Shadowrun

Shadowrun General => Gear => Topic started by: viaRailGun on <04-25-13/0647:37>

Title: weapon focus
Post by: viaRailGun on <04-25-13/0647:37>
can you walk outta chargen with a bonded stacked weapon focus? restricted to a rating 2 focus, can't i just take two and stack them? or are they considered to be the same focus formula?
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: Mirikon on <04-25-13/0828:32>
Not quite sure what you're asking, but you can bond foci in chargen. The cost is 1 BP per Force. Stacked foci I believe have the same cost as adding the two foci together (A stacked Force 2 Weapon Focus and Force 3 Sustaining Focus would cost 50K nuyen). Binding stacked foci requires the same investment as binding the two individual foci. Also note that a stacked focus is a different thing from simply tossing two focus formulae in a pot and calling it done. Be sure to clear it with your DM as to whether that's OK or not.
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: Michael Chandra on <04-25-13/0830:58>
My guess is he's asking whether you could take 2 Weapon Foci Rating 2 at chargen, stacking them together for a Rating 4 and using the individual availability ratings thus making it legal at chargen.
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: Kiirnodel on <04-25-13/0857:59>
Two rules go against this. First, the description of a Stacked Focus (underlining for emphasis):
Quote from: Street Magic pg. 84
Stacked Foci
It is possible to combine two or more types of foci into a “stacked” focus. The effective Force of the focus is equal to the sum of the ratings of the different foci.

Second, and possibly more important is the fact that while a Stacked Focus lets you combine multiple Foci into one object, it does not increase the actual force of the individual parts. A stacked Force 2 Weapon, Force 3 Sustaining Focus does not function as Force 5 when Sustaining Spells or adding to attacks with the weapon. You use the effective Force for determining the threshold of the creation test and the maximum force of bound foci, etc.

Now, two Force 2 Weapon Foci stacked together would still function as two separate bound foci for the purposes of what they add. This means they would each add 2 dice to a test. However, you cannot add bonuses from more than one focus to any single die pool. So using two Weapon Foci would be ineffective at best.

Quote from: SR4A pg. 199 -> Bonding, 4th paragraph, 2nd sentence
Regardless of the number of foci a magician may possess, only one focus may add its Force to any single dice pool.
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: JoeNapalm on <04-25-13/1010:49>

This is a case where the Restricted Gear Quality is clearly worth the cost.

It is much easier and efficient to get the best Foci you can during CharGen, rather than after.

-Jn-
Ifriti sophist
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: Glyph on <04-25-13/2107:55>
Especially for power foci, where the disparity in bonding cost is the greatest (4 BP to bond a Force: 4 power focus at character creation, or 32 karma to bond it later).
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: Michael Chandra on <04-26-13/0557:42>
So basically 29 BP or 100k+32 karma.
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: viaRailGun on <04-26-13/1313:51>
So basically 29 BP or 100k+32 karma.

on a BP/karma scale, post-gen only costs 7 more karma. not that much more.
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: JoeNapalm on <04-26-13/1831:15>
It would also be Availability 20R.

Foci are worth it n CharGen.


-Jn-
Ifriti Sophist
Title: Re: weapon focus
Post by: viaRailGun on <04-26-13/2011:05>
thanks all!

definitely cleared up confusion in the matter