AREA Combat Spells question.
I haven't seen anyone else ask this question, so maybe I'm just dense. But I really don't understand how indirect area combat spells work.
"Area indirect spells travel from the magician to the point of detonation and then go boom. The test is like that for grenades (p. 181): a Spellcasting + Magic [Force] (3) Test with scatter of 2D6
meters. Unlike grenades, you get to add your net hits on this test to the Damage Value of the spell, but only if you beat the threshold; otherwise the spell still detonates, but the hits are used to reduce scatter by one meter per hit.." pg 283.
Now I would think this means that if cast Fireball force 5 with and get 3 hits everyone in the area resists 5P -5AP with body + armor + fire resist, while if I get 1 hit the spells scatters a few meters and everyone in the new area resists 5P -5AP with body + armor + fire resist. But in the side bar example on the same page the mage casts a force 7 Blast and gets 5 hits then the gangers roll reaction + intuition lowing his net hits and then resist damage with body+armor. (the example doesn't mention anything about scatter or the threshold).
These seemingly conflicting rules leave me with several questions.
First off I am assuming that the caster only makes one roll to cast the spell.
1. Is the sidebar just wrong?
2. Is the rules text wrong?
3. Do these both some how work together? If so, do the threshold dice count as hits for damage? ie. If a Mage gets 6 hits on a force 6 fireball and the Ganger gets 3 hits on reaction + intuition does the ganger have to resist 9P (3 net hits) or 6P (0 net hits after threshold)?
4. What happens if the Ganger spends edge a gets 10 hits, does he have to resist 6P or is he now resisting 2P or 0P depending on how the threshold works?
5. Is everything I said wrong an it works some other way that I'm not getting?
Side note -- I have similar questions about defending against thrown grenades -- Basically is there any defense against a wireless/motion sense thrown grenade or do I just have to soak on average 10P AP -2 if anybody tries to throw a grenade at my feat even if they get 0 successes?
Thanks
OK...here is how I understand things:
You roll your spellcasting test. If it was something other then an Indirect Combat Spell, then it would work as the main
rules text. However, the Indirect Combat Spells rule trumps the Area Effect Spells rule(since the Area Effect Spells is
more general, and specific trumps general). So, for Indirect Combat Spells, you do the whole thing with the targets
rolling their Reaction+Intuition, and take the appropriate damage. The targets of the spell roll their body+armor because..
the spell is Indirect.
I am guessing it works like this because: Direct Combat Spells, Mass Mood, etc, etc don't have a directly visible effect
tied with their creation, and the caster can be off in their point of targeting, while Indirect Area spells have some sort of
precursor to the effect the Mage can use to adjust the point of detonation.