I had some questions that aren't covered in the FAQ:

When an Adept uses the power Elemental Strike with an element that has an effect based on the Force of the spell (i.e. Blast and Water with their bonus to knockdown), how does the Adept determine the Force rating? Do they just determine it as Magic = Force?

When combining Elemental Strike (Sound) with Killing Hands, what happens? Does it just do physical damage that ignores armor? Can they be combined?

On the FAQ page, it's mentioned that a technomancer's System, Response, and Complex Forms don't interfere with each other like they would for a commlink. Does this mean a technomancer can raise the ratings of their Complex Forms above their System (Logic + levels gained from Submersion) and use them at the highest levels, unlike a commlink? For example, say a technomancer has Response 3, System 4, and Resonance 5, can they have complex forms at rating 6? If not, what attribute determines the max level of their non-threaded complex forms?

Is the Command (misc) Program/Complex Form needed to wire information from security cameras to the AR displays of fellow runners (like done in the opening story of SR4 core) or can it done via another Program/Complex Form?

When a character upgrades their cyberware/bioware (like say from alphaware to betaware), how does this affect their Essence? If lost essence can never be restored, like it says on page 61 of SR4, then what is the benefit of upgrading your ware?

Is there a max grade of Initiation/Submersion that a Magic Type/Technomancer can reach, or a required time period between achieveing different grades? If not, then what happens when they achieve insanely high levels of Magic/Resonance (say above 14 or 15)? What would be the signal range on a technomancer with a Signal of 10 or higher (Resonance 19+) or of a heavily upgraded commlink be?

I know that magic normally ignores armor ratings due to channeling the mana through the target and then causing the effect there, however, there were two instances that made me pause and wonder: troll natural armor, and the Mystic Armor power of Adepts. Does either of these protect against magic damage?

I can help you with the following, but magic stuff is better left to others.

Our group houserules that if you remove some cyberware you can get the lost essence back... eventually. We did this to make upgrading worthwhile and for fun technomage possibilities. It is not RAW but it adds a fun flavor to the game for us.

I've had a number of phys ads take elemental strike in my games. I use magic for any force requirements. Also, the damage is always physical, as they have taken killing hands. The elemental effect only adds the secondary effect. For sonic attacks, they get full armor to resist physical damage. Then they worry about deafening and nausea.

Why do you choose to ignore the part of sound attacks where it says armor has no effect? Instead, I'd think a bigger problem is the sonic booms the adept is causing with each strike.

@Tarantula,

As for the sonic booms, remember only the target hears the full force of them. Hell, if you wanted to, you could say that only the target hears them at all. Otherwise, elemental strike becomes an area effect adept power and that doesn't seem to be right.

I've usually ruled that sonic-based single target spells are audible to people who aren't the targets, but because they aren't the target, the sound is a very focused wave of some kind. If you stand next to said wave, you don't feel its effects or hear it with the same intensity or power that a person standing right in its path does. It breaks down a little if you're standing behind the target, but it's magic, so the target absorbs all of the wave's energy, hence the damage and physical effects of the spell.

Thus, for a sonic elemental strike, the person who gets struck will hear/feel the sonic effect, but the person standing next to her won't or won't hear it as much.

And, I think in the name of balance, there should be more of a downside to using sonic attacks to kill your foes. Since you get to entirely ignore armor. Also, note that sound is always stun damage, as it says that in the description of the elemental effect. I think ignore armor do stun is a very powerful ability, and thus, you cause loud noises (not really any worse than a gunshot) for using it. Defeating the "quiet" aspect of melee combat.

@Tarantula:

When you run elemental strike, do you allow damage from the strike + damage from the elemental secondary effect?

Not directly. You get your strike, with the properties of the element. Sound for example, ignores armor but does stun. Fire does physical, uses half impact, and might light their clothes on fire. Etc. If they happened to have ammo, it might cook off, and hurt them, or they'd been soaked in lighter fluid they'd be taking damage if it caught fire. But not bonus damage, it'd be seperate and caused by the secondary effects of the element.

Interesting. I've always used the phrasing that says ...

Yeah, I too have major questions about what exactly is an appropriate perception modifer to apply (if any) for the use of Sonic elemental strikes. After all, sound is really just vibration to begin with, so it doesn't necessarily have to be at a frequency metahumans can hear (heck, in fact it may make more sense if it isn't!). There's also things like the LRAD to show us that sound can indeed operate as a very focused wave if necessary. And that's not even bringing into account that we're talking about a magical effect here

I guess the part where it says "sound hits the target with a wave of unbelievably loud noise and gut-churning vibrations" makes me think that from the list of perception modifiers on 117... it counts as Loud, meaning threshold one to hear, and stands out, giving +2 dice to perceiver. Chances are, all that'll do, is cancel out the -2 or -3 they'll get for the distance. Pretty much, about as hard to hear as a gunshot, but thats the tradeoff you get for being able to ignore armor with a melee attack, as well as being incapacitated by nausea (if damage done is greater than willpower). Chances are, without the benefit of armor, and with critical strikes/trolls strengths, the target will be too busy being incapacitated for 3 turns out to do anything like call out for help or the like. This gives me an idea for a very very mean mystic adept build, with sound barrier, killing hands, sound strike, critical strike, counter strike, increased reflexes, and armor... Sound barrier simply because unlike hush and silence, it hurt the sound attack in anyway, yet still makes it inaudible if its cast encircling the target. I'm gonna go see just how mean that can get...

Having Elemental Strike provide the full effect of the elemental attack would be unbalanced. For 0.5 points you can take sonic and ignore armor or fire and use 1/2 armor. Penetrating Strike would become useless.

Also, when I read enhances with elemental effect, I read that it is adding something to the existing damage, e.g. your fist is now a flaming fist. Not changes into an elemental attack. The fist does not become a fist made of fire. Mages pay a hefty drain price for the elemental effects, 0.5 is much to cheap.

Well personally I don't allow Sonic Attacks because quite simply I can't quite envision how a Sound Dampener would provide armor against being punched, but other then Sonic, I've found that Penetrating Strike is still a good buy, after all at (Rating 3) it takes 8+ Impact for the 1/2 Impact Elements to edge out ahead.

*Edit*

But then again after FrankTrollman's comments in another thread, I've decided to allow Elemental Strike/Penetrating Strike to be used with Distance Strike (Although not with each other.).

But I haven't had a chance to hash it out in play yet.

I wouldn't allow the sound dampener to provide armor against an adept using sonic strike. I would allow bonus dice for resisting the deafening effects and for use against a sonic blast spell.

Elemental Strike comes out ahead at 6 points of impact. It costs 0.5 and Penetrating Strike costs 0.25 per level and is capped at 3.

I know you meant that sarcastically but yes. The flaming fist will still light things on fire but it is still a fist magic or not. If I lit a baseball bat on fire and hit someone with it, the bat would be causing most of the damage, they may be a bit singed too but mostly its the bat.

This is what keeps sonic strike from being the obvious choice in my games. You don't get the 0 armor effect. Everyone is free to run their games however they see fit and this is what has made the most sense to me and my players. I've thought about adding a metamagic technique to provide full elemental damage but haven't done it yet because none of my players have expressed an interest.

My interpretation is about game balance more than anything else.

I side with GWCarver on this one, too. The elemental secondary effects enhance the adepts Killing Hands. They can punch for stun or physical damage (based on the killing hands power) and the elemental effect happens, too. Thus, Blast effects still add to knockdown (an underused elemental effect that's really nice in melee combat), water effects can make things wet and short out electricity and smoke effects can obscure vision and maybe make people choke.