Some Mage Action Options

[K M Faust]

I would like to start a discussion thread for those mage's out there who would like to share there best spells you've used so far, best practices, and stories about the action you have received as this important (usually not packing the heat of other characters) player in the SR4 game. Combat Mages, Occult Investigator, Shaman, or anyone else I've not mentioned who uses magic in the game. You can be from any tradition, even adepts can post here. Come brothers and sisters of the magic realm - post your best and worst. (If by chance there is another posting for magical use in shadowrun, I apologize for the repeat thread.)

[Blade]

I remember a rather strange use of an illusion spell during an infiltration.
The runners are deep inside a very secure corp facility and hear guards coming their way. As they look for a place to hide, they ask the mage to use some illusion spell to distract the guards. As the mage player was taking a lot of time to decide what to do, the GM started to count down the time before the guards arrived. Panicked, the mage finally went for... a panda. A big panda eating bamboo deep inside a very secure corp facility. It took a few seconds for the guards to understand that it was probably an illusion and it was enough for the runners to hide.

[hobgoblin]

but even then it should tip the guard of that a illusion rarely happens on its own. so they would at least call in some magical backup to start looking for who or what it was that cast that spell...

[Tarantula]

Turn to goo + bucket + ghouls = you get free passage. Just stop sustaining it when they open the lid.

[DTFarstar]

Made some fairly spectacular perception tests to see a car tailing us with motorcycle back-up behind it in case it loses us in traffic and needs the maneuverability. Used movement from a spirit to divide the leading cars speed by 5 reducing from approximately 95 kmph to approximately 19 kmph and forcing the motorcycle guy to make a threshold 4 driving test not to ram his friend. He failed and after some amusing rolling by the GM ended up unconscious from ramming damage. Also, the other person in the van that was negative movemented couldn't follow us at speed anymore, so we lost her.

Two birds with one stone, as it were.

Chris

[stonehands]

I'm still pretty new to the game, but I've enjoyed using my spells in creative ways. Here are a few:

Levitate:

We were running an abduction mission, so we busted our armored van into the fancy restaurant our target was dining at. My mage levitated our target into the back of the van while my team dished out some suppressing fire.

Another time our team was being pinned down by a sniper on top of a roof. I levitated the target, moved him about 10 yards off the side of the building, and dropped the spell. Splat.

Invisibility:

I actually do this technique quite a bit now. My mage gets behind some nice cover (car, dumpster, wall etc) and casts invisibility on it. This results in an invisible cover which my mage can see through and still maintain line of sight on all targets, yet still receives the defense bonuses of being behind cover.

[hobgoblin]

Invisibility:

I actually do this technique quite a bit now. My mage gets behind some nice cover (car, dumpster, wall etc) and casts invisibility on it. This results in an invisible cover which my mage can see through and still maintain line of sight on all targets, yet still receives the defense bonuses of being behind cover.

ugh, the headache that is invisibility (IMG:style_emoticons/default/silly.gif)

[Tarantula]

Spells never grant LOS.

[stonehands]

Spells never grant LOS.

Not the spell itself, no, but if I'm hiding behind cover that I make invisible, can I not see through it and therefore keep line of sight? Furthermore, if my target hides behind a car, can I not make the car invisible and then target him with more spells? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm breaking any rules.

[Ravor]

I wouldn't allow it.

[Kurious]

Not the spell itself, no, but if I'm hiding behind cover that I make invisible, can I not see through it and therefore keep line of sight? Furthermore, if my target hides behind a car, can I not make the car invisible and then target him with more spells? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think I'm breaking any rules.

Invisible or not, how does one cast through a dumpster?

[Ol' Scratch]

The same way you cast through a window.

[Kurious]

I guess that is an interesting gray area... I always took the spirit of LOS to be an 'unbroken line' between caster and victim. A line that cannot have barriers (even transparent ones) between them.

Windows by that definition would in fact block spells.

***
But, I am de-railing the thread. Sorry.

On topic:
Our caster once used levitate to make a 'hover bike'... not very impressive, but we haven't been playing very long either.

[Delta56]

Invisible or not, how does one cast through a dumpster?

Can spells be cast through glass? (while not on the astral)

[Ol' Scratch]

I guess that is an interesting gray area... I always took the spirit of LOS to be an 'unbroken line' between caster and victim. A line that cannot have barriers (even transparent ones) between them.

Windows by that definition would in fact block spells.

Uhm, no. Just no. Spells (Indirect Spells not included; special rules apply to them) do not travel from the caster to the target. The caster manipulates the mana around the target directly. They just have to be able to see the target in order to do so.

[Kurious]

Meh, I am sure you are right.

I was thinking on it from a different perspective though... the book does talk about how, when casting a direct spell, metaphorically (where the mana field is like airwaves), the caster ‘channels through herself (a radio) signal’ to which the target is the ‘receiver’…

Considering all magic is tied to the astral realm (and in most cases even leaving a residual astral signature): just because it ‘appears around (or rather ‘in’) a target’ and 'affects him in the same plane' may not necessarily mean the spell was not ‘sent and received’ via the astral plane.

