When a mage is astrally projected can he active and/or deactivate a focus on his physical body.

For example if he has a spirit(fire elemental) focus that is not activated on his body and he runs into a fire elemental while astrally projected can he activate this focus to deal with the fire elemental.

Another reason for this question is to avoid foci addiction and only have active foci that are needed at that moment in time.

But don't foci go astral with the magician? Or is that only active foci?

I think focus addiction only comes into play if you use Magic x 2 in combined foci rating in the same turn, so you can always turn one off and another one on.

By the book, foci do not have to be active to go with someone projecting. Thats why you can also take Fetishes (which are never active).

Sphynx

The foci is bonded ? yeah ? so it comes with the guy whatever it's active or not...

I also don't allow Fetishes to accompany a Projecting mage. Anything Bonded does accompany the mage though, and can be activated or deactivated on demand.

I thought the only focus which accompanied you when projecting was a weapon focus.....

That changes things considerably.

I am out of town at the moment so cant check any books.

Foci are expensive and it takes an action to deactivate and another to activate another. I believe this is sufficient limitation.

Also if you say focus addiction is based of number of foci bonded then how often do you test for magic loss. The way I interpreted the rules if you activate a extra focus you are at significant risk and time increases that risk fast. If deactivating the focus doesn’t help then you will bur out within days. How well understood is focus addiction IC, can you justify siting on the limit safely.

If you want a limit on bonded foci I would say a number of foci (not force) equal to int or maybe will or a total force of magic *4 (so you still can safely have more foci than you can safely activate).

How can you use 2 fetishes at once. I just don’t get that comment by Liquid_Obsidian.

I thought fetishes did need to be bonded, it just doesn’t cost karma and is relatively easy.

Edward

Where does it say that fetishes need to be bonded? I've never seen that, and I specifically went looking for it a while back.

Right, cool. Is that over and above learning the spell or is that part of the process?

I run a shaman, and he needs to meditate in his lodge anyway... just trying to determine how many hours it takes for each one.

That is just for attuning the Spell that the particular Focus will be sustaining. If you later want to change the specific spell that the Focus' sustains, you have to repeat the ritual.

Oh, right. Heh. Of course thats not mentioned in the description of fetishes, and of course there isnt even a listing for "fetish" in the (*cough* worthless *cough*)index that would prompt me to look there. Oh well, it doesnt change the fact that you get to use them while projecting.

I can think of exactly one situation where it might make a difference: lets say that you go off a-projecting with your fetishes and foci, and some thieves find your comatose body, recognize that you are alive but projecting (one of them can astrally percieve) and carefully strip you of all your possessions without causing you any harm. Do the auras of the fetishes and foci that accompanied you on your journey disappear as they are removed from your meatbody, or do they stick around with your astral form until you return, at which point you no longer have access to them?

I vote along with Cochise. We play that removing a focus or fetish from your physical body will cause it to vanish from your astral form.

I would vote against that. If you are currently carrying a bonded item, when you astrally project, what goes jaunting along with you is an astral projection of the focus\fetish\thingigummy, and the physical location of its "body" is not relevant.

I think I'll go ahead and set up a poll. See what people who might not be monitoring this thread think.

I re-read the rules on fetishes last night. When you learn the spell with a fetish limit the fetish is attuned to it as part of learning the spell. However, if it's lost, stolen or destroyed you need to reattune the spell to the fetish and vice versa which takes Force hours to do. Which is cool, doesn't mean I have to add time retroactively :o)

As for sustaining foci, to change the spell it sustains is a rebonding as far as I can remember. My mage player uses sustaining foci and has from the start, so I've looked them up several times :o)