You have to bind all types of weapon foci to use them. Could be some quirk in hero labs (I don't use it, so don't know). The CRB is actually pretty good at explaining the different foci I think, but in rough terms, sustaining focus:
- per the name, let's you sustain a spell without taking the -2 penalty on other actions.
- Can only sustain a spell of force up to the focus's force.
- Has to be specified as to a type of spell (combat, illusion, etc), and can only sustain spells of that type.
- I'm sure karma will still run out quickly, but an alternative to consider is the Focused Concentration quality.
Tying a couple of questions together: as Jack Spade mentioned when resisting drain you use willpower + (other stat), and get extra dice if you have and use the centering meta-magic. Centering gives you extra drain dice equal to your initiate level. You can then also get a meta-magic focus for centering, which adds its it force to your centering dice, effectively making your drain dice willpower + (other stat) + initiate level + centering focus force.
And I have a question in turn, from re-reading the focus section. The counterspelling focus says that "counterspelling foci add dice equal to their force to any counterspelling attempt, as long the countered spell is in the same category as the focus. It also adds its Force to your spell defense pool."
Just want to confirm what I think I'm reading. say you have a force five focus. Whenever you counter a spell, even if you only apply one die of your counterspelling pool to the task, you'd add an extra five dice to your countersepelling? And in addition, against any spell which allows spell defence it adds its force to that test. So for example you get targeted by a Control Actions spell, and apply one of your counterspelling dice against it. You'd get your usual resistance dice (will + logic) +1 (counterspelling) + 5 (extra counterspelling dice from the focus) +5 (passive bonus on spell defense rolls on counterspelling foci). That sounds quite good, just want to confirm that I'm readingit right?