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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Quick question on astral combat

Posted by: FriendoftheDork Sep 16 2007, 07:40 PM

Hey the adept in my group wants to know how he can fight spirits in astral while using astral perception power.

Now, after reading the book I got the impression the rules say you use meat attributes and skills for fighting physical opponents and Astral Combat+Willpower to fight astral ones.

And, astrally projecting mages use mental stats instead of physical ones.

But what about adepts? Do they also use mental stats when fighting astral entities, or do they use physical stats for everything except actually attacking?

Also, weapon foci does the same damage as the weapon right? If it is for instance a sword, does it do charmisma/2 +3 damage? Or strength?

Posted by: Irian Sep 16 2007, 07:58 PM

By the rules? Afaik Astral Combat + Willpower, no matter if attacking with a weapon focus or not.

And yes, a Weapon Focus does damage like the weapon it is. And I would say it's charisma/2 + 3.

Posted by: FriendoftheDork Sep 16 2007, 08:08 PM

QUOTE (Irian)

By the rules? Afaik Astral Combat + Willpower, no matter if attacking with a weapon focus or not.

And yes, a Weapon Focus does damage like the weapon it is. And I would say it's charisma/2 + 3.

So if while astrally percieving, he uses charisma as str? That would mean he'd use astral initative, and his wired reflexes would be useless... but would he get 3 initative passes as astral mages do and spirits do?

Posted by: Irian Sep 16 2007, 08:15 PM

Erm, no? Why should it mean, that he uses astral initiative? As long as he is only on astral perception, he uses his "meat" initiative.

You only get astral speed when astraly projecting

Hm, I could be wrong with Charisma, probably it's really strength... The book says...

QUOTE

Most astral combat damage is based on the character’s astral
strength (Charisma), as noted on the Astral Combat table

You COULD think, that "most" means "except Watchers and Weapon foci"... But imho it's not really 100% clear.

Posted by: FriendoftheDork Sep 16 2007, 09:01 PM

QUOTE (Irian)

Erm, no? Why should it mean, that he uses astral initiative? As long as he is only on astral perception, he uses his "meat" initiative.

You only get astral speed when astraly projecting

Hm, I could be wrong with Charisma, probably it's really strength... The book says...

QUOTE

Most astral combat damage is based on the character’s astral
strength (Charisma), as noted on the Astral Combat table

You COULD think, that "most" means "except Watchers and Weapon foci"... But imho it's not really 100% clear.

Hmm just assumed that if you use astral stats for some (such as strength) you should use it for the rest as well (reaction, body etc.).

So what's you're saying is that you only use astral stats for the attack themselves, but you use meat stats for everything else (including evading astral attacks)?

I hope some more people could shed some light on this, the book is not very clear on it.

Posted by: Glyph Sep 16 2007, 11:18 PM

pg. 184, under ASTRAL COMBAT, says that astrally perceiving characters use physical Attributes and skills against opponents with a physical body, and Willpower + Astral Combat skill against wholly astral entities.

The skills are the only thing that change, though, because only astrally projecting characters use their mental Attributes in place of physical ones. So the damage of a weapon focus would still be based on Strength, not Charisma, if used by an astrally perceiving character.

Posted by: FriendoftheDork Sep 16 2007, 11:49 PM

Ty glyph, that clears it up.

Posted by: Zhan Shi Sep 17 2007, 02:10 AM

Shadowrun FAQ has breakdowns on what stats to use.