Spell Sustaining question, 9 hours of reading gone sour... Options

[Aristotle]

I've read so much this evening that I'm not sure if my mind is overcomplicating things or not.

[Thanee]

All tests. It basically requires some concentration and thus distracts you from just about anything else.

Bye
Thanee

[Jaid]

i dunno if it should apply to damage resistance tests though. that seems a little fishy to me.

[Darkness]

[mdynna]

My group always had a house rule that no modifiers applies to DR tests. It was too easy for characters to die, not to mention we couldn't resolve it "conceptually" either.

[Dashifen]

Also notice that they don't count for drain resistance tests:

[Chiaroscuro23]

A sustaining focus will sustain the spell for you, eliminating that penalty.

Which, I guess, makes such a focus a way to have the spell on permanently. So a focus which you use to sustain an Armor spell at force 4 would give you 4 stackable levels of B and I armor that you always carry around with you.

The big advantage to this is that you can handwave it offscreen. In a month of downtime you're able to cast the spell up to the force of the focus, and then just keep it that strong indefinitely, rather than having to recast every day. This lets you heal up the drain damage while keeping the spell, I guess.

Which makes sense if the spell is bound to the object, a "magic item" if you will, but is confusing if it still requires concentration, just not enough to cost dice. Then you'd need to recast after every period of sleep, presumably.

Though since foci are so expensive, I don't see a lot of trouble with letting a spell be permanent. You have to pay for the focus and the spell, so it's not like you didn't sink the BP into it.

[Eyeless Blond]

And it gets shut down whenever you walk through a ward you're not keyed to. Does Masking still allow you to take active spells through a ward?

[hyzmarca]

It isn't a good idea to permently sustain an armor spel. Your GLOW!!! will keep you awak at night. Not to mention being equivilant to a bright neon "Geek me First" sign.

[Aristotle]

All tests. got ya. Thanks for the clarification. I'm ripping through this book to get ready for my group's return to Shadowrun, but I tend to overcomplicate things or find vagueness even when things are spelled out. :)

[Johnnycache]

The glow is kind of assumed. There's no reason a mage couldn't write a version of the spell that didn't glow.

[BishopMcQ]

Johnny--For that though we have to either wait for Street Magic to be our savior and bring us spell design rules, or port the old system.

[Aaron]

Has no one tried to reverse-engineer the grimoire spells?

[Azralon]

[calypso]

Just a quick note: the -2 dice for sustaining also does not apply to tests made to maintain concentration when you're distracted/damaged.

[Xenith]

Personally, I'd say there shouldn't be much of a bonus, if at all, from changing a touch spell to personal. Too easy to abuse with buffs. Blech.

[FrankTrollman]

[Azralon]

[fistandantilus4....]

the idea of having spells stuck in sustaining foci for days or weeks at a time is why we still use thost good ol' grounding rules from 2nd edition.

As far as visual effects of spells like armor, it says (somewhere) that the exact visual effects of spells can differ from caster to caster. I've always talked it over w/ my GM first, but we generally have no problem with the armor spell not being visible. There's canon references to that sort of thing anyways. Underworld SB , talking about the Chimera asassins geeking an ork that had a bullet barrier stop bullets before, but not actually be visible. Besides, I have a hard time seeing a shadowrunner doing anything taht would make them friggin' glow. shadowrunner, not day-glo runner. We call those targets.

[Dissonance]

Well, bullet barrier'd just provide ballistic armor, wouldn't it? Armor provides both. I imagine that armor provides the bonus, plus a visual effect. And, like, a version that didn't? Maybe add a +2 to the DV for a stealth version?

[fistandantilus4....]

the barrier spells also have that tell-tale yellow-ish glow to them. But really the visuals is up to the mages style. For instance, a dragon shaman whos powerbolts look like little dartins (or big) dragons. Or the difference between a frieball racing to it's target, or just exploding at point of impact. Yeah, if you'd like, you could add some specific drain modifiers to spells, especially if they don't jive with the mages normal style. I think +2 is a bit much though. +1 should be enough for such a minor alteration.