[Jesrin-Bon]

Hi All,

First time posting here. I have played Shadowrun in the past, but it has been a long time (haven't played since before my daughter was born, 21 years ago or some such). Anyway, I have just started a group that wants to play Shadowrun. I have the 4e Anniversary edition, and came across some things I am not to sure on. Here they are...

1. I read about the absolute minimum Drain for spells is 1, is this to mean that even if you roll enough, you still suffer 1 Drain?

2. The Adepts powers, are they always on? Or do you need to activate them to use them?

That's it for now.

 

[Tagz]

Pretty sure the minimum drain is regarding the formula to calculate the drain a character will soak.  So for instance if you cast a F1 Knockout which is (F/2) - 3 the formula would work out to less then 0, but we have a minimum of 1, so the character will roll their drain resistance pool against a DV of 1.

As for Adept Powers, I think many of them are considered always on but some require it to be declared.  I think there are also some rules of guidelines for Adepts turning off "always on powers" or at the least suppressing them, but I can't recall where.  Try Street Magic.

[Lansdren]

For the drain its basically no matter the drain code you always have to soak a drain of at least one (statistically you could still fail the roll and take damage).

For the Adept powers its a tricky one most of them are passive so its not to difficult to imagine them as 'always on' even some of the combat ones like enhanced reflexes would appear to be always on where as some do require them to be specifically said your using them.

[Kot]

For Summoning the minimum Drain Value is 2 though. Even if the Spirit didn't get any hits on his opposing roll.

[Chaemera]

FIrst off, welcome back to Shadowrun and all that friendly stuff.

1. I read about the absolute minimum Drain for spells is 1, is this to mean that even if you roll enough, you still suffer 1 Drain?

The line you're talking about is on page 203 of SR4A, and the exact wording is that no "Drain Value" can be less than 1. A particularly stringent GM could argue that since your Drain Resistance Test reduces the Drain Value (SR4A, pg. 184), then the pg. 203 rule of minimum Drain Value is invoked. However, the section that the 203 rule is in is discussing how to read the format for spells, including calculated pre-soak drain. Therefore, the RAI is pretty clear that, no matter what, you have to roll a Resistance test.

2. The Adepts powers, are they always on? Or do you need to activate them to use them?

Some are always on, some are activated. Example: Attribute Boost is activated when you roll the dice and lasts twice the number of hits in Combat Rounds. Enhanced Perception, on the other hand, is always actively enhancing your Perception Tests (including Assensing, if available).

[Jesrin-Bon]

Thanks all, for the info. And double thanks to Chaemera for the greet back to Shadowrun.