[Scawire]

But it always did in the past and the full second sentence of the main book page 200 says.

"Possession of a power focus feeds a magician's magic directly, making her efforts more powerful in all forms of magical ability"

It feeds her magic directly and its more powerful in all forms of magical ability, is not the force of a spell a magical ability? I can cast force 3 you can cast force 5 who has the greater "ABILITY"?

That second sentence makes me think it still does what it has always done.

[emsquared]

Every single person on these forums is here to tell you, you are wrong dude.  Accept it.

When it says "all forms of magic ability", it means it gives bonus dice to all tests. Why is this so hard for you? Mechanics change, that's the point of new editions. Magicians are just fine, they don't need the full Attribute boost.

[Kiirnodel]

makes you more powerful, increases effectiveness of tests. in all forms of magical ability, Spellcasting, Conjuring, any test that involves Magic.

That's exactly what it does. It adds dice your Magic-related tests. The text is very explicit in what it does.

Note also, that in 4th Edition, your Magic score is no longer Essence + Initiation. It all works differently...

[Scawire]

Give's a bonus to all test

I have a PIXIE his magic rating is 6 he has a power focus of 4 what happens to his concealment test does it give a -6 to perception TEST or a -10 to the TEST??

[RHat]

Possession of a power focus feeds a magician's magic directly, making her efforts more powerful in all forms of magical ability

By adding its rating to all tests involving the Magic attribute.

[Kiirnodel]

Give's a bonus to all test

I have a PIXIE his magic rating is 6 he has a power focus of 4 what happens to his concealment test does it give a -6 to perception TEST or a -10 to the TEST??

considering that Concealment isn't a test... Not to mention that the penalty is to others, not the possessor directly. As we said it doesn't modify the Magic attribute, so the penalty would be equal to the Pixie's Magic Attribute, 6.

[Critias]

Give's a bonus to all test

I have a PIXIE his magic rating is 6 he has a power focus of 4 what happens to his concealment test does it give a -6 to perception TEST or a -10 to the TEST??

Your pixie isn't the one making that test, someone else is, so the power focus has no effect.  It's pretty straightforward, Scawire.  When a character with a bonded power focus makes a test (rolls dice) that includes their Magic attribute, they get some extra dice.  That's it.  That's still a lot, but that's it.

Yes, it worked different in first, second, and third editions, but so did lots of other stuff.  Damage staging changes, initiative rules changed, target numbers changed, damage tracks changed, all kinds of stuff has changed.  This is another thing that changed (eight years ago, when fourth edition came out). 

Now if you've been using it the other way, and your GM and your fellow players are cool with it -- party on Garth!  There's nothing wrong with it as a house rule, if you guys think that magicians need the help.  But sitting here and arguing about it isn't going to change the text written on the page.

[emsquared]

Whenever you have to roll dice and the check looks like this; Magic+Skill, you get the force of your focus more dice to the roll. If you don't roll Magic dice, you get no bonus. You are not rolling dice to determine their minus to Perception so the focus has no benefit there. So it's -6.

I really hope you're just being difficult and aren't actually this... eh, difficult.

[Scawire]

It still says " A power Focus adds its force to all tests in which the magician's magic is included" not his test but "all test that include his magic rating."

And if it says it making "her efforts more powerful in all forms of magical ability" why doesn't it add to her ability to cast higher force spells

[Scawire]

I don't see it as only adding to a dice roll but the mages magic directly, and all abilities as sentence 2 says

[RHat]

Find a sentence that states "Add the rating of the focus to the character's Magic rating".  You won't.  You're citing descriptive sentences (that is, sentences that describe the mechanic in general terms) to combat the prescriptive sentence (which lay out the exact functioning of the rule) - that just doesn't work.

[Scawire]

also at the end of the "FOCI" section page 199 it says "while power foci boost Magic directly" why should it be assumed that it only boost in dice pool not the magic in the magician?

[RHat]

Because that is what the prescriptive text states.  The descriptive text is not precise enough to establish rules, pure and simple.

And that post from Critias?  That's as close to a dev response as you're going to get.

[Angelone]

Because Stone Cold said so!

Stuff changes, it hasn't worked like that for a long time. I don't know what else you want. Critias isn't quite a Dev but he writes for the game and wouldn't deliberately lead you down the wrong path.

[emsquared]

It doesn't matter how you see it. Sorry.

Unless you're the GM I guess. In which case you are free to overpower Magic as much as you want.