Alternative Evocation Power

[Haru]

Ok, as mentioned in the other thread, I've had this idea of streamlining the evocation power a bit. The basic goals for the new setup are something like this:

- A wizard should be able to shoot fireballs like someone else is firing a gun. Just something I like the feel of. If you want to have a wizard run out of fuel, make it a compel.
- They should still be able to throw out a lot of power, but at a cost. Any additional power will require casting stress.
- Remove spell power
- Reduce the bookkeeping on focus and enchanted items
- Keep the "more refresh spent = more powerful" design
- Break down the entire thing into 1 refresh increments.

I didn't change much from the copy in the other thread, only the skills used in the basic powers so far. And I added a defense trapping to magic defense. Since Fate Core got rid of blocks altogether, I would do so, too, but they are part of the DFRPG, so for I left them in for now.

The Basics:
Each of the basic Spellcasting powers grants 1 Element to do your spells with. Once you have an element, you can use it on every magical action you know, so you will not have to buy all 3 powers for each element. None of the basic spellcasting powers use casting stress. If you buy all 3 of them, you basically have what is the evocation power right now.

Magic Attack [-1]:
You are able to do magical attacks. Roll your discipline as a ranged attack with a weapon rating of 2.

Magical defense [-1]:
You are able to use your magic to block attacks. Roll your conviction to put up a block or defend against an attack. The strength of the block is equal to your roll.

Magic Maneuver [-1]:
You are able to do maneuvers with magic. Roll your lore to put up an aspect.

Upgrades:
These Powers require their basic counterparts to work.

Powerful Attack [-1]:
Your magical attacks are more powerful. Add +2 to your roll, when doing a magical attack. To use Powerful Attack, you need to take 1 shift of mental stress. (I know, usually it's +1 to add to an attack roll, but with the stress cost and the fact that it is a power, I think it is ok.)

Potent Attacks [-1]:
You can do magical attacks for an additional 2 shifts of damage. To use Potent Attacks, you need to take 1 shift of mental stress.

Massive Attacks [-1]:
You can use your spells to attack an entire zone. To use Massive Attacks, you need to take 1 shift of mental stress.

Potent Maneuver [-1]:
Your magical maneuvers are more powerful. Add +2 to your roll, when putting up a magical maneuver.

Potent Defense [-1]:
Your magical blocks are more powerful. Add +2 to your roll, when putting up a magical block.

Lasting Defense [-1]:
Your magical blocks last 2 exchanges (for a total of 3 exchanges) longer, without freshing them up. To use Lasting Defense, you need to take 1 shift of mental stress.

Additional Element [-1]:
You can cast spells in one additional element.

Focus Item [+1]:
You can attach part of your magical powers to a focus item. If you lose that item, every roll you do for those powers will be reduced by 2, until you recover or rebuild the item. You need to attach at least 2 points of refresh to benefit from the refresh bonus.

Enchanted item [-1]:
You have 2 free uses per session for any evocation power that would normally take mental stress to use. This power may be taken multiple times.

You could even take other skills for the 3 action types. Maybe weapons for attacks (throwing fireballs) or conviction for maneuvers. Would probably be best, so wizards don't rely on only one skill. Maybe even different skills for different wizards, depending on their style, as long as it's three different ones.
If you want more powerful wizards, you can let them take multiple Upgrade powers of one kind and let their uses stack. But if you only take one each, a wizards power should be manageable and on par with other templates. Maybe even a bit weaker compared with speed, strength, etc.

So yeah, I'd like to hear your thoughts. I'm sure there is a lot to tweak, to make it somewhat balanced, but I believe it can work rather well.

[Mrmdubois]

Basically seems like Incite Effect for magic users, yeah?

[Haru]

Well, kind of, yeah. Though I think it is still different enough to warrant its own writeup.

[Mrmdubois]

Where are the differences?

Other than Incite Effect allowing you to have +2 to your Maneuvers and Blocks with your effect right out of the gate.

[Sanctaphrax]

Incite Effect can't be boosted with mental stress.

