If you pass the defense test what happens? This feels a bit like Starfinder grenades which are thoroughly underwhelming and still would be slightly broken were it not for the comparative cost of ammo.
You avoid the hit and the damage, just like
every other weapon attack in the game. Not familiar with starfinder, so I cannot comment on the comparison, but I promise you people would still get hit with grenades more often than not since Adepts aside the attack pool potential is much higher than the defense test pool potential.
This doesn't sound all that different from how it works now. I forget how 5e worked...
Neither edition gives the defenders a defence test as standard, they only get soak or (at best) interrupt actions (Run For Your Life in 5e, Avoid Incoming in 6e). Avoid Incoming works similarly to what I'm suggesting but can only be used once per turn or not at all if you've already moved (which is a mistake IMO.)
Correct, but the lack of a defense test was more tolerable in SR5 since soak pools existed. In SR6, unless you are playing a Fat Larry build, one grenade kills the vast majority of characters, and two grenades will kill fucking anyone.
1. They cannot miss. At absolute worse, you target Steve, get 0 hits on the attack test, and the explosive scatters 12 meters in whatever direction (it doesn't matter), which still leaves you in the 8m radius of auto damage. On top of that, the mathematical probability of that happening is ludicrously minute.
I'm sorry but I am not sorry, all I can say is that anyone who thinks that is mechanically balanced is not someone I consider to be the slightest bit reasonable in their gaming judgement at all.
2. Yes, you can use an interrupt minor action to
potentially get out of some of that radius. I'll even grant you the best case scenario. We target Steve, totally fuck the attack and scatter roll, and that sucker goes 12m wide. He only needs to escape 8m of blast to avoid it. Roll that Reaction + Athletics with the -6 GZ penalty, and you let me know when you get 9 hits to escape it with that formula. Go ahead, I'll wait. Avoid Incoming is laughably ineffective.
And then, to top things off, there is a good chance you are taking 16P right to the face, and a very remote chance you are taking less than 12P. Then the second grenade comes, and you are almost definitely taking 16P.
This collection of mechanics is completely insane to me, but I certainly acknowledge everyone has a right to their own evaluation of it.
Edit: I will add one more personal note too. Not that I have seen anyone in this thread say so, but I have seen others. People that say "but grenade abuse!" really bother me. That sentiment bothers me because why add a mechanic that is intended to be used by players if that mechanic simply existing and being used is abuse? That line of thinking is deeply flawed.