The Found Arcana - Chapter 10 [OOC] Options

[Jack_Spade]

That would be a rather obvious giveaway for any spirit.

I'm ruling that Shedim can hide their dualnature as well - otherwise a lot of other lore doesn't make sense - i.e. them appearing on the astral as mundane people.

[Thanee]

Actually, Arione appeared to operate less often on the hyperconscious level than the other two.

I believe you are overestimating what masking can do.

You cannot make an astral form go away. You can only change the appearance of your aura.

The astral form is your tangible body in astral space. It also has your aura, but these are not one and the same.

Making your aura mundane while astrally active does not change the fact that you are astrally active (and thus have an astral form, which you only have while you are astrally active).

I really don't think it is possible by any means to be astrally active and appear not to be.

Bye
Thanee

[Thanee]

That would be a rather obvious giveaway for any spirit.

Yes, absolutely!

I'm ruling that Shedim can hide their dualnature as well - otherwise a lot of other lore doesn't make sense - i.e. them appearing on the astral as mundane people.

I havn't read any of the stories with them, so no idea what they do there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

If you want to make their aura masking more special, so they can achieve these things, that is totally fine.

But there are some implications...

For example... can you still target / attack them in astral space, if they have no perceivable astral form? You should be able to.

Can you pass through them on the astral? You shouldn't be able to.

Bye
Thanee

[Jack_Spade]

As it's just an illusion, you still can hit them from the astral and not move through them.

[Tecumseh]

Holiday weekend in the US so I'll be moving a bit slowly until Tuesday.

[Thanee]

You need some seriously good rolls, though, to make barriers that do anything at all (at least when using the spells). (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Jack_Spade]

Not for intersection - there only Force x2 vs. Magic +Charisma or Force x2 is considered.

Successes of the initial spellcasting don't come into it.

[Gilga]

Mana barrier is unintentionally one of the strongest offensive spells in 5e I think, and also a very nice defensive spell. I'd have it in AM's sheet for next time, but I always wait for an IC reason to get specific spell.

[Jack_Spade]

Well, you have a few hours and a willing teacher in Gladius

[Gilga]

If you allow it great. I thout it takes a few days which is why I did not offer it.

[Thanee]

I see. Just re-read the part about mana barriers.

If I see that right, the "Barrier Rating" you get for net hits from casting the spell has no effect whatsoever. It is all based on Force, even structure and armor.

I guess, they meant the Force of the mana barrier you create with the spell to be that Barrier Rating in the spell description and not the Force of the spell, but that is not what they have written there. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Yep, looking at SR4A (the spell there says, that you create a mana barrier with a Force equal to the net hits), they just messed that up, apparantly, using the term "Barrier Rating" in the spell description, when it is only relevant for physical barriers. Changed it in one place, but not in the other. I suppose, they wanted to avoid the confusion of one spell having essentially two different Force ratings.

Bye
Thanee

[Jack_Spade]

Hits are still relevant if you want to bash the barrier down in astral combat or with magic weapons. But yes, the SR4A version was more precise on that.

[Thanee]

Barriers can be moved? Don't think I have seen that before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Gilga]

I think you can anchor spells to an aura kind of like an invisibility spell. (but perhaps I am wrong feel me to smack me with the rule book or something.

[Jack_Spade]

P. 292 Core

STEP 7: DETERMINE
ONGOING EFFECTS
If you sustain the spell (that is, if you want the effect of a Sustained spell to continue), you take a –2 dice pool penalty to all tests while it is sustained. You can sustain multiple spells, but the –2 penalty is cumulative for each spell.
Area effect spells that are sustained can be moved as a Complex Action, provided that the spell area is in the magician’s line of sight. Characters that drop out of the affected area are no longer affected by the spell, while characters that are enveloped by the new affected area must defend against the spell accordingly.

One of the lesser known tricks (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Thanee]

Ah, nice! Yeah, definitely didn't know that one before. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Beta]

A quick note on the moving of spells, it does not clarify if you specify a new area and the spell stops where it was and appears in the new spot, or if you specify the new area and it slides there. There are all sorts of shenanigans that depend on one or the other interpretation.

