I personally don't really see Quickening as unbalancing, since its so karma intensive and can be more trouble than its worth without metamagics from 4th edition (Extended Masking/Spell Masking).
It's less karma-intensive than getting the spells and sustaining them through Foci.
On a one for one basis yes it is less expensive. If you end up having to recast the same spell several times then the cost evens out or quickening can become more karma expensive.
Correct. But please note that I DID include the long-term numbers when I said it's less karma-intensive. "So if he loses the spell 15x in his career, he's equal in costs with the Force 4 Sustaining Focus."
However, I noticed I was recalling my percentages wrong. It's 10%, not 20%, to fail if with overcasted spells you have to bash through a ward. So the numbers I stated double. In other words, if the player has to bash through 1 ward per session average, it's still 150 sessions before an Increased Attribute Spell on a stat of 4 becomes equally expensive through Quickening as through a Sustaining Focus.
And honestly, at 150+ sessions for a GM who's wielding wards like weapons, and far more sessions for a GM who doesn't, it hardly is a valid argument anymore that Quickening becomes more expensive. When it takes 200 sessions for it to actually become significantly more expensive, well ask yourself, when was the last time your character had earned a total of 1.000 karma? Or 3.000 for that matter? If the Street Samurai can afford Deltaware Synaptic Boosters 3 and the Decker can afford a Fairlight Excalibur AND they spent just as much on other gear already by the time the Mage might have been cheaper off karma-wise...
Especially since the Focus approach causes you to get Addicted and burn out in an average of 50 sessions.
