Fighting drones with magic Options

[Machiavelli]

During our last session a rigger placed 2 rotordrones into my mages flat and started shooting at me. I didn´t have an energybolt and i thought i would toast myself with an fireball. So i have chosen to flee and jump right through a window...but is it really that way? I have a LOT of spells, but none of them seemed to fit to this situation. Imp. Invis. didn´t work because they had a sensor package including radar, levitation caused no real effect and if these spells don´t work...please what is left for a mage? Is there no real way to f**ck these buggers?

[sabs]

firebolt, lightning bolt, fireball.
Indirect Spells are your only choice.
Invisibility would work, if you could beat the OR on the drone.

[Draco18s]

During our last session a rigger placed 2 rotordrones into my mages flat and started shooting at me. I didn´t have an energybolt and i thought i would toast myself with an fireball. So i have chosen to flee and jump right through a window...but is it really that way? I have a LOT of spells, but none of them seemed to fit to this situation. Imp. Invis. didn´t work because they had a sensor package including radar, levitation caused no real effect and if these spells don´t work...please what is left for a mage? Is there no real way to f**ck these buggers?

Fireball. Use some hits to alter its radius (downward).

Invisibility would work, if you could beat the OR on the drone.

Invisibility, being a mental spell, has no effect on drones.

[Rubic]

One of the Illusion spells can fool sensors. Chaos can jam sensors (the raspberry). Silence will dampen sonar. Analyze Device can, potentially, give you bonus dice for returning fire one way or another.

[DamienKnight]

Trid Phantasm affects visual and audio, which would fool ultrasound sensors. I would think being a complete illusion, it could fool Radar too, but that is up to your game master.

You could make one drone see the other drone as YOU. Takes care of half your problem, assuming the drone isnt going to torch your apartment for good measure.

[Summerstorm]

Eh physical barrier. Let them make the crashtest / ramming damage thing. Note that the barriers ARE pretty easy to ram through, but still... depending on how fast the damn thing is: BOOM.

EDIT: ah, and if you can't crack their OR... maybe you could crack the OR of something else in the vicinity and use it against them? For example levitating a heavy old cast iron stove into them?

[Yerameyahu]

*Improved* Invisibility absolutely affects machines. That's why it exists.

[Mäx]

*Improved* Invisibility absolutely affects machines. That's why it exists.

Yes it does affect machines, but it does jack shit against radar (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[sabs]

radar is a sensor
improved invisibility works against sensors.

The sensor rules are pretty fucked up.
And radars are too big to fit in most drones.
A Small drone could have a radar, and nothing else (not even a camera)
A medium Drone could have a radar and 1 camera.
You need at least a Large drone to fit a radar, and other useful sensors.

You're not targeting without minuses with just radar. I also would probably only allow wide bursts, or suppression fire with radar only targeting.

[Yerameyahu]

That's true, Mäx, but not really what I was addressing. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif) I didn't want anyone confused by the statement that 'invisibility doesn't affect machines'; it's a sneaky little technicality that could certainly mislead.

[Doc Byte]

...please what is left for a mage? Is there no real way to f**ck these buggers?

Try the "Wreck (Drones)" spell. It has only F/2 drain and may be overcast if required.

[sabs]

It has to be overcast for most people.

You need 7 hits to have 1 net hit to hit a drone.

[Draco18s]

It has to be overcast for most people.

You need 7 hits to have 1 net hit to hit a drone.

You're wrong on two counts.

1) It's a threshold test. Meaning you only need to match the threshold.
2) It's an OR of 5. If you're seeing a 6 in the PDF, you're looking at the wrong thing. That 6+ was lowered to a 5+ after the uproar on dumpshock before the book went to the press.

[Ryu]

Oversummon an appropiate spirit and order it to attack the drones in close combat. Natural weapon on a force 9 is nice for drone hunting...

[sabs]

1) it's a success test, it says you have to BEAT the object's Object Resistance. That implies needing a net success. Though the table does refer to Threshold.
2) Not my fault CGL sucks. It's the version I have.

The rules on page 183 are worded differently than on page 204 to make it more confusing.

Not to mention, the table says 6+ (or 5+ in different printings)
So, as a GM I can take more SOTA smaller, more minituarized drones and make them have a higher OR than the bare minimum for their type.

[Draco18s]

1) it's a success test, it says you have to BEAT the object's Object Resistance. That implies needing a net success. Though the table does refer to Threshold.
2) Not my fault CGL sucks. It's the version I have.

1) Well, it's not an opposed test...
2) No, it's not your fault. But the PDF is out of date in a number of ways. This particular one is very well documented on the forums.

[sabs]

You'd have to know to search for it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

It's not like someone is going to read every post ever, and searching for OR isn't going to do jack for you, because it's too short a word.

[Draco18s]

You'd have to know to search for it (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

While this may be true, it's still fairly common knowledge that the PDF and the physical book don't match.

(By the way here's a correct OR table)

[Elfenlied]

I second summoning spirits. Elemental aura will own most hardened armor, Accident will crash rotodrones, and a sufficient force natural weapon will also toast them.

[StevenAngier]

1) it's a success test, it says you have to BEAT the object's Object Resistance. That implies needing a net success. Though the table does refer to Threshold.
2) Not my fault CGL sucks. It's the version I have.

The rules on page 183 are worded differently than on page 204 to make it more confusing.

Not to mention, the table says 6+ (or 5+ in different printings)
So, as a GM I can take more SOTA smaller, more minituarized drones and make them have a higher OR than the bare minimum for their type.

Should I cut hell loose by saying that it's only 3 to fool the drones sensors? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

[Aerospider]

Should I cut hell loose by saying that it's only 3 to fool the drones sensors? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rotfl.gif)

lmao

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

firebolt, lightning bolt, fireball.
Indirect Spells are your only choice.
Invisibility would work, if you could beat the OR on the drone.

PowerBolt (or Wreck Drone) works out just fine, as long as you can beat OR5...

[Headshot_Joe]

And what's wrong with Levitate-ing them into the ceiling? If they're moving fast enough already, won't that be a crash test? Seems to me that most drone enemies can be defeated with proper application of the Levitate spell in combination with crash damage or fall damage (though it's all crash damage if you look at it the right way).

[Yerameyahu]

The last thread about this discussed that idea, StevenAngier. The consensus, IIRC, was that it's all one unit; this is more or less a basic tenet of SR magic.

[Tymeaus Jalynsfe...]

The last thread about this discussed that idea, StevenAngier. The consensus, IIRC, was that it's all one unit; this is more or less a basic tenet of SR magic.

It Was NOT a Consensus Yerameyahu, It is definitely a Table Ruling... It is plain as day in the rules. Sensors are OR 3. Anything else is a Table Ruling... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)