Full Version: Adapts and Foci?
In the process of assisting a new player (happens to be new to paper and pencil Rping as a whole) in making a adapt. I only have the core rule book, but allow players to use rules, weapons, powers, from other supplements. There wasn't much details in the main book about adapts and foci outside of weapon foci. Are adapts allowed to use Foci to decrease the cost of their adapt powers as they were able to do in SR3 and SR II? For example is a Adapt able to have a foci in the form of a necklace which would decrease the magic cost for Improved Attribute Power, so they would multiply the value by .8?
No.
You're thinking of Geasa, right? Specifically the Talisman Geas It's a negative quality in Street Magic. Same idea, really, different mechanic.
QUOTE (Street Magic, page 27)
Geas
Bonus: 10 BP
Geas (plural geasa) means bond in old Gaelic. In Shadowrun, a geas is a restriction an Awakened character voluntarily imposes on his own magical power. Perhaps he could never fully embrace the radical world paradigm of the Awakened, and the geas is a symbolic gesture to establish one last tie to reality. Or perhaps he may have suffered a traumatic loss of power, and he made up the geas to reassure himself that he's still got the touch. Regardless of the reason, if an Awakened character cannot fulfill the terms of the geas, then he finds it harder to manipulate magic, effectively becoming less powerful.
When the character takes this quality, he must declare what type of restriction his geas imposes. A geas must be something that affects all of an Awakened character' magical abilities and should not duplicate an existing limitation.
If the geas consists of a special action, the character must have performed it within the past 24 hours to fulfill the geas. Likewise, if the geas consists of avoiding an action, then it is broken for 24 hours after the character performs the act. (This type of action must be ordinary and normally necessary in the character's life; avoiding a special circumstance that occurs infrequently with no hardship to the character isn't much of a limitation.) A character may take the Geas quality multiple times, each time specifying a different condition.
If a character breaks the terms of his geas, then his Magic attribute is effectively reduced by 1 point until the geas is
again fulfilled. If a character has taken multiple geasa, breaking one geas breaks all of them, and the Magic loss is equal to the total of all geasa taken. If breaking geasa reduces the character's Magic to zero or less, the character temporarily loses the ability to use any magic and effectively becomes mundane. An adept whose Magic is reduced by not fulfilling a geas must choose 1 full Power Point worth of adept powers per geas; these powers will not function if any of the geasa are not fulfilled and the adept's Magic is reduced. Mystic adepts must also specify if Magic loss from breaking a geas affects their magic skills or adept powers.
Awakened characters crippled by broken geasa are in a dangerous position, as there is a real chance that such a loss could become permanent. If a character suffers a crisis of confidence while a geas is broken, Magic losses from geasa become permanent (see Acquiring Geasa in Play, p. 29). If the gamemaster allows it, geasa may be worked off
with effort and karma in the same way as other negative qualities (see p. 265, SR4).
Bonus: 10 BP
Geas (plural geasa) means bond in old Gaelic. In Shadowrun, a geas is a restriction an Awakened character voluntarily imposes on his own magical power. Perhaps he could never fully embrace the radical world paradigm of the Awakened, and the geas is a symbolic gesture to establish one last tie to reality. Or perhaps he may have suffered a traumatic loss of power, and he made up the geas to reassure himself that he's still got the touch. Regardless of the reason, if an Awakened character cannot fulfill the terms of the geas, then he finds it harder to manipulate magic, effectively becoming less powerful.
When the character takes this quality, he must declare what type of restriction his geas imposes. A geas must be something that affects all of an Awakened character' magical abilities and should not duplicate an existing limitation.
If the geas consists of a special action, the character must have performed it within the past 24 hours to fulfill the geas. Likewise, if the geas consists of avoiding an action, then it is broken for 24 hours after the character performs the act. (This type of action must be ordinary and normally necessary in the character's life; avoiding a special circumstance that occurs infrequently with no hardship to the character isn't much of a limitation.) A character may take the Geas quality multiple times, each time specifying a different condition.
If a character breaks the terms of his geas, then his Magic attribute is effectively reduced by 1 point until the geas is
again fulfilled. If a character has taken multiple geasa, breaking one geas breaks all of them, and the Magic loss is equal to the total of all geasa taken. If breaking geasa reduces the character's Magic to zero or less, the character temporarily loses the ability to use any magic and effectively becomes mundane. An adept whose Magic is reduced by not fulfilling a geas must choose 1 full Power Point worth of adept powers per geas; these powers will not function if any of the geasa are not fulfilled and the adept's Magic is reduced. Mystic adepts must also specify if Magic loss from breaking a geas affects their magic skills or adept powers.
Awakened characters crippled by broken geasa are in a dangerous position, as there is a real chance that such a loss could become permanent. If a character suffers a crisis of confidence while a geas is broken, Magic losses from geasa become permanent (see Acquiring Geasa in Play, p. 29). If the gamemaster allows it, geasa may be worked off
with effort and karma in the same way as other negative qualities (see p. 265, SR4).
Is the answer is no, then that is unfortunate. After making progress in SR III, I hate to say this, but it seems Adapts once again are taking a step back in SR IV.
Kanada. It is supposed to be a benefit for Adapts. The idea is works along the lines of how alphaware works for cyberware. By using a foci, adapts were able to reduce the cost of their powers by a certain percentage. Thus a power which would cost one magic point would all of a sudden only cost .8 magic if they had a foci.
Kanada. It is supposed to be a benefit for Adapts. The idea is works along the lines of how alphaware works for cyberware. By using a foci, adapts were able to reduce the cost of their powers by a certain percentage. Thus a power which would cost one magic point would all of a sudden only cost .8 magic if they had a foci.
