[Zilfer]

Had a question that's probably been asked, but how many of you use the option rule that how many net hits you get on a spell casting of a combat spell increase the Drain Value by one.

I know we haven't been doing that, however if we did I would get very little amount of spells off in a game with a dice pool of 15 usually yeilding anywhere from 3-6 hits sometimes more. With 9 dice to resist (Will + Char) think i'd maybe get 2 spell off.

What, do most of you guys play by and the reason for that?

Also anyone know tips to increase the Drain resist pool? (I finally got Initiation and Centering) so that gives me +1 for now.

[Shadowstarr]

fetishes help with drain,  that manaweed or whatever its called drug as well as on of the gene-therapy treatments. A bound spirit can also assist with drain too i believe.   I use that rule in my game,  however I let the mage limit the amount of hits they want to use pre-roll if they choose too.   

[Zilfer]

fetishes help with drain,  that manaweed or whatever its called drug as well as on of the gene-therapy treatments. A bound spirit can also assist with drain too i believe.   I use that rule in my game,  however I let the mage limit the amount of hits they want to use pre-roll if they choose too.   

Doesn't the force limit the amount of hits anyways?

[Shadowstarr]

Yes it does, force of the spell is the max possible hits.  The force is also the DV in some spells right?  So there may be a few circumstances where you'd what say and force 6 spell but may not want all 6 hits. 

[Zilfer]

Yes it does, force of the spell is the max possible hits.  The force is also the DV in some spells right?  So there may be a few circumstances where you'd what say and force 6 spell but may not want all 6 hits.

They should have picked something else than DV for Drain Value. I thought you just said Drain Value, but you were meaning Damage Value correct? xD

I guess that makes sense yes, but when i was reading the book it first shows up in the direct combat spells as an optional rule. So do some spells use that rule regardless?

Also Fetishs.... i thought those increased spell casting DP not helped resist drain? Maybe i'm thinking of Focus'

[UmaroVI]

Centering Foci are expensive, but awesome.

[Charybdis]

We play with the optional rule of net hits increasing drain for direct combat spells (note, it's JUST direct combat spells) and it works pretty fairly in our campaign...

As for increasing drain dice, it's:
- Attributes
- Metamagic (Centering) with additional initiate grades
- Fetish casting
- Centering Focus
- Edge (very useful for the big spells)

I think these are the only things that will do it, but combining them gets you some pretty big numbers....

There are a few indirect ways to help as well:
- Metamagic (Absorption) - Doesn't give you drain dice per se, but it does just give you extra drain successes if you can get charged up... overcasting a F15 Lightning bolt with this is fun
- Trauma Dampener/Platelets- Again, doesn't give dice, but lets you ignore a box of Stun damage (effectively reduces any stun drain by 1 box). Nice.

[Zilfer]

Yeah I kinda figured 6 edge would help with my spell casting when I needed to resist a lot of drain. That's mostly what I use my Edge for.

I've tossed 12F Stun balls, and 12F Lightning balls.

>.> Pretty amazing what you can do to a room with those. xD

Though even those are resistable, I found out.

In a non combat situation (A BBQ that my character was throwing) I invited everyone over, and we were partying and one person i intived. An NPC contact didn't show up but sent strippers instead to make it up. <.< (I got an Email saying "This is pay back for Vegas") lol i'm sure Vegas might not exist any more in this time but going along with it. He let them in and then the girls at one point started making their way sensually to all different party members. My guy just dropped the whole room pretty much save for 1 person who managed to get more hits than me. (edged my drain roll and got like 2 physical) Then I went off to find the guy I invited and crashed his "party" apparently he had company that night. The singular kind if you catch my drift. Anyways interupted that and casted orgy spell on him before I left.  (poor poor doggie.... <.<) Regardless I came back about 4 hours later and everyone was just waking up save for the strippers. A guy named Kent, another NPC that we were supposed to kill and not save has been traveling with us because he believes there is a cranial bomb in his head that will explode if he doesn't listen to a physco gunshop owner who is a woman. (she's scary enough as is without her knocking him out with meds and showing him a chip that she was going to 'put in his head') xD Poor sod.

Anyways he wakes up and wants one of the strippers, so I'm like go ahead but you have to take them ALL across the street. I get a message not too much later of him drunk (he was already drunk but the vid showed another drink in his hands) and part of him doing the nasty. The unforunate part about this however was that he found out later that they were tranies. XD So I'm glad my mage didn't touch them. XD Poor kent is tramatized however. He has horrible luck in life I think. First I show up in my biker gear and Though control him into killing his whole gang. (F12 control thoughts for the win!) Then the crazy lady puts a chip in his head after saving him from the ensuing gun fight where he killed most of his gang before they even got a chance to react. <.< and then as a joke I have him not spending any of his money in Nuyen. He's got like 21K saved up and my character keeps telling him. "No Your going to college!" Become a common joke when we want Kent to shut up.


Also however this brings up a question about casting a F12 in a smaller area than 24 meter diameter. I've seen you can increase the range if you take off dice to make the area of effect bigger but can you make it smaller?

[Charybdis]

Also however this brings up a question about casting a F12 in a smaller area than 24 meter diameter. I've seen you can increase the range if you take off dice to make the area of effect bigger but can you make it smaller?

Spell radius is based on Magic Rating, not Force.

So if you have 6 magic, your Are-of-Effect is a 6m radius (12m Diameter), regardless of the spell being F2 or F12

We house-ruled that you can take 1 die from Spellcasting to shrink the radius accordingly, just the same as removing 1 die to increase the radius. I don't know of any RAW mechanic for it, but this works for us. Kinda' like pulling your punches....

[Dr. Meatgrinder]

SR4A, p. 183 (Area Spells):

The base radius for all area spells is the Force in meters. Area spells affect all valid targets within the radius of effect, friend and foe alike (including the caster). For this reason, spellcasters often choose to vary the radius of area spells. This is done by withholding dice from the Spellcasting Test. The caster can reduce or expand the base radius by 1 meter for every die withheld from the Spellcasting Test.

[CanRay]

Remember to Fireball Responsibly:  The life you save could be your own, as your group would be less likely to beat you to death afterwards.

[Zilfer]

Remember to Fireball Responsibly:  The life you save could be your own, as your group would be less likely to beat you to death afterwards.

Heh I've never done it to my group save for the one time my character was holding a BBQ and some of the guests were starting to ruin it so to save my mage the trouble of a fight and possibly death breaking out as a shadowrunner might have killed a stripper for hitting on her husband, i just dropped a stun ball on the whole room while i backed up into a corner. Dropped everyone save for me and the person who would have probably killed someone. xD

Me: F12 STUNBALL!

DM: ... are you serious?

Me: *straight face* I'm absolutely Serious, get ready to roll for the stripers and Kent.

DM: Mathew.... what the fuck? Ok roll it.


Ah good times....

[CanRay]

Stunball means saying, "I'm sorry."

Fireball means saying, "I'M SORRY, PLEASE, STOP BEATING ME!  DEAR GHOST, NOT THE FACE, NOT MY PRECIOUS FACE!!!"

[Zilfer]

Stunball means saying, "I'm sorry."

Fireball means saying, "I'M SORRY, PLEASE, STOP BEATING ME!  DEAR GHOST, NOT THE FACE, NOT MY PRECIOUS FACE!!!"

Actually not if the group knows your crazy enough to fire 3 force 12 stun balls. <.< in the same turn.

[CanRay]

Then he'd just be Dresdened.  Gotcha.