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> Adept and power focus
Homme-qui-rigole
post Feb 9 2004, 09:27 PM
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Does adepts are authorized to use power focus?
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Lilt
post Feb 9 2004, 09:42 PM
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In-short: No. I believe there is a page refference for this somewhere but I'm looking and I can't find it. IMHO they should be able to use it but they would be very limited. IE: they could only use it for astral combat (extra dice may be added to sorcery tests) or for resisting the drain from the attribute boost power.
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spotlite
post Feb 9 2004, 10:11 PM
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no. They can use a centering focus or a weapon focus, but that's it, unless they are a physical mage.

edit: and provided they can use Centering in order to make use of that centering focus! :end edit!

edit again: I suppose they could theoretically use a spirit focus for the purposes of spirit combat, but that's pushing it. :End edit!
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zenpoetsix
post Feb 9 2004, 11:42 PM
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in the game i run i let an adept bond to a power focus to boost an existing power. for example, he went from combat sense level 1 to level 3 afte bonding to a force 2 power focus. but that's it. and he couldn't use it to "develop" new adept ablities. it didn't seem game-breaking.
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Mardegun
post Feb 10 2004, 02:34 AM
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As others have stated, adepts can't use any focus expect weapon, centering and sustaining.

page 190 of SR3, describes power foci and doesn't say adepts can use them.

also page 55 describes how adepts can purchase weapon foci, but doesn't mention any other focus.

Besides it seems counter-intuitive to me for a adept to use a power focus to increase their magic ... assuming they can't cast spells. After all a adept only use magic from within.

Now in regards to sustaining foci anyone can have one, even mundanes. However is it exceptionally unlikely that any mage would bind a focus to someone else.
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Jason Farlander
post Feb 10 2004, 03:13 AM
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I'm going to go ahead and break the mold here. Having read the sections about foci in SR3 and in MiTS, I have found absolutely no rules specifically forbidding adepts from using power foci.

The introduction to the section on foci has this to say:

QUOTE
A focus (plural: foci) is a magical item.  To mundanes, foci are ordinary objects with no magic at all.  To the Awakened, they are a source of power, assisting in the use of magical skills.


Adepts are certainly awakened. Nothing in the description about bonding foci requires that the character possess the skills aided by that focus. Nothing in the descriptions of any focus type forbids adepts from using them. The section about adepts does not specifically limit them to the use of weapon foci. Adepts, just like all awakened character, can, in fact, bond absolutely any focus they wish to bond -- its just that these foci dont really provide them with any real benefit. Power foci are no exception. If you think I am wrong, I ask that you provide me with quoted evidence refuting this claim.

Note that power foci would not provide an adept with any bonus power points, as it does not actually raise its owner's magic rating except virtually for the purposes spellcasting and conjuring. Adepts *can* learn sorcery, though, to be used in astral combat, so the power focus would help in that regard. Thats the only benefit it provides, so its not really worth the cost in either money or karma...but thats neither here nor there.

To summarize: Adepts, just like all awakened characters, can bond any focus type, including a power focus. Just dont expect much out of anything except a weapon focus.
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Mardegun
post Feb 10 2004, 04:24 AM
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Hey Jason,

I have to disagree with you on this. While I can't remember any spot where it states a adepts can't use other foci, no where does it say a adept can. ... wow, please not count the number of negatives. ;)

For instance under sustaining foci (pg 191, SR3) it says

QUOTE
The sustaining focus must be placed in physical contact with the target of the spell before it is cast in order to sustain it, so only spells cast on physical objects or beings can be stained.

The owner casts the spell, activating the focus, which then automatically sustains  the spell.


This implies that the owner of a focus has to cast the spell, since adepts don't cast spells, they are not the owners.


Also the definition of foci implies this too
QUOTE
A focus (plural: foci) is a magical item.  To mundanes, foci are ordinary objects with no magic at all.  To the Awakened, they are a source of power, assisting in the use of magical skills.


Then on page 168 of SR3, it describes adepts

QUOTE
Followers of the somatic way, adepts do not use magical skill to perform magic in the same way as magicians (though they can use sorcery in astral combat: see page 174)


Since adepts don't use magical skills like a mage, they shouldn't receive the same bonuses. Especially since a power focus only list spell casting benefits. pg 190 SR3

On the other hand, as a GM I might allow an adept to use a power focus, but not any other foci expect the ones I mentioned above. Even if you allow a power focus it isn't that helpful as Jason mentioned.
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Jason Farlander
post Feb 10 2004, 04:34 AM
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I never said an adept could *activate* a sustaining focus... only that he could bond to it, if he wanted to waste his karma creating a ritual link to himself with no benefit. Sure, to activate a focus you need to be able to use the skill it modifies. Bonding is not the same as activating, though.
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Namergon
post Feb 10 2004, 11:07 AM
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As for sustaining and anchoring foci, anyone ca nbenefit from them, but no anyone can "charge" them.