Anyway, here are the issues that I see:

-It's not clear how the stress costs stack. If I use Powerful Attack and Potent Attacks on the same attack, do I fill in my first two stress boxes or just the second?
-Magic Attack is too good compared to Claws and Breath Weapon and the like.
-Magic Maneuver is just lame. You can already make Lore maneuvers.
-Magic Defence sets an unfortunate precedent. Spending 1 Refresh to defend with your apex skill is a bit of a no-brainer for a lot of characters. So this could get a bit iffy if used with other skills.
-Focus Item is better than Item Of Power, and Item Of Power is pretty good.
-Enchanted Item is kind of hard to understand.
-Powerful Attack is 100% better than Potent Attacks. Choosing between them is a false choice, which is bad.
-Lasting Defence implies that this uses spellcasting block rules instead of ordinary block rules. Is that the case?

If you want, I can post my take on this tomorrow.

[Dougansf]

I'm not clear what "Incite Effect" means.  Is that another way of saying Incite Emotion?  If so, then I agree that would be a good power to base this build and upgrade path on.

I agree with Sancta on a lot of things:
+2 to hit trumps +2 to damage
1 Refresh for the equivalent of Breath Weapon is not balanced.  I think you need to require all 3 of the basic powers in one Spellcasting power.  Even then...
Only bonus of Focus Items is Refresh and avoiding a penalty.

I'm curious how this would work for Channeling and Sponsored Magic.  +1 Refresh for Channeling, restricting you to 1 element only?

[Mrmdubois]

Incite Effect is on the custom powers list that Sanctaphrax started.  It's based on Incite Emotion but it's been expanded and improved on to cover a lot more contingencies.

[Haru]

-It's not clear how the stress costs stack. If I use Powerful Attack and Potent Attacks on the same attack, do I fill in my first two stress boxes or just the second?

It should stack, so if you use 3 upgrades in one spell, you take 3 shift of mental stress at once, not three times 1 stress. It might get out of hand at some point, but to use a power multiple times, you'd have to buy it multiple times, and even then you'll run out at some point. Enchanted items can make you last longer, but they will run out at some point as well, and they cost refresh.

-Magic Attack is too good compared to Claws and Breath Weapon and the like.

It's basically two stunts rolled into one power, which is, I believe, the conversion rate. A lot of people think breath weapon is too expensive, and a natural attack already uses fists for claws, so the additional trapping isn't needed.

-Magic Maneuver is just lame. You can already make Lore maneuvers.

Yes, but you can't do maneuvers like setting the carpet on fire with your mind or making your staff fly towards you. It's evocation maneuvers using the lore skill, not lore maneuvers. I'm not even sure how you'd maneuver with lore. Declarations, sure, but maneuvers?
Also, they are now free of mental stress, so you can throw around a lot more of them, which makes magic maneuvers way more useful than I feel they are now (why spend mental stress on aspects, when you could deal X damage at the same time?).

-Magic Defence sets an unfortunate precedent. Spending 1 Refresh to defend with your apex skill is a bit of a no-brainer for a lot of characters. So this could get a bit iffy if used with other skills.

Well, it's supposed to be a spellcasting ability, not an "I spend 1 refresh to defend with my apex skill" ability. It should be part of a wizardly type of character. I don't really like how magic blocks work, and I've always been looking for a way to give a wizard a bit more defense. A swordfighter with athletics high can always defend with his apex skill, be that weapons or athletics. Of course, the defense should fit with the narrative and the elements you know.

-Focus Item is better than Item Of Power, and Item Of Power is pretty good.

It grants you 1 free upgrade power, no more, no less. I think it fits, but if you have a suggestion, I'm all ears. If it could be taken multiple times, it would be broken, yes. Or am I missing something?
Maybe make it available for each element, and if your focus item for that element is missing, you can't cast spells of that element? No, doesn't seem right in any direction. Let me think on that.

-Enchanted Item is kind of hard to understand.

Hmm, might need rewording, I agree. What I meant was, that it can soak up additional casting stress. So if you want to use powerful attack and potent attack, and you spend 1 point from the enchanted item pool, you only have to take one shift of casting stress. Spend 2 points from the enchanted item pool, and the spell is free.

-Powerful Attack is 100% better than Potent Attacks. Choosing between them is a false choice, which is bad.

Yeah, I'm not happy about that myself. I wanted something like a control specialization. Maybe that's not really needed anymore, since a spell attack is now pretty much a flashy guns attack. A regular old attack stunt might do the trick just fine. Aspects can boost your targeting roll like any other, so you should be fine.
Potent attack should remain as the main trade in of stress vs. power. You can take that power multiple times if you like, and as long as you can pay the additional stress, you can use as many of those powers as you like.

-Lasting Defence implies that this uses spellcasting block rules instead of ordinary block rules. Is that the case?

