[living]

What are hits on the spell used for?

[firebug]

As far as I can tell, nothing.  Which really makes the Physical version pretty useless.  "Yay, I can do 6DV with no AP, at melee range requiring another skill, woo!"  I mean the mana version is like, pretty powerful because it ignores armor.  So it being an only moderate DV without AP doesn't matter at all.

[Rift_0f_Bladz]

Yeah, the man's version is not to bad as the spell ability for adepts, especially moderate str gun adepts or backup for a blade adept, especially if you don't go with levitate.

[antaskidayo]

A Powerblade operates on
the same principle as a Powerbolt or Powerball, affecting
physical objects, capable of parrying and resisted by armor.

POWERBOLT
(DIRECT)
Type: P Range: LOS Damage: P
Duration: I Drain: F – 3

Direct: When your direct combat spell is successfully
cast, it inflicts a number of boxes of damage equal
to your net hits on the opposed test. The opposed test
generally pits your Spellcasting + Magic [Force] against
either Body (for physical spells) or Willpower (for mana
spells). The target does not get to resist the damage,
only the Spellcasting test.

Powerbolt is a direct spell, only opposed by body as manabolt is only opposed by willpower. Both spells Manabolt and Powerbolt bypass resistance test. The wording on the Powerblade being resisted by armor and no AP is weird O__O

So Spellblades once cast( and sustained ) will be - Blades + Agility[ Force ] vs Reaction + Intuition +/- dodge, fulldefence, parry, etc

A Manablade works like a Manabolt or Manaball,
bypassing armor and capable of affecting spirits, but unable
to parry physical attacks or damage objects.

- If the Manablade can bypass physical objects then - can this spell be cast overlaying a Katana Weapon Focus?  ( Wow thats like getting hit by 2 blades with 1 strike, and the manablade ignores armor, But that means if the katana cant get through the armor then neither can the manablade coz the strike is stopped by the armor  )

-so delicious with the energy aura too xD

[firebug]

It explicitly mentions that weapon foci can interact with either version of the spell, so no.  Beyond that, still no, for reasons I don't have the energy to explain.

[antaskidayo]

aww, ok so a normal mundane katana would do then.

[SpellBinder]

What are hits on the spell used for?

As with any sustained spell, resistance to dispelling; SR5, page 295, under Dispelling (amazing how often this little bit seems to be overlooked).

A Dispelling Test is an opposed test pitting the dispeller's Counterspelling + Magic [Astra] vs. spell's Force + caster's Magic (+ karma spent, if any).  Every net hit reduces the number of hits the caster had in casting the spell.  If the spell is reduced to 0 net hits, the spell ends immediately.  The dispeller then takes Drain as if he/she had cast that spell, be it Physical or Stun depending on the spell's Force.

And because this is a test involving your Magic Attribute, if you have an active Power Focus it adds its Force to the dispeller's dice pool.

[Marcus]

If you just take the exact wording over it seems pretty clear to me, we are looking at a Direct Spell, which to me means Willpower+counter spelling only to resist. What's more unless your oppo happens to be packing a weapon foci, his defense option is effectively limited to dodge. That means we have a direct spells with a decent damage constant which is boostedby a melee attack roll with Accuracy equal to force.

That folks is super dangerous. One of the things that keeps melee combat from getting out of hand is that melee defense pools can easily be bigger then attack pools. This effectively limits melee defense, and negates armor based defense. This attack gives adepts a large advantage over all tech melee combatants accepting perhaps Mono-whip users.

I think some clarification related to needing net hits on some kind of casting test to set the damage raiting for the direct version may well be in order, but I don't really have any idea what the author intended.

[antaskidayo]

sustain 1 with a spellfocus and cast it one more time with focused concentration to make this deadly baby xD

[FasterN8]

If you just take the exact wording over it seems pretty clear to me, we are looking at a Direct Spell, which to me means Willpower+counter spelling only to resist. What's more unless your opponent happens to be packing a weapon foci, his defense option is effectively limited to dodge. That means we have a direct spells with a decent damage constant which is boosted by a melee attack roll with Accuracy equal to force.

That folks is super dangerous. One of the things that keeps melee combat from getting out of hand is that melee defense pools can easily be bigger then attack pools. This effectively limits melee defense, and negates armor based defense. This attack gives adepts a large advantage over all tech melee combatants accepting perhaps Mono-whip users.

I think some clarification related to needing net hits on some kind of casting test to set the damage rating for the direct version may well be in order, but I don't really have any idea what the author intended.

     I was thinking the same thing about the power differential between the 2 versions of the spell.  Manablade is ridiculously powerful and powerblade is barely worth having.  Also, I didn't realize it when I first read the spells, but the insignificance of spellcasting hit also rubs me the wrong way.  (Resisting a dispel is a little something, but not enough IMHO.)

I think for my home game I'm going to houserule the following: 
Powerblade has an AP equal to net hits.   
Manablade has a base DV equal to (spellcasting) net hits and attack damage is resisted by Willpower, not Body.

That brings the power of each spell closer to parity and gives each one its own niche for melee combat.

[Novocrane]

I'm not entirely convinced they are Combat spells. "Based on" does not mean "the same as". Are there any other Duration: S Combat spells? Have you considered the type of every single other spell in Hard Targets? (that would be Manipulation)

Damaging: Manipulation spells that cause damage have a Damage Value equal to their Force (unaltered by hits on the Spellcasting test) and 0 AP. The damage is resisted with Body + Armor.

Wow thats like getting hit by 2 blades with 1 strike

Sure - if you want to use a free action on Multiple Attacks.

Waiting to see adepts with qi foci & sustaining foci. Say, something like this in two parts that connect.

[Marcus]

Specifically saying based on seems far more likely to me then something completely not referenced in the spell's text. Unless you have word from the Author?If those aren't combat spells then someone better get the errata on in a heck of hurry, cause I feel very sure the vast majority who read it will come to the same conclusions I did.

[PiXeL01]

Interestingly enough the spell class isn't written in the book so it could be anything. However, since they are based on Combat Spells then that classification would be my first guess

[Novocrane]

I said I'm not convinced, then referred to a few potentially pertinent facts & suppositions while asking questions. No, I don't know the author. If I did, I might be talking with them about it.

Conclusions people will jump to regarding the spell doesn't worry me at all - it wouldn't be the first time Shadowrun required explaining. I'm comparing options.

[SpellBinder]

I'm not entirely convinced they are Combat spells. "Based on" does not mean "the same as". Are there any other Duration: S Combat spells? Have you considered the type of every single other spell in Hard Targets? (that would be Manipulation)

Yes; Shadow Spells, page 16, Flame Burst (Combat; Direct, Elemental):

Type:  P, Range:  S (A), Damage:  P, Duration:  S, Drain:  F + 1
This spell sends a pulse of flame at the start of the caster's first action once every Combat Turn as long as it is sustained, in every direction, centered on the caster, and damages everything in the AOE except the caster.

However I do agree that the Spellblades are more likely to be Manipulation spells than Combat spells.  Elemental Combat spells like Flamethrower and Lightning bolt used to be Manipulations back in the day of SR3 (and maybe earlier).