[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

Can you even use Astral Combat to kill a sustained or quickened spell in 5th edition?

[PiXeL01]

I’m pretty sure there is such a mechanic (opposed test versus twice force, net hits reduces force of spell or damages attacker) though for the life of me I cannot remember where I saw it. Maybe it’s a relic of a former edition though

[Stainless Steel Devil Rat]

I’m pretty sure there is such a mechanic (opposed test versus twice force, net hits reduces force of spell or damages attacker) though for the life of me I cannot remember where I saw it. Maybe it’s a relic of a former edition though

Ditto.  I know that you used to just attack sustained spells to end them (by Astral Combat or casting combat spells at the spells)  Now that SR5 has Dispelling, I'm not sure that direct force is intended to also be allowed to end spells.  The Astral Combat rules don't even address the possibility.  The rules governing spells don't preclude other, ongoing spells as a valid target.  Although the rest of the rules don't address how you handle the effect of a spell cast upon a second spell.  It seems like it's at least a hole in the rules, and perhaps so far as a change to the in-universe metaphysics that spells can't be attacked and only dispelled.

[Marcus]

Not that i am aware of, there you can attack an astral barrier which i guess is a spell.
But nothing in Astral Combat in the core talks about it. So i'm gonna go with not in 5th.