The only real use I've ever found for Quickening is for Quickening an innocent spell to an area. It's pretty much a useless technique (or more correctly, a waste of karma) for runners, though, and not just because it's a pain when it comes to astral barriers. Masking becomes almost impossible if you have more than one or two low-Force spells on you, if and when the spell gets popped on a bad roll while going throw a barrier or from an enemy magician, there's absolutely nothing you can do about it (so the Karma you spent on it was just flushed down the toliet). etc.

What I have recently been turned on to, however, are Reusable Anchoring Foci. They're a little on the pricy side, but they make Sustaining Foci completely obsolete since you can turn them on and off on a whim. Best of all, each time you activate it, you get to put all your possible spellcasting dice into the spellcasting (assuming you did so when creating the focus), and then turn right back around and put all those same dice into the Drain Resistance Test. Come across an astral barrier? Just shut it down and throw it right back up after you stroll through. No problem.

The prices involved can be all but ignored by selling just one such focus on the open market using the costs in MitS for buying a bound one (preferably to a legal buyer using a relatively innocent spell -- like say a reusable Heal 6 focus to a street clinic or somehing). 'Course, that's based upon the ridiculous costs Shadowrun relies on and how amazingly easy it is to completely destroy the economy with alchemy and enchanting.

I'm gong to assume that by this you mean you buy a bound focus from someone and subsequently remove the bond and rebond it yourself, and not that you buy a pre-bound focus and therefore don't have to pay any Karma cost. I guess that comment confused me a little.

Anyway, I agree that Anchoring foci are very fun. Another great trick is playing with the trigger and setting up a detection spell of some variety in its place. That way you don't even have to worry about turning it on and off. For example, throw a Detect (Bullet) trigger on your Force 6 Armor focus and have fun.

Whoa... you can bond to a foci w/o spending Karma? And how does this happen? My understanding was that any (non-expendable) foci had to be bonded via Karma first. Even if you do acquire the foci off another mage's stiff, cooling fingers? Certainly, any table I've seen for legit buying involved Karma.

I mean selling a bound reusable focus on the market, which will net you a ton of nuyen. You can then use that nuyen to buy the raw resources (or even a premanucatured focus) to enchant your own reusable one for whatever purpose you like.

A simple reusable Makeover 6 anchor, for instance, costs 918,000 nuyen or a ridiculous 3,672,000 nuyen on the black market. That's 459,000 nuyen sold, or 3,672,000 nuyen if you have the Connected: Magical Supplies edge. The 459,000 nuyen, in turn, buys you two-and-a-half Force 6 Reusable Anchors or enough raw materials to enchant your own focus from near-scratch for only 1 Karma per Force.

I assume you are talking about First Bonding, which specifically states that either the Enchanter or the foci's intended owner has to come up to pay the Karma piper. I didn't think of the "Pay Enchanter" option because I honestly can't conceive any magician (certainly not mine) coughing up 20-40 Karma (or more!), even if she was commissioned to make a foci for someone else. Unless someone paid my char an absurd amount of cash (ie, perm lux lifestyle), I'd never touch such a commission.

Yes, I meant the force to dispel; sorry if I didn't make that clear.

The whole gist of what I have laid out for my Shaman's future growth is that I've already acquired some spells at Force 7, and have found a decent magic group. Once I get enough Initiate lvls and spare Karma, I was thinking of dropping 14 a pop into some Quickened spells. Yes, conceivably, someone could dispel a Tgt#14 Quicken, but honestly I just don't see that happening, short of a GM being an jerk. Frankly, if the GM has someone that magically powerful gunning for you, it's easier (and much less hackneyed) just to kill the mage outright (or fill the Stun track if the enemy is trying to capture them alive) than go up against a double-digit spell in Astral combat.

Good point. The spell doesn't have to be invincible. Just tougher than you.

"I don't have to be faster than the bear. I just have to be faster than you..."

--anonymous hunter to fellow hunter

No, the creator of *any* ward knows when the ward is attacked or destroyed (SR3 p. 176, Astral Objects). Alarm Wards are special nearly-invisible wards that don't actually stop anyone from passing through, they only alert their creator when someone passes through.

So congratulations. You're playing with a GM who's never really read the rules in question and have been letting you get by easy.

Oh absolutely I agree. Masking was definitely going to be the first Metamagic technique I grab. While I may rant on about Quickening, Foci, Anchoring, etc., I absolutely know where my bread is buttered (ie, sneaking is 99% better than brute force in my book).

As far as quickening for your teammates (very nice of you to donate Karma to them, BTW), I'd say they're probably SOL unless they're a PhysAd, who can Mask once they Initiate.

I'll have to double-check the reading on Wards and which ones alert their creators. Reducing a ward to 1-2 of course is one way; the way I talked about above by cranking the Dispel force way up would be another since making a Ward of extremely high Force isn't very easy.

Standard ward creation rules. Multiple magicians can team up to build wards.

I believe that's been changed in MiTS, but I don't have my copy at work.

You don't have to be bitchy about it, man. I mean, it could be that I've only actually hit a ward about four or five times in the past five years. All the other times it's been phased through.

Nope.

MitS pg. 89:
"Wards are described on p.174 of SR3. A common passive security measure, they provide barriers in astral space. Because the creator of a ward automatically knows if the ward is attacked in astral combat, wards provide a useful means of detecting astral intruders."

That should settle that.

Actually the nasty ward to use against maskers is the Masking Ward - only Initiates with masking can see it, and they must penetrate it to see the ward itself, and unless it is penetrated it cannot be fooled by synchronization of auras.

They can create a ward with a Force equal to their combined Magic rating.

No it hasn't. As mentioned above, alarm wards are special wards that alert their creator under one specific condition (when anyone passes through it). All wards, including alarm wards, alert their creator when attacked or destroyed. Both can be bypassed by synchronizing auras, which is actually a difficult prospect against a decent (Force 6) ward unless you have a high Grade (3+). At Grade 3 your chances are almost 50-50 (ties go to the barrier) against a Force 6 ward. And unless you're only breaking into low-security facilities most of the time, a Force 6 ward is on the lower end of the spectrum of the ones you should be encountering. Force 8-12 are more problematic.

Well, guess I'm wrong. Ahh, well - at least in terms of our error, the blade's cut both ways. I think I'm up to three lifestyles I've had to ditch due to people breaking past my wards and bugging the place.

Which is why I started tooling with Masking Wards as soon as I could. God, I love those things.

(And, for a reference point, I am now ICly initiate grade 5, and haven't encountered a ward past force 10. I may have *seen* a 12 at one point, but decided to not pry. The real advantage of Magician versus Ward? Wards can't blow Karma.)