[DanJ]

Note that a magician can always use Counterspelling to defend herself, unless surprised. SR4A p.185

Does this mean that a Mage is always considered to be protected as long as she's able to spend a free action to declare counterspelling? or doesn't a mage need to spend a free action to declare counterspelling for purposes of protecting herself?

Question 2:
Spell resistance:
A mage has magic 5 and has a spellcasting skill of 5 and decides to cast stunbolt at a ganger with willpower 3.
The mage rolls 6 successes, but since her magic is 5 she can only use 5 of those. She decides to do so.
The ganger then rolls willpower 3 and gets 2 successes. Not enough to resist the spell.
Since the Mage has 1 net success, the damage goes through as 6S? or am I misunderstanding how this works?

Thanks in advance

[_Pax_]

Note that a magician can always use Counterspelling to defend herself, unless surprised. SR4A p.185

Does this mean that a Mage is always considered to be protected as long as she's able to spend a free action to declare counterspelling? or doesn't a mage need to spend a free action to declare counterspelling for purposes of protecting herself?

Question 2:
Spell resistance:
A mage has magic 5 and has a spellcasting skill of 5 and decides to cast stunbolt at a ganger with willpower 3.
The mage rolls 6 successes, but since her magic is 5 she can only use 5 of those. She decides to do so.

Note that the Mage could have decided to overcast their spell at a Force between 6 and 10, and it's the spell's Force that limits net successes.

Other than that, yes, you're right: the ganger takes 6 boxes of stun.

[JustADude]

As soon as the mage wakes up, he automagically declares himself as Counterspelling for himself. The only way a Mage doesn't get to Counterspell is if you catch them so blindsided they don't even get a chance to go "Hu-wha?!" before you smack them upside the head with that Stunbolt.

As for Question 2, you're forgetting about being able to set the Force of the spell, which is the part that caps hits. I'm assuming that you're assuming Force = Magic, since that's how the math works out.

There are a couple other errors as well.

#1: Hits are capped by Force before the resistance check, so Bob The Mage is slinging 5 hits at Fred The Ganger. Period. End of line. The 6th hit is utterly wasted.

#2: The target's actual Willpower rating has nothing to do with the amount of hits he resists, except as part of the DP for his resistance roll. In your hypothetical scenario, Fred resists 2 hits leaving Bob with 3 net hits and dealing 8S, not 6S.

Casting Hits (CH) = Rolled Hits or Force, whichever is less
Resist Hits (RH) = Hits on Willpower (+ Counterspelling, if any)
CH - RH = Net Hits

[DanJ]

Ah thanks a lot. Oh yeah I got force and magic mixed up for some random reason <.<

So if said ganger had a buddy protecting him with counter spelling 5 and bob the mage cast stunbolt at force 5, rolled 6 hits, and can only use 5 of said hits, the ganger would roll counterspelling 5 + Willpower 3 for resistance. If he was lucky enough to roll 5 successes the spell would have no effect? However if he only rolled 4 successes the Damage would be 6S because it would leave bob the mage with 1 net success.

I hope that i'm not repeating my misunderstanding here....

About the mage counterspelling himself. It sounds like your basically saying that unless someone attacks him in his sleep its always up. I don't see how else he could be surprised. The rules say that he does not have to be aware of the spell being cast because counterspelling is effectively a mana jammer, though a test can be made to identify the nature of the spell or give some kind of indication of an attempt at something.


Just a side note.... its easy to feel overwhelmed with shadowrun when concepts and rules both come together.... I dread the process of learning about the matrix.
With magic its been mostly fine. I just have a very affirmative personality and dislike making mistakes.

[TheNarrator]

So if said ganger had a buddy protecting him with counter spelling 5 and bob the mage cast stunbolt at force 5, rolled 6 hits, and can only use 5 of said hits, the ganger would roll counterspelling 5 + Willpower 3 for resistance. If he was lucky enough to roll 5 successes the spell would have no effect? However if he only rolled 4 successes the Damage would be 6S because it would leave bob the mage with 1 net success.

Sounds correct to me. The mage rolls Spellcasting + Magic. (The maximum number of hits the mage can get is the Force of the spell.) The target rolls Willpower (+ Counterspelling if available). If the target has equal or greater hits, then the spell fails. If the spellcaster has more hits, then subtract the target's hits from the spellcaster's to get the spellcaster's "net hits." The target takes Force + net hits damage. (Then the spellcaster resists Drain.)

[JustADude]

About the mage counterspelling himself. It sounds like your basically saying that unless someone attacks him in his sleep its always up. I don't see how else he could be surprised. The rules say that he does not have to be aware of the spell being cast because counterspelling is effectively a mana jammer, though a test can be made to identify the nature of the spell or give some kind of indication of an attempt at something.

Yeah, pretty much.

Either that or maybe someone with Extended Masking can slip it by under the radar.

[Henzington]

Just like other combat tie always goes to the defender.