Blocks, see above. I'm not really sure if this is really necessary. I wanted to remove the whole "put up block, wait one exchange, prolong block, wait one exchange, fire away if the fight is still going" thing. Maybe I could remove the defense possibilities above and make this only applicable to defensive blocks. So you could do this to set up a shield spell on yourself, but not to block someone else and hack away at them while they can't move.

If you want, I can post my take on this tomorrow.

Gladly.

1 Refresh for the equivalent of Breath Weapon is not balanced.  I think you need to require all 3 of the basic powers in one Spellcasting power.  Even then...

I wanted to get away from the powers being grouped together. See above in my reply to Sancta to the same issue.

I'm curious how this would work for Channeling and Sponsored Magic.  +1 Refresh for Channeling, restricting you to 1 element only?

Something like this:

Focused Practitioner [+1]
You are only able to cast spells in one element. You don't get additional elements through the bonus of the basic powers or by buying the Additional Element Power.

That would bring a focused practitioner with all 3 basic powers to the same refresh level as he would be now with channeling.

[Sanctaphrax]

...to use a power multiple times, you'd have to buy it multiple times...

Wait, you can do that?

It's basically two stunts rolled into one power, which is, I believe, the conversion rate. A lot of people think breath weapon is too expensive, and a natural attack already uses fists for claws, so the additional trapping isn't needed.

It's more like 4-5 stunts. 1 to use Discipline instead of Fists to attack unarmed (making the Fists skill pretty useless), 1 to make your unarmed attacks weapon 2 under some circumstance, 1 to extend the weapon rating bonus to all attacks, 1 or 2 to add range. How far is the range, anyway?

Breath Weapon is too expensive, but it's not that much too expensive.

Yes, but you can't do maneuvers like setting the carpet on fire with your mind or making your staff fly towards you. It's evocation maneuvers using the lore skill, not lore maneuvers. I'm not even sure how you'd maneuver with lore. Declarations, sure, but maneuvers?

Also, they are now free of mental stress, so you can throw around a lot more of them, which makes magic maneuvers way more useful than I feel they are now (why spend mental stress on aspects, when you could deal X damage at the same time?).

You can maneuver with any skill, using whatever justification your GM is willing to accept. Expanding the scope of a skill's maneuvers is nice, but it's not 1 Refresh nice.

I see your point about Evocation maneuvers, but...standard Evocation maneuvers being lackluster doesn't make me want to spend a point of Refresh on something of such questionable usefulness.

Well, it's supposed to be a spellcasting ability, not an "I spend 1 refresh to defend with my apex skill" ability. It should be part of a wizardly type of character. I don't really like how magic blocks work, and I've always been looking for a way to give a wizard a bit more defense. A swordfighter with athletics high can always defend with his apex skill, be that weapons or athletics. Of course, the defense should fit with the narrative and the elements you know.

Regardless of what it's supposed to be, it's an "I spend 1 refresh to defend with my apex skill" ability.

Defending with your apex skill is one of the major perks of being a physical character. It shouldn't be handed out so casually.

It grants you 1 free upgrade power, no more, no less. I think it fits, but if you have a suggestion, I'm all ears. If it could be taken multiple times, it would be broken, yes. Or am I missing something?
Maybe make it available for each element, and if your focus item for that element is missing, you can't cast spells of that element? No, doesn't seem right in any direction. Let me think on that.

I would just use Item of Power/Item Limitation.

If you don't like that, maybe you could have foci reduce the stress costs of spells cast with them?

Hmm, might need rewording, I agree. What I meant was, that it can soak up additional casting stress. So if you want to use powerful attack and potent attack, and you spend 1 point from the enchanted item pool, you only have to take one shift of casting stress. Spend 2 points from the enchanted item pool, and the spell is free.

Oh. Neat idea. I'll take a shot at re-wording that.

Focused Practitioner [+1]
You are only able to cast spells in one element. You don't get additional elements through the bonus of the basic powers or by buying the Additional Element Power.

Eh. Seems too good to me. Elements aren't usually that big a deal.

Though I suppose you could change that.

[Sanctaphrax]

Okay, here's my take.

Think I fixed the problems I mentioned.

Might have created more, though.