To which, if that was the case… barriers such as glass would block the spells.

(Though, conversely, that would mean you cannot cast underground either… which would be rather interesting).

Just food for thought.

[Platinum Dragon]

Considering you can cast down fiber optics (see Mage-Sight Goggles), you can certainly cast through a window. Turning cover invisible (be it yours or your enemy's) so that you can then target them is quite a nice trick. Kudos.

[Shrapnel]

I've used the same trick before, and it worked quite well.

We had to get into the locked cockpit of a plane we were hijacking, so I just made the door invisible and threatened to zap the pilots if they didn't comply. I would have really liked to have had a mind control spell of some sort, but the threat of violence and a good intimidation roll can go a long way.

Just make sure you don't try to cast any elemental manipulation spells behind your invisible dumpster... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/eek.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dead.gif)

[masterofm]

The problem with using invisibility in that way is that it can be abused. I mean you need to kill a subject inside a building. You just make the wall invisible, and then make the next wall invisible until you see the target and either kill him or get another mage or a spirit to kill him. You could bore a hole into anything to kill whatever target you want through magical means, and that to me is just nuts. In this way you can create situations where magic becomes even more powerful/broken. You can create situations where mundanes or adepts just can't really fight back against the mage.

The way I really look at invisibility is that it gives you the illusion that you are looking through an object. You don't make the object invisible, since it is an -->illusion<-- so in the end you are just tricking the mind into thinking it is really not there. You can see through a window and target someone on the physical, but on the astral you couldn't since the window is no longer transparent, but opaque. Casting a mana based illusion should not make that window any less impossible to see through even though someone might think they can target you on the astral (or vice versa.) A spell that is not being cast on the astral would give LOS because you can actually see the target. Remember illusions are called illusions for a reason, or else it would be turning an object invisible instead of giving you the illusion of doing said action. You don't bend light around the object it is just tricking the mind, so I don't see why tricking your own mind into thinking the dumpster just isn't there anymore would let you target the people beyond it.

As a GM and the way I interpret what illusions are I would say that would never fly in any game I would run, and as a player I would staunchly oppose it if it came up at my table. It just doesn't make sense when you step back and think about it (or at least when I think about it.)

[Platinum Dragon]

Actually, if I recall correctly (don't have the books on me), the BBB states that there are two types of invisibility spell, one that causes people to ignore you as a sort of mental compulsion and 'true' invisibility that bends light around you. It also mentions that the latter does not allow a resistance roll, while the former does - the latter also makes you invisible to drones and surveillance cameras.

As to tunneling to your target, not only do you have to take -2dice per invisibility spell for sustaining them while you cast other spells, your target will have a chance to simply move behind another object, causing you to have to cast even more invis spells. It's not that powerful if there's more than one obstacle between you and them.

[Blade Of The Ris...]

Hi all,

Regarding the Invisibility trick, well when u read the description of Invisibility and Improved Invisibility, it looks to me like the spell has been designed to affect living things.
It always refer to a subject or character and its aura; inanimate (non living) items don't have an aura.
Furthermore, when u look at the Mask spell, likewise it is designed to affect living beings, BUT in Street Magic they've introduced a Mask spell for non living objects like vehicles and drones.
So i think that a magician could certainly design an Invisibility spell to work on non living objects, but the core book version is for living beings i reckon.

[Krule]

Well, there is another arguement you can make, that is, when you make something invisable, you can still see it, sense you know it's there, someone else can't. That's for regular invisablity, for improved, I'd say yes, you could make something like a car invisable, as it's a single thing, but for a wall, you'd need to be able to make the whole building invisable, and, if I was running, I'd let you try, but the threshold would be extremely high.. likly 8 to 10.

[K M Faust]

Being a mage myself, I like using improved invisibility on beings with a soul, which are alive as spelled out in Street Magic. I have used this spell on myself and some members of my team to 'get in the door' if other options aren't working out. I know I can't cast on walls or inanimate objects because the spell would not allow it. It's cool to walk right by cameras and give the illusion of being invisible. On our current mission, I cast myself as a cat to check out a sewer line which had possible access a high security cloning depository as specified as part of our mission. I used improved invisibility to be undetected until I reached the manhole, then transformed into a cat and our decker dropped me into the manhole. Our characters get along well, but he couldn't help but to taunt me by grabbing me by the scruff of the neck to pick me out when my mission was complete and complain about my stench while I tried to scratch him. Hey, someone's got to do it. Being a mage can be 'dirty' once in a while.

[K M Faust]

While using improved invisibility, if someone is in the car, you could make them invisible, but not the car because it doesn't have a soul or an aura. To make the car invisible would require using a different spell on objects sans aura.

[darthmord]

The problem with that car example comes when you cast on the car, the person's aura is subsumed by the vehicle's aura. Same reason why you can't target a vehicle's tires with a spell. You have to target the vehicle. It's a whole entity and the person is inside it.

It's the same as a jar head inside an anthroform drone. You can't cast at the jar head until you rip open the drone body/case. In the example, you can't cast at the person in the car until you have removed the car as an intervening obstruction.