[Sentinemodo]

also - you're not within background count yet.

[Lethe]

Demonic surge sounds much better :-)
I know the description wouldn't really fit, but it could also be an abstract title for..well.. something.
It wasn't in the list of not allowed qualities for free spirits. RC,p.93

Edit:
don't laugh, i rolled miserably :/

[Sentinemodo]

I will

 

OMFG ROTFL

[Lethe]

I will

 

OMFG ROTFL

Hehe, i assume then, the shaman successfully resisted the spell? There is a chance he could get 0 successes, even if ever so slightly.

[Netzgeist]

Well, now I remember Sichr admoesting me for not investing on Astral Combat... sigh...

[Sentinemodo]

One correction on my side - damage should be 2P + net hits not 4P, so it's 3P of damge, no change to your rolls, as it is still -1 damage modifier.

[Sentinemodo]

also - you know that spirits that are not free spirits, much like drones do not have stun track? IIRC any stun damage to drone/spirit is simply ignored, so stunbolting can't work

I am still learning the magic rules, so bear with me and correct me.
On any case if this spell wouldn't work, Alex would know that.

[Netzgeist]

I'm also not sure on this myself, but I was under the impression that spirits should be subject to stun damage, maybe they happen to have a common and unified damage track?
Well, as I said, I really don't know about that.

But right now, I'm out of time. If you want to speed things up, then consider that Alex used his Fear power on the spirit, then (and, if it's possible, on both spirit and magician).

[Lethe]

Never heard or read that a spirit was immune to stun damage. Wards, Foci and Magical Barriers are though.

If a spirit in astral or materialized form suffers Physical or Stun damage sufficient to fill its damage track, the spirit is disrupted.

Edit: Fear is not an area attack. But excellent choice with the stunbolt, it should finish him off nicely.
Edit2: Just saw that you were using the optional rule of increased drain based on net hits. Didn't know we were using it, else my drain from before would be 1 more as well.

[Netzgeist]

Never heard or read that a spirit was immune to stun damage. Wards, Foci and Magical Barriers are though.

If a spirit in astral or materialized form suffers Physical or Stun damage sufficient to fill its damage track, the spirit is disrupted.

Edit: Fear is not an area attack. But excellent choice with the stunbolt, it should finish him off nicely.
Edit2: Just saw that you were using the optional rule of increased drain based on net hits. Didn't know we were using it, else my drain from before would be 1 more as well.

About the optional nature of that rule:
On SR4, it was optional; then, on SR4A, it's no longer listed as optional, it's just written on the Combat Spell section as if it was always intended to be a more-than-optional/vanilla  rule. Then again, on the Changes from SR4 to SR4A document, it's classified again as optional.
I really don't know in what way we are playing that. Sent, your call.

[Sentinemodo]

Direct Combat spells involve channeling mana directly into a
target as destructive and damaging energies rather than generating a
damaging effect. Affecting the target’s being on this fundamental level
with raw mana requires more focus and more power than producing
basic effects; as a result every net hit used to increase the damage value
of a Direct Combat spell also increases the Drain DV of the spell by +1.

Guys, I don't have other books, but from mine, that is SR4A it is not optional, so the rule is in place.

Netz, I'm still doing my research about spirits stun track. Frankly I don't see how a spirit can be stunned, and I am havign big time problem with accepting that free spirits have stun track. Still for consitence reasons, if free spirit have stun track than every other have also.

until further notice this is the way we are going to play this out. stunning the spirit is equal to it's disruption. Once both physical and stun tracks are filled the spirit is disrupted.

[Sentinemodo]

Yikes, correction in progress, there were 6 hits on the spellcasting test.

[Sentinemodo]

Correction made.

Guys, based on so far encounter, I feel that astral combat is pretty bland so I am going to introduce more modifers to astral combat. This seems to be inline with the description of astral visibility (SM 114).

I am also going to start treating non touch spells as range weapons.

this means for example.
1. in astral combat you can hide behind an aura of another dual or astral being granting you partial cover modifier. on glitch this being is hit instead.
2. you can hide behind opaque items like walls, cars granting standard bonus from partial, good and total cover
3. you can move to avoid being hit
4. if in melee (astral combat) casting a spell have modifeir, like when shooting while in melee
5. visibility modifer apply to both spellcasting and astral combat tests

all modifeirs applies to spellcasting, astral combat as well as to resistance rolls
ie. if a spell is going to hit a target behind a cover in crowded place there is spellcasting - visibility modifer and target use Willpower + cover modifer.

lastly and this seems to be houserule, you can go full defense in astral combat - against melee attacks this is Astral Combat + Astral Combat and against spells this is Willpower + Willpower

starting from next IP there is -2 astral visibility modifier (crowded street)

opinions?

[Lethe]

resisted with Edge and each net hit reduced Edge by one.

Isn't banishment resisted with force? SR4A188
Also all free spirits have banishment resistance (RC92;SM109), which means net hits are reduced from the temporary services first(SM99), before it reduces the unspent edge.

all modifeirs applies to spellcasting, astral combat as well as to resistance rolls

Don't know about the resistance roll part. Resistance is how good you can, well resist/absorb/withstand the damage, its not dodging it. Cant imagine how that is affected by visibility. If you make it all like a ranged attack, then we need a possibility to dodge(aside from full defense). So far we can't dodge at all, only resist. Before changing too much i would rather keep it as it is.

Visibility for attacking and astral combat makes sense though.
In the beginning i stated, that i flew up a few meters, so his dual nature form couldn't reach me. Now he is projecting, but i am still up there. Not sure how much the crowd affects me. Astral forms are much more visible and vibrant then normal auras. Hard to overlook.

[Sentinemodo]

banishment - correct.
I used free spirits banishment rules (SM 109) and assumed that free spirits like you have banishment resistance plus edge, forgot about standard rules.
So resistance is Force + Edge