Yep, and that's a large AoE, 12m radius, but then again unless you needed such a large area, how about doing a few force 6, probably going to reduce all the drain without using the edge (whihc they don't have), and only Stun if you don't. You are still probably going to be rolling about 12 dice against their 4 dice, so going to get a few net hits, and since they have a strong element on call, hide the caster while you do it.

I suppose everybody has their own methods, me personally I guess my mages aren't willing to take that much (physical) drain for the party unless things are really going badly, and it sounds like this isn't the cast for their team.

I suppose it does leave the grunts to take care of any drones though, as it is a Mana spell.

Max
Dunedin, NZ

How'd he get the 12m radius? It seems to me that if he's withholding that many dice, the baddies can resist much more easily. Alternatively, if he's got Magic 12, then yeah, he should be tossing death hither and yon.

He's casting Force 12 Stunballs... which means they have a radius of 12 meters...



He's only got magic 6, but apparently the mage is willing to take the drain form a Force 12 spell for the party. (see first post)


Max
Dunedin, NZ

Yeah, one of these days I'm going to create a mage with Edge 8, and see what happens.

But those numbers are for a full soak. He'll likely get a partial one: with 12 dice, that's an average of 4 successes vs drain. That's just a Moderate wound. He could cast it two more times, and not keel over. Granted, that isn't something you want to try lightly, unless you've got a specialized build. But it isn't a "One and Done" type of deal.

Yeah, I gave numbers for the full soak. Should you do it with Edge 8, base drain resistance 12 dice, you get a 48% chance to fully resist a drain of 9P (add Edge to pool).

The key message here is to watch the power level of mages. The very, very common combination of max. magic (5 or 6) and soft-maxed drain stats is extremely powerful. Even without other tricks like overlapping mentor bonus and specialisations, power focus, and increase attribute spells. If you permit such a build in your game, you should seriously consider removing availability caps on gear and cyberware.

Having spent the weekend putting some more thought into the way I run my campaign I suspect my shaman player is prepared to take the drain because we play a very convention style game where a whole run can be acheived in 5/6 hours and the next session starts with a 'clean slate' so wounds etc reset.

I've done this because I have about 15 or so players - all in their thirties with kids and real life commitments that mean it was impossible to put a regular game together on a regular night. By having so many players and by hosting the game at different venues and days each week, I can normally find 5/6 people who can make the session and it means I get to play with most of my mates at least once a month.

I think that given that set up - taking a few boxes of physical damage (knowing it won't be there next game session) in order to wipe out small security teams (which may be in two by two cover formation and all within the area of effect) is probably a wise tactical decision.

I'm going to;

introduce more drones... which chemical weapons,
take background count into account where appropriate,
use more counterspelling and more capable magical defences,
generally be aware of the relatively high table rating of my players and increase the opposition as appropriate.

Thanks for all the comments so far folks!

.M.

If you're into convention style play, you may want to check out the Shadowrun Missions page. Even if you don't use the story arc, they've got a good tracking system for wounds, etc. Very handy.

One really really important thing to remember for any Mana based spell, ie stunball, is that ALL the people have to be in line of sight to the mage at the time of casting. It doesn't matter that the spell is an area effect spell, and that they may still be in the actual area of effect, if the Mage didn't see them at the time of casting, they don't get effected by the spell. This is the advantage of Physical spells like Fireball. If you are in the area of effect of that, even if the mage didn't see you, you still get roasted. This is one of the reasons that physical spells have a higher drain code to Mana spells.

Also, another way around this is to have hostages intermixed with guards, so you cna only area effect nuke them if you are also willing to do the same to hostages, ie injured or captured team mates, the target you are trying to rescue, etc.


Have fun.


Max,
Dunedin NZ.

@CoyoteNZ

I hadn't spotted that - Cheers!