About power foci and adepts, I think the answer is in the description of the power focus, that accurately defines in which circumstances the focus rating increases the Magic attribute of the owner. The list of these circumstances is exhaustive, and doesn't include something that could apply to adepts.
Sorry, I don't have the book at hands right now, so if someone could quote the description...
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Lilt
post Feb 10 2004, 03:43 PM
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Adepts can use magical skills. They can use the astral combat specialisation of sorcery for astral combat, and they can use Aura Reading.

The power focus description does not list only benefits for spellcasting, it lists benefits for sorcery, conjuring, and drain resistance tests. And there are a number of manners in which an adept can make drain resistance tests (constructing wards, attribute boosts, possibly others bit I don't have books ATM to check) and they can use the sorcery skill in astral combat.

There are, however, references in books where people say that adepts can't use power foci (in the 2nd or 3rd of the dragonheart trillogy IIRC) so if you take what everyone says in the books to be canon then It is forbidden.
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Catsnightmare
post Feb 10 2004, 03:57 PM
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I don't see why an adept could not use a power foci.
After all adepts can purchase power points without initiating, thus giving them more total powers than their magic rating. According to the rules an adept cannot have more active powers than their magic rating. So why wouldn't an adept be able to bond a power foci (and thus increase their magic rating) and be able to activate and use all their powers at once.
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spotlite
post Feb 10 2004, 06:16 PM
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I have to say, regardless of what I said earlier, that what Catsnightmare said is the most convincing argument so far as to why they could have power foci. Far better than haggling over phrases in the book which are pretty ambiguous imho.

A power foci also effectively raises your magic rating. this is appropriate for all things where magic rating is a factor such as how many powers you can have up at once. You don't get extra power points, you just get to have more powers on at once. It would help with wards, which adepts can make, and probably a number of other things. If they aren't strictly verboeten for adepts, then I've changed my mind.

If I do that, then I'd have to say yes, they can bond any foci they aren't strictly forbidden from bonding, but if they don't have the skills to use it, they're pointless.

I beleive Adepts can also learn and use enchanting, in which case I'm pretty sure it would be useful there as well.

However, it would also mean they could bond a force 1 foci (not a sustaining foci though cos they can't cast the spell to bond it) of some kind that they can't use or don't need, and drop it on someone so his magey friends could do reverse ritual sorcery on him and zap the target, I'd say much more reliably than using even the adepts' fingernail clippings, because there would already be an active magical link to the foci. Sneaky sneaky...

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Lilt
post Feb 10 2004, 06:39 PM
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[nitpick] It specifically states in the description of enchanting that power foci do not add dice to the use of the skill. [/nitpick]
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Jason Farlander
post Feb 10 2004, 06:49 PM
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I still do not think anyone has adequately disproved the idea that any awakened character can bond with any focus. Please, everyone, *read* the section on bonding foci. Also note that a character's ability to use something is not restricted by specific book permission (it never says, specifically, that adepts can use APDS bullets) but, rather, by specific restrictions (mundanes can not bond foci).

Now, to have that bonding *mean* anything, the character would have to possess some ability that is modified by the focus. (A physical adept could bond, but not activate, a conjuring focus). This also applies to power foci, where there are extremely limited uses (drain resistance and astral combat via the sorcery skill).

Power foci do not add their rating to the owner's magic attribute *except* for purposes of determining whether drain is physical or stun and determining the maximum force of spirit the owner can conjure.
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Wireknight
post Feb 10 2004, 08:46 PM
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I created a unique focus to deal with this particular issue. I call it a Somatic Focus, although Ability Focus might also be a good choice of name. It costs as much as a power focus, but increases Magic Rating by 1.0 points per 2 levels, and Power Points by 0.5 per level.

I never really ironed out whether it should be able to be adjusted to apply to any existing power to increase its level, but with some mechanism to prevent the Adept from improving powers dynamically to "cheat" and act as if multiple powers were boosted, or just making the focus aspected toward a certain power and non-applicable to any other power. I'd call the latter an Ability Focus, and the former a Somatic Focus, maybe make the Ability focus cheaper for its specific nature.

Either way, this focus, at Rating 1, would allow an adept to spend an additional 0.5 power points on existing adept powers. At Rating 2, it would allow a full power point, and increase Magic rating by 1. If the campaign uses the partial magic rating rules, then it would increase Magic by 0.5 per level.

When stacked with a power focus(only really useful for magician adepts), the magic rating increase for the power focus would override the somatic focus.

Thoughts? Opinions?
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Rev
post Feb 10 2004, 09:23 PM
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Why not just double the cost and have it work like other foci, rather than the half effect thing?

PS I don't think it is a necessary anyway, it does not appear to cost much less than initiating.
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