The Knights of St George

[darkfire14]

While I am a fan of the Dresdenverse, I am wondering if it is ok to invent some new organizations out of cannon or adopt stuff from other sources (Like White Wolf games).

One organization I'ed like to bring into the Dresden files is the Knights of St George, a fanatical Wizard-Slaying organization introduced in "Witch Finders" in the Hunter The Vigil line (Their organization supposedly founded by St. George the Dragonslayer). They have a pretty interesting backstory. The Knights see all magic as a threat to the world and thus hunt down mages without mercy (Other creatures as well but Mages are on the top of their list). They use Goetic Gospels to counter-magic wizards, allowing them to protect themselves from magical attacks, dispel magical effects as well as hamper wizard spell casting. An interesting thing about this organization is that the higher ups deceive their own members. Most of the organization believe they're doing God's work in bringing an end to the foul works of Magic, and the Gospels are merely special "Prayers" gifted by the heavens to fight magic users. The sinister part of the organization is that the higher ups know where their power really comes from. From entities called the "Faceless Angels", outsider entities who for some reason oppose the existence of magic and are manipulating the Knights to their own ends.

If you were to incorporate such an organization into the Dresden files, it could be just another group of "Servants of God"  on the lighter end of things, to an actual sinister organization of some kind being manipulated from the shadows by a powerful spirit, entity, fallen angel or worse still some Outsider of some kind.

They should have some unique template of some kind. Their powers should perhaps be a 1 to 3 dot refresh (each dot representing a different "Gospel" they've mastered.  Arares allows they to counterspell magic or hide themselves from magical detection. Amon allows them affiict wizards casting ability and Belith allows them to curse spellcasters with maladies.

Anyway what do you think?

[Tedronai]

1 refresh to counterspell as per both evocation and thaumaturgy's enhanced evocation seems reasonable for a power
I'm not sure how 'hiding from magical detection' would be best represented, or what it should cost
I'm not sure what 'afflict wizards casting ability' means
'curse spellcasters with maladies' sounds like something along the lines of Channelling (biomancy with evocation's speed and methods, bypassing the biology knowledge requirements) with a +1 drawback that it can only be applied to spellcasters to effect illness

[darkfire14]

The Gospel of Arares basically has powers that force mages to expend more power in order to cast spells, punish them in some way for casting a spell or disrupt their spell casting ability.

[crusher_bob]

I'd expect the group to be something rather like the Fellowship of St. Giles.  You don't declare your objective to be the extermination of a major power and then spend time in the sunshine.  So, they'd be on the run a lot, worried about wizards blowing them up, or just hunters that wizards can buy with regular money.  I'd assume that they'd get some under the table support from the vampires, just like the Fellowship gets support from the council.  And I'd expect that if their secret got out, then the entire council would probably mobilize against them.

The powers could look something like this:

Defensive power, -1 refresh, (around 1.5 stunts worth of power)
Defend against magic at (conviction +1) (maybe should be conviction +2 instead?)

Hard to locate -1 refresh
Spend a FATE point to have a thaumaturgy ritual link against you automatically fail?
Or possibly spend a fate point for +4 defense against direct thaumatury?

Suppress magic, -2 refresh
You are able to start a (conviction+2) based 'grapple' against a wizard that works against their magical abilities, range 1 zone.  
You still need an aspect advantage to start the 'grapple'.

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edit

Remember, when designing defensive powers, that straight up immunity to magic costs 3 points (Physical immunity, -2 only against magic, -2 not-magic is easy to come by, -1 researchable)

[DFJunkie]

I don't know how committed you are to maintaining the exact nature of their powers, but you could simply give them Physical Immunity to magic, which would cost either 2 or 3 points (-8 for Immunity, +2 since it only protects from a specific thing, +2 because it can be bypassed by just about anything, +2 if their magic immunity is common knowledge among the supernaturally aware, +1 if it's only available through research).

[UmbraLux]

The powers could look something like this:

Defensive power, -1 refresh, (around 1.5 stunts worth of power)
Defend against magic at (conviction +1) (maybe should be conviction +2 instead?)

I'd suggest +1 if against all magic and +2 if against human magic.

Hard to locate -1 refresh
Spend a FATE point to have a thaumaturgy ritual link against you automatically fail?
Or possibly spend a fate point for +4 defense against direct thaumatury?

A couple more options...

Option 1:  Supernatural Awareness - the individual is aware of any link being used to target him.  (This is the least powerful option and would require the linkee to head for water / threshholds / wards / whatever to actually break the link.)

Option 2:  Magically Grounded - gains Armor:1 against magic, an extra mild consequence useable against magic, and once per scene may clear away a mild consequence inflicted by magic.

Suppress magic, -2 refresh
You are able to start a (conviction+2) based 'grapple' against a wizard that works against their magical abilities, range 1 zone.  
You still need an aspect advantage to start the 'grapple'.

Cool, may have to steal this sometime.     

[Katarn]

The Gospel of Arares basically has powers that force mages to expend more power in order to cast spells, punish them in some way for casting a spell or disrupt their spell casting ability.

Is the Gospel itself the power source?  If so, consider making it Item of Power.

[darkfire14]

The Gospels are basically a Power Source that draws out the devils of ones own soul in turn unleashing these inner demons as a weapon against mages. They are pretty effective but have a potent drawback. The require a meditative state to manifest thus cannot be used on the fly. In other words the got to know they will be facing mages beforehand and psyche themselves before thet can efficiently be weilded. Arages provides counter magic, Amon hampers mages spellcasting ability and belith feces mages with a curse. They do not need an item of power to use just the knowledge and the proper rituals. They may or may not be granted by the faceless angels, no one excerpt the higher ups know.

[sinker]

You know that does sound a little bit like sponsored magic. You could always work up a sponsor agenda/powers for them. Maybe elements/themes could be Counterspells, veils/thresholds (sort-of) and curses. The agenda would limit them to cursing casters only (it would be one of the more restrictive agendas) or maybe not depending on the actual agenda of these outsiders.