[deathwishjoe]

So a simple question. If i have two mages cast say the armor spell on the same target do they stack? Could i get 12 armor from 2 force 6 armor spells?

[Kiirnodel]

The rules don't specify as far as I'm aware, but the likely answer is no. Otherwise, using that same logic, a single magician could stack up several castings of that sort of spell and attain an unlimited bonus with nearly no limitation.

A fair and simple ruling would be that multiple castings of the same spell do not stack with one-another.

[SunRunner]

I cant think of them specifically addressing this but the simple common sense answer to prevent insanity is that you would only count the bonus from one spell of the same type, generally the highest. Now if you have different spells that provide overlapping bonus that should work most of the time. Some examples of the top of my head would be the detection spell Combat Sense and the Manipulation spell Deflection. If you had both of these spells up they would both provide their bonus and stack to defend against being shot ( both at force 6 would provide 12 total bonus dice to your defense test minus upkeep penalties). For clarity sake by type I mean a given name not spell type such as manipulation or detection.

Another example would be having the Armor spell on you and have a Physical barrier spell up between you and your attacker. The stack would be a little more complicated as you would be using the rules for barriers/walls but you get some benefit from the barrier spell.

[Mirikon]

Yeah, bonuses from the same source don't stack, unless they say differently. That's part of the reason you have to get different ratings of Reaction Enhancers, for instance, instead of three R1 Reaction Enhancers.

[deathwishjoe]

Can you site a source for bonuses not stacking? This makes sense as a rule but i cant remember if I remember this rule from dnd or shadowrun as well.

[Rosa]

In regards to armor then the section "Armor and encumbrance " specifically states that if you wear,multiple pieces of armor, only the highest rating counts ( SR5 pg. 169 ). The exceptions to this rule are the Armor spell  and form fitting armor iirc and the exceptions are mentioned directly in the description of the spell and the armor.

[deathwishjoe]

This would indicate that there isnt a general rule about bonuses from the same source not being allowed to stack. Well this makes for a good house rule addition

[Kiirnodel]

It falls more into a common sense ruling. The rules don't specifically say you can't use the same spell twice, but by the same metric it doesn't say you can't wear two helmets, or use two medkits, or several respirators (etc).

There aren't any examples of mundane means that let you use the same item twice to stack up the results, so why would spells be any different?

[deathwishjoe]

This is an interesting point. I would say though that finding mundane or alternative examples of things which explicitly stack would actually show that bonuses from the same source do not stack and require a specific rule to allow them to do so. One would then need to find rules which explicitly forbid stacking in order to show the writers needed to add this in to prevent what they assumed was otherwise allowed. I would point out that one can wear two helmets but because the rules say armor doesnt stack specifically that the bonuses therefore dont stack. Not sure why someone would wear a helmet on top of another but its certainly possible. I need to hit the books though and see if i cant find more rules showing where things explicitly dont stack as i dont think armor alone is enough to prove this assumption on the writers part.

[Mirikon]

Joe, it may not be explicitly RAW, but is most definitely RAI. And anyone who tries to weasel out of it with rules lawyer semantics deserves the phonebook treatment.

There's a reason there are different rating pieces of 'ware, which have a linear cost in both essence and nuyen (and accompanying availability), instead of someone just getting four R1 Muscle Toners.

[deathwishjoe]

Look, im not trying to ruin some gms campaign. I just enjoy collecting and creating broken characters for the fun of it. Like java for 5the ed dnd. He never sleeps as hes an elf but refills his sorcerer spell slots by taking short rests and using warlock spells to do so. Its like a game inside shadowrun. One has to follow the chatacter creation rules as closely as possible but still have something broken at the end. Like a swarm of noizesqeetos and an anthroform directed by an ai. Or in this case seeing how far i can push a character with a bunch of bound spirits of man. Maybe these will all get erratad out of existence at some point but i expect a new edition to come along before that happens

[ShadowcatX]

The truth about Shadowrun is Shadowrun gives you options. That makes it easy to break the system. Hell, people do it by accident. So whatever floats your boat but don't think people will be especially impressed if you abuse RAW.

[living]

most of the time no need for loopholes. so much op stuff open. like the new quality letting you use shape critter form on enemys.

you role your 20 dice vs only body. 1 net hit the enemy is a rat. some more net hits and its a paralyzed rat.


and if you search loopholes... raw doesnt state its forbidden to use more then one spirit/sprit or only one task for aidsorcery. so you can leech all your spirits in one edged manaball or sth and nuke something

[deathwishjoe]

Ummm... So point of interest i recently made a build exploiting the aid spellcadting service. Damage spells arent the way to go on that but if you break the limit on a buff spell and put it in a sustaining focus you can get a rediculusly powerful character out of it. I think i had four buff spells from manipulation of growth armor deflection and shapechange. I was getting an average of 20-30 hits on the spells. Puting them into a rating 1 sustaining focus wasnt as much of a liability fordispelling as i thought since it would take a while to chip away at so many hits but im uncertain how force 1 spells handle background count.

[Rosa]

Poof they're gone, that's how. A force one spell will fizzle the second there's a BG. Active spells and foci have their force reduced by 1 per point of BG. Rules are in Street Grimoire page 32.