due to the attack test not generating enough hits to score a hit, the shooter didn't cover any of the floor, the reaction test deems the character dropped prone.
sometimes before chanting ultimatums people need to think a little

Just look at the pic of the Street Sweeper in Arsenal and tell me again that it does not cover the gound (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Are you sure he's getting seven hits per dodge with just 12 dice everytime? If so, you might want to check his dice. It's no unusual to see that many on occasion, but if it is a regular basis, he's not just bending the propability curve, he's using it for a yard stick.

Beyond that, my suggestion is the same as others I've seen here. put him up (and the team) against multiple enimies. With three or four guys shooting with burst fire, two attacks each, he should be into the negatives on his rolls and looking for cover pretty quick.

So many ways to get around this, most of which have already been mentioned. Reaction is useless in melee and against magic.

One guy with a wide burst can likely put a few holes in him.

Make good use of the '-1 to dodge per previous dodge attempt since last action' In other words if he is fighting 5 basic guard types, and each one fires 2 shots from a pistol in SA mode, then he has to make 10 dodge rolls. If his reaction is 10, then the rolls go 10, 9, 8...3, 2, 1. Some of those should hit. This makes it really easy to do a bit of damage without rolling out any kind of big guns, just a couple mall cops could pull this off.

Why is reaction useless in melee?

I think this kind of character poses the same challenge as a walking tank, a stealth-maxed technomancer, or any other over specialized character. They are really good at what they do, but it is a very narrow field.

A walking tank that posed a problem for me was so over-specialized in defense that his offense was lacking. The opposition eventually labeled him as a waste of time to shoot at and geeked the mage instead (which they should have done first anyways, but the tank looked so big and scary!). Then the player had to adjust his game accordingly. He was still a nigh unkillable beast, but he did not break the game.

Oops, right you are McC. I was only thinking of block and parry.

Er, not sure if anyone has covered this, but don't characters not get to even roll reaction in general defense if they are less on their surprise test than the person attacking? Sorry if I am mistaken, but I would take this as meaning Mr(s) Stealth/Sniper (Ambush) could do away with Mr(s) Reaction? And the ammo used doesn't have to be lethal, so that takes care of not wanting kill Mr(s) Reaction.

Its why IMHO I think if a shadowrunner has to get into combat, they should do everything possible to make it a ambush, surprise test to start the fight off and either drop em or stack the negatives.

Incidentally, I am thinking this makes Perception (Intuition) in all the six senses possible and knowledge skills related to your enviroment, strategy, tactics, security, and security procedures pretty important to make sure you don't get ambushed.

Someone on DS a while ago pointed out that long-time players tend to have characters with better Perception Skill than new players.

"Do you taste that? I think we're about to be ambushed."
"I told you to take a freaking shower before we did this!"

Its true too. New players are typically coming from games like D&D where the fighter wasn't expected to have a high Spot (or listen, search, or...).

Anything except HP AC FS TH Dmg (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

I've noticed this in myself as well. My early characters weren't much concerned with perception, and would often not even take a single rank in it. More recently I generally try and get it soft maxed, and always make sure to have at least a rank or two in it (Unless I'm playing a highly oblivious character for some reason)

You missed the perfect quote response. =(

"Listen, do you smell something?"

--



But... my first character has a 4 perception and 5 intuition. =(

I actually did smell something in a game once. Of course, I was playing a character who had a better nose than ears or eyes...

(Because the game system actually had 5 perception scores: sight, smell, sound, touch, and chemical; IIRC my "chemical" was the highest--allowed you to detect and identify chemical substances through various senses, again, IIRC).

Or as I often hear people say "Look/see, do you hear that?"

How about having him chase a Parkour practitioner (or other courier/fast little bugger) with Spell Knack (Physical Barrier)....with orders to take him alive. He should survive a fall from a couple stories up, and if the target throws up the PB at the edge of a roof as the sammy jumps.....since he doesn't move any faster from those extra IP's (I'm assuming the IP's, here, but with that high a REA, it seems likely), it could certainly provide a challenge without being particularly lethal. As a side note, could Physical Barrier theoretically be used as a surface to run on?

I would say why not? It's magic.
Even better, sliding through the air on ice walls being continually cast!

What makes you think the laws of magic allow for creation of barriers in a not vertical position? Angles require complex math, and I'm fairly sure that going all the way to 90 degrees gets you a divide by zero error and would break the universe if you ever tried it.

Who needs levitate when you have instafloor!

A Barrier is a magical Contruct of X strength in a form to your liking.
From wall to Spherical, everything can be done.
Instant-Ramps for instant Crash-Tests come to mind.

a basic understanding of ballistics coupled with the description I already gave would explain how.
but that's fine if you don't play with dice in your game, a detailed description of an action is usually more cinematic than someone just rolling dice, we tend to do both, using the dice to determine how or what happens.

I wonder if you could make more complex forms. Make shape it like a person and throw some clothing on it as a decoy. Other spells out there that work better maybe, but good for if you don't have those spells.

Not with the base spell: Wall and spherical are the only possibilities accepted, nothing fancier. The only question is whether a wall has to be vertical or not. I would tend to say yes: the only reason we have always built vertical walls is to prevent them from collapsing on themselves, and the spell construct has no reason to be affected by gravity.

I think you left out an 't or a negative somewhere.

You asked: Does a wall have to be vertical? Yes. Because the wall is not affected by gravity.

That is basically a contradiction.

It is an interesting question though: Are barrier spells affected by gravity?

Well to be technical, when a wall becomes horizontal it's no longer a wall. It's more of a floor or ceiling now. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/spin.gif)

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the "yes" was to using it as a surface, as it isn't affected by gravity....and he was talking about *natural* walls being built the way they are to prevent them from collapsing on themselves.

I'm at work right now. Does the text of the spell say that it can levitate or can float freely? Otherwise i'd have to determine both from a GM perspective and a legal on that unless specifically stated otherwise the barriers will still obey physics and therefore cannot just float free.

This also prevents people from brining down aircraft just by casting barrier.