IIRC, it was called the talisman geas, and had nothing to do with foci - though you could use a focus as the talisman. But yes, they've taken the power point reduction and turned it into a 10BP bonus.
Power foci would still help for anything that requires a roll, such as [Attribute] Boost. Not really worth the expense though.
Adepts in 4th edition have almost no use for foci what so ever. Though there is an (optional) rule in Street Magic to allow an adept to take a geas on a power (i.e. only works in certain conditions) for a reduced cost. -25% I think. Let me grab it.
A talisman geas is pretty close to what your player is looking for, though it doesn't require a foci of any sort, but it could be one.
There's also initiation powers, which I won't go into. There's a few useful ones, but another (optional) rule it to allow initiates to gain an additional power point (thus, points for powers is Magic + Non-metamagic'd Initiations), which your player might want to take advantage of, as there are few, if any, metamagics in the core that are worth taking.
Adepts in 4th edition have almost no use for foci what so ever. Though there is an (optional) rule in Street Magic to allow an adept to take a geas on a power (i.e. only works in certain conditions) for a reduced cost. -25% I think. Let me grab it.
[ Spoiler ]
A talisman geas is pretty close to what your player is looking for, though it doesn't require a foci of any sort, but it could be one.
There's also initiation powers, which I won't go into. There's a few useful ones, but another (optional) rule it to allow initiates to gain an additional power point (thus, points for powers is Magic + Non-metamagic'd Initiations), which your player might want to take advantage of, as there are few, if any, metamagics in the core that are worth taking.
They have Infusion Foci from the Digital Grimoire. That functions similarly to what you want. I'd tell you what it does exactly, but you should go pay the 5 or less dollars to get yourself a copy of this fine work.
Are you sure about foci helping in that way? It's been a LONG time but that doesn't sound right. You got a page number? Sorry, mostly curiousity and heck, if you say it, I bet you're right. My memory is a bit poor.
I hate to say it but adepts always got the shaft. Between bioware and cyberware street sammies always had a sweet deal. Except for the "good ol" days of Automatic successes. Man, that pissed off my GM.
I hate to say it but adepts always got the shaft. Between bioware and cyberware street sammies always had a sweet deal. Except for the "good ol" days of Automatic successes. Man, that pissed off my GM.
QUOTE (SincereAgape @ Mar 2 2009, 03:18 PM) 
In the process of assisting a new player (happens to be new to paper and pencil Rping as a whole) in making a adapt. I only have the core rule book, but allow players to use rules, weapons, powers, from other supplements. There wasn't much details in the main book about adapts and foci outside of weapon foci. Are adapts allowed to use Foci to decrease the cost of their adapt powers as they were able to do in SR3 and SR II? For example is a Adapt able to have a foci in the form of a necklace which would decrease the magic cost for Improved Attribute Power, so they would multiply the value by .8?
As someone noted, you are thinking of a talisman geas. Street Magic, pg. 31, has that as an optional rule - adepts can take geasa on individual powers to reduce their Power Point cost by 25%.
It's not in RAW, but a GM might allow you to take the Talisman Geas multiple times (fine) using the same talisman (not mentioned). IMO it's actually more of a detriment than forcing the player/character to have mutliple talismans (you steal/break The One and everything stops working, you steal/break one of several and they shed an uncaring tear as one power stops working).
QUOTE (Neraph @ Mar 3 2009, 09:45 AM)
They have Infusion Foci from the Digital Grimoire. That functions similarly to what you want. I'd tell you what it does exactly, but you should go pay the 5 or less dollars to get yourself a copy of this fine work.
Where is this available from?
I was going to say, "Amazon" but they don't have it. Instead I Googled.
Can pick it up through Battle Corps or ther other place whose name escapes me at the moment.
I use the Geas optional rule(for cutting the cost of a power.) It helps a lot in some cases(alleviating-albiet slightly, the high cost for things like Reflexes.) It's not an ''IWIN'' button by any stretch of the mind(reflexes go from 2/3/5 to 1.5/2.25/3.75, which is still a healthy price), and of course the power out and out doesn't work if the Geas isn't in effect(if the talisman gets lost/is not on their person, or whatever else they take-ie, only usable at night, etc), but at least it lets pure adepts get one level of reflexes without sacrificing 1/3 of their 6 power points, if they're willing to take the thing that it might not work all of the time.
I also recall somewhere utilizing the ''Multiple Geas per Power'' thing in a game, but that got even hairier. Each geas knocking 25% off the power(I think the minimum we had was 75% of the cost), so yeah, you CAN get reflexes 3 cheap, but...it even one broke, the power didn't work. I recall requiring different geasa for each one-so you could take, say, talisman, condition, and time. So your level 3 reflexes only cost 1.25, but you had to have the handmade silver and platnium ring with the emerald gem set in it and ancient Sperethiel codeword etched inside on your finger, and it had to be night, and you had to not have eaten anything in the past 24 hours, for example. I don't recall anyone, to be honest, ever taking more than 1 geas for a power.
I also recall somewhere utilizing the ''Multiple Geas per Power'' thing in a game, but that got even hairier. Each geas knocking 25% off the power(I think the minimum we had was 75% of the cost), so yeah, you CAN get reflexes 3 cheap, but...it even one broke, the power didn't work. I recall requiring different geasa for each one-so you could take, say, talisman, condition, and time. So your level 3 reflexes only cost 1.25, but you had to have the handmade silver and platnium ring with the emerald gem set in it and ancient Sperethiel codeword etched inside on your finger, and it had to be night, and you had to not have eaten anything in the past 24 hours, for example. I don't recall anyone, to be honest, ever taking more than 1 geas for a power.
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