Narrow focus

[ARedthorn]

I skimmed the boards, saw nothing in the ballpark of this question...
I'm playing a the group's wizardly-type (not white-council, work for vadderung).
We're approaching our first epic climax, which involves a major storm inbound that we need to defuse. Someone provoked summer and winter into a conflict that built up the storm so they could tap it to resurrect a comatose demigod... We got them to stop, but not before the storm took on a life of it's own.
The main threat is going to use a ritual involving dozens of sorcerer-grade talents in a big ritual to call the power down, draining the storm for it's magical juice, and wake the demigod.
Secondary threats are planning on using the fallout for various personal gains... But this makes them DISTANT secondary threats, since without the storm, they stall out altogether. (They're lending the main group support in return for the main group not draining the storm completely dry- so it can wreak it's physical Nabokov for them to play vulture... If the storm is completely drained, nothing for them anyway).

So, we're going to try to beat them to the punch on it... what we don't have is dozens of sorcerers willing to die to pull it off.
What we do have are a very few PCs, none of them strong thaumaturgists (mostly focused practitioners who between us cover all the bases, but alone are near worthless)... And only 36 hours in-game to prep.

So, my evocation elements are Water, Air and Earth... And I work for a Odin, a storm god himself. I'm just about perfectly suited to ground out a storm with this setup, but need more oomph to pull it off cleanly. I'll take any edge I can get here.

I'm thinking about changing out my focus items for the session- something like a literal lightning rod... (I realize changing foci, much less quickly, is a little odd already, but 2 of our focused practitioners are able to lend a BIG hand here- one is a conjuror, the other a crafter... Plus, I can always try to sell a declaration to requisition an appropriate focus that I can attune to from Monoc's armory)...

My question is this: if I make a focus extra specialized, can I get more oomph out of it?
Instead of being limited by [Element] [Offensive/Defensive] [Control/Power], limit it even further to a sub-element, could I swing a few extra points?
My reasoning is that going for extra utility costs extra points (ie, if you want a focus to be offensive AND defensive, you have to sink 2ce the slots into it to get the same bonus)... So further limiting the utility might give extra?
I'd be looking to go for Storm Defensive Control- essentially, strip myself of all my foci bonuses and enchanted items, leaving me at base casting ability until the storm, to have the biggest possible bonus to drain the storm.

I suspect that given any kind of reasonable consensus here, my GM could be convinced to allow it. What says the think-tank?

[Mr. Death]

I think this sort of thing is better modeled as some kind of thaumaturgic ritual rather than trying to whip up a specialized focus item to do it with evocation.

[ARedthorn]

[Edit: The reason I was saying evocation is because I'm stronger there, and don't need to build the power up towards anything- just take as much as I can as fast as I can and dump it as I go... But you're right.]
Granted, but the question still stands- the lightning rod could be a thaum control focus.
Could hyper-specialization provide an edge?

The storm is coming in from the sea...
The GM could still pull something out of his hat, for all I know, but the situation as I understand it is that the larger group can drain the storm way faster than me, but because they're a larger group, with a prepared ritual space and a fixed target (their demigod who they need to be near for this), they'll be a ways inland.
I'm going to be right on the bloody shore... I'd be in the water if I thought it wouldn't hurt more than it helps... So the storm will hit me first. I have a head start, basically, and I don't care where the energy goes so much, as long as I get rid of it before they get ahold of it.

This is a GM that rewards creativity, but doesn't pull his punches. If we lose, that's simply a different plot direction...

I need an edge...

[Ophidimancer]

Hmm ... I think your best bet is to call in a favor from your boss, see if he can lend a divine hand.

[Mr. Death]

Yeah, invoking the connection with Odin would be a better idea. As for overspecialization, all I'm aware of is a +1 bonus to a focus item if it's designed and only used for a particular rote spell, or is designed and only used for one set ritual.

And even if your character is stronger with quick Evocation, Thaumaturgy allows for you to do stronger things when you have time, and 36 hours is a lot of time. You could invoke the Odin connection, the place, build some things, gather some components, all of that for +2 to the complexity each, and if it's successful it'll be significantly more powerful than any evocation you could throw around. And, I mean, a storm kicked up by a battle between Summer and Winter is going to be huge--not something you should be able to control or redirect with just an evocation. It'd be like trying to stop a runaway semi with a pistol.

[polkaneverdies]

^ nailed it. 

