Yeah, no I have read it. But, as I've mentioned earlier...while I understand the over all point I take a few exceptions.

1) Real swords are illegal in the USofA to go carrying about one's person (as is any blade longer than what is it? 4 inches? 6?) And they're not exactly concealable. It's all fine and dandy when you're an NPC like Morgan or Luccio, or a Knight of the Cross with a trait like "Protection of Divine Coincidence." But GM's like to make things difficult on PC's. "Yes, that's a fine Bastard Sword and you like quite scary with it. So much so everyone's calling the cops."

2) Why magic up a sword instead of a real one? Because I've been caught and frisked! They took me weapons! Me shiny shiny weapons...

3) This one's ON FIRE. Which makes it inherently more awesome. And no real sword is.

4) This cuts through things, not blasts through them, so it's way less dangerous to the scenery and the by-standers

5) This one IS FIRE. Swords have to go in sheaths. This one can be blown out dramatically at the end of the fight. Plus it's fire. see 3 and 4.

6) Go on. Parry it. I dare you. Make a disarming maneuver...give it a go.

I'm just sayin...I can think of berjillion occasions when a construct sword is better than a real sword. Especially when said sword isn't so much a sword as a persistent, static bar of fire that I can swing in a sword like fashion.

Now I grant there are plenty of drawbacks. It can be dispelled. It can burn me just as easy. It takes some juice to make. Hit it with water the steam will cook me pretty good too. Plus it's not invulnerable. But it's not useless either. It does things no other ONE spell anyone's named so far can do, which is go away when I want it, be there when I need it, cut through walls (as opposed to blasting through them),  parry/block things, cut through things in general, and be a sword o' fire.

the general rule of thumb is...the less you see it on this plane of existence, the "Deeper" into the Nevernever it is, and the harder it is to find or get to. And the more difficult it is for that thing to "impact" our reality directly. Remember...the Nevernever is not a country to explore. It's a multiverse of realities where physics shifts constantly. And the deeper in you go, the stranger it gets. It may be that the deeps of the Nevernever require you to "give up your physical body" entirely. You know...die.

I think that's actually exactly how you do that in the book.

On what Gruff was saying...don't feel shy about getting nasty either. I threw a Raw Head and Bloody Bones at my crew. They killed it quite handily. But I didn't just use the template, I chucked some extra toughness on that mother. Nothing scares a player like a baddy that keeps getting up when you knock it down. Even if they're clobbering it, they feel like they're fighting for their lives.

The point is, don't feel shy about tossing in some extra powers on your monster. Up that refresh all you like. They're monsters. They don't have refresh caps. That super ghoul not super enough? Up his strength, speed and toughness. Which their mouths all go dry when their wizard puts him through a wall and he runs back out only slightly inconvenienced. Is that fae not scary enough? Give it wings. Nothing's worse than wings. It's adding a whole new axis to the fight that the players can't access (axis access-heeehee). Plus it opens up tactical possibilities for everyone. More dynamic fight. "Claws" are good too. Nobody likes those.

Sure. If it's evocation. But if it's a ritual? A construct is not evocation. It is NOT conviction=discipline. That's what I'm saying. I can't mix the two?

So I think I got what I need. It's like casting two spells at once really. One's a construct to hold the fire into a shape that you can grab and swing. This is a straight complexity roll that's going to be roughly a 2 for the simple construct + shifts for duration + shifts for weapon rating. Done. Conviction is weapon rating, the discipline has to necessarily be higher. So for a Weapon 4: it's what? an 8 conviction? and a 14 discipline for say...two turns? Is that about right?

And you know...I hadn't considered the first law implications but on the other hand, it's no different from other magic that way.

About GMPC's. This is just an NPC who is "in charge." He's never around. He doesn't go adventuring with them. He's the Warden so he knows stuff they need to know. But he's a complete "PC" because if ever someone else runs the game I've got a character. Cuz he's cool. And I thought it'd be a neat-o speedo spell to pull out, and if it's kosher then I can do it later as a PC (GM willing). No, he's not a party member. He's why the Avengers assemble, and he's the guy that actually knows stuff since three party members are new to town and the fourth just never gave a damn until today. So no worries about his breaky-ness.

I think my greater problem is things are about MORE than the power you're summoning. It's about complexity. Harry talks about the difference all the time. And complexity is a discipline roll. So why would there not be a greater discipline to do something that has lots of non-numbers related advantages, but nothing to do with it's strength? It's duration. It's bending physics to your will. Why wouldn't that be a slightly higher discipline roll? Seems reasonable and in the rules and I'm talking crazy here so why not?