Heightened Concentration
Cost: 1
The adept is capable of tuning out a single distraction to her
task at hand. When using this power, the adept can ignore a single
situational negative dice pool modifier of a value up to her Magic
attribute. This power requires a Complex Action to activate and
maybe be combined with the Adept Centering metamagic.

from digital grimoire, pg 18. Would this cancel out blindness? blindfire? ghoul blindness?

Yep.

will i still shoot with Int rather than Agi?

I have a question about blind fire.

Since you blindfire wiht Int rather than Agility, would Int-linked skill boosts, such as qualia, apply while blindfiring?

Or would it not do anything, because (for example) Automatics is still agility linked?

i'll take a stab at this question;

I would guess that since blindfire would be negated by heightened concentration then you would not be firing blind at all and thus would use agility+weapon skill. If you were to use heightened concentration on negating a different penalty, say such as distance, and blindfire is added as another penalty then you would use int+weapon skill...... at least that's what i would say as a gm

I was once thinking of using a blindman as a character and spoke to an old gm who had stopped playing awhile ago the same question. He said that if the character was blind or firing blind then anything boosting int would be fair game.

The way i figured it, it's cheaper to boost nonphysical/noncombat stat than say, agility. Adepts for example could have some crazy stats at chargen. Max reaction 6, max athletics 6, enhance articulation 1, synthacardium 3, suprathyroid gland 1, synaptic booster 3 (or whatever +reac+ip ya want), reflex skill recorder, combat sense 6, improv ability (none combat) 6........ that adds up to 33 for defensive rolls. Didn't even add improv physical attrib.

Now imgine a blind man with thermal smoke (to make everyone else blind) using heightened concentration to negate the blindfire penalty, Enhance perception 6, improv attrib 6 (int), max int 6. add weapon skill max of 6, reflex skill recorder, improv combat skill 6. Then if you really want to argue it out add blind fighting adept power+maneuver. Both reduce blindfire penalty and theoretically would now add dice to your attack pool (3, and 4 respectively). rolling 38 to attack.

The int boost powers are cheaper than the physical boost powers, magic point wise and essence cost for cyber/bioware boosting gear. I didn't mention attrib boost, but you get the idea. If i could find a way to convince my gm that a blindman can help in a doc wagon i would play one.

Why not play a character that CAN see and build him like that . . and every time you need to shoot stuff, you close your eyes . .

There's barely anything that boosts Int in the cyber/bio field, IIRC.

Sounds like the weirdest munchkin plan I've heard yet, anyway. You definitely can't *gain* dice by stacking powers which reduce a specific penalty. You'll also be spending a Complex Action to negate that penalty as often as your GM wants (I won't restart that debate here ).

To be fair, you could reduce the blind fire penalty through martial arts - i think ninjutsu does it, as does adept motion sense. The martial arts ones may be melee only, tho, at least the maneuver is. With an initiation or two, waving away the heightened concentration power ought to be within the grasp of Adept Centering(you have adept centering, right?), which can let you save HC to do other crazy stuff with blind shooting - like reducing the penalty on called shots.

An int-stacked shooter actually has some advantages when it comes to min-maxing.... if they're a mystic adept.
Int to attack. Int to initiative. Int to drain.
Reaction for defense pools.
Don't need to pump agility or strength unless you plan on meleeing. Goodbye mutual attribute dependence.

You'll be one of the faster motherhumpers around, able to get the drop on anyone - and your perception/assensing tests are going to be out the door.

And, uh, there are some surprisingly good enhancements to int-stuff in cyberware.
IF int-linked bonuses apply(and i realize this may be shaky ground), then...
Qualia offers +1. So does dynomitan. Genetic Optimization raises the cap by one, which we're going to want to take advantage of in chargen(also, genetic heritage for genetic optimization is a bargian deal, because it saves you a ton of cash). Then there's the Intuition-boosting nanites, for 3 more.
In qualities, we have exceptional attribute and metagenetic improvement. Exceptional sucks, but metagenetic is great.

