OK, this might sound like a dumb question, but for everyone here: Is it worth the 50,000 to get a Rating 2 Power Foci at character gen? The reason I ask this is because you can get a skill group rating increase for the price of that foci.

It's 12 BP (10 for the resources, 2 to bind it) to get a +2 bonus to all magical skills, which is a better bargain than 10 BP to get +1 to some magical skills (with the downside that a focus can be lost, stolen, or reduced by background count). Plus, skill groups cap out at 4, so you can max out a skill group and buy a force: 2 power focus. It's not essential, any more than the mentor spirit quality is, but it does provide a not insignificant boost to a mage's capabilities.

It is a mechanically solid buy (as Glyph pointed out). It has (due to binding with one BP instead of 8 karma) the best BP-karma exchange rate in the whole game.

That said, does your char profit from even more dice on spellcasting? It is valid to start a more average kind of magician with magic 3 and a weak power focus. The usual Spellcasting 5 + Mentor Spirit (+specialisation) build with magic 5/6 will IMO be better off buying sustaining foci, or something else altogether (depending on the campaigns power level of course).

Not to mention the dangers of Foci Addiction, and the ability of Astral Travelling Magicians being able to dump a spell through it.

focus people, focus!

Spell dumping, AKA grounding, is dead. But yeah, a few types could have issues with foci addiction.

They're great for mystic adepts to bring their spellcasting/conjuring back up to scratch. If you've got a magic attribute less than 4 it's a good idea to grab a power focus, too.

some wandering mages on a rage might not be able to ground a spell through the focus, but they are clearly able to destroy an active focus ...

sure this shouldn't happen all too often, but let the PCs fear this option. *muhahaha*

OK, will have to re-read about that.

'Cause my group is facing a gang of Toxic Shamans pretty soon.

I had an idea of a former Lone Star Mage Cop with Magic 5 (4 due to 'Ware) with a rating 2 power foci. Skill wise I was going to have Spell casting at 4 and no Mentor Spirit.

The up-side of low-force foci is that they're cheap and often useful.

The down-side is that not only do you have to keep switching them on and off to get through wards without alerting opposition mages, but pretty much any background count shuts them down, and the GM can burn you with an addiction if he chooses.

Also one error I've seen from time to time: power foci only add dice, they don't actually change your magic rating - so a magic 4, power focus 2 mage is overcasting at force 5-8.

And your GM may not allow it. I never liked starting characters with anything other than very limited use foci, unless they had a very good reason for having it. And foci tend not to be stealthy, as has been pointed out.

Not destroy, turn off basically.

Thanks Tarantula, that is what I was thinking. Can´t find a quote besides the deactivation through barriers though.

@KCKitsune: In that case the focus is a very good investment. You can even get a few new implants ingame, as you don´t need high basic magic to reach decent pools. Want to discuss the build?

Something that was pointed out to me... Grounding has been gone since SR3... SR2 was the last edition to allow for grounding a spell through a focus.

Also of note, with the new Restricted Gear quality from RC, you could start with a Force 4 Power Focus... it's expensive (5BP for the quality + 20 BP for the nuyen + 4 to bond the focus = 29BP), but when you consider that just the bonding later would cost 32 Karma, it's still a good buy if you can afford it. And don't mind being a huge target. I mean a really huge target.

Yeah, because nothing screams "Geek the mage!" like an active power focus. Personally I don't like spending BP on things that can be taken, but I know that is a personality thing.

Only another mage could see the power focus as being active. And force 4 doesn't mean it has to look any different than force 1.

Then see that from the GM angle. Your player is offering to exchange always-on power for gear-based potential (unless the gear is on top of maxing out). This helps balance, as now all characters depend on gear.

Really? I always figured they looked different. And, at least the games I played and GMed, the first thing a corporate security group did was identify and wipe the mage. I figure even corporate combat mages spend a lot of time identifying and detecting magic, so they'd stand a better chance to know more about the focus.

Oh I see it from the GM perspective too, I meant my personal perference was not to give up ability for gear. Gear is easier to replace, though power foci are not something you ever want to lose.

They might be able to go "that one has a focus" but thats it. Its not like they'll be all "thats a hermetic focus for fire spirit conjuring and is force 5." Thats what assensing is for.

That I know, I always figured someone that worked with magic all the time would be able to say "that one has a big focus" as opposed to someone with a low power, limited use focus. As players, the ones with active foci were the first ones to aim for.

Oddly, I don't think SR has ever had a way of properly identifying/rating foci other than by making it yourself.

Sufficient net hits on an assensing test can do the trick, but I dare you to try in case of an initiate with advanced masking.

Not the case. You could say maybe, on a great perception roll (I'd say threshold 3) "That looks like it might be a focus".

You don't have a clue about what for, force, or anything else, unless they decided to label it or something. Again, getting that info is for assensing.

You're right, I looked it up, they never made them glow more or anything like that. It must have been a house rule I'm remembering. It doesn't really make sense that it would need to, after all a more powerful item isn't drawing anything physical that needs to radiate light or heat. I could argue myself in circles on the metephysics involved. But the rule is that it isn't identifiable without an assensing test.