Since I'm still learning the ins and outs of SR, I'm looking for a crutch from you guys.
I've settled on playing a Mystic Adept. I have a 5 magic (technically 6-1 for essence loss). I plan to devote 4 of those to my adept powers, and 1 to my spells. I'll be boosting my magic as I go, but to start, it's low.
I have the combat aspect covered with tech and equipment, so I'm not looking for that.
I have some infiltration skills from equipment and base skills, so those are covered.
So I'm looking for some suggestions of good, general use spells to pick up. I'm looking to invest about 15 points in spells, so my pool won't be huge.
My mystic adept is already specialized in counter spelling via skills and feats, so Mana Static (from the Anti-mage thread) looks pretty useful.
Are there any other really handy spells out there? I'm putting 4 points in sorcery, plus a focus of some sort, so I'll have 6 dice to roll, so I don't expect huge successes. I'm looking for spells that require a fairly small number of hits, but are likely to improve my utility to the group in general.
Full Version: Good spells for a low magic character
Levitate is always useful. Force 1 will let you levitate up to 200 kg, but it might be slow...
There really aren't any spells that are consistently useful with a magic of 1. Mana static is probably the only one, since it can't be resisted and a point of background count is a minor rather than trivial annoyance. But for pretty much anything else a Force 1 spell, limiting you to one success before resistance, is useless. With some luck you might detect a couple of people out of a crowd or fool a couple of them with invisibility, but that's not of much use. Bumping it up to Force 2 won't help much more, and probably not enough to justify the physical drain for big drain spells like Mana Static.
If you must take a spell, take Heal. One point of damage erased is better than nothing. My advice, however, would be to treat spell casting as a long term project. Buy spells that you'll find useful once you get your spellcasting Magic attribute up to 3-4 and accept that you won't be using them until you've earned a fair whack of karma.
If you must take a spell, take Heal. One point of damage erased is better than nothing. My advice, however, would be to treat spell casting as a long term project. Buy spells that you'll find useful once you get your spellcasting Magic attribute up to 3-4 and accept that you won't be using them until you've earned a fair whack of karma.
Shapechange is still useful with magic 1. Poltergeist seems to work at the same level regardless of Force. Fling and Magic Fingers are usable at force 1.
Magic 2 and Force 2 would really help with detection spell ranges, since theyre multiplicative. Also lets you cast Increased Reflexes, which I think is actually impossible with Force 1 since you need 2 successes for the first bonus.
Magic 2 and Force 2 would really help with detection spell ranges, since theyre multiplicative. Also lets you cast Increased Reflexes, which I think is actually impossible with Force 1 since you need 2 successes for the first bonus.
Don't forget he can always overcast at force 2.
The physical DV will usually be a joke to resist. It's still low but hey, it's twice as many success as level 1!
The physical DV will usually be a joke to resist. It's still low but hey, it's twice as many success as level 1!
Consider you may not need everything as adept powers, for example you could use a sustaining focus with increased reflexes, and similarly armor or mystic armor, freeing up some of those adept powers for a more general spell usefullness.
Improved Invisibility, even at force one sustained it helps on stealth missions. The difference between invisibility 1 and 5 isn't much when you are at a distance. (Sniper anyone?)
Stunbolt is good. Overcast it at force 7. The drain = 2
EDIT: I forgot - your a PhysAd. You might prefer spells like Knockout, Punch, and Death Touch. Overcast Knockout at Force = 11.
You want utility spells? Stabalize could be a lifesaver. You can easily cast Clairaudience and Clairvoyance at Force 7.
You might want to get a mentor spirit, too.
EDIT: I forgot - your a PhysAd. You might prefer spells like Knockout, Punch, and Death Touch. Overcast Knockout at Force = 11.
You want utility spells? Stabalize could be a lifesaver. You can easily cast Clairaudience and Clairvoyance at Force 7.
You might want to get a mentor spirit, too.
Yeah, I picked up mentor spirit - +2 dice seemed really useful.