SPELLCASTING [-1]
Description: You can cast spells. Duh.
Note: If you have multiple iterations of an upgrade, you may use that upgrade multiple times on a single roll. The stress costs of the upgrades stack, so if you use Refined Casting twice and Potent Attacks once on a single attack then you take a single 3-stress hit. You can't mitigate the stress costs of this power with armour or with mental Toughness powers.
Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline, Lore
Effects:
Spellcasting. You may manipulate elemental forces with your mind. This allows you to perform maneuvers and blocks on anything you can see.
Elements. You can manipulate a number of elements equal to the amount of Refresh spent on this power. Every action you take with this power must be narratively expressed through the manipulation of one of your elements.
Magical Attacks [-1]. You may use your Discipline skill to make physical attacks. Such attacks are weapon 2 and usable against anything you can see.
Magical Defences [-1]. You may use your Conviction skill in place of your Athletics skill to defend against physical attacks.
Refined Casting [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making a roll with this Power. If you do so, add 1 to your Conviction or Discipline skill for that roll. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Potent Attacks [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making an attack with this Power. If you do so, add 2 to that attack's weapon rating. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Massive Attacks [-1]. You may make area attacks with this power. Such attacks cost 1 mental stress for each zone targeted. When you target multiple zones, each targeted zone must be adjacent to another targeted zone.
Enchanted Items [-1] During milestones you may create enchanted items. Enchanted items are objects invested with Power Points. Whenever you would take a point of mental stress in order to use this Power, you may expend a Power Point from an object that you have on hand instead. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill. The number of Power Points you have invested in items may not exceed twice the number of times you've purchased this upgrade.

[Haru]

I got some ideas while responding to your first post before your second post was out. I did a rewrite from that and your writeup. It makes a few of the points I wrote out irrelevant, but I'll leave them in. The full writeup with a few additional notes and questions is at the bottom.

Wait, you can do that?

Yeah, I remembered adding it, but it appears I only noted it in a half sentence below the actual powers as an idea. Sometimes I'm in my head to much and forget to specify such things. Sorry

The idea was this: Powers like potent attack or massive attack (maybe some others as well) are supposed to be bought multiple times and you can activate it a number of times per spell equal to the number of times you have the power. So if you wanted to do a weapon:8 attack against 2 zones, you'd need potent attack 3 times (adding 6 to the weapon rating) and massive attacks 2 times (one for each zone) and spend 5 shifts of casting stress on it.

There might be something to be done about those numbers, it sounds quite high. On the other hand, it takes you 5 refresh just in upgrades, and you will need to take a mild consequence to pull it off. Add to that the 3 basics, thaumaturgy and the sight required for a wizard, that's 12 refresh. I think a 12 refresh spent wizard who dedicates all his resources to it should be able to do this.

It's more like 4-5 stunts. 1 to use Discipline instead of Fists to attack unarmed (making the Fists skill pretty useless), 1 to make your unarmed attacks weapon 2 under some circumstance, 1 to extend the weapon rating bonus to all attacks, 1 or 2 to add range. How far is the range, anyway?

Breath Weapon is too expensive, but it's not that much too expensive.

You can maneuver with any skill, using whatever justification your GM is willing to accept. Expanding the scope of a skill's maneuvers is nice, but it's not 1 Refresh nice.

I see your point about Evocation maneuvers, but...standard Evocation maneuvers being lackluster doesn't make me want to spend a point of Refresh on something of such questionable usefulness.

Well, both powers together are pretty much breath weapons, only with one more possible element. Though I admit, I'm not sure if I will leave the elements in or just make them fluff entirely. I wouldn't put a fixed range on it (I ignore it on breath weapons as well). You can make the shot more difficult by the number of zones you are away from your target, which is something I thought about doing for guns as well.

But the question is, how would you split those things up to make them each worth their 1 refresh? My plan was to make the basic powers together worth 3 refresh, so they'd cost the same as evocation does now. Though I come to realize, it might be better to keep the evocation the 3 refresh package it is and just change the use of the skills and how specializations and items are used.

Regardless of what it's supposed to be, it's an "I spend 1 refresh to defend with my apex skill" ability.

Defending with your apex skill is one of the major perks of being a physical character. It shouldn't be handed out so casually.

Then how about sticking to blocks as the main use, but give the wizard the choice to defend with conviction when doing a full defense. I am considering making him lose the +2 you usually get for a full defense when he does this. What do you think?

I would just use Item of Power/Item Limitation.

If you don't like that, maybe you could have foci reduce the stress costs of spells cast with them?

I like that.

Oh. Neat idea. I'll take a shot at re-wording that.

