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Sustaining Focus Question

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Shadowjack

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« on: <07-23-11/2255:47> »
If you purchase these during character creation do you still need to bind them when they game begins? Or are they bound for free? I see the karma costs are pretty hefty to bind focuses and it would be somewhat odd if you could skip the karma cost by purchasing them during character creation.
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Onion Man

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« Reply #1 on: <07-23-11/2340:17> »
You bind them with BP at character creation.
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Chrona

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« Reply #2 on: <07-24-11/0011:34> »
1 BP per force rating, i much cheaper than during play

Shadowjack

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« Reply #3 on: <07-24-11/0042:04> »
That is kind of brutal that magicians need to spend so much karma to bind focuses. Afaik other character types don't need to spend karma like that. Thanks for the info too.
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FastJack

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« Reply #4 on: <07-24-11/0119:41> »
That's what makes magi special. They are Karma whores. Of course, they don't have to worry about ¥ as much as other characters.

Shadowjack

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« Reply #5 on: <07-24-11/0133:58> »
That's a very good point. That will leave me a lot of room to get powerful focuses(or is it foci?) and other things I need. Although in general I prefer chracter advancement over gear advancement :P
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Chrona

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« Reply #6 on: <07-24-11/0214:32> »
That's a very good point. That will leave me a lot of room to get powerful focuses(or is it foci?) and other things I need. Although in general I prefer chracter advancement over gear advancement :P
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Shadowjack

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« Reply #7 on: <07-24-11/0245:19> »
Haha I thought so. It's funny how much stuff I've forgotten during my long time away from Shadowrun :P Thanks.
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CanRay

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« Reply #8 on: <07-24-11/0246:56> »
I knew I should have taken Latin in school.  Would have probably been more useful than my French class.

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Oh, right, they cancelled the course just as I got there.
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Chrona

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« Reply #9 on: <07-24-11/0310:51> »
I knew I should have taken Latin in school.  Would have probably been more useful than my French class.

...

Oh, right, they cancelled the course just as I got there.

My Latin teacher barely ever showed up, we had to teach ourselves half the time. The school wondered why n a class of 20 the final exam marks were1 A and 19 Es (The person with the A got A minimum in every subject that year)

Neurosis

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« Reply #10 on: <07-26-11/1501:24> »
It's definitely a good idea to purchase Foci at character creation if you can, rather than waiting. Especially the ones with a nasty Karma cost.
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Captain Karzak

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« Reply #11 on: <07-26-11/2158:19> »
1 BP per force rating, i much cheaper than during play

Sustaining Foci are not a very efficient use of BP. They cost 10 grand (2 BP) per force rating, and 1 BP per force rating to bind. So essentially we are comparing 3 BP per force vs 2 Karma per force to bind after char gen.

Power Foci on the other hand, are notable for their BP to Karma efficiency: 25 grand (5 BP) + 1 BP per force rating versus 8 karma per force rating. Even factoring restricted gear (another 5 BP), you will still always pay less BP than Karma in the end.

So spending BP on power foci is generally a smart move. But you may want to carefully consider how many sustaining foci you really need to start the game with. Probably not more than 1. Hopefully you can loot them off enemy mages, or just buy them - they're not incredibly expensive. Until then you can always have a spirit of man sustain innate spells on you.

bigity

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« Reply #12 on: <07-26-11/2233:20> »
I knew I should have taken Latin in school.  Would have probably been more useful than my French class.

...

Oh, right, they cancelled the course just as I got there.

My Latin teacher barely ever showed up, we had to teach ourselves half the time. The school wondered why n a class of 20 the final exam marks were1 A and 19 Es (The person with the A got A minimum in every subject that year)

What is an E?  Where I come from an A is the top grade.  But knowing the state of our public schools, they could have flipped the scale to make things look better.

Shinobi Killfist

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« Reply #13 on: <07-26-11/2247:16> »
Yeah E I am unfamiliar with I have gotten a lot of I, O, and Us in my time all of which turned into Fs because I was too dumb to fix them but I never got an E.