I'm a ranged Adept, though, so the Hand to Hand isn't that key. But Stabilize does look good.
Doesn't a sustaining foci give a -2 penalty on all rolls, though, while in use? That was one of my original thoughts, but it can be dispelled, and seemed restrictive...
I'm a ranged Adept, though, so the Hand to Hand isn't that key. But Stabilize does look good.
Doesn't a sustaining foci give a -2 penalty on all rolls, though, while in use? That was one of my original thoughts, but it can be dispelled, and seemed restrictive...
sustaining foci sustain FOR you, so you don't get the sustaining mod. It can be dispeled, or even dropped if you don't want the spell anymore.
| QUOTE (De Badd Ass) |
| Stunbolt is good. Overcast it at force 7. The drain = 2 EDIT: I forgot - your a PhysAd. You might prefer spells like Knockout, Punch, and Death Touch. Overcast Knockout at Force = 11. You want utility spells? Stabalize could be a lifesaver. You can easily cast Clairaudience and Clairvoyance at Force 7. You might want to get a mentor spirit, too. |
You can't cast spells over double your Magic. He has Magic 1, so no spells over force 2.
| QUOTE (Knot_E_Coyote @ Aug 21 2006, 06:40 PM) |
| Improved Invisibility, even at force one sustained it helps on stealth missions. The difference between invisibility 1 and 5 isn't much when you are at a distance. (Sniper anyone?) |
Except that you need 3 or 4 sucesses to be invisible to technological devices.
3 for ordinary cameras and vision sensors. 4 for anything with a pattern recognition or "smart" program running/sensing through it.
| QUOTE (Mahali) | ||
Except that you need 3 or 4 sucesses to be invisible to technological devices. 3 for ordinary cameras and vision sensors. 4 for anything with a pattern recognition or "smart" program running/sensing through it. |
I'm not sure that's right. Illusion rules are always FUBAR in every system, and SR is no exception, especially when it comes to mana/physical distinctions. What exactly is the metaphysics, here? Does a mana illusion directly effect the mind of everyone who looks at it? How, exactly, if you aren't targeting the people viewing you? Or does it put out a sort of free floating astral static that viewing minds pick up on their own? Under either of those views, how does a physical illusion work? I can't even imagine a way to make it consistent with the mana rules.
But put that aside. What's going on with a tech device you're trying to fool? Surely you don't have to overcome it's object resistance, because you're not fooling the device, you're fooling the eyes looking at a physical representation on the screen.
Theory 1: You pay an extra point of DV to do so and the viewer can't use counterspelling to see through the illusion, end of discussion. Or not quite: what if you see a physical illusion in person? Can you counterspell? Why? Is there some mind voodoo combined with the light bending effect? Explain that, if you can.
Theory 2: You do take object resistance into account, because tech systems are sharper in some ways than human eyesight - the blur you overlook when you're surveying a room with an invisible person is more obvious on a screen. Fine, handwave that if you must. But why base it on object resistance? A high density screen is no better than a fuzzy big projection screen under that metric; they're both made with similar tech products in similar processes, but one is much sharper than the other. Surely some sort of other mechanic would come into play?
FUBAR. And invisibility is the easiest to explain. Why is the believablility of a visual illusion based on how strong my Magic is and how well I cast spells? Surely my imagination and ability to precisely imagine every damn detail, hair on my head, and zit on my nose is more important to passing as what I want? Sure, for mana illusions you can toss in some self delusion theory - the caster provides the basic outline of what he wants and the spell keeps you from noting his improbably perfect skin or the weird grid like spacing of his pores. But, again, what about physical spells? Is there a dual feedback mechanism where the viewer's hole filling is reflected in the detailed light bending going on? How on earth does that work with multiple viewers? Does a physical mask with no human viewers look ridiculously basic and retarded on a video feed?
