Don't have the book w/ me, but was curious. Does Anchoring always require a foci?

As I understand it, Anchored spells (unlike Quickened) are cast (and successes determined), but don't go off until they are triggered, either by another spell or by the person who owns the foci. The common example used is the "Barrier triggered by Detect Bullet" Anchored to a "Ring of protection".

My question is does Anchoring absolutely require a foci? Can someone Anchor a spell to a person such as himself or a buddy? For example, can I Anchor a Fashion spell onto myself and have it go off when I say "Shazam"? Or more practically, have a combat spell go off when I make a pistol finger gesture?

The big caveat to Anchoring unfortunately is the paying of Drain at the time of trigger, which all but renders it impractical to give out to other people, since the Drain could hit at any time (I pass out and drown in my own swimming pool because 3 people facing Serious wounds quaffed Heal potions I sold them). I was thinking it might be useful though for a mage if he could "load himself up" beforehand, and could himself control the rate that the spells go off (and he takes the Drain hits) and not have to rely on the foci.

3rd edition anchoring: foci with either one or multiple uses

2nd edition anchoring: purely magical logic processing systems that trigger certain spells under certain conditions, can be linked to stationary areas or portable objects (or creatures)

yes, anchoring foci must be used for anchoring. incidentally, you don't determine the number of successes when creating an anchored spell, you determine the number of dice that will be used to cast the spell when it is triggered.

Well, fie... I guess Anchoring really is nearly worthless... No mage in their right mind's going to be giving these out, regardless of the commission.

You got it!

Well there's always the Living Focus adept power from SotA, but that's only really helpful for adepts.

the only way i can see mages giving these out is if the mage is working for/with the recipient.

Right. Bodyguard jobs for insanely rich clients are about the only way I see them as being viable.

Back in the old days of 2nd Ed, this would have been a gift to a magical assassin. Find the mage who made Mr. Johnson's Detect Bullet/Bullet Barrier focus, trace the astral link and drop a really meaty fireball through it.

Are the top-ranking corporates still using these toys?

I would think that expendable foci make horrible links, but one could also consider the Severing metamagic and the hiding of links on metaplanes.

Also, did anyone notice how great the Empower Animal and Living Focus powers would stack?

Actually anchors can have some very good uses, for example, healing. The anchor, when triggered, doesn't suffer from wound penalties to cast the spell so can get far more sucesses than a mage casting it on the spot while wounded, while the drain is the same. An anchor can automatically pop up a barrier when the mage has no acitons, ect.

There are a lot of good reasons for them, just not a lot of good reasons to sell them or let someone else use them.

A free spirit who doesn't have to resist drain would probably find a nice niche in creating anchored spell foci. Could even charge karma in lieu of nuyen.

He could very well create the Foci with Enchanting, but could he actually learn Anchoring to empower them?

I would assume that he could learn the anchoring as a power provided he ad sorcery but I thought free spirits with sorcery (as apposed to innate spell) did suffer drain.

Edward

Only allies.