Magically Burned-Out Character

[vultur]

It's Harry's opinion that Morty is better at ecotmancy than he is, but mechanically, that's not supported.

Maybe not by Mort's stats in OW, but it's totally possible. Harry has no Ectomancy specializations and no Ectomancy focus items, so a character with the same Discipline and Lore as Harry and an Ectomancy focus item would be better at Ectomancy.

'm saying that it would be cool if an Ecotmancer focused practitioner could be better than a Wizard ectomancy specialist. "Evolving" from a focused practitioner to a wizard or thaumaturgist or whatever is an option, but it would be nice if that wasn't the only option. If I wanted to be a Wardmaster forcused practitioner, it would be cool to just be awesome at that and not have to worry about dabbling in other magics if I don't need to...

It sort of goes back to a thought that I have that says the only reason to choose Channeling or Ritual over their more powerful counterparts is because your Refresh limits you. If you have the Refresh to play a "sorcerer" or wizard, the game encourages that over any other kind of magic user.

I think that's universe-accurate though.

[PirateJack]

I think you're looking at this wrong. The difference between a Wizard using Ectomancy and a Focused Practitioner is simply that the Wizard has other elements to focus on as well as the Ectomancy. So a Focused Practitioner can be more powerful than a Wizard in his given speciality, but at the same time a Wizard could be just as powerful as the FP if he put the effort into learning it.

Binder, for example, repeatedly says that Dresden is capable of everything he is and more and that he couldn't make any bets about what would happen once Harry got involved. It's just a matter of specialities and each character having their own talents.

[jftravis]

Honestly, the biggest part of this character concept could likely be simulated with a single aspect like "Oathbreaker: Power". It implies what it needs to regarding the character's background (he's broken one or more oaths sworn against his magical power), and can be easily compelled whenever he tries to do things that are otherwise potent expressions of that power. On the other side of the coin, the player might be able to invoke this aspect as a means of intimidating or deceiving some opponents ("Sure, I'll swear an oath not to kill you..."). Obviously, a middling (2-3) Conviction might help with this, but it need not be if the character still has a decent Conviction regarding anything BUT his magical ability.

[zeonsghost]

I currently have a focused practitioner who is actively trying to avoid using their power because of a "misunderstanding" with the Wardens. He has an aspect that represents the fact that he's trying to be on the down low which gets compelled as needed.  I kinda imagine my GM and I would handle your situation in a similar fashion.  Your GM just slides you a fate point and says "outta juice". By doing this, he's giving you the fate point so that when you really need your magic for a fight, you've got it but if you've been pushing it lately you're outta luck. I do like the suggestion about using the sponsored magic debt system as house rule in that it could be used to better simulate if you keep breaking oaths.