 Analyze Device, Best spell in game or plain broken? |
  |
 Aug 27 2005, 01:35 AM
Post
#1
|
|||
|
Free Spirit  Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,944 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Bloomington, IN UCAS Member No.: 1,920  |
Combine with sustaining foci, Ritual Spellcasting with each member using foci and spirits for success, and get a boatload of bonus dice every time you do about anything. |
||
 |
 
|
||
|
Aug 27 2005, 01:38 AM
Post
#2
|
|
|
Running Target Group: Members Posts: 1,498 Joined: 4-August 05 From: ADL Member No.: 7,534 |
Doesnt AR do the same ? Or SHOULD do the same ?
I would give AR dice OR dice from this spell. Also, I would allow only skills that are connected with intuition and logic. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 01:42 AM
Post
#3
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 458 Joined: 12-April 04 From: Lacey, Washington Member No.: 6,237 |
The operative phrase is net hits. For a technologically complex item like a smartgun, the object resistance is likely to be a fairly high threshhold.
You'll also get a ton of dice from just about any enhancing spell if you have a whole ritual group cast it and you sustain it with a focus. If you'd like even more power, have those buddies of yours conjure elementals and put them on remote service to attack your enemies. Two dozen fire elementals will make any pyros day!! |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 02:04 AM
Post
#4
|
|
|
Free Spirit Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,944 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Bloomington, IN UCAS Member No.: 1,920 |
The highest threshold on the obj. res. table was 4 for obj. res. 10.
If it is this good, every magician should know it, so ritually casting it should not be a big problem. Think corporate mages that need not worry about crossing wards. They should all know the spell and be helping out by casting it on the research scientists, or the guys in the delta clinic, etc.. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 04:27 AM
Post
#5
|
|
|
Grumpy Old Ork Decker Group: Admin Posts: 3,794 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Orwell, Ohio Member No.: 50 |
You do realize that with an OR of 4, you're not very likely to get any net hits? A mage specialized with that class of spell for spellcasting, several initiate grades, and a focus may be able to get you a couple net hits on average.
<shurg> And as with anything else, it's up to the GM to control the game. Rules only get you so far, and they can be bent and broken by any player with half a brain and a bend toward malice or munchkinism. Bull |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 04:36 AM
Post
#6
|
|||
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 239 Joined: 21-August 05 Member No.: 7,586 |
i am confused now, is the max obj. res. 4 or 10(which i doubt) what obj. res. does a firearm have ?.... can give some examples? |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 27 2005, 05:14 AM
Post
#7
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 355 Joined: 23-August 05 Member No.: 7,590 |
Isn't the name of the spell "Analyze Device"? as in "tell me how the hell it works so I know which buttons to push"? I'd allow it as a means of replacing a skill you don't have, maybe, or as a way of removing penalties you may have due to unfamiliarity with the type of device in question (which usually will be linked to low skill, but it could just be a completely new type of gizmo for a skill you're really good at). I sure as hell wouldn't allow an "Analyze Device" spell to give bonuses to a sammie for his newly-acquired understanding of what a smartlink is, what it is for and how it works.
EDIT: Fixed a typo. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 11:54 AM
Post
#8
|
|
|
Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
Who needs a smartlink? Magicians who don't want to loose the essence can simply sustain this spell and get themselves M1911s. Lower OR, ya know. :wobble:
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 01:02 PM
Post
#9
|
|||
|
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
Wireless SL looks like it will be everywhere, w/no essense loss. You slap in a pair of contact lenses, pick up the weapon, put on your tinfoil hat (trodes), link it all up to the commlink, and your SL is as good as the sammie with the hardwired one next to you....until a techno/decker mananges to crack your commlinks firewall or you enter a wireless static zone. |
||
|
|
|
||
|
Aug 27 2005, 01:07 PM
Post
#10
|
|||||
|
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
Does the specific object need to be present during casting? If so that's quite limiting. Add in that they'll have to have the hassle/danger of an always active sustaining focus associated with it, and it doesn't seem too bad. I think where this really would rock is with, well a rock. Or a tree branch (club). |
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
Aug 27 2005, 01:08 PM
Post
#11
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 355 Joined: 23-August 05 Member No.: 7,590 |
Hmmm... yeah. I'll stick with allowing it for situations in which you'd be penalized for not knowing what the gizmo is for and how it works. Maybe guns make more sense that I want to admit though. Analyze Device would give the mage a better understanding of how recoil works, etc., so that he or she could position his or her body better and be more effective with a gun. Personally, I'll stick to a really narrow interpretation of what the spell can do.