Much obliged.

Eh. Seems too good to me. Elements aren't usually that big a deal.

Though I suppose you could change that.

Well, it is pretty much what channeling does in regards to evocation, I think. You are a bit more limited because you can't build a pyramid with your specializations, but that's pretty much it. But I have an idea how to tackle this.

Okay, here's my take.

Think I fixed the problems I mentioned.

Might have created more, though.
[...]

Let's see. I like it so far, although it isn't exactly where I wanted to go. Refined Casting is very nice, I'll take that. Defense, see above. I like the idea of limiting the number of purchases to the lore skill, makes sense. Can you elaborate your enchanted items again? It sounds kind of weird like that.

Rewrite:

EVOCATION [3]
Description: You can cast spells. Duh.
Note: If you have multiple iterations of an upgrade, you may use that upgrade multiple times on a single roll. The stress costs of the upgrades stack, so if you use Refined Casting twice and Potent Attacks once on a single attack then you take a single 3-stress hit. You can't mitigate the stress costs of this power with armour or with mental Toughness powers.
Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline, Lore
Effects:
Spellcasting. You may manipulate elemental forces with your mind. This allows you to perform attacks, maneuvers and blocks on anything you can see.
-Attack: Roll your discipline to do a weapon:2 attack with the magical elements you know.
-Maneuver: Roll your lore skill to do maneuvers with the magical elements you know.
-Block: Roll conviction to put up a block using the magical elements you know. If you are in full defense, you may use your conviction instead of athletics to defend against attacks, if you can justify this with the application of your magical elements.
Elements. You can manipulate 3 elements. Every action you take with this power must be narratively expressed through the manipulation of one of your elements.
Additional Elements. [-1] You can manipulate an additional element with your magic.
Refined Casting [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making a roll with this Power. If you do so, add 1 to your Conviction or Discipline skill for that roll. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Potent Attacks [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making an attack with this Power. If you do so, add 2 to that attack's weapon rating. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Massive Attacks [-1]. You may make area attacks with this power. Such attacks cost 1 mental stress for each zone targeted. When you target multiple zones, each targeted zone must be adjacent to another targeted zone.
Focus Items [-1]. You may chose one upgrade power each time you take the focus item upgrade to attach this power to a focus item for a specific element. As long as you have the focus item, all spells with this element can use the chosen upgrade power without spending a point of mental stress. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.

(click to show/hide)

Enchanted Items [-1]. During milestones you may create enchanted items. Enchanted items are objects invested with Power Points. Whenever you would take a point of mental stress in order to use this Power, you may expend a Power Point from an object that you have on hand instead. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill. The number of Power Points you have invested in items may not exceed twice the number of times you've purchased this upgrade.

Notes:
-I took a lot of what you wrote, since it sounds a lot nicer than what I come up with.
-Enchanted items is in brackets, because I don't completely understand what you wrote there. I think you mean "2 points per instance of the power to use between each milestone", but that doesn't come out right.
-I removed magical defense and added the alternate version I brought up before. I think it might remove most of the hassle on that.
-Do you think massive attack should only be bought once and then just be adjusted by the amount of stress you spend? You could do a lot of damage with that, even at low refresh levels.
-Channeling would work the same as Evocation, it would just cost 1 refresh less, and I would say you can only buy each upgrade once, which keeps it pretty well in line with the existing power, I think.
-I'd like to keep the cost for additional elements as in the original. It makes you chose between more power and broader applications, and most people will probably chose more power, which is a good thing, so not every wizard has to have all the elements at his disposal.
-I'm thinking of administering a punishment for losing a focus item, but I am not sure how yet. I am thinking of keeping the -2 on the element you have chosen for the focus item.
-Will focus items be too powerful like this? Maybe limit it to "once per element"?
-Evocation could grant a specialization, like it does now, that would do the same as my writeup for focus items, without the item. It would distinguish it from channeling a bit more, but it might, again, make it too powerful.

Your thoughts?

[Sanctaphrax]

Then how about sticking to blocks as the main use, but give the wizard the choice to defend with conviction when doing a full defense. I am considering making him lose the +2 you usually get for a full defense when he does this. What do you think?

I think that's probably too conservative. Full defences are rare. So I'd let people keep the +2.

And honestly I think anyone who can attack should be able to block and maneuver, with suppressive fire and feints and the like.

I don't mind having it as "use my apex skill to not get hit" as long as it's not available to everyone with 1 Refresh free.

