Was watching TV and stumbled upon this. Thought I'd throw it up for the masses:

Erika Christensen as Murphy:

I'm having a bit of confusion about this particular topic and was hoping someone could clear this up.

Refinement gives Specialization bonuses that must be structured in the same manner as skills. On YS249 it says (in bold no less) that Specialization bonuses do not stack.

Here's the question:
Does this mean that you can not take a refinement and gain a bonus in something you already have a specialization for? as they wouldn't stack and thus would be useless. Such as if you already have a +1 power specialization from the free evocation focus and then try to add +1 power and +1 control to the same element, would you end up with just +1 power and +1 control because the power bonuses don't stack?

If it's the case that they don't stack like that, would you then have to take another refinement to get +2 power, which would trump the +1 power already established and would be used instead? If so, how do you get more than +2 bonus on anything given that refinement can only give you 2 +1s and you can't stack them on top of any existing specializations?

Hello all,

So I have this idea for a character but am having a very hard time making it work, both mechanically and thematically. I was hoping the good people of the forums might be able to shed some insight on how to make this work of if it's even possible at all.

The idea is that there's a guy who's powers derive from belief in himself and the power of the human mind, body, and spirit. Basically Mind over Matter. The idea came out of, strangely enough, an episode of Batman Beyond. In the episode there's a group of psychics trying to kidnap a young girl with powerful abilities. One of the group is a guy in a suit who is immune to just about all physical hard, can throw around heavy furniture and appliances like they were beachballs, and is otherwise unfazed by most forms of aggression. I wanted to do something similar in the Dresden RPG. It seemed possible at the time given that Faith is a real source of power in the universe. The concept (as I have yet to work out aspects beyond Mind over Matter) is a guy who believes in humanity's superiority over all other beings. He wishes to raise humanity up to be able to defend and protect itself from the threats presented by Vampires, Fae, and other things that go Bump in the Night. In this way he's kind of like a self-help guru, one of those guys selling crappy books on "realizing your inner potential", only in his case it's actually very true and he stands as the foremost example of the results. Then problems started to arise...

First and foremost is the concept problem. Is faith in yourself and your own abilities to the point of defying reality itself enough to warrant supernatural powers? Again, the Mind over Matter aspect springs to mind here, and there are plenty of real world cases where well disciplined men and women have been shown to survive unharmed from even serious tests (saw a guy bend a sword with the point on his neck once for instance). The idea is that he has such faith and belief in what he can do that this faith is strong enough to make it true. He knows he's bulletproof, wholeheartedly and without a doubt, and so he actually is.

Then there's the mechanics. The toughness powers are a little strange to me and I've been trying to work out how they come together. I understood it for the most part up until I got to stacked catches in Physical Immunity. Here's where I'm at:
-Supernatural Toughness
-Physical Immunity
-Inhuman Recovery
-->Catch: Provides protection against physical attacks only. (Does not work on fire, electricity, etc)

Now if I'm reading Stacked Catches right then I can add another catch onto the existing one I have for these three toughness powers for a greater discount. So I could end up with something like this:
-Supernatural Toughness
-Physical Immunity
-Inhuman Recovery
-->Catch: Provides protection against physical attacks only. (Does not work on fire, electricity, etc)
-->Catch: Must breath (Does not work on suffocation, drowning, smoke, etc)

If it works like this, then the bonuses for the two catches actually make both Supernatural Toughness and Inhuman Recovery free. I know I could take Supernatural Recovery instead for free but I feel like that would be going overboard a bit (especially considering I already have a pretty serious power in Physical Immunity). I'm just wondering if I am doing this all correctly.

I'm also wondering if there are any ideas or thoughts on what else I could do to make this character. Beyond the toughness powers I have very little idea as to what to give him, both as far as powers go and with his skills. I know that conviction should be one of his more major skills, but I don't know if discipline should be up there as well. Should discipline and conviction both be the same and very high, or should one take precedence over the other? What about for offensive abilities? Should I stick with the original idea and take a Super-strength route and invest is Fists and Supernatural Strength? Or should I make it more modern and go Guns, the theory being that he likes using man-made technology to kill things not human?

Any and all feedback or comments would be greatly appreciated.