So... we can raise our max by two fairly easily, and tac on 5 extra dice from genetic/nanite stuff. A reasonable two from a tacnet with the team, and, hey, taking the firearms group to 4 isn't sounding too bad.

Yes, but you have to use a Complex Action every time you want to cancel it out per task. For example: Heightened Concentration > Shoot > Heightened Concentration > Shoot > Heightened Concentration > Shoot. It's not a permanent removal of a modifier. It's a one-time deal. You stop, focus, and take advantage of the heightened perception the power gives you... but then you're back at square one.

Quick Rebuttals: Yes, the Digital Grimoire sucks. Yes, the wording of various rules is wretched throughout. No, that isn't a surprise considering who's on the writing credits. No, a 'task' isn't a defined game term. No, that doesn't mean it gets to be a permanent bonus. Yes, that's why the book sucks. And yes, reading in context accounts for something.

Note also that you have to have a Magic of 6 to negate blindness. Anything less and you have to select some other modifier you want to tune out.

Though, its worth pointing out, that HC doesn't stop working after one action. Its not permanent, but neither does it wear off in less than 3 seconds. If you happen to choose a persistent penalty, you're going to have to reapply the HE every once in a while, and can't use it on anything else while you're doing that.

Depending 100% on your GM.

Not really. This is one, very specific instance where RAI applies - it works that way, because one of the guys who helped write the rules said so, right over here. And that's good enough for me.

Do we -really- want to rehash this debate, again? Seriously?

You did it, not me. This depends 100% on your GM: "you're going to have to reapply the HE every once in a while". Unless 'once in a while' is a technical term that the GM doesn't need to decide for himself?

Actually, it was more of a jab at funk. The point is, though, HC doesn't stop working - the bonus its lessening may go away, but nothing stops you from using it again.

It most certainly does stop working. It lets you negate a single situation modifier for a given task and has an activation requirement. It is no way, shape, or form a permanent power.

At best, it lasts for the duration of a single type of action in a single situation. If either the situation or the action changes, it has to be reactivated. For instance, negating total blindness in a gunfight. If you decide to make a Perception Test, or switch to melee, or switch targets, or even dodge an incoming attack, it's over. You have to reactivate the power if you want to negate total blindness on your next shot or for any of those tasks as appropriate.

Skills have an augmented max of 9 so in that build level 2 is max for improw skill.
Also thinks that reduce a penalty definedly wont be adding dice to your pool if you ingnore that penaly, actually if you have all of those there isn't even a blinffire penalty to be ingnored as it's allready reduced to zero.

I think the intent was that it would work for Extended Tests as well. It's not clearly written on that point, so it's up to the GM to decide when it can and cannot be applied.

I definitely think it's for an Extended Test; that's a single task, basically. The only place it gets problematic is when people say it means 'a whole combat' or so.

An Extended Test fits in fine with that mentality, as long as there aren't any interruptions while performing it. By it's description, a change to the situation or the task should require a restart of the power.

Some folks think the "task" sentence is flavor text, since the rules bit which follows never references anything which breaks a "task", and the designers have weighed in that the intention was to allow an Adept or Mystic Adept to ignore the -2 sustaining penalty for a spell.

Under that interpretation, sure, you can remove blindness all day for exactly one Complex Action. (But cybereyes are still better than being a blind Adept.)

Cyber Eyes for the Win... Indeed!

Keep the Faith

Either way, HC is a very powerful spell for only 1 magic if you ask me. More so for range but it could enable a much weaker opponent to obtain grapple holds (think mystic adept with touch spells) against anyone.

Could this power work defensively?

HC is powerful, but it's not as strong as Adept Centering... and it costs a whole PP, which could have bought you the difference between 2 IPs and 3.

