How do most games treat drain for direct combat spells Options Track this topic Email this topic Print this topic Download this topic Subscribe to this forum Display Modes Outline Switch to: Standard Switch to: Linear+

[Seth]

SR4A page 204 states

"As an optional rule, every net hit applied also increases the Drain DV of the spell by +1.

I am mostly complementary about the Shadowrun rules, but this optional rule strikes me as poorly thought through. I have seen quite a few posts on dumpshock to this topic...mostly expressing dis-satisfaction with this rule, but I have not come away with a clear idea on how to deal with it.

I think that the reason that it exists is that the game designers felt that direct damage spells are too cost effective: for example mana bolt is F/2-1, so a force 9 spell is only 3 drain. Assuming a few nett successes this can easily knockout most opponents, and the caster will probably take 0..1 damage from it. Its very close to a "I win" spell.

The consequence of this rule however seems to me that it is strongly encourages overcasting, and punishes being good at spell casting / lucky. Each 2 points of overcasting cause one more drain...thus 2 DV for 1 drain. This rule means that 1 more DV equals one more drain, half as good as overcasting. It also means that the successes you roll with spell casting the the worse you are physically...thats kind of the opposite of most other die rolls, in which more is better. Here I can damage myself much more if I roll well.

So the question I am asking is: How do you handle the drain for direct combat spells in your games?

[Glyph]

Like many poorly thought-out rules, the increased Drain for direct combat spells fixes the wrong problems. It gimps the category of spells that are, frankly a combat mage's bread and butter spells - a mage casting in combat needs some reliable spells with Drain that is relatively easy to soak. It forces mages to min-max simply to be effective at all, it punishes success, and it doesn't address the real potential problems - multicasting and overcasting.

If you feel magic needs some fine-tuning in your games, here are some house rules that I would suggest, that reign mages in a bit without gimping their major go-to category of offensive spells or forcing them to turn into munchkins merely to survive:

Overcasting:
Simple change. For the Force up to Magic, Drain is calculated as normal. But for every point of Force over that, add a full point of Drain.

Multicasting:
Simple change. Things like visual modifiers, stationary targets, or background counts - conditional modifiers - apply to all dice pools. Everything else - specializations, mentor spirits, and foci - get added to the pool before you split it.

Mundane spell defense:
I would add the mundane equivalent of full defense - they get to roll double their resisting stat, if they expend an initiative pass to do nothing but resist the spell. It gives mundanes an extra option, without gimping spellcasting too much.