Obvious Magic, Pretty easy to spot, isn't it? Options

[Eyeless Blond]

I just noticed this, but isn't it really, *really* easy for anyone to see a spell being cast? For all mages it's pretty bad--base TN 4 + Magic - Force--which really isn't that hard. A Force 4 spell is as noticable to a mundane as a sword sticking out from under a greatcoat under this rule. But then you add in the modifiers on p. 162, and suddenly the TN for a shaman pulling off a spell under somebody's nose is 1 + Magic - Force, which makes it damn near impossible to pull off.

So much for trying to hide the fact you're a spellslinger; you may as well paint a target on yourself and shout out, "Geek me please!" the first time you cast a thing.

[torzzzzz]

too true never noticed that one, whats the deal with that then??

torz x

[Ancient History]

<shrug> If a magician is delibrately trying to hide that they're casting a spell, I let them try a Stealth roll. Naturally, this only applies if they're either not using any sort of noticable crap (chanting, dancing, gestures), or have a good cover to hide it (drunken bum mumbling to himself, etc.)

[Eyeless Blond]

The irony is just before these rules:

[Ancient History]

Be fair. If you're casting a Force 12 Nova spell, then the rest of the people in the room know that somebody in the vicinity of the circle of charred body remnants cast the spell, and you happen to be sanding there.

Anywho, with a high enough magic rating (or a power focus), you should be able to get away with casting low-to-mid Force spells without much trouble.

[toturi]

Well, don't forget the situational mods on p232 SR3 apply also. If you are in a firefight or any combat situation, I garuantee you'll be "perceiver distracted" and depending on lighting, you'll get vision mods too.

[Edward]

[Eyeless Blond]

And all of this of course assumes you're not a shaman, which immediately lops off another -2 to the TN, adding in another -1 if you get a Totem Advantage for a whopping -3 (can you choose *not* to get a Totem Advantage?) Oh, and other Awakened get a further -2, a *second* -2 if they're watching you on the Astral, though I suppose those are pretty fair.

It seems rather silly that you *have* to be a high-level initiate to make your spells less noticable adn that furthermore there is no other way to keep peple from noticing your spellcasting. Heck even Masking does nothing to help this modifier; it's nothing more than people looking at you and deciding without any actual movement or hand-waving or anything that you're casting a spell. What, does the air twinkle around you like you're in some MMORPG or something?

[Endgame50]

Nah. All magicians in the sixth world have neon signs that light up "Spellcasting in progress" whenever they cast a spell. It's some sort of weird compulsion for everyone who has the sorcery skill.

[hahnsoo]

A more reasonable example would be 4 + Magic 6 - Force 3 or TN of 7. That's a pretty good number in my book. The way to make your spells less noticable is to cast them at less force. How high does it have to be before it's considered "stealthy"? The average stealth open test rolls for our stealth specialist is 9, and that's supposedly hard to detect... you'd get the same TN if you cast a Force 1 spell as a starting mage.

Maybe House Ruling that you can withhold sorcery dice for the purpose of making your spells more stealthy, at the rate of 1 die per +1 to TN modifier. You are devoting some attention to obfuscating your spellcasting, reducing the effect a bit.

[Tarantula]

Note: anything over force 2 is "illegal" and thusly, the only ones who would be terribly obvious at casting would be military/law enforcement/security mages. And of course, shadowrunners trying to do things at less the legal levels.

[torzzzzz]

unless you can mask the spell, handy trick if you suceed can't easly be traced back to you then. (think)


torz x

[Tarantula]

Masking won't make it any harder to notice that you're casting a spell, in fact, any metamagic would likely make it easier to notice.

[hahnsoo]

[Tarantula]

Making the spell exclusive would also raise the TN. "Hi Joe." "Oh hi Bob." Joe stares off into space for 3 seconds. "Joe, what was that?" "Oh, nothing bob... just a <whatever> spell."

[Talia Invierno]

I might be way off base here, but wasn't that formula (1 + Magic - Force) representing the TN required to perceive the spellcasting, if the magician was trying to be stealthy about it? Because that would make sense ...?

[torzzzzz]

I'm sure there was something in Mits about spell masking, or was that something to do with the astral?

torz x

[hahnsoo]

[Rev]

In MITS there is stuff about masking sustained spells, but nothing I am aware of about masking spell casting.

Would be a nice metamagic... though it would be nicer to be able to do something like devote sorcery/pool dice to resisting spell casting perception rolls... or just make the rule line up even vaguely with the intent,the intent being that noticing spell casting is "not very" noticable, while the rules say it is very (and another very for shamen) noticable.

[Eyeless Blond]

[JaronK]

Perhaps that would follow the usual rules for perception tests, so one success just lets the person know that somebody cast the spell, but maybe they get it wrong as to who did it, whereas four successes would tell you exactly who did it?

JaronK

[Charon]

[Edward]

A 42% chance of noticing hardly meshes with the flavour text saying it is really hard to notice.

Edward

[Dawnshadow]

[Charon]