I'm wondering if there is a way, maybe developing a new kind of magic focus, maybe altering a Sustaining Focus, that would allow the adept power Living Focus to sustain a spell without causing the -2 detraction to actions the way regular sustaining does. Clearly the adept would have to bond to the focus and link his ability to sustain a spell to it the way a regular magician does her own sustaining.

Any thoughts?

Just take some Psyche. Heightened concentration/adept centering will help too.

Depending on how you interpret the Heightened Concentration power, you might be able to use it to ignore the sustaining penalty long term.

Yes, I have an adept who has the Heightened Concentration power as well as Living Focus. I'm just toying with the concept, and seeing what barriers there might be to developing such a magical aid. It would seem to be a pretty useful focus for an adept, as Heightened Concentration is a costly power and adept centering and Heightened Concentration both can be used for more distracting dice pool modifiers.

This is true. Unfortunitely for my players, I rule it as working for one test, which will take no more then a day to perform. Not much use for extended fights, but if they are using it in the first place, why is the fight extended?

It's a really dumb power all around. I don't even know why people would want to try to make it work. It's way too expensive for what it does, it penalizes you (by either giving you a dice pool penalty, an addiction to drugs, or a waste of even more points), and it's just flat out redundant. Get a Anchoring Focus or Quickened Tattoo or something instead.

The reason I chose it for my PC is twofold. First, he is an academic forced into the shadows. He had Heightened Concentration before entering the shadows to aid him in his archaeological work. Most of his adept powers were first and foremost to be used in his original life: memory enhancements, perception enhancements, analysis enhancements and Heightened Concentration. Entering the shadows for his own reasons, he found he needed to be able to find a way to 'catch up' quickly to those who had tailored themselves for such work, or else. He Boosted AGI and REA, and picked Living focus to be adaptable to situations, one kind of spell for this run, another time something else.

Second is the nature of foci. He himself, with Magic 6, is a Force 6 focus, able to maintain some pretty powerful spells. Neither Anchoring nor Quickening was available to him, and each would provide a limited range of support, and be vulnerable to disruption. So of course would the sustained spell in Living Focus, but the reapplication of the spell would be far less expensive.

So, with flexibility, adaptability, high power and easy, cheap recharging, I don't think it's a dumb power at all.

So you're saying you're fine with trading the -2 to have a universal rating 6 sustaining focus… why the thread? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Also, he was apparently the world's most magically powerful archaeologist ever? Hehe.

Well, yeah, he is in deed one boffo archaeologist! This game is fantasy, you know. An if I'm going to Mary Sue myself into my role playing (being an archaeologist myself), why not go over the top? Hell, he has a fedora that is a Force 4 Power Focus, inherited from his great, great grandfather, and his last name before entering the shadows was Jones.

The purpose of the thread is to explore possibilities. Are there other ways than Heightened Concentration to overcome the -2 problem? This is, well... an academic exercise.

That argument basically applies to adepts in general. Their powers are either overbalanced to the point of worthless, just fluff, or hilariously overpriced. There's a few worthwhile powers but most of those are just extra dice so you just splash adept and call it a day.

Living Focus could have been an interesting power if it had been some of combination of being cheaper, not having a sustaining penalty, and allowing for multiple spells.

As for the OP, it's basically a standard attempt to see how close to a silk purse you can make out the sow's ear that is Living Focus. It's good practice for rules understanding / optimization and can lead into interesting builds that at least don't cry themselves to sleep every night.

You truly have issues with Adepts? Hmmmmm....
I find adepts to be quite uesable and versatile. After all, there are ways to make Adept Abilities cost less. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Cheesy ways.

Maybe. If they geas their abilties in my game, the geas better be able to be used to restrict them.

It also needs to be a geas that makes sense for the concept.

Although this does bring up a question I recently had:

Is there anything specific about a Talisman geas on the astral? Its not a foci, so it wouldn't shine like one I'd think. But it is linked to magic. My first take is that when the power(s)/magic it was linked to was active, then the talisman would somehow also display as connected or active. I may have missed something on them, so I'd love to get feedback.

I would agree with that. Though, for Magicians, it would glow anytime they did anything. There are no specific rules for it, but since people have indicated that Talisman Geas are broken, it seems reasonable there be a way to find out it is linked to the character's belief, in order to do something about it.

No Doubt. But then again, I tend to choose very appropriate Geasa for my Adepts.

Why woud a Talisman Geas be broken? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wobble.gif)

Precisely my point.

Heh... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

And the Talisman geas does restrict the magician in exactly the same way fetishes restrict spells. Or even worse if it's a truly unique talisman which can't be replaced and must instead be regained.

NM

As people have suggested, Heightened Concentration is designed for just this purpose:
He even provides an example:

Nevermind.

Except, that as pointed out in another thread, it's usually a dick GM move to target a specific object/character like that. Sure, if it is valuable, someone might steal it, but by the RAW, there is no way to tell if the character has a talisman geas, unless he/she (truthfully) tells you he does.

Well, a Geasa is a personal thing, ansd should not be something that others work to the character's detriment. A Geas should be something that the CHARACTER has to struggle with to maintain. A Talisman Geas is the easiest to of the Geasa to maintain. Not broken, it is definitely something that CAN have the potential to cause issues if the caster is in the proper circumstances, but not something that will come up very often. The simple truth is that the only way to break a Talisman Geas is to lose (through hook or crook) the Talisman. It is still somewhat flavorful. Like the Catholic Spirit Hunter with a Talisman Geas, who uses his somehwat hard to replicate (though not impossible, of course) Rosary as his Talisman. Flavorful. He will not likely lose it, but it could happen, and could be the beginnings of a great story.

For me, a Talisman Geas is generally one of the last that I will consider. There are just so many other better, more flavorful, options for the characters that I create. *shrug*

And as Yerameyahu mentioned above. Heightened Concentration is tailor-made for Living Focus. Supported by one of the developers who actually worked on the document that it was created in. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)