Shadowrun Play > Rules and such

Magic house rules

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street.mage:
I have a question to everyone about magic, direct spells in general.  I'm fairly new to Shadowrun and have recently started a game. 

I have a Shaman that is pretty buffed.  Magic 5.  Spellcasting 7 (with the positive quality that makes it higher).

Not sure what the willpower is, but it's pretty high too.  He rolls like 12 dice on drain, and most of the direct spells have low drain.  Basically, unless he gets unlucky, he can cast force 5 spells all day long and never take damage.  I know there's an optional rule in the book, and we're using it (the one where he has to roll an extra drain for each net hit).

The problem is overcasting.  A rocket launcher can't take out a dragon, but a maxed out manabolt might?  (OK, maybe 3-4 manabolts)  Seriously?  Not knocking on dragons or anything...but it seems there are checks and balances for keeping other characters in check with various weapons (forensics, for example), but a magic user can erase his signature, thus pretty much making a kill undetectable if needed.  I know the drone is the weakness of the mage, but does anyone have suggestions on bringing my character down to earth?

Critias:
One fairly popular house rule is to not cut spells in half when figuring Drain.  It'll make magic more of a "last resort," something that you'll use only when necessary, and something that costs to use.  It's not a perfect fix, but it's one I've heard a lot of positive results from.

FastJack:
Send some Great Dragons or those 'Immortal' Elves at him... Or a Cyberzombie or two... That should take him down a peg or two. :D

gruegirl:
Have an insect spirit snatch his meat body while he's astral.

Happened to me, had to burn TWO edge that run.

Adrick:
Dragons should and would be prepared for a mage. And can do the same thing back to the mage.
Either with hired defenses or there own skills, counter spelling and sustained foci w mana barrier are helpful as well.

don't be afraid to use comparable power npc's against him and/or astral beasts. to keep him busy, He can't sling mojo all over the place if he's busy trying to banish a spirit.

think of ways to break line of sight as well, smoke grenades, flashbangs etc. work well for mundanes as a defense if you keep some nasties in astral space when he tries to use astral perception.
Bacterial smoke would break his line of site from astral as well.
Snipers will keep his head down to.

Also consider while a dragon might be able to take a rocket it can't take several in a row.  And anyone can pick up a weapon and throw fire downrange at something, plant a bomb, or run a semi trick into the dragon and they don't have any risk of getting tired and passing out at its feet from a bad roll.
The mage can just do it without having to carry the weapons around at the expense of possible fatigue.


That said we have used the optional rule for extra successes to limit the abuse of stun spells.

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