Magic and Essence, On the Receiving End Options

[ProfGast]

For some reason I seem to recall reading somewhere that if a target has low essence, they are proportionally harder to affect by mages than someone with full essence. If that's right can someone point me to where it says that? So far the only reference I've seen is under Health Spells "Healing Characters with Implants" but I thought that it also allowed resisting non-Health spells too.

[Mongoose]

Nope. Its always just been healing magic that is affected.

Cyberzombies, who have essence of 0 or less, are harder to affect with any kind of magic, but that's not really a result of their essence, but rather a result of the background count they haul around with them as a result of the rituals done to them.

[Karoline]

I thought there was one other spell or something that was effected by a low essence count... was it... well, essence drain is effected, but that isn't what I'm thinking of... was it possession? No. Maybe I'm just remembering something wrong.

[Mongoose]

I'm pretty sure that in SR2 the various Decrease (Attribute) spells had essence based TN's. Haven't seen anything like that in SR4.

[pbangarth]

There was some discussion elsewhere, in one of the innumerable talks about how magic is overpowered, in which it was suggested that one, house-ruled way to reduce the alleged power differential between mages and street sams was to apply the Essence modifier for healing spells to all direct spells. Not only would a 0.1 Essence street sam be harder to Heal, he would also be harder to Stunbolt.

[Mongoose]

Problem with that is, a low essence is supposed to indicate you are actually less healthy in most ways. So why would magic designed to damage your health be harder to use? Plus, this really only aids one kind of non-mage character- other folks who don't cast spells but also don't use loads of cyber are still in the same situation.

[Glyph]

I'm pretty sure that in SR2 the various Decrease (Attribute) spells had essence based TN's. Haven't seen anything like that in SR4.

SR3, too (TN of 10-Essence).

I'm not sure I would give street samurai a boost against all spells based on their lowered Essence, though. They already get Attribute, Edge (likely higher than that of an awakened character, all else being equal), and often counterspelling, while the mage is limited to hits (not net hits, hits, period) equal to the Force of the spell.

Such a house rule might reign in the most extreme powergamers, but it would also make extreme powergaming the only way to be effective at all.

[Karoline]

I could see some fluff argument for low essence people being harder to effect with magic period, but I have to agree with Glyph, would overall just push magic types to power gaming than really balancing anything.

[Ascalaphus]

It would be okay for the "nice" direct spells to all be harder as the target has less Essence. Increase Body? Sure, that can be harder if the guy is magically polluted by cyber. But I wouldn't apply it to "nasty" direct spells.

[Nath]

Problem with that is, a low essence is supposed to indicate you are actually less healthy in most ways. So why would magic designed to damage your health be harder to use?

A low Essence also indicates a more artificial body. And the rules are setting a precedent with inanimate objects: the more artificial they are, the harder it is for a spell to affect them.

[Ascalaphus]

A low Essence also indicates a more artificial body. And the rules are setting a precedent with inanimate objects: the more artificial they are, the harder it is for a spell to affect them.

On the other hand, inanimate objects have only passive resistance. If you gain object resistance when you lose Essence, you should also lose the benefits of using Willpower to resist. You can get the benefits of being animate or inanimate, but you have to choose.

[pbangarth]

Well, to play Devil's advocate here, this is a game about blending man and machine, isn't it? So maybe a blended being gets a blended resistance.

[TheScrivener]

Leaving aside the rules headache that would be, to take that to the logical end would mean your Willpower and/or Charisma probably dropping with Essence loss. At a certain point 'ware just becomes too unattractive from all that.

[Nath]

On the other hand, inanimate objects have only passive resistance. If you gain object resistance when you lose Essence, you should also lose the benefits of using Willpower to resist. You can get the benefits of being animate or inanimate, but you have to choose.

I would say, okay, where do I sign to have a threshold of 6 against spells (the minimal threshold for drones and computers, which seems appropriate for cyberware) ? I'd need to throw 18 dice to achieve as much success regularly on spell resistance test. Some characters may get as much or even to resist Physical combat spell, it is much harder to achieve to on Willpower or Intuition-based resistance test.

[Ascalaphus]

Well, that'd only be for complete cyborgization, which is already covered. Partial cyborgization would give only partial conversion, which would be ugly in the rules.

Bioware of course is even ickier. Yes, less essence, but still a living target, so also no object resistance.