Living Focus - why the bad rap?, Why would you -not- want this power? Options

[pbangarth]

I see many references here in DS to the adept power Living Focus as being a waste of time. The worst I have seen said about it is that it takes 2 dice away from actions by the adept.

But, any kind of sustained spell takes those dice away from somebody, usually the mage. A sustaining focus eliminates that detraction, but an adept can't use those, and sustaining foci are usually limited in rating, particularly at character generation.

An adept with Living Focus:

1) allows the mage to cast a spell on him and be free to do other things without cost ("Sure, I'll cast that on you, it's no skin off my teeth.")

2) can accept spells of any kind from any mage in the party. Mondo flexible.

3) acts as a focus of rating equal to his Magic, which will usually be 4 or more and be able to grow with no limit. ("He has armor WHAT??!!")

4) can choose to drop the sustained spell whenever the -2 dice cost becomes more expensive than all the benefits of 1) to 3) above.

Why would you not want your adept to have this power?