Thanks, Taran. That does help clear things up.
Could my player do that, except that it's a +3 offensive power to maneuver evocation?
Thanks,
Howard
Yes. But if she dedicates it to a specific offensive maneuver spell, she can boost it by 1 to 4 instead of just +3. But that will cost her all her focus item slots. Is it worth it for one spell?
Her total bonus for 1 given focus item is limited by her Lore. Also, the more bonuses she throws in to 1 item, the bigger the item has to be.
Let's say her Lore and discipline are 4 and her conviction is 3.
She can have a rote like this:
"off balance"
Power 4 Offensive Maneuver, resisted by Athletics or Might
Power: 4
2 stress to cast.
She gets 4 focus item slots.
Let's say she puts 1 in to offensive power and 1 into offensive control
She puts 1 into defensive control
She keeps the last one for 2 enchanted items.
If she ties her rote to her foci, it'll look like this:
"off balance"
Power 5 Offensive Maneuver, resisted by Athletics or Might
Power: 5
2 stress to cast.
If she wants to dedicate one of her focus items specifically to that spell(and no others), it'll grant a +2 bonus instead of 1. So she could take the +1 bonus to Power and boost it to 2. Then she'll only take one stress when she casts the spell. Or she could boost the control by 2. By doing that, she could boost the Power of her maneuver to 6 but she'll take 3 stress when she casts the spell.
The point is if she makes it a rote, she won't have to ever roll to control the spell. If she doesn't want to make it a rote, then she can pump more points in to foci to ensure that she controls it...but I don't see the point of that. Just make it a rote.
On the other hand, she has those 2 enchanted item slots.
She can have 1 item that is
Power 5 "off balance" maneuver, useable 1/session. Targeted with Discipline. Then she can pay a stress to use it more often. This is the best option IMO.
***
If she wants it all to go in to one item for one spell, she could do this(assuming the stats above)
Earing of concentration:+2 control for
any offensive air spell
Rod of bashing+3 Air Power (+2 Power; +1 dedicated to Power the "bash" spell)
Rote Spell Bash:
Power 6 maneuver "bashed"
costs 1 stress to cast.
This Rod is not useful for any casting except for the "bash" spell.