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ankh-le-fixer
hi

I just want to know if spells on the astral plane are astral forms or just auras. It's not written in the SR4 rulebook (they just make a list of what have astral forms and don't put spells in it but with a very unprecise "so on")

QUOTE ("SR4 p182")
Anything active on the astral plane has a tangible astral
form—projecting magicians, spirits, dual-natured beings, and
so on.


i think that they haven't because otherwise we can simply fight it in astral combat and they are no such rules in SR but instead specific rules (counterspelling)

PS i hope to have canon answers please so put references if you answer
nick012000
Astral forms are what passes for physical objects on the Astral Plane. So no, unless the spell specifically states it creates an astral form (like Astral Barrier), it doesn't, just like it doesn't create a physical object on the Material Plane unless the spell says so.
RunnerPaul
The sidebars on p.166 and p.167 are very descripive of what happens when a spell is cast, and from the way the process is described, spells can not be intercepted.

This was also how it was handled in 3rd edition. First and second editions did allow for spell intereception, so this is a change from the earlier material, but in general, I believe the changes made to how magic works in the transition from 2nd to 3rd were for the best.

Sure, there may have been some cool things that have been lost, such as spell interception, and grounding a spell from the astral into the physical, but the fact that we no longer have arguments about FAB-nets suspended in mid-air over an astral being standing on a FAB filled Floor, or the feasabiltiy of a cyberware implant that rips a chunk of living flesh from your arm and flings it at high velocity as use as a weapon against astral targets more than makes up for it.
Azralon
QUOTE (RunnerPaul @ Nov 17 2005, 06:32 AM)
a cyberware implant that rips a chunk of living flesh from your arm and flings it at high velocity as use as a weapon

Awesome. Put me down for a pair.
ankh-le-fixer
i've emailed Rob about that question and here's his answer


QUOTE
Do spells cast in the Astral have an astral form? What about spells cast in the Physical plane?

Spells never have an astral form. They have auras, as all living and magical things do, but spells never have an actual astral form. That's why you can't attack a spell in astral combat, for example (as you could in SR2).
Liper
QUOTE
and grounding a spell from the astral into the physical,


bleh that was such a fun thing about active foci!

Astral magician see's a man running around with a active foci, bam chaos gets channelled from the astral through the foci into the real world.
hobgoblin
the sr2 grounding rules gave me a migrane the first 5-10 times i read it. basicly just to damned complicated...

sure it could be fun, and kept some people from overloading on foci (or even using them at all) but i dont think it was ever worth the complex laws of metaphysics...
Liper
sometimes it's fun having things complex, just read up and know your stuff = )
hobgoblin
its only fun if its complex and detailed so that there are no loopholes left around to exploit. the sr2 rules had so few details that you could drive a carrier thru some of the loopholes...
Azralon
True dat, Hobgoblin.

"I quicken a Control Actions on a gnat, then go astral and pilot it over to the assassination target. Then I ground <favorite area spell> through the active spell and go home."

Fortune
QUOTE (Liper)
sometimes it's fun having things complex, just read up and know your stuff

I knew the 'stuff' backwards and forwards, and I didn't find Grounding fun at all ... as a player or as a GM.
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