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 02:01 PM
Post
#12
|
|
|
Running, running, running Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 2,220 Joined: 18-October 04 From: North Carolina Member No.: 6,769 |
I cat Analyze device at that thing!"
That object is ment to sling large peices of lead at you.... roll for surprise.... muhahaha |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 03:25 PM
Post
#13
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 152 Joined: 26-February 02 Member No.: 2,074 |
Hum, I can understand how some people may think this is broken. What strikes me as a little "odd" is that the spell does not take into account how much the caster already knows about the device being analyzed. Doesn't make much sense to improve the skill of someone who already knows pretty much all there is to know about an object.
Seems to me the spell was intended to allow low- or unskilled characters to operate some devices they may not normally know how to use, not for high skilled characters to roll even more dice. I guess you could balance this spell if you somehow factored in the level of the skill that is being buffed. |
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 03:36 PM
Post
#14
|
|
|
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
It is a bonus, not a point in Skill, with the side effect that you don't need prior formal training to use the device.
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 05:13 PM
Post
#15
|
|
|
Moving Target Group: Members Posts: 239 Joined: 21-August 05 Member No.: 7,586 |
i think you take the spells name to literally, i can imagine that it gives you some sort of feeling for the device. Like having a feeling for your car, which you possess and drive every day since 5 years ago. Somehow not seeing but knowing where its edges are, so that you could basically drive it with eyes closed....
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 27 2005, 08:10 PM
Post
#16
|
|
|
Midnight Toker Group: Members Posts: 7,686 Joined: 4-July 04 From: Zombie Drop Bear Santa's Workshop Member No.: 6,456 |
THat is the way I interperate it at the moment. It provides a magical (device) sense so long as the spell is sustained. This sense provides constant feedback from the device sort of like a magical half-VCR or the adept attunment metamagic.
|
|
|
|
|
Aug 28 2005, 08:36 PM
Post
#17
|
|||||
|
Free Spirit Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,944 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Bloomington, IN UCAS Member No.: 1,920 |
The table goes up to threshold 4 for items with object resistance 10+. Natural Objects, threshold 1 Manufactured, low tech object, threshold 2 Mfg, high tech object, threshold 3 Highly processed objects, threshold 4 Difficulty to get 4 hits, auto successes if pool is large enough, or every 3 dice in pool should expect a success. So Magic 5 and Spellcasting 5 on average should get 3 hits, one reroll of failures should average 2 more hits for 5 total, beating the threshold. Using Ritual Spellcasting could garner 10 net hits, or 10 bonus dice any time they use an object during a skill test. Wards could be a definite impediment, making it even more useful for NPCs, who could pass through the wards without needing to recast. Also the subject need not be the caster.
It is cast on a person and is directional (like sight), so the sustaining focus is on the person (or drone?) and can be used with whatever is in front of them. Directional is compared to normal vision, area effect is compared to hearing, and psychic is compared to 6th sense, so its not quite LOS |
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
Aug 28 2005, 08:54 PM
Post
#18
|
|||||
|
Dragon Group: Members Posts: 4,718 Joined: 14-September 02 Member No.: 3,263 |
But only one device, or device type, per casting? Or only one device at a time? Free Action to switch devices if that is possible? |
||||
|
|
|
||||
|
Aug 28 2005, 09:09 PM
Post
#19
|
|
|
Free Spirit Group: Dumpshocked Posts: 3,944 Joined: 26-February 02 From: Bloomington, IN UCAS Member No.: 1,920 |
It is cast on a subject, it gives the subject a bonus when using an object within limits of the directional sense. So I am assuming, as long as it is sustained, any object the subject uses (makes a skill test for) gets the bonus. It doesn't say one object at a time, or limit the object other than net successes over threshold based on OR.
The old spell was cast on objects, this one is cast on a person. I included drones because they seem like they are not precluded from benefitting from the spell. Critters now have skills, so I guess they could also be the subject of the spell. My concern with the spell is how easily it wrecks the idea of skill caps. |
|
|
|
|
|
Lo-Fi Version | Time is now: 19th April 2024 - 01:59 AM |
Topps, Inc has sole ownership of the names, logo, artwork, marks, photographs, sounds, audio, video and/or any proprietary material used in connection with the game Shadowrun. Topps, Inc has granted permission to the Dumpshock Forums to use such names, logos, artwork, marks and/or any proprietary materials for promotional and informational purposes on its website but does not endorse, and is not affiliated with the Dumpshock Forums in any official capacity whatsoever.