What good are weapon foci? Options

[emo samurai]

All they do is add dice to melee attack rolls, but from what I've heard, they're supposed to give some huge mystical bonus for attacking spirits. Am I missing something?

[FrankTrollman]

A weapon focus bypasses a spirit's formiddable resistance to physical attacks. That's not listed in the weapon focus, it's listed in the power immunity to normal weapons, where it states that the power does not affect damage from weapon foci. Similarly, regeneration does not help against weapon foci damage.

-Frank

[emo samurai]

So you bypass its armor with weapon foci? AWESOME!!!

[Liper]

or killing hands...

[Ancient History]

Weapon foci are also useful in astral combat.

[Azralon]

... Or Critical Strike ...

... Or while astrally perceiving ...

[emo samurai]

k00l... So, basically, as long as you have a serviceable melee attack skill and a weapon focus of any level, you just destroy spirits?

[Ancient History]

Depends on the Force of the spirit, but a weapon focus can definately help.

Most of the kvetching about weapon foci is with regards to how effective they are compared to other tools. Many adepts who invest in weapon foci gain little advantage that they could not obtain with Deadly Hands and Critical Strike; while magicians may be better off investing their Karma in Combat spells. Still, an adept could use the Improved Ability adept power to enhance the melee skill relevant to their weapon focus, and an astrally projecting magician who has to engage in astral combat would definately find it advantageous to have a weapon focus.

There are a number of other situations where weapon foci may be especially useful or preferred, but some are quite unlikely to occur, and I don't see the need to go into all of them here.

[emo samurai]

So invest more in literal hand-to-hand combat?

[Ancient History]

Honestly? It depends on your character.

If you want to pistol-whip spirits with your weapon focus Ares Predator IV that has the lucky preces foot attached to the handle, by all means go ahead.

If you're talking mechanical advantages, vis-a-vis Karma costs...a weapon focus can cost more Karma (and way more nuyen) than a spell or adept power that is almost as effective, and unlike a weapon focus, can never be taken away from you.

Roleplayers might find a weapon focus to be a convenient way to keep an otherwise non-combat magician both in-character and a viable asset to the team. For example, if you're an artist adept, justifying Deadly Hands to the GM could be difficult. But any adept can bond a focus.

Roll-players appreciate weapon foci because of the advantages they can gain from them with a little creativity and a thorough reading of the rules. For example, a player might interpret the Magic Fingers spell in such a way that their weapon focus adds dice to melee weapon attacks they make with a similar weapon using the Magic Fingers.

[emo samurai]

My dude is a John Woo archetype/ninja. He has kinesics, combat sense, ambidexterity, sneakiness, and skill with both the katana and two-gun fighting. He is GOD, or at least he will be once he maxes out his skill groups.

Also, if he had 5 magic points but he spent them all on adept powers, can he still get a level 5 weapon focus?

[FrankTrollman]

Weapon foci for adepts can make sense. The weapon focus can give you bonuses to your melee dice pools beyond what the killing hands can, and it has a linear rather than tringular cost which means that improving a weapon focus will ultimately be cheaper and better than initiating for more close combat prowess. It's not a stellar argument, but it holds water. Some adepts will be better off with a magic knife or monowhip than they would be with magical karate chops. Not all, but some would be.

That being said... a magician really has no excuse to bind a weapon focus. Stunbolt is infinitely more effective on the physical and on the astral than a magic sword, and it's cheaper. By the time you can use a magic knife half-way decently, your magician could just trivially soak the drain off a Force 9 stunbolt and be better off all around.

And of course, the people who really want magic weapons, the people who actually don't have a plan B for dealing with spirits - the street samurai - can't bind a weapon focus in the first place. The primary argument against weapon foci is that the only peiople who can have them are the people who don't care very much (adepts) or don't care at all (magicians).

-Frank

[emo samurai]

I could be using those power points to upgrade my other abilites, like combat sense and stuff. I see your point. Killing hands just gets more and more expensive over time.

[Drace]

Not sure if this is mentioned yet, but also, if you have a katana foci at say lvl 5 (very high I think, might not be to some players though), with the blades skill at 6, and then a large portion of your pp's spent on increasing the dice to your blades skill by say 3 pps (6 extra dice I think), and buying improved reflexes 2 (3pps), and your agility maxed out, your dishing out 17 dice, 3 times a turn, so basically your dishing out 17X3=51 dice worth of attacks a turn.

But for it's cost, your a one-trick pony not to be messed with.

[Liper]

as a side note, combat sense is godly.

[Glyph]

The biggest disadvantage of a weapon focus is that it can be taken away from you.

The biggest advantage of a weapon focus is that its modifiers stack with those from an adept's Improved Ability power. On top of that, you are just spending the build points to buy and bond it, rather than power points, so the points that you would have spent on Killing Hands or Critical Strike can be used for other powers. I think the Availability rules limit you to a Rating: 2 weapon focus at char-gen, but with the lower skill cap, those two extra dice can still give you an edge.

[Liper]

Don't forget, reach modifiers, ability to do alot of damage even if low strengthed, (higher strength you can probably argue for killing hands)

[Azralon]

[emo samurai]

Do I stand a chance if it engulfs me and I'm still holding a super-katana?

[Azralon]

[FrankTrollman]

In general I'd rather have a sustaining focus maintaining Combat Sense, but sure.

-Frank

[emo samurai]

They are a lot cheaper...

[mfb]

i dunno. sure, stunbolt is awesome, but you can't use it to defend yourself in melee. a weapon focus provides a broader range of defensive and offensive options for a mage than does a stunbolt spell.

[fistandantilus4....]

I agree, even if it's just a level 3 or so focus, that's more dice to help you incase those one trick pony adepts chop their way past the street sam and get in striking range of the mage. THose extra dice are a god send for reducing successes that would otherwise be adding to the damage on you.

Another good reason for a weapon foci to back up spells, two words :
background count

[Kyoto Kid]