Trauma Damper + Spell Drain, Let the munchfest begin Options

[ialdabaoth]

So, if I have a Trauma Damper (0.4 bio index), I can cast Light-damage Powerbolts at level 5 until the cows come home, and rely on all my sorcery and spell pool dice to stage up the damage, and never even roll for drain.

How is this fair again?

I'm thinking the Trauma Damper should take 1 point of stress whenever it reduces damage from Drain.

[Siege]

I don't adjudicate mechanics based on fairness, but whether or not it hangs together in the system.

The trauma damper isn't "broken" as such and happens to be amazingly useful to mages. It's like almost every other samurai has a smartlink? Every other combat mage has a trauma damper.

And as it has been revealed that you never repair stress fully, I think your proposed fix is just a little brutal. Once bioware acquires a stress point, it can never be repaired to "new" short of removing and replacing it.

Not a rule I necessarily agree with, but it is canon as such.

-Siege

[ialdabaoth]

It is? Where is this mentioned?

Edit: Oh, wow. I see now. pg. 131, M&M - "Once a bioware item has taken damage, its Stress Points can never be reduced below 1."

Ouch.

[FlakJacket]

IIRC, there's a certain kind of nanite - check Man & Machine - that will repair any stress points that have been incured.

[Tanka]

[muknar]

Hi, I saw "munchfest" and "drain" and just had to reply. First of all, as much as it's creative to use cyber with magic, I would almost always prefer not to just for sake of character building.... Yet character building seems to inevitably go out the window if you're building a munchkin. That being said, here is what I think the best way to deal with the drain is: Obviously exceptional willpower is a start, and to get one more point of will, albino is an acceptable flaw. Starting with 8 willpower seems good, and does help, but the clincher if that isn't enough, is shapeshifter. Regeneration makes almost any spell at even a ridiculously high damage level (say simultanious lightning bolts, deadly, and force 6....) easy to soak... Not only that, but you don't need to soak it. So a tiger mountain shaman with a specialization in spell casting is about as tough as I've seen.
I'd love to see more though.

[BitBasher]

I just house rule that it doesn't affect drain.

[Cray74]

[Kagetenshi]

And it's slightly easier to cast mid-level spells, and high-level spells; you only have to stage down things to Light, that's two less successes you need.
However, in all of these cases, it's still "slightly". Broken? I'd say not.

~J

[Fortune]

I also don't really see the problem with this piece of Bioware. It seems to me to be a relatively fair trade off for losing a point of Magic.

[Glyph]

Actually, a Force: 5, L Damage Stunbolt has a Drain code of 1L - although a natural 1 is still treated as a failure. So your mage (who I assume has a 6 Willpower) has to avoid rolling more than 5 1's with 6 dice to actually take Drain from casting it. :)

The Trauma Dampener is a nifty piece of 'ware, one of the few bioware items that I would even consider for an awakened character, but its advantages are hardly game-breaking.

[Tanka]

No, you know what's nasty? Anything with Regeneration and Hell Blast. Has the highest Drain in the game. So what if it knocks you out? You're back up next round anyway!

* Vampire Mage casts Hell Blast, passes out.
*next combat round*
* Vampire Mage springs back up, rinse, repeat.

That is broken.

[TinkerGnome]

Where, exactly, does it say that regeneration works against stun damage?

[Fortune]

[Tanka]

If you take deadly, it's gone next turn. Or, at least, that's how it's being read for SR2 rules. I agree, it shouldn't be, but by those house rules, it's more broken than a Damper on a Combat Mage.

And it isn't even something I'd do. That's just wrong. Kill everybody with no thought about what happens to you.

On second thought... If the Vamp Mage were to take it at a level higher than his Magic Rating, Physical Drain, thusly inducing the Regen if he manages to stage it to S or lower. No staging and he better pray that he doesn't roll a one.

[TinkerGnome]

SR3 rules are very explicit that deadly physical damage is what is regenerated. Shapeshifter magicians specificly don't regenerate on a 1 or 2 on the d6 roll if the damage came from drain.

[Tanka]

SR2 rules for Regen (Critters section, Corebook) state no Regen on Stun, after rereading.

Curse you, GM! Snuffed us out so many times when we used things like the butts of our guns to hit Vampires!

However, the idea of a Vamp Mage taking a spell at higher than his M. Rating, with a good enough Body to stage it down to S, can just "pop back up" next round. Broke.

Although, I think I'll check all references on Drain to see if it changes anything for Regen in beings besides Shapeshifters. Never hurts to check.

[Siege]

S'why you don't frag with a vampire.

How did one of those famous quotes go? "If it's a fair fight, you fragged up somewhere?"

-Siege

[Tanka]

No, you only frag with a vampire if you have wooden stakes, fire, or explosives (or silver, if it's a Banshee). ;p

Now, if it's a Dzoo Noo Qua or Wendigo... You run for your fragging life.

[TinkerGnome]

For what it's worth, shapeshifter regeneration seems to imply that it will heal physical damage over time (specificly, physical drain heals 1 box per minute). There may be some implication that stun damage heals instantly or something that I'm missing.

[Siege]

Dude, I refer you to another quote:

"Big, bad and belt-fed"

-Siege

[sidekick]

In 3ed rules of shapeshifters, it never explicitly states that a Shapeshifter's regen works on Stun... but it also does not prohibit it. It would seem kinda silly that they can recover from getting shot in the gut with a shot gun but then take 3 hours to get over the punch to the gut.

I would allow Vamps and Shapeshifter Magicians to regen drain at normal rate, 1 box per minute at the max. Why? Becuase Shapeshifters get the short end of the stick, and Vamp's fluctuating essence can kill their magic abilities pretty quick (even though feeding allows you to regain that lost essence, the lost magic is gone).

As for fighting Regenerating critters, "Headshots, headshots, headshots"

Back on topic:
A loss of one magic point isn't that crippling for the effects of a trauma dampner. Personally, I like combat mages with Pain Editors. The bonus dice of willpower while active, and ignoring any drain penalties is quiet useful. Most mages I see being played chose to lose a point or two of magic to augmentation, it allows them a lot more flexibility, at the cost of 1 dice of spell pool and physical drain for Force 6 (which can just be taken as either exlusive or fetish and be fine)

[Fortune]

[Tiralee]

Damn, and I thought that playing a shapeshifter was a backwards way to munchkin a kick-ass mage...

Since I'm usually the cybered-up character who can quote M&M word-for-word, I'm amazed that I didn't consider the trauma dampener. Duh me.


Looks like the next uber-mage will be seeing his streetdoc sometime real soon now.

L

[sidekick]