Again a short question: is it possible to put the effects of sustained or quickened spells on "hold" if you don´t need them e.g. if you use "levitate" on yourself but you want to run for a while you simply tell the spell not to work? I hope you all understand what i mean.

not in the way i THINK you mean, basically, you need to drop the spell, and then recast it.

I would think so. Levitate in particular, you could simply levitate yourself downwards to simulate gravity.

That's one of the biggest drawbacks of quickened spells, although masking can help mitigate the problems with being astrally obvious/getting past wards.

Now, for levitate, you can keep sustaining the spell, but simply not concentrate on levitating - you don't need to stop sustaining the spell simply to run for awhile.

I think he means negate the effects. As in if you quicken improved invisibility on yourself, are you invisible to everyone forever? Or can you turn it on and off so that you can be seen when you want and be invisible when you don't.

Some of them, like invisibility, are like a toggle switch - they are either on or off. So for invisibility, the spell would need to be recast.

Others are sustained spells, but require mental commands from the spellcaster to create their effects. Mainly telekinetic manipulations such as levitate or magic fingers. So the mage can stop levitating or moving something, but still keep the spell itself sustained.

What you are after is the 'cycling' meta-technique AH had in his draft material not so long ago...

Pre-requisites are Anchoring and Centering. You can then spend karma to create a pool which can be used to quicken spells. When the spell ends the points are returned to the pool.

Might be a bit overpowered but it is a rather expensive way to get that on/off switch. Regardleas, I thought it was a pretty cool idea

Yeah, a karma pool that you can use to switch around on what spells you're quickening is kind of absurd. Basically makes sustaining foci entirely pointless unless there are some serious restrictions.

AH made the same comment about sustaining foci

Just means you have to wait through 3 initiation grades before you can make them useless. Besides....how often do sustaining foci get used beyond the health based one for the increased reflexes spell?

That they make quickening useless?
Huh?

Alot. A heck of alot.

Invisibility, stealth, shield, deflection, control emotion, heal, trid-image, all detection spells.

Really the only group that doesn't have any real need for sustaining spells is combat.

The metamagic in question had 2 pre-requisites, meaning you have to iniate 3 times before you can get it, also masking is pretty important think to pick up so it's more likely your atleast fourth level initiate before you get to make sustaining focis useless.

And still, sustaining Foci can give you that additional spell sustained that you need. And lets be honest, you ALWAYS need more sustained spells.

I agree. Even with that metamagic, you will still need the occasional sustained spell. So both would have their place.

Yeah, I got that, it's just that the way you said it threw me off a bit. "Just means you have to wait through 3 initiation grades before you can make them useless." out of nowhere. Usually expect something to preface a statement like that.


I wasn't under the impression that this pool was restricted to being used on only one spell. If it is restricted to a single spell, then yeah, it isn't that bad, but if it can do any number of spells provided you have the karma in the pool for it, then sustaining foci do indeed become entirely pointless on a mage's third initiation (or however long it takes them to get the metamagic).

Only because they're all immediate. A sustained flamethrower would be awesome.

Maybe you could get this effect by opening an Astral Gateway to the metaplane of Fire. Now there's a project for when you have a real hate on for somebody! Hose them down with a ten metre wide tsunami of flame.

Ze goggles, zey do nothing!