[vinnmun]

Can i use 2 force 4 qi foci both with 2 levels of mystic armor and have those stack? So it's like 4 levels of it. Was not able to find a ruling on this.

[jim1701]

pg 318, second column right above the focus table. 

Regardless of the number of bonded foci you have, only one focus may add its Force to a dice pool for any given test.

As far as I can tell you can bind 10 of them but only one will do you any good at a time.  If you want 4 levels of mystic armor from a qi focus you need one at force 8.  Which, depending on your magic attribute, could result in foci addiction.

[RHat]

pg 318, second column right above the focus table. 

Regardless of the number of bonded foci you have, only one focus may add its Force to a dice pool for any given test.

As far as I can tell you can bind 10 of them but only one will do you any good at a time.  If you want 4 levels of mystic armor from a qi focus you need one at force 8.  Which, depending on your magic attribute, could result in foci addiction.

Except that Qi Foci aren't adding dice, they're giving you a power, and so that line doesn't apply to them; it's rather like how that line doesn't apply to Sustaining Foci.

There's no reason they wouldn't stack, really, but you would be liable to risk addiction with that total Force of 8.

[jim1701]

Mystic armor adds dice to damage resistance tests.  The line doesn't specify what kind of tests just tests.

[RHat]

Mystic armor adds dice to damage resistance tests.  The line doesn't specify what kind of tests just tests.

Mystic armour does.  The focus does NOT - there's a very important distinction in that.  It's quite similar to having sustaining foci loaded with Combat Sense and Increase Intuition - you get the benefits of both Combat Sense and Increase Intuition if you're attacked.

[Michael Chandra]

Unclear and probably allowed, and of course it comes at a big karma, nuyen and Focus Addiction price. The main reason why a GM could disallow it, is that it's all too easy to get around a big Availability check through this. A Force 8 Qi Focus has Availability 24, so someone who gets that Focus has to go through a much bigger Availability check AND he can't pick a lower Force to have the Focus active on. So allowing this stacking would be unfair to the people who go for the higher Force, and would make the creation of high-Force Qi Foci quite the bad market.

[Forrest]

Generally as a mg I never allow more than one focus to be used for the same thing. 
If the player really wants to have more than one Qi focus, there are plenty of other powers to use the Qi focus for, then they can invest the power points into the armor.

[jim1701]

Mystic armor adds dice to damage resistance tests.  The line doesn't specify what kind of tests just tests.

Mystic armour does.  The focus does NOT - there's a very important distinction in that.  It's quite similar to having sustaining foci loaded with Combat Sense and Increase Intuition - you get the benefits of both Combat Sense and Increase Intuition if you're attacked.

I see where you are coming from on that but I disagree.  Force determines levels of Mystic armor which determines the number of dice to roll.  To my mind it does not make any sense to me to have a rule that says only one focus can be used to affect a test then allow multiple foci that allow powers that affects a test in the same manner.  Regardless the rule does deserve some clarification.

[Michael Chandra]

Mystic armour does.  The focus does NOT - there's a very important distinction in that.  It's quite similar to having sustaining foci loaded with Combat Sense and Increase Intuition - you get the benefits of both Combat Sense and Increase Intuition if you're attacked.

Pretty much, the rule is quite simple and is clearly about that you can't have multiple Spell/Power Foci stacking, there's nothing about spells/powers boosting your dicepools. Especially since Sustaining&Qi Foci do not add their Force to the test, but the spells/powers add bonuses to the tests. So the restriction rule clearly isn't relevant here.