Hey everyone, new to SR and this forum, but amazed at the wealth of knowledge and amount of activity amassed here!


I'm creating a character for a campaign/mission that Raavek has been amassing information for the last week or so here. Anyway, as being so new, I'm having trouble understanding the rules pertaining to Foci.

In the chart pertaining to Foci, the Weapon Focus states that it's availability is (Force x 5)R, now is that force upto the magic rating of my current adept? Say if the adept has a magic rating of 4, but availability is restricted to 12 for character creation, I would only be able to obtain a weapon foci with the force of 2, because it would make it an availability of 10 based on the above equation?

Also, how is the foci dice added to a melee weapon? The monofilament sword damage is calculated at (str/2+3)p which is 5 for my current stats, is the dice modifier just added to the 5 for the melee attack dice pool?

Or is it even possible to obtain a weapon Foci at character creation?

Thanks in advance, some of this is overwhelming to begin with.

Correct



The attack is modified not the damage. So you would get +2 on your attack (Blades + AGI) for the force 2. After you hit, the damage is 5 + Net Hits

By RAW, there is no limit to the Force of a weapon foci. There is a limit to the number of foci you may have bound (Magic attribute - p. 191 BBB). I seem to remember there being a limit to the total Force of foci you may have bound, but cannot currently find a reference.

The maximum Force of a weapon foci you may have at character generation (by RAW) is indeed 2. Anything higher goes over the availability limit.

The foci will add bonus to all tests (die rolls) involving the weapon, including attack, parry, shaving, and whatever else you may use it for. It does not add directly to any statistics of the weapon, such as damage or reach.

And you're limited to LOGIC number of Foci active at one time I believe.

The quote you're thinking of is the following"

"A starting Awakened character can begin the game with one or more foci already bonded. First, the character must purchase the focus with Gear nuyen. To bond a focus to the character, the player must then spend a number of BP equal to the focus’s Force. The total Force of all bonded foci is limited to five times the character’s Magic attribute" (SR4, 85).

I assume this Force limit is only during character generation, but the text isn't clear on that.

Actually, I believe it is a hard limit, not just one that applies during chargen.

Oh, and Damatory, and welcome to Dumpshock.

Wow, thanks everyone for the clarification!

Some of the rules are scattered between multiple sections, and makes for a rough time. Though I found a Chargen spreadsheet on here that is making life a TON easier.

I appreciate the help!

Also, there is a limit on how many foci you can have bound. SR4, 191, "No magician may bind more foci than her Magic attribute. Regardless of the number of foci a magician may possess, only one focus may add its Force to any single dice pool."

You know, I remember this sort of thing from SR3 and I could have sworn it was in SR4 too, but I cannot for the life of me find the rule anywhere in BBB or Street Magic. If you have a reference to where it's stated, let us know for future reference.

It's probably going to be somewhere stupidly obvious and I've just been missing it in my hunting.

Apparently, SR4 changed this from Logic to Magic, since Magic is an actual variable stat now.

Nightwalker450 is correct - you can only have a number of foci active at once equal to your Logic. You can only bind a number of foci equal to your Magic or less. Both rules are on pg. 191, under Bonding (for the Magic limit) and Activation (for the Logic limit).

Weapon foci are limited to Rating: 2 at character generation, but that's still a two dice bonus to hit, which is cumulative with things like improved ability. More importantly, a weapon focus bypasses the immunity to normal weapons that spirits and a few other things have.

Not sparing the extra 20,000 for a focus seems like it's suicide for a fresh char.

The fact that the +2 is cumulative to your skills and skill groups means that a magic user could theoretically start the game with with two lvl 6 rated skills, specializing in one, and a focus for another. For much cheaper than the BP to actually max two skills, which I couldn't do at the moment anyway. 2BP for the Foci, as opposed to the 8BP, for actual skill levels.

Am I perceiving that correctly?

Don't forget, also, the foci bonus stacks with applicable specializations (if you want to be really really good with one thing, instead of just "really good" with both). Edged Weapons, Sword specialization, Weapon Focus (2), maybe some Adept Improved Ability points (if you want to get just silly good with it)... it can all add up really fast.

@Damatory:
Not quite. Dice pool modifiers don't really raise the skill. Even specializations are only dice pool bonuses. Improved ability actually raises the skill, up to 1.5 times the base skill (in other words, if you have a skill of 4, you can get improved ability: 2 with it. If you have a skill of 6, you can get improved ability: 3 with it.

My point is, they can add to each other. In other words, you can have a skill of 4 with a specialization, and another skill that you use to wield a Force: 2 weapon focus, for two skills that are the equivalent of 6. But you can also have a skill of 6, a specialization in that skill, improved ability: 3 for that skill, and a Force: 2 weapon focus. Whether you do one or the other depends on your character's role (a sneaky, fast-talking character who can still handle himself in a fight vs. an adept who is an absolute master of the blade, for example).

Ahh, I suppose I used the wrong terms. I meant it in the way you're explaining, though I guess I said it in a confusing way. Sorry for the confusion, still new.



So you could conceivably stack your specialization skill past 6?
I thought you had to have an aptitude quality to raise it to 7, or does that only pertain to the base number un-modified?

A specialization isn't an increase in a skill, it's bonus dice that you just happen to oh-by-the-way get to use when you're using a certain subset of that skill (like revolvers for pistols, or swords for edged weapons, or your eyes for perception).

It's a +2 die bonus, not an actual "skill increase." SR4 uses very specific terminology for when you get bonus dice versus when you get an increase in a skill versus...when...you get a...uhh, something else. I dunno. I get it wrong all the time, myself, but the basic fact (as I understand it) is that some stuff can stack whenever you want and some stuff can only stack up to your skill rating (times 1.5), and some stuff gets cut in half when you split your die pool to do some stuff at once and some stuff gets added after that die pool split instead of before it...and...and...yeah. That's about all of it I can think of, right now.

The only things at present that add directly to the Skill in SR4 are the Improved Ability Adept Power, Reflex Recorders, and Move-By-Wire (Dodge). Everything else is a Dice Pool modifier, and is not subject to the Skill restrictions.

Oh! Ok, that makes it way more clear then. Thank you!