology to their advantage in many ways. Think like someone trying to hide something from a wizard - or, heck, just trying to disrupt his operations.

Second, what does Harry always harp on? A wizard is a humongous force - when the wizard has time to prepare and bring his best stuff. It's not hard to engineer non-forced situations where the wizard isn't going to be as prepared and someone like Billy just has to flip his switch and he's ready to throw down. Heck, all the situations where Harry knows he has to leave things behind or he'd be coming in loaded for bear and throwing off delicate situations.

[LokiTM]

I find it interesting that the only full wizard in my campaign has approached me specifically to de-power herself without any suggestion by me that it was needed or required. So far I have not seen issues with any of the spell throwers causing the game to go out of whack or become less fun.

A large part of the game is taking place in situations where any use of heavy artillery (either magic or firearms) is out of place so it turns out not to have that much impact in many cases.

[Kommisar]

I'm running an almost all Wizard campaign.  I have five submerged level wizards and one biomancer focused practitioner.  They have not lacked for a challenge so far.   They thought that the Red Court Vamps were push overs until one actually got to grips with one of them.  Then it quickly turned into panic, fear and a badly hurt wizard.  It wasn't my intention to make it into a lesson or example; but that is just how it turned out.

I have also found that most wizards REALLY lean on that Lore roll substitution for Alertness against supernatural wonkiness coming at them.  Especially in my group where I have 3 wizards with a Lore of 5.  So, the biomancer saved their bacon when she was the one that noticed the mortal goons waiting in ambush with automatic weapons.  Which, for me, brings up a good area for other character types to shine:  Skills.  Wizards, mostly, will have to stack up their Conviction, Discipline and Lore as their top tier skills.  And, yes, they have Thaum to fall back on; but that takes time.  Even for my Lore 5 submerged wizards that can drop a complexity 5 to 7 spell without prep.  Simply craft your story such that time is not a luxury item.  Then that character with, say, Burglary really comes in handy.  He can be through a locked door (subtlety that is) before the wizards finish talking about HOW to craft the right spell to do it.   

The social skills are also a good, easy place for other characters to shine.  Again, wizards have generally stacked up their 3 base skills.  Not things like Deceit, Empathy, Presence, Rapport and Intimidation.  Those can be huge elements of any given story and are not easily substituted by magic.  At least not without skirting a Law or out-right breaking one.

[devonapple]

My players - three apprentice Wizards - were figuring out how to repurpose a bomb they had hexed (I intentionally made it hexable), just in case. I asked "Anyone have Craftsmanship?" and an uneasy pall of laughter settled across the table. "Just save that hunk of inert tech for someone you may find later, then," I concluded.

Alas, skill diversity is a regular casualty in an all-spellcaster game. But hey, failed encounters lead to Concessions, which mean more Fate Points, right?

[toturi]

I agree with the observation that the apex skills for wizards tend to be Conviction, Discipline and Lore. But I also find that unless the player is intentionally making social combat his character's blindspot, the Few Seconds Ahead power or Empathy skill also tend to appear fairly often. Thus while the wizard may not be able to attack socially (unless he is using an Empathy "attack"), he can certainly defend fairly well.

In an all spellcaster game, the apex skills diversity may suffer but I find that the lower level skills are still quite diverse. But bear in mind that at the low end (a skill of 1 or 2), it is not much different from simply invoking an Aspect for a +2 boost.