Quickening?, No one can eat just one? Options

[LinaInverse]

Bah... my GM is already plotting to foil my plans of world domination. Just shows one shouldn't plot on a public msg board... ;)

From what I recall though, Wards aren't permanent unless Karma is spent and have a limit to how much of an area they can protect (ie, I don't think a single mage can protect several city blocks). So any place that has very powerful wards constantly in place is going to likely be the same place that keeps a whole bunch of mages on the dole to maintain them. And as I said before, if a target has that much magical firepower, then frankly, it's not likely that a bunch of low- to middle-level runners are going to get inside anyway, wards or no wards.

Sneaking (or "synchronizing" if you prefer) past a ward shouldn't be that hard once you break past Initiate lvl 4 though, unless the wards you're talking about are getting to absurd levels, though one may have to burn a Karma to get past it though.

[DocMortand]

Ah, but what modifers are added when you are trying to synchronize with quickened spells tacked on?

*and thus the hijacking is neatly brought back to the topic at hand*

[LinaInverse]

I asked this just a few posts up. From your description, there isn't any, because you're "convincing the ward that you're just like the creator". And a creator can always pass though his own wards, Quickened spells and all.

Now, in our case, it's your campaign and if you want to do a house ruling, then that's fine w/ me. But I'm not seeing any such modifier from what you quoted.

[Kanada Ten]

Quickened spells will make the subject more noticeable on Astral Patrol tests.
(-1 TN per 2 Force, IIRC)

Personally, I don't like quickening spells to a person, but rather to objects since one must often interact with legal authorities and even with permits, navigating government and corporate buildings with the intent of not raising alarm or suspicion becomes much more difficult when you're lit up like a flaming xmas tress on the astral.

[Adarael]

[Critias]

I always figured the biggest advantage mages had over wards was that wards don't get to pick and choose when they're in good enough shape to go to the mages house and kick his ass.

[Shockwave_IIc]

[Adarael]

Well, yes. We can't overlook that.

Oh, and wards can't pack heat, either.

[DocMortand]

Of course wards pack heat: the people who cast the ward, and guards of said mages.

[Adarael]

Wards, in and of themselves, do not pack heat. I believe that what you mean to say, Doc, is that the heat packs wards. To say that the wards pack heat because they alert their creators is akin to saying that the secuity system on a building has guns, because it calls police. Rather, its' successful operation will eventually produce guns, but this does not imply that the system itself owns the guns.

Unless, of course, someone has some sort of magical autocall system that works like...
IF (Ward Attacked)
THEN (Call Elemental)
THEN (Order elemental to burn attackers-of-ward)
ELSE (Scream like a bitch.)

[LinaInverse]

What it comes down to is this. From what I gather, people are in basic agreement that Quickening's biggest obstacle are Wards and opposing mages attempting to dispel the spells, and thus wasting Karma.

My feeling is that, to counter those disadvantages, if you ignore Quickening, you lose a lot of potential power. Like Foci, it's a tool in the toolbox for mages, with advantages and disadvantages.

It's true that breaching Wards can bring the heat down on the runners, but honestly, any secure site worth its salt is going to have other security assets anyway. Bypassing the Wards won't do squat on bypassing the cameras, motion/metal detectors, pressure pads, etc. And I say again, if a location is maintaining double-digit Force Wards round the clock, then they're guaranteed to have an entire posse of mages onsite at all times because of the transient nature and limited area of Wards, and frankly such a site is probably unbreachable by all but the most powerful runners anyway.