Well, it is pretty much what channeling does in regards to evocation, I think. You are a bit more limited because you can't build a pyramid with your specializations, but that's pretty much it.

Evocation has that free specialization. And being able to take Refinement for specializations is a big deal.

Can you elaborate your enchanted items again? It sounds kind of weird like that.

Yeah, I'm not proud of that bit of writing. You might just want to throw it out.

I was trying to repeat what you said in rules language, but it didn't go well.

As for your rewrite, it looks mostly fine. But I don't like the way it uses different skills for attacks and blocks and maneuvers, and it could probably be a bit stronger without breaking anything.

Also I'm pretty sure you accidentally wrote Fate Point instead of mental stress point in the focus item writeup.

[Haru]

I think that's probably too conservative. Full defences are rare. So I'd let people keep the +2.

Makes sense.

And honestly I think anyone who can attack should be able to block and maneuver, with suppressive fire and feints and the like.

That's why I decided to put it back into one package, it just makes more sense this way.

I don't mind having it as "use my apex skill to not get hit" as long as it's not available to everyone with 1 Refresh free.

Well, it was supposed to be taken by spellcaster characters. I know it would technically possible to just take it anyway, but I wouldn't allow it as a GM, if you don't have a good reason.

Evocation has that free specialization. And being able to take Refinement for specializations is a big deal.

I wanted to take specializations as they are out of the way, because after a while they become oneshot machines. This way, the targeting skill will not go above a certain level, which is on par with other attack skills. I think I'll limit refined magic to be taken only once for that, as well. But it will grant +2 for blocks and maneuvers. You can still stack aspects to get a great bing boom off the ground.

As for your rewrite, it looks mostly fine. But I don't like the way it uses different skills for attacks and blocks and maneuvers, and it could probably be a bit stronger without breaking anything.

I wanted to keep the 3 skills thing for magic. I could see lumping maneuvers and blocks together, I would not like to put all 3 on the same skill, because I don't really like 1 skill characters.
How much stronger and why?

Also I'm pretty sure you accidentally wrote Fate Point instead of mental stress point in the focus item writeup.

That I did. Oops

[Sanctaphrax]

Well, it was supposed to be taken by spellcaster characters. I know it would technically possible to just take it anyway, but I wouldn't allow it as a GM, if you don't have a good reason.

If it's supposed to be taken by spellcasters then it should have a spellcasting Power as a pre-requisite. All Powers always need thematic justification, and you can't balance things that way.

I wanted to take specializations as they are out of the way, because after a while they become oneshot machines. This way, the targeting skill will not go above a certain level, which is on par with other attack skills. I think I'll limit refined magic to be taken only once for that, as well. But it will grant +2 for blocks and maneuvers. You can still stack aspects to get a great bing boom off the ground.

Eh, I don't think there's any harm in letting people stack Refined Casting. People aren't going to land super-accurate attacks with it unless they invest an appropriate amount.

I wanted to keep the 3 skills thing for magic. I could see lumping maneuvers and blocks together, I would not like to put all 3 on the same skill, because I don't really like 1 skill characters.

Thing is, the exact same action can be either a maneuver or a block or an attack depending on how the player decides to represent it.

Suppose I shoot a laser into a troll's eyes. Is that a maneuver to blind it? A block against actions that require sight? An attack? It could be any of the three, and it'd look exactly the same in character.

So it's a bit weird to use different skills.

How much stronger and why?

The base Power you have there is basically Breath Weapon with a longer range, split skills, and a minor Full Defence bonus. That's probably not worth 3 Refresh. I'd compress the skills and I might add 1 Refresh or so of extra power while I was at it.

[Haru]

Done, done and done.

