That Force 5 spell can only get 5 hits total (barring the use of Edge), so it actually fails against an OR 5 target. Net hits = Hits - Threshold (p. 63, SR4A), and the Spellcasting+Magic Test requires at least one net hit to succeed (p. 183, SR4A, first paragraph under Step 5). Since the Hits scored cannot exceed the Force (p. 183, SR4A, second-to-last paragraph), you'd have to cast the spell with a Force greater than the OR to even be able to succeed, and the OR is the Threshold for the Test, so the net hits are going to be correspondingly fewer. If I cast a Force 6 direct spell against an OR 5 target, I can score up to 1 net hit (6 total hits, 5 of which go against the Threshold), for a total of 7 damage.
Non-living targets are specifically treated as a success test. "Spells cast on non-living objects require a Success Test
with a threshold based on the type of object affected (see the Object Resistance Table)." Threshold = hits needed for success test. This is a specific rule. Specific rules trump non-specific rules. Yes you need one net hit for resisted spellcasting just like any other attack.
Counterspelling has no effect on a non-living, non-magic target, because Counterspelling dice are added to the resistance test (p. 185, 2nd paragraph under Spell Defense), and "A spell cast on a non-living, non-magic target is not resisted" (p. 183). Additionally, "thresholds are never applied to Opposed Tests" (p. 63, last sentence); you can have an Opposed Test or a Success Test against a Threshold, never a combination.
Please provide a single quote stating that counterspelling is useless for defending non-living targets. Counterspelling is jamming the spell as it's being cast, not the covering a living target with some sort of aura bubble.
The rules are horribly written I'll grant you, but as written, a single target spell on a drone would have no counterspell added (it rolls no resistance so getting extra dice to resistance is useless). If it's an AoE, the counterspelling dice are rolled once and applied to all targets protected in the area equally.
Yeah, there's a reason for it, but apparently not the one you seem to think. It's called "overcasting" because you're "casting" at Force "over" your Magic attribute. Nothing more, nothing less. It's not some huge, scary, special super-mega-dangerous-secret-forbidden-technique thing, like you seem to want it to be. It's just pushing yourself to your limit. People push themselves to their limits all the time in the real world and, yeah, they risk broken bones and worse, but they're not a guarantee... and your rule makes it a guarantee.
It's pushing yourself over your limit and tearing you apart.
I think the main issue here is that you only have an SR4 point of view to look at it with, but overcasting in past editions was something you didn't just willy nilly do like you can in SR4. In SR3 for example, overcasting a no modifier spell at force 12(would result in a drain TN of 6, meaning you need to roll six's for hits. That said, if you were casting at deadly to drop the target, you'd need 10 6's on your drain test to take no damage. 1 in 6 chance of a 6 means that's what, like a sixty dice pool to be able to be able to come out unscathed.
Compare that to SR4 where you can cast a force 12 no modifier spell and only need six hits (like an 18 dice pool quite easilly attained) on drain resistance to take no damage, overcasting went from only for the OMG I'm Going to die if I don't situations to, it's tuesday, it feels like tuesday, I overcast on Tuesday.
Which leads us back into the crux of the issue, which is that Taking P instead of S isn't a drawback when drain is so low no one takes drain damage anyway, and in SR4 no one really does very often. You go from I'm going to hurt you and risk getting a headached, to I'm going to melt your face and risk getting...a nosebleed.
Things have very much gone from an almost eye for eye in way of drain to eye for papercut.
This isn't just an overcasting issue though. Casting one shot spells really should be capable of putting a mage in a bad spot and really, this only happens with inexperienced players in SR4. It hops right up into one of the core issues with the system in that many players will constantly run around using every power creep (which is abundant)to up their character, but if a GM has the rest of the universe play along the same way, players will need a playing deck of character sheets for each session. So it's all a big illusion of making the world seem to play along the same way.
