So no armor would be assumed for an object?I've seen no mention of armor for objects in the Rules... so yeah, no Armor for Objects.
Well, that answers the specific question, but not the general one (that, admittedly, I never asked)...
Warden Ramirez needs through a door, and unlike Harry, has no skill with picking locks, so he turns the door into a hole.
----> This makes sense as an attack, as above. But what about when a Wizard doesn't want to do mass amounts of property damage?
So Dresden stops him, and pops the door open from the inside using his trick with the staff and force applied to the emergency crash bar.
----> This fits perfectly into the realm of Thaumaturgy's solving improbable/impossible problems quite neatly. He's using Thaumaturgy to simulate a burglary check with the perk that he's able to open the door quickly and without an external lock or handle. He can manage it no-prep, no-stress as long as he doesn't exceed his Lore or Discipline respectively, which is really no problem.
Once inside the warehouse, they get bowled over by the Kinetomancer they've been hunting, who escapes past them outside. He runs... Fast.
---->He could have Inhuman speed, but since he's a kinetomancer, I'd assume he's using magic to enhance his speed... but how exactly? He'd have to have Discipline, Conviction AND Lore all at least +4 to outstrip Harry's Athletics by much... and I don't see a small-time sorceror having that high of a lore. He could have used a maneuver ala evocation to put a handful of aspects on himself (and keep them up) that he can tag or FP.
Fortunately Morgan's outside. Unfortunately, the Kinetomancer's on the other side of a tall fence. Rather than letting the kinetomancer gain ground while he tries to climb it, Morgan pulls a beautiful peace of earth magic, makes himself nearly weightless, and clears the fence easily.
---->Morgan's more than capable of pulling this off as thaumaturgy- subbing for his athletics as a no-prep, no-stress casting to get him over the fence. Similarly, he could use Evocation to place an aspect or two on himself for a round, then tag them to improve his athletics roll... but that costs him a stress AND 2 turns (one to cast the spell and one to roll athletics to clear the fence)- plenty of time for the sorceror to get away... making Thaumaturgy... faster than Evocation, in some cases? I'd almost rather let single-round effects like this fall under evocation's purview, at least SOME of the time.
Here I wonder how you would use Thaumaturgy to make Morgan jump like that? There just isn't the time for that. Also, it would be true that he could do it with Evocation and it might cost him stress and some time, but that's just one of the lesser downsides to magic: it doesn't make you physically better easily. If you want to do such a thing on the fly, you could use an enchanted item or potion, or Evocation with a supplemental action to start running (dunno if this is actually possible, though), but it is never as effective as simply have an inherent supernatural power to do such things.Thaumaturgy doesn't seem to me like it NEEDS more time and symbols to work... just that you can use them to great effect. The text explicitly says that you need the symbols to pull something off without line of sight or at great range or both. I think the time mechanic is exactly for extra juice.
Ah... in the case of the kinetomancer... erm.
There is debate about whether an "easy" Thaumaturgy Ritual (when you have enough Lore and Discipline to crank it out in two exchanges: one to gather the energy, one to cast it) fits into "combat exchanges." The RPG book indicates that the easiest ritual still takes a few minutes to do. Unfortunately, Exchanges can range wildly in how much time is assumed. Also, there are some key magical spells in the novels which seem to be working on a combat-time (short Exchanges) which are counted as Thaumaturgy in the book. Opening Ways to the Nevernever is one such gray area.
It's a magical representation of the "Breaking things" trapping of Might.
Easily done with Evocation. Simply summon X shifts of power and pit them against the door's difficulty (see YS:321 for durability of things).
That would be a direct contest. the simplest and easiest way to do it.
If you want to get more complicated.
Example: Exterior Door, Difficulty is (Good +3)
Defense is (Good +3) i always assume neutral rolls for objects
Stress capacity is at OOOO (Difficulty good means 2 additional boxes)
Now simply start attacking the door with your magic until you take it out. Objects usually do not take consequences.
So, a Power:4 Evocation at 4 control or more will take out the door in one shot.
Power 2 with Control 2 is enough to make 4 points of stress, then a good kick for that extra point of stress to take it out. Conserve your power young Jedi.
You'd need a Great Might result. Otherwise, you'd just be filling in the previous stress boxes.Missing things like this is one of the big disadvantages of reading so many different versions of Fate: They all seem to want to do Stress differently.