In my home game I ruled ends here/starts there, because I didn't want to deal with a barrier a kilometer down the highway in one direction sliding to a kilometer in the other direction, or using a barrier spell to fly on (although sustaining two barrier spells as horizontal wall still lets you walk arbitrarily far across the air, by moving them along stepwise, but at least it isn't virtually unlimited flying speed).

However when I've had this discussion online, I think more people preferred the slide from here to there interpretation.

I'll abide by whichever way we choose, and then suggest tricks appropriately.

==========================

Speaking of not clear. Per Rigger 5, the Crashcart medi-drone can open up most vehicles ... and uses 3x its body as its strength. Great, it has effectively 18 strength for opening up vehicles. But there are no rules that let you tear open vehicles using strength. If the 'jaws of life' had a DV=strength for the purpose of cutting open vehicles, that could make sense, but it is not written like that. I'm open to suggestions on how to rule it.

==========================

I don't recall us finding out about the farm owner? Maybe my memory is just bad, but here is a roll in case we hadn't done this yet.
matrix search on farm owner: 10d6t5 2

hmmm, not a particularly helpful roll

[Jack_Spade]

Alright, let's see how many barriers Gladius can create.

[ Spoiler ]

Taking some Psyche beforehand, his Ally spirit first casts and maintains Increase Willpower and Intuition on him:
Increase Will (F5): 16d6t5 6
Resist Drain: 16d6t5 5
No drain

Increase Int(F7): 14d6t5 5
Resist Drain: 16d6t5 1
Both take 3S

Total drain resistance pool for Gladius: 27

Gladius uses multi cast to half his dice pool, so he is less likely to gain physical drain
Split Cast F12 mana barrier: 2#9d6t5 3 3
Drain Resist: 2#27d6t5 6 11
Takes 4 Total 7 Stun

Split Cast F12 mana barrier: 2#8d6t5 3 3
Drain Resist: 2#27d6t5 12 9
Takes 1 Total 8 Stun

Split Cast F12 mana barrier: 2#6d6t5 1 2
Drain Resist: 2#27d6t5 10 10
No Drain

Split Cast F12 mana barrier: 2#4d6t5 2 2
Drain Resist: 2#27d6t5 10 10
No Drain.

He meditates and rests for an hour, while he maintains 8 mana barrier spells
Heal Stun: 19d6t5 9

He is fit after an hour.

As for the movement of a spell: I prefer visible movement. Riding a barrier doesn't work though - the spell would slide out from under you as it's pretty much frictionless. As an elevator it does work though (though you'd still be better served with levitation).


For the Crash Cart: 18 strength translates to 18P damage, enough to get through most vehicles in one or two cuts, using the barrier rules (Armor+Body to resist, with Body boxes of damage for a 1m wide hole)

[Thanee]

Ah, yes, also something I easily forget here... Drain is only physical for spellcasting when your hits exceed your Magic. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Bye
Thanee

[Gilga]

27 drain dice is impressive, indeed. A centering foci? + initiation? (+ maxed stats and increase spells ofc)

[Tecumseh]

I'm guessing Attribute + 4 for both drain attributes for 19 dice, plus maybe 4 dice from Centering and 4 dice from a Centering focus.

Edit: I don't know why I'm guessing; Gladius' sheet is on Obsidian Portal, which I still have bookmarked from four years ago.

[Beta]

What time do we figure we are at? (or more key: about how much time do we have before expected arrival?)

[Jack_Spade]

Sundown is around 1940h with dusk around half an hour before that. So you have now about 13 hours prep time.

The ditches are half a meter deep.

[Tecumseh]

This is what Gladius predicted beforehand:

"My shard has finished it's calculations. There is a 90% confidence for us intersecting with Tien IV at the ranch within the next 24 hours. The most likely time of arrival for them is during early dusk around 1800h."

That's a little bit different than what's above in this thread.

From a very technical standpoint, dusk happens after sunset. I'm actually not aware of any term that covers the period right before sunset.

(One of the AI platforms just suggested "crepuscular" but that's incorrect. I guess Deus isn't quite ready for the big takeover yet.)

[Jack_Spade]

I wrote that prophecy before I looked up when actual sunset is at that time of year (IMG:style_emoticons/default/embarrassed.gif)

Just consider the two hours between 1800h and 2000h to be the most likely time of arrival.