Which is better - Enchanted items or Focus Items?

[JediDresden]

@ ways and means - Can you explain further, I think I understand - just want to make sure.

[ways and means]

@ ways and means - Can you explain further, I think I understand - just want to make sure.

Normally Each enchanted item slot = 1x lore shifts
Say Lore = 5
You get 5 shifts of effect

Now Say you have a +5 Power focus item (or Spec) towards item power.
Each Enchanted item slot = 1x10 shifts of effect = 10

Now say you also have a +5 frequency focus (or Spec) as well.
Each Enchanted Item slot = 6x10 shifts or 60 shifts.   

This is very refresh intensive but at higher refresh (submerged) you can have 72 (12 enchanted items with 6 uses) uses of 10 shift effects a session.

[Haru]

This is very refresh intensive but at higher refresh (submerged) you can have 72 (12 enchanted items with 6 uses) uses of 10 shift effects a session.

Even at lower refresh, you can mix and match your bonuses to drastically increase the effects.

Going from JediDresden's Lore 4 standard wizard, we have 1 specialization and 1 focus items free and we can take 2 points of refresh worth of refinement to work with.

We can start with 2 enchanted items at power 10 (4 Lore +1 specialization + 5 focus items) and 1 use per session. While 10 shifts is pretty powerful, 2 uses is not really that much. On the other hand, they can always be used again by spending mental stress.

Now we can go an take 2 focus item slots away. 1 we will put into another pair of enchanted items, the other one will be a crafting frequency focus. This brings us to 4 enchanted items at power 8 (4+1+3) with 2 uses each. Now 8 shifts is still pretty powerful, and the big difference is, you have 8 uses. And you have 4 different rotelike spells, so you can mix it up a bit, take different types of spells to be prepared for a lot of things.
You could even reduce the power on a few of them, if they don't need to be that powerful, and trade them in for even more uses per session. For example the 2 maneuver spell I mentioned above would only need 6 shifts, so you could have 1 enchanted item that does this 4 times per session with this model.

[Lamech]

I always thought that enchanted items make good navel gazing mines, and good defenses, while focus items are good for offensive control, and getting 5 on thuramaturgy control. So both have their uses.

[FishStampede]

Well, it also depends...Asheville spoilers ahoy:

(click to show/hide)

I have a major villain who is an almost council-level talent. He has the Sight, he has Wizard's Constitution, and has pushed himself into monster-level negative refresh with Refinement. For whatever reason though he has a mental block that prevents him from doing Evocation. He doesn't even have Channeling. He just can't do fast-twitch magic.

As such, he's shored up his weakness by crafting a lot of single or limited use enchanted items or potions. He has a pipe that can produce a thick smoke screen for escapes, a mojo bag sewn into his tweed jacket that gives him three uses of armor, and a few satchels of Graveyard Dirt that can act as a powerful attack (8 shifts of damage due to Lore, Aspect, Lawbreaker, and a Strength focus), and maybe some others if I'm feeling nasty.

For him, focus items are certainly useful and he has one (a hoodoo bible) to aid in his summoning efforts, but he's basically using enchanted items to shore up his major weakness. I may be wrong, but in the case of a spellcaster without Channeling, I think enchanted items are more useful

[InFerrumVeritas]

Like has been stated: Enchanted items can contain Thaumaturgy effects.  These are really the only reliable way to use them in combat.

A 5 shift Thaumaturgy effect can be quite effective. 

My players use them often to run away.