Alright, that makes sense. Although after some discussion, I think my group and I have decided not to allow rote spells to be cast reactively. It means that they may have to alter their characters a bit, but it'll give the game more of a sense of danger, which I think is the point the section in PP is trying to make.

So after reading the Paranet Papers, my group is now attempting to sort out the new rules concerning reactive shield spells. The main issue we're having is what to do about rote spells. PP doesn't mention them at all in this section, instead describing reactive shielding as "...a sudden burst of your will against an attack." It also says that it can't have any duration modifier added. So here are my questions:

1. Does the no duration thing mean that you just can't add turns to it, or that it literally has no duration, as in it only lasts for the attack in question, rather than for the standard "until the end of your next turn"?

2. If it only lasts for the attack, does that cover all attacks that you're targeted by that turn, or just the one?

3. Can rotes be used reactively?

4. If they can, and the duration of a reactive shield is only for the attack rather than the standard rules, are rotes subject to this limitation?

Any help on this is appreciated, thanks.

I do like that custom power, so I might finagle it a bit to fit what I'm trying to get at.

Also, I realized that I may not have made it clear that the Telekinetic power that I made up has to be taken in addition to Channeling (Spirit).

My thought was that yes, he would function exactly the same as a Focused Practitioner, but the trade off for his +2 to force magic is an inability to upgrade that magic in any way except raising the level of his Discipline/Conviction and possibly taking additional powers.