Smart Spellcasting and Tags

[Deadmanwalking]

None, other than this is one of the ways you are supposed to use Assessments and Declarations. And take note that once you've spent the action declaring or assessing an Aspect you get to Tag it for free without spending a Fate Point.

This. Declaring or Assessing takes a round, and if you do that, then you can tag the Aspect created...but you can't attack, then attack again and Tag on the second one, you need to do the Assessment or Declaration between those two.

[blues.soldier]

My point precisely. It's doable, but you gotta do it step by step.

It really could be a setup for a bunch of killer combos. Water attack followed by water aspect declaration followed by ice attack, etc.

[Todjaeger]

Use of Aspects in "powering" spells.

Having checked out the Spellcasting (Evocation) rules again, there is some room to interpret the role of Aspects when casting Evocations.

On YS page# 255

evocation is too quick and dirty to use other power sources the way a thaumaturgical spell can (page 267).

With a note from Harry in the sidebar stating

Stuff like Hellfire can be brought to bear pretty quickly for evocation.

On YS page #267 under power sources for thaumaturgy, it references YS page 248.

On YS page #248 is the following list of sources to power a wizard's spells.

• Himself
• Willing creatures
• Unwilling magical creatures
• Objects that store power
• The environment
• Outside reality

With that list in mind, that the Wizard is a source of power for his own spells, then it suggests that a wizard's aspects could be used to 'boost' the power of an evocation.  For example, a background aspect of Seventh Generation Member of the White Council could be used to temporarily increase the character's Conviction score by +2, thus increasing the amount of power they themselves can provide an evocation.

At the same time, on YS page #256 there is no limit applied to the amount of power a wizard can put into an evocation, apart from the wizard's own limited ability to handle a given amount of stress.  For evocations up to the Conviction skill in power, a wizard only suffers 1 point of Mental stress.  For every additional point of power beyond the Conviction skill a wizard pumps into an evocation, an additional point of Mental stress is suffered. 

Now from a storytelling perspective, I can see times when it would be dramatically appropriate for a player or group to be able to tap normally unused reserves of power (via spending Fate points) to get that 'extra' oomph added onto a blast of fire/water/lightning/whatever.  Or should aspects (and Fate points) only be allowed to Control an evocation, not power one?

Incidentally, I tend to agree with Harry's sidebar comment to the effect that Sponsored magic can potentially be used to increase the power of an evocation.  One grey area here though involves Ley lines.  In the section on Sponsored magic on page 292 of YS, Places of Power, Sponsored magic of this type can be used to augment the power available to a wizard from their Conviction.  However, it would also seem sensible for some Places of Power to have aspects like Potent Ley Line, which could then be Tagged to increase the power of a spell as well.  Particularly in situations where a caster is located at specific places but has not become attuned to them (taken Sponsored Magic: Places of Power for the particular location).

Hence my interest in the thoughts of others as to what/how this should be done?

[Morgan]

Well the here's the way you handle powering Evocations with Aspects. Aspects add to rolls, or allow rerolls. So as far as Evocation goes, Aspects effect the Discipline roll to control or target the spell, not the power of the spell. If a player wants to cast a powerful Evocation with lots of shifts of power, they are probably going to need to Tag or Invoke some Aspects to control or target it.

If you wanted to tag a ley line to power an Evocation, then you would make an Assessment or Declaration to create or discover the "Ley Line" aspect. Then you would tag the "Ley Line" aspect when you made the roll on the spell for whatever bonus you wanted from it.