Hi. I'm in the process of coming up with a sorcerer character and investigating all of my options for spells and foci (some nice topics on the subject in the archives, btw, thanks everyone), and I'm trying to find the rules for grounding spells through foci. It's something that happens fairly often in our games, but it's never been me doing it, so I don't know where the rules for it are, and I've searched SR3 and MITS and couldn't find it.

Where is the grounding of spells through foci covered? Is it somewhere obvious and I missed it? Or in some other book completely? Thanks in advance, I need to find the rules before I can start defending my foci.

i thought grounding spells was a relic from SR2?

Right. There is no grounding in canon SR3. There is, however, in SR2. I don't know which rule book it was in.

Grimoire 2 has it, though it might be in others too.

Some GMs houseruled it back into 3rd Edition as a metamagical technique.

So, what's the opinion on grounding spells through foci?

Good, bad, or no big deal?

well, My opinion is, i never played second, so i dont really know what it was used for, and it didnt exist in 3rd, and i dont think i've heard about it in 4th (although, i suppose, it could make a comeback in street magic)

Personally I wouldn't allow it. It violates the whole "one way glass" explanation of the Astral and Physical planes as explained in SR3 and I don't give a devil rat's hoop about what SR4 says.

I love that rule ... it really kept mages on thier toes... and was mainly introduced to balance out all of the 1 karma spell locks that a mage could have. It was not easy to do ... and an astral mage would be facing physical drain ... but man ... what a light show.

Then again ... I stuck with SR2...

Something like that happened in our game. We were supposed to extract this thingy from the middle of a high-level meet of a bunch of real nasty groups inside a compound armed to the teeth. One of the several mages doing astral recon around the place had an active foci, and our party's mage (perceiving, not projecting), threw essentially everything he had into a fireball grounded through the foci.

The mage's meatbody, sitting in the study of the compound, literally exploded, killing the other mages, and making all the factions think one of the others was trying to extract the item.

Of course, trying to get the item out of the ensuing battle royale was another thing entirely. I lost a character in that battle. But watching one entire wing of the complex explode sure was fun.

And thanks for the info that it was a 2e thing. As I couldn't find it in my 3e stuff I was starting to suspect it. It's still around in my GM's 3e game, but I think it's something anyone can do (one of the reasons NO ONE uses those Force 1 sustaining foci for Increased Reflexes 3. Good way of getting yourself blown up.)

I never liked grounding; it seemed to be far too much of a double-edged sword for my tastes. All it did was further rush PC's to initiate and start Quickening spells left and right. Also, I never liked the way you could turn low-force spirits into magical grenades, by having them materialize and then grounding a spell into them.

The Grounding Rules in SR2 specify that a Physical Spell is required. Since SR3 canon states specifically that Physical Spells cannot be cast from the Astral, the rules are relatively incompatable.

Grounding just doesn't fit the flavor of SR3's version of the Astral, and how it interacts with the Physical.

I liked Grounding when it was canon, and when it fit the system, but didn't miss it when it was gone. SR4 does not show any indication that it will include Grounding, either now or in the future.

Well, the caster would use ritual sorcery through an active focus as a substitute for grounding. It would only require several hourse to perform the linking test but it would work.

Are you talking SR4 or SR3? From what I gather, they would operate differently.

I have no idea how magic in sr4 works, so I was trying to wrap this into an sr3 context.

What is this 'SR3' you speak of? Some sort of anachronism?

If you follow the canon guidelines and limitations for the Astral, as defined by SR3, the Grounding cannot be compatable, since one of the basics of the SR3 Astral is that Physical spells cannot be cast while Projecting (or affect Astral-only targets if Perceiving).

I'm pretty sure that SR4 follows the same relationship limitations as far as Physical spells and the Astral.

I don't see it. I think it needs more clarification.

Well you mind showimg *me* the rule in SR3? I've never seen it.

And thr Grounding metamagic I was considering for SR3 and SR4. The specific ritual spellcasting requirements are basically the same; in both cases it takes a number of hours for a ritual team to "Send" a spell through an astral spotter (SR4 doesn't have ritual linking/Linking Tests yet, and I'd rule this sort of thing can't be done through that kind of link anyway). Grounding eliminates that extra time, using the dual-natured focus/astral form to "ground" the spell into the subject, rather than waiting for the mana to build up and do it that way.

Of course this would also require that you allow a single person to perform ritual spellcasting and be his own spotter for a "ritual team" if you intend to do Grounding by your lonesome, but I'd allow that anyway as it would also allows you to do Ritual Tracking with only one person and I think that would be a cool idea as well.

None of that says you can't *cast* a Physical spell, however. All it says is that (normally) casting a Physical spell while in the astral doesn't actually *affect* anything. You can do it--hell, knock yourself out! (or in this case probably kill yourself as all Drain is physical )--it just usually doesn't do you any good.

Ritual magic is different. Already you don't need to directly see the target, something that's a prerequisite for regular Spellcasting. In addition, a purely astral spotter can be used to provide a link to cast Physical spells on a target, even if the target isn't dual-natured or anything, already blurring the lines between purely Astral links and Physical spells which affect the physical world. This version of Grounding would just be taking the next step; rather than building up mana around a target as is done in a traditional Sending you simply shunt it through a dual-natured creature or object which acts as a conduit for your spell.