[Halancar]

Infiltration: How do you stop the "hah ha, you have an aura, so screw you and your infil skill?" And other tips and techniques

As mentioned before, the mage still has to see you. As in, have line of sight. You did remember to crawl through the ventilator shaft, duck behind the desk, and gecko crawl on the ceiling where he wasn't looking ? if you have a high infiltration skill, you certainly did. Remember, solid objects have shadows in the astral, so they block line of sight, at least to some extent.

Surveillance: Detecting those Invisible, Concealed, Masked SOBs..using portable tech.

Ultrasound sensor, Olfactory sensor, Radar and Ultrawide band radar... they are way cheaper than learning the improved invisibility spell ! Take two or three together, don't forget the cheap trideo camera, even if they have custom spells against these they'd have to be sustaining four or more together, which is bound to limit their other abilities (or else they invested a fortune in sustaining foci. But then if they have more resources then you do, then they are better, you'll just have to hope for a mistake).

Spirit Defeat

If your little gun doesn't work, then you need a bigger gun. There's also attacks of will, roll Willpower + Banishing (if any) and do (Charisma) P damage.

Operational Level Evasion

Not sure what you mean.

Killing the feckers

Sniper bullet to the back of the head at 1,000 meters. Generally speaking, shooting first. If you are close, time for a smoke grenade, you're bound to be better at fighting blind than they are.
[/quote]

[foolofsound]

Remember also that mages can't target spells through technological sensors unless they are integrated into cybereyes (vision enhancements only, at that). They generally have to rely on natural senses, meaning normal vision, maybe low light or thermographic. Mages can't target you through astral sight unless you are dual-natured. This means a mage in a Thermal Smoke cloud is borked.

Edit: Though a mage with cybereye vision magnification could be a terror.

[WhackedMaki]

Remember also that mages can't target spells through technological sensors unless they are integrated into cybereyes (vision enhancements only, at that). They generally have to rely on natural senses, meaning normal vision, maybe low light or thermographic. Mages can't target you through astral sight unless you are dual-natured. This means a mage in a Thermal Smoke cloud is borked.

Edit: Though a mage with cybereye vision magnification could be a terror.

They can attack you through astral sight, as long as they're still physical. If they go to astrally projecting, they can't target you. As long as they're physical though, they can hurt anything that's physical in any way. There's also magesight goggles (I think they're called that, away from books ATM) that they can use to target without direct LoS, but they take a negative to it.

[foolofsound]

They can attack you through astral sight, as long as they're still physical.

Nevermind. So they can. Your average mage doesn't go around with his astral sight up, though, so unless you tip him off to your presence, he probably won't notice you.

[Redmercury]

They can attack you through astral sight, as long as they're still physical.

Nevermind. So they can. Your average mage doesn't go around with his astral sight up, though, so unless you tip him off to your presence, he probably won't notice you.

Maybe not your average mage, but the shadowrunners that live longest tend to be the ones that anticipate their enemies paranoia. I would also say that a wagemage is more than likely to be conducting regular astral patrols of an area or building, he could even have a few watchers up and about.

As far as the smoke goes, even though a mage may not be astrally perceiving when it pops, most combat trained mages w ill switch to astral as soon as they can.  One who values his life will duck for cover as well.

[foolofsound]

Actually, another question: How much non-living material can Astral Vision pierce?

I always run it as though you can see a short distance through a small amount of material (so hiding behind a thin wall or in a box isn't going to work), but can't see too much beyond that, or through any sort of thick material.

[FuelDrop]

could someone please give me the page number for 'cannot target mundanes while astral projecting'?
thanks in advance.

[foolofsound]

could someone please give me the page number for 'cannot target mundanes while astral projecting'?
thanks in advance.

SR4A p193
"...the character cannot physically interact with anything..."

[FuelDrop]

Ta

[Mirikon]

Actually, another question: How much non-living material can Astral Vision pierce?

I always run it as though you can see a short distance through a small amount of material (so hiding behind a thin wall or in a box isn't going to work), but can't see too much beyond that, or through any sort of thick material.

Actually, all physical objects cast shadows on the astral. A pane of glass is just as effective a hinderance to astral sight as a 10m wide wall of plascrete.

[CanRay]

Taser.  Repeat current until magician gets the idea that casting is a bad idea.

[Mirikon]

Taser.  Repeat current until magician gets the idea that casting is a bad idea.

FA Belt fed Assault cannon. Hold trigger until ammo is expended.

[foolofsound]

Actually, all physical objects cast shadows on the astral. A pane of glass is just as effective a hinderance to astral sight as a 10m wide wall of plascrete.

In which case, wagemages are unlikely to be personally doing the assensing rounds, in any case, so all you'd have to trick are his spirits.

[Mirikon]

And remember, watchers are stupid as all getout.

[CanRay]

And remember, watchers are stupid as all getout.

That's putting it mildly.