EVOCATION [3]
Description: You can cast spells. Duh.
Note: If you have multiple iterations of an upgrade, you may use that upgrade multiple times on a single roll. The stress costs of the upgrades stack, so if you use Refined Casting twice and Potent Attacks once on a single attack then you take a single 3-stress hit. You can't mitigate the stress costs of this power with armour or with mental Toughness powers.
When you take Evocation, you gain one upgrade for free.
Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline, Lore
Effects:
Spellcasting. You may manipulate elemental forces with your mind. This allows you to perform attacks, maneuvers and blocks on anything you can see.
-Attack: Roll your discipline skill to do a weapon:2 attack with the magical elements you know.
-Maneuver: Roll your discipline skill to do maneuvers with the magical elements you know.
-Block: Roll your discipline skill to put up a block using the magical elements you know. If you are in full defense, you may use your conviction instead of athletics to defend against attacks, if you can justify this with the application of your magical elements.
Elements. You can manipulate 3 elements. Every action you take with this power must be narratively expressed through the manipulation of one of your elements.
Additional Elements. [-1] You can manipulate an additional element with your magic.
Refined Casting [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making a roll with this Power. If you do so, add 1 to your Discipline skill for that roll. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Potent Attacks [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making an attack with this Power. If you do so, add 2 to that attack's weapon rating. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Massive Effect [-1]. You may extend your spell to affect an area with this power. Such effects cost 1 mental stress for each zone targeted. When you target multiple zones, each targeted zone must be adjacent to another targeted zone.
Focus Items [-1]. You may chose one upgrade power each time you take the focus item upgrade to attach this power to a focus item for a specific element. As long as you have the focus item, all spells with this element can use the chosen upgrade power without spending a point of mental stress. You may purchase this upgrade a number of times up to your Lore skill.
Enchanted Items [-1]. You get 2 enchanted item points. When you cast a spell, you may spend these points instead of mental stress. Each enchanted item point can take 1 shift of mental stress, this is not an additional stress track. If you use more than one power that requires mental stress, you can mix and match. For example, if you use "refined casting" and 2 times "potent attack" on one spell, you could spend 3 shifts of mental stress, or you could spend 3 points of enchanted item points, or 2 shifts of mental stress and 1 enchanted item points or 1 shift of mental stress and 2 enchanted item points. Once spent, the enchanted item points refresh during a milestone. You may purchase this upgrade as often as you have the refresh to spend.

And the little brother. I increased the bonus of the upgrades, but in return, you can only take each upgrade once. I think that reflects the "really good at one thing but tight focus" quite good.

CHANNELING [2]
Description: You can cast spells. Duh.
Note: Other than Evocation, Channeling does not allow for multiple instances of the same upgrade, except for enchanted items.
The stress costs of the upgrades stack, so if you use Refined Casting and Potent Attacks once on a single attack then you take a single 2-stress hit. You can't mitigate the stress costs of this power with armour or with mental Toughness powers.
You may upgrade this power to Evocation. If you do so, you lose your Channeling upgrades and get the equivalent Evocation upgrades.
Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline, Lore
Effects:
Spellcasting. You may manipulate elemental forces with your mind. This allows you to perform attacks, maneuvers and blocks on anything you can see.
-Attack: Roll your discipline skill to do a weapon:2 attack with the magical elements you know.
-Maneuver: Roll your discipline skill to do maneuvers with the magical elements you know.
-Block: Roll your discipline skill to put up a block using the magical elements you know. If you are in full defense, you may use your conviction instead of athletics to defend against attacks, if you can justify this with the application of your magical elements.
Elements. You can manipulate 1 element. Every action you take with this power must be narratively expressed through the manipulation of one of your element.
Refined Casting [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making a roll with this Power. If you do so, add 2 to your Discipline skill for that roll. You may only ever purchase this upgrade once.
Potent Attacks [-1]. You may take a point of mental stress before making an attack with this Power. If you do so, add 3 to that attack's weapon rating.
Massive Effect [-1]. You may extend your spell to affect an area with this power. Such effects cost 1 mental stress for each zone targeted. When you target multiple zones, each targeted zone must be adjacent to another targeted zone.
Focus Items [-1]. You may chose one upgrade power each time you take the focus item upgrade to attach this power to a focus item for a specific element. As long as you have the focus item, all spells with this element can use the chosen upgrade power without spending a point of mental stress. You may only ever purchase this upgrade once.
Enchanted Items [-1]. You get 2 enchanted item points. When you cast a spell, you may spend these points instead of mental stress. Each enchanted item point can take 1 shift of mental stress, this is not an additional stress track. If you use more than one power that requires mental stress, you can mix and match. For example, if you use "refined casting" and "potent attack" on one spell, you could spend 2 shifts of mental stress, or you could spend 2 points of enchanted item points, or 1 shifts of mental stress and 1 enchanted item points. Once spent, the enchanted item points refresh during a milestone. You may purchase this upgrade as often as you have the refresh to spend.


It needs a test drive at some point, but as far as I can tell, it fulfills what I had set out to do. Thank you for your help.

Next up: Thaumaturgy.