[Scawire]

Does a Power Focus add to a mages magic rating. The way I've always played it was the power focus rating would be added directly to the magic rating allowing the spell caster to cast higher force spells well still only doing stun damage. Please let me know.

[VajraSupremus]

A Power Focus adds its Rating in dice towards Magic Tests(except Counterspelling).

Ex: Maya casts Bind at Force 8. Magic+Spellcasting totals at about 11, with her Rating 2 Power Focus adding 2 more dice into pool, increasing her chances of getting more successes during her rolls.

[Scawire]

So it adds dice to the rolls but doesn't add to the magic rating. I've been adding the rating to the magic rating since 2nd edition maybe they changed the system that means I have to rethink alot of my builds then.

[Kiirnodel]

Power Foci add to any tests that involve the Magic attribute. That would include Counterspelling tests, just not the reflexive kind (when you add counterspelling to the resistance test for a spell), only tge active tests to dispel magic.

It does not add directly to the magic attrubute, at least not in 4th edition.

[Scawire]

Ok I hope I can get a DEV to sign in on the ruling because It would damage my ability to play mystic adepts and they are already hard as is to have them work.

I know this is 4th edition but this is what 2nd edition says since I can't find my 3rd edition books right now.
Page 138 main book. " First, they increase a magician's Magic Rating by their Value"
I know that other focuses have changed but I hope this effect doesn't change too.

[RHat]

...  You don't need a dev.  There is absolutely no ambiguity here.

[Mirikon]

Agreed. There is zero ambiguity here. Power foci do not modify your magic rating, end of story.

[Scawire]

Deckers complain that there is new technology making stuff wireless and a name change,  changing the history of a power focus from what the 1st to 3d edition say (how it increases a magicians magic rating) will bother me a bit.

[mtfeeney = Baron]

Regardless, that's the way it is now and has been for the previous 8 years.

[emsquared]

Yeah, a Power Focus isn't gonna do anything for an Adept except help out his Attribute Boost, Masking, Empathic Healing, Enthralling Performance, Motion Sense, Pain Relief or Three-Dimensional Memory Powers (plus any other Magic Tests I may have missed ).

Power Foci explicitly only add their Force to "all tests where the magician's Magic Attribute is included". Which is to say, Adept's could arguably not be allowed to use them at all.

[RHat]

Deckers complain that there is new technology making stuff wireless and a name change,  changing the history of a power focus from what the 1st to 3d edition say (how it increases a magicians magic rating) will bother me a bit.

Think of it what you will, but that IS the rule.

[Kiirnodel]

Deckers complain that there is new technology making stuff wireless and a name change,  changing the history of a power focus from what the 1st to 3d edition say (how it increases a magicians magic rating) will bother me a bit.

With the surge of magic that came with the comet it isn't a changing of the history. Power Foci aren't as powerful as they once were because the overall mana level is higher. Or some similar reasoning, I'm not sure. But magic functions differently in a number of ways in 4th edition, and I'm pretty sure they described it with the surge of the overall mana...

[Scawire]

It still says "Possession of a power focus feeds a magician's Magic directly", it also says. "A power focus adds its force to all tests in which the magician's Magic is included" Why does this not add its force to the level of spell you can cast since that includes the magician's magic? page 200 main book. This to me means it should still do what it did in 1st 2nd and 3rd edition.

I was also talking about a mystic adept earlier not a adept just to clear that up.

I have been playing 4th edition since the beginning and I've always had it increase my magic rating since that is what it has done since I started play since the 2nd edition.

[RHat]

Because the force you cast at isn't determined by a test.  Much like if something adds its rating to all tests involving Body, it doesn't provide extra damage boxes because it doesn't actually add to Body.

[Kiirnodel]

You also don't risking losing magic every time you get seriously injured or if you get treated with first aid without special materials...

There are a number of changes between 3rd edition and 4th.