On pg 307 of SR5O:

With the Disenchanting skill, a focus can be effectively recycled, as a portion of the freed mana can recharge spent reagents. To break a focus down into reagents and totally destroy it, a magician must have touch contact with it. Breaking down a focus requires an Opposed Disenchanting + Magic [Astral] v. target’s Force (+ owner’s Magic if bonded and if the focus isn’t yours) Test.

Later is describes recycling the focus' power into another enchantment and describes this as taking an hour per force point of the focus. I'm not interested in recycling the power, just in nuking a Focus into slag. It also says that disenchanting also works for alchemical preparations, and in that roll, is a complex action.

The question I have for interpretation, is say I have a Physical Adept who has Disenchanting as a skill, and who has also identified the item as a Focus using Assensing and Astral Perception. Say this Physical Adept is a martial artist who touches the focus using the called shot rules, and rolls to destroy the focus as part of his attack. Would he be able to destroy a Focus in combat? This would be similar to hacking cyberware, but force the disenchanter to be in meatspace with the defender.

Did it mention damage caused by this to the focus or how much 'health' the focus has?

Asking as even in hacking the cyberware they assigned it a health level and the hacking would shut it down once it's damage track was filled from the way they explained this in another thread.
Someone did mention there would be a method for breaking a focus in a similar manner, so I wonder if this is what they were referring to...

So I imagine it may be something similar or there is a time factor they may or may not have listed (missing information?!? never!) for this.

Wonder if Aaron or Crit have anything to shine upon this.

There's already a spell that lets you shut down a focus and force its owner to spend an action to reactivate it. I could see a spell that specifically damages foci. Not sure why you'd want to engage in melee to use it, though.

Only if he can manage to hold onto the focus for a number of hours equal to the Force of the focus. That's how long disenchanting takes.

Breaking a Focus is as easy as breaking the physical component though.
As soon as the physical component is changed in any kind or way, the focus stops working as such, if i remember correctly.
So if it has some wood on it? break it off or set it on fire.

That's true in SR4, but not at the moment in SR5. It makes sense for that kind of functionality to be a spell (in SR4), since there wasn't any other way to do it. There might be such a spell in a future supplement for SR5, but the new edition has more of a "separation of powers," so it wouldn't surprise me if that functionality stayed purely within the realm of Enchantment.

Permanently breaking a focus in combat sounds a little excessive.

It already happened in SR4, and I've never heard anyone complain about it. Called shot to a focus, typically resisted with only a few points of Barrier rating, instant waste of karma.

~Umi

If you go back to p 307 and look at:


That way, it stops working, you shoot them in the face, and take it for yourself.

I like how you think.

Or just shoot them in the face and take it, unless that focus is somehow preventing that.

New revenue plan for sammies- Geek the Mage, Loot the Body, Have the Face fence the goodies (figure he will have better contacts and bargaining skills)

Rinse and repeat

*shivers*

Great, now I am gonna have to ask for a providence on any focus I buy, as it may have a bit of history.

Those red spots mon? Dat just be splashes of jungle berry juice on it.. now you want it or not?

Time to start implanting Foci!

Heh, and lose essence from the procedure?

Though I did once seriously consider the idea of orichalcum bone lacing for a built in focus...

Plus the deactivation can be done from astral so I suspect it will still light up on the astral and still be vulnerable to shut down at least.

hmm, surgery for purely cosmetic reasons does not cost essence right?
so simply putting something under your skin should not cost essence either correct?

Might as well throw in some Cybereyes, Daredrenaline and a Pain Editor while you're at it.



Isn't one of the IEs (Frosty afaik) a precedent for implanted foci?

yes and no . . one of her femurs was made into a focus i think . .
and there is always irezumi. tattoo focus. no essence cost either.

Probably not for something minor, but if its just under the skin that's really not offering any added protection from the body. If you wanted it protected from trick shots really need it buried deeper and preferably under the rib cage or shielded by some sort of bone.

Interestingly, some legends speak of mages doing exactly that, slitting the skin to slip gems and other talisman under the skin and then sewing it back up, so there is some history of doing this.

which is why we never went through with it...

AH had something called the cage of bones i think made up for an older version of SR.
Basically, the magician is flayed open and his ribs are engraved with runes of binding.
Then a Spirit is bound to that. Even in death the Spirit will still be bound to that.

And people wonder why mages don't get invited to parties...

So how was your day?

Oh same old, same old.... Got Flayed and a spirit bound to the ribs. Gotta tell you it itches like mad....

Well, I'm sure there are foci that fit smuggling/fingertip compartments, so if you're that paranoid or your group likes to play this way, go for it.

I'd probably pack Turn to goo just to drink those delicious Sammy tears when I loot their cyberware.

Save me some of those the next time you go 'shopping'. Could use those for a ritual I got in the works..

It doesn't work like that, remember?
Turn to goo is hard to cast in the first place.
And then the goo has a barrier rating of the Body Attribute of the Target.
Which is usually high enough on a Samurai to begin with.
And the Barrier Rating gets doubled for attacks against the Barrier without using explosived directly attached to the barrier correct?

It's double rating except for explosives OR Indirect combat spells which only use the normal armor rating and since its a mage already doing this.....

granted there better and easier targets, but sometimes its style over substance

I was picturing a sustaining focus with Improved Reflexes or Armor (the more common spells I've seen sustained). Without the buffs, mages are much easier to geek.