For any kind of "realism" physical masks and other visual tomfoolery shouldn't be possible at all, and physical invisibility and silence should really be Manipulations.
| QUOTE (De Badd Ass) |
| Stunbolt is good. Overcast it at force 7. The drain = 2 EDIT: I forgot - your a PhysAd. You might prefer spells like Knockout, Punch, and Death Touch. Overcast Knockout at Force = 11. You want utility spells? Stabalize could be a lifesaver. You can easily cast Clairaudience and Clairvoyance at Force 7. You might want to get a mentor spirit, too. |
He can't cast a spell at Force 7. With a magic of 2, he can only overcast to Force 4.
Also, remember that the Force of the spell limits hits on the success test, so with a Force 2 spell, only 2 hits on your Magic+Spellcasting roll count.
Ah ha!
That's the limiter I was missing out on.
So magic 1 spellcasting 6 doesn't give me 7 potential hits. It gives me 1 (or 2 with overcasting). It's all coming together now.
That's the limiter I was missing out on.
So magic 1 spellcasting 6 doesn't give me 7 potential hits. It gives me 1 (or 2 with overcasting). It's all coming together now.
Which is why you probably should get magic 2.
Over casting at force level 4 is usually enough and a big step up from force 2.
Over casting at force level 4 is usually enough and a big step up from force 2.
Done.
So now I'm at powers 3, magic 2, essence loss 1 (you can fit an amazing mix of cyberwear and bioware in 1 essence). I picked up Stabilize, Heal, Levitate, and Manaball (just in case).
I'm liking this more and more.
So now I'm at powers 3, magic 2, essence loss 1 (you can fit an amazing mix of cyberwear and bioware in 1 essence). I picked up Stabilize, Heal, Levitate, and Manaball (just in case).
I'm liking this more and more.
and don't forget, edge removes the limits, so if you spend edge on a spell it can have more sucesses than the spell's force. i think that only works if you add your edge to the pool beforehand though... but still, if you're ever desparately in need of more than 4 successes...
There must be more useful spells with low force... speak up, people 
.
Good point, Jaid. And yeah, i think it only works upfront.
.Good point, Jaid. And yeah, i think it only works upfront.
Gecko Crawl
The elemental combat spells.
At Force 2, the damage won't be so great, but they'll still have a significant psychological effect. Throwing a fireball at someone encourages them to leave you alone.
At Force 2, the damage won't be so great, but they'll still have a significant psychological effect. Throwing a fireball at someone encourages them to leave you alone.
| QUOTE (Slithery D) |
| But put that aside. What's going on with a tech device you're trying to fool? Surely you don't have to overcome it's object resistance, because you're not fooling the device, you're fooling the eyes looking at a physical representation on the screen. |
Fooling the device with Improved Invis is exactly what you're doing. It's a real physical effect, not a mental one. Someone without Improved Invis is always seen by a camera (because it's not a "real" effect) and therefor anyone looking at a monitor will see what the camera does.
| QUOTE (Slithery D) |
| For any kind of "realism" physical masks and other visual tomfoolery shouldn't be possible at all, and physical invisibility and silence should really be Manipulations. |
I agree that Physical ones should probably be manipulation but it's easier to group them all together and if a spell is manipulation it should have a real world effect beyond changing Photons.
Clairvoyance is good, even at low levels, the ability to see around corners or what's at the bottom of stairs can be a big tactical advantage.
| QUOTE (Zen Shooter01) |
| The elemental combat spells. At Force 2, the damage won't be so great, but they'll still have a significant psychological effect. Throwing a fireball at someone encourages them to leave you alone. |
I disagree. If I live through the fireball, the person who tossed it at me has just moved to the top of my target list.
| QUOTE (Jaid) |
| and don't forget, edge removes the limits, so if you spend edge on a spell it can have more sucesses than the spell's force. i think that only works if you add your edge to the pool beforehand though... but still, if you're ever desparately in need of more than 4 successes... |
I don't see where this is indicated. Are you bllending the Force cap on successes with the optional rule limiting hits on a test to twice skill?
The paragraph limiting hits to force is one sentance, with no qualifiers.
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