Relationship between Thaumaturgy and Evocation...

[BlackMage]

Ok, so I managed to get my books and I've been poring over them for the last two days absorbing all that I can from them.  In the sections on magic, it states that they didn't put in separate blurbs about pyromancy or kinetomancy in the thaumaturgy areas because those are normally expressed through evocation.  I'm honestly surprised Harry or Bob didn't speak up in the margins on this one, since I can think of a number of ways to use thamarurgy with pyromancy for heavy effect right off the top of my head.  Say for instance you're going up against a scourge of blampires, you know where their nest is and you know they have no hostages.  Instead of fighting them direct, a wizard could conceivably just gather up some samples of their dwelling and use those to link to the real thing in much the way Harry used a single sprinkler head to link to every sprinkler head in the train station during Small Favor.  In other words, firebombing the place without the need to be anywhere near it when the place goes up.

So my question, going off the book would it be more acceptable to be capable of something like that if you had fire as one of the elements you're specialized in concerning evocation?  Does what you take with one affect what you can be good at with the other?

[Richard_Chilton]

Evocation is channeling something right there right then.  It's taking the energy that's there and using it.

Thaumaturgy is about other places.  It's building the energy you want up then sending it somewhere.  

A caster with Evocation but not Thaumaturgy is not limited in his Evocation in any way.
A caster with Thaumaturgy but not Evocation is not limited in his Thaumaturgy in any way.

Which is a long way of saying that there's no connection in the rules as written.

That's not to say that you can't thematically link the two.  If your wizard is all about burning things then you could take fire magic as your specialisation Thaumaturgy.  You'd have to write it up yourself but you could do it.  Or use an aspect.  Something like "Burning Down The House" could give you a bonus on anything to do with fire.

Richard
(edited because of a mistake caused by copy and pasting)

[devonapple]

So my question, going off the book would it be more acceptable to be capable of something like that if you had fire as one of the elements you're specialized in concerning evocation?  Does what you take with one affect what you can be good at with the other?

It should be technically just as easy for a fire-specialized spellcaster as a water-specialized spellcaster, so long as they both have full Thaumaturgy.

That said, wizards can get theme-related focus items for Thaumaturgy. Traditionally, you buy focus items (YS 278) to improve Lore or Discipline checks for a given Type of Thaumaturgy: Wards, Veils, Summoning), but the rules (or RAW as you will see it on the boards here) also say you can do it by Theme (Biomancy, Ectomancy, etc.).

So, it is plausible that a fire-themed Wizard could *also* have bought specialization in Fire-themed Thaumaturgy as well as Evocation. And this wizard will have an easier time doing fire-themed rituals.

Also, a fire-themed wizard *may* have an Aspect about his use of fire magic which he can tag for a Fate Point during the ritual process, which can be an advantage.

But other than these two options, no difference in difficulty.

[evileeyore]

What devonapple said, there is no reason you can't do Fire or TK Thaum, you're just not doing with any "I can see and direct what's happening" control.


Unless you are doing Thaum with LOS on the target.