Which Vim-related foci do you have used or thought of in your campaigns?
The only one I have seen in official books is Dispelling from guardians of the forest (minor). I have also read some post in this forum arguing about a counterspelling focus. I think that counterspelling should be mayor and include not only Perdo Vim spells but also spontaneous fast casting any other forms to negate the effect of spells, but... anyway. What I really wanted is for other people to share Vim-related foci.
I have been thinking and I would like to exist some kind of focus around Muto Vim possibilities. It seems really fun and ample field of magic, but I don't know how to tame it.
I have thought perhaps a minor focus around ReVi intangible tunnel effects could be reasonable.
Going through the list someone kindly posted up last year of all the published magi, there's a few more in canon.
In Through The Aegis, Freki has "sensing magical power" which is definitely vim. Dara Connacthach & Lugh-eccnaid have "Elemental Spirits" to go with Sihr, this could be used with Vim for controlling spirits through non-Sihr means.
In Thrice-Told Tales, Eutropia of Guernicus has a focus "investigating supernatural residues"
In Tales of Power, Timian has "Wards versus supernatural being"
There's also the Major focus of "counterspelling" listed in HoH: Mystery Cults in the Merinita section under followers of Pendule. The existence of this and Phillipus Niger's dispelling focus has caused a number of arguments as to what they should cover, so this is definitely Your Saga May Vary territory. As MuVi and ReVi can be incredibly flexible, any focus featuring an area of them will probably attract complaints that it's too open to abuse, so don't expect they'll be anything less than a Major Focus.
Do these interact? I mean, I suppose that "investigating supernatural residues" is used with the level 10 guideline "Detect the traces of powerful magic. Detect the recent presence of weak magic." and the guidelines in the book of the house Guernicus:
"Gen: Detect the traces of magic of negative magnitude up to the magnitude of the guideline used – 2.
+3 magnitudes gives the rough details of the effect and the sigil of the caster. This level also enables the Quaesitor to tell if a Hermetic effect was created by a spell or invested device. Quaesitors with extensive experience of a particular sort of non-Hermetic power can also identify that; the limit is the Quaesitor’s ability to interpret the information provided by the spell."
But "sensing magical power" seems like a wider thing, that applies to the previous examples an a lot of other things...
I think “sensing magical power” should cover magical auras, vis, creatures with magic might, magically aligned arts or abilities, active magic powers and residues. But nothing from the other realms.
And “investigating supernatural residues “ covers all four realms but only for effects to detect or analyse these. Not auras , vis,creatures etc.
That was the idea, at least I think. The two would overlap if detecting or analyzing a magical effect, either active or residue there of.
Metamagic -- Muto Vim effects that affect other supernatural effects -- very narrowly qualifies as a Minor Focus (for an example of a MuVi effect that is not covered by the Focus, thus making the Focus Minor, see The Wicked Jar, RoP:I, p.122).
True Names, Angelic Script, various dead Languages. As MuVim and ReVim effects. The latter being "runes" or wards, waiting spell containers written as glyphs.