Magic Unchecked Options

[kevyn668]

[FrostyNSO]

Or better yet, a garbage truck.

[kevyn668]

Why am I reminded of the library scene from the first Ghostbusters? :)

[James McMurray]

We now add hit them with a car to the list.

Any other ideas?

[kevyn668]

Pickpokets.

[ShortBusFury]

Pickpockets definately has potential... that's a good suggestion. Stealing a well-protected personal foci may be a bit tough to snatch and would also be immediately noticed by the owner, but why take such a risk when there are other valuable and less secure items that the mage takes for granted? Especially if the runner is hoarding telesma and ritual materials. Units could simply begin 'disappearing' unless the PC begins allocating time and resources to the defense of his stockpiled resources to find out where his reources are vanishing to and it may even be a good month or so before he realizes what's going on... maybe some of his resources even get swapped for fakes to cover the thieve's track for the time being that might later end up on a botched ritual casting or summoning on the PC's part not knowing that he isn't using real ritual materials until the poo starts to fly.

[Tarantula]

Another one, blowgun with narcoject/atropine. Either 7D immidiate, or 7D every 15minutes until its purged out. Its a blowgun dart not a bullet, so bullet barriers won't help, and just do a called shot to bypass armor. I'd think a blowgun adept could get this done easily enough.

Another idea, give a kid a squirtgun, with DMSO & atropine/cyanide/narcoject, pay kid 50¥ to go squirt that guy.

Yet another one, have some woman attempting to seduce him, get offended, and pepper punch, lots and lots of pepper punch. Then the team shes working with comes in to get him, throws a mage hat on him.

Another, splat gun his face, hard to see through goo. Or freezefoam it.

Air-timed minigrenades anyone? Concussion ones can be nasty. Or flash/superflash.

Something else that might work, blind adept with all the blind swordsman style built up. And superflash packs in his eyes, walks up masked to mage, flashes mage to hell and back, then cuts mage in half.

[bitrunner]

gamma scopolamine - invented specifically to fight mages...added benefit of being a truth serum as it wears off...

[Tarantula]

Nitpick, no, gamma-scopolamine wasn't invented specifically to fight mages.

[Crimson Jack]

[FrostyNSO]

[kevyn668]

[bitrunner]

[waftalia]

lets start with this one.every group is different but lets all conciede tothis point the average run makes you 4-5 karma points and should take on average 14 hours to complets if its roleplayed out.usually two game sessions for my group.second the average pay for a shadowrun suggested by fasa is 3x the average monthly upkeep of the group so conjuring a dorce 14 elemental is possible even with a target # of 14 though not practical.as a good dm one must consider how upset a elemental is when conjured.now lets put it in a scenario a mage has aquired the large conjuring circle and the material to do it which is feasable.hes just conjured a 14 fire elemental from its native plane suffered serious drain the elemental appears the mages friends aere here to protect the mage just in case . now comes the actual roleplaying part to the whole mechanics of the game {14 fire elemental thats uber bad really tough it also now sees a very weakened magician that conjured him would the weakened magician really have what it takes to keep control in that brief instence?in my game maybe not thats the price you pay for dealing in magic that powerfull and creatures that powerfull.maybe once you keep control the second time you dont and it wipes out half your team youd think twice about doing it again.

now granted thats not exactly in the rules but hey doesnt shadowrun like all good games tell you to add or delete depending on your own group?

my point is this if your mages are lucky enough to stay alive for that many shadowruns again and again and again without being killed and you want to play with a little commonsence realism to it then adapt the game to it.

weve all heard or seen movies or read books about magic this powerfull being done the slightest thing gone wrong spells disaster for the party.was the conjuring done in a wharehouse during the 14 hours it took?why didnt the local gangers come by to see what all the commotion was ie..a blazing fire,large swimming pool being set up ,dumptruck of dirt being moved it ect.....maybe thats another table rule we have but the conjuring material must be proportianate with the elemental being conjured.how about lone star seeing the fire ect.....

as of multiple karma awards being used, our rule is this no downtime karma usage ,karma is used in the heat of the moment on a run when the stakes are high not again and again during downtime ....yet again just a party rule we have.

i think its been said already if your gm is uncapable of handling a group with that much karma he shouldnt because it wont be done realistically.

ive been dming various games for 20 years and have come across the gambit of groups and players and have seen a lot of it not all but a lot and anytime a groups upset beacause of game inbalance or specific character imbalance its usually traceable to the gm .....our groups been together for 10solid years and have realized if at anytime you forget the game your playing is a fantasy world where things fluctuate and are never constant and your stuck because the rule says so its time to take a break and remember why your playing.

[Voran]

[Crimson Jack]

[James McMurray]

So we've added various chemical compounds to the list. Thanks!

Keep 'em coming folks! It'll probably be 6+ months of gaming every weekend before the mage even gets anywhere near being more powerful than the rest of the party. Anmd luckily we've been blessed this time wit a mage whose player is not the "I have to super-power-game every character" type. But it never hurts to plan ahead. :D

[Crimson Jack]

How about a faerie assault?

[toturi]

[kevyn668]

You had me worried there for a bit. :)

[hyzmarca]

I'm supprised no one mentioned having a Master Shedim possess his meat body while he's astrally projecting.

[toturi]

Master Shedim in a GD body does not have access to GD powers.

[James McMurray]

Faeries and Master Shedims? I know what the first are (but not if they're in Shadowrun), but I haven't a clue about the second ones. I'm still trying to catch up on my 3rd edition reading, so may not have reached the part where they're mentioned. Are they in MitS?

[hyzmarca]

Shedim are in Year of the Comet; Master Shedim are in Threats 2.

They are nasty spirits that posseses the bodies of the dead. They're also a great way for a GM to really frag off an astrally projecting mage. Nothing's worse than returning to your body only find that there's a squater that just refuses to leave.

[Sandoval Smith]

Further explanation, Shedim don't just possess dead bodies(they're the reason why cremation is now encouraged world wide, and morgues tend to be warded, with body lockers having sturdy bolts to keep people _in_), but _unoccupied_ bodies. Doesn't matter how powerful that mage is, if he doesn't leave his body protected or guarded when he projects, if a Shedim runs across it it's going to take it for a joy ride, and it's not going to want to give it back. Shedim also like to travel in packs. Bummer about that if you just wasted a security squad and some Shedim show up.

And as to why everyone is ragging on the GM in SB's example, around here we've seen quite a few problems of when characters reach a high power, as well as a lot of characters who didn't create such problems when that powerful or more. Essentially, it's almost always boiled down to things that the GM was doing wrong that allowed one character to get completly out of control.