Spell Force Requirements Options

[Papadoc]

I am working on a new character, a mage. This is uncharted territory for me as I have always run either a Sam or an Adept. I am wanting to take the spell Increase Reflex's +3; so what Force level do I learn it at? The target is Reaction, and must be preformed on a "willing" subject. So at what level should I learn this spell or could I just learn it at Force 1 (or alternately 1 for +1, 2 for +2, 3 for +3)?

Thanks for the help.

[LinaInverse]

Force 1; you'll get +3d6 to your Initiative regardless. This is one of the few spells where Force plays no factor in how effective the spell is.

For a vast majority of spells, Force determines how powerful and/or how hard to resist they are. Any spell you expect to use in Combat and/or Shadowrunning (ie, Invi, Detects, Mana Bolt, Fireball, Control Manips, Heals, etc) should all be a minimum Force of 6 (more if possible). Anything less and you can expect your opposition to walk right through your attacks.

You can *probably* cheat a little if a spell is non-resisted, for self-only, and/or for support only (ie, Levitate, Fashion, Makeover, Nutrition, etc), but even these are going to be weaker if their Force is lessened.

[GrinderTheTroll]

All you need is one success for it to work so Force 1. If you use a sustaining focus or Quickening to keep it up always, then lower force spells are easier for opponents to break.

As a general rule, my group chooses Force >= 3 for all spells for the most part.

[Glyph]

That's true until you start initiating. Once you have masking, a Force: 1 sustaining focus starts looking really good again, because the lower force is easier to hide/get past wards, using masking.


Also, be sure to ask your GM if he uses any special rules for that spell. Dumpshock may not be a representative sample of all Shadowrun players, but simply judging from the posts whenever this spell comes up, it seems to be one of the most commonly house-ruled spells.

[JaronK]

By the rules, Force 1 is the obvious choice. The only downside is that it's easier to dispell, but the upsides are that force 1 focii are much cheaper, the spell itself takes less to learn, and the drain is much nicer at low force. Of course, I don't believe the spell adds constants to reaction, like wired reflexes or the adept version does (ie it adds 3d6 instead of 6+3d6) but it's still quite powerful.

Many folks house rule it so there's one Increase Reflexes spell, drain code D, that adds 1d6 to your initiative per success, to a maximum of half the force of the spell, which is pretty fair (in theory you could add more than 3d6, but at that point you're launching a force 8 spell, 4D drain code, needing 4 successes on a target number that's likely 6 or higher, which is pretty darn hard to pull off, so it's balanced enough).

JaronK

[Papadoc]

Thanks all for your replies. At this time we do not have any "house" rules on this type of magic. While magic/mage characters are new to me, they are not new to others in the "group", and they have never used this spell (mainly due to the same reason I have asked for some clarification). The idea that a Force 1 spell is easier to dispell is something to think about, however, a mage with x+4d6 init, in normal combat situations, (and a DM that does not use this same spell for the "enemy" mages :wobble: ) should make this mage a more potent force in a fight.

[Eyeless Blond]

It's still not that big a deal, however. The mage with his 4+4d6 (average 18) is still on average going to go after the sam, whose init with wired reflexes 2 will be around 10+3d6 (average 20.5), and this is without any quickness-enhancing bioware or Enhanced Articulation. Note that I'm assuming the sam will have a higher unaugmented Reaction than the mage as well, which I think is reasonable. The mage's enhancement is much easier to negate (dispell, getting caught by a ward, stealing the Sustaining Focus, *destroying* the Sustaining Focus, etc) and doesn't increase his Reaction in any way, so he's more likely to fail a Surprise Test and get caught flat-footed.