Usually HC won't be used to its full effect, because usually it seems that lots of small penalties accrue more often than a PC being hit by one big penalty -- in other words, I think you're more likely to see -2 from damage, -2 visibility, -2 long range = -6 (of which HC can remove a total of -2), rather than -6 from blindness (which HC could negate entirely).

If you rule that maintaining each spell is a separate -2, HC isn't broken even if you let it last all day for one complex action.

Yeah, HC has some great defensive uses.

The best Defensive use of HC is to start ignoring the 'Defended against more than one attack' penalty, then go on Full Defense. An advanced tactic involves martial arts(specifically, evasion and riposte), and using your free action to move, generating Interception attacks from your enemies, which you then block and riposte.

A slightly more offensive way to use it is on the Running modifier for attacks, and take a free action to run - you can claim the +2 defensive modifier, while not suffering the penalty to attacks next pass - or use an edge to take another action this pass.

Its also very good to use on wound penalties. I believe you would have to choose one track's penalties to ignore (since it lets you lessen a penalty from one source, you could choose either stun or physical, but doing both would be lessening two penalties, and HC doesn't let you do that'

Funk, the power doesn't reference action types at all. It references situational modifiers. They problem with your opinion on how it works is you're not considering which bonuses are instant, and which are short lived. There is absolutely no reason HC should stop working. Adept powers are -always- there, instant-on, for adepts to claim. They can't be counterspelled or taken away - and its one of the key advantages to being an adept. Why should heightened concentration be any different, just because its a powerful ability?

Randomly ruling it turns off automagically opens the door to saying 'oh no, sorry, your improved reflexes suddenly turn off. Sorry dude.' Double standards like that are bad.

That being said, balancing heightened concentration is simple. The key wording is in that it only lets you ignore one penalty at a time. Basically, you don't quite take a complex action to start ignoring a penalty - You take a complex action to shift the target of the one thing you can ignore to a new target.
If the target modifier goes away, or doesn't apply anymore( such as thermal smoke blowing away), then you're no longer getting any real bonus from the power, and its time to shift it to a new one.
More or less, its a middle ground between the 'one action' camp and the 'permanent' camp, and its the one i've found to be the most reasonable. Short duration, and it forces the adept to waste actions if they want to keep using the power's bonus.

Background Count?

It certainly does not open to door to saying the Improved Reflexes suddenly turns off.

1. No, not all adept powers are 'always on.' Attribute Boost is another example of an activated one. Others include Astral Sight, Commanding Voice, Three-Dimensional Memory, and Empathic Healing just off the top of my head. Some require rolls, some don't. Some require actions, some don't. Heightened Concentration is -- without any doubt whatsoever -- one of those powers. There's no reason at all to mention that it takes a Complex Action to activate if there was no reason to activate it.

2. No, adept powers can most certainly be taken away. Background counts, Essence loss, Control Thoughts, and several other methods exist that can do precisely that.

3. No, the power most definitely does reference more than situational modifiers. You're just choosing to ignore the other bits of the description. No, "task" doesn't have an in-game definition, but that's a fuck-up of the people responsible for writing the shitty description. In context, it's perfectly clear what they're getting at.

4. And no, treating the power as it's described is not a "random ruling." No matter how much it upsets you that Heightened Concentration isn't as all-powerful as you wish it were. You don't get to break a rule then claim it's powerful, then use both of those to defend why you broke it and why it's powerful. That's just stupid.

When many people read the power differently, it cannot be described as "perfectly clear".

Also, HC usually sucks compared to Adept Centering, once you get rid of the potential for HC to sustain 3 spells at -0 penalty... and getting rid of that sustain thing is an arbitrary ruling, because the rules don't say if sustaining 3 spells should be 3 separate -2 penalties or a single big -6 penalty. It's an arbitrary ruling I'm heavily in favor of, because I don't like broken things in my game, but I can't pretend it is anything other than arbitrary.

Yes, it does suck compared to it. As it very well should, being a cheap adept power compared to a metamagic technique.