Focus broken Options

[Machiavelli]

Short question: i have an focus made of e.g. wood. This wood-stick is broken = focus completely destroyed or could it be repaired?

[Stahlseele]

Nope, Focus is done for.
Physical or Astral Form destroyed means all the Karma and everything else in there is gone

[Machiavelli]

Hmmm...what does that mean? SR4 makes the usage of magic-wands unpleasant.^^ Thank you Stahlseele.

[McAllister]

Maybe wooden. Nothing makes plasteel, diamond or dragon-bone incompatible with magic wandification.

[Dakka Dakka]

Nothing except your tradition. I have problems picturing a Druid with a plasteel focus. But AFAIK by RAW there is no hard restriction.

[Machiavelli]

Maybe i have to houserule this, but i would allow to regain the usage of the focus if it is repaired and reactivated with a ritual.

[Stahlseele]

Use Steel, or stone, that will break bone. No brittle Wood.
Or Copper or Silver or something

[Straight Razor]

ANYTHING can be made into a focus. even you own liver... just don't go and challenge your GM to "try and take that away from me"...

my default foci form are bracelets.

[Machiavelli]

canbe destroyed too. Karma is expensive and rare. I just want to prevent some "accidents" because i choose to have an old-fashioned magic-stick instead of the standard metal-amulet.

[Dakka Dakka]

Why don't you make a magic stick into a fetish that's a lot cheaper and the foci into bracelets amulets, tatoos.
On the other hand you could ask your GM if he seriously wishes to deliberately destroy your foci through the opposition or if it is more in the interest of the opposition to neutralize the person using the foci. Even a wooden stick should be safe from most accidents.

[Mäx]

Make the wand from ironwood so it doesn't break so easy.
This way you can have your magic wand and it's not nearly as easy to break.

[Kerrang]

If you want to use a magic wand, that is fine and dandy, but my advise would be to have the wand as a fetish rather than a focus, and have more durable (and less obvious) items as your foci. At least that way you aren't out any karma if your wand gets broken, on the other hand, you won't be able to cast spells tied to the fetish use until you replace it, but "them's the breaks, chummer" (pardon my pun).

[Warlordtheft]

Or, you could have the magic wand be made of wood, but the only enchanted bit being the granite carved rams head and copper prongs that attach to length of the wooden stick/handle (or whatever).

[McAllister]

It always bothered me that mundane telesma are much harder to enchant, but don't cost any more.

[Stahlseele]

THey are mundane, easy to aquire, but not as pure, so harder to magic, but easy to get, so cheap.
Also, the part with only the head being the focus would work, if the head is detachable.
If it's one piece, the whole thing is the focus. Even if you chip of a bit from the handle, the focus is still broken.
If you simply screw your focus onto something else, that's something else entirely.

[Ancient History]

I've been toying with some rules for repairing foci, but I don't know when or where or if they'll be published.

[Stahlseele]

Maybe something like Digital Grimoire but for Arsenal?

[Machiavelli]

I could also think of some special enchantment that gives the focus a higher durabilty. Maybe something like "indestrucible".^^

[Dakka Dakka]

Or, you could have the magic wand be made of wood, but the only enchanted bit being the granite carved rams head and copper prongs that attach to length of the wooden stick/handle (or whatever).

While possible a strict GM could cause problems if you actually want to use this focus. To be able to benefit form the focus it must either be on the mage's body (in a pocket counts) or in his hand. Technically if the mage does not hold the stick at the enchanted part such a focus would not be in his hand.

[Paul]

I'd allow you to repair an item, but it would cost you, and require a least one session depending on how powerful it is.

[Machiavelli]

This is something which i could accept. Like i told before, it is only to encurage PC´s to get away from the logical solution of chosing an already hard to destoy form of focus, to the more original forms.

[Stahlseele]

While possible a strict GM could cause problems if you actually want to use this focus. To be able to benefit form the focus it must either be on the mage's body (in a pocket counts) or in his hand. Technically if the mage does not hold the stick at the enchanted part such a focus would not be in his hand.

ah, right, forgot about that.

[TBRMInsanity]

Semi-related question, what exactly happens at the time when the foci breaks and the magical energy is released? I know that some game systems (D&D comes to mind) has the magical device go off like a bomb. There is nothing in RAW that state that this happens in SR (just that it becomes useless). How do you play it out?

[Warlordtheft]

While possible a strict GM could cause problems if you actually want to use this focus. To be able to benefit form the focus it must either be on the mage's body (in a pocket counts) or in his hand. Technically if the mage does not hold the stick at the enchanted part such a focus would not be in his hand.

Hence the copper attachments running the length of the stick. So as long as you tough the copper, you are in contact with the foci.

[Adarael]

Nothing indicates anything spectacular happens, but from a flavor perspective, I'd make it flash and have mana come streaming out.

But no, there's no rules saying if a focus is broken, anything BAD happens. Other than being out a focus.