Wizard Stamina, Wizard Differences

[Jack B]

Sorry, fixed...

[Tenebrus]

I haven't noticed any serious issues with wizards in combat, given the speed of most combats.

Besides, a wizard in my campaign did a thaumaturgical ritual that did 15 shifts of damage in 3 zones for 30 minutes, so I think wizards are balanced enough in DFRPG...

(Bows to fellow GM)

Good luck controlling your players!  I can guess how it was done, but can you walk me thru 15 shifts?

[crusher_bob]

Assuming I'm reading the description right, it's not a complexity 15 ritual, it's a complexity 27 ritual.
15 shifts base damage
+6 complexity to effect 3 zones
+6 complexity to move up 6 steps on the time chart, from "an instant" to "half an hour"

Normally, an attack spell only works for a moment.  It sounds like they wanted a sustained zone of devastation instead. Thus the moving up on the time chart.

As for how you get there, it depends on what house rules you use for thaumaturgy prep.
Here's the ones I came up with.  Under them, a submerged level wizard with 2 superb, 2 great, and 2 good skills and a base complexity of at least 3 has a small (~11%) chance of being able to prep for something of that complexity 'in a few hours'.  Throw in the willingness to take a minor (or bigger) consequence and a few fate points and your odds would be much higher.

[sandchigger]

No, in the books (I just finished rereading the entire series, from A Matter of Faith through Changes, last week), Harry never casts more than six spells in a single combat (not counting using his rings, coat and a belt buckle that shows up in one novel and is never heard from again) and in those combats that he does pull off five or six he's on the verge of collapse. The RAW are very true to the source material.

[Bruce Coulson]

Let's see; they had a True Name of one of the targets in the building, the exact floorplans, the history of the building, items from the building, the use name of the primary target, advertising from when the building was functional, a long ritual (that the other party members had to defend from corrupted fae-hounds), knowledge of the zombies in the building (former homeless), a scale model of the building, plus the basic Lore of the wizard.  And maybe some other stuff they'd researched as well.

The wizard elected to put the excess shifts into duration.  With all of that, they still had a bit of a fight on their hands, but managed to drive off the corrupted Fae into the Never-Never and force him to use Sponsored Magic to survive...which drew the attention of Mab.  When the party established that the Fae had been corrupted and was no longer Winter, Mab conceded that the Accords had not been violated.

The Queen then went on to thank them for 'bringing the Queen of Winter into the heart of Summer' (the city is a Summer stronghold), and vanished.  Needless to say, the local Summer emissary was not pleased by this...although he WAS happy to get rid of a serious menace in town.

So, it was a pretty epic ritual that the group isn't likely to get to do again anytime soon.

[noclue]

Let's see; they had a True Name of one of the targets in the building, the exact floorplans, the history of the building, items from the building, the use name of the primary target, advertising from when the building was functional, a long ritual (that the other party members had to defend from corrupted fae-hounds), knowledge of the zombies in the building (former homeless), a scale model of the building, plus the basic Lore of the wizard.  And maybe some other stuff they'd researched as well.

The wizard elected to put the excess shifts into duration.  With all of that, they still had a bit of a fight on their hands, but managed to drive off the corrupted Fae into the Never-Never and force him to use Sponsored Magic to survive...which drew the attention of Mab.  When the party established that the Fae had been corrupted and was no longer Winter, Mab conceded that the Accords had not been violated.

The Queen then went on to thank them for 'bringing the Queen of Winter into the heart of Summer' (the city is a Summer stronghold), and vanished.  Needless to say, the local Summer emissary was not pleased by this...although he WAS happy to get rid of a serious menace in town.

So, it was a pretty epic ritual that the group isn't likely to get to do again anytime soon.

Nice!