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Dumpshock Forums _ Shadowrun _ Drain 101...
Posted by: Sharkman Jul 19 2010, 12:22 PM
I read a lot of rules write ups in the forum on Spell casting, Mages and spell power. I am not one of those people who hates magic. 
I love it. But...I want to make sure that I am handling drain correctly?
I have two mages in my group and they very rarely ever have ANY drain. They do not overcast much but regularly cast Force 6 Stunbolts/StunBalls etc...and I think I have seen 2 or 3 points of stun drain over 2 or 3 sessions. I mean like 1 Stun here, 1 Stun there...its quite rare.
I think they are both rolling 10 to 12 dice on their drain tests....
Can someone give me a clear break down on drain just to make sure I'm doing it right?
Posted by: Mäx Jul 19 2010, 12:38 PM
Its not uncommon for mages to be castin stunbolts/balls all day long without suffering any drain so i doupt your doing anythink wrong but here we go:
1.Drain for those spell is force/2 -1/+1 respectly so thats 2/4 points of drain from those spells at force 6/7
2.If they have 12 dice for drain resistance, they can on avarage resist 4 points of damage, so they should almost never take any damage from casting those bolts and only rarely take damage from those balls.
Posted by: Johnny B. Good Jul 19 2010, 12:51 PM
They just use the drain code for the spell they're using ((F/2) +/- X), and then roll (willpower + linked stat + centering focus).
Fetishes reduce the drain by 2 for the spell they are linked to, but you cannot cast without them touching your body. You can also use a spellcasting focus two ways; You can either add the dice to your spellcasting test, or add the dice to your drain test afterwards, but not both.
Also look up the optional rule that physical spells have hits that increase net damage and drain. It nerfs them a lot.
Posted by: Hagga Jul 19 2010, 01:00 PM
Fetishes add +2 to the drain reduction dicepool rather than reducing the DV.
Posted by: Draco18s Jul 19 2010, 01:21 PM
Also look up the optional rule that physical spells have hits that increase net damage and drain. It nerfs them a lot.
Spellcasting foci no longer work that way. It was errated out for being confusing.
And its not physical spells its combat spells.
Posted by: Mäx Jul 19 2010, 01:39 PM
Isn't it only direct combat spells.
Posted by: Johnny B. Good Jul 19 2010, 01:42 PM
And its not physical spells its combat spells.
Oop, I was mistaken. And I didn't know about the Errata, thanks for that.
And yes, it's direct combat spells I believe.
Posted by: fazzamar Jul 19 2010, 01:59 PM
At the risk of starting another Direct Combat spell drain house rules thread here's the house rule that we use since I don't like the idea of increasing drain because the mage rolls well on the casting,
Drain is increased by the highest number of successes (not net, just regular) that a target gets on the spell resistance test.
Say for example you're casting a force 6 Stunball at 3 guys, Guy 1 gets 2 successes, Guy 2 gets 1, and Guy 3 gets 3. Then the mage will be facing 7 drain F/2 + 1 + target's successes (6/2+1+3).
Posted by: Karoline Jul 19 2010, 02:56 PM
Drain is increased by the highest number of successes (not net, just regular) that a target gets on the spell resistance test.
Say for example you're casting a force 6 Stunball at 3 guys, Guy 1 gets 2 successes, Guy 2 gets 1, and Guy 3 gets 3. Then the mage will be facing 7 drain F/2 + 1 + target's successes (6/2+1+3).
Just to clarify for everyone, that is a house rule.
Back to OP, yeah, if a mage is built well and is careful, they will rarely suffer any sort of drain damage from spellcasting.
(F/2)+X is how you determine drain (X can be negative) for most spells, and stunbolt has an X of -1, so a force 6 stunbolt only has a drain of 2, which is going to be easy to bring down to nothing if your mages have a drain pool of 12ish.
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