Even if you are substantially better at evo than thaum (+5) you can make up for that with 3 declarations. I would hope you could manage at least 1 declaration every 12 hours.

Evo you have to do alone, thaum you guys can coordinate and all contribute to aspects and controlling the power to pull off your very own gigantic spell.

[ARedthorn]

Calling in a favor from Odin is definitely something I've thought about… I'm sure he's not interested in there being any other demigods wondering about, if nothing else, he wouldn't like the extra competition... But I don't want to rely on that- too Deus Ex, literally...

As for the advantages of thaum- I don't have 36 hours to work with. I have 36 hours of prep time to get ready for a single scene... I can't start channelling the storm until it hits land at earliest... Being on shore gives me a head start on the inland ritual, but if we could tap it at sea, they'd have already started and we'd be toast.
I'm expecting to have may be a 15 minute scene, possibly under siege, to try and drain the storm as much as possible. Draining it completely is a longshot but it will stop every one. At the least I need to drain it, say, 60% in order to prevent the demigod from rising. [Edit: I say 15 minutes because that's how long I'm guessing until the storm reaches them and they can start their ritual- and they WILL outpace me from there.]

I will presumably be the center of this casting, I will have four PCs backing me up and maybe a couple NPCs, all able to contribute either directly (weak magical talents) or indirectly (maneuvers, backlash soaks if absolutely necessary, defense if under siege, etc).

That said- it'll prolly be thaum if only because it's more appropriate... but I do need every possible edge. I'm kind of expecting to lose, but the more marginal that loss, the better... not just for the sake of spitting in this demigod's face, but maybe him coming back weaker than he would be with the full storm to power his return.

[Mr. Death]

Something to keep in mind: However you drain the power, it has to go somewhere. If you're "under siege", well, I'd recommend sending that power at whoever's got you pinned down.

[Tedronai]

Really, if you're that much better at Evo than you are at Thaum, what I would suggest would be to sneak up to within spellshot of your competitor's ritual, wait until they're ALMOST at critical mass, then launch your best shot at them, representing it mechanically as a block against their next control roll.  Then you watch as all of the shifts they've built up up to that point get poured out into backlash (likely killing all of them) or fallout (likely maiming all of them devestating them and everything around them - protip: have an ally nearby throwing up a second shield to protect the two of you).

[Mr. Death]

There's risk enough with that one, though--if they take it as Backlash, that means that technically the spell still works and the demigod wakes up. If they're that committed to the cause, they can still pull it off.

[Sanctaphrax]

Specialized focus rules are contained in the second paragraph of page 279.

[ARedthorn]

Plus, the cult in question are thaumavores- the reason it will wake up their demigod is because he eats magic. I'm not sure foiling their ritual will matter in that case, because the fallout could still be enough to wake him... maybe. Dunno. Have to think about it and/or ask the GM.

And also, yes- the thaumavore cult are willing to die to the last man to pull it off, so backlash is also a major concern.

[Tedronai]

Soaking the ritual as backlash even though it kills the ritualist(s) only results in the successful completion of the ritual if, after that costly exchange, the ritual is complete.  Launch your strike a few moments earlier, and even this tradeoff results in a loss for the ritualists, as not only are they all killed, maimed, or otherwise incapacitated by their devotion to the cause, but their ritual goes unfinished, and dissipates (possibly in a subsequent fallout event regardless of their sacrifice).


Having fallout accomplish precisely the goal you had in mind for your spell runs rather quite in the face of the very concept of fallout (that the magic escapes your control and instead is directed at ends, typically destructive, OTHER than what you intended).

[Mr. Death]

You're assuming the backlash kills them, Tedronai, and honestly, it might not even come close. Say the ritual is 100 shifts, total. This is an ungodly huge ritual, but if there are as few as 5 cultists, they can still tank the backlash and survive via their consequences.

[Tedronai]

By RAW, there is, and can only be, one ritualist at the point of control to 'tank' that backlash.  So my initial proposal was slightly flawed in this regard.  Just nuke that one key ritualist and the whole thing should come crashing down hard.
Even if we bend the rules into a pretzel to allow the backlash to be shared out in such a way, though, each and every one of those consequences can be tagged to trigger a compel, virtually guaranteeing fatal complications the following round. edit: and that's even assuming no follow-up action from our sabateur; with him involved, their chances of survival go from 'dismal' to 'requiring a miracle'.